Please, don’t let the fact of his admirable vegetarianism distract you from the horrible truth about Hitler. There can be neither denying nor defending his monstrous crimes against humanity.

The vegetarian living is clearly a superior way to live from a health perspective and because so often our reasons for becoming a vegetarian is grounded in moral, ethical, traditional and religious values. And this is all well and good as long as you are functioning within the vegetarian community exclusively. But what if your lover is a meat eater? If the one you are in love with, or even engaged to is not a vegetarian, which can lead to some pretty delicate moments. The last thing of the vegetarian movement is about hostility. So you have to have some guidelines on how to live in peace and harmony if you finally decided to have a life partner, who has not yet joined you in your vegetarian lifestyle. Of course, one resolution is for your sweetheart to become a vegetarian with you. You could go with the argument of, “well if you loved me you would give up meat.” But forcing someone to join the vegetarian community out of guilt is a terrible reason to make that change of life. Your sweetheart will just resent giving up a food he or she loves and will probably cheat and eat meat when not around you. That kind of tension, resentment and deception is no grounds for a long term love affair.

 A better way is to come to terms with your differences, find ways to live with them and then see if down the road, your sweetheart might convert of his / her own free will. The first step, as is true of any conflict in an intimate relationship, is to talk about your differences openly. Sit down and talk about where each of you is on this issue. Agree to disagree. But also agree to find compromises and not to hold the other in contempt or to mock the other for the life choices he or she has made. By reaching a loving agreement, each of you can allow the other to be who he or she is and the romance can continue as the dietary dispute is resolved peacefully.

 Above all, don’t look upon your sweetheart’s choice of diet with distain or disgust. Don’t make the disappointed face each time your lover has a non-veg-food etc. Come to the point that you can live with meat eaters and not feel repulsed when others eat the foods you don’t approve of. So treat each other with respect and love. Over time that approach will result in the best long term love affair and maybe even see you come to a time when he or she sees the light and joins you in the joys of vegetarianism since, it is the best way to live.

Find more articles on similar topics @ http://vegetarian.sudeshkumar.com

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Sudesh Kumar
sudeshkumar.org

The exterior was plain white with two big, tinted glass doors mouthing the entrance. The lettering was also plain – red block lettering contrasted with white background that read “INDIA GROCERY STORE”, nothing fancy. Located in a hidden portion of a run-down mall, it is surprising that the store has its own directional tool to guide its customers to the store – the rich aroma of Indian spices. As I approached the store, I was forcing myself to push away the scenes from “Mistress of Spices” which was rapidly flashing through my mind at about 50 frames per second.

Not only the food stuffs and spices were on display but, also the poster of Bollywood beauty queens and handsome hunks on the tinted glass read as “Latest Bollywood Blockbuster”. Inside, the walls were white and completely bare except for the six posters of various Indian spices, sweets and cotton made “tapestry” of some kind. The background is black, which contrasts sharply against the brightly colored poster of Lord Krishna (who is depicted as a bright blue being).      

The free aroma-therapy from the self-destructing incense sticks was a perfect warm welcome for people from all walks of life. That morning, it was Jasmine scented incense sticks. A scent I’ve nearly forgotten since, I came to the United States.

 The morning sun rays were reflected by the sacks of shiny yellow lentils and black Cardamoms in the middle of the store. There were fluorescent lights in the inner half of the store. The five-level metal-shelves obediently displayed the neatly arranged items on them. Bottled pickles and sauces were stacked on the lower shelves while, processed and packed spices were placed on the top shelves.

Uncle Chardasen Thakur Ji as, he is known among the scarce Indian population in Lincoln was seated at the check-out counter. Equipped with till machine, he was kind of busy when I walked into the India Grocery store. As Uncle-Ji took me around the store, he reached out for a few items such as pickles, lentils and curry powders from the shelves and mentioned their names like a tutor helping kids to identify the objects with words. As per my observation, almost everything is readily available in the store, which is needed for delicious Indian meals.

 As you know, Indian people speak different languages, ate different kinds of food and look slightly different depending on our roots of origin. According to him, he moved to the United States 25 years ago, when he was newly married to Mrs. Sandhya Thakur. He started off as a small retailer and step by step he pulled himself forward in this foreign land. The fine lines of aging are smartly disguised under his throat-length, graying beard and bushy moustache. The 5 meters long cloth, neatly wrapped into a stylistic turban sat comfortably above his round face. His pride and loyalty for his motherland has never ceased although, he and his family are often termed ‘Non-residential Indians (NRIs)’ among back home family and friends.

Since, it was a Tuesday morning; there were only 8 customers in total. There were 4 American ladies with two kids and two Indian ladies. All the ladies were holding little baskets and dropping in the items after scrutinizing them carefully. Realizing the need for assistance, Uncle-Ji left me for a few minutes to attend to one of the American ladies.

 ”Yes, yes. This one is a little spicy. May be ‘Channa Masala’ will be a better choice.”

 ”I need something else not this.” The lady signaled her rejection by waving her hand and shaking her head. Uncle-Ji turned to another shelf and reached for a box.

 ”Here, you go. This is Curry Masala Mix. Just add water and Channa. And your Curry is ready.” His stressed ‘R’- syllable managed to put a smile on the lady’s face.

 ”Achha, where were we a while ago?” He returned with a box of ‘Vegetable Briyani Mix’ in hand. He generously handed me the box and asked me to try it at home although, a bit shocked with his kind deed, I managed to receive it politely with both of my hands and said “Shukriya, Uncle-Ji.”

 As he was checking-out the items at the till counter, I took the opportunity to have some little conversations with the customers over there. The only remaining American lady seemed to be far well-versed with Indian cooking than I was expected. She seemed to well aware from items like ‘Chat Masala‘ and ‘Chutney’ etc. which I have used to think as secrets of authentic Indian dishes. Moving on, I met the two Indian ladies clad in ‘Salwar-Kurta’, a traditional Indian costumes for a lady which comes with a transparent shawl. After exchanging greetings, they were happy to know my purpose of being there. According to them, they are so happy to have the Indian Grocery store in Lincoln.

 ”This is the closest we can get to taste Indian food. But, nothing will be like India.” claimed the elderly woman. After greeting bidding the goodbye, I ventured into the back of the store, where the stocks of spices are kept in a small store-room. Uncle-Ji was replenishing some of the items on shelves. As we continued discussing his experiences with customers, he regards them as a wonderful experience as every customer is unique and it is a challenging task to cater to their special needs. His holds strong to his principle that, he fails whenever a customer walks out empty-handed.

 On the contrary, he sulked when asked about the attitudes of American customers towards him and the store. “These Americans think everything that is spicy is Curry. Sometimes, they even argue and accuse me for forcing my products on them.” With a chuckle he added, “But not all. Some are really nice.”

 After an awkward pause of silence, he continued. “I still remember there was an American couple who came to the store to get some meat curry powder. I gave them Chicken Curry powder and they demanded for one with mutton or beef. I explained politely but, they refused to listen and stormed out of the store! Things just happen sometimes.”

 Both of us burst into laughter as we walked to the entrance. Of course, the India Grocery Store is not one of the coolest places to hang out, but I could not imagine I actually spent an hour observing an 8×8 room, filled with the richness of the aroma from the wide spectrum of spices and the wholesomeness of the mystical Indian culture. Sensing the attachment we build within a short span of time, I thanked Uncle-Ji and took off. When, I stepped out of the aged store Uncle-Ji and his store made me feel like home.

sudesh.kumar@economics.org.in

If the child is going to ruin your life, then you should have thought about that before. You’re having a baby. You get 9 months to plan. Getting pregnant isn’t the end of the world. It’s hard, no doubt, but life doesn’t end because of it. There are thousands of people in the world who can not have children and even more that have had children and watched them die before their time. Why must we focus on the angry and pessimistic side of the coin? Human nature, you say?

No one wants to claim responsibility for being stupid and adding another life, which you are now in complete control of for the first few years, just makes it harder to claim responsibility. If you have sex, no matter how little or how much, you should always consider the possibility that there may be consequences. We’re made to reproduce. It’s what keeps our species alive. In that way a person always alive in their children so logically we should never remorse for death.

 Sudesh Kumar

sudesh.kumar@economics.org.in

Website: blog.sudeshkumar.com

I would like to debunk some of these myths as I feel that there is a need and a place for surrogacy to exist in society. Firstly, it is important to note that as couples are becoming more educated, some put off procreation and settling down to start a family because they want to pursue their dreams or that high flying career, thus they tend experience fertility problems which becomes increasingly common with age. This creates a gapping difference between wants and ability. The couple who are financially stable have decided to start a family, but they are unable to because of biological reasons. This is where surrogacy fills the gap by enabling couples who have given up their childbearing years for financial security, a real chance at having a family of their own. Although some may argue that there is always adoption to meet such a gap, it is undeniable that there is a preference for raising one’s own flesh and blood instead of someone else’s.

Secondly, surrogacy should not be seen as the commoditization of infants even though the end product of the whole surrogate pregnancy is the baby. In economics, a commodity is a unit that can substitute for another at all points, so each unit has no special intrinsic value. Thus, one cannot argue that the baby has become a commodity in surrogacy as the baby is unique. In fact, the babies would not even exist, if not for the surrogacy. Surrogacy, should be instead, viewed as the payments to the individual for the gestational services provided to bring the client’s bloodline into this world. Surrogate mothers are respected for such services as surrogacy is a tedious and dangerous job which puts their life on the line, so they should be fairly compensated. This brings us to the point on the mental trauma experienced by surrogate mothers after birth. Rather than to accept the common misperception that surrogates feel traumatised after relinquishment of their rights over the child, it has been challenged that an increasingly majority feel empowered by their surrogacy experience.

Thirdly, clients would definitely choose healthy surrogates to bear their children so the claim that surrogacy exploits the poor usually does not hold as clients are likely to decline a surrogate in abject poverty due to unstable environment she is living in. Feminists who make the comparison to prostitution are preposterous as the underlying aim of both activities are different and should never be seen as a single entity together.

However, we do admit that there are thorny issues that have to be resolved her before we can fully embrace surrogacy. Although medical health care is becoming increasingly commonplace and advanced, there is always this risk which surrogates undertake to bring life into this world. In the event that something unfortunate does occur, will insurance policies cover the costs incurred or will they choose to argue that they are allowed to forgo the compensation as the surrogate chose to bear child themselves and hence created the opportunities for such mishap to occur, where the risk was not initially calculated into the previous insurance premiums they were paying. There is also a problem of ownership over the baby who arises due to the complexity and possibilities that may occur during the entire process. These include concerns like what happens if the surrogate fails to relinquish their rights over the child after the birth. In this respect, I feel that the surrogacy contract laws should be reviewed to enforce a mandate that the contracts may not require the woman who carries the baby to surrender it regardless, but in choosing to do so, she has to compensate the parents fairly. This should only be undertaken as a last resort as frequent occurrences of such would only serve to discredit surrogate mothers in general. Hence, rigorous counselling should be provided to both client and surrogate before legalising the transaction.

More complex situations may arise in a situation where the clients pass away during the course of the pregnancy. Should surrogates be allowed to abort the foetus then as it is technically not theirs and it would have perished together with the mother should the pregnancy have been borne by her. Yet, this is clearly not an option as such actions would be inhuman as it literally devalues and insults the sacredness of life. The infant may also be orphaned if the couple divorces each other and decided that neither is interested in taking care of the baby they once planned to have together, for example, the recent case where a baby girl is abandoned in India. She is the first surrogacy orphan after her parents divorced weeks before she was born and her mother refused to take her. The custody of the child born to an Indian surrogate mother and intended for a Japanese couple, hangs in limbo after the pair divorced. Also, should the couple be allowed to terminate the pregnancy if the surrogate accidentally violates the terms and conditions of the surrogacy contract, resulting in unintended consequences on the wellbeing of the child? For example, is the couple paying for the surrogacy allowed to request for an abortion should the surrogate mother contract a disease like AIDS where there is an extremely high chance that it is directly passed to the infant? While this is an unfortunate situation, there is a huge conflict between all involved parties as everyone is impacted by the final decision undertaken. Thus, it is favourable to consider how to keep ourselves out of such problems first, before embracing surrogacy.

The infinite number of possibilities only compound the ethical and moral dilemmas encountered during the implementation of surrogacy as a primary means of enabling couples who wish to have children but are unable to do so. Even though to some, the ends may not justify the means, we should look towards greater compromise in society and the creation of social safety nets to minimise such tragedies from happening in our search for other ways to taste the joy of having a family.

 Also published at http://www.sudeshkumar.com/Surrogacy-Economics-by-sudesh-kumar

–

Sudesh Kumar

Email: sudesh.kumar@economics.org.in

The authors also uncover some evidence that commodity prices help to predict exchange rates, but the evidence is much weaker — the reverse forecasting regression does not survive out-of-sample testing. They argue, however, that it is quite plausible that exchange rates will be better predictors of exogenous commodity prices than vice-versa, because the exchange rate is fundamentally forward looking, whereas asset prices tend to be very sensitive to small perturbations in current demand or supply.

The basic point — that forward looking asset price models can be inverted to predict fundamentals — has been developed in earlier papers by Campbell and Shiller (1987) and Engel and West (2005). Those earlier efforts, however, were stymied by the fact that the fundamental variables being used (for example savings, interest rates, outputs, money supplies) are themselves endogenous, making it difficult to draw any structural inferences. In contrast, world commodity prices for the exports of certain small countries can legitimately be considered independent of their exchange rates, making the commodity currencies an ideal testing lab.

Authors analyze quarterly data, gathered over one to three decades, relevant to the “commodity currencies” of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and Chile. These countries produce a variety of primary commodity products, from agricultural and mineral to energy-related goods. Together, commodities represent from one quarter to well over one half of each of these countries’ export earnings.

Each of the five countries has a long history of market-based floating exchange rates. Because they are relatively small players in the overall global commodity market, these countries are “price takers” for the vast majority of their commodity exports. As such, global commodity-price fluctuations serve as easily observable terms-of-trade shocks to these countries’ exchange rates and affect a significant share of their exports.

For each country, the researchers aggregated the relevant dollar spot prices in world commodity markets to construct country-specific, export-earnings-weighted commodity price indexes. In addition to dollar rates, the authors also considered cross rates relative to the Japanese yen and the British pound as a robustness check. In addition, they used the IMF’s “All Commodities Index” — a world export earnings-weighted price index for over 40 commodities traded on various exchanges — in U.S. dollars to measure movements in the overall aggregate world commodity markets.

Authors add that their results are sufficiently robust to be applied to alternative benchmark currencies, forecast combinations, and long-horizon predictions. “One might eventually extend the approach,” they suggest, “to look at countries that have few or no commodities, such as most of Asia, to see if commodity prices affect the value of their currencies, and if their currency fluctuations may offer predictive power for, say, oil prices.”

— Matt Nesvisky

Sudesh Kumar
sudesh.kumar@economics.org.in

Symptoms

• Cannot show hidden files
• Slows down USB devices
• Adds infections to plugged in USB devices
• Drives open in new windows from My Computer

How to get rid off?
Step 1
The usual way is to Format the system, but it is not a permanent solution. To get rid run regedit, find all keys related to amvo.exe or the name of the virus.
Run msconfig in the Start Up Tab you can find the amvo.exe or its variants.
Remove all occurrence of the name from regedit.
Reboot the System.

Step 2
Reboot and do the following changes to the Registry using regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer searchidden en 1

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer searchsystemdirs en 1

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced hidden en 1

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced showsuperhiden en 1

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced superhiden en 1

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\NOHIDDEN CheckedValue 1

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\NOHIDDEN DefaultValue 1

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL CheckedValue 1

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL DefaultValue 1

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer NoDriveTypeAutoRun 0x00000091 (145)

– OR –

Reboot into a different OS and do the following

Step 3
From all the drives delete the autorun.inf using command line (if on windows) or from a linux OS. Do not open the drive from the explorer as it would spread the virus again to this OS. If you have linux installed and can access all partitions on the disk, go delete the files and clear the trash on all drives.

Step 4
Reboot the system.
Do necessary changes as in Step 2, if you have not done those.

I hope that will do it
Install a good antivirus update it.
Prevent Autorun from USBs.

To disable Autoplay of all drives
Start > Run > gpedit.msc

Enable : Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Turn Off Autoplay

At the outset, it is pertinent for the both to have the idea of difference in perspective of sex and physiological differences between man and woman. Afterwards they can exchange their ideas; however starting exploring each other’s personal values, concept and perspective of sex, and pleasure giving spots can better be postponed to honeymoon. Anyhow, general exploration during the sexual interaction is a must in the first night. The following points should always be kept in their mind in their attitude during their first-night:-  

Now coming to the approach in the first night, first of all, the first night should never be taken as an opportunity to fulfil the long suppressed desires, rather it is an introductory session for sex in marriage and it is very important to create the impression of compatibility. Marriage is adjustment of complementary for mutuality and sex is enjoyment of complementary for mutuality. The approach of the groom, in the first night should be gentle with patience. Usually the man’s approach in sex is of exploration, adventurous and peeling off. Every move of man in the first night should be with her direct or indirect, consent at the same time making her also to involve in the enjoyment. As far the bride is concerned, her approach should be of opening up, adjustability for his moves and co-operating for his actions; however his accessibility to hers should not be easier and at the end of the process, winning is his satisfaction and giving in is her enjoyment; in this particular aspect the relationship between them will be of hunter and hunted. The prevailing emotions during the night will usually be anxiety and tension, and craving passion and surging urge. Physiology, psychology and sociology are the three main contributing subjects in sex; physiologically the physical alertness, psychologically the perception of difference in gender and sociologically the unusualness will be at peak in the first night and these three can be fully made use of for sexual enjoyment. However these three will be developed and improved for total satisfaction and satiation during honeymoon and thereafter. Even though the total mutual sexual interaction of the both may, or may not, prevail during the first night, every sexual action should be enjoyable to the both. In the first night, each partner, through sex, should impress the security of care in the mind of the other and this will evolve the major success of first night. Both should fully make use of all the five senses, with concentration and perception of difference in gender, and enjoy the feelings being sexual. Perception of difference in gender and concentration on sexual feelings are the important chapters to be learnt in the first night.

This article is one of the most popular posts on this topic and 192,000 people read it till Jan 2009. To read more go to GOOGLE.com and search for First Night in Hindu Marriage

Check out Sudesh Kumar’s Personal Blog on - blog.sudeshkumar.com

Vast financial resources are invested in the
U.S. with little awareness of how that money might contribute to, or detract from, the common good.  How can invested dollars promote justice, community, and economic opportunity for the poor, instead of being concentrated on Wall Street and making the rich richer?  This conference will address this problem by examining how faith communities can become more aware and engaged in socially responsible investing, particularly as it relates to the growing strategic arena of “community investing.”  The theologians, educators and activists of the SEC will join financial professionals of the SIF Faith Traditions working group and other interested persons to network, strategize and promote a message and vision of economic justice and the common good.  

We will gather on the weekend that Christian churches celebrate Pentecost and Jewish synagogues celebrate Shavuot to explore these great faith traditions of economic justice and compassion.  The conference will include in-depth conversation about the spiritual, philosophical and practical aspects of making surplus capital available to poor communities, both domestically and abroad, through community development financial institutions, micro-credit organizations, cooperatives and other strategies.  A unique half-day exposure trip to ShoreBank, the country’s first and leading community development and conservation bank, will offer an opportunity to learn about this progressive model of community investment, followed by a visit to some Southside Chicago neighborhoods to hear stories of individuals and organizations that have benefited from ShoreBank’s practices.  A variety of other sessions will focus on equipping participants to further explore, engage and promote community investing