Saved by our incompetence

The jury is still out on why we missed the financial crisis. Some popular reasons include the strong culture of domestic savings, rural demand, YV Reddy's supposed foresight and so on. But there is one cause that is completely overlooked, our own incompetence.

A simple analysis of bike and car accidents should reveal that the cause is often a foolish driver. He was drunk, speeding, trying to cut lanes, racing with another driver etc. What goes unnoticed is that the people enticed into doing these things are competent as well. I mean, do you see cars used by driving schools ever involved in an accident. Yes, the teacher can control them, but considering that you have all the beginners driving, these cars must be the most accident prone. Yet it rarely happens because learners hardly drive faster than 20kmph.

The Americans really pushed the envelope of their financial system. But only because they were thoroughly familiar with its intricacies in the first place. Most of our bankers are still grappling with our financial system, thanks to the public sector legacy. Our capital markets are not well developed and the general public is still skeptical about the term "investment".

In a sense, the US went into the Olympics and made a mess whereas we never qualified. But hey, at least, we are not losers!

Where's the media when you need them?

The flurry of media channels has ensured that even a fart by a politician or celebrity would not go unnoticed. Yet, they are nowhere when we need them the most. It has been coming down hard since last night here in Mumbai. When I woke up this morning, I was positive that several areas would be waterlogged. Adding to this, a metro pillar collapsed near Sakinaka, arguably the busiest traffic junction in Mumbai. I scanned the news channels for updates, but except TV9, no channel was even running a ticker about the rains. There was no source of getting a real-time update on the situation. The authorities were mum on what citizens are supposed to do, but thats typical. Most Mumbaikars know enough about the rains and chose to stay home I think. Thats what I did too based on my past experience here!

I am most appalled at the state of the news websites. It is incredibly easy to update a website and post live notes as the news pours in. But none of the websites had any mention of the rains until 10AM. All of them waited until noon and posted "articles". By then, everyone that cared about the rains knew about them. The less said about the Mumbai traffic police website the better. Its not that these websites cant do live coverage - they do it with budgets, bomb blasts etc. I have no idea why they dont do it on occasions such as these.

I wish we had a website that posts minute-by-minute updates on situations such as these. Maybe I could start one.