‘It’s my trust vote and I’ll shout if I want’ – Mahima Kaul titles her post at her blog ‘The life and times’ , introducing us to the scene at the lower house in the Parliament of India. She writes:

They came from everywhere; wheelchairs and stretchers – jail. And the anticipation of drama delivered! From the moment a crore of rupees was placed in the House by three BJP MPs – everything changed. Read on to see how the BJP's staged drama did not hold a trust vote down.

Phoenix recaps the political setup on his blog ‘Public diary…” , under the post, ‘The Great Indian Drama: What's the big DEAL about?’

The Left withdrew support as the UPA refused to back out of the 1-2-3 agreement with the US and thus began the numbers game…. If anything, Left leaving was slightly relieving as it brought hopes that maybe, if the Govt survived, some reforms would go ahead without the political compulsions that Left's persistent threats gave rise to. Afterall, the last four years India has hardly seen an Opposition, with the NDA mostly asleep, and the Govt had to keep fighting tooth n nail within itself thanks to the communist parties.
…
When the political scene heated up with BJP finally seeming to wake up a little…

There was money up for grabs just to vote against the N-deal. And Nita tells you why, in her post – ‘Between the horse traders and traitors who is left’ on her blog, ‘A wide angle view of India’ .

There is so much corruption amongst politicians that some of our MP’s make petty money (Rs 30,000/- and above) from just raising questions in parliament and the BJP has such MP’s too.
….
The fact is that India is number one when it comes to money in Swiss bank accounts and we have no way of knowing who doesn’t have an account there. While people from all walks of life probably have accounts there, I am sure our politicians lead the pack. People who are there to make our country prosper are looting it!!

Also giving us estimates on the total amount India is said to have in the Swiss banks, “India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world COMBINED.” But she is disgusted:

As for the live proceedings of the Nuclear Deal Debate in the Lok Sabha on television (just before the Trust vote) that reality show should have got an “A” certificate. If children see this how do you think they will behave in class…! But this time there was no violence…throwing of chairs and pushing and shoving, all of which I have seen on live TV in parliament. I guess we should be grateful.

In conclusion to it all, Yossarin has few things to tell the Prime minister of India, against the speech Manmohan Singh was said to have had ready, but did not deliver. Yossarin writes in the blog ‘Offstumped’ in the post, ‘Manmohan Confidence Vote - A Pyrrhic Victory’ :

You were right to pursue the strategic intent of getting India out of the nuclear winter it has been in. But sir you did not convince any political formation to express confidence on the merits of your record. You did not convince a significant number of individual members cutting across party lines to express confidence on the voice of their conscience. Rooted in questionable abstentions this is a pyrrhic victory and it is beginning of the end of your Ultimate Perverse Alliance that saw you accidentally occupy this august office.

You can find the Prime Minister’s speech here . Who are the real winners? – the question is answered here . Neha, our South Asian Blogsphere Editor for GVO, comments here .

The following video which is from a major TV news channel, shows the chaos in the Parliament when some of the members alleged bribery and started waving big piles of cash around.

The G8 Summit - New CHITOSE airport (from Flickr user mujitra)

Many bloggers questioned the high costs of the event, pointing out how environmentally unfriendly it was. Blogger gooorii, on the other hand, considered some of the outcomes of the G8 summit to have been positive:

何しろ討議する項目が山積しており、わずか3日間で各国のトップが話し合ってもなかなか纏まる話ではないと思うが、それでも「拉致問題」と言う文言が首脳宣言に載ったり、ジンバブエの不当な大統領選挙問題等にも共同声明のなかで、批判される事は国際的な見地から見た正しい意見として当事国にプレッシャーを与える事になり良いことだと思う。

今回の重要なテーマである、室温効果ガス問題では2日目のG8の中で討議され、福田さんは長期目標を2050年までに５０％削減を決めたい意向であったが、アメリカの提案では、「大量排出国（中国・インド・ブラジル等）抜きの討議は無意味だ」と言う意見で賛成が得られなかった様で、私も当然の事であると思う。

[…]

しかし、兎も角、削減努力に対する必要性は各国とも同じであるから3日目の会合こそ大量排出の当事国が、同じテーブルに就いて、話し合いが出来るスタートラインに揃ったところであると私は思うのである。

The Oxfam G8 Big Heads at Big Letters Performance (from the Oxfam Flickr page)

Blogger jg96aqkg, meanwhile, points out the irony of the G8 dinner:

環境問題、地球温暖化対策、原油高騰、食料危機、北朝鮮の核問題などなど話し合われたようですが凡人の私にはどのような実効性が有るのか全く分かりません。

あるメディアが食料危機の会議場で山ほど盛られた食膳に、あんなご馳走を食べて食料危機に餓えている人間の気持ちが理解できるのかと批判していました。

各国を代表して出席しているのだからどんな贅沢な食事をしょうがどうでも良いことだが世界各国一人一人の命の尊厳が図られる形になって欲しいものです。

Challenge the G8 Peace Walk (from Flickr user skasuga)

Blogger mkj2 also picks up on the theme of the G8 feast, and writes:

各国の首脳が食べるディナーの話題。
地元の食材をふんだんに使ったメニューでカニだのアスパラだのいいもの使ってまっせっつー。

別に食い物にいちゃもんつけてるわけじゃない。
食い物に始まり、警備だのなんだのに多額の血税が使われる。
それはいい。
世界のＴＯＰが雁首そろえて諸問題を話し合うっていうんだから。

ただ。
頼むよほんと。
これだけの金かけて、手間かけて、ガソリンが安くならない、食品の値段が下がらない、なんてことになったらどう責任取るんだ。

Toyako from the windsor hotel (where the G8 Summit meetings were held, by Flickr user veroyama)

Finally, blogger fookpaktsuen makes a novel proposal:

四国や九州からの警察の動員２万人余。……で地球温暖化が主要議題、ならこのサミット開催こそ「地球に優しくない」のが事実。もう国連活動に収斂されていいのでは？　テロ襲撃が危険視されるなら各国首脳が一同に介せずSkypeで会議すれば良し。会場からほど遠き農牧地帯で120名のサミット反対デモにデモ参加者上回る数の警官が防備。異常。

(For more pictures of the G8 protests, see pics at the account of Flickr user Powless.)

Kunming, home to many environmental NGOs, has Car Free Days on the last Saturday of every month. China's Green Beat gives us the skinny:

The policy has its limitations, of course. Rather than fully banning cars throughout the entire city, only private cars are forbidden to enter the first ring road. Taxis, buses, bikes, scooters, and special purpose vehicles (or vehicles with greater than 17 seats that are more than 50% full) are allowed to travel anywhere in the city.

They go on to say:

The policy seems to have mixed results. On September 22, the Kunming Environmental Bureau reported much better air quality due to the limitation of private cars…On the same day, the BBC reported Beijing drivers as having all but ignored the call for No Car Day, where the event was voluntary and not enforced as in Kunming.

China's Green Beat “Green Sisters” Ouyang and Jenny give a report about the day.

Video: No Car Day in Kunming

China plans to hold a car-free day in 108 cities this Sept. 22, as part of the world's No Car Day. China's No Car Day should cut 3,000 tons of emissions and save 33 million liters of gasoline.

In addition to the ‘No Car Day' initiative, Beijing is planning major traffic restrictions around this year's Olympics in Eastern China.