Acing Algebra

The decision to introduce algebra to 8th grade students is a beacon of hope in the otherwise bleak K-12 public education system of California. Numerous studies have identified difficulties with algebra as one of the main reasons why high school and even college students were failing to graduate every year. By demanding early mastery in a discipline that Gov. Schwarzenegger called the “key that unlocks the world of science, innovation, engineering and technology,” California has taken a step in the right direction to support the demands of the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century.

Teaching at a community college can give one a sense of how unprepared students generally are in algebra when they graduate from high schools. I began teaching the subject as an adjunct faculty in a community college in northern California this spring. The elementary algebra course included the study of real numbers, linear equations, exponents, polynomials, factorization, quadratic equations, and rational expressions. The first week was revealing. Negative numbers, fractions and divisions, particularly those involving decimals, overwhelmed many students. Calculating something like 54 – (-12) baffled about a quarter of the student who subtracted 12 from 54 to produce a result of 42. Almost half the class was clueless about the order of arithmetic operations, and solved problems like 2 + 4(1/2 + 1/3) as 6(1/2 + 1/3) = 5. Something more complicated like 1/2 + 3/4[-2(1/4 + 5/12) + 3/5] threw almost the entire class off.

It took me an ordinate amount of time to cover the basics and shake off students’ fear of numbers and equations. However, once they sensed the power and beauty of algebra and its relevance, not just to their careers but also to such daily tasks as shopping and driving and lobbying for a cause on campus, they made rapid progress. Convincing them that I would be a patient and sympathetic teacher as long as they made a serious effort at learning algebra also helped.

Frank, floundering in fractions in the beginning, displayed fluency with factorization toward the end. Christina, shaky until spring break, suddenly began solving quadratic equations with ease. Paul, easily the oldest student in the class at 53, exuded confidence that after two attempts, he would pass algebra this time. A college degree that he had to postpone after graduating from high school in the ‘70s now appeared as a distinct possibility. "Everyone gets a second chance in America," was how he summarized his experience.

There was no denying that if the average student had a better foundation in algebra in middle and high schools, I could have made more progress and even delve into some exciting real-world applications before the semester ended.

During spring break, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel released a 120-page report that stated, “Although our students encounter difficulties with many aspects of mathematics, many observers of educational policy see algebra as a central concern. The sharp fall off in mathematics achievement in the U.S. begins when students reach late middle school, where, for more and more students, algebra course work begins …” Three words summarized the panel’s recommendation: “Focus on algebra.”

Yes, funding, teacher training, school resources and myriad other issues pose thorny problems to the vision of California’s State Board of Education. But by testing eighth-graders in algebra within three years and giving them a head-start to flourish in the knowledge-based global economy will more than justify the investments that must be made to the K-12 public education ecosystem of California. As a nation, to cite only one example, we simply cannot afford our fifteen-year-olds to rank 25th among 30 developed nations in math literacy and problem-solving, as the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) found.

Besides, lack of qualified teachers may not be as insurmountable a problem as is currently thought. The EnCorps Teacher Initiative in June of last year is attracting retiring baby boomers and other concerned Americans. Their expertise in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, statistics, physics, chemistry, biology and computer science, honed in the trenches, is precisely what our students need to make these subjects become real for them in classrooms. Certainly the program needs to become more visible, flexible and rewarding but it is a good start.

Californians should support the State Board of Education’s initiative to help our students master the mystery of ‘x’ in algebra. And 8th grade is a great place to start.

Charging president Bashir of Sudan with Genocide

Finally! After 5 years of inaction by the international community, Sudanese president Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir has been charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), issued the charges after years of gathering evidences that were plain for all to see.

A predictable reaction followed: Charging Sudan’s president with genocide may cause him to commit even greater violence against Darfuris. It may worsen the plight of the surviving refugees. Aid may not reach them. The few peacekeepers may be thrown out of Sudan. And on and on.

What people forget is the brutal statistics on the ground. Over 2 million people have been killed, Muslims at the hands of Muslims, and there is no sign that the carnage will stop anytime soon. Unless president Bashir is convinced that his reign of terror must come to an end, he will continue to act with impunity. The ICC charges have put him on the defensive. That is a good sign.

What I found shocking was the general indifference of Muslims to the carnage in Darfur. While a cartoon could drive Muslims to frenzy, ethnic Muslims being slaughtered by the Muslim janjaweed militia, and actively supported by the Khartoum regime, hardly ruffled our feathers. In the five years of the Darfur genocide, I rarely heard a Friday sermon on it in my local mosques, nor came across any conference on the issue in the San Francisco Bay Area where I live.

President Bashir belongs to the same murderous group as Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic and Liberia’s Charles Taylor. The Hague charges offer hope to millions of Sudanese who may yet survive to experience a life devoid of violence and the constant fear of death. Making president Bashir and his associates accountable for their crimes is the surest way of preventing more genocide in the world.

P.S. June 22 - After 13 years of eluding capture, the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been arrested by the Serbian police on June 21. He is expected to be transferred to The Hague soon to stand trial for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered after Bosnian Serb forces seized the United Nations “safe area.” The long arm of International Law is finally reaching tyrants who commit genocide, mass murders and "ethnic cleansing" under their watch. In a world that often appears to be teetering on the brink of a catastrophe of one sort or another, the arrest of Karadzic offers hope that the center can indeed hold and that the best are the ones who are full of passionate intensity. The question now is, how long do we have to wait before Omar Bashir joins Mr. Karadzic in the Hague?

Thoreau and the Fourth of July

On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into a one-roomed cabin that he built with his own hands on the shore of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau wanted to "meet myself face to face," away from the intrusions of public opinion, government, religion, education and society. His twenty-six months of living in the woods provided him with materials for his masterpiece, Walden. The book is more bracing today than when it was first published and launched the environmental movement that we seem to take for granted.

But more than a paean to nature, Walden instructed us, by the example of its author, to live a meaningful life. It is this aspect of the book that explains its relevance and timelessness. Walden contains paradoxes and contradictions but precisely because of these, Thoreau's observations also ring so true. "I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men get clothing ... since ... the principal object is ... that the corporations may be enriched." "Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind." "The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler's cap and all the monkeys in America do the same." "In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high."

Writing of farmers saddled with debt (magnified several thousand times since then, and not just farmers), Thoreau wrote: "With consummate skill he has set his trap with a hair springs to catch comfort and independence, and then, as he turned away got his own leg into it." "And when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him." Is there any more powerful, and poignant, summary of the havoc wrought on families throughout America by subprime and exotic mortgages than what Thoreau observed of his neighbors in Concord over a century and a half ago?

Yet Thoreau would also have lauded the progress America has made since Walden. A fierce opponent of slavery, he would have approved where America is today in relation to race. The democratic nominee for the president of the United States today is an African-American with a heritage that spans the globe. And while our materialism and the often toxic popular culture would have saddened him, he would also have taken heart in the green movement begun by grassroots organizations to save the planet from catastrophic climate changes. Yet there is also no doubt that the author of Civil Disobedience would have been outraged by the Bush administration's war of choice in Iraq, illegal detention of both US citizens and foreign nationals, and use of torture and spying on Americans in violation of the Fourth Amendment. A disobedience movement, civil or otherwise, would have been a certainty for Thoreau in such circumstances.

As we celebrate America's 232nd anniversary of independence, we feel the urgent need of a Thoreau who can motivate us to simplify our lives, persuade us not to become the tools of our tools, to recognize that "our inventions are wont to be pretty toys (Internet, iPod, cell phone, take your pick) which distract our attention from serious things. They are but impoved means to an unimproved end." We need a Thoreau to remind us that our greatest skill may lie in wanting but little, that "superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only," that we are "rich only in proportion to the number of things we can afford to leave alone." As we reflect on the challenging words in the Declaration of Independence, we should also set aside some time today to reflect on Thoreau's Walden. We will only be the richer for it.

Bill Gates Reinvents Himself

The last day at work can be a melancholy business as well as the springboard for a new career. But what if the person in question is one of the most successful entrepreneurs the world has ever known? Is there any way he can reinvent himself to compare with what he has already achieved?

If anyone can pull it off, it is Bill Gates. Today is his last day at Microsoft. From now on, Gates will dedicate himself to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and to his stated aim to rid the world of deadly diseases and malnutrition through a combination of technology, medicine, money, management and expertise. That, plus improve the state of K-12 public education in the United States where a million kids drop out of schools every year, plus ensure that teachers have the right tools to motivate and inspire, plus …

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?” Robert Browning’s exhortation to attempt the impossible resonates with all but only a few get to experience it. Gates has the passion, the commitment and, of course, the resources to succeed but even if he is partially successful in his “Mission Impossible,” he will have touched people’s lives on a scale that may surpass what he accomplished through Microsoft.

Microsoft will continue to be a dominant technology player for years to come but the truth is that the torch has passed to a new generation of technology visionaries, epitomized by a company called Google. You can take on the new competitors, or you can take on an even bigger challenge – to prove through action that “every life has equal value.”

Is this the road less traveled by that, in the end, will have made all the difference? Who can say? What is clear is that Bill Gates has chosen to make a difference in the lives of people around the world who desperately need a helping hand simply to survive, and that transcends technology, software, and the demands of an unforgiving marketplace.

The Future of Tiger Woods

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places." Hemingway’s observation is insightful but not always true , especially when considered in a literal sense. This is the thought that came to me after it was disclosed that Tiger Woods would have a season-ending knee surgery following his epic U.S. Open victory. He had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee last April and after the five-day, 91 holes of grueling and painful golf at the U.S. Open this month, he couldn’t continue playing without causing permanent injury to his leg. Given his fierce competitiveness and single-minded pursuit of excellence, the end of the 2008 season must have caused him as much mental anguish as his left knee caused him physical pain.

The compelling question is: Can Woods break Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major championships? With 14 championships under his belt already, the answer may have seemed obvious (yes!) but that was before the the fragile state of his left knee became known. Now it has become a more pertinent question and the shadow of doubt has crept in.

This is what I think will happen. Woods will adjust his game to accommodate whatever toll surgery takes on his knee and that will still be good enough to beat the rest of the world’s golfers. He will win 6 more championships to bring his total to the nice round number of 20 and then he will be forced to retire because his leg will just not be able to hold up any longer. This will only underscore his status as the best golfer to have played the game. There will always be that ‘what if’ scenario to excite the imagination whenever the name Tiger Woods comes up, but that will only serve to keep his legend alive for decades to come.

Confessions of an Insider

Scott McClellan’s “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” is the buzz of the week. The former White House press secretary’s revelations, however, are not new. Seriously, is there anyone on earth who doesn’t yet know that George Bush is not inquisitive, that he doesn’t have an analytic bend of mind, that he stubbornly refuses to admit mistakes, that he is deceitfully self-delusional, that he gave free rein to the diabolical Dick Cheney to call the shots in major strategic decisions, that the Iraq war was a “solution” in search of a problem from day one of his presidency?

But even without any shock value, the book deserves attention. As the president’s long-time confidant, McClellan’s memoir offers a fascinating glimpse into the conflicting demands of loyalty and conscience and the dueling instincts of self-preservation and the urge to speak truth to power.

But first things first. Was McClellan motivated, to some extent at least, by money? Sure. Wanting to cash in while the opportunity lasts is an ancient human instinct. Just ask Bush memoirists Paul O’Neill, John Dilulio, Larry Wilkerson, Richard Clarke and others. Many more tell-alls are likely to appear after Bush leaves office but by then interest in his presidency will fade. If one had to make a bundle before it was too late, it had to be now, and McClellan used the opportunity.

As to the charge of hypocrisy that his conscience was fine towing the official line for nearly three years but that it began to weigh on him only after he resigned in 2006, there is also some truth to it. However, McClellan is no Archibald Cox, and to demand of him integrity that animates only the rarest among us is itself hypocritical.

The point, however, is that McClellan’s conscience, even if tainted, eventually caught up with him. “What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary,” is how he sums up his telling, if belated, insight.

What also emerges from several published reports is that the act of writing the memoir was cathartic for McClellan. It liberated him from his own delusions. Putting pen to paper, or keystrokes to word processor, brought to light what lay buried in his mind.

The central question that the memoir raises is this: Why did Bush do what he did? What drove him to create, in the words of novelist and essayist David Foster Wallace “an unmitigated horror show of rapacity, hubris, incompetence, mendacity, corruption, cynicism and contempt for the electorate”?

There is a key sentence in McClellan’s book that, I think, answers it. “The president promised himself that he would accomplish what his father had failed to do …” In other words, Bush Jr. was driven primarily by one goal: to outdo Bush Sr. That he wanted to outdo his father vis-à-vis Saddam Hussein is known but it also extended to his other presidential acts, in the way he dealt with his political adversaries and the illegal privileges he showered on his sycophants. (The presidency of George Bush should convince voters that they must give thumbs down to presidential dynasties in modern times).

At a personal level, there is no doubt that George Bush is a kind and compassionate man. When McClellan handed his resignation in April of 2006 as the White House press secretary, “tears were streaming down (Bush’s) both cheeks.” Those were genuine tears. But Bush is also a man with severely flawed instincts and judgments. Combine this with his overpowering need to prove his superiority at any cost over the old man, another president who also happened to be a domineering dad once, and you have a recipe for rapacity, hubris, incompetence, mendacity, corruption, cynicism and contempt for the electorate.

“What Happened” will contribute to our understanding of why historians are already labeling George Bush’s presidency as among the worst in American history, alongside the presidencies of James Buchanan (1857-1861) and Warren Harding (1921-1923), a verdict that is likely to stand the test of time.

Certainly no profile in courage, Scott McClellan has nevertheless given us an honest account of his White House experience that revealed its meaning to him only upon later reflection, and for that we applaud him.

A Call for Olympians to Take a Stand Against the Genocide in Darfur

The Olympic charter contains these soaring lines: “The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”

However, the charter also prohibits demonstrations of "political, religious or racial propaganda" at the official venues.

Should athletes follow the letter or the spirit of the Olympics charter? The question is gaining urgency as the world prepares to celebrate the summer Olympics in China in August this year.

China’s human rights violations in Tibet and, in particular, its complicity in the genocide in Darfur, are known to all but the most insular. Sudan whets China's bottomless appetite for oil and spends a significant portion of its oil revenue to buy arms from China. Protected by its trading partner at the United Nations, the Khartoum government has consistently flouted international appeals to stop the genocide in Darfur that it has waged with its allied Janjaweed militia on the darker-skinned indigenous farmers of the region since 2003.

One athlete who feels passionately about the Darfur genocide is the American Joey Cheek. Cheek won the gold medal in 500-meter speed skating at the 2006 winter Olympics in Turin. At the awards ceremony, Cheek announced that he was donating all his winnings from the U.S. Olympic Committee, a total of $40,000, to Darfurian refugees in Chad.

I can still recall how stunned and electrified I was (feelings that I undoubtedly shared with millions of TV viewers around the world) at the magnitude of this humanitarian gesture.

In a recent article, Cheek explained his motivation: “I feel no different from a person born in any other area of the world, except perhaps a bit luckier. And if people were gunning down my family, I would certainly want the world to help. So that's what I tried to do.”

Cheek launched a Website that monitors the situation in Darfur. It has become the catalyst for an international coalition of athletes determined to bring an end to the violence that has so far claimed over 400,000 lives in Western Sudan and created a staggering 2.5 million refugees.

Cheek wants to use the Beijing Olympics as a platform for peacefully publicizing the genocide in Darfur. Although not a contestant, his message to participating athletes is moving and forceful: “I sincerely hope that the newest Olympic champions not only show graciousness toward their Chinese hosts, but also issue a stern call for action in Darfur. With its significant ties to Sudan, China is one of the countries in the world best positioned to do more to stop the killing in Darfur, and it is the responsibility of athletes competing there this summer to say that -- respectfully yet forcefully -- even as they focus on their own athletic accomplishments.”

Mia Farrow, George Clooney, Don Cheadle and several other public figures have been working to draw the world's attention on the horrors of Darfur. In an ideal world sports and politics would not mix but we do not live in an ideal world. Who can ever forget the Black Power salute of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City, and how it shook up the status quo? Joey Cheek is right to mobilize athletes to stop the unending violence in Darfur by putting pressure on the Chinese government. After all, what can be “faster, higher, stronger” than the force of will to defend those who are unable to defend themselves?

A Terrific Thriller

A killer has escaped from a prison in France. What makes the news particularly chilling is that the killer is a magician who seduces his victims - young girls - with tricks of the trade before killing them.

We never get to see the killer or what happens to him but the fact that he is out there somewhere suffuses the Claude Lelouch-directed movie 'Roman de Gare' with menace and suspense that make it a terrifc thriller to watch.

A bestselling mystery novelist (Fanny Ardant) has a secret: Her books are actually the work of an unassuming, diminutive ghostwriter (Dominique Pinon). Along with a flair for words, the ghostwriter also happens to be a ... magician.

In search of ideas for the next blockbuster, the ghostwriter witnesses a couple having a furious verbal fight at a gas station in a Paris suburb. The man suddenly drives away, leaving the woman (Audrey Dana) stranded. He offers her a ride; she refuses. Her fiance does not return; after several hours of anguished waiting, the woman reluctantly agrees to be driven to her destination by the ghostwriter.

The suspense builds, the mystery deepens. There is no high-tech gimmickry, no car chase. A gun is fired a few times but that is more for comic effect than anything else. The dialogue is witty and punchy and the humor only underscores the dark possibilities.

Our lives are not what they seem. Violence lurks just around the corner. The facade shatters when we least expect it. The confluence of angst, ambition, envy, love and the hunger for justice create undercurrents that carry only the naive and the innocent to safety.

Laden with pathos and glowing with superb performances, I found 'Roman de Gare' a thriller of uncommon power and artistry.

Cold-Blooded Profiteering by Oil Companies

On the eve of Memorial Day weekend here in San Jose, California, I paid $4.07 for a gallon of gas. In the distant past, I used to fill up the tank for avoiding frequent stops at the pump. Those were the days when almost every weekend in summer I would drive to the rocky shores of Point Lobos, the boardwalk in Santa Cruz or the redwood forests that ring my city. Now filling up half a tank requires planning and several peeks into the wallet.

What I find outrageous about the skyrocketing gas prices is the lack of media outrage. You open the daily papers and read about the terrible toll a sliding economy is taking on Americans but there is no word on the huge profits the oil companies are raking in. Yes, the price of oil rose to $135 per barrel this week and the end is nowhere in sight but consider this: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP America and ConocoPhillips made a profit of $36 billion in profits in the first three months of this year alone. That’s $36 billion in PROFITS in just 3 months.

Has there been a more blatant display of greed and cruel indifference to consumers by the oil companies? In case you missed it, their profit last year was $123 billion when crude was selling at less than $70 a barrel. And if your blood is still not boiling, consider this: The GOP-led Congress has given the oil industry a $18-billion tax break. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., summed it up when he said the idea of subsidizing the oil industry at time when it is reaping huge profits is absurd. "If you were going to give awards for taxpayer abuse, this would win the Heisman and the Oscar and the Nobel Prize," he said.

With staggering profits filling their coffers, the oil companies still fight for the last penny with gas station owners who sell their brand across the country. If a Mobil station owner, for instance, raises gas price by a penny, his cash register automatically transmits the information to Mobil's central computers. The result? Exxon raises the wholesale price to the dealer by the same amount. You raise the price to pay the rent, you pay, your fate be damned. Such are the ways of these modern mercenaries.

But nary a word from mainstream media on the brazen gouging by oil companies and their bottomless greed, other than empty lamentations about the hardship of Americans during a lean economy.

Is there anything you and I can do? Yes. Cut down on long road trips. Stay home. Share thoughts that we meant to, but never got around to, with family and friends. Play with our kids. Grow a vegetable patch and reduce the grocery bill. Read that classic in the backyard instead of at the beach. Any activity that does not require the use of a car is a good activity.

And let’s mobilize a march down main street against the inhuman and cold-blooded profiteering by the oil companies.

Obama by a Landslide

TIME magazine (May 19, 2008) analyzes the mistakes Hillary Clinton made in her quest for the democratic nomination. There are vague statements like “She misjudged the mood,” “She didn’t master the rules,” and so on. At best, this is Monday-morning quarterbacking. It would have been more relevant to identify why Barack Obama won the nomination (Hillary Clinton will undoubtedly concede in the next few days). There are many reasons: excellent grassroots organization, intelligent use of Web 2 technologies to spread the word, stirring speeches to inspire Americans, particularly the young. But one factor contributed to Obama’s nomination more than any other, and that was his opposition to the Iraq war when everyone, including Hillary Clinton and John McCain, competed to jump onto Bush’s bandwagon. He opposed the ‘rash war’ in Iraq in 2002 and never wavered in his judgment. This made him the candidate of substance that voters had been pining for, as opposed to candidates whose views were dictated by the shifting political wind.

There is an unfortunate tendency by pundits and Clinton loyalists to attribute Obama’s ascendancy to race. “Obama won the democratic nomination because blacks voted en masse for him,” has been the refrain heard from opposing camps. This is blatant racism. Nowhere is there any recognition that African-Americans voted for Obama because they decided that he was the better candidate on issues and policies. Nowhere is there any acknowledgment that if Hillary Clinton offered better choices and options for Americans, blacks would have voted for her. In fact, that’s how the campaign began, with blacks backing Hillary more than Obama. But as the campaign progressed, voters began to see that one candidate remained true to his principles, while the other resorted to race-baiting and polemics. A difficult choice it wasn’t.

I was surprised by the attitudes of my fellow Americans of sub-continent origin (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan). “Americans are not ready for a black president,” many of them insisted. On probing further, it became clear that what they meant was that they found the idea of a black president unacceptable. Probing further still, I came to the conclusion that this was due to a strange and curious combination of racism and narrow world-view. I don’t know about other states but certainly in California, many Americans who migrated from the Indian sub-continent are bitter that Hillary Clinton's chances of winning her party's nomination has dwindled to zero.

As for those Clinton loyalists who assert that they will not vote for Obama in November, I think the feeling will pass. The passions are still raw but six months offer enough time for reconciliation and closing of ranks. I have no doubt that once Obama formally wins the nomination, Hillary Clinton will urge her supporters to vote for him.

So what will happen in November, 2008? Here is my prediction: Barack Obama will defeat John McCain, increasingly seen as Bush III or the Son of Bush, by a landslide to become the 44th president of the United States of America.

The Junta in Burma Must Fall

I was a student at Dhaka University in the-then East Pakistan when one of the deadliest storms in history struck the province’s coastal regions on the night of November 12, 1970. The Bhola cyclone took an estimated 500,000 lives. Even now, almost four decades later, I get nightmares remembering the bloated bodies of children floating on low-lying islands and rivers.

The military government in power in West Pakistan, led by General Yahya Khan, responded to the disaster with … silence. When the world erupted with outrage, the General ordered his minions to mount a relief operation pathetically inadequate to the devastation wrought by the cyclone.

Economic and political oppression of the eastern wing by the western wing had become the modus operandi within months of Pakistan’s independence in 1947 from India. For almost a quarter century, anger had been rising among the Bengali-speaking people of East Pakistan at the blatant usurpation of power by the ruling coterie of West Pakistan.

The 1970 cyclone was the last straw. East Pakistanis realized that the status quo could be tolerated no longer. A month later, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League won a landslide victory in the national election. The choice was clear: either allow, as the constitution demanded, the Awami League to form the central government, or get ready for secession.

General Yahya Khan’s brutal crackdown on unarmed civilians of East Pakistan is among the worst genocides of the 20th century. Over a million people were killed in nine months but that could not stop the inevitable. East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh in December of 1971.

While several factors contributed to the birth of Bangladesh, the Bhola cyclone was undoubtedly a catalyst of sorts. Even to those diehard loyalists who wanted the country to remain intact, the brutal indifference of the central government was impossible to ignore.

Fast forward 38 years. A deadly cyclone struck Burma (Myanmar) on May 2, 2008. Cyclone Nargis has already claimed over 60,000 lives and the toll is likely to exceed 100,000. Close to two million people are homeless and at risk of epidemics and starvation. The Irrawady River Delta is a scene of death and destruction that reminded me of what I had seen in 1970 in coastal Bangladesh.

But the similarities do not stop there, for Burma has been in the grips of its military since 1962. The current junta seized power in 1988 and renamed the country Myanmar. It is among the most repressive regimes the world has ever known. The Burmese live in fear and misery. The despised generals, operating in a time warp, crushed an uprising by monks - the Saffron Revolution - in September of last year. Peace activist and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for much of the past 18 years.

The Burmese are among the most enterprising and industrious people on earth. Visitors to Cox’s Bazar in Chittagong, Bangladesh, that shares border with Burma, can see examples of their creativity in the their unique farming methods, in the design and manufacture of pearl jewelries, and in the soaring beauty of their pagodas. The junta is relentlessly crushing the spirits of these peaceful, freedom-loving people . Led by "Supreme Leader" Than Shwe, the generals are preventing humanitarian aid to reach grief-stricken Burmese. They added insult to injury by engaging in a sham referendum in the midst of sputtering relief efforts to perpetuate their tyranny.

The generals must be overthrown. The West, particularly the United States, must provide overt support to Burma’s government in exile without fearing any backlash from China. Even an outright invasion should not be ruled out. In fact, that may very well be the best option. At the very least, the United Nations must put together a genocide tribunal for Shwe and his fellow criminals. Simply waiting for the generals to die or disappear will not work. Conscientious people around the world must convince their respective governments to rid Burma of the junta that has all but ruined this pastoral South Asian country. If cyclone Nargis can be the catalyst for freedom in Burma, perhaps the thousands of lives lost will not have been in vain.

Microsoft Needs to Reinvent Itself

Microsoft’s decision to withdraw its offer to acquire Yahoo! was a sensible one. Throughout, the dialogue was shrill, the intention bad and the move desperate. Even if Microsoft succeeded, it would have been a pyrrhic victory. As long as the company continues to think of “Search” as the holy grail of computing, a game that Google plays to perfection, Microsoft will be playing catch up and fall further behind its nemesis.

It is critical for Microsoft to reinvent itself if it wants to regain some of its former glory. It is possible but it will require Steve Ballmer to set his priorities right. Forget trying to compete online with Google through acquisitions, even if the acquisition brings you Facebook. Not much will change. Instead, focus on the creativity of your company’s most brilliant minds to chart a new direction that will make “Search” only one of the Web's crown jewel, as opposed to its most lustrous and overpowering one.

As one with a flair for mathematics, Ballmer should know that while the brute force method can be used to solve a particularly complex equation, a powerful and intuitive solution awaits discovery by gifted mathematicians inspired to think along new and original lines.

Get off the beaten track. Forge a new trail. The revenue will follow if you can capture the imagination of young geeks as Bill Gates did at the dawn of personal computing three decades ago.

Tiger's Need for Humility

In the firmament of golf, no star shines brighter than that of Tiger Woods. He is not only one of the greatest golfers ever, it is likely that he will be regarded as the greatest to have played the game, a cut above even Jack Nicklaus. In terms of brilliance, concentration and the sheer will to win, Woods is nonpareil.

Which is why, as a fan, I flinch everytime he predicts that he will win this or that tournament. Given his recent string of wins, Woods predicted the Grand Slam in 2008 as within his reach. Surely he is the favorite everytime he plays but as a fan I wish Woods wouldn't make such predictions. Why tempt fate? There is a difference between quiet confidence and arrogance, between the resolve to do one's best and implying that others are footnotes to a foregone conclusion.

That Woods wasn't able to win the Masters this year in no way undermines his status as the preeminent golfer of his time. As a fan, however, I feel that Woods makes it hard on himself unnecessarily by predicting victory when he would be better off not speculating about the outcome. There are far too many variables in golf - a change in wind direction, a drop in temperature, a mysterious 'x' factor that prevents one from clicking - to predict victory even by the best. I hope Woods will display more humility in the future. If a reporter asks him whether he can win the Masters or the U.S. Open or even the Grand Slam, he should say something like this: "All I can tell you is that I will give each game my best. The rest? We'll see."