Misplaced patriotism and then some

"If patriotism and love for our country is a crime, then we shall committ the crime repeatedly". Talk about wearing the indian flag on your sleeve, an orange sleeve i might add. Could this statement (spoken by our very own Balasaheb) be a mere publicity stunt or suggest a deep rooted sense of patriotism? If there weren't so many glaring contradictions i would think the latter. Patriotism would seem to be the love for one's country, its people and resources albeit the differences in race, religion or caste. So how does crime against your own countrymen promote patriotism. Is it me or is this a contorted view of so called patriotism. It surprises me how most groups (Sena and the Maoists..to name a few) seek to protect their so called "ideals" with violence. The whole purpose of democracy is freedom to let your voice be heard without letting you hand be felt. How different is George Bush' war against terror as opposed to the Maoists war against the bourgeois or the Sena's war against non-maharashtrians. Slaughter the innocent to prove a point, after all it's all a means to an end. The end in most cases being political supremity!
The leaders of these groups are content with letting their "men" fight their battles while they sit comfortably promoting their propoganda to the masses. Ironically if the leaders do bite the bullet they would be considered martyrs and start a revolution, in most cases bigger and more dangerous than the ones they promoted.
The only way to bring these radicals to a halt would be to first to choke the very "ideals" they stand for and then bring the people involved to justice for the crimes they've committed. Use the weapon of true patriotism against those that use it as a weapon for personal gain. I belong to the world first and then my country and my state. Global to local and not the other way around.

Greed supersedes Need

"Pregnant woman thrashed, paraded naked in Uttar Pradesh", screamed the big bold headline as i contemplated whether i should dare scroll down and read the article. I did, out of curiosity to know what reprehensible act did this woman commit to receive such inhuman treatment. And wonder of wonders, all the poor woman did was to protest when a group of locals attempted to encroach on land that belonged to her husband.
What could drive a bunch of locals to behave like their age old, apelike ancestors? I'm sure these ancestors were far more sensitive than we are nowadays. Comfortably numb is what we've become. The age old saying goes, " Teach a man to fish and he can feed himself forever", i guess we could rephrase that to "Teach a man to fish and he'll kill you to be the only one that can fish".
There seems to be a large divergence in today's society. The gap between the haves and have-nots is being stretched to limits which drive people to such violent acts. Of course i'm not attempting to condone the act, but if we don't realize why this has happened, i guess it won't be long before we read something similar again. At the risk of sounding altruistic, we need to bridge the gap between the affluent and destitute. Greed has reached an all time high, where we just dont satisfy it at the expense of others greed but now at the expense of others lives! More More More ....... we've crossed the line of satisfying our needs so long ago that now our greed is our new need. You might not be aware of how your greed affects people you might never meet in your life. It's all supply and demand. The more you demand, with the supply being as it is, the higher the cost. The cost of a house/land is so steep that the average family cannot even dream of owning a house anymore. And thats when we start protecting the little that we have (the poor pregnant woman) or begin putting our hands into other people's bowls (the barbaric locals).
We don't need to start being benevolent, charitable or even altruistic, all we need is to be prudent in separating our needs from our greed. When we know and understand that distinction, only then can we make the choice ...... Need or Greed?