Rewarding ahead of time

Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

What I write is in no way related to my color affiliation. While my wife believes that everyone is good, and some turn bad; I believe that everyone is bad, and some turn good. In the math world (and for the Java guys in ANT) we call it inclusive or exclusive principles. Anyways...

There is nothing surprising in Obama winning the peace prize. We have seen over the past few years that people are not rewarded for what they did, but for what they would do. A couple of examples.

The mortgage meltdown was induced by bonuses to traders/investment managers who would possibly make money in the future. Their bonus was not tied to how much they made in "real" profit today, but how much they would make tomorrow.

I have heard of a web company where bonus was tied to increased user visits to the web site. This made the web architect/designer break a page into multiple page transitions. Obviously more page hits leading to a secured bonus. It is rumored that the company vanished into the cyber-recycle-bin soon after.

Of course there are instances where rewarding for work to be done in future has helped. We learn this all the time in the corporate industry. Promote to higher role even though the person does not deserve it for current work. But hey, once promoted I have known people who plunked their wavering ass, worked their butt out and really fulfilled the responsibility that was thrust on them.

These examples would not be common place in the days of yore. At least during my childhood I had to "burn the midnight oil" (a favorite saying for us Indians) to get what I wanted.

Events always reflect the sign of the times. One should read Alan Moore's "From Hell" to see how our crimes and success reflect the sensibility of the society. So its no wonder that in this age of "rewarding ahead of time", Obama was given the peace prize.

Fish baked in olive oil

This was a recent dish I made at home. Fatty but delicious.

Fish - 2 full fillets of Tilapia is what we used.

Olive oil - Almost 1/2 to 1 cup. Yep a lot. But needed.

Salt as needed

Pepper - I used a lot to provide flavor

Garlic - Around 10-15 large pods. Again a lot of whole garlic pods, but this is the key

Coriander leafs cut for flavor

Use some of the olive oil and heat it. Don't let the oil smoke. Put the garlic pods and coriander leafs so that they slightly brown. The intent is to get the flavour of the garlic in the oil and not to fry the garlic.

Take some of the garlic infused oil and put it in an iron skillet. Iron skillet because we are going to bake it later. Let the fish slightly brown - probably only for 30 secs on each side. 

Pour the rest of the garlic infused oil and plain olive oil on the fish. Put it in the oven at 350F for 12-15 mins. It is very important to maintain a very delicate balance as more browning will not let the flavour of the of the olive oil and garlic infuse into the fish.

The fish absorbs a lot of oil, but a lot of it left in the skillet. If you are me you can dip chapathi, the fish itself or bread in the oil and eat. Delicious.