The day fear won ...

It's official. Terror has won. The decision to ban minarets is the latest victory granted on a platter to every radical, hate mongering terrorist out there; even worse, it gives them a platform of self righteousness from where to boast that they are justified in what they are doing. " The west is waging a war on Islam", they will proclaim - unfortunately, they will be right about Switzerland.

What is even more riling are the news reports that the vote is a "gut reaction" of the Swiss, including  ..." resentment over the lack of willingness to integrate by some migrants, the widespread fear of the spread of foreign cultures and the fear that the Swiss Christian culture could be under threat." (swissinfo.com)

Let's get a few things straight. Integration works both ways. It's called assimilation. Integration can only be harmonious and beneficial when both sets of parties understand each other's culture - if the Swiss are saying "my way or the highway" to foreigners, they can only expect a similar response.

Secondly, the Swiss also need to get some perspective. They are a tiny, European country in the Alps, whose greatest selling points include being bankers to the world by keeping people's dirty secrets. And providing large conference rooms to international organisations on the back of being a "neutral" location. They have already been hammered on a world stage on selling point no 1. All the best on maintaining any credibility after this vote.

More importantly, it is delusional to expect that an insular Switzerland will be able to survive in the modern world. Swiss economic development is coming on the back of tax sops offered to foreign multinationals by various cantons.Swiss children seek to study and work abroad. Swiss service industries need workforce replenishment. None of this is going to happen in an environment that is suspicious and hostile to foreigners.

In this single act of fear, Switzerland has delivered itself a setback that is going to take a lot to undo. I am proud to be a citizen of Geneva, which was one of the 3 cantons to not vote for this ban. Let us hope that political cynicism will not lead to more such right wing hate mongering. Let us hope that voices of reason will prevail in the future.

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Twilight for Dummies

Wondering why TV channels are going nuts over the launch of New Moon? Mostly interested in the Non fiction rack in the bookstore? Stuck in a room full of giggly girls gushing abour Edward's eyes? At a multiplex, considering whether you should get in the line for tickets to New Moon? Here's the least you need to know about the Twilight....

What's it about?

Its a teenage romance. Only one hero is a vampire, the other a warewolf.

Why the frenzy?

The seemingly doomed love story appeals to the hormonal and angst driven sensibilities of girls between the ages 8-20. Both Edward (vampire) and Jacob (warewolf) are insanely good looking, this appeals to women outside this age group as well ( ahem...) .

Should I read the books?

Yes, the brooding angst comes out better in the books. As with all stories with an element of fantasy in them, they play out better in your own imagination, than a bog standard Hollywood version. In the case of the Twilight series, watching the films cold turkey might actually turn  you off, especially the first part, since the storyline's major concern is establishing a dreamy romance between the two leads.

 Who are the main characters?

Edward Cullen (resident vampire) and Bella Swan (awkward teenager) are the main leads. Jacob Black emerges as a main character in New Moon, as the newgrown resident warewolf. Side characters include Edward's family (Alice, Carlisle, Esme, Emmet and Rosalie - all vampires), Bella's dad (Charlie), and Jacob's fellow wolfpack buddies (Sam Ulay, Quill and Jared.) The vampires also have Xmen style special powers. The real bad guys are the Volturri family, who is introduced in the New Moon.

Is it better than Harry Potter?

No. Apart from establishing an entire mythology and world of magical characters, the Potter series gives you a rich subtext through stories and metaphors. It's in a different league.

Why bother?

Let's face it, the older you get, the more you need to make sure you are part of the latest "cool" media phenomenon to prove you are still with it.

Can I fake it?

Yes you can. Try the following in a conversation

" So do you think Bella will change? "

" I think Bella and Jacob are more real, don't you?"

The response to any of the above sentences should give you enough material to muddle through. I leave you with the trailer for New Moon, created by Team Switzerland.

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There's a bubble in the blogosphere

It started out as a simple idea... I wanted to jazz up my website with pictures I'd taken during our recent trip to Barcelona.I'd seen a lot of sites with these rolling photographic slideshows and I wanted to setup something similar for my blog.

I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. A week and 5 unsuccessful attempts at web template changes later, I was a cross eyed, irritable wreck with so much tech jargon buzzing through my head, that when P asked me if I'd like to go out for a stroll Saturday afternoon, I snarled,

"I'm trying to beta test embedded functionalities and synthesize innovative mashups to orchestrate compelling experiences for WEG!"

P....a long pause later.... "Is that a no?"

Blogs selling templates. Blogs selling code to modify templates. Blogs selling advice on why the code on modifying templates was wrong, and selling "corrected" updates on these templates. Blogs discussing the "artistry" of certain codes versus others. It was like I'd opened the closet door and wandered into the secret land of "Geekmania".

Is the entire blogosphere a bubble? Could it be that there are, like, 100 real websites, being written by writers, and the rest, websites related to how to design, modify or enhance these sites and related technology upgrades? Are there any real "readers" out there?

The numbers seem to back this theory - 5 of the Top 10 blogs on Technorati's directory (with a total of 54706 blogs) relate to technology and gadgets, Technology is their third largest category, with 2 sub categories- Infotech and Gadgets- comprising a whopping 6300 blogs!

One thing is clear- The internet is the new piazza. It's the place you come to to pick up something you need, to shop, to grab a quick bite, to meet a friend or a date, or to catch the general buzz.

It's also rapidly seems to be becoming the place you go to get away from more "serious" pursuits - learning, reading, researching, debating. Bloggers, lured by visions of multi million dollar online  businesses, are not just cutting down the length of their blog posts, but also the content. The search result is becoming synonymous with data itself, we seem to have
 got lost in a maze of empty hyperlinks, most of which link to each other, 
very few linking to any actual, reliable information. Ironically, we are so completely taken in by the "mirage" of non information, that we refuse to pay enough for the guys who actually generate reliable content - the entire news journalism industry is currently in a crisis of existence.

30 years ago, a British software consultant, Tim Berners Lee, working at CERN, Geneva, invented a computer program to share his notes with the rest of the scientific community. He called this program Enquire, and designed it to enable users within a computer network to access data residing on each others computers freely. The network grew exponentially to what we know as the Internet today. Making this technology open source is perhaps the greatest contribution by a single human being to society in the modern age. I leave you with this excellent quote by him,

"Whether it is a turning point in societal evolution depends not only on the technology.. but also how we use it!..."

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The Lost Symbol- beyond the joyride

A week long trip to Barcelona was a lot longer than most vacations I've been on so far, so I thought I'd have plenty of time to relax, roll up my sleeves and dive into Dan Brown's latest bestselling potboiler - The Lost Symbol.

The book started out pretty much as expected, with the usual lineup of symbological potpourri (this tbook explores the mythology of the Freemasons) thrown in along with a made for Hollywood style thriller. As it progressed however, I began to get an eerie feeling of deja vu, as I found that a lot of what I was reading was actually materialising itself through the sights and sounds of Barcelona, especially when I visited the church of the Sagrada Familia.

Take Exhibit 1 - One of the many clues in the plotline relates to a "Magic Square", a grid of numbers that add up to the same number, by row, column and diagonal. The book refers to a square within a famous painting - Melancholia 1 - by Albrecht Durer, the numbers within which help to unravel on of the key clues in the plot.

As I approached the stunning Passion Facade of the Sagrada, voila, there it was- a magic square adding up to 33!

A spooky coincidence? Maybe. Conspiracy theories about Gaudi's masonic links abound, there is even a book with this as its main plot (The Gaudi Key). While the magic square at the Sagrada has actually been created by Joseph Subirachs, conspiracy theorists point to various other masonic symbols that have been embedded by Gaudi in other parts of the temple completed by him.

I was disappointed with the book though, I felt that the author prioritised writing a story that could be made into a blockbuster movie, over focussing on the more fascinating aspects of what I call the "collective consciousness" subplot. One of the key characters in the book is a Noetic Scientist, researching the apparent physical entity of a human thought, and scientifically trying to prove that man can control and harness thought to have a real impact of the destiny of the world.

The parallel between this subplot, and the project of the church of the Sagrada Familia is compelling.This project has been in the making now for amost 130 years (started in 1882). Gaudi himself worked on the temple for 15 of these years, largely on the Nativity facade. All work on the church post his death purports to conform to his artistic vision.

After his death, the project has been completed by numerous other architects, and hundreds of on site workers, in line with Gaudi's overall vision. The most striking mark has perhaps been left by Joseph Subirachs, whose sculptures at the Passion facade cannot help but move you to the angst and the glory of Christ's suffering. What I found the most striking about his work however, was its technique. Subirach's sculptures are modern art as we know it, with clean, bold lines. The texture of the stone is the medium providing the emotional narrative. They are in striking contrasts to Gaudi's opulent and fantastic Nativity Facade, yet the two seem to exist in harmony and add substance to each other.

Over its history, the church has seen evolution in terms of architectural techniques, from Gaudi's original drawings, models and moulds, to sophisticated 3D CAD software today; from hand sculpture to modern stone drilling tools; from stone and sand to concrete. 

There could not be a more substantive example of a harnessing of collective consciousness to preserve an artist's vision, and to perhaps to create a work of art that will outlast us to capture the imaginations of generations to come. In the act of its creation, this site transcends the narrow confines of tradition and religion.

As I gazed, awestruck, at Barcelona from the top of the Gaudi's spires, the final line from Dan Brown's novel ran through my head - " God was a symbol that we all shared ... a symbol of our limitless human potential."

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