A new kind of think tank

An innovative approach to the traditional think tanks is in the making. Google has formed a new company called Google Ideas which hopes to move beyond the traditional think tank model of producing reports and books and would include action as a central part of its mission.

This “think/do tank” approach has the goal of tackling some of the most intractable problems facing mankind by combining a new generation of leaders with technology. It is looking for new approaches that go beyond merely producing reports and books. And how does it intend to do this?

One of its first ventures : tackling violent extremism.

The company, through its eight-month-old think tank, Google Ideas, is paying for 80 former Muslim extremists, neo-Nazis, U.S. gang members and other former radicals to gather in Dublin this weekend to explore how technology can play a role in de-in de-radicalization efforts around the globe. These former radical extremists will be surrounded by 120 thinkers, activists, philanthropists and business leaders. The goal is to dissect the question of what draws some people, especially young people, to extremist movements and why some of them leave.

Up to now, efforts to reform extremists have largely been government-run and focused on distinct groups. Many of the programs have operated in Muslim countries, and their sponsors have struggled with whether it was enough to get radicals to disengage from extremist movements or whether they must reject extremism and embrace mainstream values. If different radicalization challenges can be compartmentalized, why can we not also compartmentalize the de-radicalization solutions is the basic argument of this radical approach. Such an approach could, for example, harness the power of YouTube, employ advanced mapping techniques or create alternative Web spaces to compete with radicalizing voices. “The hope from the conference is” say the organizers, “ that we will figure out some of the ‘best practices’ of how you can break youth radicalization” . This weekend’s conference, formally known as the Summit Against Violent Extremism, or SAVE, will run Sunday through Tuesday.

In the future, Cohen predicted, the think tank will take on the challenges of fragile states., democracy building, and questions about the Internet and society.

Here is an approach that India can follow in tackling some of its most difficult problems: reducing corruption in public life, seeking a peaceful solution with its neighbour Pakistan, improving civic participation in a democracy...

After the book - Reflections of a still curious mind

Since the publication of my book " Reflections of a curious mind", I have written a few more blogs that hopefully will form the basis of my next book: "Reflections of a still curious mind". But for those of my readers, and they now span over 20 countries to my constant surprise, here is a sampling:

• • ▼ June (5)
    • A dirty business- the Rajat Gupta story
    • A fathers day tribute
    • Teaching the noblest profession
    • A mystery or a puzzle
    • My father, the hero- the tragic aftermath
  • ▼ May (8)
    • The new medical paradigm
    • Leadership in the twenty first century
    • A marriage in the family
    • The MIT factor
    • The Mumbai massacre- reverbrations
    • Old age blues II
    • The death of Osama and soul searching in Pakistan
    • The IIT brand - the hidden impacts
  • ▼ April (10)
    • Innovation from the bottom up
    • My father, the hero
    • 10 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES 2011
    • The power of unreason
    • Learning from the past
    • Breaking the circle of corruption
    • In Praise of failure
    • Lonelieness and being alone
    • The IIT story and its world impact
    • Fathers and Sons
  • ▼ March (6)
    • The origin of bad moods- and what to do about them...
    • Conquering insomnia
    • The Rajat Gupta episode
    • Just a small town girl...
    • In the land of scams
    • When daughters break your heart...
  • ▼ February (3)
    • Dharma and love
    • Blind faith
    • Obama's National Prayer Breakfast speech
  • ▼ January (6)
    • The rituals of death
    • What's in a name
    • Give Peace a Chance
    • Obama's speech
    • The three secrets of life
    • Searching for a cure

• ▼ 2010 (63)
  • ▼ December (4)
    • The Creative Spark
    • Blink of an eye
    • View from across the border
    • Fifty Years After
  • ▼ November (5)
    • Telling poor jokes can be a disease
    • A love affair like no other
    • Gandhi's invisible hands
    • The search for silver linings
    • The Mystery of Subash Chandra Bose
  • ▼ October (5)
    • Caregiver for a day
    • The case for Obama
    • The Delhi Commonwealth Games - the opening ceremon...
    • Later, Later …or why we delay things?
    • Old age blues
  • ▼ September (5)
    • Men don’t cry
    • The art of living--and dying
    • Delhi- an expats view
    • Innovation continues
    • What Obama should say ( and do)

A dirty business- the Rajat Gupta story

Nothing has been as damaging in recent years than the story that a business icon like Rajat Gupta was involved in illegal insider trading. It raises all kinds of questions but the most basic of them all is "why"?

This extended piece provides a background to the story and how slowly and insidiously people were corrupted.

A fathers day tribute

Here is a perfect poem for fathers day!

It is written by an old friend of over 50 years in tribute to his father but while personal, it captures beautifully the universal emotions of love and respect, of words not said and of wisdom gained.

Unfinished Farewells

He never gave himself the time to age
and I cannot ever imagine him old.
He was so active, always on the go
getting the job done,
moving on to the next.

His goodbyes were always
brief and to the point
somewhat hurried, sometimes half-done.
Not for him the lingering
'bye-byes' of our clan,
the 'dear Octopus' that hugged us
in its unfailing grasp,
as we, reluctant to let go,
longing to hang on,
made hesitant efforts
to disengage, our interwoven lives
of endless memories
and family lore.

His final farewell,
improvised and unexpected,
over even before it ever began,
left so much 'unfinished business'
that might have filled
the eventide
with sunsets by the sea,

If only it could be
just possible for him to see
how he could ease his pace,
give himself the room
to rest his heart
at home with treasured memories.

But now he's home at last,
the memories are ours
to share and care and carry on.

When I said goodbye at Santa Cruz
it was not the first time
I was going away,
though for how long this time
I couldn’t say.

I wondered when
we'd meet again,
would he visit where I was going
or have to wait
till I came home again?

Airport waiting is a practiced art.
Never his forte, that's for sure.
But now it was a welcome start
to unhurried farewells
this time at last,
as we talked the half night through
until my flight was due.

Nothing's further than a call today,
I said up front, half convinced myself,
not quite realising how
far away are some places,
beyond all telephonic spaces,
where neither of us as yet
had thought to go.

So when that dreaded call came though
that fateful Friday night,
I was many galaxies away,
cut off from him by sound and sight.

No phone could reach him then
too late I realised
the unhurried farewell
that airport night
had been our last goodbye.

His trust still gives me courage
and sends me on my way,
daring me to dream
new worlds still far away.

His optimism lights my hope
against a hopeless world,
it stills my restless waiting in
my sometimes senseless world.

His teasing humour
still makes me laugh
with him and at myself.
From his large heartedness
I've learnt to stretch
my every means
and reach beyond my grasp.

From him I learnt
how not to panic
in a crisis,
hold the tiller firm,
set my sail against the wind,
remain uncompromised
in honesty and faith
even when betrayed by
unfair plays and hidden deals
that take advantage of one's t rust.

From cruel misfortunes
he protected us
his joi de vie
infected us
and saw us through
the dark unto the dawn
as long as he stood guard.

My knees still knock
When I hear the fire truck go by,
remembering how once
the flames engulfed
my childhood home,
took my world and
everything we had
into the chill December night;
but for his decisive presence
we escaped with just our lives.
But looking back was not for him.
Picking up the pieces
of our charred, scared lives
he put together for us all
another future
new hopes, new dreams,
a newer, braver world.

When with all the weight
of my nineteen years
I solemnly declared:
"I'm leaving home
for Vinayalaya
I won’t be coming back",
"The boy's not serious, he's a clown,"
he said, but to me:
"Be a good one if you must,
no half-measures
will ever please
yourself or me,
do not betray my trust.”
“It matters less
what others say
if you can stay the course,
your achievement will
outlast success
the inner spirit
must come first.”

And so his ceaseless quest
to do his best
inspires in me
a restlessness
that haunts me so,
I cannot settle for
a comfort zone,
when just beyond the horizon,
impossible dreams become possible,
if only one would stretch enough
to reach the lowering sky,

If only I had told him then
how proud I was of him,
my father and my friend.
Too late now, I hope
He hears me yet and smiles."

Teaching the noblest profession

Finding a good teacher that inspires and educates one has become difficult and is the subject of most discussions about our educational systems. Most of us can remember with clarity the few teachers in the past who inspired us and for whom we still harbour great respect. So how do we find these great teachers and how do we make sure that our children can learn from them?

Technology has at last provided at least a partial answer. Here is a course on Justice that caught my eye which is both free and really really inspiring as it explores the origing and morality of justice. The teacher is Michael J Sandel of the Harvard University and I encourage all of you, even the old ones, to just click and listen to his lectures ( there are 12 of them) and I guarantee that after you have heard one, you will not want to miss any of the others.

He is now become exceedingly popular in Asia touring China and Japan recently. Should India be far behind?

“Students everywhere are hungry for discussion of the big ethical questions we confront in our everyday lives,” Sandel argues. “In recent years, seemingly technical economic questions have crowded out questions of justice and the common good. I think there is a growing sense, in many societies, that G.D.P. and market values do not by themselves produce happiness, or a good society. My dream is to create a video-linked global classroom, connecting students across cultures and national boundaries — to think through these hard moral questions together, to see what we can learn from one another.”

A mystery or a puzzle

Puzzles can be solved; they have answers. But a mystery offers no such comfort. A mystery cannot be answered; it can only be framed, by identifying the critical factors and applying some sense of how they have interacted in the past and might interact in the future. To solve puzzles, you need the right data and information, to solve mysteries you need to ask the right questions.

In recent weeks a blogger in Syria, who has been writing for at least six months, wrote about her father's encounter with the secret police and how his heroism prevailed. I wrote about it in my blog"My father- the hero". Last week her cousin wrote of how she had been kidnapped by persons unknown and how they were desperately searching for her.

But yesterday a friend sent me an article from an English newspaper questioning whether this blogger even existed and whether all that she had written was true or a figment of someones imagination. Others quoted in the article even doubted that Amina was a real person!

Interesting, I thought, here was a puzzle and a mystery wrapped in one. So I looked at the first blog of this young lady, which turned out to be the first two chapters of her life story. Here is how it begins..."“I am Amina Abdallah Arraf, Syrian-American Muslim Princess, born Staunton, Virginia, October 1975. Father: Abdallah Ismail Arraf, Syrian Arab. Mother: Caroline McClure Arraf, American Christian by birth. Second of four children. Lived in Damascus, Syria (1976-1982), Riverport, Virginia (1982-1991), Lilburn, Georgia (1991-1999), Chicago, Illinois (1999-2002), Atlanta, Georgia (2002- present). Married in Damascus, 1999. BA, MA from Georgia State University." The next two chapters trace her mothers and fathers histories in some detail. Are not all these facts checkable?

And today another person emerges claiming to be the real author of all the 144 blogs - a Tom McMaster writing from Istanbul Turkey!

What is the truth and what is fiction? Is it a puzzle or a mystery? Is it a plant by the Syrian secret service or is Tom McMaster a real person. Perhaps some real journalists will emerge to clarify the truth.

My father, the hero- the tragic aftermath

Readers would remember that I posted a very eloquent description of a confrontation in Syria between the security forces and a feisty, independent woman, Amina Araf al Omari.

There is today a report that she has been arrested and has disappeared. Her last posting was a poem that says it all:

The bird flies free
Knowing no boundaries
Borders mean nothing
When you have wings

My heart and my soul
Long to follow and soar
Out over mountains
And deserts and seas

I have no wings
And earth presses in
Wrapped in a sheet
Forever to lie

Weighed down by dirtclods
Never to feel
Wind on my wings
Sun on my back

Soaring and flying
Freedom is coming
Here am I wanting
To know it one day