Sunday 27 November 2011

HOW TO FIX THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC DEBT CRISIS

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting

members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days

to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this information to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

*Congressional Reform Act of 2011*

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security
system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for
any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honour, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX THE AMERICAN CONGRESS!!!!! If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just ignore this message.

Please keep it going.

Thursday 15 September 2011

Tamil Nadu's Religious Harmony : A Big Question Mark ?


I've warned about this before, but this kind of bias against Hindu and Vedic temples continues to go on. There needs to be serious demonstrations in India itself to oppose this kind of arrangements that work against the Hindu community for the benefit of the Christian and Muslim communities.

Tamil Nadu Unfairly Targets Hindu Temples While Giving Other Religions Full Freedom


Tamil Nadu is home to some of the richest Hindu temples

Tamil Nadu is home to some of the richest Hindu temples

The Tamil Nadu government claims to be secular but has been treating Hindu institutions and temples differently compared to institutions of other religions. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department administers 36,425 temples, 56 mutts, 47 temples belonging to mutts, 1721 specific endowments and 189 trusts. The department claims to be watching over all religious institutions to maintain secularism but it has only been looking over the Hindu religious institutions and this policy is not being applied to any other religions like Christian or Islamic institutions.

The indifference and lack of stance against such an issue by Hindus along with the pushy missionaries being let into the region are the two main causes of such an injustice. This has allowed the Tamil Nadu government to process the way it does, assuming such a level of control.

Prominent mutts of the 1840’s—when the British ruled—were asked to take over certain temples and endowments. The heads of these mutts made sure to get written documents from the British Government assuring the mutts that the temples would not be taken into repossession by the government.

The mutts ran the temples well and efficiently using funds provided where they should have been used—to perform important rituals and for renovations in the temple. Overall, the funds were used for the primary purpose of the temple—supporting worship. However, contrary to this, thousands of other religious institutions were simply handed over to the trustees with the government providing little or no supervision at all with what was being done with the funding and whether it was being utilized for the purpose of which it was given for.

The Madras Hindu Religious Endowment Act of 1925, was passed by the local Legislature for the purpose of providing better governance and administration of Hindu temples. This act was widely changed and adapted several times to consolidate the government’s power over the Hindu institutions, both before and after Independence. After independence, the act was widely expanded.

What Hindus must remember is that it is not the job of a government body to rule over and administer what is going on with Hindu temples, especially when the same body is not doing the same for churches and mosques in the same region. There must be something wrong if policies that were originated, to be applied to all religions, are only being applied to one religion continuously. Hindus should group together and petition against such government bodies, bringing outside agencies to help and audit the HR and CE Department and its activities related to this issue. Hindus should work together to gain back access to the temples so that they are handed over to their respective trustees or appropriate Hindu associations.