A load of crap from an idle brain

The mailtoday newspaper has gone further with another cartoon lampooning the Victorian police and the state of Indian students studying in Australia.

Read more in the paper about how the Australian police have systematically ignored the racist attacks on Indian students.  1447 people of Indian origin were either robbed or assaulted in the previous one year in Australia.  Yet the Aussie police refuse to acknowledge the targetted violence.

Its high time the parents in India realise that its not worth sending your kids to Australia to study some god forsaken courses for which there is no future anyway, but also that there is no future in contributing to increasing the Aussie education market.  Lest your kids come back in body bags.

Similar articles on Australia on this blog previously

More ramblings

Now Murali ends up with an egg on the face

Racism in Cricket? Read the damning Aussie report

Sreesanth’s Agression

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With India playing only 2 test matches in the next 11 months, the ranking might not hold if South Africa manage to beat England and take the crown.  Still, its a golden letter day in the history of cricket in India.  For the first time ever, the Indian cricket team takes the crown of being the Number 1 test team in the world.  Its a long day coming from the earlier decades when India was regularly beaten by rivals.  Today they travel well and have won tests in Australia, South Africa, won series in New Zealand, West ?Indies, Pakistan, England.

Few things unite India like cricket, and on December 6, 2009, millions of Indians were united in celebration as their team ascended to the top of the ICC Test rankings.

Fittingly, the victory that made it possible was marked by standout performances from the men who have played a crucial role in India’s ascent. Virender Sehwag has scored more runs than any other Indian batsman over the last 25 Tests – played over a two-year period beginning November 2007. His innings of 293 – played at a pace that left the bowlers ample time to finish the demolition job – proved pivotal as India fulfilled its destined tryst with the top slot.

Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan have been India’s highest wicket-takers during this period. Both picked up six wickets apiece for the match, with Zaheer coming up with a five-wicket haul to polish off the tail on Sunday morning and take India to a comfortable win by an innings and 24 runs.

Full news here

Pictures source: Cricinfo

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Wipro, India’s No. 3 software services exporter, said on Thursday it had agreed to buy some personal care businesses of Yardley for about $45.5 million, adding to its consumer goods business.

Wipro said it had signed an agreement with UK-based Lornamead group, which owns the Yardley brand, for the businesses in Asia, the Middle East, Australasia and some African markets. The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-December, it said in a statement.

Lornamead’s global turnover is estimated to be close to $650 million. Its portfolio straddles various categories of personal care products including hair-care (Brisk, Aqua Net and Vosene), cosmetics and skin-care (Amplex and Handsan), oral care (Brilliant and Goldspot) and home care brand Stergene.

Tura is a significant player in soaps and skin care in Nigeria, with an annual turnover of close to $50 million.

This is Wipro’s second big buy-out in the FMCG space in two years. In July 2007, Wipro had acquired Singapore-based personal care products manufacturer Unza Holdings Ltd for $246 million (Rs 1,010.2 crore) in an all-cash deal. That deal with Unza’s portfolio of shampoos, creams, lotions and detergents had marked Wipro’s big plunge into the global FMCG space.

Full article here

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The Twenty20 Champions League cricket tournament starts off at Bangalore today with a clash between the Royal Challengers Bangalore (India) and Cape Cobras (South Africa) at 2000 IST.

I dont think i need to mention where my loyalties lie.  Go Deccan Chargers Go.

The trophy that the below mentioned teams are playing for; along with the prize money of US$ 2.5 million.

The teams are:

India -  Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils
Australia – New South Wales Blues, VB Victorian Bushrangers
South Africa – Cape Cobras, Diamond Eagles
New Zealand – Otago Volts
Sri Lanka – Wayamba
west Indies – Trinidad & Tobago
England – Sussex, Somerset County Cricket Club.

For comprehensive information about the tournament, go to their official website at clt20.com

All above pictures source: clt20

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Time changes, people change, economies change and the powers wielded by countries change.  There was a time when Britain ruled half the world, today its nowhere.  There was a time when the US was the undisputed economic champion, today that aura is on the wane.

Its in these changing times we wonder if a group that consists of countries like Italy, Canada etc wield any power when the world is going throught the worst recession (courtesy the developed countries).  Of course the US, Japan and Germany are also a part of the G-7 group of countries, but do they really have any clout?  The G-7 as usual came out with a statement asking China to re-value it currency and hardly anyone cared a hoot.

After decades in charge, the club of rich, industrialised nations is fast losing sway as a share of global economic power shifts towards big developing countries. That was a lesson of the Group of Seven’s meeting in Istanbul at the weekend, when the absence of China showed the G7 could no longer tackle the world’s economic problems on its own.

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G7 implored China in a diplomatically worded statement to let the Chinese currency rise, as they have done for several years. But China showed no sign of complying, and the G7 spent much of its time to discussing whether it should meet less often, with less pomp and perhaps with fewer public statements.

G7 statements have all too often “interested nobody because there’s no follow-up most of the time”, said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund.

Read the full article here

The G-7 or the group of Industrialized countries comprise

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States

The G-20 comprises of

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,  South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, European Union

A G-7 official hit the nail on the head when he mentioned

“The moment you have to tell people you are still relevant, it’s because you are not relevant,”

Above picture source: Astrocrush

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