Anonymity As A Great Liberator

Celebrities are wont to be in the public eye, whether they are doing public or private time. That’s the price we pay, says a superstar, for with accolades and recognition come awards and adulation. What could be more exhilarating than being recognised wherever you go? It opens doors, you know. The rub is that it also includes ‘whatever you do or say’, not to speak of complete erosion of privacy. The more time you spend in the limelight, the more you are performer, and somewhere, that thin line between performer and the natural self gets blurred. The ‘Who am I’ question is never able to break free of the mundane for even in the make-believe world of every day existence, you are trapped between identities.


http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-articles/lifestyle/anonymity-as-a-great-liberator#

She continued, “I am the daughter of Mr Xyz!” “And who may that be, Madam,” queried the cop politely, with nary a trace of recognition. The driver couldn’t believe it! How dare he not know who her father was! The story ends with the hefty fine being paid and cop and driver going their separate ways. But the episode punched a huge hole into the lady’s ego, bringing her down to earth with a thump.nvoking one’s claim to fame can sometimes have just the opposite effect of what you might expect. On the road (especially in India) when one vehicle rams into another, very often one hears the more aggressive party shouting: “Do you know who I am?” Or, “Is this your father’s road?” The daughter of a yesteryear star in Tollywood was caught broaching the speed limit. She was almost yesteryear herself, having lived an accomplished life as a skilful professional. The rookie cop flagged her down and asked her to lower her window. “Madam, you seem to be in a tearing hurry?” Well, said the flustered driver, “I am a busy professional and am getting late for an appointment.” The cop pulled out his voucher pad and began filling it out with the penalty amount after examining her driving license. This was taking too long. How dare he? “Do you know who I am?” she burst out, glaring at the cop. Pat came the reply, “No Madam.”

Part 3 of 5

Silencing scientists

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/opinion/sunday/silencing-scientists.html?_r=1&

September 21, 2013
Silencing Scientists
By VERLYN
KLINKENBORG<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/K/verlyn_klinkenborg/index.html>

Over the last few years, the government of Canada - led by Stephen Harper - has made
it harder and harder for publicly financed scientists to communicate with the public
and with other scientists.

It began badly enough in 2008 when scientists working for Environment Canada, the
federal agency, were told to refer all queries to departmental communications
officers. Now the government is doing all it can to monitor and restrict the flow of
scientific information, especially concerning research into climate change,
fisheries and anything to do with the Alberta tar sands - source of the diluted
bitumen that would flow through the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Journalists
find themselves unable to reach government scientists; the scientists themselves
have organized public protests.

There was trouble of this kind here in the George W. Bush years, when scientists
were asked to toe the party line on climate policy and endangered species. But
nothing came close to what is being done in Canada.

Science is the gathering of hypotheses and the endless testing of them. It involves
checking and double-checking, self-criticism and a willingness to overturn even
fundamental assumptions if they prove to be wrong. But none of this can happen
without open communication among scientists. This is more than an attack on academic
freedom. It is an attempt to guarantee public ignorance.

It is also designed to make sure that nothing gets in the way of the northern
resource rush - the feverish effort to mine the earth and the ocean with little
regard for environmental consequences. The Harper policy seems designed to make sure
that the tar sands project proceeds quietly, with no surprises, no bad news, no
alarms from government scientists. To all the other kinds of pollution the tar sands
will yield, we must now add another: the degradation of vital streams of research
and information.