Our stars, who are the Gods for the younger generation, promote bottled sodas and desiccated milk drinks both of which are dangerous to human health, while Mars Mission eats up the tax payers' hard earned money. This is exactly why inexpensive health measures are not encouraged by the powers that be. They want more diseases to get more money for the sickness industry!

“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and by the powerful.” - Noam Chomsky
 

Forty seven million children in India do not have even one good meal a day and suffer from a fatal disease, Nutritional Immune Deficiency Syndrome. (NIDS)  Our government does not have the money to feed them and children die like flies. Good for statistics and population control! We had tons of money to go to the moon. Now our proud “scientists” are trying to explore the Mars with their mars mission; not from the near orbit but from a large elliptical orbit, if we reach there, that is.
 

One of the great things I learnt from one of our venerated scientists is that the mars mission to be able to predict all the future storms and earth quakes! Every Indian rupee spent is done for the good of the common man, he said! USA and Russia should have been able to predict all their calamities with their multiple moon and mars missions! Who are we pretending to fool in the name of this Golem, called science? Let us know that huge money was spent for the moon mission although the mission failed? How many people became rich by selling the satellites to private players?
 

Another one of those great leaders felt that people spend more money for Deepavali crackers than the mars mission. He conveniently forgot that Deepavali spending is personal money. Mars eats up the tax payers’ hard earned money in preference to giving food for the dying hungry kids! No one builds a statue for those who struggle for the welfare of the poor and the downtrodden, those who prevent diseases to the extent possible. That is exactly why the inexpensive health measures are not encouraged by the powers that be. They want more diseases to get more money for the sickness industry! Yet, if we feed all the kids, if they are healthy and happy, it does not make headline news. But, by accident, if you land a space ship on the mars it will be hailed as a great feat.
 

I wonder why such crooked thinking is encouraged. Many a time I wonder how bootleggers, crooks, the mafia dons, scoundrels in the guise of netas thrive and enjoy life. The reason is very clear now, thanks to the concept of the Kaliyuga.  Anrita meva jayathe-Na satyam. In the Kaliyuga, falsehood only thrives and not the truth!

The following is exceprted from the Sanskrit texts the Vishnu Purana and the Linga Purana:
 

Thieves will become kings, and kings will be the thieves. Rulers will confiscate property and use it badly. They will cease to protect the people. Base men who have gained a certain amount of learning (without having the virtues necessary for its use) will be esteemed as sages. There will be many displaced persons, wandering from one country to another. Predatory animals will be more violent. Foetuses will be killed in the wombs of their mothers. People will prefer to choose false ideas. No one will be able to trust anyone else. People will be envious. There will be many children born whose life expectancy is no more than 16 years. People suffering from hunger and fear will take refuge in underground shelters. Young girls will do trade in their virginity. The god of clouds will be inconsistent in the distribution of the rains. Shopkeepers will run dishonest businesses. There will be many beggars and unemployed people. Everyone will use hard and vulgar language. Men will devote themselves to earning money; the richest will hold power. The state leaders will no longer protect the people but, through taxes, will appropriate all wealth. Water will be lacking.
 

The noble profession that I belong to has degenerated to such a low level, that we want people to be sick to benefit us. Health promotion which is both inexpensive to the tax payer as also beneficial to the common man is never encouraged. I was happy that an eminent chemist, CNR Rao and the star attraction of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar have been awarded Bharat Ratnas. I extend my hearty congratulations to both of them. May God bless them. That brings to mind the editorial in this week’s British Medical Journal which talked about the international acclaim for Sachin’s cricketing prowess but made a very pertinent point about these cinema and sports stars promoting unhealthy foods and drinks.
 

Here is what the BMJ (British Medical Journal) wrote: “I wonder what might be said about promotion of soft drinks by cricketers though. Easily one of the largest sponsors for cricket in the country, the soft drinks industry has grown unchecked. In the latest BMJ poll on regulation of India’s soft drinks industry, an overwhelming majority concur: not enough is being done. Ruling on a petition to regulate misleading advertising of soft drinks, particularly those targeted at children, the Supreme Court directed the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India to ensure greater enforcement of regulations in the larger interest of "protection of human life and health".
 

I had written earlier about our stars, who are the Gods for the younger generation, promoting bottled sodas and desiccated milk drinks both of which are dangerous to human health. But who cares in the midst of their bloated egos? I am happy that a leading medical science journal also felt the need to warn these stars about their helping the wrong foods for a few crores of sponsorship money. I do not think money is ever a problem with these super heroes. Can they not desist from the lure of that additional income?
 

Before the advent of money we lived an egalitarian life with universal compassion. Studies of some aboriginal races (Innus in particular) did show that truth in great detail. Today, as Wordsworth wrote:
 

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers,

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

This is Kaliyuga that we live in. I am still not clear in my mind as to why anyone invented the Kaliyuga? I am searching for the teleologic connection without success so far. Why are we condemned to be living in such a hostile time? Can a new collective consciousness of universal compassion change the world for better?

“There is clear industry manipulation of research and political collusion. If it were not for this clear deception, these foods would not be in circulation.”-Jeffrey Smith

(Professor Dr BM Hegde, a Padma Bhushan awardee in 2010, is an MD, PhD, FRCP (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Dublin), FACC and FAMS. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes, chairman of the State Health Society's Expert Committee, Govt of Bihar, Patna. He is former Vice Chancellor of Manipal University at Mangalore and former professor for Cardiology of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London.)