Web 2.0 Summit 2010: Battle Ground for Facebook and Google

Article first published as Web 2.0 Summit 2010: Battle Ground for Facebook and Google on Blogcritics.

Two web titans Google and Facebook must be preparing their rank and file to head on with their rivals. Rivalry seems to be increasing between Google and Facebook for the domination in commercial internet. Amassing millions of users on the internet the two giants are going to present their new plans in Web 2.0 summit 2010, to be held at Palace Hotel in San Francisco for three days from November 15 to 17.

Titans’ Rivalry

Rivalry developed between Goggle’s search engine and social networking service giant Facebook, as they pursued to attract more number of users claiming information monopoly. It is actually a natural development when the market is limited. But, monopolies always prevent competition, making users deprive of new inventions at cheap costs.

While Google is famous for its instant search results, Facebook became famous in social networking handing several tools for users to interact among themselves. Google introduced a new phase to its search engine offering previews of the sites on the search results page itself. It looks crazy when it is known that many users of Facebook are clinging to their PCs even during their sleep in a bid of updating their conservations on Facebook whenever they get up from sleep. Facebook became an obsession to many younger users.

Google introduced “Google Wave” to make available all of its services on a single platform, but failed, as several such services already occupied the internet space. Eventually, Google had to withdraw from promoting Google Wave further. Official announce was made by Google a few months ago to that effect. Now, Google and Facebook are planning to cross their conventional platforms to win more space in commercial internet.

Google intends to enter social networking arena while Facebook plans to start its own email service dubbed as Gmail-killer within Facebook ranks, as reported by the Reuters news agency, quoting Techcrunch blog. Facebook may also provide “@facebook.com” email addresses to existing Facebook users. Last week, Google began blocking a Facebook feature that automatically imports Gmail contacts to Facebook site. Google says Facebook is not allowing its users to import and export of their information.

Why Google is Left Unpunished?

Article first published as Why Google is Left Unpunished? on Blogcritics.

Google is allowed to simply walk away from the confinement of legal system, though it is repeatedly proved by the European and North American countries that it has infringed upon the privacy laws enacted in their countries. Google’s street view project has come under scrutiny from data protection agencies of several countries since the German data commissioner asked Google last year to audit all the data being collected by Street View cars.

Google’s Revelation

Google then revealed that it had discovered the Street View cars were collecting data of personal details from unsecured networks along with the location of wi-fi hotspots. Google has made an unnamed engineer a scapegoat while accepting the mistake it has done. It simply said a code written by an engineer was mistakenly incorporated into the software of the Street View cars.

The question remains here that how Google thinks it is legal to collect the data pertaining to locations of wi-fi hotspots. Are people having wi-fi connections, which are unsecured, meant to be exploited for having unsecured connections? If a house owner forgets to lock his house, and if a theft occurs, will it mean the thief is not supposed to face punishment? Google is only supposed to map the streets but not wi-fi hotspots.

Purposeful Violation

British conservative MP Robert Halfon rejected this as a mistake and alleged that the Google had done the mistake purposefully and it had collected the data for commercial use. This was denied by Google, without giving details of why the collected data was redirected to be stored on hard disks. It seems Google has a policy of not talking too much. Nobody wants it to talk much but it has to talk when its actions are proved to be detrimental to the privacy and human rights of the internet users.

G20 Seoul Summit Delivers Fake Commitments Once Again

Article first published as G20 Seoul Summit Delivers Fake Commitments Once Again on Blogcritics.

G20 summit held in Seoul on November 11 and 12 has failed to reach a concrete agreement to address the rising fears of currency war. It has also failed to bring out guidelines for curbing trade imbalances as envisaged by the world countries amid discouraging conditions of multi-speed growths for various economies. Fifth communique issued by the G20 countries since the financial and economic crisis broke out in 2008, has repeated its rhetoric of addressing concerns of the most vulnerable, providing social protection, decent work and also ensuring accelerated growth in low income countries (or Least Developed Countries).

Jobs at Heart of Recovery!

The communique said the G20 countries were determined to put jobs at the heart of the recovery which is just a big lie. The leaders of the developed countries and the emerging market economies (EMEs) are not ashamed even a bit to give this empty commitment, where at least 100 million have been stripped of their jobs and 120 million have been pushed into hunger afresh after the unprecedented, worst global economic crisis since the great depression has been unleashed by the greedy global financial conglomerates.

There have not been serious attempts to create jobs throughout the world, instead the jobs are lost every day by the austerity measures in European Union countries and jobless growth in the US. Number of economists and analysts along with Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, have dubbed the growth that we are witnessing as “jobless growth.”

Crisis Contributors

BBC news has quoted Obama as saying there should be no controversy about fixing imbalances “that helped to contribute to the crisis that we just went through.” Obama must have lost his senses or have suffered from short term dementia, let us say. Otherwise, G20’s first communique after the financial crisis, and even subsequent communiqués have acknowledged that the financial conglomerates and their risky, greedy financial business practices have created the worst crisis. There was not a mention of trade imbalances contributing the crisis in G20 communiqués, yet Mr. Obama dared to spell it. If Obama likes to fix imbalances, that is well and good, but this type of miscalculations only contribute to rising trade tensions.

Manmohan Singh Dances to Obama’s Tune in G20 Conference at Seoul

Article first published as Manmohan Singh Dances to Obama’s Tune in G20 Conference at Seoul on Technorati.

The Prime Minister of India has proved that so-called Manmohanamics is nothing but making India subservient to the interests of the western imperialist countries, particularly to those of the US on an international forum, G20. During his speech in G20 conference held at Seoul, South Korea on November 11 and 12, he danced to the tune of the US President Obama on the issue of current account deficits being faced by the US. He gave chorus to the US’ song deviating himself from his colleagues of emerging market economies.

CAD vs. CAS

Manmohan said in the G20 conference, “Major industrialized countries were running unsustainable current account deficits which have to be reduced to manageable levels.” Up to this point, no one needs to object. He then added, “If this is not to have a contractionary impact on the world economy, it must be offset by reducing current account surpluses elsewhere. This rebalancing requires pursuit of appropriately coordinated policies in our countries.” And, there he was, referring to his neighboring developing country, China.

So, Indian prime minister was telling that in order to reduce the trade deficit and hence the current account deficit of the US, China has to reduce its trade surplus and hence of course, its CAD. He is suggesting the China and apparently other surplus countries have to take appropriate measures like coordinated policies, to reduce their surpluses so that deficit countries may be prospered and reduce their trade deficits. That’s what he called rebalancing. Isn’t this the one vigorously being proposed by the US president Obama and its treasury secretary Timothy Geithner? Yes, it is.

Manmohan vs. Montek Singh

Whether Manmohan was aware of it or not, his market economy oriented friend and the Vice Chairman of India’s Planning Commission said on the sidelines of the G20 summit on November 11, "The real issue is given that it is a problem, how do we coordinate policy? I don't think you should be too demanding ... because such policy coordination has never been attempted before."

Brazil Enters Currency War

With announcement of second stimulus dubbed as QE2 of $600 billion by the US’ Federal Reserve, Brazil’s entry into the so-called currency war, the term coined by the IMF director Dominique Strauss Khan. Brazil is the first country to criticize the move by the Federal Reserve, which stated that the second stimulus was aimed to stimulate the slowing GDP growth. It said it would implement the package over next eight years through buying government bonds.

Competitive Advantage

But, Brazil sees the Fed’s move as a step to devalue the Dollar to inflate the competitive advantage of the US’ exports over others. Brazil’s concern is that the money injected into the US’ economy would flow to the emerging market economies (EMEs) seeking higher returns, thereby pushing their currency values that would result into reducing the competitive advantage of exports from the EMEs.

China Cautious

China reacted cautiously on November 5 saying that it would not go on record for or against the Fed’s move, but said the debate highlighted the need for reforming the international financial system. It added it can understand the US concern of slow growth. Chinese central bank officials met regularly with their Fed counterparts, and the Americans gave detailed explanations for the monetary changes, the central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said on Friday.

Is Yemeni Girl Student Victim of Terrorist Bomb Plot?

Article first published as Is Yemeni Girl Student Victim of Terrorist Bomb Plot? on Blogcritics.

Arrest of Yemeni girl student aged in her early twenties sparked outrage among Yemeni student community. They believe the girl student was made a scapegoat in the plot. They protested against the arrest of the student and her mother in Sanaa University campus where the student, identified as Hanan Al-Samawi, is pursuing her 5-year engineering degree.

The accusation of Hanan’s colleagues that the she was made scapegoat seems credible for the following reasons.

1. Yemeni authorities said the student was a medical student, whereas the student is actually an engineering student in Sanaa University in Yemeni capital Sana’a.
2. Yemen police arrested the student after tracing through her telephone number left with Cargo Company. It is highly impossible that any bomb plotter would leave his/ her telephone number and ID cart when he/she sending bombs abroad with a view to blow up the aircraft in the air. It is quite illogical.
3. The neighbors of the students house in a poor area stated that the family is pious but never appeared that they could be a part of a terror plot.
4. Colleagues of the student say Hanan is not known to be a participant of any religious or political activities.
5. Though the cargo planes originated from Yemen, they stopped at more than one stops before reaching U.K. and Dubai where the bombs were uncovered.
6. Investigators are still attempting to retrace the routes of the cargo planes, which mean the originating points of the bomb plot are not credibly established.

Google’s Evil Intentions Become Visible as UK MPs Grill

Article first published as Google’s Evil Intentions Become Visible as U.K. MPs Grill on Blogcritics.

Google’s explanation about its wi-fi data collection that it collected erroneously the emails and passwords has been rejected by the UK MPs, during a two-hour parliamentary debate on privacy. Google has always maintained that the personal data in error because of code being mistakenly included in the street view software. This statement itself demonstrates that Google is not ready to accept what it has done.

Privacy Debate

That is why a Conservative MP Robert Halfon has stated, "I find it hard to believe that a company with the creative genius and originality of Google could map the personal wi-fi details, computer passwords and e-mail addresses of millions of people across the world and not know what it was doing." It is impossible to believe that Google did not know what it was doing, given Google’s leadership in cyber technology. It is pretending innocence to escape the consequences of its wrong doing.

Robert added, “My own feeling is that this data was of use to Google for commercial purposes and that is why it was done.” Yes, Robert was true about Google’s intentions. It has everything to with commercial interests. There could be more than that also, given the accusations from some quarters that CIA and Google are secretly related on intelligence issues, though the facts are yet to be established.

Google’s Denial

Google has a long history of denying the facts of its evil intentions. Google accepts its market leadership in communication technology but pretends innocence when it is confronted with the facts of its intentions over cyber dominance, that too through illegal methods.

India Succumbs to US Pressure, Accedes CSC Pact for Nuclear Liability

This article has appeared first on Technorati.com

As Obama visit to India is approaching, attempts to dilute nuclear damage liability bill passed by the Indian parliament are speeded up from the US side. India signed on October 27 an international treaty on civil nuclear liability under pressure from the US.

Domestic Law

Indian Parliament approved recently in August ‘nuclear damage liability bill’ with both ruling and opposition parties taking a unified stand supporting it. Though initial draft did not envisage any liability on suppliers of nuclear material and equipment, the final bill placed liability on suppliers too. However, there are several intermediary conditions to bring into effect the liability on the supplier countries or firms, while the bill places immediate liability of $320 million on the operator country i.e. India.

Imperial US

The US companies are averse to paying liabilities even though they supply substandard and damaged material and equipment due to which nuclear damages may occur. They fear that they will be forced to pay compensation as the US pressured BP to pay a whopping $32 billion for its oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. During deliberations between the ruling and opposition parties regarding passage of nuclear damage liability bill, the US companies lobbied heavily not to place any liability obligations on supplier countries, particularly the US and Japan. But the pressures did not work, as the Indian people were outraged against Bhopal gas leak judgment.

At the same time, the world witnessed two disastrous accidents on which the whole world has its attention, on what the outcome would be. One was the biggest ever oil spill in American history, in the offshore American west coast in Gulf of Mexico. The other one was that thirteen Chilean miners were not yet rescued from a collapsed mine whose videos and photos were published on every media on daily basis.

Germany’s Immigration Dilemma

Germany has been skeptical of its immigration policy recently as per the statement of the Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said, “Germany’s attempts to create multicultural society have failed.” One of her party colleagues said, “Multikulti is dead.” A board member of the German central bank Thilo Sarrazin went too far by saying, “Muslims have become burden to the German society.” He alleged that no immigrant group other than Muslims was so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state and crime. Interestingly, he received widespread support after his statement, and his book on the same subject received good readership.

Germany Chancellor said that her government needed skilled people to keep the German economy’s growth pace faster. At the same time, she cautioned against unskilled people as they come to Germany for social benefits. While Angela’s invitation to skilled people was economically oriented, her rejection of unskilled people was socially oriented. Maybe the Chancellor has to understand that the economic prizes are always associated with social costs in unequally developed societies. Inviting economic fruits but denying social costs is something equal to rejecting that a coin has two sides.

Urgent Need

A leading German demographer Reiner Klinghoiz, director of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, said Germany desperately needed immigrants and it should ease restrictions on immigration to provide the skilled workers, from engineers to computer experts to ensure the future economic success, as per Reuters. He informed that immigration to German had come to a virtual halt in the last two years.

Though Germany has three million unemployed, Mr Klinghoiz said Germany could not wait ten years for those on unemployment to become trained engineers. Klinghoiz said further that Germany had an annual influx of 200,000 immigrants but in the last two years had seen a net exodus of 15,000. Restrictions like language tests had stopped migrations from Turkey almost completely, he added. German Chamber of Industry and Commerce was quoted as saying Germany lacked about 400,000 skilled workers and it sought more immigration. (Here is a useful link)

Kudos to Arundhati, You are a Ray of Hope!

Article first published as Kudos to Arundhati, You are a Ray of Hope! on Technorati

Arundhati Roy deserves Kudos. She deserves accolades for her brave statement defying Indian state’s warning that she would face criminal charges, for her support to the national aspirations of the Kashmiri people. Arundhati Roy, a booker prizewinner, had been actively supporting social movements of the poor, ever since she came to limelight after winning booker prize in 1997.

Arundhati Roy and a leader of the Kashmir movement Syed Ali Shah Geelani were threatened with facing a case of sedition by the Delhi Police with support from Union Home Ministry. The legal opinion sought by the Union Home Minister favored registering a case against them under Section 124-A of Indian Penal Code that states, “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the State” can be sentenced to five year rigorous imprisonment.

Arundhati Roy spoke at a seminar on “Azadi (independence) – The Only Way” along with S A S Geelani and pro-Maoist writer Varavara Rao held on October 21 in Delhi. She said in her speech, “Kashmir has never been part of India.” She was true when her statement was taken in terms of the wishes of the people in Kashmir.

If not, why Shaik Abdullah was kept in jail for 17 years for asking the Nehru Government to implement its promise of ‘plebiscite’? Why the people of Kashmir had continuously been on warpath against Indian Government? Why the police, para-military and military forces had continuously been stationed in Kashmir? Why hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri youth had been killed by the Army since the eruption of freedom struggle in 1989? Why even women including housewives, students and employees are coming to streets to shout “Go India, go back”?