Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Prison as a loss making company

Every company tries to earn to make profits. That is central to a thriving economy. Either through new products or efficient operations/services the costs are cut down and then cheaper cost products or services are offered. That is how competition picks out the best providers and the others either learn lessons and move into other sectors or further improve the current best efficiency through their innovation.

The quality of the service or the product and the use for those are the most important factors to decide whether the business will be successful or not. No one would want to buy defective pieces because often the repeated purchase of defective pieces exceeds the cost of a single purchase of a good quality product or service. In a capitalist economy profits are central. It is mutually to everyone's benefit to try and work on efficiency in their core strength. That way prices are driven downwards or kept the same while the quality of life improves.

In a small and ideal economy where everyone concentrates on their strengths there is no need for any regulations and laws. However even if there is an ideal economy, an entity as big as a nation cannot be treated as small. So there are popularly elected representatives whose tasks are to govern the region/nation and ensure everyone is able to concentrate on their tasks and improve the quality of life. The government should efficiently improve its governance and help keep with the overall goals of prosperity and happiness. The traders, craftsman and servicemen get their money from the goods and services they offer. The government employees need to get some money for their work too. That is tax. So a long story cut short, tax is everyone's mutual agreement and contribution towards the upkeep of and a better society.

Even though direct monetary profits is not the goal of the government the correct use of the tax (agreed individual contribution towards maintenance, improvement, etc) is and should always be. If that is not done correctly, then it is as good as a loss making company.

Let us consider prisoners. Let us start analyzing from the time they somehow get into the prison without belaboring and debating on the causes of their incarceration. They got there for having committed some crime. That crime may have been out of compulsion or force or lack of awareness or sheer mental disturbance. Never mind that. While in prison the typical reaction, initially, of a prisoner is denial or withdrawal. Everything seems unjust or incorrect. Some even harbor escape plans. Gradually reality sinks in. He realizes that the prison walls around him are no illusion. He realizes that he could keep whining for the rest of the term - very likely around 10 to 15 years - or do something useful.

If he chooses the former it is bad because he will easily be a negative energy carrier. He'll also join the negative forces and always be up to something nasty. What's worse? When he is released, not only does the social stigma around an imprisoned man deter him from landing an occupation to feed himself and his family but also the pent up negative energy can add to the misery and another crime may be committed without even a provocation. And then what happens? Very likely he is caught again and he is imprisoned again. Only this time it (the punishment) will be more severe because the ex-convict, apparently, didn't learn enough from the time served in the prison.

If he chooses the latter, good for him. But what useful things can he do? While in prison he can perhaps do a lot of helping around, maintaining the prison facilities and earn some money for his service. He could possibly learn some crafts or arts. But what good are most of these experiences when he is released? If he wants to get a job at a restaurant or at a post office or as a bus driver or a place where slightly higher skills, that come with a higher education, are needed? Shops may not employ him because of the mistrust they may have? "Who knows if he is completely corrected or not? What if he loots my shop?" The losses from even small crimes can be a lot to bear for a local shop owner. And to aspire for jobs requiring more skill, like  a receptionist or a computer repairman or a web developer or a call center or data entry operator he simply doesn't have requisite skills and the employers would rather get someone who is almost employable than to take the pains of training such n ex-convict.

Now what happens? He is left with no job! He is a human after all. He has to feed himself and maybe his family. Any guesses for the extent he may go to to survive? Of course the more idle time he spends the more negative energy can build up and then we're only being foolish in expecting no blast. So what is the use of a prison that only just temporarily shields the public from the dangerous/unstable elements? They need money to offer the public this service. That money is from tax, remember? Given the total population of the world, at any time there are people released into the world form prisons and there are some that are put in. So it is indeed only a temporary shielding place.

Now if we view the ex-convict (who completed his term in prison) as a product, if he returns to the prison for some reason, isn't it the same as a defective product from a company? A company that makes defective products falls out or is shut down. What about a prison in our society?

If no attempt is made to reform individuals inside a prison and they are only merely treated as defective pieces from God we are only doing ourselves disservice and harm. The reformation can be through education offered, counseling services, spiritual empowerment and open houses where the prisoners talk about the mistakes they made and urge the people on the border to not take their route. It is possible. I know for certain that most people regret some bad things they did in life. Likewise prisoners too regret their mistakes and they can, more than anyone else can, identify the people - the minds that can be influenced (teens mostly) - who are on the verge of making decisions that they will regret in the future. We must use them as a feedback mechanism to improve our society. For that to happen, we must do enough inside our prisons, to reform the prisoners, and then make them reach out to people on the edge of a cliff, about to commit a crime.

If no attempt is made to reform the inmates a prison system is as much a failure as a badly performing company with dwindling stock prices. If anything a failed prison system is worse because more lives will adversely be affected with their products!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Love in Ethiopia and its 'pullatlu'

I was excited about the new cuisine. So when Vinay suggested that we go to an Ethiopian place for his Birthday dinner I could barely hold myself from tearing my seat belts and jumping onto the Interstate and spreading my joy to the others. (I heard of the suggestion when I was still driving on I-94)

Ras Daschen was where we went. It is on 6846 N Broadway Av in Chicago. I reached there about 20 min earlier than the others. That gave me a chance to listen to some really fascinating and rejuvenating music by a live band.

I was engrossed in the music when I had a lady (waitress/manager) walk up to me and ask me if I wanted to sit down while I was waiting for my friends. And that is when I noticed another beautiful aspect of the restaurant (music being the first). That lady was beautiful and the first thing I thought to myself was that she was a direct descendent of Cleopatra. And then it didn't surprise me that Caesar had his second family there. If I am presented with a chance, I will have 100 families in Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco etc. Her curly hair, typical of Africans, were bewitching. And her eyes... They were magic! Black magic! Only in this case the victim would love being one! And when the other waitress came up to me and inquired how I was and spoke a few things I was floored. I rued not being able to speak Ethiopian just to impress her. I was surprised that she even chuckled at some silly jokes that one attempts during pleasantries. And when that happened the music in the background played a wonderful catalyst to her movements. The beats on the African drums were so well timed that every beat met with her sashay as though they were trained in the military.

I had a good mind of begging her to break the step a bit, or else my heart would collapse from the hard pounding! My 20 min felt like 2 min when my friends arrived and I was hoping to be served by this soft killer. We weren't but the one who served us was charming too. A good 15 min into researching the menu and what each thing could mean, we were coming up with some suggestions for orders. We all sipped on tasteful, delectable, lip smacking Ethiopian beer, (selected by Venkat and me) first. Pavan seemed to start liking beer which was, to me, as pleasing as the sight of a baby's first steps to its mother.

Our orders consisted of some meat portions which Pavan and I didn't eat of course. We ordered vegetarian delicacies, the best of which, I thought, was Shirro! Injeras, the base item like Indian roti or rice, were strikingly similar in taste and appearance to an Andhra Pradesh delicacy (Pulla atlu/ Pullatlu - meaning sour crepes). Although I probably never had authentic pulla attu (singular for pulla atlu) Pavan's agreement to my claim gave me the confidence to put it in writing.

Once all the food arrived, we all were merry and gorging on the salivary-gland-tingling food! I let me eyes steal away to the next table where the swaying sashaying waitress was serving. "Those lucky ^&$((&*#", I thought! Our table was almost at the other end of the restaurant so that we couldn't have heard so much as an elephant trumpet, let alone a light strum of the live band's guitar. We asked that some music be played for us and they obliged. Pavan, again, seemed to be really fascinated by the music as were others. So I took my chance and gestured to that pretty woman. She came beaming all over. Was I stupid enough to just ask her to change the music to something that was played 5 min back? No!I was clever enough to use that chance to ask her questions about the music and get prolong her presence at our table. I was in a daze. It was either my heart or my words or just my imagination, but surely one of these was floating about in air like a happy feather. God! Why wasn't I an Ethiopian?

By the end of our meal we had plenty of food and music. Personally I could have done with more conversation with the above mentioned descendant of Helen of Troy and Cleopatra! Sadly I had to leave quickly lest my waiting friends curse me. Vinay would already be telling his sister - Deepti - (who would have probably asked her brother, "Why on Earth is he taking so long to come out?") that I was doing some gimmicks and chatting someone up. I had an occasion to chat with the owners of the restaurant and I paid my compliment to the very well presented restaurant, food and music.

Secretly I was also complimenting the other beautiful thing. I also told them how the injeras was very similar to pulla atlu and was hoping they'd tell me that Ethiopians and South Indians (Andhra Pradesh people particularly) were of one blood. In which case I was already making plans of calling up my parents with a view to suggest an alliance!

On my way out I showered praises to the musicians who were happy to point me to the website I mentioned above. My opinions are not biased because of the beautiful waitress but I would recommend Ras Daschen to everyone who love the delicious cuisine, rejuvenating music and the beautiful things in life. (On a similar note, I also understand that I could believe the stock analysts who write a disclaimer saying that they do not hold any stocks of the analyzed company.) I am certainly going there on my next trip to Chicago.

And if you go there you'll love it anyway, but I'd recommend you to go with your chums like I did. It would only make for one of the best memories you've had in life.