Did you say you lacked motivation to go for a Yoga class.

No, a San Francisco community center is offering naked yoga, where bare essentials means just that: Men and women are completely nude during the 90- minute class.

If you think, it is all about ogling, here is some news for you

The class is about the challenge of yoga, and about the challenge of accepting — and even revering — one’s own body. “It’s not a sexual experience,” said Rob Kandell, the center’s business manager. “It’s a heart-opening experience.”

I don’t know if you want your “heart” to open in a Yoga class where women outnumber men. But then

“As we begin to disrobe, start to notice how you clothe this temple, this body, this thing you own, your home,” Medland said. “As you take off your clothes, there’s a level of precision, of consciousness, in the way you fold your clothes. We’re honoring the preciousness, the sacredness, the delicateness of the body.”
The first movements involved stretching arms above the head. Medland, as naked as the rest of the class, faced the group, arms over her head, her patter providing a point of focus for any student distracted by self- consciousness. [Doing it in the altogether is what makes this yoga practice altogether free from distractions (with pictures)]

new Carl’s Jr ad and many people who were distracted by self-consciousness crashed the website. If you have a monkey mind and want to bring it to focus, if naked yoga cannot help, then nothing else can.

Radio Free Europe has an article on gender violence in South Asia and for the article, the reporter Antoine Blua has picked stories of abuse from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. All of them are real horror stories and a shame on society. But towards the end comes a line out of the blue

Coomaraswamy said she believes South Asian men feel threatened by social and cultural changes, partly spread by globalization and the mass media. And women are bearing the brunt of men’s fears. [South Asia: Recent Killings, Violence Underscore Lack Of Progress In Gender Justice]

This seems to be some Praful Bidwai kind of logic where everything has to be blamed on United States or on Globalization. So were there no Islamic honor killings before the spread of globalization ? Were there no rapes before the arrival of mass media ? If this is true, rapes should not be happening in globalized countries. But if you look at any evening newscast in United States, it starts with a a few crimes and gruesome child abuse. and what is the explanation for that ?
In another news Christian Aid has come out with a report saying that liberalization is causing the death of Andhra farmers and Alex Singleton at the Globalization Institute has a rebuttal

It is totally regrettable when anyone commits suicide, but the Christian Aid report misses the point. Christian Aid ignores all the millions of lives saved from starvation in India because of liberalization. If saving lives were the point of the report, Christian Aid should be firmly backing liberalization. This report is about backing up ideology.
When the sort of policies Christian Aid advocates were followed in the 1960s and 1970s, India’s economy stagnated and living standards fell. Many starved. Now, by following liberalizing policies, India’s economy is experiencing some of the world’s fastest economic growth. Christian Aid is effectively saying that India should grow more slowly. This would not be in the interests of poverty-relief.
Christian Aid seems to blame the suicides on Britain’s Department for International Development for its support of Andhra Pradesh’s privatization policies. Yet the report says the suicides are by farmers, not by workers at newly-privatized companies. Indeed, because India taxpayers are paying for fewer loss-making state industries, the government has had more money to spend on its priorities – including on helping farmers. [Christian Aid’s report on Indian suicides]

I used to live in Los Angeles which has the worst traffic in the world. I have lived in Mumbai India, Sao Paulo Brazil and Vancouver Canada and nothing beats Los Angeles. I used to live near I-10 which used to be standstill on a Sunday morning at 5 am and I used to wonder where all these people were going.

The Los Angeles region had the worst traffic congestion in the nation for the 20th year in a row, according to an annual report released Monday. According to the study, rush-hour drivers in metropolitan Los Angeles — which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties — spent an average of 93 hours more in traffic during 2003 than they would have without traffic jams. For a person who works five days a week and never takes a vacation, that’s like being parked on the freeway for 21 minutes every day.
In fact, the average commute in 2003 took nearly twice as long as it should have, costing the average rush-hour driver $1,598 in extra gas and diminished free time throughout the year, according to the report. Those figures were worse for the Los Angeles area than for any other major urban area covered by the report.Los Angeles Ranks Worst in U.S. Traffic Study

Then I moved to San Francisco Bay Area and things improved. Now instead of living in the most congested area, I live in the second most congested area

The Bay Area is ranked near the top in one category most area residents would rather not be recognized for.According to an annual report on commuting times, drivers in the Bay Area suffer through the second-worst traffic jams in the country. This year’s Urban Mobility Report says on average, Bay Area drivers are delayed about 72 hours a year. The annual report says only Los Angeles-area drivers spend more time sitting in traffic jams. They waste an 93 extra hours a year in trafficStudy says Bay Area traffic delays second longest in nation

Now if I am fed up with all this and decide to move back to my home town of Thrissurr, Kerala, things don’t look good their either

Traffic snarls, blaring horns and bad-tempered drivers may soon become the order of the day in Thrissur town if constructive steps are not taken to address the increasing traffic problems.
A major hurdle in traffic management in Thrissur is the absence of corresponding development of roads to the number of vehicles that roll out every year. But it’s not the only one. Lack of proper planning in the construction of junctions and traffic routeing, narrow roads, inadequate parking facilities, the list is almost endless.
With a total area of 101.42 sq km, Thrissur town has a road network of 526 km. Major roads lead to the Swaraj Round, and herein lies the core of the problem. Traffic on the Round has been restricted to one-way from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., but even this could prove inadequate in future, according to the police. Parking is another contentious issue on the Round, which needs to be addressedThrissur faces traffic problems

This is what globalization truly is: Anywhere you go in the world, you get the same set of problems.

Whenever Western diplomats and leaders want to visit India, they book a ticket to Islamabad with a stopover in New Delhi. They spend a day in Delhi and visit their cherished destination and then make some statements insulting India. Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Kofi Annan, all have done that. But there are some people who are now visiting India, whose final destination is not Pakistan.

The international president of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is scheduled to visit India next week amid signs the government may soon lift a ban on foreign investment in the retail industry.
Menzer’s visit comes on the heels of another visit by a U.S. company eyeing opportunities in India: Walt Disney Co. (Research) officials met with the Indian president and prime minister just a few weeks ago.
Local media reports said Disney’s top officials — Chief Executive Michael Eisner and CEO-elect Robert Iger — had lobbied for land for a theme park. But Disney denied the reports, saying in a statement the meetings were to “explore and discuss future opportunities for Disney in the burgeoning market of India.” [Wal-Mart paying visit to India]

What we need is visits by such people whose final destination is India.

Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria is a new program on PBS which aims to bring serious foreign affairs discussion on TV. Fareed Zakaria is a writer and does not have the noise making capability of Chris Matthews, which is required for American TV. As a result the program though strong in content, is painful to watch.
In the last program he mentioned that Detroit is no longer the No.1 car manufacturing joint in North America. That position goes to Ontario, Canada. The reason for this is the rising health costs for workers in United States and GM mentioned this as one of the reasons for the loss they suffered this quarter. The other reason is that GM is still making gas guzzlers, while people are looking for high mileage cars.

Richard Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive officer, said during a speech in Detroit last week that, when it comes to healthcare, Americans spend more and get less than any other industrialized nation.
“In the U.S., healthcare costs are rising at an annual rate of 14 percent to 18 percent and already account for 15 percent of our gross domestic product – 50 percent higher than the next most expensive country,” Wagoner said during a speech at the annual Auto Tech conference in Detroit.
“The worst part of all this is that these very high costs don’t necessarily buy the best healthcare,” Wagoner added. “If our cars performed at the same quality levels as our medical system, nobody would buy our cars,” he said.[Bush, Kerry: Where Do They See Cars? ]

United States has so many companies offering healthcare and if there is competition the prices should reduce. But Canada with its National Healthcare system is able to provide healthcare for all its citizens for a much cheaper price and so American companies are forced to outsource to reduce the costs.

George Bush held Crown Prince Abdullah’s hands and walked down the path to the ranch and once they were inside, pleaded with him to raise oil production. Bush also told the Crown Prince and the ruler of the country that sent 19 hijackers that American families are suffering and it is important to reduce prices. The price of crude oil fell in anticipation. But even if the Saudis pump more oil, there is not enough refining capacity in United States to make gasoline available to the consumer. So we will be pretty much stuck with the $2.50/gallon price tag (After filling gas for $2.70 for past few weeks, I am happy to fill at $2.50).
So will this high price of gasoline (It was $1.60 a year back), cause a change in lifestyle like more carpooling or using public transport ? Not yet. Columnist Tom Friedman in his book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century argues that the President should have used 9/11 to start a national mission to reduce dependence on Saudi oil by charging more for gas and forcing people to change their lifestyle. The President’s solution is to drill in the Alaska for more oil.
Consumers who pay for gas every week are wiser. They are now opting for more and more hybrid vehicles. In California there was an increase of 103 percent in the sales of hybrid vehicles. Even SUVs and buses are now running on hybrid engines.

But Bob Kuhn, the fleet’s director of transportation, is impressed. So impressed that the bus company intends to replace 45 of its diesel buses with hybrid diesels. That would require approval from California’s Air Resources Board, and is being evaluated by the agency, a spokeswoman said. In all, 10 California transit agencies have asked to use hybrid-diesel buses, including San Francisco’s.
Fuel economy is one reason. Stockton’s hybrid buses are getting 4.9 mpg. That doesn’t sound like much — the five-seat Prius gets 60 mpg in city driving, according to the EPA — but remember that buses seat 34 people, and regular diesel ones get only 3.3 mpg.
“With this technology, we can lower emissions, and it’s not as expensive as we thought it would be,” Kuhn said.
It’s a growing trend. Seattle is now using 235 hybrid buses. Cities as disparate as Honolulu and Albuquerque are trying them out, too. [Hybrid engine technology boards the bus]

It is not just the Japanese car makers who are thinking about fuel efficiency. Few years back when I visited the Los Angeles Auto Show, GM displayed a concept car which was fuel cell powered, and required no gasoline. Finally, the dependence on Saudi Oil will be reduced by the American consumer, by buying more and more such vehicles. It will take a while for these vehicles to be mainstream and till then Oil companies and the Saudis are going to mint money.

Ashish had a post recently on the anti-Japanese protests happening in China and suggested that these demonstrations could be used to sneak in democracy. NY Times has an article that the Chinese Govt. fears the same and is now cracking down by banning the use of text messages or e-mail to organize protests.

The government began cracking down on people using these technologies to foment anti-Japanese protests more than a week ago, before the Shanghai march. According to an employee at a major Internet provider, the government on April 14 ordered all Chinese Web sites to begin filtering anti-Japanese content. Then last week, several anti-Japanese Web sites were shut down because they were trying to organize new protests in May.
One Western analyst in Internet technology said the government has powerful filtering devices that can screen cellphone and e-mail messages. This filtering technology can separate messages with key words such as Falun Gong, the banned spiritual group, and then track the message to the person who sent it.
Falun Gong, in fact, used cell phones to coordinate protests until the government deemed the group a threat and launched a crackdown.
“There are things the bureaucracy could do if it found this sort of communication truly threatening,” said the Internet technology analyst, who has studied China for more than a decade and asked not to be identified.
Yet many analysts agree that screening the Internet and cellphones is far more difficult than the practice of simply ordering state-controlled newspapers or television stations to censor a subject. [A Hundred Cellphones Bloom, and Chinese Take to the Streets]

It is not just local people that China has to worry about. Till now United States was “engaging” China, hoping that some reforms would come through, but now things are getting confrontational. US Senator Chuck Schumer got an amendment passed, which calls for punishing China for undervaluing its currency.

During a floor speech in defense of his amendment, Schumer cited the case of Marietta Corp. in Cortland, which manufactures sample-size shampoos and soaps found in hotel guest rooms. “Only one country doesn’t allow Marietta to (export) import its soap and its shampoo China,” Schumer said. “And when the president (of the company) called me and I visited the plant up in Cortland, 30 miles south of Syracuse, he told me that the Chinese now do their own business in China. They’re using that protected market in China to compete with Marietta, now in Southeast Asia, soon in America.
“I said, ‘Why don’t you file (a complaint) with the WTO (World Trade Organization)?’ “He said, ‘Well, I’ll get an answer in about eight years, and I’ll be out of business.’ “Ladies and gentlemen,” Schumer went on, “. . . we must do something. This (amendment) is the best thing to do. It is certainly better than what we have been doing over the last two years, which is absolutely nothing.” Schumer’s effort against China’s currency practices began in a meeting the senator had two years ago in Syracuse with business, labor and government leaders. Since then, he has repeatedly urged the Bush administration to pressure the Chinese to “float” their currency, the yuan, against the U.S. dollar. China has refused to do so. [Senate supports Schumer’s trade bill]

And China has agreed to revalue the yuan very soon. So it seems as if China is able to contain internal pressure, but it is not able to withstand the external ones.

Once when I was in Kerala, I heard two relatives speaking about farming and one of them said, “Soon America will be telling us what to cultivate”. I could not understand why someone from America would tell a farmer in Kerala what to farm. In Kerala as in many parts of the world, Globalization equals America. Any change in the market forces are attributed directly to Uncle Sam. When you look from Kerala, it seems as if the White House or IMF or World Bank is just spending all their waking hours trying to screw the local farmers.
If Americans had control over this globalization, then so many American software engineers would not have lost jobs due to outsourcing and so many textile mills would not have closed. There is no point in whining, for globalization affects everyone. People who survive are the ones who have learned to take advantage of it.
For example, the personal car revolution started in United States and Detroit churned out aircraft carrier type mediocre cars till the invasion from Japan happened. The Japanese car makers took advantage of a global economy and created plants in America, employing American workers to create economical as well as fuel efficient cars. Recently the No.1 American car maker, GM, reported a loss of $1.1 billion, its worst quarterly performance since 1992.
While GM is losing marketshare, Toyota is gaining by doing things right and taking risks.

Despite the endless debate about what’s plaguing the U.S. auto industry

Multinational companies have this image as exploiters not answerable to anyone. Multinational companies also justify everything they are doing with the words, “to maximize value for the shareholder”. So this time shareholders decided to take some action regarding the alleged issue of the depletion of groundwater by the Coke plant in Kerala, India.
The plant in Kerala was sanctioned by the communists, who realized, maybe after a coconut fell on their heads that Coke uses water and groundwater was disappearing in Plachimada. So the commies, to enhance their shareholder value, turned protestors and got the local panchayat to revoke the licence.
Now the CEO of Coke is facing music over the same issue.

Shareholders didn’t want to talk about re-electing the board of directors or appointing an independent auditor. Instead, they questioned Isdell about issues he’s heard before, namely the killings of several union workers at Coke bottling plants in Colombia and accusations that some of Coke’s plants in India have depleted local groundwater.
Isdell said Coke has not done anything wrong in the two countries, noting that government inquiries in Colombia have dismissed the accusations that Coke was complicit in the deaths by failing to protect workers there. He also said a high court in India has sided with Coke over the water dispute. Even so, Isdell conceded that the company’s best efforts to put the questions to rest have not been successful. Last year’s annual meeting also descended into questions about alleged abuses abroad.
“As long as anyone continues to believe these allegations, we’re going to take them seriously” and work to change people’s perceptions, Isdell said. [Coca-Cola Vows to Change Perception Abroad]

Jet airways has been given permission to fly to New York. Continental is going to start a non-stop flight between Newark, N.J and New Delhi. The Indian cabinet has approved replacing the 1956 Air Services Agreement with a new one between India and United States which will be signed by US Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

With the new accord coming into operation, Air India and other carriers will have additional ports of call other than existing ones like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Newark (New Jersey).
“Now, we want to start services to Washington, Houston, San Francisco and other American cities,” Patel told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.[Cabinet clears new air services agreement with US]

Yaay! San Francisco is in the list. Also as part of the agreement, more airports in India will be opened for direct flights. My dream of flying from SFO to Cochin International Airport might not materialize immediately, but it is now a possiblity.
The number of flights between India and England is also being increased exponentially. As per a new MoU, the number of flights/week is being increased to 130 (from 40).
Now in the original article, the minister was asked if the Jurrasic Party was consulted on this:

Asked whether Left parties have been consulted before firming up this accord, Patel said this was especially meant to give more air connectivity and point-to-point easier travel for the people of the two countries.
“It is in the interest of our country to see that there are more air services which will enable a free flow of traffic and help our tourism, trade, commerce and industry and also generate employment,” he said. [Cabinet clears new air services agreement with US]

How is the answer related to the question in this case?