Sunday, July 29, 2007

Secularism Thriving on Castism?

Secularism, by definition, rejects religion and religious considerations. But the secularism in India seems to thrive on religious considerations. Think about it, all the nominations for the psot of vice president have been from the same sect. Coincidence? naaaa, everyone knows that these candidates have been nominated mainly because they are from Muslims. The reason quoted is "secularism". Going back to the definition, secularism rejects religion. So how can looking at someone just as a Muslim be secularism? Am I against Muslim? Ofcourse not. I, like everyone else, admire Abdul Khalam. He is one of the best presidents India has ever had. When he became the president people spoke about a rocket scientist, a writer, and a great thinker. No one wrote about a Muslim. That's the way a person for a highly reputed position should be. Unfortunately we are in this junk politics of deciding over positions based on gender, caste and what not. My only hope is that one of these people can still turn out to be a good leader.
India is not alone in this issue though. The country that is supposed to be the most open to people's beliefs, is also having its own problems. The US election debate has a new angle now - religion. The mormon faith of presidential candidate Mitt Romney is making news. In a recent survey by the PEW research center 39% of the people said that they woud be more likely to vote for a candidate who is Christian. 46% said that they would be less likely to vote for a Muslim and 30% were against Mormon candidates. And this is in a constitution that bars any religious test for office!

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Monday, July 23, 2007

Bone Marrow Donor Program

For quite some time now people have been forwarding the link http://www.helpvinay.org/. I have heard of bone marrow transplants, but did not have much info on them. So when I heard of the drive in Minneapolis, I wanted to find out more. As always, Wiki had a good start into to the subject -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_marrow_transplant
But I wanted to know more. http://www.marrow.org/ was the next stop, and it provided answers to most of my questions. I was a bit worried though when I read "Marrow donors can expect to feel some soreness in their lower back for a few days or longer." Having a minor back problem, it was natural for me to be worried. A bit more research indicated that unless a person has a serious back problem and has undergone surgeries, it should not be an issue. I thought of checking at the donor center. Yesterday I went to the donor drive at the Minnehaha park in Minneapolis and got all my doubts clarified with the representative there. I registered as a bone marrow donor and that should indicate the confidence that I got over the program.

The registeration is pretty simple. We need to swipe the inside of our cheeks with cotton buds (like the ones used to clean the ear) and give it back. There is nothing to it.

It feels so good now after registering for the program. I have taken my step towards helping someone. Hopefully more and more people participate in the donor program and Vinay and the others requiring a donor find one soon.
For information on a drive near you, visit http://www.helpvinay.org/dp/index.php?q=event
For more information on being a donor, visit http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/index.html
It is like blood donation, a donor's marrow is completely replaced within four to six weeks

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