Asia An interesting speech by the President of India....

Yes, that's right, I know there are some Indian JCers out there. I'm calling you out.

Well, actually, my mom sent me this interesting speech by President Abdul Kalaam.

I just thought I would share amongst other fellow Indians...and anyone who's interested.


"I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.
My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have10 percent growth rate in most areas.Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self- reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?
I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr. Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.

'I see four milestones in my career: ONE: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist. TWO: After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994. THREE: The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very light material called carbon-carbon. FOUR: One day an orthopaedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic callipers weighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300 gram callipers and took them to the orthopaedic centre. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!'
' Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Rem

 

Hi A_P4ever!

Well, it's quite an interesting piece there and although I'm from Sri Lanka, I can identify with you because our country also got it's independance in the 1940s.

Yikes, it's late here. [face_shocked] But if you like, I'll be back tomorrow to discuss.

God Bless,

Blaine

 

That's a pretty good speech you got there ... made some very interesting points. too. I admit I only read half of it, though . I skipped over the part where he was talking about his achievements or whatever it was ...

But, the last part was good. I think the main problem is the desire to conform, then complain when you don't like what's being done ... but continue to follow the masses. It's a bit like in an assembly where nobody likes the speaker, but when someone claps, everyone follows, then later everyone complains. So that's probably why outside India, they do all that stuff.

If I understand it correctly ... he's saying change needs to be made by individuals, not the government. Because if enough people change, and become upstanding citizens (well, better ones anyway) then it'll snowball. Though, I think the government may have to change the system, too, if it's obvious it's not working.

 

Okay, I'm back A_P4ever!

Hmm, I agree with what Xan said above about change having to start with individuals. Most people are perfectly happy to say "yes, this must be done/that must be done" but someone else has got to do it.
This is definitely not the way to do it. The government themselves are a collection of individuals who represent the public. But it doesn't help that the people they are representing are not co-operating.

It struck me that the gentleman who made the speech remembers how he has contributed to the betterment of the nation. Wouldn't it be great to have more people out there who were that concerned?

Patriotism is lacking I find. Even here, in Sri Lanka where I live we have these debates about Sri Lanka. Some people go on about how much better the West is etc.
Oh, nothing wrong with the Western countries-they're great and I know some great people there. But, as Asian nations, rich in culture and conservative traditions it would be nice if we were proud of those, don't you think?

I'm a conservative gal so my opinionmay differ on some matters.

The speech mentions dowry systems etc...what do you feel about this?

You've started an interesting discussion A_P...or do you have another nickname I could use?

 

I can't really comment on the dowry system ... we don't have that here (thankfully) so I'm a little unsure about the details. But as far as I know, it seems to be a rather outdated and chauvinistic system.

Over here, patriotism seems to be a bit lacking as well, as far as I know. But that probably has something to do with the fact that most of our stuff does come from Western countries ... and even if the actual products aren't, the designs are.

 

What irriates me about the dowry system is that it is awkward-especially in this day and age.

It makes things unneccessarily complicated for the two people who are about to get married and when in-laws get into a tiff about the amount it can get ugly. In a country where it still happens, it's not too great, I can tell you!

And if the girl's family is unable to aford the dowry, then both boy and girl are penalized, because of the dowry system.