I am pretty far form following politics but felt like posting a simple string of comments around an article that I just read on CNN. It is about the unjustified arrest of a black professor and Obama's comments around it. IMHO: Sounds like a frivolous, un-thought out comment coming from the president. I don't believe it is in the jurisdiction of the president to be mouthing loosely in such a fashion especially when people are listening hard. Words like this could easily be interpreted as lack of confidence in the justice system. While this may be true, tatistics such as those quoted by Obama should come at a proper forum with adequate substantiation and a definition of how it should be used. Any action should be left to the system to work out, else there is little difference between this and the much touted Honduran coup. Both signal a breakdown of the proper processes and the need for intervention to straighten out affairs. I have never chosen to believe in one person when one can easily fall back on procedure. Do not misjudge me, Obama is only my second favourite president after Bill Clinton, therein lies the reason for critical observation and nitpicking.

On the other end of this spectrum lies the firefighter fiasco where no fire-fighter was promoted due to lack of minorities scaling the passing grade. That is a horrendous example of how providing stepping stones to oppressed minorities and implementation of anti-racial-discriminatory practices can go awry. If the test was indeed skewed to allow certain races to pass, that can be determined and action taken accordingly. One cannot help but wonder how to make a generic test that only certain races will pass. It reminds me of the situation in India right now where most of the open seats in various educational institutions are allotted to backward classes. The goal is honourable, in that, it is a way to make up for the much prevalent suppression of the lower caste in the past. However, there is no sense of whether this is reaching the right people, there is no system in place that is making algorithmic changes as the existing procedures fall askew. It has become vote bank fodder. I am simply afraid that this history might end up repeating itself in another location. If you're going to do it, do it right!