Political Insanity (and Malaria)
So it's been a really long time since I did a decent blog update. And it's going to be a while longer because I need to actually start working at some point today, but there were a couple of things that I thought were worth mentioning.
First, I'm working from home today because the Chief Minister (think Prime Minister at a state-level) of Tamil Nadu (the state I live in) decided to, as a political play, declare a state-wide strike or "bandh" today. To put this in perspective, this is basically equivalent to a Governor saying "I'm going to call a general strike to protest the Mexican government attacking armed separatists who happen to be ethnically European". He's taking this action because he's getting political flack from the opposition for not doing enough to stop the fighting in Sri Lanka which is between the Sri Lankan government and a Tamil separatist group that is ethnically linked to this area of India. The "bandh" from 6am - 6pm today is basically a ban on working (all government offices are closed) as well as state-operated public transit. Previously bandhs have involved politically motivated mobs roaming the streets and attacking buses, personal vehicles, etc. that violate the strike. As a precautionary measure our office is closed today and everyone with a laptop has been asked to work from home. It's just ridiculous that the government is the one creating this situation - in the US, I feel like any politician that tried something like this would be thrown out of office immediately. Anyhow, so that's my newest piece of cultural confusion.
In other news, Steve and Tiana came and visited for a couple of weeks, which was awesome. Near the end of their visit I managed to come down with malaria and pneumonia, which was much less awesome. Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, I'm mostly back to normal now - just a bit of lingering lung/coughing issues. I don't recommend getting malaria for anyone who was thinking it might be a fun way to take a few days off from work.
So things are mostly back-to-normal now though I'm still probably only around 90% for another weeki or two.
Also, I'm probably coming to Boston from May 10 - 18, so mark your calendars!
First, I'm working from home today because the Chief Minister (think Prime Minister at a state-level) of Tamil Nadu (the state I live in) decided to, as a political play, declare a state-wide strike or "bandh" today. To put this in perspective, this is basically equivalent to a Governor saying "I'm going to call a general strike to protest the Mexican government attacking armed separatists who happen to be ethnically European". He's taking this action because he's getting political flack from the opposition for not doing enough to stop the fighting in Sri Lanka which is between the Sri Lankan government and a Tamil separatist group that is ethnically linked to this area of India. The "bandh" from 6am - 6pm today is basically a ban on working (all government offices are closed) as well as state-operated public transit. Previously bandhs have involved politically motivated mobs roaming the streets and attacking buses, personal vehicles, etc. that violate the strike. As a precautionary measure our office is closed today and everyone with a laptop has been asked to work from home. It's just ridiculous that the government is the one creating this situation - in the US, I feel like any politician that tried something like this would be thrown out of office immediately. Anyhow, so that's my newest piece of cultural confusion.
In other news, Steve and Tiana came and visited for a couple of weeks, which was awesome. Near the end of their visit I managed to come down with malaria and pneumonia, which was much less awesome. Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, I'm mostly back to normal now - just a bit of lingering lung/coughing issues. I don't recommend getting malaria for anyone who was thinking it might be a fun way to take a few days off from work.
So things are mostly back-to-normal now though I'm still probably only around 90% for another weeki or two.
Also, I'm probably coming to Boston from May 10 - 18, so mark your calendars!
posted by Will at 12:12 PM
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