Big Brother is Watching?

It is amazing, and scary. One of my friends recently posted an article on Sodexho, that of the food voucher fame, questioning the rationale for such a system existing at all. Would encourage you all to actually check it out yourselves (http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=20764729&postID=113844783945381362) but the gist of his argument is that a company like Sodexho is not required at all. The logic of giving food vouchers that are tax-free in the hands of employees is convoluted - conveyance allowance is tax-free but you do not need conveyance vouchers to claim it. Moreover, increasingly employees use the vouchers to buy non-food items during non-working hours - both violating the stated terms of usage. Sodexho benefits by having access to lots of money at zero interest - and you don't need a degree in finance to understand what it means.

Anyway, my post is not about the existence of Sodexho - my friend has done a much better job of questioning it. It is about the response the post generated. Within two days of the post appearing, there was a comment from one Hanif Shah, which started promisingly by questioning the "little knowledge" of my friend, and then went on and on about why Sodexho was a good thing. What Mr. Shah conveniently "forgot" to mention was his links with Sodexho. Do a google search on Sodexho Hanif Shah and see for yourself. So much so that Mr. Shah's blog, unfortunately no longer available, is named Sodexho India. Interesting, the blog is created in January 2006. I wonder whether it was created with the express intention of commenting on the post. I know that you don't need to be a blogger to post comments, but does Mr. Shah know it?

The purpose behind this post is not to pass judgment on Sodexho or its defenders or detractors. What I am more impressed with, and scared about, is the power of the Web. An anonymous guy in Mumbai posts an article on just another of millions of blogs, and it gets a response from the target of the article (ok, an alias has been used, but it would be the height of coincidence if Mr Shah had nothing to do with Sodexho India). I wonder what kind of surveillance mechanisms are in place. Looks like not only the Big Brother, but also his cousin twice-removed on maternal side is WATCHING. We sure are living in interesting times.