It is back to basics in India. Due to an aging power grid, that can’t seem to keep up with the high demand, more than half of the country, is left without electricity. Three grids have collapsed and are out of commission for the second day. Trains are not running, hospitals are powered by emergency generators and traffic lights outage is causing massive traffic jams. India’s power minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, believes the grid collapse was caused by some states drawing more energy than their quota allows. Engineers are scrambling to restore the failing network, hoping to get it back up by this afternoon. Nothing better than a good old power outage to make you appreciate the beauty and comfort of technology. Sometimes we just take things for granted. Oh and breaking news: Sushil Kumar Shinde has just been promoted to Home Minister! Oh know what happened – he turned the electricity off on purposes until they made him Home Minister and now he is going to turn the lights back on. Smart move.
In the LIBOR rigging scandal we have a new interesting twist developing. RBS is facing its own little fun LIBOR rigging investigation, but what’s kinda funny in their case (NOT!) is that the UK government has an 83% stake in the lender. Awkward! Basically, on the one hand the government must punish the sinnerman, but on the other hand must protect the taxpayer’s assets!! While the government is chewing on this juicy bone, RBS extended a gracious gesture, and publicly condemned bad behavior. That will do it RBS! Or you could also tell us who your new CEO will be after Mr. Stephen Hester’s looming departure. Stay tuned for more updates.
And from Russia with Love, Putin continues to assert himself as the powerful macho man, and charges the anti-corruption campaigner and leader of the opposition movement, Alexey Navalny, the only beacon of hope in Russia, with embezzlement. Why not?! Navalny finds the allegations “strange and absurd”, which it kinda is, but remember in Putin’s world nothing is strange and absurd, when someone is trying to take away his favorite toy! And by favorite toy I mean Russia! Anyways in Putin’s world, Navalny stole timber, worth 16 million rubels, and that’s exactly what the Russian state media will feed the 90% of naïve adherents, who get their news from their TV only…who cares that this case has already been investigated and dropped by regional prosecutors previously. When the going gets tough, Putin likes to improvise, so if convicted Navalny will join Khodorkovsky in prison, for at least 10 years, with an optional life sentence. I wonder if this allegation against Navalny may have something to do with the fact, that Navalny accused Alexander Bastrykin, the chief of that very same Investigative Committee, that is trying to put Navalny away, of having had undeclared business interests in the Czech Republic. It’s like watching a thriller!
It is back to basics in India. Due to an aging power grid, that can’t seem to keep up with the high demand, more than half of the country, is left without electricity. Three grids have collapsed and are out of commission for the second day. Trains are not running, hospitals are powered by emergency generators and traffic lights outage is causing massive traffic jams. India’s power minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, believes the grid collapse was caused by some states drawing more energy than their quota allows. Engineers are scrambling to restore the failing network, hoping to get it back up by this afternoon. Nothing better than a good old power outage to make you appreciate the beauty and comfort of technology. Sometimes we just take things for granted. Oh and breaking news: Sushil Kumar Shinde has just been promoted to Home Minister! Oh know what happened – he turned the electricity off on purposes until they made him Home Minister and now he is going to turn the lights back on. Smart move.
In the LIBOR rigging scandal we have a new interesting twist developing. RBS is facing its own little fun LIBOR rigging investigation, but what’s kinda funny in their case (NOT!) is that the UK government has an 83% stake in the lender. Awkward! Basically, on the one hand the government must punish the sinnerman, but on the other hand must protect the taxpayer’s assets!! While the government is chewing on this juicy bone, RBS extended a gracious gesture, and publicly condemned bad behavior. That will do it RBS! Or you could also tell us who your new CEO will be after Mr. Stephen Hester’s looming departure. Stay tuned for more updates.
And from Russia with Love, Putin continues to assert himself as the powerful macho man, and charges the anti-corruption campaigner and leader of the opposition movement, Alexey Navalny, the only beacon of hope in Russia, with embezzlement. Why not?! Navalny finds the allegations “strange and absurd”, which it kinda is, but remember in Putin’s world nothing is strange and absurd, when someone is trying to take away his favorite toy! And by favorite toy I mean Russia! Anyways in Putin’s world, Navalny stole timber, worth 16 million rubels, and that’s exactly what the Russian state media will feed the 90% of naïve adherents, who get their news from their TV only…who cares that this case has already been investigated and dropped by regional prosecutors previously. When the going gets tough, Putin likes to improvise, so if convicted Navalny will join Khodorkovsky in prison, for at least 10 years, with an optional life sentence. I wonder if this allegation against Navalny may have something to do with the fact, that Navalny accused Alexander Bastrykin, the chief of that very same Investigative Committee, that is trying to put Navalny away, of having had undeclared business interests in the Czech Republic. It’s like watching a thriller!