Your mouth and Society's Gender Biases

“Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.”- Betty White

Back in December 2012, much of the nation's educated urban class youth took to protesting in reaction to the brutal rape of Nirbhaya. As educated and smart and gender neutral supporters of gender rights, we all live in a patriarchal society, making it difficult for us to truly escape gender bias even in our own lingo.

The above quote is a perfect example of this. Friends tell each be courageous, though not always in a serious manner and hence the quote, 'Grow some balls'. Understandably when this is said no-one means any gender bias, but when such a line is being used, the speakers must understand where it is coming from. Grow some balls might as well mean man up, or be a man or to be courageous is to be a man. Once again, understandably the speaker does not mean this gender bias when they say this, but a long time ago this was where the meaning was being derived from. 

The same goes when a person uses the term 'pussy'. The term is usually to call some one a coward. Understandably when the person uses this term there is no gender bias intended, but long ago this term was derived from the idea that girls were weak and cowardly.  

These are only two such example and such lingo is present in our vocabulary and though we do not mean any gender bias when we say it, lingo reflects the biases of our society which we inevitably, adopted because heck society is just too great to resist. 

If we hope to live in a gender neutral society in the future, we need to clean up our lingo too. We need to shed out all things that stem from a patriarchal view.
Sure we can evolve the meaning. The word 'fuck' has evolved and transcended all sorts of meaning and no longer just means sex. 

But understand, we have to shed off gender biases which humans have been developing since we were cave people and to not shed some of those linguist terms that have some background in gender biases is just risky. 

Note: It is understood that balls refers to the male genitalia and pussy refers to the female genitalia.  

Kill the Railway Minister

The shocking increase in prices of railway tickets as promoted me to write this post.
Ministers act when only their backs for political reasons are against the wall. Otherwise, they are content with bickering among themselves.
The reason for the rise in railway prices is many, among the chief causes is the rising fiscal debt in the economy which is not a good thing in the long run, plus the rising demand of international loaning agencies to pay back the loans, which means international pressure. Another reason floated around, is the increases in prices to counter looses incurred by subsid pricing.
These rises are just blatant with no really benefits to the consumer, us.
Go back to last year, 2012 when Dinesh Trivedi was the Railway Minister and he proposed the railway budget in March 2012. Though he did increase railway fares, he planned to introduced more safety measure, improve services and create a better travelling experience for the public. Heck, he decided to do away with open defecation in trains and install organic tanks to collect the waste.
The result, every politician abandoned him, including his own party, Trinamool Congress. He was immediately removed for his decision. Politically speaking, what he did was considered political suicide by the his peers , because railway prices are rarely increased and the aam aadmi would be hurt.
So yes, he was removed.

A year later, the prices have been increased because the Government's back is against the wall. No promises of any kind have been made.

Interestingly while all other national and international issues are being question and covered in the mainstream media, such a issue which hits every Indian is not even being discussed or question.

Heck, when I googled the question 'Why has the railway increased prices India?'
There was no google prompt.
Maybe people are just not bothered about this.

Juvenile Death Clamour

Two of the suspects caught in the Jyoti Sing Pandey are under eighteen and hence can only be persecuted in by the Juvenile laws, which do not result in sever punishment, but instead leads to the juvenile being put in remand homes.

Since the arrest of these two juvenile suspects there has been growing clamour for the death sentence to be used against the juvenile suspects. Rumours have even floated that the government would take such action. 

I strongly object to any such positive action towards these clamours. 

Given that rape as worse as it is worse than death. The post-rape psychological trauma is beyond death. Perhaps it can be argued that death penalty will act as a deterrent, but in no country has approved death penalty for a juvenile and no country developed or developing or non-developing has rape stopped. Rape is about power. But that's not my point.

Juvenile law applies to those below eighteen who are not only accused in rape cases, but murder, thievery, molestation, fraud, and any thing that is illegal. 

 The argument for juvenile law is that the person is not fully mature enough to make the right decision and is strongly influnced by those around him/her. Hence the juvenile law shows leniency and sends juveniles not to jail, but remand homes (which in reality are terrible in India)

It is absurd to think of involving juvenile with death penalty. What needs to be done is amending the juvenile law, and lowering it to a lower age, perhaps sixteen. India is a developing country and with the media enriched world we live in, children tend to mature much faster.
Still that obviously does not fix the problem when one finds fourteen year old's or eleven year old's.
The answer is never simple.
Clamouring for a Juvenile death penalty is not the answer, in any way.

A need to evolve

Widespread protest, largely concentrate in Delhi have been going on for over a week and are pushing for action by the Indian Government to improve the situation of women in response to the brutal gang rape.

In response to this, other than the Government’s repressive tactics on peaceful protest, the police have taken a spew of steps across, the urban quarters. They have initiated classes to sensitize more police personal on the topic of rape and dealing with the victims. Plus the police have increased their personal power in ladies compartment trains and other areas.

As this movements/protests progresses, there is a need for it to evolve. Most movement needs a leader. The only leaderless movement/revolution was the Egyptian and Tunisian revolution, and in that they all the citizens chanted for a total upheaval/change of the government (and they got it). The Occupy Wall Street moment was completely leaderless, and though it was amazing to see people wanting to change an outdate financial system and attitude of corporatism; it really did not achieve anything in reality other than awareness.

There is no denying that such moments don’t have their effects, but there is a drastic need in many situation that call for quick change.

The Anna Hazare movement had a Bill that it wanted to pass to eradicate corruption. Just clamouring for change is not enough, the Indian government needs to be lead on with strong well thought out ideas, plans and maybe even a bill.

The protest can go on and on, but eventually they will fizz out. A good example is Anna Hazare moment which eventually lost momentum. The protests aim is to change the ground situation for women. The protest needs to evolve. 

Egypt Once again, Where are you Headed?

The situation in Egypt has raised a lot of eyebrows including mine. When the Egypt Revolution occurred, its was truly a revolution, for the first time the internet as a medium spearheaded the organization of the revolution and because the army decided to step back, on a whole it was a peaceful.
When Muslim Brotherhood was elected to form the new government, in the Egypt, a lot of eyebrows and concerns were raised. Yet people were hopeful.
The moment President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood appointed himself extra powers to help built Egypt. Prior to that he has had shuffled and fired high ranking members of the military.
President Morsi is trying to pass a Constitution through a referendum which has strong groundings in Islamic law, in civil rights too and many vague articles too.
President Morsi's move to boost his powers, occurred at a politically motivated moments as the Egyptian Government had just played a key role in the ending the violence of Israel on Gaza Strip. Any form of criticism on the Egyptian Government role would undermine their role and therefore the peace.
The greatest thing to applaud is the Egyptian citizens who without hesitation took to the streets and Tahir Square.
And so the protest goes on. Christian and members who are considered moderate members who were the part the newly formed Egyptian Government resigned from their positions.
The army has been called in to protect the Presidential Palace due to a large number of protests occurring outside it. President Morsi has given up his extra powers, but in turn he granted the army powers to arrest protesters. However reports claim that so far the army has not used them.

Now this is nation of people who are willing it to change into the democracy they want.  

Palghar Action Not Enough

The news on the action taken on the issue of arresting two girls for their facebook status is a joke and not enough. The Superintendent of Police Ravindra Sengaonkar, who made the arrest on the charges based on vague sections in the cyber law has been suspended. The First Class Judicial Magistrate Ramchandra Bagande who seemingly may have ratified these charges, by not throwing them out the window in the Court when they were presented and charged a bail has been transferred.

Considering that there has been a violation of the expression of freedom and the right to freedom, the only action being taken is a suspension on the Superintendent and possibly he may be transferred in near. The question is what is to prevent such police members and more across the country from taking action again? What is the deterrent? Is a suspension enough?

A more important issue at hand, and one that is not been asked about, simply because it could bring in contempt of court is how did the magistrate allow such charges to be accepted. The Judiciary has always been the constant wall that stands up when any government official is misusing power. And at times it has failed, and this is one of them.

Perhaps Ramchandra Bagande needs to be sent back to law school to know a when a worthless  charge that violates the freedom of expression has been accepted, a transfer is not enough. One day Ramchandra Bagande may be in the High Court, and be making decision regarding whole communities, not that the freedom of a single individual is greater than the freedom of a community.

The Government, at the end of the article the government has to be bought into question. It is only because of public and media pressure that action has been taken. So the deeper question is what about the other instances which are unheard of, which are not in the public sphere, what about them?

Contemplation of Balasaheb's Death

This position of Bal Thackeray is an obvious inspiration from Fidel Castro   

With the death of Bal Thackeray, there is a blast of comments of the internet and facebook, the pages of newspapers filled with news on him. All this cannot but force me to have some thoughts on such a topic.

My first reaction to the news of his death and the turbulence, and not a surprising reaction is ‘fuck them.’ I’m anything but a fan of Bal Thackeray and the rest of his family, to me they have always seem a bunch of hungry-powered, crazed warmongers with an unruly mob following them. Those reading this, don’t take me for some half baked person, I do have a decent knowledge on the doings of the history of the Thackeray’s.

As much as people glorify Bal Thackeray as a great leader, here’s a fact, Shiv Sena really influence has always been centralized in Mumbai and never managed to spread greatly throughout the rest of Maharashtra. Don’t believe that, then take a look at the current Maharashtra’s government, there is a reason why it is Congress and not Shiv Sena.

Post the 1980s, if one sees through the violent activities guise the Shiv Sena really did not do anything magnificent unless you count the changing of the Bombay to Mumbai.   

Mumbai has and will continue to transcend any form of ‘sons of soil’. I’m from the East Indian Community, and we are more of a Mumbaikar than anybody else, because we have been in Mumbai even before the Portuguese discovered called it Bombay. Then again, all my Gujrati, North Indians, North-East Indians, South Indians are much of a Mumbaikars as I. Mumbai belongs to India and the world. In spite of what any political party thinks Mumbai is a global city, part of something much bigger than itself.

For sensible people, it’s a time to celebrate (unfortunately damn bars, restaurants and shops are closed). There won’t be another person who will have such an iron grip on Mumbai, hopefully ever again.

A few articles now and then, and today quite a few of Muslim support will not convince me of Bal Thackeray’s tolerance. The man advocated, gave his booming voice to the support of 1991-92 riots, and 2006 riots.

"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is (often buried) with their bones,", to quote Shakespeare from his play Julius Caesar, and perhaps one may think I have disregarded all his ‘good deeds for Mumbai’; and there are people who remember a sea of such deeds. But the fact is a lot of his good deeds are bad shit, that’s why I see it, while a large number of people see them as good and there is a sea of people at Dadar.