This reproduction is from a letter written to a friend of mine RO Shah, a veteran trade union letter highlighing the scenario obtaining on pension in State Bank of India. Since the subject matter is of interest to employees in general in banking industructy, this reproduction may be of some importance to them.
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It was heartening talking to you over phone the other day.I quite realize I have not been able to keep in contact with you for a long time –the reason being that I couldn’t spare necessary time for the purpose which ofcourse can’t be a pertinent excuse I know.
You have been fighting virtually a lone battle on an issue like pension which otherwise is a matter connected with thousands and thousands of people all over the country. Your voice clashes the deaf ears in the channels that count for the purupose and only continues to remain sans any response from any quarter. I stopped taking whatever interest I used to take initially for the simple reason that before it could prove to be result oriented it was likely to elicit misunderstandings only which situation I thought of avoiding as all my career I was most often most misunderstood a person on issues crucial and salient. I strongly felt and do feel the same way even on date that pension is an issue worth being pursued as potentially it is strong enough ingredients wise capable of generating necessary merit which the concerned authorities just can’t deny. Why the concerned authorities are themselves not taking necessary initiative is the question. Obviously why they should bother if the beneficiaries themselves are not showing the required interest. You will agree, as you yourself said earlier, that majority of pensioners find themselves well settled otherwise and they have no reason for any worry whether there is some increase in pension or it is not there. Those who are in the saddle are busy elsewhere, even pensioners organisatins in the circles and at the national level are confined to the level of just offering prayers for some thing to be showered on them and are not prepared to act as fighters. Fighting for a right cause is not a fancy, it is a spirit capable of not getting dithered with age or status. This spirit they lack, nay it is a sort of voluntary incapacitation on their part.
If Unions with serving employees holding the reins are unable to deliver the goods, why the Unions with ex employees in the helm of affairs as leaders of the pensioners Association/Federation can’t play a decisively worked out strategy is the question. The serving people holding the reins being indifferent, the pensioners union being incapable of moving the channels involved and the pensioners, the likely beneficiaries of whatever improvement that could be cultivated, being themselves not so keen, what the few like you ofcourse with tremendous amount of spirit and enormous zeal can do is again a question. A few others who can do some thing but can’t do any thing for the risk of getting misunderstood naturally possess no potential for any orientation of some result or the other. Sounds pessimistic but this is the scenario after all is obtaining. I wish I am wrong in my estimation and finally the efforts you are making are capable of bringing the desired results. My circle General Secretary told me just a day before that as per information given to him by the Federation, some thing tangible may emerge within 2/3 weeks time. It is always better to hope for the best and I too would like to fall in line with it for an imaginable satisfaction atleast. I obviously owe you an all out acknowledgement and appreciation for your efforts in the matter. All the best.
Marx and Engels, Castro and Guevara, Mitchell and Webb. Ah, the great partnerships of leftist politics… If you don’t recognise the last pair, please allow me to say: ‘for shame!’ Not because I’m also about to shout ‘Bad socialist! Go to bed without any Red Wedge,’ but because David Mitchell and Robert Webb are names you should know. They’re the comedians behind Radio 4’s truly brilliant That Mitchell and Webb Sound (which resumed last week), BBC TV’s That Mitchell and Webb Look and of course, That Incredibly Patronising Mitchell and Webb Series of Sellout AppleMac Adverts (here’s an image: Gordon Brown and Tony Blair going ‘Hi, I’m a Mac,’ ‘And I’m incredibly PC,’).
Mitchell and Webb also starred in the uncomfortably funny Peepshow, which aired its season finale last week and their new film, Magicians, was released last week. That’s the week they also won the Bafta for best Comedy (causing several papers to use the same joke about Catherine Tate being ‘bovvered’ that her show did not win, thereby serving to highlight how unique M and W’s talent for making original jokes actually is).
While I can’t think of two more deserving individuals for all this limelight (ignoring those knuckle-whitening, face-chewing, dog-kicking, yes-they-make-me-angrying Mac ads), it’s all been a bit like Derren Brown is trying subliminally to get me to accept them into my heart as my personal Lords and Saviours. Mitchell and Webb saturation-point being very near for me, I have no choice but to base this week’s comment on the news according to their pattern.
Last Week’s That Mitchell and Webb Sound featured a brilliant sketch about a man talking to his bank about identity theft. The bank representative informs him that his identity has been stolen. The customer asks if anything else was taken. The bank says no and he says good, so the money’s all still there then? What follows is the bank manager explaining that even though the bank has given the money to the wrong people and the customer still seems to be who he is, this is not an electronic bank robbery, but an ‘identity theft’. It’s an excellent point, made better and funnier by the ensuing background bank-robbery, in which the bank employee shouts that ‘they’re stealing their identities!’ The bank-man’s comment that since its identity theft the customer is liable, whereas if it had been a bank robbery bank insurance would have covered it is telling. Particularly as last week we read and heard much news of how banks have been using ‘scare tactics’ to stop people reclaiming bank charges and the financial Ombudsman revealed that complaints about unfair bank charges have risen by 47% this year.
Now, I’ve never run a bank. (I’ve run to a few to try and do my business during their ultra helpful ‘we’re only open when you’re at work’ hours, and I have been run out of a few). And far be it from me, a sinner who regularly goes into the red and really only took his current account because the girl behind the counter smiled so sweetly, to quote Scriptures about unfair weights, usury and excessive interest, particularly at respectable pillars of our society. But let me say that hearing the BBC’s Moneybox programme a while back asking a bank representative whether a customer going into the red cost the bank anything near the £35 they would charge the customer, and refusing to accept the standard evasions, gave me a great deal of pleasure? Does that make me a bad person?
Yes. It does. I must repent, renounce Mitchell, Webb and all the other dangerous agitators like Which? and the BBC, and do the Christian thing: side with the big guys.
The Tale of Three Indian Widows :
Savita, Sunita and Pratibha are three women from different contexts, background and age groups, yet engulfed by the continuing tragedy that plays out in Maharashtra. The number of widows is growing at a frightening speed in the cotton country. Jaideep Hardikar reports.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/feb/agr-widows.htm
The most senior Indian bureaucrats and politicians, continue to deny any agricultural emergency in Indian rural areas, that calls for their attention.
Some IAS Relief Commissioners, are waxing eloquent on farmer's folly, in pursuing high cost cultivation practices in un irrigated parts of India, while some IAS bureaucrats are issuing mental insanity certificates to suicidal farmers as "sirfira". The Indian story of bureaucratic incompetence is tragi comic.
The Sensex Minister is following the bears and the bulls closely, while the Cricket Minister is celebrating the return to form of Saurav Ganguly in Indian cricket.
Everyone went to bed early last night. I supposed I should have followed. I decided to watch some Grey's re-runs which resulted in moving from sofa to chaise to start crocheting.
I love my chaise and have it stacked with soft pillows and another throw I made from some beautiful crochet thread I had stored away.
I am not sure what I am working on just yet as my designs never completely reveal themselves until about halfway, but I got a gift of hooks in the PO Box the other day I had to try.
Several were created glass designs and one was lighted. I have size C but prefer to work with size H. Check out the link. These are prob the cheapest that I have found.
I havent added them to my wishlist because it does not seem amazon carries them anywhere.
I even thought last night about making sissy panties to sell in my store. I have about three designs and all this pink fuzzy furry thread. I love gifts that keep my mind from being bored. These and my work out tapes are perfect. Dreamweaver has gift certificates for those of you who are too chicken to actually put a stamp on something and mail me a gift.
Pussies...
The thread I have is very sheer. I think I need to make a super sexy nightie.
Perhaps I will let you see it on cam if you call me this weekend !
I know I will be on cam - I just have no idea when. Its pretty much when the mood strikes me. I will be taking calls for sure in the evening.
1-800-TO-FLIRT - Extension -0353203
(1-800-803-5478 )
Come the fuck on how can you resist a shot like that !!!
amusedThinking about higher returns on your investment? Well, this SYSTEM is hard to beat!
My friend, Gary made over $37,680 last year starting with only a $200 investment! That's impressive by any standard. How did he do it?
DeSadie and I laid out some further sets of creativity today.
There will be a launch of the new site and all the details of our deviance soon. I really need to be at home doing all of this. It is absolutely impossible to work full time and try to create three websites.
I am lucky there are many helping hands to assist in this process, but its a full time job itself.
Web cam was great last night. As always there are a ton of clowns on to entertain me. I love it when I turn on my cam and they oggle. Its so amazingly funny.
blackberry boyd has been making the rounds this week. I am not sure what his deal is but man - has he been doing all sorts of zany photos. I will post when I get them edited. Some are simply too icky for display!