The "green" land

Posting a blog written earlier in Ireland in 2006.

Ireland is not a rich country. At least the people here in Ireland don't think so. It’s just beginning to show some economic progress and trying to catch up on the infrastructure. There’s just so much to build and improve in the country. The people feel so too. The roads are narrow, the government technology systems are kind of historic and the public transport except in Dublin does not help a lot.

Irish people always left the country to greener pastures and these days there is a reverse trend. People from other parts of Europe are beginning to immigrate to Ireland primarily because of the economic progress it promises. The quality of life seems to be close to excellent if you are the person who likes pollution free nature and greener lands. It comes with a price though. Cost of living is high too. Anywhere between 24% to 45% of your annual income goes to the government as tax. It can not survive the economic progress without this revenue source. The import taxes (say on automobiles) is very high too…

The corporate tax is almost non-existence. No wonder many major IT companies including Intel, Apple, Microsoft and EMC have a big chunk of their operations based in Cork.

Driving on the roads here is quite an experience. Narrow roads, not much of a traffic, and a round about almost every four kilometers and across every corner. The Garda (police) are driving around but I did not see even a single Garda car with siren and flashing lights on. Compare this with any city in US where it’s hard to pass downtown without spotting a cop in action.
Driving through Ireland almost takes you back in time. Country side farms, stone building, castles, and brick roads are common sites. Often times you see a big house in the middle of a fifty acre farm. Imagine the lifestyle of the family living there. By the way the slopes on either side of the roads with herds of cattle grazing is quite beautiful. And these cows must be eating a lot! They are freaking huge!

Did I mention about the greens? Oh boy! These are some of the greenest greens I ever saw. When running the half marathon on the country side of Cork county, I witnessed a series of green bushes and they were so green that for a minute they looked like a hundred thousand kilowatt powered green neon lights. It was the middle of the day and the sun is right above my head and the sky is ocean blue and I see this bright green…may be it was the endomorphins from my running, but it was kick ass green. I did not see more of these hundred thousand kilowatt powered neon light greens in the 1000 KM drive I did these four days, but I saw quite a lot of green. No wonder green is the color of Irish folks. Now I remember – the green started in Logan itself. I saw more than a few people in green clothes, including that very pretty girl in a cute little green frock. She was a beauty, her skin was glowing and she looked so delicate that I would think twice to let her even carry her own handbag :)

Why do race cars have brakes?

In a recent presentation on Enterprise Risk Management, Cisco's Chris Kite began with a slide that noted "They don't put brakes on race cars to make them go slower; they put brakes on race cars so they can go faster!" Nice pitch on Risk Management as a means of letting a businesses take more risk, not less risk. You make more money doing things that others view as risky.

Taking risk doesn't necessarily guarantee incentives but improves the magnitude of incentives in some cases. End of the day, how thrilling is life with zero risk!

Neo Imperialism

I remember a discussion I was involved in at a session in Cambridge last month. The current MNC trends in India were compared to the establishment of East India Company in India a few centuries ago. Does this suggest that the current trends might lead to imperialism or may be newer avatar of imperialism?

We live in an exponentially different world today compared to the world in the 18^th century. The information revolution removed the barriers for communication and expression. Is imperialism even possible in this information world? I think not as long as no single entity completely controls and filters the communication pipelines.

China and India

We humans tend to compare things and enjoy a grin on our face when our side is better than the other. Why do we do this? I do not know! Did anyone figure it out yet? Leaving that aside, I want to present an interesting comparison I did that definitely put a grin on my face :)

This is a trend analysis on the number of searches done for a keyword on Google. The keywords compared here are "China" and "India". The result says that users have searched for the keyword "India" more. Does this mean more people are interested in learning about India than the number of people interested in learning about China? Or does this mean more people have lesser knowledge on India but have enough knowledge on China?

PS: Off late I've been getting a sense of understanding on how we can calm our brains. We often heat it up by asking the questions on why things happen. May be a better approach is focusing on what we can do when things happen...a good topic for a very long blog.