X-Message-Number: 12210
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 07:13:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: diana singh <>
Subject: Humour/Karma/Human rights

Hi everyone,

For Dave Pizer:  I'll watch out for any humour again!

Actually the issue is really serious. For me who was born
and brought up in Bombay the carelessness of people here
regarding their lives just surprises me. Consider this;

a. Most people will not cross a bridge to go from one
platform (at the railway station) to the other.They will
cross the railway tracks! Every month about 60/70 people
are killed on the Bombay suburban system.

b. My country has one of the worst records of road 
accidents every year. Our roads (highways) are two lane
affairs. A person on a mobike gets two feet of road space
if he passes a truck driver at full speed.

c. Some areas near Bombay have no road lights at night.
But some of the lights are on in the morning!!

d. India has the highest rate of some of the killer
diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, cholera and Aids.

e. Infant mortality is amongst the highest in the world.

f. Hundreds of people die every year on religious pilgrimages.

h. Our safety standards in almost every sector are very poor.

i. Religion plays an important role in every Indian's
life and the theory of "karma" gives undue importance 
to  deterministic ideas. "Life is as it is meant to be.
You can't change it". This is central to every Indian.


If you read the last statement (i) it goes against the
very nature cryonics. 

But looking at the sum total of what I have said above
it will make you understand that this country  does
not give importance to human life and the mind.(Although 
things are a lot better in the last twenty years)
 It sounds something like what Ayn Rand said about Communists and
Mystics-
" Your mind is not your own it belongs to society/god".

I think what is needed ( and this is true for many countries including
the US) is a new focus on safety/importance of human life/
uniqueness of mind/possibility of immortality or revival.

AND, the right of the person who has signed up for cryonics 
being equal to any human right. The right to be suspended
and revived has to be enshrined in the Human Rights convention
and made into law. I propose that all of us make an effort
in this direction and do whatever has to be done to make
this real.


Gurvinder



  

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