Showing posts with label Central Intelligence Agency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Central Intelligence Agency. Show all posts

Monday, February 13, 2017

An Actor Can Not Exceed The Script

The script is everything. A show or a movie floats or sinks on the strength of the script, or lack thereof.

In India there is a saying. A bad cook adds extra chili powder to everything. Mindless plot twists, and mindless use of sex and violence are often used as that extra chili powder.

There are countless movies about people falling in love. But the theme of deepening of love in an existing relationship is not much explored. How do you go deeper after you have been married 15 years? Such themes are not much explored.

Law enforcement is another perennial topic and rightly so. But law enforcement does not only struggle with those that might cross the law. Law enforcement struggles with itself, it struggles with diversity issues.

Why only law enforcement? What about commandment enforcement? The complex organizational structure of something like the Catholic Church is not any less fascinating than that of a large police department or intelligence agency.

And the four constantly intersect: human love, divine love, law enforcement, commandment enforcement.

Diversity is not just about sprinkling a few different kinds of faces on to the screen. Culture is a body of knowledge. Gender is its own culture. And gender, as we know by now, is not binary, but a spectrum, not just in society but also inside individuals. Inside every man there is a woman.

Technology changes the basic assumptions. Digitization is a huge force. For one it creates numerous fragmented markets of different sizes. Costs can go down.

Story telling is as old as humanity. Movies might be a new art form. But not story telling. Art speaks to society. Society speaks to art. Movies as an art medium are uniquely positioned to help humanity make progress on race and gender issues. I am talking social science fiction.

A better actor can better respond to the script but an actor can not rise above the script.

In the post 9/11 era intelligence agencies from different countries with fundamentally different languages and cultures have tried to collaborate. But pre 9/11 the two major intelligence agencies in this very country acted like they were in different countries.

Cultural diversity is not just skin pigments. Were that so it would be so much easier. Diversity is primarily sociology. You can have everyone speak English and try to cover it up, but it does not go that way.

This is now the era of global movie making where you confront diversity head on. You actually immerse into the different cultures in their natural settings across continents. Stereotyping falls flat. Intellectual laziness falls flat. The texture of diversity is real.

God has decided to come into mainstream movies and music, big time.

Monday, December 15, 2014

One More Immigration Court Date

Official photographic portrait of US President...
Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: (Wikipedia)
(statement for court date on December 19)

In case you have not noticed, my trial now has lasted longer than Nelson Mandela's! I am amused. In the first few years I felt frustrated. How long can you feel that way? Now I feel amused.

There are things I know and things I don't know. And I am fairly humble about things I don't know. Honest to God, I don't understand your legal process. I don't have the slightest clue how this works. It is not about logic, and it is not about justice. It is strange, it is bizarre, it is weird.

It is not logical because when I first appeared in front of you people from Nepal were being granted political asylum in the thousands per year, maybe even tens of thousands, and that rate is still intact. So it is not possible this judicial process is not aware of the ground situation in Nepal. And I was the only among the 300,000 plus Nepalis in America to have worked full time for the democracy movement in the 2005-06 period. And I again did full time work for the Madhesi Movement a year later, and my comrades from the democracy movement from Nepal to NYC now had become bitter opponents. On top of all that, I became Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in NYC for which I paid the price I paid: the worst experience of my life. In this city. In this oldest of democracies. But I have no major begrudges. I am of Bihari origin. Democracy gets really rough and tumble in Bihar.

Logic would say that when you put all this together my case was a no brainer. But it has been anything but. It has been a major headache. I have missed wave after wave in the tech startup world, thanks to you. Your process has many of the worst aspects of a Third World bureaucracy. Reminds me of the Nepal I left: you would have to wait in line for years to get a landline. And to think it is lack of immigration that Japan and Europe are in the sorry shape they are in.

Half a decade later I am being made to realize this process has been trying to figure out if I am a good guy or a bad guy. This blows my mind. I am a gift to this country. I am a really, really good guy.

You mention Texas and 2002. Those brain dead cops, when I first talked about them in this court it was not a hot political issue in this country. How times have changed! They started firing after they saw my face. The truck was safely parked on the shoulder of a side road by someone about to call it a night. About a dozen brain dead cops emptied their guns into my truck. The closest bullets hit maybe five feet from my body. I was not scared in real time, because I am like, who is thumping so hard on my trailer! I am scared now! Your process is not about justice, because those brain dead dozen are the clear bad guys. Why is there even a debate! From where does the confusion come?

Talking about 18 wheelers --- just one minor observation --- I have seen more of America than anyone who ever ran for President Of The United States. That is just a fact.

There are things that I know, and there are things that I don't know. Let me tell you what I know. I beat Bill Clinton before Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton. John Kerry is the only presidential candidate in history not to have received a bounce from his convention. I did what I did, and then Bill Clinton did what he did. But he should not feel bad, because he did achieve his goal. He meant to clear the 2008 deck for Hillary, and he was able to do that.

In case anyone might think it was a fluke, I did a repeat performance a few years into this judicial process. I walked all over Williamsburg for a few hours taking pictures left and right, up and down. And, lo and behold, I was being followed around like crazy. I noted a special police van, fully peopled. A cop with a sniff dog had the dog sniff me. I said hello to the dog. As I walked down a street, as I neared a corner, I gave a fast right jerk to my head and spotted a cop quickly pull away, only moments before having had the gun at the ready. And I remember thinking, am I having a Jason Bourne moment here?

Look, I don't do physical. Free hand exercise is as far as it goes for me. What I do is political. But sometimes the conceptual gets so intense, you kind of spill a little into the physical realm. I am someone who is never going to run for public office. I don't have a country. It is not Nepal, it is not India, it is not America. At least I feel I am on the right planet, thank God. I would like to do all I can possibly do to help cure poverty, that is all. And I have determined digital tools are my best bet. They suit my style, and they are amazingly effective tools. I am going to use and build, build and use even more powerful tools. And to that end the rest of my life will be dedicated. That is the reason I need to be a successful tech entrepreneur.

But out of respect for this court, I have done what I have been asked to do. On Monday, December 15, I got legal insurance through Legal Shield (www.legalshield.com). But then I proceeded to do all the work myself.

I called a bunch of numbers in Texas. And I was able to locate someone who said she will fax Rudra the traffic ticket from May 27, 2002 to his fax number (212) 290-2303. I believe that is what you wanted.

I called the Gray County District Attorney, 205 North Russell Street, Pampa, TX 79065, Phone:(806) 669-8003 who led me to the Pampa TX DA's Office at 806 669 8015 who led me back to the Gray County number who then led me to one of the three judges' office, Judge Curfman's at 806 669 8015 who gave me the numbers for the other two judges Martinez (806 669 8032) and Carpenter (806 779 2721). I was told it was probably Judge Carpenter who received my 60 dollar payment since he deals with the Interstate 40 part. And that was correct information. Someone at Judge Carpenter's office was able to pull up information related to the number you gave me (TX 06911603). The wonderful lady at the other end of the phone said she will fax that document to Rudra at his fax number that I gave her.

I explained to them that the immigration court wants an attorney representing me to contact the DA's Office in Pampa Texas to get some kind of a form for a May 27, 2002 incident involving the 18 wheeler I was driving. The words on the ticket were "failure to control speed." The speed limit was 70 miles per hour. My truck was programmed to not go faster than 68 mph. So I could not have been speeding. How often does this country give speeding tickets to a standing truck! But since I was not native to TX I thought it best to just pay the 60 bucks and be done with it, probably an unwise decision.

Now if we can please proceed to let me get going with my tech entrepreneurship, I would be most grateful. I want to do good. I have always wanted to do good, political demonizations here and there aside.


Saturday, September 18, 2010

Twitter For Fundraising

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My latest push for my fundraising goal for my Iran democracy work has been this list: Prominent Iranian Americans.

If I can get 200 prominent Iranian Americans to give me $1,000 each, that is all I need. That has been my thought. I am still thinking along those lines. But then earlier today I went on Twitter, did a search on "Iran democracy," and sent reply tweets to about 10 people talking about Iran, each time linking to my main Iran democracy page - bit.ly/irandem - and already there is some welcome chatter.

Now I think my preferred method is to get 2,000 people on Twitter to give me $100 each.
I should keep this fundraising two track. I should try both ways.

These two tracks beat trying to get the CIA - the thought did cross my mind; think Bourne - or the State Department, or some NGO to give money. I am saying no to any kind of paperwork. You look at my blog posts and you donate. That's it. Anything more is way too complicated.

My work is a netroots/grassroots thing. We netroots/grassroots people are not big on hierarchies. We want Obama to make as much data public as possible. We don't want to go to the White House. We want the White House to come to us, wherever we are. That's the spirit of grassroots governance.

That is the absolute best way to work on Iran democracy.

I have no desire to launch an organization. No NGO, nothing. So the contributions are not tax deductible.

I want to keep things simple. I have already stated where the 200K will go. And I will report periodically on how much I raise. That much transparency is all you get. And that ought to be enough.

There is no other political challenge on earth I salivate over more than the Iran democracy movement. This is what I want to put most of my time into until a regime change in Iran.

It is possible, or I would not be looking into it.

Let's go raise some money. Help me out.

Of the two stated methods, the Twitter method is perhaps the better one. You talk to people who are already explicitly interested in Iran democracy. That is a good starting point. They are interested enough that they are talking about it.
New York Times: Message to Muslims: I’m Sorry: Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs. ..... “Sorry for Portraying Muslims as Human.” ..... Must coverage of law-abiding Muslims be “balanced” by a discussion of Muslim terrorists? ..... should reporting of Pope Benedict’s trip to Britain be “balanced” by a discussion of Catholic terrorists in Ireland? ..... I also want to defend America against extremists engineering a spasm of religious hatred. ...... Japanese did attack Pearl Harbor and in the end killed far more Americans than Al Qaeda ever did. Consumed by our fears, we lumped together anyone of Japanese ancestry and rounded them up in internment camps. The threat was real, but so were the hysteria and the overreaction. ...... Radicals tend to empower radicals ..... We’ve mostly learned that about blacks, Jews and other groups that suffered historic discrimination, but it’s still O.K. to make sweeping statements about “Muslims” as an undifferentiated mass.

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Sunday, September 05, 2010

Iran, Democracy, Facebook


Groups

Democracy In Iran
Free Iran
Campaign Iran
Iran Said NO!
IRAN, DEMOCRACY, FREEDOM AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Free IRAN
Freedom and Democracy in Iran
Democracy in Iran Now (Norway)
Azadi and Democracy for Iran
DEMOCRACY FOR IRAN
We Are Iran

Pages

Freedom And Democracy For Iran
Secular Democracy For Iran
Democracy And Freedom For Iran
We want DEMOCRACY in Iran
Human Rights & Secular Democracy For Iran
Alliance For Democracy In Iran
Secular Democracy & Human Rights For IRAN
NO TO ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, YES TO FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY IN PERSIA
Liberal Democracy in Iran

I put a lot of time into Reshma 2010 in August, but that part might be over for me personally for the most part. Now I am no longer needed in this final stretch. The candidate is poised to win. I wish to make a major shift to Iran. I am getting a curious, personal anti-climax feeling already, a full 10 days before the election.

When I did what I did for Nepal, it was more like a distraction. I moved to the city to launch my company, but instead got sucked into doing democracy work for Nepal. That was a good two year run. And Obama happened. But I started raising money on the side. Just when the money got raised, my immigration mess happened. Fuck those people. And the Great Recession swept in that undid all the money raising.

What do you want to do when you grow up? What do you want to do in life? These are not questions you should be asking at this stage in life. But I am. It is best to take it one step at a time.

I am pretty committed to being in New York City. I am pretty committed to the digital realm. I am a political animal. I can't cure that, not that I want to either. I am about a year away from my green card. That severely limits my options.

I think I want to do mercenary work for the cause of democracy in Iran. The deal I put out was 100K to do the work and a 50K bonus upon accomplishment. If I raise more than that, I will find ways to give it away to the same cause.

Heck, I even sent a message to the CIA from their website saying you guys need to put 200K into this. But I doubt that message went to anyone important in that organization. Otherwise what I am suggesting is really the future of intelligence. The future of intelligence is open.

Democracy work for Iran and tech blogging. That will keep me plenty busy as I await my stupid little green card. This tech blogging thing is really coming along. Done for a few months, it could easily pay all my bills. That would be no small achievement. There are more bloggers than lawyers and software programmers in America, people who make full time income blogging.

Please donate. Democracy is possible in Iran.

(Please donate to my Iran democracy work through my PayPal ID paramendra@yahoo.com)




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