Choker Delhi

November. Winter is coming. And what better indicator of this than the worsening Air Quality Index of Delhi ? It is that time of the year again, when the animals trying to survive in India's capital city have to struggle more to breath in the thick, smog layered atmosphere, which the citizens themselves helped destroy.

It is painful just reading the news in the air. Air quality generally deteriorates as winter sets in because of a combination of agricultural crop burning in the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana, dust from roads and construction sites, industry, coal power plants and vehicular emissions. The level of carcinogenic pollutants, which increases risk of stroke, heart disease and lung cancer, in New Delhi’s air was almost six times the reading in Beijing, where air quality has seen a considerable improvement over the past years.

India, home to 10 cities with the world’s worst air quality, has been struggling to contain this annual catastrophe that killed an estimated 1.24 million citizens in 2017. Governments have pledged millions of dollars and deployed extra teams to enforce existing laws that include a ban on farmers burning stubble after harvest. But the sheer size of India makes rapid progress difficult.

For the past few years, farm stubble burning — a tradition to clear fields after harvest for the new sowing season — along with festive firecrackers, vehicular and construction emissions have been turning the South Asian nation’s air deadly around October-November. The huge number of crackers burst to celebrate the hindu festival of diwali in october makes matters worse. One of the many ways religion helps kill people.

The government, or at least its PR wing, is back in action planning 'plans' to control the pollution. And this is coming from the same people who have tried to 'correct' the slowdown in the nation’s economy for months now.

What a fascinating time to live in Delhi.

Why no protests ?

Its been months now, since the Indian media first started reporting of an apparent slowdown in the country's economy. After bigger media houses, economists and investors picked up and magnified the story, external rating agencies have downgraded the country's prospects. Nobel prize winning laureates double checked, and confirmed. Banks are shutting down, and companies are downsizing.

After all of this, the question that is troubling me is: why isn't anyone protesting ?

In a country known to protest the slightest increase in fuel prices, it is ironical that Indians have not put forward an organized effort to call the government's bluff. All those people now unemployed, where are their protests ? The industries affected, why are their stocks still up ?

The severe lack of protests in the world's largest democracy is chilling. There is no validation for the reported slowdown. Has this democracy lost its voice ?

USA's legal immigration problem.

We, the whole world has known for decades that US of A has always had a problem with its legal immigration system. And this is a reason why so many people have tried, and still try, to get in illegally. But nobody has documented the problem as concisely as a British immigrant to the US, British comedian John Oliver.

As he so clearly puts it, there are very few avenues for the legal migrant to America. Even for the most qualified & skilled migrant. For the first 100 or so years, they didn't even have a legal immigration pathway, so everyone just got in illegally. But today, the only ways possible is via a family sponsored visa, or an employer sponsored one. Of course we are not counting the lottery system, because the odds of getting that are so low.

Watch on , and contemplate.

The great Indian taxpayer is an elusive creature

There is a very elusive species of creature in India. It works very hard everyday, day and night,sometimes more than 14 hours a day for its food and family. Everyday is a work day, hardly any rest. It also suffers most of modern lifestyle induced sickness. The country, draws significant growth from the hard work of this little species, and ultimately rewards it almost nothing in return.

This species is called the great Indian bustard tax-payer.

I have always known of the hard life this species lives. It does not live, it simply survives. But the data to correlate and breakdown its sad state was buried undred thousand page reports prepared from half informed forms. But recently, there was a nice article summarising its pitiful state.

The salaried income tax payer in India often feels cheated. “What are my taxes being used for," he often asks himself. The roads continue to have potholes. The traffic never ends. The public transport system never seems to expand fast enough. The healthcare system is non-existent. The legal system takes years to give a judgement. The police are corrupt, and so on.

Read on, and pass further into depression.

A few jaw droppers from this piece:

A small portion of India’s salaried population pays the bulk of its individual income tax, which gets redistributed to others and doesn’t benefit the taxpayers that much. In the process, it drives them away from the Indian state. At least, that’s the feeling going around.

“If the state’s role is predominantly redistribution, the middle class will seek—in professor Albert Hirschman’s famous terminology—to exit from the state. They will avoid or minimize paying taxes; they will cocoon themselves in gated communities; they will use diesel generators to obtain power; they will go to private hospitals and send their children to private education institutions."

About 4% of citizens who vote pay taxes, the percentage should be about 23

This last line is truly a clincher. It means the majority of people pariticipate in this democracy do not actually contribute to the country, but instead, feed on the little benefits it is able to pay out.

Individuals paying an income tax of greater than ₹1.5 lakh accounted for nearly 79% of the total tax.

If you happen to belong to this group, you might really feel that you have a good portion of the burden of the nation on your shoulders. Of course, this is good enough reason for the government to start taxing agricultural income over a certain level. Given that the bulk of the tax is paid by a small proportion of the population, there is always talk going around about doing away with the income tax at lower income levels.

But the question is can the government really afford to do this?

The last of the inspections.

Nope, I have not mistyped the name of that stupid 90s movie: The Last of the Mohicans. This week, we are indeed giving the last of our inspections. In Australia, renting tenants have to open up the premises for an inspection by the landlord or agent, once a quarter. Sometimes only twice a year. This is for the landlords to verify that there is no serious damage done on the premises, and everything still works. The lot has to be in a respectable condition, which means it has to be cleaned and furniture properly arranged; if the tenants want to continue staying. of course.

And this is a real headache. You don't want to be ousted out of the premises for leaving some grime on the kitchen counter, or if the flooring is damaged. The only way out of this perennial cycle of cleaning and torture is to stop renting completely.

And get your own place !

And so , back to the story. Hopefully, we will never have to give another inspection during our time here. Maybe for life. It was worth it, the struggle, cause this will be the last of the inspections.

We can now damage the floor.