Surprisingly, this is something that I have discussed with two different people in the last 24 hours.
One thing that an engineering college education does to you is make you very emotionally inadequate. All we can do is think logically, brushing aside all emotions, and makes us quant jocks in real life too.
I was discussing the unfortunate death of Dr YSR Reddy, the AP CM, with a classmate who believed that all this state mourning and shutting down the state for a day was not logical. While I agree with the logic, I am not so much in sync with the emotional aspect of it.
Some people do believe that protocols are unnecessary, and a burden on the state exchequer. While I agree that some protocols are useless, some of them are required. We need to show some respect for people who work for the society and the country. Agreed that not a lot of them do it out of compassion, but who decides that?
The second discussion I had was the validity of Intellectual Property Rights, specially in the Pharmaceutical industry. While I agree that IPRs are an essential part of the industry and required to spur innovation, there is something fundamentally broken with the role they play in the pricing of drugs.
Would you rather not a sell a drug in a nation because you are making a lower profit or would you rather save a life? Isn’t the huge profit margins you make in some nations good enough to subsidize some losses in the less fortunate countries? Also, if a company decides not to sell a drug at an affordable price in a certain country facing an epidemic, is the government flawed in its decision to grant a compulsory license?
I guess these questions have no right answers. See what aspect sways you more and take that way is the right thing to do I guess.
As Captain Teague says in the last edition of Pirate of the Carribean, “It’s not just about living forever, Jackie. The trick is still living with yourself forever.“
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