A study in facts

[Sanjeev Sabhlok <sabhlok@almaak.usc.edu>]

vinay said

"Was your father robbed or mobbed there on the street ? Did anyone aim a
bullet at him ? What do you call mafia-baazi ? I have roamed the Russian
streets at 12 O'clock at night and no one bothered me."

Facts are: anyone who dissented against the armed mafia who ran USSR was
immediately arrested. There was dictatorship with 99% people voting for
the President each time in each election. You have not perhaps lived in
constant fear of your son 'telling on you.' You should read many great
Russian authors who have documented Russia's turmoils and tortures.
First we had Nehru who supported that murderer called Stalin. Just
because we had a couple of paltry gains in our so-called non-alignment
due to Russia's 'vetos's in our favor. Now, long after that evil empire
is dead, you are claiming it was 'heaven,' simply because you could walk
peacefully at night. 

Dear Vinay, I do not walk even on the streets of Los Angeles at night.
There are many murders committed by gangs in Los Angeles. But do not
compare ordinary crime with organized state crime.

USSR was a criminal nation with its leaders hands in gloves with
murderers. The public was scared to death and did not dare to say or do
anything. 

In India too, our socialist leaders have looted our nation through and
through. Who are the richest people in India today? Our socialistic
leaders. Each possesses wealth rumoured to be in the hundreds of crores;
completely black money. There is a limit to ideology.

I am asking you to rise above ideology. To look into the facts. I can
dig out huge numbers of documents on the ruin caused by Russia. What my
father reported was not hearsay. He has visited all the major factories
of USSR; he has also run many of the major public sector undertakings of
India before his retirement. But I will guide you to enormous sources
which show the state of USSR then, and the state now.

What has happened today has been nicely analyzed by Xiobo Lu of Harvard
University (he is researching on corruption China and Russia). Today,
the state has moved out of the economy in Russia without having any idea
of how to set up institutions to establish the market in the first
place. Second, as I have always stated, you need a very strong state
first, before you can get a successful market. The state must provide
law and order and must pay its officials well. Today India is a weak
state with IAS officers leaving the job at a cascading rate. The state
is focused on so-called development. It should focus on law and order
instead. It is focused on punishing and pauperizing its honest
officials. It should reward them instead. The corrupt bureaucrats and
politicians in India make crores per year. I too, Vinay, can go back
this moment, join the bandwagon and make merry. But I won't. 

I will not support a corrupt and scandalous system.

Do not let appearances mislead you. Trust me since in my direct family
we have 55 years of cumulative experience of working within the Indian
government. I know the stories first hand. 

Step 1: understand human beings. There are no saints (just a hint).

Step 2: understand economics.

Step 3: look at facts analytically.

Step 4: call a murderer a murderer and not a saint (e.g., the USSR
leaders were murderers, or in league with murderers; don't praise them
to the sky.)

Yes: I do not reply to each and every point of yours or anyone else's.
There is no time for that.

I do latch on to the person's key belief and point and try to rebut it
if I find that point has little merit (in my viewpoint). On the other
hand, I am willing to listen and learn.

So; if you have facts that show that USSR was NOT a mafia state, which
looted its people, and murderered all dissenters, please show them to
me.

SS


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