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Editorial
month october 16, edition 000325, collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul
Editorial is syndication of all daily- published newspaper's Editorial at one place.
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THE PIONEER
- TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT
- KILLED FOR BEING HINDU
- WHEN SILENCE TELLS A STORY - BALBIR K PUNJ
- ISLAM DEBASES WOMEN - TRINA JOSHI
- CRUSH THE RED TERROR - KALYANI SHANKAR
- CREATING A WIN-WIN FORMULA - PRAFULL GORADIA
- IN MOSCOW, SOVIET PAST LOOMS LARGE - JIM HEINTZ
- HIGH TIME WE GOT OUR ACT RIGHT ON CHINA
- LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
- US JUST CAN'T LEAVE - BY VIKRAM SOOD
- US- AF- PAK- INDIA: OPTIONS - BY NAJAM SETHI
- FICTITIOUS DIARY OF NAWAZ SHARIF - JUGNU MOHSIN
- INDIA MUST BEWARE OF BEIJING'S DESIGNS
- IS PAKISTAN REALLY JUST A PIECE OF LAND?
- TIME TO TALK
- WIN THE PEACE
- WORLD WITHOUT HUNGER
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- 'GULABI HAS A STRONG MESSAGE FOR ALL WOMEN'
- TAILOR-MADE TAMASHA -
- JUST FOR KICKS - JUG SURAIYA
- BULLYING IN THE CHINA SHOP
- GREAT GRAND-DADS
- ALL HAIL THE ROLE MODEL - ARCHANA DALMIA
- DROWNING THINGS OUT - RAJDEEP SARDESAI
- SEEING GHOSTS - NAYANJOT LAHIRI
- TRAINING TEACHERS - WHO WILL TEACH THE TEACHERS? - SWAHA SAHOO AND CHITRANGADA CHOUDHURY
- FOOD FOR THOUGHT
- AUDACIOUS, UNENDING
- DAMMED TRUTHS
- FIX THE COORDINATES - C. RAJA MOHAN
- COMMON CAUSE WITH THE COMMONS - MINOTI CHAKRAVARTY KAUL
- 'INDIAN HEGEMONY CONTINUES TO HARM RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBOURS'
- THE HALLMARK OF A TRUE PROFESSIONAL - SARITHA RAI
- WHAT NOT TO LEARN FROM INDIA - YUBARAJ GHIMIRE
- DAMNED IF WE DON'T
- GENERALLY MARVELOUS
- THERE IS A JOB TO DO ON JOBS - MANISH SABHARWAL
- ELEPHANT GETS BRINJAL, MORE TO COME - YOGINDER K ALAGH
- POLICY CROSS-CONNECTION - ANANDITA SINGH MANKOTIA
- THE DOLLAR'S FALL
- IMPROVING PUBLIC HOUSING
- THE EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION DEBATE - PRABHUDEV KONANA
- TRAFIGURA FIASCO TEARS UP THE TEXTBOOK - ALAN RUSBRIDGER
- U.K. STUDENT VISA SYSTEM IN CHAOS - HASAN SUROOR
- SECOND GREATEST KILLER
- FEARS RISE: PAK OUT OF CONTROL?
- WILDE ADVENTURES – ASHOK MANDANNA
- GAMES BAN HURTS FIJIANS THE MOST - SHUBHA SINGH
- LIVE YOUR TRUTH - ROBIN SHARMA
- US AID: A SAGA OF CARROTS, NO STICKS - SRINATH RAGHAVAN
- IDENTITY CRISIS
- BANISH DARKNESS
- INTELLIGENT SUCCESSORS
- WELCOME THE LIGHT - SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
- RACIAL ABUSE CAN BE A PUBLICITY STUNT - FARRUKH DHONDY
- FOOD FOR THOUGHT
- THE LAHORE STRIKE
- DECISIVE ACTION NEEDED
- BAINGAN IN YOUR PLATE
- CHOOSING JUDGES - BY P.P. RAO
- WOMAN, THY NAME IS MIGHT - BY ASHOK KUMAR YADAV
- FRAGILE FOOD SECURITY - BY HARENDER RAJ GAUTAM
- FROM POWER SURPLUS TO SHORTAGE - BY K.S. CHAWLA
- SHORTENING A CANCER PATIENT'S ORDEAL - BY KELLY BREWINGTON
- CHINESE SALVO
- JUVENILE JUSTICE
- BHIMAJULI MASSACRE AND GOVT RESPONSE - DR AKHIL RANJAN DUTTA
- PRE-ANAESTHETIC EVALUATION - DR MAITREYEE CHAKRAVARTY
- WORRY ABOUT HUMAN ETHICS
- ON TO NELP IX
- A SLASH OF A MISTAKE
- CRUDE POLICIES IN HYDROCARBON SECTOR - SOMA BANERJEE
- MARKET'S READY TO GIVE A ROUSING WELCOME TO SAMVAT 2066
- IT MAY BE THE RIGHT TIME TO BOOK FORWARD DOLLARS - GAURAV PAI
- TOP PSUS MAY HAVE TO JUSTIFY BULGING KITTY OR PAY DIVIDEND - DHEERAJ TIWARI & SUBHASH NARAYAN
- D-STREET: OLD TIMERS MISS MUHURAT BONHOMIE - SHAILESH MENON
- THE MARRIAGE OF TWO MINDS - MUKUL SHARMA
- CHINA'S LOCUS STANDI ON ARUNACHAL?
- THERE IS ALSO A CHINA-BASHING LOBBY AT WORK
- THE BASIS OF ITS TERRITORIAL CLAIM IS LAUGHABLE
- 'THERE IS CONTINUED OPPORTUNITY FOR INNOVATION HERE' - ANIRVAN GHOSH
- 'NO MEANINGFUL CORRECTION BEFORE ANOTHER RAPID RISE'
- FEARS RISE: PAK OUT OF CONTROL?
- US AID: A SAGA OF CARROTS, NO STICKS - BY SRINATH RAGHAVAN
- FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN WON'T WIN THE WAR - BY ROBERT A. PAPE
- WILDE ADVENTURES - BY ASHOK MANDANNA
- GAMES BAN HURTS FIJIANS THE MOST - BY SHUBHA SINGH
- WALL STREET SMARTS - BY CALVIN TRILLIN
- BRINJAL BHARTA
- STRAITS OF AL QAIDA
- REFLECTED GLORY
- CHOCOLATE, WATER REDUCE PAIN: STUDY
- FOOD SECURITY & EQUALITY - BY BHARAT DOGRA
- BORDER BAITS
- GENE REVOLUTION
- IN SEARCH OF OLD TERRITORY - SWAPAN DASGUPTA
- FAMILIAR WORRIES RETURN - MALVIKA SINGH
- A NEW BEGINNING
- GLARING BIAS
- DEATH OF THE DAILIES - IGNACIO RAMONET, IPS
- CLIMATE DEBATE CAN'T IGNORE SMALL FARMERS - PANDURANG HEGDE
- CLEARLY AMBIGUOUS - LEELA RAMASWAMY
- WHO LOST TURKEY?
- 'GOLDSTONE REPORT A DISGRACE TO JUSTICE'
- NOT ABOVE THE LAW - BY HAARETZ EDITORIAL
- IS THE OBAMA EFFECT TURNING THE WORLD AGAINST ISRAEL? - BY YOEL MARCUS
- ETHICAL AFFAIRS MINISTER - BY NEHEMIA SHTRASLER
- ABBAS IS A DEAD MAN - NETANYAHU AND BARAK KILLED HIM - BY YOSSI SARID
- THE LAST NOBEL PRIZE? - BY CARLO STRENGER
- SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR - BY TAMAR ARIELI
- STOP USING ISRAEL AS A SHIELD - BY AFDHERE JAMA
- ANOTHER CASE OF FRENCH EXCEPTIONALISM? - BY CORINNE MELLUL
- RECONSIDERING CARBON CUTS - BY BJORN LOMBORG
- BACK WHERE HE BELONGS
- OCTOBER EXODUS
- GOV. PATERSON'S WARNING
- 10,000: THEN AND NOW
- THE REALITY MOMENT - BY DAVID BROOKS
- HAS CONCEPTUAL ART JUMPED THE SHARK TANK? - BY DENIS DUTTON
- TERROR UNRELENTING
- A CLEARER MESSAGE?
- DEMOCRACY UNDER A CLOUD - AYAZ AMIR
- THE KERRY-LUGAR DISTRACTION - AHMAD RAFAY ALAM
- INCOMPETENCE INC. - ZAFAR HILALY
- KERRY-LUGAR AND OUR RESPONSE - DR MASOODA BANO
- TAKING ON THE REAL ENEMY - SHAFQAT MAHMOOD
- ROCKY ROAD AHEAD - TAYYAB SIDDIQUI
- WINDOW-DRESSING OF KLB
- SCO CAN CONTRIBUTE TO PROSPEROUS FUTURE
- POLITICAL STORM IN AJK
- INDIA, CHINA, PAK: THE THREE DONKEYS - M D NALAPAT
- DOWNSIDE OF MORE INDIAN N TESTS - SULTAN M HALI
- HOLY PROPHET'S (PBUH) MESSAGE OF PEACE - SANIYASNAIN KHAN
- S WAZIRISTAN, FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION - DR HUMA MIR
- CLOSE THE WINDOWS..! - ROBERT CLEMENTS
THE INDEPENDENT
- HAMID'S PRUDENT MOVE
- 'NOW CLAWLESS TOO'
- CRIME FREE INDIA...!
- HOSPITAL PASS NOT AN OPTION FOR RUDD
- REFORMS THAT WORK
- A NEW WORLD ORDER
- THE WRONG END OF THE MICROSCOPE
- SILK ROAD NEEDS A CLEARER MAP
- BANKERS' BONUSES: GOLDEN SACKS
- IN PRAISE OF… KINDER SCOUT
- PAKISTAN: A FIGHT TO THE FINISH
- KOREA-VIETNAM TIES
- INTEGRATION PANEL
- TREATING OF AL-QAIDA BY SAUDI ROYALS - BERNARD HAYKEL
- CLARIFYING THE IDEA OF COMMUNITY
- WINNY CREATOR RIGHTLY ACQUITTED
- SUMMIT HIGHLIGHTS MEDIA PROBLEMS IN CHINA - BY FRANK CHING
- GOVERNMENT'S GATEKEEPER
- GIVE SBY-JK A SIX FOR TRYING
- THE END OF RI'S DEMOCRACY OR A REBIRTH OF PLURALISM? - AHMAD JUNAIDI
- COUNTY PARTY SECRETARIES
- THOUGHT FOR FOOD
- CHALLENGES ABOUND IN VULNERABLE AREAS
- PILLARS OF MA'S CROSS-STRAITS POLICY
- KNOW-IT-ALL ATTITUDE - BY MICHELE A. BERDY
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THE PIONEER
EDIT DESK
TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT
HURRIYAT MUST ABANDON SEPARATISM
First, the Union Government will have to ensure that dialogue is not limited to those who are part of the political mainstream. Frankly, it makes little sense to sit across the table with the National Conference, the BJP, or, for that matter, even the PDP, and discuss the "problem of Jammu & Kashmir". This is not to suggest that sections of the State's population or some shades of opinion should be kept out of the dialogue process; that would be self-defeating and Mr Chidambaram has rightly stressed the "need to hold consultations with all sections". But the most important section which needs to be convinced of its folly is the one which aggressively promotes the State's separation from the Union. Which brings us to the second point: Are the separatists willing to talk? If they are indeed agreeable to the idea of dialogue with the Centre to settle contentious issues, what are the terms of reference of their participation in talks? Needless to say, these terms must conform to the Constitution of India. There cannot be any fruitful dialogue if there are no pre-conditions. This, then, is the third point: The separatists will have to accept the provisions of the Constitution of India and abjure violence as well as denounce the jihad sponsored by Pakistan against India to make the talks meaningful, or else it will be no more than a futile exercise.
There have been several attempts in the past to solve the "problem of Jammu & Kashmir" through dialogue; on each occasion, the Centre's efforts, no doubt sincere and well meaning, have foundered on the rock of Hurriyat's obduracy. If Mr Chidambaram is so confident of achieving what has till now seemed impossible, we cannot but assume that the Hurriyat has signalled its willingness to give up the platform of violent separatist politics and hostility towards the Union of India. If the assumption is misplaced, then so is the Home Minister's confidence in negotiating a settlement. For, little or no purpose is served by fudging issues, especially when Jammu & Kashmir is concerned.
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THE PIONEER
KILLED FOR BEING HINDU
WILL POLICE GET AWAY WITH MURDER?
The shocking apathy of the authorities in Jammu & Kashmir with respect to the custodial death of Rajneesh Sharma deserves to be condemned in the harshest of terms. There is no denying that the death of the 35-year-old businessman from Jammu under mysterious circumstances in Srinagar's Ram Munshi Bagh police station, where he was found hanging, has more to it than what meets the eye. Rajneesh was picked up by the police on the night of September 29 from his brother Pawan Sharma's house. He was found dead on October 5. Though the police claim that Rajneesh committed suicide, the post-mortem report suggests that he had been tortured in custody. Custodial deaths are a matter of serious concern. They amount to grave human rights violation. Each and every such death deserves to be thoroughly investigated and the policemen under whose watch they take place must be made answerable. But what sets Rajneesh Sharma's death apart from straightforward police barbarity are the underlying circumstances. Back in August Rajneesh had married Amina Yousaf, a Kashmiri Muslim. Amina adopted Hinduism and took the name Aanchal Sharma. However, the marriage did not go down well with Rajneesh's parents-in-law. Reports suggest that the couple was routinely harassed by Aanchal's father and brothers. Following Rajneesh's death, Aanchal has accused them of conspiring with the police to 'murder' her husband.
It is unfortunate that neither has the Jammu & Kashmir Government been seen to be coming down heavily on the policemen involved nor has it bothered to institute a fair and speedy probe into the incident. The routine magisterial inquiry is no more than hogwash. It is the lack of urgency on the part of authority that is cause for concern. It is precisely because the response of the Government to the incident has been lukewarm that it has been drawing criticism from all quarters. Had the Omar Abdullah Government been more proactive, things would not have come to this pass with Aanchal threatening to immolate herself if those behind her husband's murder are not brought to justice. The Jammu & Kashmir Government, under the leadership of Mr Abdullah, should have ideally viewed this as an opportunity to showcase its sincerity and credibility. By moving quickly it could have pre-empted what appear to be credible charges of being insensitive to the problems of the Hindu minority in the State. Now it is essentially in damage-control mode. Nonetheless, the State Government can still turn things around if it so chooses. It must immediately order a CBI inquiry into the custodial death. If it doesn't, then the lapse would be too glaring to ignore. If Srinagar can be sensitive to Shopian, there is no reason for it to ignore the sensitivities of Jammu.
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THE PIONEER
COLUMN
WHEN SILENCE TELLS A STORY
BALBIR K PUNJ
He and his kith and kin were hounded for over a month. No human rights organisation came to their defence. On the fateful night of September 29, the lawless arm of the law finally caught up with him. He was whisked away from Jammu to Srinagar. A week later — on October 6 — his body was found hanging in the Ram Munshi Bagh police station in Srinagar. The police said it was suicide. Just five weeks after their marriage, his bride became a widow.
Rajneesh Sharma's only crime was that he was a Hindu from Jammu who had fallen in love with a Muslim woman from the Valley. He did not convert to Islam. Instead, the girl, Amina Yousaf, adopted Hinduism and took the name Aanchal Sharma after marriage. Her father, Mohammad Yousaf, a Sub-Inspector in the Sales Tax Vigilance Department in Srinagar, could not reconcile himself with this. At his instance, the helpful State police and the pliable, communalised administration came down heavily on Rajneesh and his family.
"My father, who works with the Vigilance Department of the State Government, knows how to arm-twist the law. He must have bribed the policemen to kill my husband," Aanchal told the media in Jammu. "They brutally tortured my husband and killed him in cold blood," she added. While the local media covered this macabre tragedy in detail, the national dailies, with the exception of The Pioneer, almost blacked it out.
The torture marks on Rajneesh's body, seen by scores of people on its arrival in Jammu exposed the brutality the policemen practised. There were cigarette burn marks all over. His nails had been pulled out. Other evidence of torture suggests that he was given the option of giving up either the woman he loved or his faith. The courage Rajneesh showed in the face of such torture — which has been confirmed by post-mortem as well — needs to be commended.
True, custodial deaths are not rare in this country. But in Rajneesh's case there is a communal angle to it. It is ironical that the same Kashmir Valley witnessed protests over the murder of tow Muslim women in Shopian. But the horrific custodial death of a Hindu man was treated with indifference. There have been numerous instances of Muslim men marrying Hindu women after converting them to Islam. Such marriages are happening all over the country. But the police are never called to intervene and the conversion to Islam is welcomed. Yet, if anyone converts the other way, all hell breaks loose.
The question here is why don't the self-styled liberals in the country stand up and condemn the Muslim community for its allergy to someone from their own community converting to another faith although it welcomes conversions to Islam.
There are several instances of individual families and communities of all description in the country seeking to undo inter-community marriages and even punish couples involved in them. In such cases civil society and the police are supposed to protect the couples. Where individuals or communities inflict punishment on these couples, the police are supposed to investigate the deaths and prosecute the perpetrators. Civil society is expected to stand by the victims. So why is civil society silent on Rajneesh's case?
Srinagar bursts into flames whenever someone is killed in the crossfire between security personnel and terrorists. But there have been no protests over Rajneesh's death in Srinagar. The Omar Abdullah Government has done nothing to act against the murderers. As a mere formality, two low-ranking policemen have been placed under suspension and orders have been issued for a magisterial inquiry into the custodial death.
There is something sinister behind this apathy. It would appear that someone is trying to give the message that Jammu & Kashmir is 'autonomous' or in someway out of the orbit of Indian law. As the militants and the separatists push their agenda, the Hindus of Jammu are being treated as second class citizens who cannot even depend on the protection of the law. In many Islamic countries this kind of a situation is normal.
Perhaps Rajneesh's murder is not even a crime in the eyes of the authorities in Jammu & Kashmir. Otherwise, the 'sensitive' majority community would have definitely protested against the actions of the police in Srinagar. The blame for this state of affairs does not lie with a particular community as such or the individuals therein. The blame lies with the system that keeps the community insular and builds high walls to protect it from the winds of change, and the 'secularists' who conveniently look the other way when such incidents occur.
Let us contrast the indifference towards Rajneesh's death case with how civil society reacted in Kolkata when an influential and rich Hindu, Ashok Todi, was accused of getting the police to help him deal with a Muslim man, Rizwanur Rahman, who dared to marry his daughter. The people of Kolkata, irrespective of their religion, rose in protest. Some of India's greatest intellectuals went and forced the Government to order an impartial probe which led to the prosecution of both Todi and the police officers who colluded with him.
Contrast Kolkata's reaction with the deafening silence in Srinagar and Delhi over Rajneesh's custodial death. The victim is from Jammu & Kashmir's minority community. Will Rajneesh have to become a Rizwanur to get justice in India?
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THE PIONEER
COLUMN
ISLAM DEBASES WOMEN
TRINA JOSHI
Corporal punishment may sound medieval to most of us in the 21st century, but it is still a reality for a considerable size of the global population, especially those who follow Islam. The world has moved ahead in time with respect to upholding democratic values and dignity of men and women, but the Islamic world is yet to catch up. The flogging sentence handed down to a Malaysian model for drinking beer exemplifies the atavism of Muslims.
In Pahang, one of the three Malaysian States where Muslims are flogged for consuming alcohol, part-time model Kartiaka Sari Dewi Shukarno was sentenced to six lashes and fined $1,400 for drinking at a night club in 2007 by a Sharia'h High Court. After an interim order to stop the execution until after the holy month of Ramadan, the decision was upheld by the Chief Justice of the Islamic High Court in September. The final date of the punishment being carried out has not been announced as yet.
Ms Shukarno is not the only Muslim to meet this fate. The flogging of 150 women and 50 men in Maldives is another case in point. They pleaded guilty to committing adultery. In Sudan, 10 women were canned for wearing trousers. Not even teenagers are spared lashes. An 18-year-old girl fainted after receiving 100 lashes for having sex with two different men.
Flagellation as punishment is disproportionate to crime of any magnitude. Its supporters may contend that flogging is just to teach a lesson by way of humiliating and hurting the offender. But that is not true. There is need for Muslims to reflect on the inherent violent tendencies of Islam. To teach the right moral values by way of flogging will only breed violence, defeating the very purpose as violence is itself an immoral act.
Religious codes are mostly inspired by the prevailing conditions of the time. If Sharia'h permits flogging, as claimed by the 'custodians' of Islamic law, then it is time for the community to revisit those laws in the light of true democratic values practised by civilised beings today. Legal system has progressed so much that there are certainly other ways of teaching the right way.
In the name of protecting their religion, Muslims are committing a crime by condoning a punishment that debases human beings and infringes their civil rights. Such cruelty is completely out of sync with the world which is striving to attain peace.
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THE PIONEER
OPED
CRUSH THE RED TERROR
AT LAST THE UNION GOVERNMENT IS WAKING UP TO THE FEARSOME REALITY OF THE TERRORISM UNLEASHED BY MAOISTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. AN ALL-OUT WAR AGAINST LEFT-WING EXTREMISM HAS BEEN PLANNED. BUT THIS WAR CAN BE WON ONLY IF IT IS TAKEN TO ITS LOGICAL CONCLUSION
KALYANI SHANKAR
The Maoists are once again on the rampage, killing innocent people and targeting security personnel and national infrastructure. Over the years the number of security personnel and civilians killed by the insurgents has gone up substantially. So much so even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted at the Directors-General of Police conference last month that Left-wing extremism is "the gravest internal security threat" to the country. While saying so Mr Singh made a frank admission that not much success has been achieved in containing the menace and the violence perpetrated by the Maoists is on the rise. To counter the threat a nuanced strategy and a holistic approach are required, he said.
However, Mr Singh is not the first Prime Minister to have made such a statement. In the past few decades every Prime Minister talked about the need to tackle Red terror. Unfortunately, despite this realisation, the Maoists — overtly or covertly — continue to run a parallel Government in the areas they hold control on by solving land disputes on their own and imposing taxes on the villagers. According to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Maoists have presence in 18 of the 28 States and they are responsible for 90 per cent of the violence in the country.
The Maoist movement started during the 1960s in the Naxalbari region of West Bengal and soon spread to other neighbouring States of Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Today the Red Corridor has spread its wing far and wide to Maharashtra and down south to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
So how did it manage to expand so far? The Prime Minister put it succinctly, "Despite its sanguinary nature, the Maoists managed to retain the support of a section of the tribal communities and the poorest of the poor in many affected areas. It has influence among certain sections of the civil society, the intelligentsia and the youth. It still retains a certain élan. All this adds to the complexity of the problem."
Still our Governments have been unable to contain the Maoists? It is because they know that the authorities are not coordinated and cannot act at once. Incidents like Jehanabad jail break and the recent beheading of a police officer in Jharkhand are classic examples of their behaviour. Singur and Nandigram show their hold on the villagers. They target corrupt officials and politicians. Their method of killing is gruesome. Villagers support them out of fear. Jobless youth in badly underdeveloped areas get attracted to their concept. They have their own network and operate in an orchestrated manner. Maoists kill political leaders and take hostages, kidnap officers, blast railway tracks, indulge in arson looting, jail breaks and, in short, adopt guerilla warfare.
They operate from remote tribal areas where the police have limited or no reach. The Maoists claim to champion the cause of the poor and landless and manage to fund their activities from collection of compulsory donations from industrialists, contractors and land lords.
Alarmed by the growing menace the Centre now wants to change its strategy in dealing with the Maoists. The suggestion of hawks to delink the anti-Maoist drives from development seems to have found favour with the Home Minister. The priority is to first clear the area from the Maoist influence before undertaking development works. With the Union Government hinting at a massive operation against the Maoists has provoked them to resort to more killings. The capture of some of their top leaders and seven Polit Bureau members has also angered them which is apparent from their recent mindless violence.
Perhaps the Government is looking back to 1971 when massive anti-Maoist operations with the help of the Army were used to stop their illegal activities. However, times have changed and so have Maoists' modus operandi. They have improved methods of communication, own upgraded arms and remain secretive about their plans. The Home Ministry has ruled out Army deployment against the Maoists and it will be the paramilitary forces which will form the buffer zone.
However, before launching such a drive, the Government has to ensure certain things. First of all preparations for any anti—Maoist drive should be effective enough to take it to the end. Second, the Government must make sure that the local people are taken into confidence. Coordination between the Centre and the concerned State is vital to fight against the Maoists and intelligence sharing among the Maoist-affected States should be ensured.
The Union Government seems to have realised the urgency to counter the Maoists and with local authorities it has launched a huge publicity campaign to make people aware of the Maoist menace. But more than strategy and resources it is the will power of the Government that will ensure a decisive victory against the Maoists.
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THE PIONEER
OPED
CREATING A WIN-WIN FORMULA
PLOTTING VICTORY ON THE CRICKET FIELD IS NO DIFFERENT FROM CHARTING THE COURSE OF A WAR FOUGHT WITH MODERN WEAPONS. STRATEGY IS IMPORTANT IN BOTH. IS BCCI LISTENING?
PRAFULL GORADIA
Defeats will come and victories will go whether for the Indian cricket team or any other. The crucial element of any combat is to be in step with the challenge of the game. While ODIs are being played with enthusiasm, the mindset of many a captain is still moulded by the experience of Test cricket. The ODI is a game of the batsman — he is the attacker, he wins or loses the match. Whereas Test matches depend more on bowlers, they are still discussed as pace attack or spin attack and so on. The role of the bowler is to take wickets by giving away minimum runs. Batting is looked upon as the team's defence; score as many runs as you can. If not, remain at the crease so that if one cannot win, the match can be dragged to a draw.
The ODI has no concept of a draw. It allows 300 balls in the course of which the batsmen must score as many runs as possible. It matters little whether only one wicket is lost or 10. To that extent bowlers have limited responsibility of taking wickets. By the same token, they have the duty to minimise the runs being scored by the opponents. Keeping the scoring down is the crux of a bowler's function in an ODI. Bapu Nadkarni, who played for India in many Test matches, would be the role model of any ODI bowler. Every ball he bowled was a good length and most of the time it headed for the middle stump. He could not turn the ball nor did he try to very much. Flighting the ball was not his style either.
He seldom took a wicket but could bowl 20 or more maiden overs in a row. That is just what is needed in an ODI and a new incarnation of Nadkarni would be worth his weight in gold in this regard. The opponents are bound to lose their patience, try to force scoring shots and get themselves out. Or not score enough and their team could lose. Where is the need for a speed merchant who swings in or out or both ways? In endeavouring to take wickets, the bowler may go wayward now and then resulting in runs being scored.
Why not instead reduce the speed, control line, length and bounce of the ball with the sole aim of preventing the batsman from playing scoring strokes. Similarly, slow bowlers, in trying to deceive the batsman by spinning, breaking or flighting, may bowl more scoring balls than wicket taking ones. Let the batsman take his own wicket by hitting out accurate balls. All in all, negative bowling should be order of ODIs.
Cricket coaches and captains should stop thinking of selecting 11 players to play an ODI. Conceptually, they ought to keep in mind 52 roles. The wicket-keeper could play two roles, that of a batsman also. In the ICC Champions Trophy match against West Indies, MS Dhoni also bowled and took a wicket! The remaining 10 men can hypothetically play five roles each: That of a first rate fielder, a batsman with both hands and a bowler with both arms. Sourabh Ganguly could bat as a lefty and bowl as a right arm bowler. If trained from childhood and an aptitude to do so can make this happen.
There are any number of cricketers who are potentially ambidextrous. It is a question of the Board of Control for Cricket in India sending out a message that the selectors would prefer comprehensive all-rounders.
The mindset needs a change. One had not seen a reverse handed pull to the third man until Mohammad Azharuddin began to do so. Until Jam Ranji started cutting, glancing and pulling the ball, few deliberate scoring shots were played behind the wicket. Batsmen tended to hit the ball in front of the wicket and not behind. Moreover, teams had long tails of specialist bowlers who seldom chased the ball, in the belief that they should conserve their energies for bowling. That fielding is really not their function was the general acceptance.
However, times have changed since then and now the best of bowlers try to field like any other player. Most of the best cricket teams today have a combination of five all-rounders, five brilliant fielders and a wicket-keeper batsman. If every one of the 10 players were a comprehensive all-rounder, imagine what will be the beauty of the game!
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THE PIONEER
OPED
IN MOSCOW, SOVIET PAST LOOMS LARGE
TOTALITARIANISM HAS NOT ENTIRELY DISAPPEARED WITH THE EMPIRE BUILT BY STALIN, WRITES JIM HEINTZ
Tourists at the souvenir stands on the edge of Red Square smirk and chuckle as they buy T-shirts emblazoned with Lenin's glowering visage and Soviet propaganda posters. But 20 years ago, the Soviet Union was no joke.
For a history-minded visitor, Moscow may be one of the world's most challenging destinations. In a city now full of consumer goods, one of the hardest things to find is a sense of how bleak life was under the hammer and sickle.
Unlike Rome or Athens, where the tourist is called upon to imagine the glory that once was, in Moscow you have to visualise what wasn't there. Walk into a food store and imagine the shelves empty; picture the store without a clever name or attractive logo — its sign would have read only "meat" or "milk" or "products."
These days it's unlikely that one's tour guide briefs the secret police at the end of the day. Your hotel may not be cute or comfy, but it's probably not overtly scary like the Rossiya, a signature Soviet monstrosity that's now a vacant lot. In a way, this may be kind of a disappointment: Going to the Evil Empire had more cachet than a trip to the Overpriced Capital.
Nonetheless, there are a few places where visitors can feel like the clock's been rolled back to long before the Berlin Wall fell, and get a small taste of totalitarianism, of how the Soviet system quietly bullied even its most submissive citizens.
The most potent site is Lenin's Mausoleum, the epicentre of the overwhelming blind devotion to a man whose every utterance was treated as revealed word. Despite repeated suggestions that it should be closed and Lenin's mummified corpse buried, the mausoleum is still open 15 hours a week.
And it's still a profoundly unsettling experience. Guards take umbrage at any even mildly disrespectful behaviour, admonishing a recent visitor to take his hands out of his pockets. The corpse, under a glass cover, shows a sickly white face set off with garishly rouged cheeks. Visitors get only about 30 seconds to take a look as they walk by, the point apparently being to make a show of devotion rather than to reflect on what Lenin did.
As institutional and deferential as this may seem, it's less so than it used to be. The line of pilgrims used to snake across Red Square; now, visitors marshal in an adjacent alley, as if setting out for a slightly shameful activity.
Soviet authorities took every opportunity to lecture their people on the regime's purported nobility and accomplishments and to exhort them to live up to the image — not only in words but in images. Nowhere is that more visible today than in the older stations of Moscow's subway, masterpieces of Stalinist all-encompassing propaganda.
The Kievskaya ring-line station is a favourite of connoisseurs. Well-executed mosaics of diligent tractor-driver brigades and collective-farm workers dancing at harvest-time festoon the pillars. Another shows Lenin editing the revolutionary newspaper Iskra , and nearby some apparatchiks open a huge hydroelectric plant, their faces showing benevolent expressions that may not have been seen in real life.
The station called VDNKh isn't much for such decor, but what's above it is perhaps the ultimate example of Soviet propaganda kitsch. The acronym stands for Exhbition of the Achievements of the People's Economy, a 500-acre (202-hectare) spread of huge, elaborately decorated pavilions begun during Stalin's time.
Although many are less than 60 years old, the pavilions' architecture is rooted in styles from centuries past, resembling pashas' palaces and Egyptian temples; one even seems to combine elements of mosques and cathedrals. But look closer and see the hammers-and-sickles entwined in the filigree; the friezes and statues are not of gods and mythical heroes, but of workers.
The anachronistic architecture reflects the conservative, even reactionary, strain within Soviet authorities' claims to be boldly pushing into the future. Instead, the future came to VDNKh and worked strange changes.
After the Soviet collapse, most of the pavilions were stripped of their propaganda exhibits and turned over to small vendors. The central pavilion — a classic Stalinist Gothic tower — still contains a Russian ethnographic exhibition, but it's difficult to find amid the kiosks selling cheap watches, glow-in-the-dark panties and other cheerfully tacky goods that would have given a dour apparatchik a fit.
None of these sites can replicate the Soviet experience for more than a few moments, but for many visitors that's more than enough.
"I don't think I would have liked it here then," said Assumpta Abondo, a visitor from Dubai doing some desultory shopping at a souvenir stand.
For her companion Yasmin Mazouzi, the problem isn't that the Soviet experience is hard to find, but that it still seems so prevalent.
"The people are rude, policemen stare at you," she said. "You're a bit scared, really."
AP
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MAIL TODAY
COMMENT
HIGH TIME WE GOT OUR ACT RIGHT ON CHINA
ALL the while when the Indian government spent almost all of its foreign policy energies on Pakistan, its bigger neighbour in the east, China, did just about everything to irk India in the event of a diplomatic stand- off between the two nations.
It upgraded roads in Tibet, has started building dams on its side of the Brahmaputra and accepted mega contracts in Pakistan- occupied Kashmir that involve river diversion projects, large power plants and even construction of highways. At the Asian Development Bank, it almost succeeded in blocking a $ 2.9 billion loan to India only because a part of it — $ 60 million — was to be used for an irrigation project in Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian state China lays claims on. It was also the only country that threatened to block a vote in favour of India at the Nuclear Suppliers' Group which authorised the sale of nuclear raw material and technology as part of the India- US civilian nuclear deal.
At the same time, India's single- minded obsession with Pakistan has left New Delhi with no ability other than to give a kneejerk reaction to circumstances orchestrated by Beijing in both the western sector in Ladakh as well as the eastern front in Arunachal Pradesh. Ergo, it is not clear whether the ministry of external affairs or the defence ministry or the Prime Minister's Office has a well- thought out China policy, or how deeply the three key departments even engage each other on this issue. So, the question we are forced to ask ourselves is: who runs our China policy? Indeed, is there one? India must wake up and act before China wrests the diplomatic initiative, something it has partly managed to do with its recent statements on various issues, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh and then asking for a Prime Ministerial conference on the sidelines of ASEAN summit later this month.
It's not that New Delhi does not have the arsenal to come up with a coherent China policy. India's foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, is one of the country's foremost experts on China. In addition, there are several think tanks and Sinologists that can draft such a document without compromising New Delhi's stated positions.
With China upping the ante by building a dam on its side of the Brahmaputra, a diplomatic stand- off cannot be ruled out.
While it seems unavoidable in the present circumstances, we only hope India is well prepared.
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MAIL TODAY
COMMENT
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
THE humble eggplant or brinjal is all set to undergo a high tech metamorphosis in India, with the approval of its genetically modified version for commercial application.
The GM brinjal which has received the nod of the biotech regulator contains the same Cry1Ac toxin from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis which is present in the GM cotton introduced a few years ago in the country. It may be alright to have a foreign gene in cotton if it helps the crop withstand pest attacks because cotton is not going to be eaten by humans.
But GM brinjal is edible and we don't yet know what impact this crop can have on human beings. No human trials have been conducted — just as they are done before introducing a drug in the market — for this variety of brinjal. This is very crucial because with GM brinjal — and other such food crops which are awaiting clearance — we are allowing genetic material from another species to enter the human food chain. Anti- GM groups cite studies done on rats and chickens that have shown that GM brinjal causes diarrhoea, increases water consumption, decreases liver weight and the ' liver to body' ratio.
These are all serious health impacts. The environment ministry panel is only concerned about the impact of GM brinjal on the environment. Secondly, we are introducing a food crop with a foreign gene in it without giving consumers a choice because India does not yet have a labeling system for GM foods. And even if we have a labeling system, how are you going to label GM brinjals or GM okra ( the humble bhindi )? The government seems in undue haste to allow GM foods without giving satisfying answers to all such questions. Hopefully, environment minister Jairam Ramesh and his counterpart in the health ministry will take a decision that is in favour of consumers and not of corporates or scientists.
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MAIL TODAY
US JUST CAN'T LEAVE
AFGHANS TO THEIR FATE
BY VIKRAM SOOD
IT was expected that Gen McChrystal would seek more troops for Afghanistan in his assessment report of June 2009 and that he would scapegoat India for doing good work among the Afghan people. The report also showed up that, eight years into the Long War, the Americans have still not understood the culture of the people they ostensibly went to help while securing themselves.
It was clear from Gen McChrystal's observations that the Americans were still groping for a strategy against their enemy.
President Obama will now have to live up to his Nobel image as he fights his necessary war. But he is surrounded by military men who determine policy in Afghanistan; not Clinton nor Holbrooke. His advisers include retired Lt General Karl Eikenberry, currently Ambassador in Kabul, Lt Gen Douglas Luke, Presidential Adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan, James Jones a retired Marine Corps general is the National Security Adviser and former CIA Chief, Robert Gates is the Secretary Defence. By inclination they will ask for more troops and funds.
Meanwhile, a Norman Mailer style campaign reminiscent of the Vietnam war era has begun in America.
The argument is that Afghanistan means little to Americans who do not even know where it is located. The fear that if Afghanistan falls to the Taliban then Pakistan will surely follow, is misplaced.
The idea of bombing the country and then offering aid is considered hypocritical and ineffective. Andrew Bacevich begins his most recent article with the comment " No serious person thinks that Afghanistan — remote, impoverished, barely qualifying as a nation state — seriously matters to the United States." But surely the Americans went into Afghanistan to make Americans safe from Al Qaeda and to ensure that no terrorist attack would take place from that country against the US and its friends.
DILEMMA
The dilemma is that losing is not an option for the US; stalemate is strategic defeat for a superpower; troop augmentation to the extent required is unacceptable, and even a surge of 40000 is difficult. The much talked of Afghan army is still a ghost army. Ann Jones in her report in the Nation ( Sep 21, 2009) describes the Afghan Army as a figment of Washington's imagination. It does not exist in the numbers claimed, it is poorly trained, many of the recruits/ trainees are repeats who come back with new names for the money, the food and the equipment they can take away and sell. It is a frightening thought to have a man trained with rubber guns for three weeks, then given the real gun and sent off to fight battles for his country.
This became apparent when the Helmand campaign began last July and the ANA could muster only 600 men, far short of the 90000 that are supposed to be enlisted. The hope that Afghanistan will suddenly have an efficient 134000 strong army in two years is very much a false hope.
What should worry Washington is that now there are reports of demoralisation and self- doubts among some sections of the US forces. The state of the Afghan police is even worse with 60 per cent suspected to be on drugs. Ill- equipped and illtrained, they are easy pickings for the Taliban. No wonder Pakistan will continue to hedge its bets with the Taliban, targeting only those that they see threatening them. They are aware also that NATO countries may not be able last out in Afghanistan much beyond 2010.
Vice President Joe Biden's alternative plan to resort to off shore targeting of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan does not make sense since the Al Qaeda, the Pakistan Taliban and the Afghan Taliban hierarchy are all comfortably located in NWFP, FATA, Balochistan or elsewhere in Pakistan. It is obvious to all that the US/ NATO is staring at a stalemate in Afghanistan.
The US has already spent 50 per cent more time in this war than it did in the two world wars with an estimated military expenditure of US $ 4 billion a month and no light at the end of the tunnel.
There is no getting away from several aspects of this arduous campaign.
The US needs to have substantially increased troop deployment if it wants to subdue the Taliban. There is just no other alternative.
Worse than no troops is an inadequate force which runs the risk of military defeat or overkill tactics.
The present spin portraying the Taliban as a local territorial problem that does not threaten the US is patently shortsighted and leaves no one in doubt that the US is preparing to negotiate with the very force that it has been battling for eight years and which has now regained dominance in varying degrees over 70- 80 per cent of Afghan territory. Negotiating now will be appeasement.
Instead be prepared for the long haul. Any dithering now in Washington will only strengthen the hands of the fundamentalists in the Pak Army.
The Afghans do not understand democracy the way the Americans do but to leave them now in the hands of the Taliban would mean leaving them in the hands of the Al Qaeda, under a strong Sunni Wahhabi Islam preached in Saudi Arabia and increasingly in Pakistan.
ASSISTANCE
The American forces must not give the impression that they are fighting for themselves. This makes it America's war and a war of occupation.
Instead, foreign forces must fight for the Afghans and show it. This means spend more money on them instead of on the forces or the for- profit private military companies or the notfor- profit NGOs. It would be difficult for the ISAF/ NATO to protect themselves without protecting the Afghan from the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Apart from sheer military force, in a country where 40 per cent of the men are unemployed it is not enough to dole out money. They need jobs and the dignity that goes with it. We cannot get rid of the opium — which is a source of revenue for the Taliban and livelihood for the peasant — unless we simultaneously provide alternative livelihood for the Afghan peasant.
NEIGHBOURHOOD
The fear is that unable to go in for the long haul, the US may opt for a surge, a quick thrust, parry and withdraw after proclaiming victory. The US is realising, perhaps a bit too late, that Pakistan never intended to be the most suitable boy, who would let his benefactors down repeatedly. In tremendous difficulties in the Punjab, the Pakistan Army is unlikely to be willing to do anything substantial for the Americans, citing dangers from its traditional enemy. It is not that the Pakistan Army fears an assault by the Indian forces but for them to move troops away from its eastern borders would mean that the threat from India is minimal and this would undercut its very own primacy. Then there is China, waiting in the wings for the Americans to get sufficiently unpopular and then move in with its deep pockets. Pakistan would be comfortable with an increasing Chinese profile in Afghanistan but not with an Indian profile.
This is where India comes in. It must stay the course in Afghanistan and concentrate on the various infrastructure projects in the country — roads, dams, bridges, communications, schools, hospitals, power stations and transmission lines. Training of the Afghan Army and police, civil servants, education in various disciplines can be handled by the Indians. This would be far more economical and relevant to local conditions and requirements.
Pakistan will respond in its own way. There will be more bombs and attacks on Indian interests in Afghanistan. Sending troops to Afghanistan is not an option.
Do we back out or do we hunker down, more determined than before?
The writer is a former chief of the Research & Analysis Wing
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MAIL TODAY
THE LAHORE LOG
US- AF- PAK- INDIA: OPTIONS
FOR WAR OR PEACE
BY NAJAM SETHI
Two significant developments in Pakistan in the last seven days have hit world headlines. They are inter- related. But there is an underlying third dimension that has not been explicitly debated. Therefore we should lay our cards squarely on the table if we are sincerely in quest of workable solutions. Consider.
Pakistan's military leadership has whipped up the religio- nationalist media and opportunist political opposition to attack the Kerry- Lugar Bill as an unacceptable American attempt to undermine Pakistan's sovereignty. But a close look at the Bill's conditions doesn't reveal any extraordinary trespass that is significantly different from past practice during the military regimes of General Zia ul Haq and General Pervez Musharraf.
Why has GHQ rapped the US administration and the Zardari regime? What is its message to both? But the Pakistan army is also on the receiving end. The Al- Qaeda- Taliban network has smacked it squarely where it hurts. Four major terrorist attacks in seven days, including the audacious daylong siege of GHQ, and 114 killed, including a brigadier and a colonel. What is the message of the terrorists to the army's leadership? Is there a link between these two developments that explains what is going on? Far away from Rawalpindi and Waziristan and Kabul, a debate is raging in Washington DC. The US national security establishment led by the Pentagon in DC and General Stanley McChrystal in Kabul wants a 40,000- troop surge in Afghanistan. But the liberals in the White House, National Security Council and media who devised President Obama's winning constituency for change and peace want the opposite— they want to bring the boys back home and let Afghanistan boil in its own sordid juices just as it did in the 1990s after America quit the scene without a backward glance. There is now a third option on the table put by the US vice- president, Jo Biden.
H e wants the status quo about troop levels to be maintained.
But he also wants US war- strategy to focus on the Al- Qaeda- Taliban network in Waziristan and Baluchistan rather than in Afghanistan. In other words, he is advising a defensive and holding posture in Afghanistan and an offensive and forward position in Pakistan. This is why there is increasing debate in the US media, think tanks and among defence and political analysts of targeting Mulla Umer's " Quetta Shura" in Baluchistan.
This is also another way of pressuring the Pakistan army to go into Waziristan all guns blazing, stop protecting the Quetta Shura and finish the job itself.
Here's the rub. The Pakistan army doesn't like General McChrystal's idea of an American troop surge or Mr Biden's notion of an aggressive posture inside Pakistan's tribal areas. Emotional issues of " occupation" and " sovereignty" aside, both options would amount to the same thing for GHQ: if successful, they would strengthen the current Washington- Kabul- New Delhi axis now calling the shots in Afghanistan and deprive Pakistan's military of political leverage based on select pro- Pakistan and anti- India Taliban or Pashtun " assets" in any future political dispensation in its backyard.
The Pakistan military is also uneasy at the prospect of launching full- scale operations in Waziristan without first having fully mopped up Swat and motivated its soldiers for the tougher task ahead. The onset of winter and the regrouping of the Pakistan Taliban under Baitullah Masud's successor Hakeemullah make the task even more daunting.
Obviously, the Al- Qaeda- Taliban network doesn't like these options either. As if to drive their point home, the Afghan Taliban launched a well- planned and ferocious attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul and the Pakistani Taliban a desperate and audacious one on GHQ in Rawalpindi last week. This is meant to say that, far from digging in to withstand the proposed US- Pakistan offensive in Waziristan, the Al- Qaeda- Taliban network is determined to carry the battle to the heartland of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, India is pointing to an ISI hand in the attack on its Kabul embassy and Pakistan is noting a RAW shadow behind the attack on GHQ. All that is needed now to scuttle these two America- sponsored options in the war against the Al- Qaeda- Taliban network is a terrorist attack inside India that unleashes the demons of Mumbai and brings the two countries to the brink of war, diverting and diminishing attention from America's " war against terror" and leading to political convulsion and possibly regime change in Pakistan.
T he Pakistani military leadership is on the horns of a dilemma. If it concedes the proposed American strategy to confront the Al- Qaeda- Taliban network, it risks losing its long- term " assets" for political adjustment in Afghanistan. But if it balks over a bold new operation in Waziristan alongside the Americans, it will suffer a blow to its wounded pride over the attack on GHQ. The media that backed it to the hilt over the redherring of the Kerry- Lugar Bill to deflect American pressure to up the ante against the Afghan Taliban in Waziristan is now demanding a similar " honour- saving" exercise from the army against the Pakistan Taliban. The problem, of course, is that, while we may talk of different categories and targets of Taliban, we are in fact dealing with a dangerous nexus between Al- Qaeda, Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban and Pakistan jihadi and sectarian parties and groups that has become one network with one main objective – to drive the Americans out of Afghanistan, seize Kabul and then turn their guns and guerillas on Pakistan in order to create instability and anarchy and try to seize a nuclear weapon or two.
Where do we go from here? Clearly and realistically speaking for a host of reasons, the powerful Pakistani military and national security establishment must be part of any regional solution and not be treated as a problem. It must be accorded a greater role in America's roadmap for determining Afghanistan's future as a peaceful and stable state that is friendly and not hostile to Pakistan.
If that doesn't happen, and America chooses to cut it down to size instead via any dependent civilian regime in Pakistan, the odds are that it will strike back, first deliberately as in the case of its attack on the Kerry Lugar Bill, and then desperately, possibly via renewing the spectre of conflict with India and regime change in Pakistan. If that happens, there will be no regional or international winners or losers.
The writer is the editor of Friday Times and The Daily Times ( Lahore)
FICTITIOUS DIARY OF NAWAZ SHARIF
JUGNU MOHSIN
Asif called me and did gila shikva that why Shbaz Saab and Chory Nisar went to see the fauji. I told him that it's all your own faalt. You should have sat dawn with me and done muk mukaa, lain dain, give and take on Charter of Democracy and we would have sarted out everything.
You have pushed me to vaal Asif, I told him. That's why I sent them to see fauji. Asif said don't you know that faujis will never be your lovers. I said I know but I will see them when tam comes. Finally, Asif asked, what is your adwize. I decided not to be blunt but to give dipsomaniac answer so I said, please don't buy any long playing records, hain ji? I have great political abdomen. I decided to make secret trip to Pindi to hob nob with faujis. I arrived in Pindi Mess. There was a function going on there. I started talking to a fauji in civvies. I said " excuse me. Is that buoy standing there your son?" The fauji in civvies said, " no, she is my daughter". I said, " very sorry. I dint know that you are her father". " I am not" said the fauji, " I am her mother". See, in civilian life this sart of thing never happens. There we always know who's who. Then I tried to make further conversation with fauji. I said population is exploding. He said, " no elected government can stop having babies". I said politely, " You are so clever. I'm sure you know how many women are having babies every minute of the day, hain ji? If so, what will you do about it?" Fauji said, " It's Standard Operating Procedure. We will find all those women and order them to stop." To make further conversation I said, " why you never liked shaheed Benazir?" Fauji said, " because if she'd become PM, and with Sonia Gandhi ruling India, whole of subcontinent would have become No Man's Land". Then to be further charming, I said with a polite smile," would you like a Defence and National Security Council?" " Oh yes!!" said the fauji. " In which Defence would you like it? Karachi? Lahore? And how many plots in this Defence will be civilian quota?" I asked. There was no answer from fauji. To make conservation I further asked charmingly, " what do you have against politicians?" Fauji said, " they are all thieves. From smallest to biggest thefts they are doing. From stealing perfumes in shops to taking billions from exchequer. It is all vagrancy". Again I said charmingly, " I'm sorry but I bag to duffer. Stealing perfumes is not vagrancy, it is fragrancy." Desaan vich des Punjab, Nee sayyo, Jivain phhulaan vich phhul gulab, Nee sayyo
NS
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MAIL TODAY
INTERACTIVE
INDIA MUST BEWARE OF BEIJING'S DESIGNS
BY EXPRESSING its objection to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh, China has once again staked its claim over the entire state in front of the international community.
Its aggressive stand on Arunachal Pradesh is aimed to make the state a " disputed area" rather than just a border dispute issue that India rightly thinks it is. India must understand Beijing's dangerous design of internationalising this issue. Earlier, by terming Arunachal Pradesh a " disputed area", Beijing put pressure on the Asian Development Bank to try and stop a loan which India sought for various projects in the state. India's weak protest on the issue also has encouraged China to go all out to make Arunachal Pradesh another Kashmir- like problem.
China has settled all its border disputes with all its neighbours except India. Despite India's repeated attempts to normalise its relations with China, it has again hardened its anti- India stand. After the sudden eruption of unrest and violence in Lhasa and other towns of Tibet last year before the Beijing Olympics, China increased its hostility towards India. China believes that this insurrection was a handiwork of various Tibetan groups based in India.
Thus, repeated incursions of its army into Indian border and its renewed claims on Arunachal Pradesh are clear warnings to New Delhi on its Tibet policy. For India, the dilemma is clear: will New Delhi change its decades- old Tibet policy for normalising its relations with Beijing?
Manoj Parashar via email
IS PAKISTAN REALLY JUST A PIECE OF LAND?
THIS is with reference to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's statement that Pakistan is just another piece of land and that India needlessly gives it too much importance.
May we recall for Mr Gandhi's benefit a statement made by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee about one being able to choose one's friends, but not one's neighbours.
Therefore, not only do we have to live with Pakistan and China next to us, we also would have to deal with their insecurities and inimical attitudes, whether we like it not.
In that sense, India is neither obsessed with Pakistan nor should we consider it just a piece of land. When neighbours fight amongst themselves or when they gang up against a certain individual ( as Pakistan and China seem to have done with India) the " victim" cannot concentrate on anything else.
It will be in his nature to be obsessed about his own security and his family's well- being if his neighbours continue to behave as if he is public enemy No 1. This is precisely the case with India.
New Delhi cannot afford think of anything else because the security of the nation depends on how we tackle Pakistan as it is now the confirmed source of export for terror all over the world.
Therefore to dismiss Pakistan as just another piece of land is not only wrong, it is politically immature.
Ranganathan Ramadass via email
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IMES OF INDIA
COMMENT
TIME TO TALK
The latest salvo in the India-China border contretemps has been fired, this time by New Delhi. The ministry of external affairs's reprimand to Chinese president Hu Jintao is meant as a clear signal. If Beijing continues to bring up development work and Indian politicians' visits to Arunachal Pradesh as undesirable, New Delhi too can turn up the heat on Chinese development work in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Now that New Delhi has made its point, however, it is time to step back, take a breath and consider the issue objectively.
From the Indian perspective, two points must be recognised. China is a rational actor and this is not 1962. The one scenario that would be the most damaging to its global power aspirations would be getting embroiled in a neighbourhood conflict. Neither is this the woefully unprepared Indian military of 1962. Secondly, officials from both countries have set a trade target for $60 billion in 2010. Trade and business flows are where the 21st century action is going to be, rather than jostling over territory. With its eyes on the big prize, Beijing is unlikely to misread this calculus.
This does not mean, of course, that New Delhi should not be vigilant. The scramble to build infrastructure in the border regions, although belated, is welcome. But it ^ and Beijing ^ would do well to shift the emphasis to the former part of Theodore Roosevelt's injunction: Talk softly but carry a big stick. Both sides have focused on the latter part, but needless rhetoric serves neither country. The pity is that this is occurring at a time when both have seen evidence of the advantages to be gained from collaborative effort.
It's high time to resolve the border dispute between the two countries. But even if that can't be achieved in the near term, the issue can be bracketed while the two nations work on areas of common interest.
Burgeoning trade ties between them should not only be developed, they could evolve into common negotiating positions at international fora on issues of trade or climate. India and China also have a mutual interest in seeing Afghanistan and Pakistan stabilised and freed of the spectre of Islamist fundamentalism. New Delhi's concerns are long-standing. But Beijing has lately been threatened by al-Qaeda, and it has shown concern at the possible cross-border impact of extremism in its restive Xinjiang province. There's room for India and China to work together even in the Af-Pak theatre, the epicentre of global terrorism.
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TIMES OF INDIA
COMMENT
WIN THE PEACE
The significance of the five-day visit to Sri Lanka by a 10-member delegation of parliamentarians from Tamil Nadu goes beyond the nine-page summation the MPs have come out with, on the plight of nearly 2.53 lakh war-displaced Tamils living in pitiable conditions in congested camps ringed by barbed wire. For, the mission marks the first direct attempt by Tamil Nadu to engage the Sri Lankan government at the political level on its decades-old ethnic problem.
Accustomed for decades to viewing Tamil Nadu with suspicion as a cross-shore base for Tamil separatism, the Sri Lankan government would have found it a novel experience to play host to MPs from the state, especially a team that included members who signed their purported resignation letters from Parliament barely a year ago in protest against the continuance of what turned out to be a decisive war. New Delhi has often been charged with ignoring political opinion in Tamil Nadu while devising its approach to Sri Lanka. But the Manmohan Singh government did much to undo this image by arranging for a political team from the state - albeit, to its discredit, comprising only alliance partners - to gain first-hand knowledge of the conditions of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
The delegation has made an impassioned plea for quick rehabilitation and resettlement of the camp inmates and has reported that the government there intends to resettle 58,000 displaced people in their respective homes within a fortnight, while the remaining, too, would be allowed to go back in phases, subject to progress in ongoing demining operations. In their report, the MPs have packed just enough faith in the Sri Lankan authorities to address the problems of the displaced people in a humanitarian perspective, as well as just enough scepticism to place their sincerity under test until they carry out their promise of early rehabilitation.
Detractors will relish the irony of once-belligerent MPs calling on President Mahinda Rajapaksa - after some of them denounced him as a genocidal annihilator of the Tamil race - and discussing the future of Tamil civilians. Questions, too, are bound to be asked whether the Indian MPs had sought to apply enough pressure on Sri Lanka to find a political settlement that would satisfy Tamil aspirations. While not discounting the merits of the mission as a pragmatic attempt to keep international pressure on Colombo, the DMK and Congress will still have to demonstrate by sustained diplomatic activity that theirs has not been a partisan exercise to win over Tamil sentiments or a drama to prove their commitment to the Tamil cause.
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TIMES OF INDIA
TOP ARTICLE
WORLD WITHOUT HUNGER
For one billion people around the world, the daily effort to grow, buy or sell food is the defining struggle of their lives. This matters to them, and to all of us.
Consider the daily life of the world's typical small farmer. She lives in a rural village in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia or Latin America, and farms a piece of land she does not own. She works all day in a field. If she's lucky, drought, blight or pests don't destroy her crops, and she raises enough to feed her family. She may even have some left over to sell. But there's no road to the nearest market and no one there who can afford to buy from her.
Now let's consider the life of a young man in a crowded city 100 miles from that farmer. He has no job ^ or a job that pays pennies. He goes to the market ^ but the food is rotting, or priced beyond reach. He is hungry, and often angry. She has extra food to sell; he wants to buy it. But that simple transaction can't take place because of complex forces beyond their control.
Meeting the challenge of global hunger is at the heart of what we call "food security" ^ empowering the world's farmers to sow and harvest plentiful crops, effectively care for livestock or catch fish ^ and then ensuring that the food they produce reaches people most in need.
Food security is not only about food. It represents the convergence of complex issues: droughts and floods caused by climate change, swings in the global economy that affect food prices and threaten the fate of vital infrastructure projects, and spikes in the price of oil that increase transportation costs.
But food security is all about security. Chronic hunger poses a threat to the stability of governments, societies and borders. People who are starving or undernourished, have no incomes and can't care for their families are left with feelings of hopelessness and despair. That desperation can lead to tension, conflict and even violence. Since 2007, there have been riots over food in more than 60 countries.
The failures of farming in many parts of the world have a powerful impact on the global economy. Farming is the only or primary source of income for more than three-quarters of the world's poor. When so much of humankind works hard everyday but still can't support their families, the whole world is held back.
The Obama administration sees chronic hunger as a key priority of our foreign policy. Other countries are joining us in this effort. Major industrialised nations have committed more than $22 billion over three years to spur agriculture-led economic growth. And on September 26, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and i co-hosted a gathering of leaders from more than 130 countries to build international support.
The US approach to food security will be informed by our experience with development. The truth is, we have spent too many years and too much money on development projects that have not yielded lasting results. But we have learned from these efforts. We know that the most effective strategies emanate from those closest to the problems, not foreign governments or institutions thousands of miles away. And we know that development works best when it is seen not as aid but as investment.
Our food security initiative will be guided by five principles, which will help us get to the roots of the problem and pursue lasting change. First, we understand there is no one-size-fits-all model for agriculture. So we will work with partner countries to create and implement their plans. Second, we will address the underlying causes of hunger by investing in everything from better seeds to risk-sharing programmes to protect small farmers. Since the majority of the world's farmers are women, it's critical that our investments leverage their ambition and perseverance.
Third, no one entity can eradicate hunger on its own. But if stakeholders work together ^ coordinating on the country, regional and global levels ^ our impact can multiply. Fourth, multilateral institutions have the reach and resources that extend beyond any one country. By supporting their efforts, we will benefit from their expertise. Lastly, we pledge long-term commitment and accountability. To prove it, we will invest in monitoring and evaluation tools that will allow the public to see what we have done.
This effort may take years, even decades, before we reach the finish line. But we pledge our full resources and energies. We will maintain our deep commitment to emergency food assistance, to answer the urgent cry for help when tragedies and disasters take their toll ^ as is happening now in the Horn of Africa, where drought, crop failures and civil war have caused the worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years.
Revitalising global agriculture will not be easy. In fact, it is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive diplomacy and development efforts our country has ever undertaken. But it can be done. It is worth doing. And if we succeed, our future will be more prosperous and more peaceful than our past.
The writer is US secretary of state.
Today is World Food Day.
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TIMES OF INDIA
Q&A
'GULABI HAS A STRONG MESSAGE FOR ALL WOMEN'
Veteran theatre and film actress Umashree won the National Award for her portrayal of Gulabi in Girish Kasaravalli's award-winning Kannada film Gulabi Talkies. She's also known for taking up the cause of weak and exploited women in society. G S Kumar spoke to Umashree:
How challenging was your role in Gulabi Talkies?
Not particularly. With a theatre background and 375 movies behind me, i felt there was no need for special preparation for the role. I observed the people of Kundapura to know more about their lifestyle. The Kunda Kannada they speak is quite different from the Kannada spoken elsewhere. It took a couple of days to learn that. I just gave life to the character.
Would you call this the role of your lifetime? How significant is Gulabi's message?
Gulabi's role was really good. Through my career, i have done comedy, played a vamp, senior citizen, cop and a variety of other roles. That's been the beauty of my career. Gulabi's role symbolises patience ^ she is brave, morally strong and faces life boldly. But she is also a soft-natured woman. This is a strong message for all Women.
Having spent many years in theatre and popular cinema, did you nurture a desire to do meaningful cinema?
Most roles i've done are about the exploitation of weak and downtrodden women. It's great to face up to such situations in life. The best example is the role of Sakavva in the popular Kannada play, Odalala. Similarly, Gulabi faces exploitation, but manages to overcome all hurdles. Such roles are dear to me.
What would your dream role be?
I can't think of any. Perhaps, it could be an aged person with a baby's mind or a nomad. It's surprising that nobody has touched upon the life of nomads who leave their villages for six months to a year and earn their livelihood. It is a good experience to do such roles. Even folk characters have a lot to give to society ^ they are part of our culture. I've become popular thanks to my roles of women from the middle and lower middle classes.
Did you have any screen idols?
Of course, the late thespian Rajkumar as well as Balanna. They were at ease with any role and portrayed a number of characters that are close to our hearts. Be it religious or folk or romantic roles, they were always memorable. That's the inspiration for me.
Do you see a marked change in the portrayal of on-screen women over the years?
Now, there isn't much importance given to a woman's role. Women's roles have just become 'shringarada vasthu' (glamorous object). They always portray negative roles, especially in serials. The sad thing today is that the heroine herself has to do an item number. See to what level we have sunk.
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TIMES OF INDIA
NEW LOOK
TAILOR-MADE TAMASHA
That nippy October afternoon in the late 1940s, the needle-thin tailor Thanu showed up at our buzzy Poonamallee household sporting an inch-tape garland, kindling the delirious Deepawali mood. I was called first for measurement as the eldest. Thanu turned me around, like a buyer inspecting a frisky lamb in the cattle fair, and exclaimed in wonderment: "He has grown up. His shorts can be without braces," thereby affirming my transition from childhood to boyhood and ran his inch-tape along my body, tweaking playfully at will. My granny bullied him into delivering the dress in advance of the D-Day since the previous year it had arrived after the sticky oil bath. The feeble excuse offered was that his wife had delivered twins the previous day. Pregnancy and the consequential delivery being sacrosanct, my granny had pardoned him with angelic sympathy. But my illiberal grandpa did not. "What about this year?" he asked, "Is she pregnant this time with triplets? At this rate, you'll have more kids than the buttons on a sherwani." Thanu bashfully cackled like a hen on a circular run. I loped along beside him to the front door to whisper discreetly, "Please fix the fly buttons properly. I squatted to light a cracker last year and Radha aunty, who was passing by, screeched, 'shame shame'. I looked down with alarm. The fly buttons had fallen and the show was on." Thanu nodded, pinched my thigh playfully and left.
Came Deepawali morning. With no sign of our dress, we had an oil bath, wondering what to wear. "Won't Naragasura take offence if new clothes are not worn?" i asked grandma with a whimper. She smiled mysteriously producing a neat bundle. "What is this?" my equally puzzled grandpa asked. "New dresses," she said. "I knew Thanu's wife will have yet another Deepawali release. She delivered her next promptly last night. I had a spare set stitched by the cantonment guru as a standby because Thanu's delivery is iffy." I picked up the new shorts with a squeal of delight. It was military green, my favourite colour. And Ooooooo! No braces, with buttons fixed firmly especially in the fly. Aha! There will be no 'shame, shame' from any peeking aunty! I wore it with a flourish. I cockily thrust my hands deep into the pockets, assuming the air of an army general. Both hands brushed my bare thighs. Guru had forgotten to stitch the pouches.
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TIMES OF INDIA
JUST FOR KICKS
JUG SURAIYA
My friend Reva - editor and publisher of Sommelier India, the country's first and, so far only, wine magazine - is puzzled. So, presumably, is Sharad Pawar who, according to popular report, owns acres and acres of grape-producing vineyards in the Nashik region. And so would have been Thomas Jefferson, who remarked that no people who drank wine and beer in preference to hard liquor would ever find themselves in dire need of applying en masse for membership to Alcoholics Anonymous. All these very different people are ^ or in Jefferson's case, were ^ advocates of the civilised practice of enjoying the occasional glass of wine. To them, and many others like them, wine does not represent the demon drink. Far from it. Wine is a lyric in liquid form, music turned into moisture, a rhapsody played on the palate. So, how come, they ask, don't more Indians drink wine? Dry days, punitive excise duties and economic downturns notwithstanding, the sales of whisky, rum, vodka, gin and brandy show no signs of decline. On the contrary, they get higher and higher, as presumably do the customers of these products. But, by and large, wine remains a no-no among India's drinking glasses.
And the reason for this is simple: the idiom of wine is all wrong. When asked to 'nose' a wine you aren't meant to snort the stuff up your nostril, like snuff, but rather to inhale its 'bouquet', or the smell it gives off. Or when your host urges you admire the 'legs', don't gawp around looking for the young female in the micro-mini; the 'legs' are the streaks of wine which adhere to the side of the glass when you tilt it. A wine said to have an 'excellent finish' is not an invitation to grab the bottle by the neck and swig it down till empty in record time; 'finish' denotes the lingering aftertaste that the wine leaves in your mouth. 'Well-structured tannins' don't refer to generously endowed bikini-clad sunbathers bronzing themselves on a beach but to the acidic elements, which add complexity to the wine. And no, a 'complex vintage' is not a senior citizen in need of psychiatric care but a wine which has matured and gained subtle nuances of taste with age.
In short, wine talks too much. Or rather, people talk too much about it. This was brought home to me succinctly some years ago at a Haryana liquor vend when i was buying a bottle of Bosca (which in Haryanvi is pronounced 'Bose-ka'). In those days Bose-ka was the only Indian wine available, and which, as a wine, made for an admirable varnish remover. A fellow customer buying an Auntie Kooty (not a female relative but a brand of local whisky, namely Antiquity, the second most preferred drink in Haryana after Arkoolis rum, known to the outside world as Hercules rum) looked at my bottle of Bose-ka and asked 'Usme kick-shick hai?' (Does it have kick-shick?)
In a single sentence that unsung Haryanvi had summed up the fatal flaw in the wine marketing strategy in India: never mind your noses, and legs, and fruity bouquets and rare vintages. Where was the kick-shick quotient? If Reva, and Sharadji, and others, are serious about popularising wine culture in India, they have to address the issue of the kick-shick, which is the main ^ some would say the only ^ reason why people drink in India, or at least in Haryana, where men are men, and don't care who knows it. Tannins-shannins. Show us the kick-shick.
To be a success, in Haryana anyway, wines should be rated by the kick they provide. A mild, low-kick wine should be given a 'One Mule' rating, a stronger wine be given a 'Two Mule' grade, and a real pehalwan super-strong wine be accorded a 'Three Mule' status. And an appropriate name for them? What else but Chauteau di Khachchar ki Laat?
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
BULLYING IN THE CHINA SHOP
The two nations that embody two of Asia's oldest civilisations seem unable to sustain a civilised conversation. Last month, New Delhi and Beijing brought an end to an excited debate about border incursions by blaming the Indian media. The latest exchange of words, however, has its origins in the musty ranks of officialdom. Beijing made an unusually harsh and public criticism of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh — some 10 days after the visit. India responded by denouncing Chinese plans to build infrastructure in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Neither position is unusual. What is exceptional is the stridency and openness of the exchange. China seems to have fired the first shot in the latest exchange of unclear motives. Among the theories: the Dalai Lama's planned visit to Arunachal, a desire to give troubled ally Pakistan a moral boost, and a general move to push the envelope with India.
All this underlines the shallowness of bilateral relations. Iron and steel may drive trade between the two, but political relations have all the fragility of porcelain. Small incidents, wild rumours and misinterpreted statements easily spark a frenzy of media speculation and even governmental tit-for-tat. It is a cliché to say that China is India's biggest trading partner. But history is littered with cases of countries fighting their biggest trading partners. Better measures of confidence are the degree of bilateral investment, people-to-people contacts, military and technological cooperation. In all these areas, Asia has a continental divide.
No one expects India and China to ever become strategic partners. China's focus is the Pacific; India has its own ocean to worry about. Perhaps, they are two countries emerging from the margins of history and now determined to make up for lost time. Both governments recognise that picking a fight would be at the expense of broader global and economic ambitions. The prime minister has expended considerable political capital pursuing Pakistan, a country that can barely keep soul and body together. He may be better off trying to work out a modus operandi with China, whose government is noted for its pragmatism and long-term view. At least then New Delhi and Beijing will have something positive to talk about.
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
GREAT GRAND-DADS
It had to be an Australian, pointing out how today's men are essentially wimps. Instead of going about things the normal way — arm wrestling, binge drinking, speed racing and other testosterone-demanding activities — Aussie anthropologist Peter McAllister has come to that conclusion, courtesy empirical evidence, that evolution is recessionary, at least for human males. In his book Manthropology, Mr McAllister does more than Desmond Morris-dancing. His research shows that prehistoric men could go higher and faster and were stronger than their modern counterparts. So if it came to hand-to-hand combat or a race to the finish line, be assured the modern man would have bit the dust.
And how, pray, has the more intelligent than the tough Cro Magnon man McAllister managed to build his thesis? Well, the speed of Australian aboriginals 20,000 years ago has been gathered by fossilised footprints of six prehistoric men chasing their prehistoric prey. The analysis shows that on the soft, muddy edge of a lake, these runners reached a top speed of 37 kilometres an hour. Compare that with the top speed of 42 kilometres an hour on rubberised tracks with spiked shoes by the world's faster runner Usain Bolt. The same principle of physical decline holds for strength.
So what's the reason for us turning into wusses? Mr McAllister, sounding a bit like our 'When we were young...' grandfathers, blames the decline on modern man's inactivity and the Industrial Revolution that really signalled a technologically-sprung laziness. Which makes us think is whether it would be more worthwhile to bolster our sagging physical prowess by chasing a prey or two rather than plan to settle down with the sedentary object entitled Manthropology.
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
ALL HAIL THE ROLE MODEL
ARCHANA DALMIA
We are a thinking, thriving nation. We always have something to toot or tweet about. Well, that's a nice thing.
But sometimes, the music is so loud that it can drown the message. That's not so nice.
For, louder isn't necessarily more logical. The louder the voices become, the more incongruous the arguments. And before long all that we are left holding are split ends.
Take the by-now 'old' issue of Sonia Gandhi travelling economy class. The fact that the thinking class is actually looking at events with eyes askew is well illustrated by the exact opposite reactions another event of the sort caused. When Shashi Tharoor and S.M. Krishna were found living in 5-star luxury, a cry went up berating their 'elitist' sensibilities. But when Gandhi made a conscious decision to travel economy, the logic was turned on its head, this time mocking her measures at being austere.
We are being myopic in not seeing the message she tried to drive home. The government is concerned about the drought situation in the country. The people in power realise more than others the importance of economising in these difficult times. What better way than to lead by example? In one stroke Gandhi made sure that her partymen took and showed responsibility when it comes to spending money.
It is impossible to expect her to travel economy always. Logistics disallows it. Leaders such as her can't travel without elaborate security covers as that would put their lives at risk. If it hurts some people's sensibilities that the government spends too much on her security, then they must understand that it will hurt us immeasurably if she should come to any harm. Her journey was a symbol for all to realise the 'need for austerity'. It was purely an internal axiom to be followed by Congressmen.
Being ridiculed sometimes for a well-intended move is a hazard of public life. Gandhi has shown that she isn't deterred by such perceptions in pursuit of a larger goal. Hers is an approach that's different and refreshing. She seeks to create a class of people who can turn into agents of change.
Rahul Gandhi, too, is following the diktat. It is no secret the ease with which he mingled with the common
people and brought victory for the party at the Lok Sabha hustings. People noticed how he was just as comfortable sitting on a village charpoy as in a plush deluxe suite. Then why the uproar if he travels by chair car?
People know that Sonia Gandhi isn't given to gimmicks. She has always conducted herself with grace and dignity. In this particular case she has emerged as a conscientious leader once again. A strong signal went out to members of the Congress across ranks about the responsible behaviour expected of them. Amusing, that even those who criticised Gandhi will have to perforce display a measure of austerity in their lives. That is if they value whatever little political standing they have.
Archana Dalmia is Chairperson, Grievance Cell, All India Congress Committee
The views expressed by the author are personal
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
DROWNING THINGS OUT
RAJDEEP SARDESAI
Having grown up in the megalopolis, I have an obvious emotional attachment to Mumbai. Which is why when at a studio discussion this week, when a panelist referred to the 'Maximum City' registering minimum voting as a sign of Mumbai's 'resident non-Indian' mentality, I felt aggrieved.
Surely, a city with the energy and enterprise of Mumbai, a city which literally never sleeps, can't be seen through such a cynical worldview. And yet, as voting day for the Maharashtra assembly elections wore on, it became apparent that Mumbai was struggling to pass Pappu's electoral test. The overall voting percentage was just around 45 per cent, only a shade better than the disgraceful 43 per cent in the Lok Sabha elections, and well below the state average of 60 per cent. If Naxal-affected Gadchiroli could see a voter turnout of 63 per cent, what stopped half of Mumbai's enlightened citizenry from coming out and voting?
Perhaps, it's the same reason that stopped them from speaking out when Karan Johar had to apologise to Raj Thackeray for referring Mumbai as Bombay in one of his films. It's also possibly the reason why, within weeks of angrily claiming that 'enough is enough' in the aftermath of 26/11, Mumbaikars seemed to have allowed the government to whitewash its role in the utter mishandling of the terror attack.
Maybe, it's the same mindset that has chosen to watch the city being reduced to a giant slum by a political class, which sees slum-dwellers as one large votebank and little else. Perhaps, that's also why year after depressing year the city goes under water in the monsoons. It also explains why no one has been able to challenge the builder-babu-neta nexus, which has allowed the mangroves and green areas to be concretised. You commute for aeons in a creaking railway system, flyovers don't get built on time, a sealink takes years to come up, dilapidated buildings remain hostage to antiquated laws: nothing seems to change.
A look at the morning papers will give you a sense of how the city lives in a bubble of its own. Nowhere has Page 3 been merged as effortlessly into Page 1 as in Mumbai. Shah Rukh's trousseau, Salman's antics, Priyanka's twittering — Mumbai seems to have magnified the trivial and made Bollywood its temple of worship.
It wasn't always like this. This is the city that had a ringside view to the freedom movement. It was here that Gandhi gave his clarion Quit India call, where Jinnah cut his political teeth, where Ambedkar shaped his ideological fervour. It was a city whose professional middle class was deeply engaged in public life. The 1960s, for example, were a period of political churning, with the likes of the Congress's S.K. Patil, the communist leader S.A. Dange, the firebrand George Fernandes and the demagogue Bal Thackeray fiercely competing for political space. The 1967 election of South Mumbai is seen as a defining moment: the socialist Fernandes defeating the city's then uncrowned king, Patil. Could anyone imagine in today's Mumbai a trade unionist with meager resources being able to take on the mighty political machine backed by the all-powerful real estate empire? When did it all change? Most analysts suggest it was the failed Datta Samant-led textile strike of the 1980s that broke the soul of a city and deprived it of a large industrial workforce that almost acted as a buffer between the elite and the poor. The strike led to mill closures, massive unemployment and left the labour movement discredited and leaderless.
The 1992-93 riots and bomb blasts ended up communally dividing a city's ersatz cosmopolitanism. A Mumbai of mixed neighbourhoods was now a city of hostile communities. The underworld was now overground as gangs bypassed the legal machinery for dispute resolution. The political class was building its own self-protective mechanism by engaging in rapid capital accumulation. Unemployment, crime, communalism, corruption: Mumbai was nestling on a tinderbox.
Rather than confront a difficult situation, a large number of elite and middle class Mumbaikars have chosen the soft option: secede mentally, if not physically from the world around them. Who cares what happens to Naxalism in Gadchiroli so long as the violence is confined to a distant border of Maharashtra? Farmers can commit suicide in Vidarbha. But so long as malls are well-stocked, why be concerned? North Indian students may get beaten up while appearing for an exam. But till our son can take his SAT and GMAT and apply to an American university, how does an attack on migrants change our lives?
Okay, so the potholed roads trouble us, we don't like getting stuck in a traffic jam and, yes, we hate being caught in a flooded street. But at the end of the day, that's the price one pays for living in India. In any case, there is always the escapist fantasy world of Bollywood or Bigg Boss to turn to for succour.
What's true of Mumbai could be equally true of all our mega-cities, each dominated by a mindset that is self-centred, depoliticised and perhaps resembling that of a 'resident non-Indian'. Maybe I was wrong to have believed that Mumbai was different. Maybe, it's time to snap out of the sepia-tinted nostalgia that is still Mumbai for me.
Rajdeep Sardesai is Editor-in-Chief , IBN Network
The views expressed by the author are personal
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
SEEING GHOSTS
NAYANJOT LAHIRI
Can India's Afghanistan policy be guided by history? Ashok Malik (Great Gaming 2009, October 13) seems to think so. Malik has suggested that India follows the principles set forth in the 1838 'Simla Manifesto' of Lord Auckland, which he believes provides a "timeless exposition of the goals of Indian near-neighbourhood policy". The objective of Auckland, the then Governor-General of India, was to prevent the continuance of a government in Afghanistan that was a threat to the security and peace of the frontiers of India.
Of course, the frontiers of India that Lord Auckland 'lorded' over in the early 19th century, are dissimilar to those that circumscribe it today. The present day borders make India's current interests qualitatively different from what Auckland prescribed in 1838. But, more importantly, is Malik's perspective the only one which can be derived from history to serve as a guide for present policy?
How would Pakistan, for instance, use history to bolster its hostility to India's presence in Afghanistan? For one, Pakistan can quite easily demonstrate that till the 19th century, from a geo-political perspective, the southern part of the Oxus basin, the eastern part of Iran, Afghanistan and the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent (now in Pakistan), constitute an area which has had highly significant political and economic interactions. In this sense, if not in any other, that area as a whole may be visualised as a sphere that belongs neither to the Iranian heartland on the west nor to Gangetic India on the east.
As for Afghanistan, if anything, its composite character has had elements of Iran, the Oxus and the Indus plains. Herat belonged to Persia — culturally and, through most if its history, politically too. Balkh in the Oxus valley connected up with Central Asia and China. Kabul itself lay within the cultural ambit of the area that extends from the Peshawar area to the Indus basin. Whether it was a Harappan outpost or the presence of Buddhism in Afghanistan, those links were likely to have been mediated through Peshawar that has been described the 'transformer station' in the transmission of cultural currents from Western and Central Asia.
The engagement of Pakistan, therefore, with Afghanistan, in the light of history, would appear to be both logical and desirable. India's present borders, on the other hand, simply do not justify the same kind of engagement. Like Malik, Pakistan would also cite the views of distinguished experts to underline that Hindustan in the real sense should be the concern of India. 'True India' as a geo-cultural entity, according to the geographer O.H.K. Spate, "does not begin before the temples of Mathura".
Since history can be (ab)used to sanction all kinds of policies, is it perhaps more politic for realpolitik to look elsewhere for justifications?
Nayanjot Lahiri teaches at the Department of History, University of Delhi
The views expressed by the author are personal
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
TRAINING TEACHERS - WHO WILL TEACH THE TEACHERS?
INDIA'S TEACHER EDUCATION SCHEME IS IN DECAY, PLAGUED BY TEACHER SHORTAGE AND A CURRICULUM THAT HAS NOT BEEN REVISED IN 10 YRS IF THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF ITS SCHOOLS, THE CONTENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION WILL HAVE TO GO THROUGH A SEA CHANGE.
SWAHA SAHOO AND CHITRANGADA CHOUDHURY SWAHA.SAHOO@HINDUSTANTIMES.COM
The state teacher-training institute in Rajinder Nagar in the western part of New Delhi, the teachers are an unhappy lot.
The institute is facing an acute shortage of instructors, and fighting an outdated curriculum that hasn't been revised for over 10 years now. Teachers also complain of not being treated on a par with university teachers since they have not been given salary increments following the Sixth Pay Commission revisions.
With government schools catering to a high number of children from poorer families, teacher-training deserves much more importance than it has got so far. And the problem assumes even more importance from the point of view of the fact that the government is addressing the problem of disparities, and this cannot be done without education for the poor.
While the intake of the institute has doubled from 150 to 300 over the past few years, the number of its regular teachers has fallen to one-third its sanctioned strength, which is 17.
"We have just six regular teachers against a sanctioned strength of 17. We are trying to fill the gap with contract teachers, but it is difficult to find good quality teachers," said a faculty mem ber on condition of anonymity, since government employees are not autho rised to speak to the media.
The story is similar in the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) in various states. The DIETs, which are instrumental in training elementary teachers and catering to a district's education needs, have a large number of vacant posts for instance, 180 out of 364 sanctioned posts were vacant in Delhi, 364 out of 761 posts were vacant in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal has filled only 261 of its 400 positions.
According to official estimates, India's government schools are currently facing a shortage of 700,000 teachers, despite the fact that 986,000 teachers were recruited under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (Education for All) till March 2009. The all-India teacher and pupil ratio for primary schools in 2005-06 stood at 1:46. But states like Bihar had a teacher to pupil ratio of 1:104, Jharkhand 1:79 and West Bengal 1:50.
The demand will only increase in the coming years as the recently legislated Right to Education law alters the pupil-teacher ratio from 1:40 to 1:30.
The over 700 state teacher-training institutes including the DIETs are therefore critical to the success of the new law, which makes universal secondary education a legal entitlement.
But as a year-long evaluation by the National Council for Educational Research and Training of India's 1987 Teacher Education Scheme catering to the country's government schools has revealed, there is widespread decay in teacher training institutes.
Many states including Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi have hired para teachers, many of whom have not had any training.
For instance, only 3,941 of the 13,954 teachers in Arunachal Pradesh are trained, a majority at the primary level.
In Chhattisgarh, 30 per cent of primary teachers and 33 per cent of secondary teachers are untrained.
The findings also reveal that 87 per cent of `Colleges for Teacher Education' in states do not have the requisite staff, with most of them having less than 50 per cent of the required manpower. For example, Allahabad's College for Teacher Education has only five of 17 academics. And none of these has the requisite academic qualifications.
The State Councils for Educational Research and Training too have become an extension of the government. According to the report, 65 per cent of them did not avail a Rs 2 crore central grant meant to improve their quality, because the state governments did not match it with equal finances.
"The original vision with which the country had set up these teacher-training institutions has gone berserk. The child is bearing the consequences of this systemic damage," said educationist and former NCERT Director A.K.
Sharma, who had helped conceive the 1987 Teacher Education Scheme.
Private institutes often did not have qualified trainers. The National Council for Teacher Education which recognises such institutes has woken up to the problem and recently derecognised 400 of these across the country.
While Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has repeatedly said that teacher training is a big challenge, the ministry has yet to come up with any concrete plan to address the problem.
The issue goes beyond the shortage of trainers for teachers. The curriculum of most state DIETs and SCERTs is outdated and not in sync with what is being taught in schools.
"A major restructuring is required all over the country. Teacher education should be linked with practice and how children understand. The current syllabus in DIETs is completely outdated," said Anita Rampla, professor in the Department of Education, Delhi University.
But hiring more people to teach the teachers is just the first step in the reform process. If the government wants to increase the quality of its schools, the content of teacher education will have to go through a sea change. Teacher training institutes will need infrastructure upgrade, more teaching material has to be made available and stricter norms have to be put in place to ensure quality of teachers.
Till that happens, government schools will remain poor cousins to their elite private counterparts. THE WAY OUT The NCERT suggests the following: Setting up 10 regional institutes of education to develop innovative teacher preparation programmes Recruiting academicians on the basis of University Grant Commission norms.
Stopping transfers from administrative to academic cadres.Having refresher courses for existing faculty by central agencies.Introducing functional internal quality mechanisms. Changing the current 50:50 Centre-State funding pattern to a 75:25 to reduce financial
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INDIAN EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Since the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee has given its nod to the commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal after two years of extensive field trials, and the final clearance rests now only with the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, is it prudent to hope that the debate on genetically modified crops has been settled once and for all? A speady clearance, and then large-scale cultivation of Bt Brinjal, will demonstrate how and why GM crops are more about helping the Indian farmer, than about competing with the agricultural sector of economies like the US, Argentina or China whose farmers have long enjoyed GM options.
It is one thing to subject transgenic crops and their commercial cultivation to a strict regulatory mechanism for bio-safety standards — necessary for genuinely scientific reasons — and another to buy into the rhetoric of alarmists on the one hand and votaries on the other. Those reasons are the need to assess the ecological impact of GM crops on existing vegetation in diverse environments, to ensure that the promise of higher productivity and greater resistance to pests is sustained on the fields. With edible GM items, the regulatory mechanism will be understandably stricter. But none of that has anything to do with the routine scare-mongering that critics have used to distort public perceptions of an economically indispensable, science-aided improvement. What's more, India's success with Bt Cotton is an object lesson in slaying the alarmist demon and also learning the continuous development of better varieties.
From a single GM crop, India is on the threshold of two, the new one its first edible one. Almost 50 other GM crops, including rice, wheat, tomato, cabbage, are in the experimental stage. An estimated 50 to 70 per cent of brinjal is destroyed by pests. The Bt Brinjal is expected to be more resistant to pests and raise yields. Farmers and consumers will welcome it, and hope the GM scope is extended soon.
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INDIAN EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
AUDACIOUS, UNENDING
Having already taken their battle to the Pakistan army's GHQ in Rawalpindi last week, militants continue to underscore that they can choose where to strike, and when. With coordinated attacks Thursday morning on key security installations in and around Lahore, as well as on a police station in Kohat, they escalated the urban terror currently pervading Pakistan. These attacks come in a 10-day cycle that has had, besides the army headquarters incident, suicide bombers strike at bazaars in Peshawar and Sangla (near the Swat Valley) and at a UN office in Islamabad. The attacks come in the midst of widespread speculation about a forthcoming army offensive on the so-called Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan. By all accounts the Pakistan army had wanted time to prepare for the offensive. Indications are that it will now be advanced.
The current spate of militant strikes — reportedly carried out by the Tehrik-e-Taliban, but with affiliates from other terrorist groups — also comes amidst a controversy in Pakistan over a US legislation. Conditionalities about monitoring mechanisms in the Kerry-Lugar Bill for $1.5 billion annual assistance have not gone down well with the Pakistan military. And its reservations have ignited a political debate. Additionally, with the Taliban expanding their area of dominance in Afghanistan and with the Pakistani Taliban asserting their resilience after the death of their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, this August, the Obama administration is expected to take a call on how to calibrate American military involvement in the region.
What this month's attacks on key army and police installations would have highlighted is Pakistan's lack of options other than taking on the militants. Coherence in the military strategy against the Taliban can only help stabilise Af-Pak, and by extension reduce the security threat posed beyond the borders of the two countries. However, this
coherence can only be had if Pakistan rethinks its long-time strategy of treating some militant groups as assets, of "fighting some and feeding some". The army is seen to be particularly wary of taking on the Afghan Taliban or groups with a Kashmir focus. How Pakistan rethinks this strategy will have implications not just for its own security. It should also inform how other countries affected by violence from Pakistan-based groups redraw their Af-Pak strategy.
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INDIAN EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
DAMMED TRUTHS
The decision of the People's Republic of China to build a dam on the Brahmaputra will naturally cause concern. China's dismissal of Indian concerns will predictably be viewed as another sign of Chinese arrogance in bilateral and multilateral affairs. But, even as India justifiably questions China's plans, uncomfortable questions present themselves. What is India doing for its water security? Where is the urgency on this side of the border? Why are there so many internal hurdles?
News of the Tsangpo dam shows that in China the need for water resources to be properly harnessed is understood; the dam-building process is underway in quick time. The contrast to India, where large water resources projects are continually held up by irresponsible politics, is stark. (The Sardar Sarovar Dam is but the most glaring example.) Development in India — even the very minimum of preparedness for coming challenges — is less a subject for farsighted decision-making and democratic compromise between different groups, and more a hostage to the last man standing. Placating every individual who disagrees, handing out vetoes to every interest group simply breeds a home-grown fifth column against development and growth. Thus a weary state decides on the basis of what is not vetoed. Remember again the Narmada project. And how Saifuddin Soz, then water resources minister, stalled the completion of work on the dam — in particular, on the gates and to take it to its proper crest height — for overtly political reasons, and to placate the same set of do-nothing activists. The dam's height was raised eventually, but the radial gates are still held up.
Consider too Arunachal Pradesh. Rather than speeding up attempts to tap Arunachal's vast reserves of hydro-electric potential in response to the country-wide, chronic power shortage over the past decade, the years since 2000 have instead seen a frittering away of energy. Of the 60-plus power projects the Arunachal government lists, a mere 23 started operation this millennium. India is prepared to make the case, over and over, for its political and public values over those of the People's Republic. And yet that case is undermined by the immaturity of those, whether in politics or in civil society, who have an imperfect understanding of the fact that liberal democracies also require constructive debate on agendas for inclusive growth.
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INDIAN EXPRESS
COLUMN
FIX THE COORDINATES
C. RAJA MOHAN
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh heads to the White House next month, there is a variety of proposals for elevating Indo-US cooperation to the next level. None of the issues on the table — from high-technology cooperation to mitigating the effects of global warming — is more important than the shared challenge of stabilising Afghanistan and Pakistan.
By the time Dr Singh arrives in Washington, President Barack Obama would have unveiled a new US strategy for Afghanistan. The president's decisions on a new course would no way alter the reality that managing the badlands across the Indus river has become the single-most important foreign policy burden for Obama.
Pakistan, which is at the heart of US strategy in Afghanistan, is sliding down a slippery slope. Note the militant attacks on military and civilian targets across Pakistan over the last few days aimed at undermining the GHQ's commitment to America and the world on confronting the extremists in their Waziristan redoubt.
Meanwhile, as the first anniversary of the Mumbai carnage approaches, there has been no progress in Pakistan on bringing those who plotted the attack to book. Nor has Islamabad given any credible assurances on preventing its soil from being used against India.
Despite New Delhi's unfolding war of words with Beijing on Tibet and Tawang and Kashmir, it is the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that poses the real and present danger to India. The recent bombing at the Indian Embassy in Kabul — the second in about 15 months — is an ominous signal that another spectacular attack on soft urban targets in India may be round the corner.
As multiple crises brew across the Indus, here is a strange antinomy that confronts Dr Singh and Obama. On the one hand, the principal national security threats to the United States and India emanate from the Af-Pak region. On the other hand, there is a strange reluctance in New Delhi and Washington to begin a genuine dialogue, let alone cooperation, on the shared security threats they confront in the north-western marches of the subcontinent.
To be sure, there has been unprecedented cooperation between the US and Indian intelligence agencies in the wake of the Mumbai attacks last year. That valued cooperation is no guarantee against further terror attacks being organised and promoted from Pakistan.
A crisis, according to the White House, is too important to be wasted. Since he took charge of America amidst a financial turmoil, Obama has used the moment to force fundamental changes in the US, for example, on health care.
The same can be said of the Af-Pak crisis that stares at Dr Singh and Obama and presents a rare opportunity for Indo-US cooperation to transform the turbulent lands between the Indus and the Hindu Kush.
Any exploration of such cooperation must be premised on three important factors: an American recognition of India's enduring national security interests in Afghanistan; an Indian acknowledgement that American defeat in Afghanistan would empower extremist radicalism and inflame the subcontinent; and an acceptance of the reality that neither New Delhi nor Washington can achieve its objectives in Pakistan by pursuing separate policies.
Three potential areas of Indo-US cooperation can be conceived. The first is an expanded Indian role in the security of Afghanistan. This does not mean India sending a division of its army into Afghanistan — that red herring has only served Pakistani propaganda against India. It is not an offer that Washington will ever make and New Delhi accept.
Where India can make a real contribution is in the training of Afghan security forces. India already has a modest training mission that can be expanded significantly as the US decides on a new strategy and puts special emphasis on rapidly strengthening the Afghan armed forces and police.
Second, there is a strong view in Washington that India can contribute to the stabilisation of Afghanistan by improving its relations with Pakistan. This proposition is not contested by New Delhi, which had invested so much diplomatic energy in resolving the conflict with Pakistan during 2004-07.
Since 2007, New Delhi has had to come to terms with the reality that the Pakistan army and the ISI have slowly but surely destroyed a core assumption of the peace process — that Islamabad will stop its support to cross-border terrorism.
If Washington can persuade Islamabad to shut down its terror machine — an outcome that is in the interest not just of India, but also of the US — New Delhi may be ready to walk more than half way to clinch many agreements that it already has negotiated with Pakistan.
The third is a triangular agreement between Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi on expanding overland trade and transit and modernisation of historic transport infrastructure between the three countries. Such a move would at once unlock the economic potential of the Af-Pak region as an economic bridge between South Asia, the Persian Gulf and Central Asia.
Once such a trilateral framework is in place, India and the US could join hands to support a wider international effort to stabilise Afghanistan and Pakistan. The idea of great
powers underwriting a regional framework for the Af-Pak region is now widely acknowledged as central to any endgame in Afghanistan.
No such initiative, however, will work without a solid kernel of cooperation between Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi. Exploring the prospects for that regional reconciliation must be the centrepiece of the meeting between Dr Singh and Obama.
A mutual understanding on the future of the trans-Indus territories will make it a whole lot easier for Dr Singh and Obama to put in place the many other pieces they need to found a solid Indo-US strategic partnership.
The writer is Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC express@expressindia.com
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INDIAN EXPRESS
COLUMN
COMMON CAUSE WITH THE COMMONS
MINOTI CHAKRAVARTY KAUL
The 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded to Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom. This award confirms a turning point in the history of economic thought, which began with the recognition in 1990 of Ronald Coase's theory of firms and transaction costs, and continued with an award to Douglass North for his work on the importance of institutions, among others.
Elinor Ostrom's contribution goes beyond a scholarly landmark, as she and her husband Vincent Ostrom pioneered an entrepreneurial venture for knowledge-building where the rule of conscience was key. The Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis in Bloomington was founded by them on the campus of Indiana University. Here they have invited scholars from the world over to come and contribute what they know, and take back what they think is valuable to them. They
established a link to a roving biennial conference of scholars who study the commons: the IASC. This is a self-governed association reflecting the aspirations of those people who battle with the growing scarcity of natural resources against uncertainty and risk, both natural and man-made.
The contribution of Elinor Ostrom is of special importance to us in the developing world, for she is a champion of consensual democracy as opposed to majoritarian tyranny. She has given attention to the much-neglected, if not vilified, village community based on proven efficacy of self-governance within communities who govern their "common pool resources", a term which she has used to avoid ambiguity. She has invested in a huge database of the commons from almost all countries of the world. The one on Nepal, in particular, has inspired research on the historically
resilient farmer-managed irrigation systems in the Himalayas; these systems are in some cases more equitable than those the government managed! In fact, in several regions in India, the riparian systems of cultivation and pastures along rivers of the Punjab, and irrigation systems like warabandi and osrabandi, did a remarkable job.
The recognition of "Lin" Ostrom's award has several ramifications in India. It is first of all an endorsement for the commons as a heritage institution, and recognition of the accompanying wisdom of diverse systems of allocation suited to local ecological conditions. Second, timely though this is, nevertheless it may be difficult to reverse some of the institutional erosion that has already taken place, either through enacted laws or through the legal system overriding the operational customs. Thus the conditions of governance based on reciprocity and trust in operating the commons, like village common lands and land-use in rural India, have changed; but it is nevertheless important to recognise the principles embedded in them.
A few examples here will illustrate that it may not be too late to recognise that Delhi, for example, is losing its heritage. Water bodies which served Delhi's urban and rural needs for over 2000 years have been lost simply because the ecological principles of building on recharge channels were ignored. Further, the need for drinking water for transhuming pastoral livestock which pass through Delhi from Gurgaon to the Doon Valley has been ignored. These livestock can no longer be accommodated in rural Delhi, as the villages are fast losing their common woodlots and pastures, known as shamilat-deh. These are lost because rules protecting common lands have been nullified and they have been distributed, allowing conversion to other uses. As the amount of pasture decreases, the remaining village pastures of urban Delhi get eroded by over-grazing.
Other pressures, to homogenise breeds for example, are leading to the loss of indigenous breeds of cattle capable of withstanding climate change, even when fed on very poor herbage, in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Farther from Delhi, pastures are lost to poorly-planned developments which allow no consideration for organic resilting of riverine areas, disturb long-distance eco-systemic grazing, and push hapless shepherds into more fragile alpine areas of the Himalayas. Finally, the most important pressure is on the institutional capacity of humans, driven to free-ride in competitive mode, dispensing with any respect for mutual need or collective action as a mode of governance.
Perhaps the most important area of concern which is addressed by the corpus of ideas espoused by Elinor Ostrom is the question of agency for institutional change — especially where bio-diversity of living and natural resources is concerned. The passage of laws cannot be an end in itself. This is evident in the case of land reforms enacted immediately after independence, which were instrumental in eroding the village commons — because of an assumption that all common lands were necessarily feudal! Then the recent legislation giving de jure rights to tribal people and forest dwellers took little account of who was to police the rules and who was to sanction the infringement of the rules. Who indeed?
The writer is a founder-member of the International Association for the Study of Commons. She lives in Delhi express@expressindia.com
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INDIAN EXPRESS
OPED
'INDIAN HEGEMONY CONTINUES TO HARM RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBOURS'
" Nobody can deny that today's India is a power. In recent years, Indians have become more narrow-minded and intolerable of outside criticism as nationalism sentiment rises, with some of them even turning to hegemony. It can be proved by India's recent provocation on border issues with China.
Given the country's history, hegemony is a hundred per cent result of British colonialism. Dating back to the era of British India, the country covered a vast territory including present-day India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh as well as Nepal. India took it for granted that it could continue to rule the large area when Britain ended its colonialism in South Asia. A previous victim of colonialism and hegemony started to dream about developing its own hegemony. Obsessed with such mentality, India turned a blind eye to the concessions China had repeatedly made over the disputed border issues, and refused to drop the pretentious airs when dealing with neighbours like Pakistan.
Many Indians didn't know that Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, had once said that India could not play an inferior role in the world, and it should either be a superpower or disappear.
Although the pursuit of being a superpower is justifiable, the dream of being a superpower held by Indians appears impetuous. The dream of superpower is mingled with the thought of hegemony, which places the South Asian giant in an awkward situation and results in repeated failure.
Throughout the history, India has constantly been under foreign rule. The essence for the rise of India lies in how to be an independent country, to learn to solve the complicated ethnic and religious issues, to protect the country from terrorist attacks, to boost economic development as well as to put more efforts on poverty alleviation.
Additionally, the hegemony can also be harmful in terms of geopolitical environment. The expansion of India is restricted by its geographic locations. It has Himalaya Mountain to its north, a natural barrier for northward expansion; it has Pakistan to the west, a neighbour it is always at odds over the disputed border issues.
To everyone's disappointment, India pursued a foreign policy of "befriend the far and attack the near". It engaged in the war separately with China and Pakistan and the resentment still simmers. If India really wants to be a superpower, such a policy is shortsighted and immature.
India, which vows to be a superpower, needs to have its eyes on relations with neighbours and abandon the recklessness and arrogance as the world is undergoing earthshaking changes. For India, the ease of tension with China and Pakistan is the only way to become a superpower. At present, China is proactively engaging in negotiations with India for the early settlement of border dispute and India should give a positive response."
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INDIAN EXPRESS
OPED
THE HALLMARK OF A TRUE PROFESSIONAL
SARITHA RAI
Subroto Bagchi, born and raised in small-town Orissa, and educated in government schools in the vernacular medium, is not your usual, garden variety technology entrepreneur-CEO. Bagchi is not a techie by either education or qualification. He holds a degree in political science. He does not act or speak like a techie. Rather than industry outlook or quarterly results, he prefers holding forth on multiple intelligences. He can talk eloquently and with insight about the vulgarity of amassing wealth or about Pakistan. For instance, he prophecies that Pakistan cannot come anywhere close to India in technology capability even in the next 500 years because it is a feudal society.
And now with his book, the Hollywood-ishly titled The Professional — his third in as many years — Bagchi proves yet again that he is singular. His prose is more appealing than that of most techies. How can a full-time top executive find the time to write so prolifically? He writes columns and management journal pieces frequently too. Bagchi explained tongue-in-cheek recently, "I don't play golf."
His first book The High Performance Entrepreneur was about co-founding and building MindTree. The second, Go Kiss the World, his dying mother's last words, is based on his own life story. In India, successful entrepreneur-CEO authors are a rarity. Kishore Biyani of Pantaloon Retail/Future Group whose 99-rupees-a-copy 'Big Bazaar' priced bestseller is a standout example. Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's A Better India, A Better World, and co-founder Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century are among the recent handful of Indian entrepreneurs nearly as successful in writing books as in running companies.
Bagchi's book draws from his own remarkable career as a professional. The co-founder of the Bangalore-based outsourcing company MindTree stepped down as its chief executive to take on the title of its chief gardener in order to tend to the emotional wellbeing of the top 100 professionals in his company. Bagchi is now the vice-chairman of the company. The political science major was formerly the chief of Wipro's Global R&D. That is an enviable journey and provides ample material for his latest book. Bagchi's book is a stirring example for other professionals. The CEO-turned-author trained himself to observe minute human responses and gestures right from the start of his career when he was in sales.
The Professional details the author's affinity for nonconformity. During one of his team-building trips outside Bangalore, where he traveled ahead in his car and his colleagues followed behind by bus, he orchestrated a surprise mob attack on the bus that put to test his colleagues' confidence and leadership capabilities. For many years in various leadership roles, Bagchi has seen many episodes of amateurish and unethical behaviour that got his mind lobbing around the core idea of the book. He recalls that his daughter once got an email from a friend of hers working in a multinational bank. Hey, guess what, the email said, your dad has just opened a savings account with us. The lack of confidentiality and ethic was astounding to the author. When he was posted in the United States early in his career, an outsourcing customer called embarrassedly with a question. One of Bagchi's team members in Austin, Texas, was running up hundreds of dollars in phone bills by making personal international calls to Chennai. How do I deal with him, the American customer wanted to know. In crisp chapters, Bagchi deals with the whole array of such unprofessional behaviour. Faked travel vouchers, offering references without pre-checking with the referee, name dropping, fudging academic and work experience.
Mere professional qualifications do not make a good professional, says Bagchi. The Indian education system falls flat in equipping students with an understanding of professionalism. There is a total lack of conversation on professional behaviour in the Indian context, he adds. That is the gap he hopes to bung.
Bagchi's book opens with the example of a 70-year old grave-digger Mahadeva who has dug over 40,000 graves in his lifetime. Nobody oversees Mahadeva's work. Day after day, night after night, Mahadeva accepts unidentified dead bodies and gives them an honourable burial. He works unsupervised. He self-certifies the completion of his own tasks. That is the hallmark of a true professional, according to Bagchi.
saritha.rai@expressindia.com
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INDIAN EXPRESS
OPED
WHAT NOT TO LEARN FROM INDIA
YUBARAJ GHIMIRE
The United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) has come forward to support the National Coalition against Racial Discrimination (NCARD) in Nepal. The recipient sounds almost like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) — founded in the early 20th century for the rights of black Americans. Nepal, with more than 80 per cent of the population as Hindus, has no doubt treated Dalits as 'untouchables' despite the existence of a 46-year old law banning it, and done little for their social, economic and educational uplift. All the castes, not just the Brahmins and Chhetris but also ethnic groups, have been equally responsible in that discrimination. But the current initiative against 'racial discrimination' attempts to bring all the castes together as collective victims of racial discrimination and the Brahmins and Chhetris as the perpetrators of that crime. An advertisement meant for hiring experts for the campaign also says that those belonging to the discriminated communities will be given priority — that means exclusion of the candidates belonging to the castes projected as discriminators.
With growing demands for the creation of caste and ethnicity-based states when Nepal goes federal, there is a tendency to invent new cases to prove how the state has belonged to a small section in the past. This tendency seeks to magnify the existing socio-economic disparities and misinterpret them as 'racial discrimination'. The UN and the international system's instant support to such campaigns projects Nepali society as one full of racial discrimination, like the ones that existed in the US until the mid-sixties, or in South Africa during apartheid. Internal factors and politics have contributed to the rise of such misgivings. The left parties, mainly the Maoists, don't recognise the existence of a demarcation line between caste and class in Nepal. In fact, they treat almost all the castes — save Brahmins and Chhetris — as the victims. Hinduism and the two upper castes within its folds are identified with the old state, listing the rest as 'oppressed and racially discriminated'. They are using, and in fact exploiting the agony that the Dalits went through, putting themselves in the category of Dalits by projecting themselves as the victims of the past. There are around 100 ethnic groups in Nepal. Such a gang-up, and easy recognition by the international agencies as 'racially discriminated', has also triggered an opposite, if not equal, reaction or social alliance of the 'upper castes' with the possibility of religious and communal fundamentalism emerging as its by-product. No one thought that the country's switch to federalism and the unforeseen emergence of caste as a dominant political feature, would invite so much trouble and uncertainty. Federalism was mainly perceived as an administrative-cum-geographical issue with the general perception that it's a simple and easy way of enforcing the long-cherished devolution of power, and far better than the unitary model that Nepal has had through out.
In fact, the movement for 'One Madhesh One Pradesh' as a single province in a proposed federal Nepal triggered reactions from several regional and ethnic groupings. Madhesh — comprising 22 districts in the plains of Nepal, accounting for 24 per cent of the total area and 48 per cent of the population congruous to north and eastern India — would be the biggest and dominant province if such a demand is accepted. But political parties have not yet come together on what should constitute the basis of federalism and formation of the provinces. The aboriginals in Terai, mainly the Tharus, have vociferously opposed the demand for 'One Madhesh One Pradesh', saying the formation of a state of that size would go against the very concept of federalism, and would be impractical as well.
The proposed movement against racial discrimination plans to unite groups, both from the hills and the plains. It intends to ensure their 'equal status' and rights in the new constitution. But the state has become so weak that its ability or capacity to deliver has already come under question. Its ability to enforce its primary duties — state security and law and order — have suffered a massive erosion. Castes no more remain mere social strata, but have assumed the form of major determinants of the new constitution and the model of future governance as well as federalism. The different groups demanding separate ethnic states with the right to self-determination, and the endorsement of such demands by the Maoists — all in the name of progressive politics — reinforces that fear. As an initial reaction to this consolidation, Brahmins and Chhetris — the two upper castes — have ganged up in many places to resist any onslaught on them. The Chhetris constitute 17 per cent of the population, are the biggest 'caste', and yet feel marginalised.
The erosion of the state, and a lack of will, vision and character on the part of political parties to discourage caste-based politics, are making people more cynical and frustrated. A miracle can perhaps save Nepal, but it won't come from the politics that is being pursued today.
yubharaj.ghimire@expressindia.com
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FINANCIAL EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
DAMNED IF WE DON'T
As The Indian Express reported yesterday, China has begun constructing a dam on its side of the Brahmaputra river. As a lower riparian country, India has cause for concern. The government's statement makes the case that India was misinformed by China on the latter's intentions. India's China challenge is growing more complex. But let's look at another perspective: what can we learn from China? First, compared with 9.56% of India's surface area being covered by water, only 2.8% of China can boast the same. Going forward, growing further, the water issue is equally urgent in both countries. Weather fluctuations aren't helping; climate change bodes ill; both drought and flood are annual threats. River management on China's side does not just threaten India's water access, but also that of, say, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar (all of whom share Mekong waters). But, remember, India is also playing Goliath to the Bangladesh David, as it, for example, builds a hydro-electric dam and a reservoir on the Barak river. Remember also, the intra-state bickering over water resources—for instance, the decades-old fight for Krishna waters in the South.
Second, given that the situation is dire and becoming more so by the year, India doesn't have much to show in terms of adequate planning. It's not that China has gotten it right every time. Forays like the Three Gorges Dam are very controversial in terms of the cost-to-benefit ratio. But, both at their best and at their worst, such projects show a coherent vision—displacing people with impunity that no democracy can countenance, they yet have the upside of generating renewable energy and providing large-scale irrigation. However mired in second thoughts and controversy, China has used the Three Gorges project to sell similar projects overseas. Hosting more than 25,800 dams at home, more than in any other country, China is now building more and more dams around the world as western financiers take a backseat in the business. What's the grandest of Indian plans? A river interlinking project that can't get off the ground and that policymakers can't get around to agreeing on. Jairam Ramesh and Rahul Gandhi have nayed it, but the PM has said it needs more looking into. Third, from farmers to posh capitalwallahs, Indians haven't gotten their heads around to paying for the water they use, China has habituated its people to metered usage. Tampering is rare and rarer still is power suppliers incurring losses. The result: wastage of water and electricity is down. China's water policies, like many of its other policies, will pose problems for India. Those have to be smartly addressed. But let's look at the good things it has done and be successfully competitive — that's also something China will have to respect.
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FINANCIAL EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
GENERALLY MARVELOUS
India's first experiment with commercial cultivation of genetically-modified (GM) vegetables came one step closer to fruition on Wednesday after the genetic engineering appraisal committee (GEAC) cleared Bt brinjal for cultivation. The decision still needs to be ratified by the environment minister before it becomes policy. The minister would be well advised to endorse the views of the GEAC as soon as possible. At the moment, India allows commercial cultivation of just one genetically modified crop: cotton. And, despite widespread scepticism that greeted the first cultivation of Bt cotton, it has been an unqualified success with yields multiplying many times over. For vegetables—there are some 40 varieties in different stages of trials—the case for genetically-modified crops isn't simply about higher yields. It is as much about developing varieties more resistant to pests, which destroy a significant proportion of vegetable crops at the moment. Estimates suggest that Bt brinjal could add to the current annual production of 80 lakh tonnes by 50-70%—that's as much destroyed by pests. It will be good for farmers and good for consumers.
Much will be written by sceptics on safety issues, but India's regulatory record on genetically-modified crops and vegetables is very credible. Bt brinjal has been in various stages of trial for many years now. At least two years have been devoted to actual field trials in 11 select locations. No adverse effect has either been reported on the soil or in the consumption of Bt brinjal. In fact, some studies suggest that Bt Brinjal may be more environment friendly than regular brinjal. Another concern often expressed about genetically-modified seeds is that the intellectual property is owned by multinational firms. In the case of Bt brinjal, however, Indian research institutions have been very closely associated with the research—the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University and University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. The seeds are being manufactured by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company in collaboration with Monsanto. Given the periodic scenario of high food prices and reports of supply crunches, India has little choice but to raise yields of key foodgrains and vegetables. There is much talk of another Green Revolution. GM is one technology that can be used in the very near future to facilitate such a revolution. Many other parts of the world are already leading us by some margin on the production of GM crops. It's time we stopped debating it and put GM into the fields.
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FINANCIAL EXPRESS
COLUMN
THERE IS A JOB TO DO ON JOBS
MANISH SABHARWAL
We should be delighted that a recent Planning Commission expert group chaired by Suresh Tendulkar has recommended revising our poverty estimate from 28.5% to 40%. Why? Because this is not a new estimation but a new definition. Poverty has been measured relative to per capita calorie norms of 2,400 (rural) and 2,100 (urban) but this new poverty calibration takes into account education, health and actual spending on rent and conveyance. This redefinition is a logical concomitant of India's economic reforms—the definition of needs, wants and desires must recalibrate as we graduate from a low to middle income country. The costs of India's rising economic inequality (which measures individually irrelevant standard deviation) do not outweigh the benefits of a rising per capita (which measures the hugely relevant personal income mean). In fact, this redefinition of poverty may be Exhibit A for the success of economic reforms and the argument that garibi hatao needs ameeri banao.
I make the case for revising our current official 7-9% unemployment estimate because it is at best unfair and at worst, wrong. What struck me most about the US when I landed there for business school in 1994 was their definition of poverty—it often referred to somebody with a used car, a small home, or no savings. Given the tragic poverty of hunger and shelter of India, does anybody really recognise fairness or truth in our official unemployment rate? There are no doubt huge measurement problems—the huge unorganised and agricultural workforce means that regular salary workers may only be 15% of the workforce. But there is something wrong with our definition of unemployment because of the clear disconnect in the logical relationship between our poverty and unemployment rates. This raises important questions; should the 40% of our labour force who qualify as working poor—they make enough money to live but not enough to pull out of poverty—qualify as employed? Should that part of the 93% of our labour force who permanently toil in the unorganised sector—victims of unrealistic labour laws that breed informal employment with no employability corridor—really qualify as employed? Our definition of unemployment must be recalibrated to include any job which does not move an individual to living wages within one year. Using this logic, India's unemployment is not 7-9% but about 26%—a number that seems intuitively right to the many policymakers, labour market players and NGOs.
The logical next question; how do we eradicate this 26% unemployment? Many of our solutions since independence have been biased towards consumption (ie, subsidies) rather than investments (soft or hard). Even new age legislations like NREGA and Food Security Act—while relevant for abject poverty—are not only inefficient but mostly treat the symptom rather than the disease. Public policy must make investments in fertile job creation habitats (ie solving the infrastructure deficit) and human capital (ie healthcare, education and employability). A job creation agenda must make land less valuable by bridging the infrastructure deficit to raise productivity outside the usual suspects by creating new cities out of existing towns. The human capital agenda must focus on making our people job worthy.
A related but neglected public policy debate pivots around the 93% of our labour force in unorganised employment. Nobody—individuals, employers, taxmen, labour market economists—likes unorganised employment. Our irrational labour law regime not only breeds unorganised employment—the slavery of the 21st century—but also amplifies the replacement of people with machines and sabotages skill development. The Left parties and trade unions are an important minority but our trade union aristocracy represents only 7% of the labour force and does not fight for issues like unemployment or informal employment because their self-interest lies in positioning job preservation as a form of job creation. Only somebody completely ignorant of how firm-level decisions on hiring are made would believe that labour laws are irrelevant in the recipe to fix our 26% unemployment. Globally competitive companies are instinctually drawn to organised employment because the lower wages of unorganised employment often do not compensate for lower predictability and productivity but our labour laws sabotage these instincts.
Sceptics may ask an important question: do definitions matter? I believe they do because democracy is a battle for ideas. India does not change for a better option but when it has no option and today unemployment is not a crisis in India because of the shock absorber of the working poor. But this shock absorber burdens the disadvantaged disproportionately. The true and tragic cost of our hideous labour laws, our failed employment exchanges, our infrastructure deficit and our poor education regime will only really show up in a realistic definition of unemployment. As India slowly and surely redefines poverty, we must also consider a definition of unemployment that reveals more than it hides.
The author is chairman, Teamlease Services
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FINANCIAL EXPRESS
COLUMN
ELEPHANT GETS BRINJAL, MORE TO COME
YOGINDER K ALAGH
We did not exactly cover ourselves with glory in the initial thrust on cotton Bts, but brinjal has all the possibilities. We are not as gung ho as the Americans and Chinese who do it anyway. Europeans don't do it at all although in the Lisbon Protocol there was rethinking. We introduce a seed after checking it out. The strategy comes from a Swaminathan Committee which was set up by the agriculture ministry, and pushed by me as science and technology minister; since in my day biotechnology was also a part of my work. Swaminathan said we won't just do GM or say no to GM.
The advantages are too great and if you goof up, so are the costs. So we do it case by case, experimentally grow GM crops under protected conditions and only when the science boys say yes, we go ahead. MNCs will crib, but tough luck. So Bt brinjal made the grade after a couple of years of checking it out. It will spread fast for the gains are high. Others will follow.
GM cotton was not a good story initially. Mind you, one of India's finest cotton breeders swears it was not genetically engineered perhaps only accidentally modified and any way was sponsored initially by the State. When the ruckus started it had been around for a few years and no damage had been seen.
In any successful system, Nav Bharat Agro, the highly successful cotton Bt enterprise, would have built strategic alliances. But our regulators called him a criminal and threatened to burn the fields of half a million farmers who bought his seeds. Now it's all memory, but even today a lot of the Bt seed is not hundred percent pucca in terms of approvals and now you have it in paddy and other crops also.
We need a high level review. My favorite model is the pharma model. When I was science and technology minister, we set up the Technology Development Board to help Indian firms to cover the last mile with Indian technology. We got CII to champion the cause. A struggling company helped was Shantha Biotech—to productionise the Hepatitis Vaccine with an Indian technology. Shantha was heavily critiqued by the French MNC leading the pack for the product. But later, another French company wanted to merge with Shantha.
Strategic alliances are the name of the game. There probably are not more than 20 MNCs in a field, but more than a thousand smaller fellows can really spread the technology. We need a new regulating regime. Uncontrolled, even if benignly illegal, Bt can be a potential disaster. Yet the advantages of descaling must be garnered.
The legal regime also needs a look at. These seeds are expensive. The farmer buys them for his unit costs go down as yield expands and other expensive inputs like pesticides are needed less. But in the one in a thousand failure he is doomed to, a large unpaid loan will drive him to the wall.
In the old days the seeds corporation or the agricultural university could be held responsible and the State would step in. Now there is a grey area. One collector can be gung ho and take 'action' on the company, another one may not, for the law is hazy. We need clear laws and regulatory drills. But all these are solvable problems.
The ICAR should now build a research plan as a private public partnership using a long term genetic mapping structure for the different agro climatic regimes of India. The Pusa gene bank should be the base. Bt brinjal is good. The prospect of more GM seeds is even better.
The author is a former Union minister
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FINANCIAL EXPRESS
COLUMN
POLICY CROSS-CONNECTION
ANANDITA SINGH MANKOTIA
The problem with our policy makers is not that they are unable to make cogent policies, which work for a reasonable span of time but the fact that they end-up making too many too soon, which end up contradicting and competing with one another. Take the country's telecom sector, which apart from being the world's fastest growing market also sees the largest number of policies at frequent intervals. Here, the department of telecommunications (DoT) is currently trying to bring about consolidation, which would effectively mean proposing measures to reduce the number of players by bringing about liberal M&A norms. However, at the same time, the same body is busy canvassing with new foreign telecom operators to participate in the 3G auctions, which would in turn increase the number of operators.
The exercise of conducting 3G auctions should ideally be driven by the fact that consumers have long been deprived of the latest technologies and the country must catch up with the rest of the world, at least in terms of technology in a sector which has been a run away success. However, in the Indian context, the 3G auctions seem to be driven more by the needs of the finance ministry rather than a part of the government's long-term telecom policy.
The DoT's committee on 2G spectrum pricing has recommended mergers and acquisitions that would consolidate the telecom industry and promote spectrum efficiency thereby passing on the benefits to both the consumers and the service providers. The recommendations explain that there isn't much availability of the scarce resource 'spectrum' hence it must be used optimally and so one needs to regulate the number of operators and rightly so. The recommendations also suggest that the licence must be de-linked from the spectrum allotted and the 2G spectrum must not be allotted at an administered price but must be auctioned.
The government, however, has made it clear that while the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations are awaited on the report, it wants to conduct the 3G spectrum auction as the finance minister has already budgeted Rs 35,000 crore as receipts from the auction in the current financial year.
Fair enough. But the problem arises as on the one hand there is an attempt to consolidate the sector and promote efficiency, on the other hand the government has allowed foreign telecom operators to participate in the auction (more the number of participants, higher the competition and meatier auction proceeds!).
In case a foreign telecom operator does win a bid it would automatically be allotted a Unified Access Service Licence, the government is then likely to give it the start-up 2G spectrum of 4.4 Mhz and at the end of the day what we would have is another telecom operator to our existing tally of 13! The auction proceeds might even beat government estimates, but all this would be in complete disagreement and against the logic of market consolidation, something everyone understands is a must. Another way could have been to first implement the 2G spectrum recommendations, de-link the licence and the spectrum and also use these directives in 3G spectrum auction.
anandita.mankotia@expressindia.com
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THE HINDU
EDITORIAL
THE DOLLAR'S FALL
The dollar, which has been under pressure in the global foreign exchange markets recently, fell to a 14-month low against the euro. Over the past six months, the American currency has depreciated in trade-weighted terms by as much as 11.5 per cent in relation to currencies such as the yen, the euro, as well as the Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian dollars. The weakening dollar has made exports from the U.S. more competitive. By the same token, exports from countries whose currencies have strengthened are losing their edge in the all-important American market. While global imbalances are being corrected, a precipitous fall in the exports of other countries will certainly not be good news for the global economy that is slowly coming out of the recession. The U.S. economy continues to suffer from structural deficiencies. For instance, its level of external debt is very high and the fiscal deficit is almost 13.5 per cent of its GDP. However, partly aided by the currency depreciation, the U.S. has made impressive strides in trimming its current account deficit to nearly a half of what it was at the start of the financial crisis. On the domestic front, the falling dollar has become a political issue, with the Obama administration coming under pressure to intervene and stem its fall. That would involve, among others, pushing up the interest rates, a course of action unlikely to be accepted as it will imperil recovery in the U.S., and given also the broad agreement among leading countries to keep the stimulus measures in place for some more time.
The decline in the dollar has revived the debate over its role as the world's principal currency. It is the currency of choice in trade transactions and the undisputed benchmark in currency trading around the world. This is not the first time that a terminal decline of the dollar has been predicted. Yet no real alternative has emerged as a safe haven currency. At present, 65 per cent of the world's reserves are in dollars and 25 per cent in euro. There would be some shift over the next few years, but the dollar's supremacy is unlikely to be challenged for a long time to come. Even its current fall is viewed by Paul Krugman and others as a symbol of success of the measures to revive the world economies including the U.S. economy, not as a sign of weakness. Simply stated, at the height of the crisis, investors flocked to the dollar, the traditional refuge currency. The dollar is merely climbing down from the inflated values to which it was pushed up. In India, the sharp appreciation of the rupee caused also by the surging portfolio inflows is posing major policy challenges.
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THE HINDU
EDITORIAL
IMPROVING PUBLIC HOUSING
A survey of cityscapes would testify that urban development polices and programmes have not been sufficiently inclusive. The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation concedes that even the City Development Plans funded through the flagship programme Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) have not adequately addressed the concerns of the urban poor, especially the slum dwellers. This, the Ministry believes, has more to do with the lack of re liable data than anything else. As a corrective, it has gone in for an extensive enumeration of the slums in various cities and set up a committee to take another look at the numbers relating to affordable housing. Efforts to improve and update the data are undoubtedly necessary, but to frame the issue entirely as a matter of inaccurate statistics will be to miss the point and deflect responsibility. The Ministry's progress report shows that of the 14.5 lakh dwelling units sanctioned under JNNURM that are expected to be completed by 2012 only about 1.3 lakh units have been built so far. The Eleventh Five-Year Plan estimates too show the supply of housing units for the poor is inadequate. Such delays cause cost overruns and affect affordability.
Countries such as the United Kingdom that faced similar problems have put in place a range of construction improvement initiatives and process innovations. Since 2005, public sector construction agencies in the U.K. are expected to reduce the pre-construction time leading up to the award of contract by 25 per cent. These measures are estimated to increase the delivery of units four-fold and bring in savings of the order of 10 per cent of the annual construction capital costs. It is time the government agencies in India opted for radically improved construction standards, enhanced technologies, and efficient management practices. Much remains to be done on the policy front too. The government assumes that its directive to reserve 20-25 per cent of developed land in private and public housing project for economically weaker sections would deliver results. However, this provision has been so diluted that it has contributed very little to affordable housing, as evidenced by the ground reality in several cities. The experience in quite a few countries shows that unless such a stipulation is applied to smaller development projects also — not just to the larger ones — the supply of affordable housing will not increase in any significant degree. Without a total overhaul of the housing agencies and their mechanisms of supply at the level of the States, affordable housing will remain a mirage.
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THE HINDU
LEADER PAGE ARTICLES
THE EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION DEBATE
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION IS ABOUT ETHICS AND NOT REGULATIONS. INDUSTRY SHOULD SELF-IMPOSE REASONABLE CAPS ON THE RATIO OF EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND AVERAGE EMPLOYEE SALARY.
PRABHUDEV KONANA
There is justified public outrage at the obscenely large executive compensation. Should the government regulate compensations in the private sector even when there is no government money involved?
Let us first consider a compensation method that exemplifies the best in the capitalistic system. Whole Foods, headquartered in Austin, is an $8 billion company selling natural and organic foods and promoting sustainable agriculture worldwide. They have a self-imposed limit on executive salary and bonuses, which is a maximum of 19 times the average salary of all full-time employees. Additional compensation is tied to stock options. The executives benefit if the average salary of employees goes up. The wealthy CEO and founder, John Mackey, takes a token $1 as salary and all his stock-based compensation is channelled to Whole Food's not-for-profit foundations that do outstanding work all over the world.
What is interesting is that the CEO, John Mackey, is a well-known libertarian who firmly believes in free market capitalism and that the government should have little role in economic activity. He is strongly against unions and socialised medicine. In fact, his recent article in The Wall Street Journal arguing against government-supported healthcare attracted numerous protests. However, under his leadership Whole Foods governs itself to maximise the benefits of all stakeholders, including employees, suppliers, customers, and community. Ninety per cent of all stock options are awarded to non-executive members. All employees receive generous healthcare benefits. Five per cent of the profits go to non-profit and community organisations. The company believes in the greater role of firms in creating a better environment and opportunities for others. This remarkable company culture is rooted in capitalism and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Mr. Mackey deviates from the popular libertarian view that CSR is unadulterated socialism.
Many executives like Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, and Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, are also in this $1 club and receive compensation only through stock options. Some criticise this, contending that that $1 grandstanding obfuscates real compensation from stock appreciation. But they ignore the fact that these executives could rake in millions in salary any way.
However, the real stinker is the overall executive compensation has grown uncontrollably over the years. In the United States, the ratio of CEO compensation to average employee pay increased from 42:1 in 1980 to 400:1 early this decade. (India's corresponding numbers were not readily available, but the current compensation of top executives supports such large ratios.)
Steven Kaplan, Professor at the University of Chicago, and others use market equity, firm profitability, and shareholder returns to justify executive compensation. Mr. Kaplan argues that executives are underpaid when a comparison is made with the historical share of adjusted gross income (about 1 per cent). But he fails to explain historical low compensation to average employee salary ratios. His arguments cannot explain why CEOs in oil industries deserve huge bonuses when a large fraction of profits were a result of irrational increase in oil prices.
The arguments cannot explain the differences in compensation of CEOs in the U.S. and those in other developed economies. The CEO compensations of equally powerful global companies in Germany, Japan, and other developed countries range from 10 to 25 times that of average employee salaries.
The rampant increases and somewhat reckless compensation significantly correlate with scandals such as stock option backdating and large severance packages. Managers potentially resort to inflating stock prices through investor expectation management. The short executive tenure adds to the challenge. It breeds short-term focus and potentially drives executives to seek creative accounting methods to show performance. Even worse, executives who inherit mess will seek greater compensation to guard against potential unknown downside creating a vicious cycle. The market equity drives up compensation each time as firms try to out beat peer firms.
The U.S. Congressional report rightly suggests that executive compensation in many sectors, particularly financial services industry, has de-coupled from actual firm performance. How to rein in executive compensations? It is a non-trivial matter. The government enforcing compensation caps on private firms has unintended consequences. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, since the 1980s the U.S. has tried regulation, legislation, and tax penalties to rein in executive pay, but compensation has skyrocketed. A few executive compensation outliers have become the industry norm after regulations. If one has it, others will want it. The competition to get talent forces firms to match others' bloated compensation.
Government mandates raise other questions. Should there be a cap on compensation of sport personalities, movie stars, or singers? Should the government put a cap on what proprietary and partnership-based businesses earn? Will the government interfere with how five-star hotels charge their customers? There is no end to this mandate.
Further, what will happen to thousands of non-profit organisations that rely on the wealthy to survive? Will mandates encourage job-creating investments pushed to other countries? Will top talent be poached by other countries with no such restrictions? Will angel investors who support entrepreneurs during high-risk early phase of a start-up disappear? There are numerous unknowns in this debate.
Of course, the government has a responsibility to protect shareholders and the economy from a reckless incentive system. Sensible regulations should give shareholders greater say in executive compensation referred to as "Say on Pay" that companies like Microsoft have adopted. This provides greater transparency and removes the undesirable nexus between the Board of Directors who set the compensation and executives. The clawback provisions to recall bonuses and compensation resulting from incorrect financial reporting or outright fraud need to be strengthened. Corporate fraud must be pursued vigorously. There are ways for the government to make these non-interfering regulations. It can consider tax benefits for firms that voluntarily set reasonable compensation limits.
It is time industry self-regulated proactively to benefit all stakeholders. Otherwise, it opens up for government intrusion since such intrusion may be popular among the public.
Assuming every company replicates or improves Whole Foods' compensation system, I am confident there is no better economic system than the capitalistic system to create wealth and improved living conditions. There is no need for government intervention and CSR with the right tax incentives can address societal needs.
In the context of India, the above may have greater relevance. There is little evidence that the government can substitute efficient privately run for-profit or non-profit organisations. Since Independence, the government has initiated hundreds of programmes and billions of rupees to improve rural India and socially and economically backward sections of the population. As I heard in one of the talks, considering the amount of money India has spent on various programmes every village should have been a Singapore by now! Obviously, let alone villages, no town or city in India comes close to Singapore on any dimensions.
Unfortunately, there is more tolerance towards corruption than executive compensation in the political establishment. The political establishment should rein in corruption rather than address outrage on executive compensation — it has no impact on the masses who want opportunities to succeed.
In the end, executive compensation is about ethics and vision that is best left for private firms to revisit. John Mackey said in the Harvard Business Review debate on executive compensation — "In my experience, deeper purpose, personal growth, self-actualisation, and caring relationships provide very powerful motivations and are more important than financial compensation for creating both loyalty and a high performing organisation." This is indeed a powerful statement from a die-hard libertarian.
The media and academia should play a greater role in a meaningful discourse on compensation ethics to inform industry and to bring greater attention. Of course, the government has the right to interfere if the private sector seeks government bail-out or subsidies.
Finally, it is also an ethical issue as to how these wealthy executives spend their fortune. Do they spend it on buying jumbo jets, build massive mansions surrounded by poverty, or plough back part of their fortune for the greater social good? I bet public anger will be non-existent when it is the latter.
(Prabhudev Konana is William H. Seay Centennial Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and can be contacted at pkonana@mail.utexas.edu)
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THE HINDU
OP-ED
TRAFIGURA FIASCO TEARS UP THE TEXTBOOK
A MIX OF OLD MEDIA AND THE TWITTERSPHERE BLEW AWAY CONVENTIONAL EFFORTS TO BUY SILENCE.
ALAN RUSBRIDGER
One day — if it's not happening already — they will teach Trafigura in business schools. This will be the scenario for aspiring MBAs. You are in charge of a large but comfortably anonymous trading company based in London and have a tiresome PR problem. Three thousand miles away are 30,000 Africans in one of the poorest countries in the world claiming to have been injured by your company dumping toxic sludge. You are being hit by one of the biggest lawsuit s in history. Worse, you now have a bunch of journalists on your case.
What to do? The business school textbooks will advocate a mix of carrot and stick. In charge of your carrot you hire Lord (Tim) Bell, who once performed a similar role on behalf of Mrs Thatcher. He will be in charge of attempts to reposition positive public perceptions of the Trafigura brand. He might, for instance, suggest you become an official sponsor of the British Lions tour of South Africa and an arts prize. And in charge of your stick you hire Britain's most notorious firm of libel lawyers, Messrs Carter-Ruck, who like to boast of their reputation for applying chloroform over the noses of troublesome editors.
For a while all goes well, especially on the stick front. Carter-Ruck spray threatening letters around newsrooms from Oslo to Abidjan. They launch an action against the BBC. And they persuade a judge to suppress a confidential but embarrassing document which has fallen into journalists' hands. A new term is coined: "super-injunctions", whereby the existence of court proceedings and court orders are themselves secret.
Nice work, large cheques all round. But the plan began to unravel rather rapidly on Monday (October 12) when it transpired that a British MP, Paul Farrelly, had tabled a question about the injunction and the awkward document in parliament. That was bad enough, what with the nuisance of 300 or so years of precedent affirming the right of the press to report whatever MPs say or do. There was a tiresomely teasing story on the Guardian front page. And then there was Twitter.
It took one tweet on Monday evening as I left the office to light the virtual touchpaper. At five past nine I tapped: "Now Guardian prevented from reporting parliament for unreportable reasons. Did John Wilkes live in vain?" Twitter's detractors are used to sneering that nothing of value can be said in 140 characters. My 104 characters did just fine.
By the time I got home, after stopping off for a meal with friends, the Twittersphere had gone into meltdown. Twitterers had sleuthed down Farrelly's question, published the relevant links and were now seriously on the case. By midday on Tuesday "Trafigura" was one of the most searched terms in Europe, helped along by re-tweets by Stephen Fry and his 830,000-odd followers.
Many tweeters were just registering support or outrage. Others were beavering away to see if they could find suppressed information on the far reaches of the web. One or two legal experts uncovered the Parliamentary Papers Act 1840, wondering if that would help? Common #hashtags were quickly developed, making the material easily discoverable.
By lunchtime — an hour before the Guardian was due in court — Trafigura threw in the towel. The textbook stuff — elaborate carrot, expensive stick — had been blown away by a newspaper together with the mass collaboration of strangers on the web. Trafigura thought it was buying silence. A combination of old media — the Guardian — and new — Twitter — turned attempted obscurity into mass notoriety.
So this week's Trafigura fiasco ought to be taught to aspiring MBAs and would-be journalists. They might nod in passing to the memory of John Wilkes, the scabrous hack and MP who risked his life to win the right to report parliament. An 18th-century version of crowd-sourcing played its part in that, too. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009
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THE HINDU
OP-ED
U.K. STUDENT VISA SYSTEM IN CHAOS
THE SYSTEM IS SO BUREAUCRATIC THAT A LARGE NUMBER OF STUDENTS ARE STILL WAITING FOR THEIR VISAS WHILE THEIR CLASSES HAVE ALREADY BEGUN.
HASAN SUROOR
For a country whose higher education system might collapse if overseas students, who contribute some £2.5 billion annually to its economy in tuition fee alone, stopped coming it is strange that Britain should have a student visa policy which appears to have been designed actually to prevent them from coming here.
While universities woo foreign students and look upon them as cash cows because they pay three to four times more than what their British and European Union counterparts do, the government views them with suspicion. It believes that student visas are open to widespread abuse with extremists and illegal immigrants exploiting "loopholes" to enter Britain.
A new, more stringent, system introduced earlier this year to check the alleged abuse is so bureaucratic and time-consuming that a large number of students in different countries are still waiting for their visas to come through while their classes have already begun. The government says it is designed to make sure that the applicant is a genuine student, has sufficient means to support him or her while in Britain and — in the case of countries such as Pakistan —has no obvious terror links but students complain that it is often used by local staff to harass and humiliate them with all applicants treated as potential terrorists and cheats. The "humiliation" doesn't end there. At Heathrow airport they are subjected to "insulting" questions and often made to stand in a separate queue for hours.
``We pay through our nose to come here but are treated so shabbily," said one Indian student who spent more than an hour at the airport.
Among other things, he was asked about his bank account details although he had already provided them to the British High Commission in Delhi (indeed without that he wouldn't have been given a visa) and made to undergo a chest x-ray.
Compared to their Pakistani counterparts, however, Indian students are lucky that they get a visa at all. In Pakistan, according to immigration agency's own figures, as many as 5,000 students are waiting for their visa to be processed, and some 9,000 appeals against visa refusals are pending.
Many fear losing their university places if their visas don't come through by the end of this month. The BBC reported one student as saying that he was waiting for his visa for three months.
"I applied for my visa on 9 July and I mentioned that I intend to go to England on 10 September as I have been given a government scholarship from my employer university… And till now I haven't received any response from the U.K. Border Agency. I have sent them many e-mails," Zubair Jatoi from Islamabad said.
Another student said it had been his "dream" to study in Britain but it had turned into a "nightmare." He was supposed to join Sunderland University in the first week of October but his visa had still not been processed.
"My classes have started. Unfortunately I am more than 7,000 miles away from my campus. You can imagine what I feel. I wish to attend my class but I can't," Hafiz Yousef told BBC.
Indeed, the issue has sparked a diplomatic row and, during a visit to Pakistan last week, British Home Secretary Alan Johnson was forced to apologise for the delays. He attributed the chaos to new technology and problems with background checks and assured Islamabad that waiting time for visa would be reduced from two months to 15 days by next month.
AMERICANS NOT SPARED
It seems that even friendly Americans, for all the much-vaunted special relationship, have not been spared the visa blues. According to media reports students in Los Angeles have had to wait for more than 40 days for a visa. Applicants from some other American cities have also complained about inordinate delays.
Meanwhile, British universities, desperate for cash that foreign students bring, are livid. They have accused the government of not only undermining their efforts to attract these students but also damaging Britain's reputation as a friendly higher education destination at a time when other countries are going out of their way to welcome overseas scholars.
"We are all extremely worried about the damage that this could do to the reputation of British higher education overseas, particularly in the Indian subcontinent. It comes at a time when universities' finances are under enormous pressure," Simeon Underwood, head of admissions policy at the London School of Economics told The Economist.
The journal pointed out that despite a weak pound which should make Britain a cheaper option for overseas students their numbers have actually "fallen by a fifth because of difficulties in getting visas."
In recent years, foreign students have got caught up in Britain's domestic immigration politics on the one hand and the government's larger "war" on terror on the other with universities being urged, effectively, to spy on their students and inform police if a student overstays his visa or shows sign of "radicalism."
To their credit, most vice-chancellors have resisted such pressures so far but the prevailing climate of suspicion on British campuses has killed the joy of university life for many foreign students. And, in the long run, it could kill the golden goose itself.
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THE HINDU
OPED
SECOND GREATEST KILLER
Despite the existence of inexpensive and efficient means of treatment, diarrhoea kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, according to a report issued here Wednesday by the U.N. Children's Fund and the World Health Organisation. The report, titled "Diarrhoea: Why Children Are Still Dying and What Can Be Done," includes information on the causes of diarrhoea, data on access to means of prevention and treatment, and a seven- point plan t o reduce diarrhoea deaths. "It is a tragedy that diarrhoea, which is little more than an inconvenience in the developed world, kills an estimated 1.5 million children each year," said UNICEF Executive Director, Ann M. Veneman.
"Inexpensive and effective treatments for diarrhoea exist, but in developing countries only 39 per cent of children with diarrhoea receive the recommended treatment." Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, said: "We know where children are dying of diarrhoea. We know what must be done to prevent those deaths. We must work with governments and partners to put this seven-point plan into action."
Diarrhoea is a common symptom of gastrointestinal infection. However just a handful of organisms are responsible for most acute cases of diarrhoea and one, Rotavirus, is responsible for more than 40 per cent of all diarrhoea-related hospital admissions of children under five. A new vaccine for Rotavirus has been found to be safe but is still largely unavailable in most developing countries. — Xinhua
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THE ASIAN AGE
EDITORIAL
FEARS RISE: PAK OUT OF CONTROL?
The deteriorating security situation within Pakistan ought to be a matter of serious concern to us in India, although the dramatis personae responsible for the spate of attacks at different places in the country, including the three synchronised assaults on separate leading institutions of the police establishment in Lahore on Thursday, are wards of its own Inter-Services Intelligence who flex their muscle from time to time to signal their autonomy in furtherance of specific aims. Not that the recent spurt in terrorist violence in Pakistan necessarily means that the ISI, which is always known to have its reasons, disapproves. In the absence of reliable information, analysts will, however, need to worry about the possibility of the present Pakistani state being overwhelmed by extremists, whether all elements of the state apparatus approve of this or not. This worry won't be limited to foreign observers and is certain to extend to the people of Pakistan as well who, by all accounts, are terrified of such a prospect but are unable to exert themselves to avert it. Those that may be ranged against the present establishment have grown way too strong over the decades, thanks to official mollycoddling. India has a serious cause for apprehension here. In the hands of the Army and the ISI, even a supposedly rule-bound Pakistan has been a treacherous and aggressive neighbour. With all restraints off, if the extremists come to rule, the situation is likely to become wholly unpredictable.
But there is another consideration that can plausibly be entertained. It deals with the short term. In the past fortnight, there have been half a dozen major terrorist strikes in Pakistan which have taken more than a hundred lives. The targets have included the Army headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistan's chief garrison town, and key police institutions in Lahore, the capital of the country's most important province in every respect, including political. Peshawar, the principal town of the North-West Frontier Province, of course, has been rocked over and over again. And who knows, it may be Karachi's turn next to burn. The domestic political backdrop to these goings-on is the bad blood between the military establishment — who are the country's real rulers — and the so-called civilian establishment which was brought into being in order to provide a veneer of democracy, mainly for the benefit of aid-providers in the West, particularly the United States. If the country is in turmoil, and the civilian rulers give the appearance of being babes in the woods, an official military takeover might appear to be the need of the hour, even in the eyes of the Pakistani people. Typically, the military men have made matters worse over time, but with the Taliban-types knocking at the gates, the people would be made to "understand". As for the Kerry-Lugar US legislation, which doesn't mind $1.5 billion in American aid flowing to Pakistan every year for the next five years so long as Pakistan doesn't proliferate nuclear technology and reins in the "jihadists", it is for the birds. India needs to publicly question such aid in the context of the overall US aid of $15 billion since 2001 not having achieved anything at all by way of curbing the dynamics of terrorism.
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THE ASIAN AGE
OPED
WILDE ADVENTURES
ASHOK MANDANNA
To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play.
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom and austere control...
Thus, in 1960, Micheál MacLiammóir, co-founder of the Dublin Gate Theatre, began his famous one-man tribute, The Importance of Being Oscar, to the "poet, aesthete, scholar, sage, philosopher, critic, dramatist, and wit", opening with the lines from Wilde's poem Hélas and ending with his death in 1900. "I am not sure", Oscar Wilde mused in his last days, "the world will forgive me if I should survive into the next century".
For the next 15 years MacLiammóir travelled the world to thunderous and universal appreciation of Oscar Wilde's and his own genius, ensuring, if all else is forgotten, that Wilde's name remains as fresh today in the 21st century as it did in the 1890s. Micheál MacLiammóir died in 1978, unaware that his play had just received a fresh lease of life... in India.
The year was 1976. Barely had the applause died on MacLiammóir's world tour when a cocky, fresh-faced young man, based in Bangalore and straight out of the National School of Drama (NSD), stood on the Shri Ram Centre stage in Delhi and tried to emulate his feat as part of a nationwide tour.
I was that fresh-faced young man and (looking back) must have had a huge respect for my own abilities as an actor to have ventured on stage alone. Wilde may even have approved. "I have no wish", he declared, convinced early in life of his own genius, "to pose as being ordinary, great heaven!"
Ebrahim Alkazi, still the director of NSD at the time, was among the audience that night. I began with Hélas and ended with Wilde's last days in a Paris hotel two hours later. (Wilde's room at the hotel in question was reputed to have wallpaper "of three shades or tints: magenta and magenta and magenta". With each passing day Wilde's desperation at observing the wallpaper grew till he finally cried out, "Yes, of course, one of us has to go!")
Alkazi came backstage after the performance to say "good show" and pointed out a couple of moves I could have done better. He then asked in dulcet tones, "Where did you get the script?" I confessed that I had "borrowed" the book from the NSD library the previous year and hadn't bothered to return it. He didn't bat an eyelid before replying gently, "At least you did something with it". Of all the accolades I received through the 70s and 80s (the run of the play), that qualifies to be the best.
What Alkazi didn't know (and only a few people in the world knew at the time) was that I was also, at that precise moment, an "unofficial" courier for the underground movement headed by George Fernandes against the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi.
Let me set the scene. Indira Gandhi's election in Uttar Pradesh was struck down by the Allahabad high court, whereupon she declared Emergency, herded (almost politely) all the Opposition members into jail (including a friend of mine, Snehalata Reddy, who had co-founded the Abhinaya Drama Group in Bangalore with me — for her association with the labour union leader George Fernandes), and then proceeded to run the country with the sort of discipline not seen since the British Raj.
One of the few people to escape the dragnet was George Fernandes, who promptly went underground.
The Emergency lasted from mid-1975 to early 1977, exactly coinciding with my departure from NSD to make my independent foray as a one-man performer — only to fall into the clutches of a band of freewheeling revolutionaries! Let me be frank; I did it willingly. My friend and mentor was in jail, after all.
My cover was perfect; I was only performing a "bloody play" and who the heck cared if it was about an Irishman who had been in prison himself...
The year was still 1976...
I was again in Delhi staying with a friend of mine in Defence Colony (preparing for a performance of the play at the India International Centre, IIC) when I received a mysterious phone call. "Wait outside the gate" at "precisely such-and-such time" with "your package". "An Ambassador car will pick you up".
I'm not saying I don't like playing silly buggers or imitating the heroics of Che Guevara but this was a day before my performance. If this "Ambassador car" should transport me to Himachal or Gujarat for a clandestine meeting... it was a long way back to satisfy my audience (including that very kind gentleman, Roshan Seth — he can correct me if I'm wrong — who had cut through the red-tape at the IIC to get me their stage to perform on).
The car drove me only as far as another house in Delhi. I handed over my package of leaflets before I was escorted to a room at the back of the premises, which housed, among other things... George Fernandes.
"George", as I like to call him, had grown a beard since being declared persona non-grata by Mrs Gandhi. I was tempted to say, "Dr Livingstone, I presume". He was stunned to discover I was in Delhi to do a "play", a far cry from what he expected of his regular cadres.
The next time I met "George", he was industries minister in the Central government.
The year was still 1976... I was in Bombay to perform the play for IPTA at an open-air school stage in Bandra when — but that, as they say, is another story, one that features the Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi and the filmmaker M.S. Sathyu (The editor said, "Keep it to a thousand words, PLEASE!")
But strange that I was not told
That the brain can hold
In a tiny ivory cell
God's heaven and hell
As with Oscar Wilde, there is a tragic finale. It was now 1977 and the Emergency was lifted. I was travelling by bus from Bombay to Bangalore (as tedious a journey then as it is now) and when we stopped at Tumkur, a town barely an hour out of Bangalore, I picked up the morning paper. A headline read: Actress Dead. Snehalata Reddy, soon after her release from prison, had succumbed to a heart attack. To borrow a line from MacLiammóir, I was too late even to say goodbye.
Oscar Wilde, an Irish playwright, poet and author known for his
biting wit, was born on October 16, 1854. His works include The
Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Ashok Mandanna is an actor and theatre personality. He studied at the National School of Drama and London's Weber
Douglas Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
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THE ASIAN AGE
OPED
GAMES BAN HURTS FIJIANS THE MOST
SHUBHA SINGH
The Commonwealth Games Federation suspended Fiji from its membership during its meeting in New Delhi earlier this week. The decision was a consequence of Fiji's formal suspension from the Commonwealth in September this year after its military regime failed to set a timetable to hold elections in the country by 2010. Fiji has been facing international isolation since a military coup in 2006 and suspension from the regional body, the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth. It has also been facing stringent sanctions from its two large neighbours, Australia and New Zealand.
It is, however, the ban on participating in the 2010 Commonwealth Games that is hurting the sports-crazy people of Fiji, many of whom are fervently hoping that some way could be found to reverse the decision. They are drawing hope from the Commonwealth Games Federation's plan to make a representation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to remove sport from the sanctions imposed on any member.
The Commonwealth had set a deadline of September 1, 2009, for the Fiji government to resume negotiations with the Opposition and to set a timetable for holding credible elections by October 2010. Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, however, stuck to his proposed Strategic Framework for Change that plans to put in place various socio-economic, political and legal reforms under which general elections would be held by September 2014.
This is not the first time Fiji has been suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth. It has twice earlier been suspended from Commonwealth meetings, both times after the democratically-elected government was overthrown in 1987 and 2000. Both times Fiji was re-admitted into the Commonwealth as it made its way back to democratic functioning. But this time, the Commonwealth's disapproval goes a step further — it means cutting off Fiji from all contact with the Commonwealth, including stopping of all aid and assistance programmes.
In 2006, Fiji's military commander, Cmdr Bainimarama, overthrew the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase with whom he had a fraught relationship. The military commander asserted that he had acted to protect the rights and interests of all the people of Fiji; he vowed to clean the system of corruption and ensure equity among the ethnic groups. Fiji's multi-racial population comprises of the majority indigenous Fijians community (57 per cent), a large minority of people of Indian origin (37 per cent) and other Pacific islanders. The two earlier coups had been carried out by people who claimed to be protecting the interests of the indigenous Fijians and ensuring their political supremacy in the country. Both coups resulted in violence and rioting that targeted the Indian population. Cmdr Bainimarama's was a bloodless coup and the Army kept a firm grip on the law and order situation.
Shortly after he took over as interim Prime Minister, Cmdr Bainimarama had promised to hold elections by March 2009. He went back on the promise, saying more time was needed to root out corruption and reshape the country's political system, especially its race-based electoral system. In the past year, Cmdr Bainimarama tightened his hold on the country as he abrogated the Constitution and sacked the higher judiciary after an appeals court held his government as illegal.
Cmdr Bainimarama's critics have charged that since he took over the government, Fiji's Constitution has been suspended, opponents have been detained without due process of law, the media has been censored and individual freedom and freedom of speech has been suppressed under "emergency" regulations.
Over time, Cmdr Bainimarama has steadily lost the support he had received when he first came in with his promises to clean up the corrupt system. The campaign against corruption did not net any major gains, but there is a general view that the military commander has raised many critical issues on the need for land reforms, reform of the electoral system and non-discriminatory policies. Cmdr Bainimarama proposed a draft "charter for change" but his attempts to initiate a political dialogue on the charter with the Opposition parties have not made much headway.
According to the charter for change, Fiji's electoral system is racially discriminatory and undemocratic. Under the recently abrogated 1997 Constitution, the 71-member House of Representatives had 46 communal seats and 25 open seats. Out of the 46 communal seats, 24 were for indigenous Fijians, where indigenous Fijian voters elected indigenous Fijian candidates, while ethnic Indians voted for Indians in 19 constituencies. Three seats were reserved for "the other races" while only 25 constituencies had mixed voting. According to Cmdr Bainimarama, this race-based voting had perpetuated an unequal polity and had contributed to the "coup culture" by not providing one value for one vote.
The charter proposes to "establish a system of voting so that all the interests and wishes of the people of Fiji can be represented in the Parliament through an Open List Proportional Representation Electoral and Voting System". It also plans to incorporate specific anti-discrimination measures into Fiji's electoral laws to ensure that no person is discriminated against by political parties on the grounds of race, religion, gender or circumstance.
Fiji Labour Party leader and former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, whose government had been deposed in the 2000 coup, had joined the interim government as finance minister. But Mr Chaudhry quit the interim administration in 2008. Just days before the Commonwealth deadline expired, Mr Chaudhry joined his political rival, Laisenia Qarase, in sending a joint letter to interim Prime Minister Cmdr Bainimarama suggesting ways in which they could work together to resolve the situation.
Meanwhile, some of Fiji's Melanesian neighbours have re-opened talks with Cmdr Bainimarama to encourage him to continue with his plans for reforms.
The European Union, a major donor, that had stopped its aid programme, has resumed discussion with the Fiji government. The World Bank is also holding discussions on the government's reforms agenda. But there is greater interest in Fiji on whether their sports contingent will be there at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October 2010.
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THE ASIAN AGE
OPED
LIVE YOUR TRUTH
ROBIN SHARMA
I had a conversation with an old friend the other day. He's done some tremendous things with his business and carved out a meaningful life. He said something that I wanted to share with you. Because it speaks to the best way to influence other people. Leadership by example.
"Robin", he said, "the greatest sermon in life is the one you see". To me that meant, make your life your message. Live your truth. Walk your values. Behave your philosophy. That's how you move those around you to play at their best.
It's so easy to talk a great game. Far harder to live it. But the great ones do. Elegantly. Consistently. Passionately. As famed psychologist Abraham Maslow said, "In order for us to become truly happy, that which we can become, we must become".
Excerpted from The Greatness Guide 2 by Robin Sharma. Published by JaicoPublishing House, jaicopub@vsnl.com
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THE ASIAN AGE
COLUMN
US AID: A SAGA OF CARROTS, NO STICKS
SRINATH RAGHAVAN
The enactment of the Kerry-Lugar Bill marks the onset of an important phase in US-Pakistan relations. The bill provides $1.5 billion annual economic assistance to Pakistan for the next five years. This is in addition to the existing aid packages, including the Coalition Support Funds (CSF) and programmes for the Tribal Areas. The Obama administration has hailed the bill as symbolising America's long-term commitment to Pakistan. The Pakistan Army and Opposition parties have decried certain provisions of the legislation as undermining Pakistan's sovereignty.
The rhetoric about the bill from both sides, however, masks its insidious consequences for the region — problems that India (and Afghanistan) will have to anticipate.
The provisions of the bill that have riled the Pakistanis pertain to issues of accountability. The bill requires the administration to certify every year that Pakistan was working to dismantle nuclear proliferation networks; that it had "made progress" on stopping support to terrorist groups operating out of its territory; that the military was not subverting the political process. But the US President can waive this requirement if it was important for American "national security requirements".
Despite the military's indignation, Islamabad will have to embrace the aid package. Given Pakistan's dire economic straits, the country's ruling elite, including the military brass, can scarcely afford to spurn it. Yet the military will also strain every nerve to ensure that notwithstanding the bill's requirements, it maintains its hold on security policy. The history of US-Pakistan interaction on such matters is a useful guide to the most likely response of the Pakistani military.
The Symington amendment of 1976 prohibited US assistance to any country found trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside of international safeguards. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter held Pakistan in violation of this amendment owing to its clandestine construction of a uranium enrichment plant. Yet, by 1982, aid began flowing to Islamabad through the use of presidential "waivers" very much like those incorporated in the Kerry-Lugar bill. By this time, of course, the US was seeking Pakistan's assistance in using the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.
In 1985, the Pressler amendment was enacted. It proscribed most economic and military assistance unless the President certified annually that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear explosive device and that the provision of aid would significantly reduce the risk of Pakistan possessing such a device. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush issued this certification despite mounting intelligence on Pakistan's efforts to possess a nuclear device. Indeed, American "national interest" demanded that evidence of Pakistan's furtive activities not just be ignored but actively suppressed.
Only in October 1990, after the Soviets had disengaged from Afghanistan, did Washington find Pakistan in violation of the Pressler amendment, triggering the prohibitions. The Brown amendment of 1995 removed most forms of economic aid from the Pressler list; but additional sanctions were imposed on Pakistan after its nuclear test of 1998. All of these were revoked in the wake of 9/11, as Pakistan yet again became important vis-à-vis Afghanistan and the security of its nuclear arsenal a matter of international concern. Since 2001, Pakistan has received $15 billion in American aid — a sum not much less than what is now being promised.
This experience has led the Pakistani military to conclude that so long as it remains important to advancing American interests, the latter would overlook Pakistan's pursuit of its own strategic goals. The Pressler prohibitions were invoked in 1990 precisely because Pakistan was no longer considered a strategic ally.
The Pakistan military is likely to respond to the latest aid package by continuing to support the Afghan Taliban, so keeping alive the insurgency in Afghanistan and ensuring its own importance to American efforts. At the same time, the military will maintain a low-profile in its support to the anti-India outfits, thereby ensuring that the Obama administration can issue clean chits to Pakistan.
The Americans, for their part, tend to look back on the 1990s as the lost decade. Because of the Pressler prohibitions, contacts with the Pakistani military sharply dwindled. They believe that this period sowed the seeds of mistrust in the Pakistani military mind. The present divide between the two sides — on objectives and strategies — is traced to this evaporation of trust.
The best way to rebuild a strategic relationship, they reckon, is to provide abundant incentives to the Pakistani military to abandon its support for insurgent groups and terrorist outfits. The provision of military aid is the major incentive; also important is the move towards privileging Pakistan's "strategic interests" in Afghanistan. The latter trend is evident in the recent review by General Stanley McChrystal.
The fatal flaw in this calculus is that American incentives will not be sufficiently attractive to convince the Pakistan Army to abandon the Afghan Taliban and the Kashmir tanzeems, both of which have advanced its regional interests. The more so, since it appears possible to maintain these links while pocketing the aid.
The current US policy towards Pakistan, then, carries the seeds of its own failure. The central problem is the excessive reliance on carrots to modify Pakistan's behaviour. The Obama administration needs to think seriously about some effective sticks too.
New Delhi might draw some comfort from the language of the Kerry-Lugar Bill. But its potential impact on Pakistan's strategic orientation will be a matter of concern. In effect, the package sets up incentives for the Pakistan military to stir the pot, albeit not too vigorously. The bill, moreover, does not have any stringent provision to ensure that the "significant majority" of the military aid is, indeed, used for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism. The only requirement is an assessment by the administration of whether the aid is enabling Islamabad to expand its nuclear arsenal.
This is problematic, especially in the light of recent revelations by retired Pakistani generals that many of the billions of dollars provided under the CSF were used to acquire conventional equipment that could be used against India. New Delhi had conveyed its concerns to Washington, but they have evidently gone unheeded. Clearly we need to do more than merely petitioning the Americans.
Srinath Raghavan is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
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DNA
EDITORIAL
IDENTITY CRISIS
The unique identity (UID) — based on biometric parameters — is supposed to subsume all other forms of identification commonly used in India like the ration card, the driving licence and the PAN card.
Though it is supposed to be just a unique number rather than an identity card, it will be unique for every citizen and is meant to simplify the hassles that ordinary people face in transacting business with governmental and private sector agencies.
There is now the added factor of national security as well; properly handled, the UID could be a useful thing for the state as well as the citizen. The fact that prime minister Manmohan Singh has entrusted Information Technology maestro Nandan Nilekani with the job is reassuring, but it does not set to rest all apprehensions, misgivings and fears.
The report that a biometric database will be set up which will contain the fingerprints of each and every citizen highlights some of the complex problems. The government proposes to collect these fingerprints when the citizen applies for documents like the passport, the ration card, driving licence or even — and this is intriguing — a mobile phone connection.
Two points arise. It is not yet clarified if these fingerprints will be collected each time. Second, is there a foolproof plan to protect the data thus collected? The Indian experience suggests that a good plan often spawns a humungous bureaucracy. Needless filling of forms is a way of life and the same information is often filled multiple times for different things.
True, computerisation is supposed to remove such multiplicity, but it is legitimate to fear that this may not actually happen. This is a danger that Nilekani and his team will have to avoid, because it will be hugely inconvenient and expensive.
The other worry is more troubling. What is the guarantee that such information will be kept safe? As the database will be in digital form, how will it be protected from hackers or viruses? Given how bureaucracies in India leak like a sieve, what are the measures that Nilekani and his team are taking to avoid such occurrences.
The UID is meant to cut through bureaucratic red tape and make life simple for the citizens. There is however the real danger that it could all be messed up because of inherent governmental ineptitude in collecting and managing information. This is the challenge before Nilekani.
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DNA
BANISH DARKNESS
Long ago, our ancients sounded a call asking us to shake ourselves free from the state of sleep where everything is shrouded in darkness. The state of ajnana or the darkness of spiritual ignorance is when one loses self-awareness.
So they gave a call: 'Awake! Do not be in this state of sleep. Attain Illumination. Go to those who have awakened. Ask them to awaken the light within you. Attain full awakenness by approaching worthy teachers.
The significance of Dipavali is a re-enacting of this banishing darkness from within yourself; of shaking yourself free from the sleep of ignorance and waking up into the light of a new dawn of full awareness. And this is the process you have to work out yourself.
To remind you of this, each year the festival of lights is held during the darkest night. It comes as an annual reminder of what you have to do — banish darkness, bring in light and revel in the Illumination. Fill yourself with the Light. Fill the whole world with light by your own being in it.
To remind us, they put this great call into our everyday prayer: Asato Maa Sat-Gamaya, Tamaso Maa Jyotir-Gamaya, Mrityor Maa Amritam-Gamaya (Lead us from the unreal to the Real; lead us from darkness to Light; lead us from mortality to Immortality).
To be in darkness is death. To arise from darkness into Light is to rise up from mortality and death into everlasting life. To awaken the Light within is to break this net of illusion, and rising into full awareness of that which is Reality.
We are inheritors of heritage that tells us: You are the Light. Awaken that Light within you. Realise that great Light of lights beyond darkness, and become blessed. Live your life for this ultimate attainment and Experience. Let us claim our birthright and move towards the great Light. This is the supreme rejoicing. May we all thus rejoice!
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DNA
INTELLIGENT SUCCESSORS
We, as in modern humans, may think of ourselves as more sophisticated than our ancient forbears, but is that the case? New research by an Australian scientist shows that the humans of today are the weakest and wimpiest in human history. The perception of the lumbering human of that time is therefore not true. But humans have progressed substantially since the Neanderthal man. We have invested in our intelligence to the extent that we no longer need to chase gazelles for dinner. And which woman would like to be an arm-wrestling Amazon? As for wimpy, look at that the destruction that humans have wrought in the last two millennia.
AUSSIE BIGOTRY
The knee-jerk reaction has kicked in. As soon as the numbers of ''boat people'' became a trickle, the Opposition reverted to its despicable old form, warning of a threat created by a Labor government ''soft on border protection''. Various media have already rolled out the lazy descriptions of a flood or tide of arrivals. And prime minister Kevin Rudd, knowing how the issue has played out in the past, has begun to echo the language of his predecessor, John Howard, after asking Indonesia to stop a boat carrying 260 asylum seekers.
It is instructive that most arrivals by boat are now from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, while the number of Iraqis has dropped. Australia is running an advertising campaign in Sri Lanka to discourage boat people, but has shown little interest in the conditions in which 300,000 Tamils have been held in military camps, with up to 1400 dying each week, according to aid agencies. The Coalition, under the leadership of Brendan Nelson, supported the Rudd Government's abandonment of the Howard government's ''Pacific Solution''. Immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone was one of the Liberal members on the joint standing committee on immigration who all endorsed the report Immigration Detention in Australia: A New Beginning on which the changes were based. Now Stone is making the public running on this issue, while Philip Ruddock and another former immigration minister, Kevin Andrews, are again shaping Coalition policy. The emerging policy reeks of the worst kind of political opportunism, that would inflict the most punitive treatment on the most vulnerable of refugees. Those who stoop to this deserve the same condemnation as they did when they first tapped the deep, dark well of xenophobia. —The Age (Australia)
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DNA
WELCOME THE LIGHT
SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
Diwali, the festival of lights, is lighting the lamp of love in one's heart; the lamp of abundance in one's home; the lamp of compassion to serve others; and the lamp of knowledge to dispel darkness. The festival celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance.
We celebrate by bursting firecrackers, performing puja and lighting lamps. It is only through lights that the beauty of this world can be revealed and experienced. Lights are lit not just to decorate homes, but also to communicate a profound truth about life.
Darkness represents ignorance. Light dispels darkness. When the darkness within is dispelled with the light of wisdom, the good wins over evil. A lit diya symbolises destruction of darkness and negative forces like greed, lust, fear, violence, injustice and wickedness, through knowledge. Diwali, which means rows of lights, throws light on the wisdom one has gained in life. It is the celebration of the triumph of truth and love over ignorance.
The destruction of Narakasura by Satyabhama symbolises this victory. It was on this day that the demon Narakasura was killed. King Narakasura (Naraka means hell) had been granted a boon that he could be destroyed only by a woman. Lord Krishna's wife Satyabhama was the one to destroy him.
Why only Satyabhama could kill Naraka? Satya means truth and bhama means the beloved. Untruth or lack of love cannot conquer hell. It cannot be removed by aggression. Hell can only be erased by love and surrender.
Non-aggression, love and surrender are the inherent qualities of a woman. Hence only Satyabhama, the true beloved, could remove hell and bring the light back. And Narakasura's last wish was that every house should celebrate his exit with lights to mark the end of darkness.
Diwali is the celebration of the light of love and wisdom thus born. Also it was on this day that Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya, his kingdom, after his victory over Ravana, the demon king. Ayodhya means that which cannot be destroyed, that is, life. Ram means the atma (the Self). When Self rules in life, then knowledge lights up. There is life everywhere. But when the spirit is awakened in life, Diwali happens.
Life has many facets and stages to it. It is important that you throw light on all of them. For, if one aspect of your life is in darkness, there can be no complete expression of life.
That's why rows of lights are lit to remind you that every aspect of life needs your attention and light of knowledge. Wisdom is needed everywhere. Even if one member of the family is shrouded in darkness, you cannot be happy. So, you need to light the lamp of wisdom in every member of your family. Extend it to every member of society, every person on the planet.
When true wisdom dawns, it gives rise to celebration. Often in celebrations, you tend to lose focus or awareness. To maintain awareness in the midst of celebrations, the ancient rishis (sages) brought sacredness and rituals to every celebration. For the same reason, Diwali is also time for pujas. Honouring is a sign of divine love. That honouring is called puja.
The ceremony of puja imitates what nature is already doing for you. In puja, you offer everything back to the Divine. Puja means honour and worship, offering one's self. Puja is feeling grateful for all that the divine has bestowed upon you. Honouring leads to devotion.
Flowers are offered in puja. The flower is a symbol of love. The Divine has come to you in love through so many forms: mother, father, wife, husband, children, friends. The same love comes to you in the form of the Master to elevate you to the level of divine love, which is also your own nature. Recognising this flowering of love from all sides of life, we offer flowers.
Fruits are offered, because the Divine offers you fruits in due season. You offer grain, because nature provides you food. Candle light and cool camphor light are offered. Incense is offered for fragrance. All the five senses are used in puja, and it is performed with deep feeling. Puja is honour and gratefulness.
Another profound symbolism is wrapped in the firecrackers. In life, you often explode like crackers with your pent-up emotions, frustration and anger. So when you burst a firecracker let go the suppressed emotions and become hollow and empty. Become free and let the light of knowledge dawn.
This Diwali, light the lamp of love in your heart; the lamp of abundance in your home; the lamp of compassion to serve others; the lamp of Knowledge to dispel the darkness of ignorance on this planet and the lamp of gratitude for the abundance that the Divine has bestowed on us. Diwali is an occasion to unite society in wisdom, joy and celebration. May this Diwali reinforce the message that we all belong to one God, One World and One Family !
The writer is a spiritual guru
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DNA
RACIAL ABUSE CAN BE A PUBLICITY STUNT
FARRUKH DHONDY
In the beginning, or in the 1960s and '70s in Britain, was a word and the word was 'Paki'. It was short for Pakistani, but packed an insulting abbreviated punch and was used by nasties as a word of abuse and insult to any person of South Asian descent.
It was strangely effective, even though, say abbreviating British to 'Brit' would not be.
Since then, 'Paki', like all curses, with constant use, lost its potency and power in very many contexts. Still it never crossed over into polite discourse, staying on the wrong side of decency, as the 'f' word has, even though its meanings now embrace being devastated, told to go way, expressing surprise, being in despair.
Through three generations of immigrant settlement in the sceptred isle, the word has become somewhat anodyne when used in certain contexts. People refer to the Asian-owned corner shop as the 'Paki-shop' without giving their words any thought, but also without meaning much offence.
So it was surprising that the word hit the headlines again last week after one of the dancing partners of a duo on a hit BBC ballroom dancing show called Strictly Come Dancing, used it unthinkingly and jokingly on his partner.
The TV show, watched by millions, features one professional dancer training a semi-celebrity to dance ballroom. We see the rehearsals and then the dressed performances in front of judges. The dancers who climb the pyramid of selection through a process of judgment, public voting by phone and elimination, perform different steps each week.
Getting to the top of the pyramid in this series were Laila Rouass, Indo-Morrocan TV and film actress (who I recall acted in a film which I scripted called Split Wide Open and directed by Dev Benegal), and her professional dancer partner, Anton du Beke.
Laila, it seems, brought a fake-tan can into the rehearsal studio and Anton looked at it and remarked that it would make her 'look like a Paki'. It was probably a light-hearted of-the-cuff remark but the instant reports in the newspapers and on the TV said Ms Rouass was reduced to tears by the insult and Anton had to apologise profusely and beg to make it better.
It was then reported that his apology had been immediately accepted and the couple went on to dance like a dream in the next night's televised competition. I have no idea if this was a cynically manipulated publicity stunt, but am certain that the attention that du Beke's single-word slight received from the press and public is part of what is known in Britain as the Shilpa syndrome — the mild racially identifying abuse, followed by tears, apologies and a trip to the bank for all.
Contrast the treatment meted out to my strong and steadfast, 'best beloved', youngest daughter when she went to a new secondary school at the age of 12. It's a mixed school and she gravitated towards a set in her class who were known as the most popular girls and boys.
They may not have been the company I would have chosen for her but then playground alliances and after-hours Facebook contacts are not a matter of parental choice. The dynamics of the group turned nasty as those of teenage groups sometimes do, but this being Henley-on-Thames, a particularly conservative and vicious preserve of British middle-class half-wittedness, the boys and girls of the group turned against my child and began calling her a 'Paki' and systematically isolating her for no discernible reason.
It was nasty and there was no publicity or TV money to be had. Other friends, girls she had known at primary school, rallied round her and soon the two boys who were the instigators of the racial abuse were isolated from the girls of the original group whose gender loyalty proved stronger than the racial divide and who befriended my daughter again through generously accepted apologies.
The writer is a London-based scriptwriter
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DNA
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The clearing of bt brinjal for consumption in India by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee may be just one step in a long process before this genetically modified vegetable is available in the market, but it is an important one. Even so, a contentious debate has broken out. The opponents of genetically modified crops, whether for sale or consumption, had already raised several red flags. Now they are bound to vigorously up the ante.
The supporters claim that this form of brinjal is resilient to certain pests and therefore is easier for farmers to produce. Its opponents however point out several flaws in the argument. For one, India is home to the brinjal, eggplant or aubergine, of which there are innumerable varieties. If a new version is introduced, it may seriously affect not only biodiversity but also the versions of indigenous brinjal. A bigger concern, as expressed by the naysayers, is the safety aspect; research has reportedly shown that laboratory rats have suffered health problems after consuming modified brinjal. There are reports that it increases resistance to antibiotics.
The battlelines then will be drawn between greater yield and possible health problems, potentially between farmers and the eating public. India produces over 9,000,000 metric tons of brinjal every year. The brinjal is also widely consumed in India, across all socio-economic groups.
For now, the government has decided to play down the GEAC approval and has accused environmental bodies like Greenpeace of needlessly heating up the debate. Union minister for forests and the environment Jairam Ramesh has made it clear that the government will decide only after hearing all the arguments.
At its most basic level, the problem is between maintaining status quo for the sake of it and thereby stalling progress and, conversely, blindly moving towards progress without adequate understanding of consequences.
Both stances are limiting and counter-productive. Instead of emotional posturing and high-decibel fights, we need reasoned and informed argument about the benefits and dangers of genetically modified foods. We also need transparency from the agencies concerned — the corporates, the scientific community, the environmentalists and the government. The advances of science are taking us further than ever before. Since these changes are exciting and frightening we need to know how they work. Genetically modified vegetables are being consumed across the world. What makes bt brinjal so scary? We need clarity on it since it involves safety issues.
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THE TRIBUNE
EDITORIAL
THE LAHORE STRIKE
PAKISTAN PAYS FOR PAMPERING TALIBAN
THE expected ground offensive by the Pakistani army against an estimated 10,000 hardcore Taliban in their stronghold South Waziristan is yet to begin, but the militants seem to have already launched an offensive of their own, that too right there in the heart of the country. On Thursday, they carried out a series of attacks on police offices in Lahore, traditionally the seat of power, including the regional headquarters of the Pakistani Police's Federal Investigation Agency, in which at least seven persons were killed. The same building was targeted in March last year also, killing 21 people. Gunmen also attacked two police training centres in Lahore taking several hostages. The Lahore incidents came shortly after a suicide car bomber set off his explosives outside a police station in Kohat in the troubled northwest region killing 10 persons. The number of casualties has already reached 24 and is expected to mount further.
It has been a bloody week for Pakistan in which more than 100 persons have died. By first launching a brazen assault on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and now on the police establishments in Lahore, the militants seem to be throwing an open challenge to the might of the government and warning it not to launch its anticipated assault on the Taliban by sending in ground troops. They have also vowed violence in revenge for the killing of their leader Baitullah Masud in a US missile strike in August.
Pakistan's difficulty is that most of the Frankensteins which are now mounting a challenge to its very existence happen to be its own creations. They have turned against their mentors following the US drive against them. The US has made its frustration known to the Pakistani authorities over their failure to eliminate Taliban sanctuaries on its side of the border and the latter has now no choice except to go along with the American offensive. That was bound to cause reaction against its own forces. The Taliban offensive is going to be painful for Pakistan, but may perhaps teach its ruling establishment a lesson that promoting terror as an instrument of state policy is fraught with grave risks which are better avoided. India has been giving this advice for years now but sadly it was always ignored by Pakistan.
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EDITORIAL
DECISIVE ACTION NEEDED
MAOISTS THREAT IS MOST SERIOUS
THE Maoists have been on the rampage in Jharkhand and other states killing people and policemen with impunity. On Tuesday they attacked polling personnel and a police station in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra , seeking to disrupt the electoral process. They have also enforced a 'bandh' in large parts of rural Jharkhand and Bihar, set railway stations on fire, torched trucks and blew up sections of the railway track, disrupting movement of trains between New Delhi and Howrah. They are also suspected to have killed on Monday two senior officials of a coal mine in Pakur district of Jharkhand when they were out on their morning walk. The Maoists at the same time seem to be holding their own in the Lalgarh area of West Bengal despite the four-month-old offensive launched against them. Seldom before have the Maoists asserted their potential for mischief and violence in such an extended area and at the same time. It is a grim reminder that the 'Red Corridor' may not just be a Maoist rhetoric. This is bound to force any government to resort to taking a decisive action to counter perhaps the most serious threat to the state.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee have both indicated their readiness, if not preference, to have a dialogue with the Maoists. The Home Minister's offer for talks came with the rider that the talks would be held only if the Maoists gave up arms.
The Centre is right when it says that the campaign against Maoists is going to be a long haul. While its responsibility for launching massive operations against the Naxalites has enormously increased, it should also impress upon the states that they cannot abdicate their responsibility in tackling the menace. Individually, neither the Centre nor any state can fight the threat. The operations in the offing will have to be well-coordinated and decisive.
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EDITORIAL
BAINGAN IN YOUR PLATE
GREEN SIGNAL TO GM FOODS
FOR the first time, a government committee has approved a genetically modified (GM) food crop for commercial cultivation in the country, sparking a controversy fiercer than that surrounded the clearance of Bt cotton a few years ago. Critics who had warned of adverse environmental effects of Bt cotton are more hostile towards Bt brinjal as its long-term effect on human health are not yet known. The recommendation by the country's regulator for GM crops is subject to clearance by the government. Since opinion is sharply divided on the emotive issue of genetically altered crops, it may take quite some time before the new brinjal variety is ready for mass consumption in India.
Unlike the natural crops, the GM crops are modified in laboratories by altering or adding to their genes supposedly to make them pest-resistant, improve their nutritional value, prolong their shelf life and enhance their yield. That is why agricultural scientists like Dr Norman Borlaug have favoured them to rid the world of hunger and malnutrition caused by shortages of fruits, vegetables and foodgrains. GM foods like brinjal, tomato, cauliflower and cabbage are widely used in the US. Argentina, Brazil, China and India too have accepted them. Last August Britain too opened up to GM crops to improve crop yields and meet the nutritional needs of the future generations. But Europe, by and large, is still hostile to them.
Civil society groups and NGOs like Greenpeace resent the near monopoly of a few MNCs on GM seeds, their marketing and research. Profit motive of these multinational companies is quite clear. The politicians and regulators, it is feared, may succumb to MNC pressure and temptations, ignoring concerns about public health and the environment. It is for the government, therefore, to address these concerns and evolve a transparent and independent regulatory mechanism involving reputed persons of integrity and competence so that benefits of biotechnology are not delayed by needless controversies. GM foods cannot be objected if they can help fight malnutrition and hunger, but the government will have to guarantee that the GM vegetables don't cause harm to the health of the people, or affect their taste.
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THE TRIBUNE
COLUMN
CHOOSING JUDGES
A STATUTORY SEARCH COMMITTEE CAN HELP
BY P.P. RAO
Recent developments concerning the integrity of Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran of the Karnataka High Court have caused serious embarrassment to the collegium of the Supreme Court. They underline the need for an appropriate mechanism to assist the collegium in making proper selection of candidates.
Integrity is an indispensable requirement of a judge. Socrates said: "Four things belong to a Judge: to hear courteously; to answer wisely; to consider soberly; and to decide impartially." A dishonest Judge cannot decide impartially. Over the years, there has been a growing concern about the deteriorating standards in judicial appointments.
At the inaugural sitting of the Supreme Court in January 1950, Chief Justice Harilal J. Kania observed: "Unfortunately, during the last 20 years, that respect for the position, status and dignity of the judge has not been fully maintained."
Forty years later, Nani A. Palkhivala observed: "Public disenchantment with judicial administration has been vastly aggravated by the recent developments in the Bombay High Court. If you lose faith in politicians, you can change them. If you lose faith in judges, you still have to live with them. Corruption in the upper reaches of the judiciary is illustrative of the incredible debasement of our national character."
In the words of Chief Justice S.P. Bharucha: "The quality of our judges has regrettably fallen". Seven years ago, he made a public statement that 20 per cent of the judiciary was corrupt, mostly the subordinate judiciary. What is the position today? Obviously, things have gone from bad to worse.
Even after the superior judiciary has assumed the power of final selection of candidates for High Courts and the Supreme Court by a strained interpretation in the Second Judges Case of Article 124 requiring the executive to consult the Chief Justice of India, the quality of judicial appointments continues to cause concern to the Bench, the Bar, the government, the litigants and the public alike. The Supreme Court in that case noted: "Legal expertise, ability to handle cases, proper personal conduct and ethical behaviour, firmness and fearlessness are obvious essential attributes of a person suitable for appointment as a superior judge."
The judgement aroused great hopes that henceforth the quality of appointments would be very high, but experience of last 16 years has belied the expectations. A few deserving Chief Justices of High Courts were constrained to resign having been overlooked by the collegium.
When Chief Justice M.L. Pendse of the Karnataka High Court was superseded in 1996, Mr Fali S. Nariman lamented: "There may have been good reasons why a judge with an excellent record was not appointed in one of the vacancies in the Supreme Court. But this `non-appointment' has put in doubt the continuance of a system by which secrecy governs the entire selection process. We do not know, and we cannot know, why Justice Pendse was overlooked. No one can be asked what were the written reasons for not appointing one of the then senior-most judges in the country, and a person of reputed competence and integrity. The judges' lips are sealed, because of confidentiality; inevitably this gives rise to gossip and rumour which cannot be contradicted without breaching the code of confidentiality. This is not good for the system. It is not good for the Chief Justice of India nor for the judges of the Supreme Court."
There were several instances where the then Chief Justice of India and his senior colleagues could not agree over the selection of candidates for appointment as judges. In some cases, highly deserving persons were made to wait for years together before appointment, without any justification.
There is no country in the world where the power of appointment of judges is exercised by the judges themselves and the executive's role is restricted to issuing formal warrants of appointments. Conceding that the executive lacks credibility, it cannot be kept out altogether in a democracy. If the selection of candidates for judgeship had been left entirely to the judiciary from the beginning, a pathfinder like Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer would never have been appointed a judge.
Some of us who had assisted the court in interpreting Article 124 of the Constitution the way it did, now realise the handicaps of the collegium. It has no machinery at its disposal to collect and screen the relevant data about all prospective candidates for judgeship. They select candidates based on their limited personal knowledge and the assessment of a few others whom they choose to consult individually.
The collegium has been giving undue weightage to seniority and Chief Justices of High Courts in preference to more meritorious Judges. This practice has resulted in some unsatisfactory appointments. Before the last batch of appointments was made in May this year, for the first time, the government was constrained to raise queries as to why certain senior Chief Justices were overlooked and juniors selected.
The need for transparency and accountability in the selection process is urgent. The problem is crying for a solution. It has to be within the existing framework. Handing over the power of final selection back to the executive is neither feasible nor desirable. Parliament can put in place a mechanism to assist the collegium and facilitate proper and better selection without in any manner curtailing its power of final selection, by providing for the constitution of a statutory search committee by the President in consultation with the CJI consisting of eminent persons of impeccable integrity including a former Chief Justice and a retired Judge of the Court, two senior renowned lawyers of the Supreme Court, the Attorney-General, the Secretary (Law) as Member-Secretary, the Secretary (Home), and a very senior and well reputed journalist.
The functions of the search committee would be to collect all relevant data from the executive, the Bar and the judiciary throughout the country, analyse it and make assessments of probable candidates who are eligible and deserve to be considered for elevation to the Supreme Court both from the Bar and the Bench and also mention the names of Chief Justices and senior judges of the High Courts who do not enjoy good reputation.
The former CJI could be the Chairman of the Committee. The search committee shall prepare a panel of selected candidates, three times the number of vacancies to be filled and forward it together with the entire material to the collegium for consideration. It should be open to the collegium to consider any other candidate, for reasons to be recorded, who deserves such consideration.
Generally, universities while advertising the post of a Professor, insert a clause to the effect that it would be open to the selection committee to consider cases of other deserving candidates who had not applied for the post in question. There are several high posts like Vice-Chancellors for which search committees make the preliminary selection.
In the matter of judicial appointment, the question to be considered is not whether a particular candidate is proved to be corrupt, but whether he or she is a person of doubtful integrity. Only men of undoubted integrity ought to be considered for elevation.
As David Pannick observes: "Judges are mere mortals but they are asked to perform a function that is truly divine." The judiciary has acquired credibility because, in the past, by and large, the members had conformed to standards of life and conduct which are, in the words of Sir Winston Churchill, "far more severe and restricted than that of ordinary people". It is the credibility which sustains the judiciary. The day the last citadel loses its credibility, there will be no rule of law.
The writer is Senior Advocate, the Supreme Court of India.
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THE TRIBUNE
COLUMN
WOMAN, THY NAME IS MIGHT
BY ASHOK KUMAR YADAV
FRAILITY, thy name is woman", was how William Shakespeare, the greatest bard of English literature, painted the 'fairer sex' in his famous play, Hamlet.
These 'contemptuous' sentiments were 'echoed' by another eminent writer, Khushwant Singh, four centuries down the lane when he also passed an 'unilateral decree' in mid-seventies that a female was a 'perpetual parasite' on a male 'from her cradle to grave' — on father as an unmarried daughter, on husband as a wife and on son in the 'evening' of her life.
The observations left a permanent 'etching' on my thought process.
How could a woman be dubbed as 'weak' when she even as a neonate could tolerate the 'shock' given by her own 'not-so-happy' parents at the time of her birth? As the little 'fairy' starts spreading her wings, she is again 'shocked' to find that she is being 'unfairly' discriminated vis-à-vis her brother.
As an adolescent girl, she is made to 'confront' with nature-conspired challenge of menstrual cycle which tends to 'dwarf' her growth while boys on the other hand keep growing uninterrupted. She turns shy, becomes an 'object' of eveteasing and conscious of hormonal changes cascading in her body. Here, she learns another 'lesson' of her life to perpetually keep struggling to survive.
She then sets on in a 'roller coaster' when she is 'transplanted' in a family of strangers after her matrimony. She is treated as an 'alien' and has to wade through the 'saas-bahu' and 'nanad-bhabi' ordeals day-in and day-out and compromise her dignity every now and then.
The Elizabethan poet and his Indian incarnation omitted to 'peep' into the 'psyche' of a woman and appreciate her feminine persona before passing an ex-parte judgment against her. Nor did they have the courage to nail the real 'culprits' for her predicament.
Is it not the male-dominated society that keeps 'exploiting' her real 'self' despite her presence lending sobriety and elegance to a habitat? Without her, any place would obviously acquire the notoriety of a 'stud' farm.
In spite of all her inherent handicaps, natural or male-sponsored, she has somehow managed to launch herself in all arenas of life, be it the army, aviation, space, sports or police.
Though the father helped her to just 'walk' a bit, Kalpana Chawla taught the art of 'space walk' to the posterity. While the father just helped her to 'climb' the stairs at home, Santosh Yadav taught how to 'climb' the highest peak in the world known for its hostility.
As an epitome of sacrifice, patience, love and inspiration, a woman ever loves to 'propel' her man to achieve newer heights in life. Little wonder that behind every successful man, there is always a woman!
How can a woman be a 'parasite' when she has so much to offer? It is different that she smilingly 'accepts' to perform 'errands' for a male all throughout her life, be it her father, brother, husband or son.
A bubbling 'resolve' in the eyes of my daughter, Archna is an indicator of a sea change in the 'outlook' of women who are now getting mightier. Little doubt that I seize all opportunities to condemn female subjugation, female foeticide and male chauvinism!
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THE TRIBUNE
OPED
FRAGILE FOOD SECURITY
HIGH PRICES CURTAIL ACCESS TO FOOD
BY HARENDER RAJ GAUTAM
THE World Food Day, which is celebrated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations on October 16 every year, focuses the attention of the world on the crucial issue of food which is a vital input of our survival. Today the availability of food has been affected in more than 30 countries and thus the theme for 2009 is "Achieving food security in times of crisis".
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle .
Directly or indirectly, agriculture provides the livelihood for 70 per cent of the world's poor. With food prices remaining stubbornly high in developing countries, the number of people suffering from hunger has been growing relentlessly in recent years.
The global economic crisis is aggravating the situation by affecting jobs and deepening poverty. According to the FAO estimates, 75 million of the world's hungry are a direct result of high food prices.
There are 923 million under-nourished people in the world. The FAO estimates that the number of hungry people could increase by further 100 million in 2009 and pass the one billion mark. With an estimated increase of 105 million hungry people in 2009, there are now 1.02 billion malnourished people in the world, meaning that almost one sixth of all- humanity is suffering from hunger. The gravity of the current food crisis is the result of 20 years of under-investment in agriculture and neglect of the sector.
India has 3 per cent of the world's crop land but feeds 17 per cent of the world's population. In India also food and nutritional security is very fragile and had been a prime concern in 2009 as adverse weather conditions complicated the situation.
Food is the backbone of our livelihood security system and, therefore, it has a different significance in our country in contrast to the industrialised nations where hardly 2 to 3 per cent of the population derive their income from farming.
While the share of agriculture in national income declined from 38.8 to less than 18 per cent between 1980-81 and 2000-01, the workforce engaged in it registered only a marginal reduction, from 60 to 52 per cent.
According to the latest report of the United Nations World Food Programme, our country has 23 crore under-nourished people, which is the highest in the world.
The report further elaborates that 43 per cent of children under the age of 5 years in the country are underweight, more than 70 per cent suffer from anaemia and malnutrition accounts for 50 per cent of child deaths.
The report indicates that the proportion of anaemic children has actually increased by 6 per cent in the last six years with 11 out of the 19 most affected states having more than 80 per cent of its children suffering from anaemia. As food prices are rising, more than 15 lakh children are at risk of becoming malnourished.
There is an urgent need for securing food security. In fact, 2009 is a classic case of uncertain monsoon behaviour and that should serve as a wake-up call to end complacency over decision-making in agriculture.
The country first a faced drought in the traditionally wet months of June, August in most parts of north, central and southern India and then floods in late September, October in the southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa.
The country may have to rewrite its seasons. Meteorological evidence indicates that temperatures would increase in India by 2-4 degrees by 2050 and the number of rainy days in a year would come down by 15 or more.
The future planning in agriculture should, therefore be based on facts that frequency of drought, flood, unseasonal rains and high temperature will increase and the future technologies have to match that.
In future, we should be prepared to deal with monsoon failure, acute water and energy shortage by building a weather-resilient water, food and livelihood security system. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme should focus on rainwater harvesting, aquifer recharge and watershed management and synergise with the priorities of the agriculture sector.
In India, food security for the most vulnerable masses is ensured through our public distribution system of foodgrains. At present, the Planning Commission estimates that only 28.3 per cent of the population qualifies for below poverty line (BPL) benefits. However, the committee on BPL surveys, formed by the Ministry of Rural Development and chaired by Supreme Court-appointed food commissioner N C Saxena, has recommended that 50 per cent of India's population be given BPL cards.
Thus, the country has more than 33 crore people who require assured supply of foodgrains for their survival. The Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), launched in 2000, sought to provide affordable food to below poverty level (BPL) households.
The objective of the scheme was to make the TDPS more focussed and targeted an identified 10 million of the poorest of the poor in different states.
Wheat and rice at subsidised prices of Rs 2 and Rs 3 per kg, respectively, are provided to these households under the scheme.
In 2005, the government passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which has been now named after Mahatma Gandhi to improve the livelihood security of rural households.
The Central Government has announced to bring the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to eradicate hunger and reduce malnutrition in the country. Implementation of this Act will ensure that every BPL card-holder gets 25 kg of either rice or wheat at Rs.3 a kg every month.
The estimated annual requirement of foodgrains is about 446 lakh tonnes under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and 50 lakh tonnes under other welfare schemes.
An important initiative towards food security was the launch of the National Food Security Mission (2007) to increase the production of rice by 10 million tons, wheat by 8 million tonnes and pulses by 2 million tonnes by the end of the Eleventh Plan (2011- 12).
The buffer stocks of the Central Government are enough to feed the nation for 13 months. The foodgrains (wheat and rice) stocks in the central pool as of June 1, 2009, stood at 204.03 lakh tonnes of rice and 331.22 lakh tonnes of wheat.
Harvesting of the wheat crop for 2009 is also almost over with primary estimates put at 77.6 MT, below the previous record set last year at 78.4 MT, but much higher compared to the five-year average of 72.85 MT. According to the latest estimate by the FAO, the country's paddy output may decline to 145.2 million tonnes (MT) in 2009 after hitting a record of 149 MT in the previous year. In 2007, total paddy output was recorded at 145 MT.
As the problem of food security is not confined to individual countries, there is need for concerted efforts at the global level. In a significant shift in focus from food aid to practical help for local agriculture, the richer nations have pledged $ 20 billion to fight global hunger.
The fund is aimed at reversing the long-standing trend of underinvestment in agriculture and food security. The FAO is organising a World Summit on Food Security in Rome from November 16-18, 2009 with a prime aim of eradicating hunger from the earth.
Not only to ensure sufficient food production to feed a world population that will grow by 50 per cent and reach 9 billion by 2050, but also find ways to guarantee that everyone has access to the food they need for an active and healthy life.
The writer is a scientist at Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni (Solan)
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OPED
FROM POWER SURPLUS TO SHORTAGE
BY K.S. CHAWLA
Punjab has been facing a severe power shortage for the past many years and the two major political parties — the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal — have been blaming each other for it. However, both cannot be absolved of the responsibility.
In 1956 when the Bhakra power complex was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru, the state was faced with a problem of plenty. The power demand started picking up only after the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966. Industrial development started during the tenure of Pratap Singh Kairon as the Chief Minister.
It was Justice Gurnam Singh who headed the first two non-Congress governments in Punjab that launched the first thermal plant at Bathinda in 1969.
Although Justice Gurnam Singh laid the foundation stone of the Bathinda thermal plant, the first and second units went into stream during the tenure of Giani Zail Singh as the Chief Minister in 1974 and 1975. The third and fourth units were put on stream during the SAD-Janata regime headed by Mr Parkash Singh Badal in 1978 and 1979.
Darbara Singh (Congress), who became the Chief Minister of Punjab in 1980, accorded top priority to power generation. He allotted maximum funds for the Nangal and Mukerian hydel projects. The Ropar thermal plant has now six units and is one of the biggest thermal power plants in the country. The first unit of the Ropar plant was put on stream in 1984 and the second in 1988 when Punjab was under the rule of the Akali Dal led by Surjit Singh Barnala. Barnala could not do much on the power generation front.
Again in 1997 Mr Parkash Singh Badal headed the SAD-BJP government which had a full term of five years. The first and second units of the Lehra Mohabbat thermal plants went into generation during this period in 1998 and the third and fourth units of this plant started generation during the current tenure of the SAD-BJP government in 2008.
Although Mr Badal is now having his fourth term as the Chief Minister but there is no concrete planning for the generation of power in the state. He keeps criticising the Congress for not taking care of the power needs of Punjab.
Punjab has at present 578 lakh units of power from three thermal plants daily. Besides, 120 lakh units are generated by the hydel projects of Punjab and 116 lakh units of power are supplied daily by the BBMB.
At present 22 per cent of the total supply goes to the farm sector, 25 per cent to the domestic sector and 55 per cent to the industry.
The state government gives a subsidy of Rs 3,100 crore every year to the PSEB in lieu of the free power supply to tubewells.
Lately, the urban consumers have also started demanding subsidy and the state government has asked the regulatory authority to keep in abyance the new power tariff hike effective from April, 2009. The consumers are getting power bills at the new tariff despite the decision of the state Cabinet.
Work on two thermal plants at Talwandi Sabo and Goindwal Sahib has started and the first unit of the plants are likely to be commissioned by the end of 2012 and 2013.
The state needs to go in for collaboration with Himachal Pradesh for hydel generation which can be made available through joint ventures. The political parties should stop mud-slinging and work for the welfare of the state.
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THE TRIBUNE
HEALTH
SHORTENING A CANCER PATIENT'S ORDEAL
BY KELLY BREWINGTON
WHEN Rhonda Bautista Grenier learned she had breast cancer at age 42, she faced not only a terrifying diagnosis but the daunting logistics of treatment. How could she tackle a grueling schedule of chemotherapy and radiation, full of painful side effects and hours spent away from three teenagers and a full-time job?
Grenier learned of a new clinical trial at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center that promised to shorten treatment from more than seven months to as a little as seven weeks for women who had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Instead of treating the cancer first with months of chemotherapy, then weeks more of radiation, patients received chemotherapy and radiation at the same time. The radiation treatments were significantly shortened by delivering higher doses to just a portion of the breast.
Combining chemotherapy and radiation treatments was once unheard of in breast cancer treatment, because it posed a high risk of toxicity, resulting in painful, disfiguring burns. But with the experimental treatment at Hopkins showing promising results — fewer side effects, less toxicity and increased convenience for patients — Grenier decided to go for it.
"The C-word alone is devastating, then you have to decide how you're going to attack this thing," said Grenier, now 46. "The way I looked at it, this new trial was attacking the cancer from both angles at the same time. I was really scared, but it sounded logical to me."
As new technologies enable specialists to detect breast cancer earlier, researchers are searching for ways to treat the disease faster, in shorter intervals and with greater precision.
A clinical trial in Canada last year found that giving women just three weeks of radiation to their entire breast worked just as well as the standard five or more. Another huge national trial is under way testing whether giving high doses of radiation to just a portion of the breast is as effective as treating the entire breast.
And still other researchers are experimenting with high-tech tools that administer radiation in specialized ways. One, known as MammoSite, is a small balloon connected to a tube that is placed in the breast for several days. Radiation is given through the tube and the balloon is removed a few days later when the treatment is completed.
At University of Maryland Medical Center, researchers have received funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop a device that delivers high doses of radiation to small areas. Their hope is that one day women may never need to go under the knife to have their cancers treated — and cured.
For many women, a cancer diagnosis comes at the most productive part of their lives as they juggle the demands of work and family life. It means getting time off work for treatments, finding a baby sitter and adding something scary and exhausting to already chaotic schedules.
Shortening treatment is not just about improving quality of life; it has practical implications, he said. Some women don't show up for their treatments because it takes too long, they have to travel too far or they can't get time off work. Shorter courses mean being able to deliver treatment to more people, he said.
Reducing the course of radiation also means limiting radiation exposure to other areas of the body — such as the lungs, ribs and even the heart, said Dr. Richard Zellars, the assistant professor of radiation oncology at Hopkins who is heading the trial.
By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE
EDITORIAL
CHINESE SALVO
China has never made secret of its expansionist designs, carefully crafting its strategy to suit its needs at specific periods. It had not been the desire to acquire barren, mountainous territories that had induced the Chinese to forcibly occupy Tibet in the face of international condemnation. The Tibetan Plateau is also the region from where many of the major Asian rivers originate, thus control over it gives China control of enormous amounts of water, a resource that will become increasingly scarce in the coming decades. If China is illegally occupying over forty thousand sq km of Indian land in Jammu and Kashmir, it is because of the military advantage this entails. Though China has elevated shadow-boxing into an art-form as far as relations with its neighbours are concerned, its expansionist past should make India wary of its articulated designs vis-a-vis Arunachal Pradesh. The communist regime has gone on record that it does not consider Arunachal to be a part of India and has staked claim to the State's 90,000 sq km of land. As if to reiterate this claim, it has now used harsh words expressing "its strong dissatisfaction on the visit by the Indian leader," implying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, "to the disputed area in disregard of China's grave concern." The Chinese salvo has come ten days after the PM's Arunachal visit, clearly in response to the high turnout in the State's Assembly election.
On what grounds it considers Arunachal to be a "disputed area" has never been spelt out by China, precisely because there are no grounds at all for such an assumption! No doubt the ethnic identity of the numerous tribes inhabiting Arunachal is Mongoloid, an outcome of migration from Western China. But this fan shaped migration occurring through two millennia had populated most other South East Asian countries too and China certainly can not lay its claim to these! Historically, what today is called Arunachal had always been politically and culturally bonded with India. Many of the tribal heads had owed allegiance to the Ahom kings during the heydays of this dynasty, coming down to the Brahmaputra valley to barter produce. During the Raj period the region was brought under administrative control by the British, who named it as North East Frontier Agency and integrated it into their Indian empire. Thus, in the natural course of events, when India attained independence, NEFA became an integral part of India and was later rechristened as Arunachal. But such historical considerations have never weighed heavily on the Chinese, their annexation of Tibet on spacious grounds bearing witness to the fact. Thus India needs to proceed in the assumption that, far from shadow-boxing, China does indeed have Arunachal in its sight, and embark on diplomatic and defence measures based upon such an assumption.
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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE
EDITORIAL
JUVENILE JUSTICE
Juvenile problems were always there but never as accentuated as it is today. The reason is varied and it is hard to pinpoint one single cause for it. But the reality is that crimes committed by the young impressionable minds are on the upswing. What is making the matter worse is that the juveniles found involved in criminal activities are being treated at par with the adults by the law enforcing authorities. Instead of meting out harsh punishments the stress should be on rectifying them. Though there is the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection) Act 2000, it is seldom implemented by the law enforcing authorities while dealing with juvenile delinquents.
The effective implementation of the Act will help in protecting the rights of the child who have gone astray.
Though a number of Assam Police personnel have been trained in child friendly policing under the Ashwas project, a lot remains to be done in this regard. One of the most important provisions of the Act, that is setting up of Special Juvenile Police Units is yet to be implemented in the true spirit.
The importance of the Special Juvenile Police Units needs no exaggeration. The efficient functioning of these units will go a long way in speedy disposal of the cases. The men in uniform manning these units should have adequate training on child psychology, child rights, principles of juvenile justice and other related subjects so that they can handle the cases in the best possible way. The Special Juvenile Police Units will also come handy in preventing crimes by the young adults as it would be in a position to identify the delinquents and to discipline them. Along with the police, the child welfare organizations set up by the government along with the NGOs should coordinate their activities to tackle this problem head on. Even the teachers at schools should be able to identify the problem child and arrange special counselling to rectify the errant behaviour. Moreover if the activities of a child are not properly monitored the chances are very high that he may go astray. Along with it factors like peer pressure and environment play a significant role in shaping up the personality of a child. But what has now made the society sit up and take notice is that juvenile crimes are going up alarmingly. It is time the child got care and the guidance to choose the right path in life. The society needs to come forward and assist the stakeholders who are working for child welfare to ensure a better tomorrow for the delinquents.
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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE
EDITORIAL
BHIMAJULI MASSACRE AND GOVT RESPONSE
DR AKHIL RANJAN DUTTA
The October 4, 2009 massacre at Bhimajuli and Balichang in Biswanath committed by the Ranjan Daimary faction of NDFB has been condemned by every section of the society. The incident reflects the political and ideological bankruptcy of the 'revolutionary' (?) outfit. Biswanath is a miniature form of the linguistic and cultural plurality of the greater Assamese society. It is the homeland of the various ethnic communities like Nepalese, Bodos, tea tribes etc. Biswanath has also retained the legacy of communal harmony and no aggressive form of communal violence was reported from this area in the recent past. Both the places where the incident took place are concrete examples of this plurality and harmony. The incident could have resulted in severe forms of communal violence. Deployment of security forces would have miserably failed to contain it. May be some sporadic incidents of communal violence took place in the aftermath of the massacre. However, the goodwill and commitment of the communities towards mutual existence have saved the State from communal violence. So, the common people of those communities deserve salute for their political and cultural wisdom. It should also be a political lesson for the State government and in the aftermath of this incident neither the government nor the opposition parties should indulge in any form of divisive game plan for political mileage.
Having said this, it is also necessary to point out the political bankruptcy of the Indian State towards addressing the issue of insurgency in the region. It needs to be asserted that the massacre of October 4, 2009 is the fallout of wrong and divisive policies on the part of both the State and Central governments towards the whole issue of Bodo ethnic assertion. The Bodo politics is polarized around three factions today—the erstwhile BLT faction, ABSU faction and NDFB faction. However, historically, there were at least two opportunities to prevent such a polarization. One was in 1993 when ABSU signed a Moll with the government for the formation of Bodo Autonomous Council (BAC). The government. however. meddled with the Council in all possible manners. First, the then State government led by Hiteswar Saikia tempered with the Bill itself introduced in the State Assembly to enable the process of formation of the Council which resulted in ransacking of the property of the Assembly by its members. Secondly, the State government indulged in creating faction within the Council forcing the main signatory S K Bwisumutiary to resign from the post of Chief Executive Member of the Council. Thirdly, the territorial demarcation issue was handled in such a foolish manner by the State government that it resulted in aggressive chauvinism and intolerance on the part of the Bodo ethnic community and distrust between the Bodos and other ethnic communities in the proposed council area. The Bodo insurgency of late 1990s was the product of such a mishandling of the historical opportunity. The second opportunity came with the signing of the Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) Accord with the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) in 2003. This Accord was fully backed by ABSU. In the aftermath of the Accord both BLT and ABSU formed the political platform i.e. Bodo Peoples' Progressive Front (BPPF). Interestingly, this political party was led by former ABSU president Rabiram Narzary. The day of formation of the BPPF was marked by unprecedented enthusiasm among the Bodo people and their unparalleled commitment to peace and progress. The unity between BLT and ABSU would have probably helped towards persuading NDFB to go in for peace talks. The State government, however, considered this united strength of the BPPF as a threat and indulged in manipulation. It resulted in bitterness among the two components of BPPF and immediately had a split. The horror of bloodshed between these two factions on the eve of the first election to the Council is still alive among the people. As if all these were not enough, the State government has even drawn unwarranted happiness from the split within NDFB recently. It failed to internalize the fact that the factionalism in the past, at least in case of the Bodo ethnic community had always brought disaster. The October 4, 2009 massacre is indeed the outcome of such historical mistakes on the part of the State government. Such an assertion, however, should not give any impression that the present author has any sympathy for any terrorist organisation in general and NDFB in particular. NDFB is not a revolutionary organisation and both politically and ideologically it is bankrupt today. However, the onus of bringing peace and ensuring peoples' security lies in the hands of the government because it is not the insurgent organisations but the government which is accountable to the people. The government, therefore, is expected to learn from its historical mistakes which the successive State governments of Assam has refused to do.
The Chief Minister of Assam, while visiting the victims of the massacre on October 9, 2009 came up with a proposal for the security of the people which is bound to have serious negative political implications. The Chief Minister acknowledged the failure on the part of the police towards ensuring peoples' safety and expressed the government's firmness to fight insurgency. He also revealed the plan of the government to bring dynamism to the police force. But, what surprises the conscious citizens of the state is his proposal for providing arms to the communities for self protection. In the recent decades the government has been revealing its intention to withdraw its responsibility from the collective security issues as a part of part of privatisation process under globalisation. Now, the government while failing to ensure the very basic security of the people i.e. physical security of its own citizens intends to put the burden of this security too on the citizens. This indeed is a policy of 'self-indictment' on the part of the government. The very origin of the State rests on the fact that such an institution is necessary to ensure physical security of the population within a particular geographical territory that is now defined as nation-state. Responsibility of ensuring social security by the State emerged though centuries' long peoples' struggles for rights, justice and equality to be secured through a democratic process. The State, by withdrawing its responsibility from the issues of collective security has indeed been insulting the democratic process itself. Now, by suggesting that people themselves have to take the responsibility of their physical security, the State is indulging in indicting its own legitimate existence.
These theoretical issues apart, the whole proposal will have dangerous implications for a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society in Assam. First of all, will those forces' be based on ethnic lines? If it is so, under any ethnic tension, which is bound to happen in the present political situation in Assam, how those forces will behave? Will not those forces consider other forces as its enemy in the pretext of 'self protection'? In other words the forces of self-protection will backfire and creale unmanageable social and political anarchy.
Second, what Liat kind of armaments will be provided to these forces to fight against the insurgents? Whether those will be mere pistols or most sophisticated ones being used by the insurgents? What will be the mode of control? Will those be controlled by the State or by the respective communities? If controlled by the communities, what will be the forms of legitimacy? Thirdly and most importantly, through such an unwarranted suggestion is the government suggesting that it is wiser to get people prepared to protect themselves than trying to bring the insurgent groups into negotiation table through well-crafted efforts and commitments?
By all counts, the proposal of providing arms to the common people for self protection is a dangerous one and the State government should immediately withdraw it. Rather, it should take all communities into confidence to fight against insurgency and keep itself away from divisive politics as it has been doing with the Bodo ethnic Movement for decades together now. The government should also appreciate and promote the healthy tradition of co-existence of various communities as is in practice in Bhimajuli. As a long term strategy, the government should focus on universal security concerns like food, livelihood, water etc. and rally around these issues to mobilize peoples' opinion against insurgency in the State.
(The writer is Reader in Peace and Conflict Studies, Department of Political Science. Gauhati University)
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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE
EDITORIAL
PRE-ANAESTHETIC EVALUATION
DR MAITREYEE CHAKRAVARTY
Anaestheiology is one of the youngest branches of medical science that has made immense development. Advances in anaesthesiology have paralleled advancements in surgery.But mass awareness about anaesthesia and anaesthesiologists vis a vis other medical specialties, till date is very poor in our country. In a recent study conducted by Jathar et al (India) it was found that only a meagre 42 per cent patients knew that an anaesthesiologist is the person who gives anaesthesia during surgery and 38 per cent knew that he is a doctor! A sizeable number expressed wrong concepts that chloroform is still used for induction of anaesthesia prior to surgery.
A detailed preoperative visit by an anaesthesiologist is definitely one of the ways to improve patients' perception of anaesthesia. It is the time to discuss the choice of anaesthetics in the light of patient's preferences, his or her clinical state, the operation itself and the anaesthesiologist's own preferences and skills. The dialogue bring in discussion of risks and benefits and alleviates doubts about any aspect of anaesthetic care. This is also the time for gaining patient's explicit consent to what is agreed.
The information about how the patient will go to the theatre, what he/she will experience in the operating room, recovery room, at what time operation is scheduled, how post-operative control of pain after discharge will be managed and what choices there may be for those can all be obtained by the patient during the pre-operative meeting with the anaesthesiologists. Patient cooperation and compliance can also be enhanced if he is told during the pre-operative visit as to how he would find himself when he wakes up at the end of anaesthesia (eg with intravenous lines or epidural catheter in the back for post operative pain relief etc). Recovery occurs quickly where the anaesthesiologists effectively allays patient's concerns. There should be as few surprises as possible as surprises can be alarming.
Pre-operative assessment by the anaesthesiologists is invaluable because it is the time when the anaesthesiologists obtains pertinent data about the patients' medical history including drug history, history of allergy and prior exposure to surgery or anaesthesia, physical and mental condition, exercise tolerance and determines their anaesthetic implications. Accordingly, he can decide whether the patient is fit for anaesthesia, or require further medical consultations, preparation or laboratory tests before being considered fit to be put up on the OT table. A good pre anaesthetic assessment also helps in identifying potential anaesthesia difficulties and improving safety by planning of intra operative care.
Evaluation of children before operation deserves special mention. This is because, firstly, children cannot express their medical or surgical problems themselves and also children are prone to illness that require unique surgical and anaesthetic strategies. Pre-operative visit by the anaesthesiologists provide an opportunity for a dialogue with the parents and obtain invaluable information regarding the child's medical/surgical problems, significant past illness, immunisation status etc. which may influence anaesthetic techniques. Moreover it must be remembered that "paediatric patients are not small adults". Hence a pre-anaesthetic evaluation apart from gaining patient cooperation also enables the anaesthesiologists to plan a safe anaesthetic technique well in advance.
A good preoperative assessment helps reduce cost and improve outcome by optimising patients' health before surgery and planning the most appropriate pre-operative management. It also provide an opportunity for the patient to discuss with the anaesthesiologists any self help matters to improve immediate as well as long term outcome ( stopping smoking, alcohol, tobacco, losing weight etc.). Pre-operative treatment of co existing diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart ailments like cardiac failure, coronary artery disease, heart blocks, asthma, epilepsy, liver and kidney diseases, bleeding disorders etc help reduce severity of disease and thus peri operative morbidity and mortality.
The job of the anaesthesiologists is not simply to put the patient to sleep and wake him or her up when surgery is over, but to maintain function of the all the organs as normal as possible during the assault of surgery and provide pain relief to blunt the effects after the assault. To do this, the anaesthsiologists must interfere with the stress response induced by pain, such as high blood pressure and high heart rate. Elaborate knowledge of the patient's co-existing diseases helps the anaesthesiologist to plan for rare situations in which the patient's medical condition may occur acutely during operation.
As changes in health care systems decrease reimbursement and length of stay in the hospital, more and more surgical patients are entering the hospital on an out patient basis or a same day admission. Same day admission presents the anaesthesiologists with a formidable challenge from both an organisational as well as clinical perspective. The amount of time available to evaluate medically complex patients has decreased.The establishment of a centralised Anaesthesia Preoperative Evaluation Clinic (APEC) or "Preoperative or Pre procedure Assessment Clinic (PPAC) can be a positive investment for the Anaesthesia Group and the hospital for decreasing hospital cost improving the efficiency of hospital services and increasing patients and surgeon's satisfaction.
Thus pre-operative evaluation is as important as intra-operative management of anaesthesia. It creates trust and confidence and builds a rapport between the patient and the anaesthesiologists. Meeting the anaesthesiologists whom the patient will see again in the operation theatre establishes a relationship between them. The recognition that takes place between people on seeing each other again is special. The patient will feel re assured that he or she is under the care of an expert.At the same time anaesthesiologists can also lessen their own anxiety by performing the very best pre-anaesthetic evaluation possible.
(Published on the occasion of World Anaesthesia Day)
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
WORRY ABOUT HUMAN ETHICS
There are multiple streams to the rather widespread opposition to genetically modified food and commercial crops, evident in the reaction to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee's decision to permit commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal. The most potent, and rational one, relates to scepticism about the integrity of the approval process. Some worry that man would be playing god, by transferring genes naturally found in one species to an unrelated one, and cringe waiting for the wrath of the heavens to fall.
Others worry that genetically modified (GM) foods would cause genetic modification in those who eat them, converting them or their progeny into creatures that are fish and fowl at the same time. Yet others worry that GM foods would destroy all traditional crops, and make farmers and consumers bonded slaves of giant agribusiness corporations. Such worries present healthy commercial opportunities — for the shrink, for science fiction publishers and the seminar/protest circuit, respectively — but pose no serious threat to human well-being.
Three possible consequences of GM foods present rational risks: allergic reactions, gene transfer and outcrossing. The first is self-explanatory. The second one relates to the possible transfer of the ingested new genes to the bacteria inside the gut leading to unforeseen consequences like resistance to antibiotics. Outcrossing is jargon for GM crops getting mixed up with traditional crops. All GM foods are extensively tested to prevent and control for these risks. Only when it is ensured after repeated trials and tests that these risks are minimal or have been mitigated is approval given for introduction of a GM crop or foods based on GM crops.
The problem in India is the general lack of faith in the integrity of the testing and approval process. Even if the final committee that grants the approval is above board, suspicion lingers that the data they are presented with have been tampered with. People fear that agribusinesses can influence decisionmakers in high places, who could, in turn, make science pliable in the mouths of weak-kneed scientific personnel. This is a systemic issue that goes beyond particular ministers and officials. Reforming this is the key to introduction of GM foods.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
ON TO NELP IX
The response to the latest round of bidding for oil and gas blocks — the eighth, under the New Exploration Licensing Policy, Nelp-VIII — has been tepid or worse, but it's no disaster. As many as 20 blocks attracted only single bids, mostly from state-owned ONGC; there were no takers for another 34 blocks. Overall, there was bidder interest in just over half the blocks on offer. But the fact is that other hydrocarbon licensing regimes abroad have fared far worse in the recent past, in soliciting bids.
The severe global downturn, from which the world economy is just about emerging, seems to have stymied risk appetite in general, and led to cut-backs in oil exploration and production (E&P) in particular. Also, E&P costs appear to have risen sharply in recent years, reportedly due to limited availability of rig capacity and the like. Besides, Indian sedimentary basins still do not command global geological appeal, despite recent large gas finds.
Which may explain why, once again, in Nelp-VIII, global oil majors have preferred to stay away from bidding. But the fact is, a global major like Shell did prospect but failed to find oil at Barmer, Rajasthan, which has since become one of the world's largest recent oil finds.
The point is that oil & gas prospects in India remain quite attractive, as former director general of hydrocarbons Avinash Chandra has been stressing for long. The estimates suggest that 1 billion tonnes of crude and a trillion cubic metres of gas may be in situ in sedimentary basins here. The way ahead is to benchmark our hydrocarbon licensing regime to the best practices abroad, and simply wait for the economic slowdown to be behind us for renewed investor interest in E&P.
Abroad, in the mature regimes, transparency is the hallmark in licensing norms, complete with up-to-date legislation. Yet our Oil Fields Act is of 1948 vintage, when production in the deeper offshore was unheard of. Also, we do not have a separate Act for natural gas, a standard feature internationally. We need to shore up investor comfort to garner funds in the high-risk E&P sector.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
A SLASH OF A MISTAKE
The man who makes no mistakes," the saying goes, "does not usually make anything." Well, what happens if a man makes a mistake along with the making? And it becomes another one of life's niggling little problems for literally millions of people? The chap offers his apologies, that's what.
So, Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, has gallantly confessed to burdening humanity with an offensive backslash. The "//" in all those "http://" addresses it turns out, was just a case of one too many. We are duly informed that it could just as well have been a single, solitary "/".
Making this startling revelation during an interview, in response to a question on what he would have changed in the way he went about inventing the internet if he could go back in time, Sir Timothy surprisingly pointed to the slash. That, he said, was wholly unnecessary and merely a result of his not having coded the thing properly.
And to those who might query the significance of the little slash, he went on to wonder how much paper, how many trees and minutes, and the amount of human labour could have been saved had the two slashes been just one — given the gadzillion times people have to type or write down these web addresses.
Now, we've all had our share of mistakes. It's part of the learning process, we are told. But maybe we all have just that one particular mistake we'd so dearly like the chance to go back in time and rectify. But this does take the cake. It involves vast mathematical and philosophical proportions. In fact, chaos theory, more commonly known as the 'butterfly effect', revolves around the same notion of vast consequences emanating from a rather small action.
The 1972 paper read at a US science meet, which first made this idea popular, was in fact titled "Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?" The idea being that the flapping of those wings might alter or affect the course of a storm far away. The nondescript "/", it seems, is set to become proverbial.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
CRUDE POLICIES IN HYDROCARBON SECTOR
SOMA BANERJEE
The eighth round of auction of India's oil and gas blocks will go down as a turning point in India's hydrocarbon history either for the better or for the worse. The eighth bidding round under the government's new exploration licensing policy (Nelp), that enables private, public and foreign oil companies to explore India's sedimentary basins, has seen one of the worst responses in the last few years.
Consider these facts. A total of 70 oil and gas exploration blocks were put up for bidding as against 57 in 2008. There was, however, a no show in 49% of the acreages that were on the block. As many as 34 exploration blocks of a total of 70 failed to attract a single bid as against 12 or 21% that did not get a response last year. And there was a sharp decline in the number of companies participating in the auction too — 45 in 2009 as compared to 95 in 2008.
While 56% of the blocks received just one bid as compared to 42% in 2008, the number of foreign participants fell to a mere seven from a high of 21 in 2008. As many as 35 foreign energy majors had participated in 2007. While most big and mid-sized global oil companies abstained from bidding, despite an impressive turnout at the road shows all across the globe, India's largest private oil company Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) too did not bid for a single block, for the first time since 1999.
These telling facts possibly have a lesson for policymakers and regulators which have to be reckoned with and acted upon before it is too late. Most investors who have visited data rooms and have attended the road shows have pointed out to the lack of prospectivity and sufficient data. Secondly, the government's move to launch the auctions so soon was perhaps ill-timed as most economies are still struggling to come out of the recession and exploration of blocks requires huge investments.
The petroleum ministry may have earned some brownie points for launching the NELP round on time, but the fallout of the auction only points to the gaping policy hole in the oil and gas sector. Foreign players, who have stayed out, often come with technological expertise that would give India the much needed edge as we move on to high-risk areas of exploration.
Government officials argue that the auction was fast-tracked to give a push to economic activity to propel growth. Also, it was felt that most oil companies would want to take advantage of the idle service, drilling facilities and capacities that would come at a low cost.
Petroleum ministry officials have further claimed that the response was relatively better than that in many other countries like Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia, Norway and Iceland who have called for bids earlier this year. While this may be true, one needs to remember that an auction in the early part of the year was unlikely to have any takers and a comparison with India's own records is perhaps a better yardstick to asses the progress of the sector.
Most importantly, investors have pointed to the inconsistency in policies that have left them confused and unsure of what to expect in future. Although most of these multinationals have been diplomatic in their public stance, pointing to how the blocks did not "fit into the global investment strategy" at this point, it sounds hollow and unconvincing given the proven prospects and the recent records set in India.
This year, two of India's largest success stories in oil and gas — RIL's gas discovery in the Krishna Godavari region and Cairn India's oil production from Barmer — have gone commercial over the past six months. This could be a single magnet to attract investments into India's upstream sector but for the policy hitches that have over shadowed these achievements.
Take, for instance, the entire fiasco over tax exemptions on the production of natural gas. While finance minister Pranab Mukherjee did well to clear the air over the uncertainty on tax breaks, it is unfortunate that it has come a little too late. For, all investments made so far (till 2008) will not be eligible for tax breaks if the exploration results in the production of natural gas. This is bizarre, as companies are unaware of the find when they begin explorations in a block.
And if earnings from the sale of crude oil can be exempted from tax, one wonders why gas should not be exempted as well. More so as natural gas is a green fuel the use of which needs to be encouraged. Investors argue that although tax sops will be available for new finds irrespective of oil or gas, they are unsure of how long it would continue. After all, there were no questions over these tax exemptions till two years back.
But most importantly, the flip-flop over the terms in the production-sharing contract and the various interpretations to the tenets of the contract over the last one year has raised far too many questions on the contractual sanctity and India's regulatory regime. The two ongoing legal battles, which have now drawn in even the government as a party, have left investors wary and uncertain.
The PSC has made it clear that the oil company will have to sell as per the government's utilisation policy and at prices approved by the government. This makes it clear that the oil company will have neither the marketing nor pricing freedom. This has taken several investors by surprise as earlier PSCs were more liberal and market friendly. The new PSC, which may have been designed to avoid any misinterpretations, has reduced the oil company to a mere contractor.
It is still debatable whether government control alone is the best solution to such issues. In fact, if one were to go by expert views like that of the director general of the directorate general of hydrocarbons (DGH) V K Sibal, India may soon have a problem of plenty as far as gas is concerned and the market would find its own solutions as far as price is concerned.
Last but not the least is the impact of the ugly legal battle between two of India's largest corporate groups — RIL and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group — that has raised some fundamental questions over regulatory issues and the role of the government. India's hydrocarbon sector would do well to put in place an independent regulator who could be entrusted with the task of taking timely decisions to avoid such controversies.
Policymakers, who have prided on drafting one of the most investor-friendly bidding policies also need to step back and take lessons, instead of opting for the blame-game, dismissing signals sent out by investors.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
MARKET'S READY TO GIVE A ROUSING WELCOME TO SAMVAT 2066
MUMBAI: Last year around this time, when brokers and investors gathered at the Bombay Stock Exchange to flag off Samvat 2065 — a year in the Hindu calendar — the mood was morose. Global markets were going through one of their most turbulent periods and a recovery seemed a distant prospect, then. A year later, as market participants assemble to welcome Samvat 2066 on Muharat trading day on Saturday, they would be a relieved lot. With key indices having risen 110% over the last seven months, Indian shares are now just 20% away from their record highs touched in early 2008.
"Though liquidity has rescued global markets and companies, it has driven stock prices to higher-than-expected levels and, now, will result in higher volatility in earnings and PE (price to earnings) too," said Anand Shah, head — equities, Canara Robeco Asset Management. "We should not assume that the kind of liquidity that we are seeing now would remain and the reversal of liquidity could lead to a fall that is much-more than needed," he added.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
IT MAY BE THE RIGHT TIME TO BOOK FORWARD DOLLARS
GAURAV PAI
MUMBAI: Bankers are urging importers and other corporates with exposure to foreign currency loans, to take advantage of the current upswing in the rupee and book their future dollar needs. They feel it's only a matter of time before the rising rupee loses steam and stabilises at lower levels, possibly in the range of 47-48 a dollar.
At Thursday's high of 45.80, the rupee has risen 4% since the beginning of the month and is up 14% from its record low of 52.2 touched in early March. Most bankers say the rupee may trade in a range of 45.25-46.75 in the short term and may dig back towards 48 levels eventually.
"Importers should be rushing to cover their forward dollar requirements as they are currently available at very reasonable rates," said Moses Harding, head of global markets group at IndusInd Bank. He explained that three month forward dollar is available in the range of 46.10 and dollars one year from now can be booked at 47.25. "Such levels may not come back in a hurry," he said.
Most other bankers say the timing is also right for companies with exposure to non-rupee loans to protect their books. They point out that the three-month London Interbank Rate (Libor) is hovering near zero (0.28% to be precise) and six month Libor is at 0.59%. Libor is used by bankers to price corporate loans essentially for periodic resetting of interest paid. This, added with the buoyancy in the dollar, would mean that companies would find it relatively cheaper to hedge their dollar commitments.
After the rupee's unexpected fall in 2008, companies took major hits in their forex transactions. "For many months now, companies were going slow on using currency derivatives after swallowing big losses," said Sudarshana Bhat, chief dealer, foreign exchange at Corporation bank. "With the currency becoming very volatile again, we are expecting companies to slowly come back in the market," he added.
Most exporters, however, have been panicking with the sudden rise as their operating margins would erode with the rising rupee. But exporters are more or less hedged for all their receivables for the next six to 12 months. However, the unexpected rise did mean staring at losses beyond this period. Most of them have been selling their dollar receivables ever since the rupee was trading at 52 levels.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
TOP PSUS MAY HAVE TO JUSTIFY BULGING KITTY OR PAY DIVIDEND
DHEERAJ TIWARI & SUBHASH NARAYAN
NEW DELHI: Blue chip state-run companies with cash reserves in excess of Rs 10,000 crore may have to deploy the fund in fresh ventures as the government moots a review of their business plans to ensure that public sector firms get more aggressive.
A government official told ET that there are more than 15 companies, which have a cash surplus of more than Rs 10,000 crore. The move comes after some administrative ministries reported that cash reserves of many public sector undertakings (PSUs) such as BSNL, HAL, Coal India and NMDC far exceeded the amounts they needed for investments.
The review may be conducted by a panel comprising officials from finance ministry, Planning Commission, department of public enterprises and officials from the respective administrative ministries. If the PSUs do not have a convincing plan the government could even demand hefty dividend to meet its own funds needs.
When contacted an NTPC official said that their cash surplus paled in comparison to their massive investment requirements.
"The review should focus on removing bottlenecks than unnecessarily exploring avenues to spend surplus funds," said the official asking not be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media. Currently, navratna and miniratna companies are permitted to invest in SEBI regulated public sector mutual funds. Some PSUs have already parked their surplus with mutual funds.
The government official said that some of the blue-chip companies are highly risk averse, with no clear business plans. "The government wants PSUs to be more aggressive and contribute towards national development," he said requesting anonymity since the review plan is yet to be made official.
The large cash surplus allows PSEs to generate income from investments, which could mask under-performance in the operating business. In the case of BSNL, for instance, the company had an interest income of about Rs 3,900 from its cash reserves, helping the company mask operating losses and declare a net profit of Rs 575 crore in 2008-09.
Among the measures being considered, the government wants to give more autonomy to the PSUs to manage their business better. "There is a new category of Maharatna being worked upon, which will give more financial autonomy to the PSUs. The exercise will help in identifying the roadblocks that these companies face about their expansion plans," the official said.
CIL, which is a Maharatna aspirant, has a cash surplus of Rs 30,000 crore while it plans to spend only about Rs 24,000 crore during the Eleventh Plan. The company is also looking at tapping the markets with a public offer sometime next year.
According to Vikas Vasal, executive director at KPMG India, companies sitting on huge pile of cash becomes attractive investment option for investors looking at participating in their public offer. "But idle cash should ideally be used for exploring domestic and overseas opportunities as with such cash surplus companies can make attractive buys," he said.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
D-STREET: OLD TIMERS MISS MUHURAT BONHOMIE
SHAILESH MENON
MUMBAI: Manubhai Maneklal was a delight to watch on the Muhurat trading day. The dreaded bear of the Dalal Street Exchange would amble into the trading ring — occasionally greeting friends Shubh Deepavali, along the way or stopping for a warm hug from an old acquaintance. Those standing along the stuffy corridor — making a narrow pathway for brokers to get into the trading ring — could never miss the rhythmic 'swish-swash' of his starched dhoti and Jaipuri mojari.
Once in the ring, Manubhai would be his ruthless self — be it a Muhurat session or a regular one. Peals of the trading gong would set him off. The 'Cobra' (as he was known among traders who disliked him) would call out prices boisterously, walk around the ring and make deals with consenting brokers — never noting down a single deal he entered all the while.
After sealing 250-300 trades, Manubhai would go to his office and start writing down the trades he had done, from his memory. While Manu was away, his father Maneklal Keshavlal would step into the ring and remain there for the entire Muhurat session. He'd chat up with brokers and their relatives, visit their offices, distribute sweets and also burst crackers in the lobby. And when the festivities drew to a close, Maneklal would go to his office and make entries of the voluminous number of trades he had done a few hours ago — wholly relying on his memory and the "face of the opposite broker". The father-son duo never erred in any of their entries.
"Perhaps, astuteness made them dominant brokers of our times," said BSE's former executive director MR Mayya.
"There were several others who were as shrewd as the Maneklals. These people were very influential — yet they lead a very simple life. The brokers of those times could well be the last of true dalals on the Dalal Street, who greatly valued tradition and customs," added Mr Mayya.
Old-timers still cherish Diwali, Muhurat trading and Chopda poojan with religious fervour. Those were the days when the markets remained shut for three-four days, starting from Dhanteras. More than anything, Diwali was an occasion for the family members of brokers to visit the exchange — the Laxmi gruh for traditional brokers. Quite a few fancier brokers even hired horsecarts from Chowpatty to transport their family — Maharajah style — to the Dalal Street on the Muhurat trading day.
"The entire broker clan, along with their important investor clients, came to BSE to participate in the Muhurat trading," said veteran broker KR Choksey of KR Choksey Securities. "Brokers never allowed the market to fall on that day. They thought an upbeat market on first day would spread luck charm for the entire year. Things have changed so much; institutional investors book profits on the Muhurat session these days," said Mr hoksey with a sense of loss.
Among high-profile investors, who unfailingly participated in the run-up to Diwali (and the Muhurat trading), were the Kapadias of Saurashtra, the Chamarias of Kolkata, Unit Trust of India (UTI), the Maharajas of Gwalior and Jaipur, and big corporate players like the Tatas, the Wadias, the Birlas and the treasury department of Killick Nixon.
The only time when Diwali celebrations got a bit muted were in 1974 and 1975, when the market slipped into a recession mode. The Dividend Restrictions Ordinance (introduced by the government in July 1974) restricting companies to stop paying dividend more than 12% of face value (or one-thirds of distributable profits) pounded the market beyond quick recovery, reminisces the old-timers. "Diwali is still celebrated well, but the fervour is missing. One reason for this could be the fact that the era of ring trading has ended. Broker offices have moved out of the Dalal Street; this has also killed the bonhomie among brokers, that was so attached to Diwali," said septuagenarian broker Jasvantlal Shah of JGA Shah Share Brokers.
Over the years, several brokers, who were deeply rooted in traditions and customs, found it difficult to withstand the sweeping waves of modernity and one-market strategy. Many shut shop or sold their firms to bank-rolled financial institutions. The Quixotic ones, who thought they could stay afloat on speculative trading and punting, were caught in regulatory crosshair; others like Sumati Jamnadas and Harkisondas Laxmandas were rolled over to extinction by heavy-volume institutional traders and stricter. "The new generation will never see the glory of old Diwali. And that's sad," sums up Jasvantlal Shah.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
THE MARRIAGE OF TWO MINDS
MUKUL SHARMA
A scientist specialising in geology who studies mountains among other structures constituting the Earth with the tools of physics, chemistry, biology and other sciences knows a lot about the Himalayas, for instance. He or she knows that the main range runs, west to east, from the Indus river valley to the Brahmaputra river basin, forming an arc over 2,500-km long, which varies in width from 400 km in the western Kashmir-Xinjiang region to 150 km in the eastern Tibet-Arunachal Pradesh region.
And that it consists of three coextensive sub-ranges, with the northern-most, and highest, known as the Great or Inner Himalayas.
Such a person also knows that the Himalayas are among the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consist mostly of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rock. And that according to the theory of plate tectonics, their formation is a result of a continental collision between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate which began about 70 million years ago, when the north-moving Indo-Australian Plate, moving at about 15 cm per year, collided with the Eurasian Plate.
The Indo-Australian plate continues to be driven horizontally below the Tibetan plateau, which forces the plateau to move upwards. And, finally, that it's still moving at 67 mm per year, and over the next 10 million years will travel about 1,500 km into Asia which leads to the Himalayas rising by about 5 mm per year.
A person of artistic vision, on the other hand, who longs to revel in the rhythms and cadences of nature and has backpacked or hiked from the foothills to 2,500 metres up in the clouds and sits facing the same range on some late evening could have a different take on these mountains which have revealed their local names but still hide a lot of other intimate and timeless history from wonder filled eyes.
He or she sees the pre-sunset colours form a winterline pencil of darkly flattened mist run a tabletop ridge high over the myriad peaks; a gleaming temporary palette of green and gold which fades to dusk as the Earth keeps turning away into darkness.
Later, this person could paint a picture of light and shade or letters and words on a canvas or journal and, who knows, one day millions might be able to participate in the shared harmony of the experience and revel in their minds too. But if the person was also a geologist we would have a perfect marriage of science and spirituality.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
CHINA'S LOCUS STANDI ON ARUNACHAL?
THE BASIS OF ITS TERRITORIAL CLAIM IS LAUGHABLE
Has China got any locus standi on Arunachal? A "yes" answer would be an invitation to India to assert its locus standi in the matter of Tibet, given that China's claim to Arunachal is based not on any Han connection, but on alleged historical links with Tibet. In making that claim, Beijing indeed advertises that Tibet is the core issue and that it covets Arunachal as a cultural patio to Tibet — a classic attempt at incremental annexation.
The Dalai Lama has publicly said that Arunachal historically was not part of Tibet. That is why, as he has explained, the 1914 Simla Agreement, of which the then-independent Tibet was a party, did not include present day Arunachal Pradesh in Tibet. China does not recognise the McMahon Line because its acceptance of the 1914 border will be admission that Tibet was once independent, seriously undercutting the legitimacy of its control over an increasingly restive Tibet.
Beijing thus fashioned its claim to Arunachal originally as a bargaining chip to compel India to recognise Chinese control over Aksai Chin. That was the reason why in the 1962 war, China withdrew from the Arunachal areas it invaded but retained its territorial gains in Ladakh.
But as part of its hardening stance toward India, China has since 2006 publicly raked up the long-dormant Arunachal issue. The basis of its territorial claim, however, is laughable. Just because the 6th Dalai Lama was born in the 17th century in Arunachal's Tawang district, Beijing claims that the state belongs to Tibet and thus is part of China.
By that argument, it can also lay claim to Mongolia as the 4th Dalai Lama was born there in 1589. The traditional ecclesiastical links between Mongolia and Tibet actually have been closer than those between Arunachal and Tibet. In fact, as part of its cartographic dismemberment of Tibet, China has hived off the birthplaces of the 7th, 10th, 11th and present Dalai Lama from Tibet.
The issue in India-China relations up to 1962 was Aksai Chin; the issue now is Arunachal. If history is not to repeat itself, India must put the spotlight on the source of China's claim — Tibet.
THERE IS ALSO A CHINA-BASHING LOBBY AT WORK
It is an accepted norm that when bilateral negotiations are on, the conflicting parties do maintain the status quo. Two decades after the Sino-Indian border clashes, during Rajiv Gandhi's premiership, India and China agreed to make a new beginning to resolve all disputes between the two countries.
The basic principle of restarting the negotiations was that the two sides will concentrate on confidence-building measures and will not rake up the more complicated issues like the border dispute. It worked well for over two decades and the two sides built an atmosphere of mutual confidence. In a much better situation, the two countries appointed high-ranking representatives to resolve the border dispute. The 13th round of talks resulted in considerable progress.
Unfortunately, during this period China did not strictly adhere to the norm of maintaining status quo. On several occasions, it issued statements that did threaten the shattering of confidence. The latest is the statement on the PM's visit to election-bound Arunachal Pradesh. In the interest of retaining mutual confidence, China should have avoided its belated statement.
But that does not justify the China-bashing campaign conducted by a certain section of the Indian media. During the last two-three months, certain sections of the media, both electronic and print, have attempted to create an anti-China hysteria. Cooked-up stories of border violations were flashed up. The campaign reached absurd levels. It was so ferocious that the government had to threaten the journalists indulging in it of legal action.
After the government's threat the campaign subsided for a while. Now the statement of the Chinese foreign ministry on Arunachal Pradesh has provided a fresh weapon to these China baiters. There seems to be a certain lobby, most probably the arms manufacturers of the developed countries, who are interested in promoting hostilities between India and China.
The two countries are incidentally the most promising ones in economic development. That is another aspect that needs to be kept in mind while taking a position on the present controversy. It will be in the larger interest of the two countries to avoid such controversies and concentrate on confidence building measures.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
THERE IS ALSO A CHINA-BASHING LOBBY AT WORK
It is an accepted norm that when bilateral negotiations are on, the conflicting parties do maintain the status quo. Two decades after the Sino-Indian border clashes, during Rajiv Gandhi's premiership, India and China agreed to make a new beginning to resolve all disputes between the two countries.
The basic principle of restarting the negotiations was that the two sides will concentrate on confidence-building measures and will not rake up the more complicated issues like the border dispute. It worked well for over two decades and the two sides built an atmosphere of mutual confidence. In a much better situation, the two countries appointed high-ranking representatives to resolve the border dispute. The 13th round of talks resulted in considerable progress.
Unfortunately, during this period China did not strictly adhere to the norm of maintaining status quo. On several occasions, it issued statements that did threaten the shattering of confidence. The latest is the statement on the PM's visit to election-bound Arunachal Pradesh. In the interest of retaining mutual confidence, China should have avoided its belated statement.
But that does not justify the China-bashing campaign conducted by a certain section of the Indian media. During the last two-three months, certain sections of the media, both electronic and print, have attempted to create an anti-China hysteria. Cooked-up stories of border violations were flashed up. The campaign reached absurd levels. It was so ferocious that the government had to threaten the journalists indulging in it of legal action.
After the government's threat the campaign subsided for a while. Now the statement of the Chinese foreign ministry on Arunachal Pradesh has provided a fresh weapon to these China baiters. There seems to be a certain lobby, most probably the arms manufacturers of the developed countries, who are interested in promoting hostilities between India and China.
The two countries are incidentally the most promising ones in economic development. That is another aspect that needs to be kept in mind while taking a position on the present controversy. It will be in the larger interest of the two countries to avoid such controversies and concentrate on confidence building measures.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
THE BASIS OF ITS TERRITORIAL CLAIM IS LAUGHABLE
Has China got any locus standi on Arunachal? A "yes" answer would be an invitation to India to assert its locus standi in the matter of Tibet, given that China's claim to Arunachal is based not on any Han connection, but on alleged historical links with Tibet. In making that claim, Beijing indeed advertises that Tibet is the core issue and that it covets Arunachal as a cultural patio to Tibet — a classic attempt at incremental annexation.
The Dalai Lama has publicly said that Arunachal historically was not part of Tibet. That is why, as he has explained, the 1914 Simla Agreement, of which the then-independent Tibet was a party, did not include present day Arunachal Pradesh in Tibet. China does not recognise the McMahon Line because its acceptance of the 1914 border will be admission that Tibet was once independent, seriously undercutting the legitimacy of its control over an increasingly restive Tibet.
Beijing thus fashioned its claim to Arunachal originally as a bargaining chip to compel India to recognise Chinese control over Aksai Chin. That was the reason why in the 1962 war, China withdrew from the Arunachal areas it invaded but retained its territorial gains in Ladakh.
But as part of its hardening stance toward India, China has since 2006 publicly raked up the long-dormant Arunachal issue. The basis of its territorial claim, however, is laughable. Just because the 6th Dalai Lama was born in the 17th century in Arunachal's Tawang district, Beijing claims that the state belongs to Tibet and thus is part of China.
By that argument, it can also lay claim to Mongolia as the 4th Dalai Lama was born there in 1589. The traditional ecclesiastical links between Mongolia and Tibet actually have been closer than those between Arunachal and Tibet. In fact, as part of its cartographic dismemberment of Tibet, China has hived off the birthplaces of the 7th, 10th, 11th and present Dalai Lama from Tibet.
The issue in India-China relations up to 1962 was Aksai Chin; the issue now is Arunachal. If history is not to repeat itself, India must put the spotlight on the source of China's claim — Tibet.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
'THERE IS CONTINUED OPPORTUNITY FOR INNOVATION HERE'
ANIRVAN GHOSH
Infosys chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy is currently busy giving shape to his next big dream—launching a private equity fund. In an interview with Anirvan Ghosh, he explains his role as a mentor, why some businesses fail and how to ensure knowledge creation is in sync with customer needs. Excerpts:
It's been 28 years since you started Infosys. How easy or difficult will it be to create another Infosys now?
I think there is continued opportunity for innovation here, and so it will in 2050. As long as you have minds who can convert ideas into marketable products, you will be able to create institutions. But yes, raising funds is much easier these days.
Yet, we see more ventures failing than succeeding. Why is that so?
That is so mainly because the entrepreneur does not understand how his idea can add value to the existing system. I have met many such people myself.
Has Infosys been engaged in any projects to help start-ups or small firms with its software expertise?
Not in India. But in the US, yes, we have collaborated with people. For instance, DN Prahlad, who was a senior VP with Infosys, started his own risk management company called Surya Systems. We helped him and now offer that software with our financial software, Finacle.
How about plans to launch a PE or VC fund and lend financial support to those with ideas?
Yes, I have contemplated that. And I am planning to launch a fund sooner or later. I have had talks with some of my friends. But I have not made a concrete decision as yet. I will decide soon.
What is your role as chief mentor?
When we started our leadership institute, we found that professional development required classroom training, application of training to real situations, and mentoring. Among all three, mentoring is the only one which is a voluntary private relationship between the mentor and the mentee. So people can discuss problems at work and also in their personal lives with the mentor. I happen to be the first such mentor at Infosys, and when I retired the board of directors wanted me to continue the task.
Do you mentor people only in Infosys or outside that as well?
For the most part, I mentor Infoscions. But I have helped others too, who had good entrepreneurial ideas.
Many Infoscions have become entrepreneurs. You encourage them, but you lose talent, don't you?
I believe in one thing above all, that the dreams of Infoscians who want to start on their own is as important as my dreams when I started out in 1981. So I encourage them to follow their dreams. Many Infosions put up their ideas to me. I assess whether the the person has the requisite attributes. If he does not have them, then I suggest that he first needs to develop them. Also, even if someone has left Infosys, my doors are always open for them.
How do you ensure knowledge creation in sync with customer needs?
For that we made our Knowledge Management System, in which were built ideas from university professors, academic research papers, our customers, and the ideas we developed while creating software for clients. We incorporated those best practices into the knowledge system. That is available at the touch of a button to every Infosys member to see and learn. As most of this knowledge emanates from customers and from our own research, it is always aligned with customer needs. And as the latter changes, we are on top of it.
What are these attributes?
Well, the person should have an idea whose value to the market can be conveyed in a single sentence. For example, my idea will reduce costs by this much, or it will raise customer comfort by this much and so on. Second, the market should be ready for that idea. Thirdly, the entrepreneur should be able to assemble a good team with complementary skills. Fourth, a sound value system is most important. It is all about making sacrifices in the short term and there are no shortcuts. And finally, he should be able to raise money for his venture.
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
EDITORIAL
'NO MEANINGFUL CORRECTION BEFORE ANOTHER RAPID RISE'
The flood of money waiting on the sidelines means that the market is unlikely to see a meaningful correction anytime soon, says Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, leading stock investor, and partner, Rare Enterprises. In an interview with ET, he says a delayed recovery in the world economy is not a bad thing for India, as we stand to gain from moderate commodity prices.
You mentioned at a recent seminar that the market appears poised for a bust. What according to you, are the symptoms?
What I said has been grossly misinterpreted. What I said was that this kind of systematic rise in the market, where the market goes up, then corrects briefly — both price and time wise — and then once again resumes its gain, cannot even have a meaningful correction without a burst of a rise, which means a very, very rapid rise.
Key indices have more than doubled in the past seven months, many mid-caps have given unbelievable returns. Is the market over heated?
I surely feel that in terms of commitment and belief, the market is not heated at all. There is disbelief all around and huge money on the sidelines. This is a reason why we don't get any meaningful correction, and this is also the reason why we could still have a sharp rise ahead of us.
But a correction is only inevitable. Whenever that happens, do you see the market retesting the lows of March 2009 or October 2008?
Markets by their very nature will naturally correct at some point of time. The markets, as I see them, are not as of the moment indicating any signs of meaningful correction.
Whenever markets correct, I do not expect the correction to be anywhere near what we saw last year, and I expect the markets to remain far, far, far above the lows of October and March.
Which are the sectors in the Indian economy that you are bullish on?
I am bullish on all sectors which are domestic economy dependent and under-penetrated. Banking, retailing, infrastructure, pharma are among the key ones.
What is your reading of the key events likely to play out in world markets over the next few months, and what implications do you see for India?
I do not expect that the western and the developed economies can make any meaningful recovery and sustain it. Mr Bernanke is well known for his views of having a loose monetary and fiscal policy in times of difficult economic conditions. Thus, I believe interest rate worldwide in general, and in the western world in particular, are not going to go up in a hurry. Even if the western and developed world do not make any meaningful recovery, I see no reason why the Indian economy and the Indian markets cannot continue to sail alone smoothly. If the world does not recover, commodity prices will remain moderate, which is a big plus for India. What is vital is what happens to Indian software exports.
My personal view is that there is more than a fair chance that India will grow well and outperform, even if the world does not recover.
Is there any lurking negative that the market appears to have overlooked?
I think that the western and developed economies are set for sub-par/negative growth for a good period of time. There has to be a transition of both consumption and power from the developed world to the developing world. What effect this will have both economically and geopolitically is a matter of uncertainty and no one can definitely predict the smooth course of this transition.
This, I surely think, is a matter that could unsettle markets if the transition is unruly and geopolitically destabilising. Be that so be, I have no doubt in my mind that this transition has to and will take place.
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DECCAN CHRONICAL
EDITORIAL
FEARS RISE: PAK OUT OF CONTROL?
The deteriorating security situation within Pakistan ought to be a matter of serious concern to us in India, although the dramatis personae responsible for the spate of attacks at different places in the country, including the three synchronised assaults on separate leading institutions of the police establishment in Lahore on Thursday, are wards of its own Inter-Services Intelligence who flex their muscle from time to time to signal their autonomy in furtherance of specific aims. Not that the recent spurt in terrorist violence in Pakistan necessarily means that the ISI, which is always known to have its reasons, disapproves. In the absence of reliable information, analysts will, however, need to worry about the possibility of the present Pakistani state being overwhelmed by extremists, whether all elements of the state apparatus approve of this or not. This worry won't be limited to foreign observers and is certain to extend to the people of Pakistan as well who, by all accounts, are terrified of such a prospect but are unable to exert themselves to avert it. Those that may be ranged against the present establishment have grown way too strong over the decades, thanks to official mollycoddling. India has a serious cause for apprehension here. In the hands of the Army and the ISI, even a supposedly rule-bound Pakistan has been a treacherous and aggressive neighbour. With all restraints off, if the extremists come to rule, the situation is likely to become wholly unpredictable. But there is another consideration that can plausibly be entertained. It deals with the short term. In the past fortnight, there have been half a dozen major terrorist strikes in Pakistan which have taken more than a hundred lives. The targets have included the Army headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistan's chief garrison town, and key police institutions in Lahore, the capital of the country's most important province in every respect, including political. Peshawar, the principal town of the North-West Frontier Province, of course, has been rocked over and over again. And who knows, it may be Karachi's turn next to burn. The domestic political backdrop to these goings-on is the bad blood between the military establishment — who are the country's real rulers — and the so-called civilian establishment which was brought into being in order to provide a veneer of democracy, mainly for the benefit of aid-providers in the West, particularly the United States. If the country is in turmoil, and the civilian rulers give the appearance of being babes in the woods, an official military takeover might appear to be the need of the hour, even in the eyes of the Pakistani people. Typically, the military men have made matters worse over time, but with the Taliban-types knocking at the gates, the people would be made to "understand". As for the Kerry-Lugar US legislation, which doesn't mind $1.5 billion in American aid flowing to Pakistan every year for the next five years so long as Pakistan doesn't proliferate nuclear technology and reins in the "jihadists", it is for the birds. India needs to publicly question such aid in the context of the overall US aid of $15 billion since 2001 not having achieved anything at all by way of curbing the dynamics of terrorism.
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DECCAN CHRONICAL
EDITORIAL
US AID: A SAGA OF CARROTS, NO STICKS
BY SRINATH RAGHAVAN
The enactment of the Kerry-Lugar bill marks the onset of an important phase in US-Pakistan relations. The bill provides $1.5 billion annual economic assistance to Pakistan for the next five years. This is in addition to the existing aid packages, including the Coalition Support Funds (CSF) and programmes for the Tribal Areas. The Obama administration has hailed the bill as symbolising America's long-term commitment to Pakistan. The Pakistan Army and Opposition parties have decried certain provisions of the legislation as undermining Pakistan's sovereignty.
The rhetoric about the bill from both sides, however, masks its insidious consequences for the region — problems that India (and Afghanistan) will have to anticipate.
The provisions of the bill that have riled the Pakistanis pertain to issues of accountability. The bill requires the administration to certify every year that Pakistan was working to dismantle nuclear proliferation networks; that it had "made progress" on stopping support to terrorist groups operating out of its territory; that the military was not subverting the political process. But the President can waive this requirement if it was important for American "national security requirements".
Despite the military's indignation, Islamabad will have to embrace the aid package. Given Pakistan's dire economic straits, the country's ruling elite, including the military brass, can scarcely afford to spurn it. Yet the military will also strain every nerve to ensure that notwithstanding the bill's requirements, it maintains its hold on security policy. The history of US-Pakistan interaction on such matters is a useful guide to the most likely response of the Pakistani military.
The Symington amendment of 1976 prohibited US assistance to any country found trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside of international safeguards. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter held Pakistan in violation of this amendment owing to its clandestine construction of a uranium enrichment plant. Yet by 1982 aid began flowing to Islamabad through the use of presidential "waivers" very like those incorporated in the Kerry-Lugar bill. By this time, of course, the US was seeking Pakistan's assistance in using the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.
In 1985 the Pressler amendment was enacted. It proscribed most economic and military assistance unless the President certified annually that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear explosive device and that the provision of aid would significantly reduce the risk of Pakistan possessing such a device. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush issued this certification despite mounting intelligence on Pakistan's efforts to possess a nuclear device. Indeed, American "national interest" demanded that evidence of Pakistan's furtive activities not just be ignored but actively suppressed.
Only in October 1990, after the Soviets had disengaged from Afghanistan, did Washington find Pakistan in violation of the Pressler amendment, triggering the prohibitions. The Brown amendment of 1995 removed most forms of economic aid from the Pressler list; but additional sanctions were imposed on Pakistan after its nuclear test of 1998. All of these were revoked in the wake of 9/11, as Pakistan yet again became important vis-à-vis Afghanistan and the security of its nuclear arsenal a matter of international concern. Since 2001, Pakistan has received $15 billion in American aid — a sum not much less than what is now being promised.
This experience has led the Pakistani military to conclude that so long as it remains important to advancing American interests, the latter would overlook Pakistan's pursuit of its own strategic goals. The Pressler prohibitions were invoked in 1990 precisely because Pakistan was no longer considered a strategic ally.
The Pakistan military is likely to respond to the latest aid package by continuing to support the Afghan Taliban, so keeping alive the insurgency in Afghanistan and ensuring its own importance to American efforts. At the same time, the military will maintain a low-profile in its support to the anti-India outfits, thereby ensuring that the Obama administration can issue clean chits to Pakistan.
The Americans, for their part, tend to look back on the 1990s as the lost decade. Because of the Pressler prohibitions, contacts with the Pakistani military sharply dwindled. They believe that this period sowed the seeds of mistrust in the Pakistani military mind. The present divide between the two sides — on objectives and strategies — is traced to this evaporation of trust.
The best way to rebuild a strategic relationship, they reckon, is to provide abundant incentives to the Pakistani military to abandon its support for insurgent groups and terrorist outfits. The provision of military aid is the major incentive; also important is the move towards privileging Pakistan's "strategic interests" in Afghanistan.
The latter trend is evident in the recent review by General Stanley McChrystal.
The fatal flaw in this calculus is that American incentives will not be sufficiently attractive to convince the Pakistan Army to abandon the Afghan Taliban and the Kashmir Tanzeems, both of which have advanced its regional interests. The more so, since it appears possible to maintain these links while pocketing the aid.
The current US policy towards Pakistan, then, carries the seeds of its own failure. The central problem is the excessive reliance on carrots to modify Pakistan's behaviour. The Obama administration needs to think seriously about some effective sticks too.
New Delhi might draw some comfort from the language of the Kerry-Lugar bill. But its potential impact on Pakistan's strategic orientation will be a matter of concern. In effect, the package sets up incentives for the Pakistan military to stir the pot, albeit not too vigorously. The bill, moreover, does not have any stringent provision to ensure that the "significant majority" of the military aid is indeed used for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism. The only requirement is an assessment by the administration of whether the aid is enabling Islamabad to expand its nuclear arsenal.
This is problematic, especially in the light of recent revelations by retired Pakistani generals that many of the billions of dollars provided under the CSF were used to acquire conventional equipment that could be used against India. New Delhi had conveyed its concerns to Washington, but they have evidently gone unheeded. Clearly we need to do more than merely petitioning the Americans.
* Srinath Raghavan is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
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DECCAN CHRONICAL
EDITORIAL
FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN WON'T WIN THE WAR
BY ROBERT A. PAPE
AS President Barack Obama and his national security team confer to consider strategies for Afghanistan, one point seems clear: America's current military forces cannot win the war. General Stanley McChrystal, the top American commander there, has asked for 40,000 or more additional American troops, which many are calling an ambitious new course. In truth, it is not new and it is not bold enough.
America will best serve its interests in Afghanistan and the region by shifting to a new strategy of off-shore balancing, which relies on air and naval power from a distance, while also working with local security forces on the ground.
Gen. McChrystal's own report explains that American and Nato military forces themselves are a major cause of the deteriorating situation, for two reasons. First, Western forces are increasingly viewed as foreign occupiers; second, the Central government led by America's chosen leader, Hamid Karzai, is thoroughly corrupt and viewed as illegitimate.
Unfortunately, these political facts dovetail strongly with developments on the battlefield in the last few years. In 2001, the United States toppled the Taliban and kicked Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan with just a few thousand of its own troops, primarily through the combination of American air power and local ground forces from the Northern Alliance. Then, for the next several years, the US and Nato modestly increased their footprint to about 20,000 troops, mainly limiting the mission to guarding Kabul. Up until 2004, there was little terrorism in Afghanistan and little sense that things were deteriorating.
Then, in 2005, the US and Nato began to systematically extend their military presence across Afghanistan. The goals were to defeat the tiny insurgency that did exist at the time, eradicate poppy crops and encourage local support for the Central government. Western forces were deployed in all major regions and today have ballooned to more than 100,000 troops.
As Western occupation grew, the use of the two most worrisome forms of terrorism in Afghanistan — suicide attacks and homemade bombs — escalated in parallel. There were no recorded suicide attacks in Afghanistan before 2001. But in 2006, suicide attacks began to increase by an order of magnitude — with 97 in 2006, 142 in 2007, 148 in 2008 and more than 60 in the first half of 2009. Moreover, the overwhelming percentage of the suicide attacks (80 per cent) has been against US and allied troops or their bases. The pattern for other terrorist attacks is almost the same.
The picture is clear: the more Western troops America has sent to Afghanistan, the more the local residents have viewed themselves as under foreign occupation, leading to a rise in suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks.
So as Gen. McChrystal looks to change course in Afghanistan, the priority should not be to send more soldiers but to end the sense of the US and its allies as foreign occupiers. Our purpose in Afghanistan is to prevent future attacks like 9/11, which requires stopping the rise of a new generation of anti-American terrorists, particularly suicide terrorists, who are super-predators able to kill large numbers of innocent people.
What motivates suicide attackers, however, is not the existence of a terrorist sanctuary, but the presence of foreign forces on territory they prize.
Fortunately, the US does not need to station large ground forces in Afghanistan to keep it from being a significant safe haven for Al Qaeda or any other anti-American terrorists. This can be achieved by a strategy that relies on over-the-horizon air, naval and rapidly deployable ground forces, combined with training and equipping local groups to oppose the Taliban. No matter what happens in Afghanistan, the US is going to maintain a strong air and naval presence in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean for many years, and these forces are well-suited to attacking terrorist leaders and camps in conjunction with local militias — just as they did against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in 2001.
Early this year the US started what it calls the Afghanistan Social Outreach Programme, offering monthly stipends to tribal and local leaders in exchange for their cooperation against the Taliban insurgency. The programme is financed at too low a level — approximately $20 million a year — to compete with alternatives that the Taliban can offer, like protection for poppy cultivation that is worth some $3 billion a year.
One reason we can expect a strategy of local empowerment to work is that this is precisely how the Taliban is gaining support. As Gen. McChrystal's report explains, there is little ideological loyalty between the local Pashtuns and the Taliban, so the terrorists gain local support by capitalising on "vast unemployment by empowering the young and disenfranchised through cash payments, weapons, and prestige". We'll have to be more creative and rely on larger economic and political carrots to win over the hearts and minds of the Pashtuns.
Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at theUniversity of Chicago, is the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
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DECCAN CHRONICAL
OPED
WILDE ADVENTURES
BY ASHOK MANDANNA
To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play.
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom and austere control...
Thus, in 1960, Micheál MacLiammóir, co-founder of the Dublin Gate Theatre, began his famous one-man tribute, The Importance of Being Oscar, to the "poet, aesthete, scholar, sage, philosopher, critic, dramatist, and wit", opening with the lines from Wilde's poem Hélas and ending with his death in 1900. "I am not sure", Oscar Wilde mused in his last days, "the world will forgive me if I should survive into the next century".
For the next 15 years MacLiammóir travelled the world to thunderous and universal appreciation of Oscar Wilde's and his own genius, ensuring, if all else is forgotten, that Wilde's name remains as fresh today in the 21st century as it did in the 1890s. Micheál MacLiammóir died in 1978, unaware that his play had just received a fresh lease of life... in India.
The year was 1976. Barely had the applause died on MacLiammóir's world tour when a cocky, fresh-faced young man, based in Bangalore and straight out of the National School of Drama (NSD), stood on the Shri Ram Centre stage in Delhi and tried to emulate his feat as part of a nationwide tour.
I was that fresh-faced young man and (looking back) must have had a huge respect for my own abilities as an actor to have ventured on stage alone. Wilde may even have approved. "I have no wish", he declared, convinced early in life of his own genius, "to pose as being ordinary, great heaven!"
Ebrahim Alkazi, still the director of NSD at the time, was among the audience that night. I began with Hélas and ended with Wilde's last days in a Paris hotel two hours later. (Wilde's room at the hotel in question was reputed to have wallpaper "of three shades or tints: magenta and magenta and magenta". With each passing day Wilde's desperation at observing the wallpaper grew till he finally cried out, "Yes, of course, one of us has to go!")
Alkazi came backstage after the performance to say "good show" and pointed out a couple of moves I could have done better. He then asked in dulcet tones, "Where did you get the script?" I confessed that I had "borrowed" the book from the NSD library the previous year and hadn't bothered to return it. He didn't bat an eyelid before replying gently, "At least you did something with it". Of all the accolades I received through the 70s and 80s (the run of the play), that qualifies to be the best.
What Alkazi didn't know (and only a few people in the world knew at the time) was that I was also, at that precise moment, an "unofficial" courier for the underground movement headed by George Fernandes against the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi.
Let me set the scene. Indira Gandhi's election in Uttar Pradesh was struck down by the Allahabad high court, whereupon she declared Emergency, herded (almost politely) all the Opposition members into jail (including a friend of mine, Snehalata Reddy, who had co-founded the Abhinaya Drama Group in Bangalore with me — for her association with the labour union leader George Fernandes), and then proceeded to run the country with the sort of discipline not seen since the British Raj.
One of the few people to escape the dragnet was George Fernandes, who promptly went underground.
The Emergency lasted from mid-1975 to early 1977, exactly coinciding with my departure from NSD to make my independent foray as a one-man performer — only to fall into the clutches of a band of freewheeling revolutionaries! Let me be frank; I did it willingly. My friend and mentor was in jail, after all.
My cover was perfect; I was only performing a "bloody play" and who the heck cared if it was about an Irishman who had been in prison himself...
The year was still 1976...
I was again in Delhi staying with a friend of mine in Defence Colony (preparing for a performance of the play at the India International Centre, IIC) when I received a mysterious phone call. "Wait outside the gate" at "precisely such-and-such time" with "your package". "An Ambassador car will pick you up".
I'm not saying I don't like playing silly buggers or imitating the heroics of Che Guevara but this was a day before my performance. If this "Ambassador car" should transport me to Himachal or Gujarat for a clandestine meeting... it was a long way back to satisfy my audience (including that very kind gentleman, Roshan Seth — he can correct me if I'm wrong — who had cut through the red-tape at the IIC to get me their stage to perform on).
The car drove me only as far as another house in Delhi. I handed over my package of leaflets before I was escorted to a room at the back of the premises, which housed, among other things... George Fernandes.
"George", as I like to call him, had grown a beard since being declared persona non-grata by Mrs Gandhi. I was tempted to say, "Dr Livingstone, I presume". He was stunned to discover I was in Delhi to do a "play", a far cry from what he expected of his regular cadres.
The next time I met "George", he was industries minister in the Central government.
The year was still 1976... I was in Bombay to perform the play for IPTA at an open-air school stage in Bandra when — but that, as they say, is another story, one that features the Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi and the filmmaker M.S. Sathyu (The editor said, "Keep it to a thousand words, PLEASE!")
But strange that I was not told
That the brain can hold
In a tiny ivory cell
God's heaven and hell
As with Oscar Wilde, there is a tragic finale. It was now 1977 and the Emergency was lifted. I was travelling by bus from Bombay to Bangalore (as tedious a journey then as it is now) and when we stopped at Tumkur, a town barely an hour out of Bangalore, I picked up the morning paper. A headline read: Actress Dead. Snehalata Reddy, soon after her release from prison, had succumbed to a heart attack. To borrow a line from MacLiammóir, I was too late even to say goodbye.
Oscar Wilde, an Irish playwright, poet and author known for his biting wit, was born on October 16, 1854. His works include The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
* Ashok Mandanna is an actor and theatre personality. He studied at the National School of Drama and ondon's eberDouglas Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
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DECCAN CHRONICAL
OPED
GAMES BAN HURTS FIJIANS THE MOST
BY SHUBHA SINGH
The Commonwealth Games Federation suspended Fiji from its membership during its meeting in New Delhi earlier this week. The decision was a consequence of Fiji's formal suspension from the Commonwealth in September this year after its military regime failed to set a timetable to hold elections in the country by 2010. Fiji has been facing international isolation since a military coup in 2006 and suspension from the regional body, the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth. It has also been facing stringent sanctions from its two large neighbours, Australia and New Zealand.
It is, however, the ban on participating in the 2010 Commonwealth Games that is hurting the sports-crazy people of Fiji, many of whom are fervently hoping that some way could be found to reverse the decision. They are drawing hope from the Commonwealth Games Federation's plan to make a representation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to remove sport from the sanctions imposed on any member.
The Commonwealth had set a deadline of September 1, 2009, for the Fiji government to resume negotiations with the Opposition and to set a timetable for holding credible elections by October 2010. Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, however, stuck to his proposed Strategic Framework for Change that plans to put in place various socio-economic, political and legal reforms under which general elections would be held by September 2014.
This is not the first time Fiji has been suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth. It has twice earlier been suspended from Commonwealth meetings, both times after the democratically-elected government was overthrown in 1987 and 2000. Both times Fiji was re-admitted into the Commonwealth as it made its way back to democratic functioning. But this time, the Commonwealth's disapproval goes a step further — it means cutting off Fiji from all contact with the Commonwealth, including stopping of all aid and assistance programmes.
In 2006, Fiji's military commander, Cmdr Bainimarama, overthrew the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase with whom he had a fraught relationship. The military commander asserted that he had acted to protect the rights and interests of all the people of Fiji; he vowed to clean the system of corruption and ensure equity among the ethnic groups. Fiji's multi-racial population comprises of the majority indigenous Fijians community (57 per cent), a large minority of people of Indian origin (37 per cent) and other Pacific islanders. The two earlier coups had been carried out by people who claimed to be protecting the interests of the indigenous Fijians and ensuring their political supremacy in the country. Both coups resulted in violence and rioting that targeted the Indian population. Cmdr Bainimarama's was a bloodless coup and the Army kept a firm grip on the law and order situation.
Shortly after he took over as interim Prime Minister, Cmdr Bainimarama had promised to hold elections by March 2009. He went back on the promise, saying more time was needed to root out corruption and reshape the country's political system, especially its race-based electoral system. In the past year, Cmdr Bainimarama tightened his hold on the country as he abrogated the Constitution and sacked the higher judiciary after an appeals court held his government as illegal.
Cmdr Bainimarama's critics have charged that since he took over the government, Fiji's Constitution has been suspended, opponents have been detained without due process of law, the media has been censored and individual freedom and freedom of speech has been suppressed under "emergency" regulations.
Over time, Cmdr Bainimarama has steadily lost the support he had received when he first came in with his promises to clean up the corrupt system. The campaign against corruption did not net any major gains, but there is a general view that the military commander has raised many critical issues on the need for land reforms, reform of the electoral system and non-discriminatory policies. Cmdr Bainimarama proposed a draft "charter for change" but his attempts to initiate a political dialogue on the charter with the Opposition parties have not made much headway.
According to the charter for change, Fiji's electoral system is racially discriminatory and undemocratic. Under the recently abrogated 1997 Constitution, the 71-member House of Representatives had 46 communal seats and 25 open seats. Out of the 46 communal seats, 24 were for indigenous Fijians, where indigenous Fijian voters elected indigenous Fijian candidates, while ethnic Indians voted for Indians in 19 constituencies. Three seats were reserved for "the other races" while only 25 constituencies had mixed voting. According to Cmdr Bainimarama, this race-based voting had perpetuated an unequal polity and had contributed to the "coup culture" by not providing one value for one vote.
The charter proposes to "establish a system of voting so that all the interests and wishes of the people of Fiji can be represented in the Parliament through an Open List Proportional Representation Electoral and Voting System". It also plans to incorporate specific anti-discrimination measures into Fiji's electoral laws to ensure that no person is discriminated against by political parties on the grounds of race, religion, gender or circumstance.
Fiji Labour Party leader and former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, whose government had been deposed in the 2000 coup, had joined the interim government as finance minister. But Mr Chaudhry quit the interim administration in 2008. Just days before the Commonwealth deadline expired, Mr Chaudhry joined his political rival, Laisenia Qarase, in sending a joint letter to interim Prime Minister Cmdr Bainimarama suggesting ways in which they could work together to resolve the situation.
Meanwhile, some of Fiji's Melanesian neighbours have re-opened talks with Cmdr Bainimarama to encourage him to continue with his plans for reforms.
The European Union, a major donor, that had stopped its aid programme, has resumed discussion with the Fiji government. The World Bank is also holding discussions on the government's reforms agenda. But there is greater interest in Fiji on whether their sports contingent will be there at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October 2010.
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DECCAN CHRONICAL
OPED
WALL STREET SMARTS
BY CALVIN TRILLIN
"If you really want to know why the financial system nearly collapsed in the fall of 2008, I can tell you in one simple sentence".
The statement came from a man sitting three or four stools away from me in a sparsely populated Midtown bar, where I was waiting for a friend. "But I have to buy you a drink to hear it?" I asked. "Absolutely not", he said. "I can buy my own drinks. My 401(k) is intact. I got out of the market 8 or 10 years ago, when I saw what was happening".
He did indeed look capable of buying his own drinks — one of which, a dry martini, straight up, was on the bar in front of him. He was a well-preserved, grey-haired man of about retirement age, dressed in the same sort of clothes he must have worn on some Ivy League campus in the late '50s or early '60s — a tweed jacket, grey pants, a blue button-down shirt and a club tie. "OK", I said. "Let's hear it".
"The financial system nearly collapsed", he said, "because smart guys had started working on Wall Street". He took a sip of his martini, and stared straight at the row of bottles behind the bar, as if the conversation was now over.
"But weren't there smart guys on Wall Street in the first place?" I asked. He looked at me the way a mathematics teacher might look at a child who, despite heroic efforts by the teacher, seemed incapable of learning the most rudimentary principles of long division. "You are either a lot younger than you look or you don't have much of a memory", he said. "One of the speakers at my 25th reunion said that, according to a survey he had done of those attending, income was now precisely in inverse proportion to academic standing in the class, and that was partly because everyone in the lower third of the class had become a Wall Street millionaire".
I reflected on my own college class, of roughly the same era. The top student had been appointed a federal appeals court judge — earning, by Wall Street standards, tip money. A lot of people with similarly impressive academic records became professors. I could picture the future titans of Wall Street dozing in the back rows of some gut course like Geology 101, popularly known as Rocks for Jocks. "That actually sounds more or less accurate", I said.
"Of course it's accurate", he said. "Don't get me wrong: The guys from the lower third of the class who went to Wall Street had a lot of nice qualities. Most of them were pleasant enough. They made a good impression. And now we realise that by the standards that came later, they weren't really greedy. They just wanted a nice house in Greenwich and maybe a sailboat. A lot of them were from families that had always been on Wall Street, so they were accustomed to nice houses in Greenwich. They didn't feel the need to leverage the entire business so they could make the sort of money that easily supports the second oceangoing yacht".
"So what happened?" "I told you what happened. Smart guys started going to Wall Street".
"Why?" "I thought you'd never ask", he said, making a practiced gesture with his eyebrows that caused the bartender to get started mixing another martini.
"Two things happened. One is that the amount of money that could be made on Wall Street with hedge-fund and private equity operations became just mind-blowing. At the same time, college was getting so expensive that people from reasonably prosperous families were graduating with huge debts. So even the smart guys went to Wall Street, maybe telling themselves that in a few years they'd have so much money they could then become professors or legal-services lawyers or whatever they'd wanted to be in the first place. That's when you started reading stories about the percentage of the graduating class of Harvard College who planned to go into the financial industry or go to business school so they could then go into the financial industry. That's when you started reading about these geniuses from MIT and Caltech who instead of going to graduate school in physics went to Wall Street to calculate arbitrage odds".
"But you still haven't told me how that brought on the financial crisis".
"Did you ever hear the word 'derivatives'"? he said. "Do you think our guys could have invented, say, credit default swaps? Give me a break! They couldn't have done the math". "Why do I get the feeling that there's one more step in this scenario?" I said.
"Because there is", he said. "When the smart guys started this business of securitising things, who was running the firms they worked for? Our guys! The lower third of the class! Guys who didn't have the foggiest notion of what a credit default swap was. All our guys knew was that they were getting disgustingly rich. All of that easy money had eaten away at their sense of enoughness".
"So having smart guys there almost caused Wall Street to collapse". The theory sounded too simple to be true, but right offhand I couldn't find any flaws in it. I found myself contemplating the sort of havoc a horde of smart guys could wreak in other industries. I saw those industries falling one by one, done in by superior intelligence.
"I think I need a drink", I said. He nodded at my glass and made another one of those eyebrow gestures to the bartender. "Please", he said. "Allow me".
* Calvin Trillin is the author, most recently, of Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme By arrangement with the New York Times
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THE STATESMAN
EDITORIAL
BRINJAL BHARTA
TRY THIS ONE OUT?
A brinjal, developed on the strength of bio-technology, may yet be on the menu card with the regulating authority, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, awarding environmental sanction for commercial cultivation. This indubitably is a watershed in the development of genetically modified (GM) food crops. However, the huge decision on commercial cultivation must rest with the parent environment and forest ministry. It will be a momentous development for agricultural India, one that ought to hinge on a thorough examination of the pros and cons. If introduced, brinjal will be the first genetically modified vegetable. The critical determinant must be the long-term benefits of science and technology and the impact on health. And not, as minister Jairam Ramesh has been prompt enough to warn, on the "pressure of either companies or NGOs". At least three members of the GEAC have reportedly expressed reservations and there has been an immediate demand from consumer activists to label all GM products not least because of the consumers' right to choose what they want to eat. There is, for instance, a label that is stuck on every apple or date packet from abroad, although its origin may sometimes be dubious.
The immediate benefit touted by the American company lobbying for GM food is that the bio-technology will act as a pesticide for plant-eating insects that can extensively harm, if not totally damage, the crop. To that extent, the brinjal of the GM variety will reduce the requirement of pesticides. If crop destruction is similarly minimised, a larger area may well come under the crop. Indeed, the area under GM vegetables is said to be expanding the world over. That having been said, the flip side is no less critical even if the charge of "intellectual corruption" can be treated as an over-reaction of the adversarial lobby. The consumer loses the right to choose if the GM products are not labelled, a task that the government is committed to introduce but has somehow stopped short of carrying out. The safety of GM crops is yet to be conclusively established, another factor that has a direct bearing on health and nutrition. A standing deterrent must be the adverse physiological effect on animals during trial runs of GM crops. Bio-technology, and genetic engineering in particular, have admittedly made phenomenal strides. But one must accept that it is a relatively fledgling discipline, after all.
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THE STATESMAN
EDITORIAL
STRAITS OF AL QAIDA
A DETERRENT TO FURTHER STRIKES?
AS Barack Obama weighs his options against the Taliban in Afghanistan ~ however cruel the irony in the context of the Nobel peace award ~ the US Treasury has orchestrated the dire financial straits of Al Qaida. What the administration is yet to acknowledge is that the outfit's "worst financial state for years'' can scarcely douse its fantastic fanatical fury, still less its intent to carry forward its agenda on the date and the time of its choosing. The current funds crunch can, at worst, sap its material foundation. Its influence may also have waned, to the extent of hampering its recruitment and training.
David Cohen may have had two objectives behind going global on Tuesday over Al Qaida's financial crisis. Studiously enough, he has hastened to contrast the predicament of one outfit with the solvency of another: the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan is in a better position, thriving on the proceeds of poppy cultivation and the international drugs trade. That itself can be a sufficiently convincing raison d'etre to step up the pursuit of the Af-Pak policy. General Stanley McChrystal, the US ground commander in Afghanistan, has assessed in a document to President Obama that Taliban funds are a potent factor behind the relentless insurgency. The attack on the GHQ in Rawalpindi is the latest testament to its increasing might. The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury department may also have intended to underscore the success of the US efforts to choke the Al Qaida's sources of funds. He has attributed the organisation's "four public appeals for money" to the success of the attempts by the USA and its allies to identify the major donors, notably Osama bin Laden's Arab benefactors and front companies.
Indeed, snapping the Al Qaida's funding channel has been the main prop of America's counter-terrorism policy since 9/11. The task has doubtless turned out to be easier than scuttling its ideology. Eight years later, the US Treasury has confirmed the effectiveness of that strategy and at a juncture when the Anglo-American forces confront the challenge of the Taliban. Yet the West must reflect whether it is really forbiddingly expensive to carry out a strike. Experts have now fairly established that 9/11 cost about $500,000 to plan and execute, the 2004 Madrid bombings $10,000, and the 7 July 2005 London attacks just a few thousand pounds. Funds may not be the singular constraint, after all. The intent to strike is all and everything.
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THE STATESMAN
EDITORIAL
REFLECTED GLORY
HOW WE LOVE BASKING IN IT
DESPITE Nobel Laureate Venkataraman Ramakrishnan going slow on the personal dimension of the award, and not making too much of his Indian origins, it is so apparent that there is population explosion of people from this country wanting to jump on his bandwagon. So much so that he has protested the spate of e-mails clogging his inbox, his having to waste hours clearing what he rejects as junk. A spate of congratulations would have been understandable, but he is also having to suffer a host of bogus claims of being acquainted with him ~ like someone who said he had taught him in an educational institution he had never attended. Apart from being upset that important communications are getting buried under the junk, he has also taken exception to a number of exaggerrated/false accounts in the Indian media engineered by people who seek to feast off the crumbs of the cake just presented to him. "There are people who have never bothered to be in touch with me for decades who suddenly feel the urge to connect. I feel this strange," the man who shared this year's Nobel prize for chemistry told an interviewer. It would be oversimplistic to write this off as the price of stardom. Scientists neither seek nor appreciate such adulation. Particularly when they suspect its sincerity.
Perhaps the only source of comfort to "Venki" is that he has not been singled out for the treatment. When Dr Hargobind Khorana visited New Delhi after winning the Nobel prize for medicine in 1968, a local political bigwig mustered the Khurana clan at the airport. The embarrassment on the doctor weighed heavier than the plethora of garlands around his neck. This is true of those accomplished in other fields too: many a cricketer with an Indian-origin name has been discomfited at being involuntarily "adopted". To determine whether this is indicative of a huge inferiority complex or a misdirected sense of national pride will require the kind of research and analysis that would merit evaluation for another award. Must we do ourselves such discredit?
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THE STATESMAN
EDITORIAL
CHOCOLATE, WATER REDUCE PAIN: STUDY
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
LONDON, 14 OCT: Experiencing severe pains? Fret not. Munching a bar of chocolate or sipping a refreshing glass of water can give your relief, says a new study.
An international team, led by Chicago University, has carried out the study and found that the distraction of eating or drinking for pleasure acts as a natural painkiller, even in the absence of hunger or thirst, the Daily Mail reported.
According to researchers, a part of the brain called the raphe magnus helps blunt pain when eating or drinking. The same area eases pain while sleeping or going to the lavatory. Although the findings come from studies on animals, researchers believe the same effect takes place in people.
Lead researcher Dr Peggy Mason said the study found that the rats were less bothered by pain if they were eating a chocolate chip or drinking water. "It's a strong, strong effect but it's not about hunger or appetite."
She added: "If you have all this food in front of you that's easily available to reach out and get, you're not going to stop eating, for basically almost any reason."
CASSINI FINDS SATURN'S MOONS RESHAPING ITS RINGS
WASHINGTON, 15 OCT: Some deformations from the normal pattern in the shape of F ring, one of the seven rings of Saturn, have been recently captured by Nasa's Cassini spacecraft.
Scientists at Nasa believe that the deformation in the shape of the ring, considered to be held together by its "shepherd moons" ~ Prometheus and Pandora ~ could be a result of the gravitational force exerted by the oblong moon Prometheus, visible just inside the ring.
The images captured by the spacecraft features channels carved into the ring supposedly when Prometheus occasionally forays into the ring structure while travelling on its elliptical orbit.
"These so-called streamers are formed when the elliptical orbit of Prometheus brings the moon into the F ring. The gravity of the moon pulls material out of the ring, carving out a new streamer on each 15-hour orbit," according to Nasa.
A subtle deformation in the narrow F ring, situated approximately 1,40,180 km from the centre of the planet, is also visible, in the images, toward the outer portion of the A ring, which lies close to the F-ring.
The A ring is nearly 15,000 km across while the F ring is just a few hundred kilometers broad at its widest point. PTI
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THE STATESMAN
EDITORIAL
FOOD SECURITY & EQUALITY
ECOLOGY AND SMALL FARMERS MUST BE PROTECTED
BY BHARAT DOGRA
Today, 16 October, is World Food Day. Floods and drought have threatened food security. The adverse and erratic weather conditions, said to be related to climate change, are likely to persist. Food security must be rooted in equality and environment protection. A firm base can be established only when land is distributed equally, the rights of small farmers are adequately protected and ecologically protective methods are implemented.
In recent years, large-scale hunger and malnutrition amidst adequate food stocks have exposed the fundamental weaknesses of India's food security system. A senior economist has confirmed this embarrassment of riches by calculating that if every bag of foodgrain is placed in a straight line then this 'grainline' could traverse the entire distance to the moon. More recently, food protection has suffered and the availability of adequate food to support the security network cannot be taken for granted.
HUNGER AND FAMINE
However, certain achievements cannot be denied, particularly if comparisons are made with the colonial past. Two centuries of British rule in India witnessed about forty million famine deaths, or an average of 2,00,000 famine deaths every year. William Digby, a British scholar, estimated 28 million famine deaths during 1854-1901. The last decade of the 19th century proved to be particularly disastrous. Nearly 4.5 million perished in the famine of 1896-97, followed by another 2.5 million deaths in 1899-1900. The Great Bengal Famine of 1943 claimed about 4 million lives.
Since independence, there has not been a single instance of hundreds of thousands of famine deaths. While such mass casualties have been reported from China and Bangladesh, India has thus far been able to avoid such tragedies.
However, the ecological havoc has threatened the sustainability of adequate food production. Glaring inequalities lead to poverty and denial of basic needs. Many regions bear witness to a combination of weak/vulnerable people, devastated fields and shortage of drinking water. There could be large-scale hunger-deaths if a natural calamity disrupts the aid flow from the government and voluntary sources.
Therefore, India cannot be complacent about its ability to avoid large-scale famine deaths in the post-independence years. The challenge is to provide nutrition to all sections of the people on a sustainable basis and in an ecology-friendly manner. All villages should be independent of external sources for meeting the basic needs of food and water. Within the village all should have adequate access to these essentials. This is the basic pre-requisite for avoiding hunger in normal times and avoiding famine deaths in the worst of times.
A sound food and agricultural system can ensure satisfactory livelihood to all members of the farming community and wholesome, nutritious food to all. This can also ensure the welfare of farm animals and protect the soil.
Unfortunately, there is considerable economic tension and uncertainty among farmers not only in developing countries but also in some of the richest countries like the USA. A significant section of the farming community is landless (or near landless) and is deprived of a fair share of the agricultural income. Many landholders are in danger of losing control over their land.
Again even in the richest countries, the soil is not taken care of sufficiently. The machines, that have taken over most of the work in the farms, can produce more food; but they cannot protect the soil for future generations. More and more skilled peasants are being driven away from agriculture. Eventually, it is unlikely that there will be enough people to produce food and protect the land. Farm animals are treated as a commodity; there is little or no concern for their welfare.
On the consumption side, poverty and inequality can deny adequate food to a large number of people. But even those with enough purchasing power find it increasingly difficult to get wholesome, nutritious food because of the increasing presence of chemicals in the food that is cultivated. It is bereft of the valuable nutrients; on the contrary, it absorbs harmful substances.
BASIC PRIORITIES
THE basic priorities in order to improve the farm and agriculture system should be:
1) Empower those who work on farmland to maintain their close links with land. Support them to earn an adequate livelihood from cultivating the land and protecting its soil.
2) Establish harmony between the welfare of farm animals and the economic returns of farming. In other words, ensure productive use of farm animals so that they can bring economic returns without causing any cruelty to them.
3) Establish direct links between farmers and consumers so that consumers can get good quality food and farmers can get a fair price in return. Monitor trade, processing and the interests of middlemen to ensure that the interests of farmers and consumers are not violated.
Unfortunately almost all these concerns are being neglected, and the distortions are getting worse in the anxiety to earn quick profits out of agri-business. The policy ignores the wider and long-term interests of ordinary farmers and consumers.
A wide network of farmers, consumers, environment, safety, animal rights and other activists will have to make a concerted effort to stand up against these forces, giving more and more people a chance to realise how the all-important food and agriculture systems have been destroyed by ruthless commercial interests. The situation can be saved by environment-friendly initiatives of farming communities in cooperation with the people at large. This ought to be the pledge on World Food Day.
The writer, a social activist, is currently a Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi
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THE TELEGRAPH
EDITORIAL
BORDER BAITS
China may not be the only country that uses unresolved issues with neighbours as tools of diplomacy. But its ways of doing so are always an indication of more elaborate gameplans. Beijing's objection to the visit by the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to Arunachal Pradesh is thus no isolated act of diplomatic indiscretion. It is part of a renewed Chinese campaign to bait India on the border issues between the two countries. The aim obviously is not to solve the border disputes but to exploit them for other purposes. That Beijing was raising the bar on the 'dispute' over Arunachal Pradesh was evident last December when it sought to block an Asian Development Bank loan for some infrastructure projects in the state. China's claim over the state, which it calls "southern Tibet", has no basis in history. China's argument that it cannot accept the McMahon Line in settling its border disputes with India is, at best, a ploy. For it has solved its border problems with Myanmar on the basis of the same historical agreement. History apart, the Chinese posturings over Arunachal Pradesh are also a blatant violation of the principles for discussion on the border disputes agreed upon by the two countries during the visit of the former Indian prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to Beijing in 2003.
The important question for New Delhi is how to respond to Beijing's intransigence. The external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, has reiterated India's position that Arunachal Pradesh is an "integral part' of India. India has also expressed its "disappointment and concern" over the Chinese position. It is good that the official Indian responses so far have been rather low-key, despite a relatively stronger protest over the Chinese role in building infrastructure in Pakistan. The prime minister himself set the tone of the Indian response when he dismissed some media reports suggesting a sudden increase in Chinese incursions into Indian territory. India does not need to be paranoid about a "Chinese threat" or do anything to create mass hysteria over it. A mature Indian response would be to go about the task of strengthening the defence of the border and improving infrastructure there. Creating an atmosphere of public hostility is of little use for effective diplomacy. The people of Arunachal Pradesh, though, rebuffed China by voting peacefully — and in massive numbers — in Tuesday's polls.
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THE TELEGRAPH
EDITORIAL
GENE REVOLUTION
From the Green Revolution to the Gene Revolution, Indian agriculture has come a long way in the past four decades. Since the mid-Sixties, high-yielding seeds, increased use of fertilizers, and new modes of irrigation have boosted India's self-sufficiency in foodgrains. However, the scope of Norman Borlaug's rich legacy has been considerably curbed over the years. Overpopulation, farmer suicides, droughts, crop failure, inflation — grim words have blighted the self-assurance with which India has approached the question of food security since the Seventies. So, it is propitious that the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee has allowed the cultivation of a genetically-modified brinjal, making it India's first-ever GM food crop meant for commercial production. This may be a pathbreaking moment for Indian science, but such crops have been around in Western markets since the Nineties. Although the introduction of GM food has been shrouded in a cloud of controversies, its benefits are tangible: reduction of pesticides, conservation of water and soil, and a better chance of a successful harvest are some of the reasons why farmers might find GM seeds invaluable.
However, there are concerns over both the feasibility and the desirability of making GM food a part of the Indian economy. Not only does it involve a more expensive mode of production than traditional farming, it is also believed to cause health risks. Environmentalists allege that GM crops are capable of increasing allergens, antibiotic resistance and deposition of toxins in their consumers. Even the World Health Organization agrees on the need to standardize methods of assessing the safety and nutritional aspects of GM food. True, the GEAC recommendation comes after a thorough quality-check. GM brinjal has also been tested across the country to determine its performance under different conditions. Millions of North Americans have been living in the pink of health after eating GM papaya, soyabean and corn for years now. So perhaps there is not enough reason to raise an alarm just yet, especially since genetic engineering is based on precise calculations aimed at desired results, not random tinkering with genes. However, the government should continue its surveillance of the quality of GM crops, and allow labels to be put on GM food sold in the open market. That would give sceptics a fair choice.
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THE TELEGRAPH
EDITORIAL
IN SEARCH OF OLD TERRITORY
CHINA'S GLOBAL VISION MAY NOT AUGUR WELL FOR INDIA
SWAPAN DASGUPTA
Barely three weeks after top officials, including the national security adviser, berated the media for Sinophobia and war hysteria, New Delhi has been stung by what it regards as an astonishing lack of reciprocity from Beijing. It is one thing for China to routinely issue proforma denunciations of the "splittist Dalai clique" and object to every journey undertaken by the exiled Tibetan leader. Yet, even by the exalted standards of Chinese insensitivity, the protest against the visit of the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to Arunachal Pradesh for an election rally took the proverbial biscuit.
Those who make a living by deciphering the legendary inscrutability of India's eastern neighbour may well suggest that the statement by China's foreign ministry spokesman last Tuesday need not be taken literally. It can hardly be the case that Beijing seriously believed that the understated Manmohan travelled to Itanagar to "stir up trouble at the disputed area". Yet, even a 'nuanced' view of the statement cannot distract from its symbolic significance. By targeting the Indian prime minister, China appears to have decided that only a frontal assault on Indian sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh will serve as a deterrent to New Delhi's going ahead with its ambitious infrastructural improvements in the state.
The sudden resurrection of the unresolved border problem over the past year — more or less since the Indo-US nuclear agreement passed all the cumbersome international and domestic tests — has upset some of the calculations of Indian strategists. Those who believed that Sino-Indian relations must be premised on economic convergence and healthy competition have been frazzled by some of Beijing's wilfully provocative measures. Apart from the People's Liberation Army's 'forward policy' in Ladakh and Aksai Chin, China started issuing stapled visas for Indians resident in Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The clear message to New Delhi was that Beijing didn't recognize these two states as integral parts of the Indian Union.
At the same time, there exists a great deal of muddleheadedness in India over how best to deal with China. The issue acquires considerable relevance in view of the recognition that in another 25 years or so China may well overtake the United States of America as the world's largest economy in terms of gross domestic product. No doubt India, too, would have progressed considerably by then — PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that India will be the fourth largest economy by 2025, after the US, China and Japan — but the distance between China and India would remain as yawning.
Of course, there is nothing inevitable about the rise of China at the cost of the West. Economic forecasts don't factor in unforeseen developments such as political disasters and spectacular scientific advances that have the potential to upset calculations. The West, and particularly the US, may yet witness an unexpected surge and India has often demonstrated an uncanny knack of being its own worst enemy. Yet New Delhi's long-term assessment of China must be based on the assumption that the balance of world power is likely to tilt eastwards, in favour of China.
For the moment, even as the world marvels at the Chinese miracle, Beijing has been careful to convey the impression that it will be a benign force that will follow the rules of multilateralism and not upset the existing rules of international relations. So far Chinese diplomacy has yielded spectacular results. The political eclipse of the neo-conservatives in the US has been accompanied by a discernible softening of attitudes to China by the Barack Obama administration. There is a greater inclination to celebrate the rise of China rather than resist it. The cancellation of the Dalai Lama's meeting with President Obama may be as trivial as the decision to decorate the Empire State Building with China's national colours to mark the 60th anniversary of the communist takeover but appear to be symbolic of a new accommodation.
Some questions arise from the retreat (I still hesitate to call it decline) of the West. Will China's global role remain as benign after it has succeeded in overtaking the US's GDP? The rules of international relations were determined by the West after 1945 and reflect the cultural bias of Europe and North America. Will China persist with the status quo once its economic hegemony is established? How will a new global architecture impact India?
The issue is important because China's global vision incorporates a political hegemonism that is fraught with ominous consequences for India. With the Han Chinese constituting some 90 per cent of China's population, Beijing's view of race and ethnicity is, predictably, linked to China's inviolable unity. However, as Martin Jacques has noted in his insightful book, When China Rules the World, "The notion of China and Chinese civilisation is bolstered by a widespread belief that the difference between the Chinese and other peoples is not simply cultural or historical but also biological." There was a racial underpinning to 19th and early-20th century European imperialism and China's rise may be accompanied by similar assumptions.
Such a mindset has a bearing on China's quest for the recovery of its "lost territories", not merely across the Taiwan Straits and Outer Mongolia but also along the McMahon Line.
Stemming from this sense of superiority is China's inclination to perceive relations with its neighbours, in east Asia at least, in terms of the tributary system that prevailed before the entry of the Europeans after the Opium Wars. The system was based on an institutionalized inequality in relations between the Middle Kingdom and the tributaries, and a corresponding consensus over the superiority of Chinese civilization. With China dominating the economies of east Asian countries, scholars like Jacques are inclined to believe that "China's economic strength, together with its enormous population, could return the region to a not dissimilar state of affairs to that which existed in the past". There is a possibility that the scope of the new tributary system could extend into central Asia and Australia. This is not to say that China's hegemonism will be uncontested.
India never fell into the orbit of a Greater China. Traditionally, the Himalayas were a barrier to the spread of Hindu civilization eastwards and Chinese civilization westwards. India and China have, consequently, evolved over the centuries with only nominal contact and little understanding of each other. Tibet was the only point of perfunctory contact. This mutual incomprehension and memories of the 1962 border war may be factors in the recent climate of distrust. But China's attitudes towards neighbours also follow a template in which the tributary system is firmly etched. China cannot countenance India as part of the West but it has yet to evolve an alternative to viewing a neighbour as anything different from either a subordinate or a potential vassal.
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THE TELEGRAPH
EDITORIAL
FAMILIAR WORRIES RETURN
BONA FIDE - MALVIKA SINGH
The brutal assertions of Naxalite-Maoist groups are managing to get the back up of the 'authority', and their accelerated attacks on the public domain, killing and injuring innocents, are having a huge backlash. Decades ago, there was sympathy for movements that gave a sane and strong voice to the plight of the people and communities that had been marginalized, exploited and neglected by the State. Human-rights groups were emphatic in their support of the 'cause' but governments and their administrations ignored the pleas and demands.
Distanced and unheard, the leaders of these 'movements' became more and more militant. To aggravate the growing tension, past home ministers described the volatile reality on the ground as a 'law and order' problem, nothing to worry about. As a result, the 'war' against the State and the democratic framework rapidly escalated and today, the strident militancy and attacks by Naxalite-Maoists on civilians who man state institutions are spinning out of control.
Equally, ordinary people, particularly a new generation looking for change, charged by hope in spite of belonging to deprived communities and less-privileged sections of society, are looking for a radical correction by the State, in the form of peace and calm, development and progress. The young are looking for a restoration of civil society sans State exploitation. The time is ripe for a democratic, political leader to reach out and draw in that generation to work out a fresh process and create a new mechanism that will include these hitherto 'forgotten people' in the larger pattern of development. An honest and impassioned reaching out to marginalized tribal communities will have an immediate and possibly positive response. It has to be a joint venture, involving the State, political parties and the people. The challenge to cut down corruption and deliver the basics to the poor can only be met if the 'players' believe in creating an egalitarian society, think out-of-the-box, and grapple with dynamic alternatives of governance.
Urgent concerns
People want peace and safety, not to be ignored, set apart and have their patience and tolerance tested. The tribal bill, in its existing avatar, did nothing for the communities it was meant to protect. It supported the alienation of these communities from the rest of India by compelling them to be seen as standing apart from the mainstream, dependant on a fair execution of the dole.
The hidden wealth of the forests attracts another breed of rapacious merchants looking to further exploit the helpless poor by dangling money for pattas of forestland and ancient, 'protected' trees. The exploitation continues relentlessly, aided and abetted by administrators who turn a blind eye, as the laws mandated to ensure protection are broken with impunity under their 'watch'.
The recent scandal, where government officials allegedly took bribes from companies in the US, must be brought to an immediate conclusion. The government needs to make an example of this by dismissing the public servants involved. Inquiries by the CBI could well carry on until the persons involved retire. A complaint like this from the ambassador of India to the prime minister's office needs fast-track investigation and punishment.
It is time to initiate correctives. One interesting exercise would be to see how many children of serving bureaucrats are studying in expensive universities abroad. When asked, the answer given is that they are on scholarship. Great to know that every bureaucrat's child is of extraordinary intellectual calibre! Lots remain hidden within the sanctum of the inclusive 'club'. Members of this club need to be made accountable. India will arise out of the morass and emerge as an Asian superpower only after its administrators undergo a thorough cleansing process.
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DECCAN HERALD
EDITORIAL
A NEW BEGINNING
"THE CENTRE'S OFFER OF TALKS IN J&K ARE TIMELY."
Union home minister P Chidambaram's offer of talks with all sections of people in Jammu and Kashmir is a step forward in addressing the grievances in the state and the political problem that undeniably exists there. Chidambaram's statement recognises this because he has said that the contours of a political solution will emerge only after consultations with all shades of opinion. The government is for 'quiet dialogue and diplomacy' to find such a solution. The moderate section of the separatist Hurriyat Conference has welcomed the offer and has promised that it will take any talks with the government seriously. The hard line faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has expectedly rejected the initiative as 'nothing new' and would accept the offer only if the talks are tripartite involving Pakistan too. But the support for the faction is exaggerated and it will find itself isolated. The very fact that its call for boycott of the state's assembly elections was completely rejected by the people is proof of that.
The initiative, which is planned four years after such talks were last held, is timely as violence has come down in the state and is at the lowest level in about a decade. Though there is infiltration of militants from across the border, the numbers have fallen because of the stepped up security and the unsettled situation in Pakistan. The disenchantment with Pakistan is growing because of the troubles in that country. The fact that the government is serious about the initiative is seen by the establishment of back channel contacts. But it should be equally serious about the substance of the talks. The differences of views, expressed in public by chief minister Omar Abdullah and his father Farooq Abdullah on this are a sign of confusion. This will not help the government.
Apart from issues like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, on which the government has made a beginning with the promise of an amendment, the talks will have to focus on the limits of autonomy that can be given to the state within the framework of the Indian constitution. The government is already committed to this and Chidambaram has given some broad hints by saying that the solution will have to be specific to the history and geography of the state. Once there is an internal consensus it will be easier to deal with the Pakistan factor.
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DECCAN HERALD
EDITORIAL
GLARING BIAS
"THE LIST OF OVERLOOKED WRITERS FOR NOBEL IS LONG."
While the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to arguably the world's most well-known person, with little justification, the literature prize went to a hardly known writer, with even less justification. The prize for the Rumania-born German writer Herta Mueller was also a major surprise, as her writing has not had much appeal outside the German-speaking world. Lack of popularity outside one's language world is in itself no disqualification. But Mueller's writing would hardly pass muster as Nobel material, especially because better writers were in contention. The Swedish Academy has been known to award the prize to obscure writers, ignoring deserving and eminent ones. Last year's winner Jean-Marie Le Clezio was an equally unknown French writer. The list of writers who were overlooked by the Nobel committee is also glaring. It includes greats like Tolstoy, Marcel Proust and Kafka.
The Academy has said that Mueller's work "depicts the landscape of the dispossessed with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose." She suffered under the Communist regime in Romania in the 1960s and the 1970s and had fled the country for Germany. Her writing portrays corruption and repression in Communist societies. The Swedish Academy has always taken a liking to writings critical of communism, whatever their literary merit. The award for Mueller again shows that it cannot free itself of this obsession, even decades after the collapse of the ideology and its supporting institutions. The awards have also been Euro-centric with much more European writers winning it than those from other continents and cultures. Peter Englund, secretary of the Academy, admitted this when he said that "if you are European, it is easier to relate to European literature." His predecessor, Horace Engdal, had last year created a controversy by stating that Europe was still the centre of the literary world.
Ideological predilections and other kinds of biases should not influence the choice of winners of the Nobel prize, or of any prize in the public space. Judgment of literature admittedly has a subjective element in it, unlike in the case of discoveries for which the science prizes are given. But cases of misjudgment and bias in the choice of writers for the prize have become very obvious and frequent in recent past. They lower the credibility and prestige of the world's premier literary prize.
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DECCAN HERALD
EDITORIAL
DEATH OF THE DAILIES
THE PRINT MEDIA IN THE US AND EUROPE HAS DESPERATELY SOUGHT WAYS TO ADAPT TO THE RAPID CHANGES AND SURVIVE.
IGNACIO RAMONET, IPS
It is a major catastrophe: Dozens of daily newspapers are bankrupt. In the United States, at least 120 have already closed. And the tsunami is now striking Europe. Not even institutions once considered the journals of record are safe: Spain's 'El Pais', France's 'Le Monde', 'The Times' and 'The Independent' of the United Kingdom and Italy's 'Corriere della Sera' and 'La Repubblica' are all accumulating major economic losses as a result of the drop in subscriptions and the collapse of advertising.
The prestigious 'New York Times' had to seek help from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim; the Tribune Company, publisher of the 'Chicago Tribune' and 'Los Angeles Times', as well as the Hearst Corporation, owner of the 'San Francisco Chronicle', are bankrupt; News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's powerful multi-media group which publishes the 'Wall Street Journal', reported losses of 2.5 billion euros.
To reduce costs many publications are cutting back on the number of pages: the 'Washington Post' has eliminated its prestigious book review; the 'Christian Science Monitor' has dropped its paper edition and now exists only on the internet; the 'Financial Times' is asking its editors to consider a three-day weeks and has drastically trimmed its staff.
There have been massive layoffs. Since January 2008, the American newspaper industry has shed 21,000 jobs. In Spain, between June 2008 and April 2009, 2,221 journalists lost their jobs.
The for-pay daily paper is on the edge of a cliff and desperately searching for ways to survive. Certain analysts feel that this form of information is simply obsolete. Michael Wolf of Newser predicts that 80 per cent of US papers will disappear. Rupert Murdoch is even more pessimistic: he thinks that in the next decade newspapers will cease to exist entirely.
This situation, already very grim, was seriously aggravated by the global economic crisis, which triggered a plunge in advertising and a restriction of credit. Then, at the worst possible time, the structural problems of the sector grew worse: the problems inherent in the commodification of information, the newspaper industry's dependence on advertising, a loss of credibility, drop in the number of subscribers, competition from free newspapers, and an aging readership.
In Latin America, there is an additional challenge: the much needed democratic reforms undertaken by certain governments (Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela) against the 'media barons' — private groups with press monopolies. The effort has set off against these governments and their presidents a series of scurrilous attacks milled by the most spiteful major media and their usual accomplices.
The daily paper continues to use an economic and industrial model that simply doesn't work. And the option of building mega international multi-media conglomerates, common between 1980-1990, would make no sense today with the proliferation of new modes of information distribution and of entertainment via the internet and mobile phones.
Paradoxically, newspapers have never enjoyed as massive an audience as they do today. With the internet, the number of readers has exploded. However, the use of the cyber world is still poorly thought out and currently features a particular injustice: readers who buy the print edition end up subsidising those who read the free on-line digital edition of the paper, which is both larger and more user-friendly. This is partly because web advertising never really came into its own, being far less expensive that in print.
The losses and gains produced by the advent of the internet never balanced out. Groping blindly, the print media has desperately sought ways to adapt to the rapid change and survive. Following the example of iTunes, some tried to impose small fees for reading material on line.
Rupert Murdoch decided that beginning in 2010, all access to the 'Wall Street Journal' with any technology, whether the Blackberry or iPhone or the Kindle electronic reader, will cost. The search engine Google is considering a system that would make it possible to charge for any digital access to daily newspapers and channel the revenue to the publisher.
But can such measures save the dying patient? Few think so. Because there is another, even more worrying factor in the mix: plunging credibility. The newspaper's current obsession with instantaneous reporting and getting the story first leads to a multiplication of errors.
The demagogic request that 'reader/journalists' post their blogs, photos, and videos on the newspaper's website only increases the risk of transmitting mistakes. And adopting the defence of the business strategy as the editorial line (which we see in various dominant papers today) leads to the imposition of a subjective, arbitrary, and partisan slant.
Meanwhile, faced with the new 'mortal sins' of journalism, the people feel their rights are being eroded. They know that having reliable, quality information is more important than ever, for them and for democracy, and they are asking where they can turn to find the truth.
(The writer is the editor of 'Le Monde Diplomatique' in Spanish)
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DECCAN HERALD
EDITORIAL
CLIMATE DEBATE CAN'T IGNORE SMALL FARMERS
BY ADDING ORGANIC MATTER INTO SOIL, IN THE NEXT 50 YEARS WE COULD CAPTURE 45 BILLION TONNES OF CO2.
PANDURANG HEGDE
The recently concluded United Nations meeting on climate change in Bangkok has missed the opportunity to evolve a consensus on the burning issue. As the deadline for Copenhagen summit is fast approaching, the developed and developing countries are locked in a deadlock over the fixing of targets for the emissions and financing of clean energy. Amidst this chaos, there are encouraging reports of how farmers, especially the ones with small land holdings, can contribute substantially to address the issue of climate change.
Scientists from the developed countries have been alleging that farmers from developing countries are responsible for adding methane emissions, especially in cultivating food crops like paddy in Asian countries.
The world is aware of the fossil fuel guzzling lifestyles of the US and other developed countries, which do not want to give up these comforts. However, the most shocking revelation is the way the industrial farming in developed countries like the USA and Europe is responsible for contributing up to 40 per cent of the green house gas emissions.
The factory farming, driven by the profit motive of multinational agri business corporations, is polluting the soil, river and oceans with high amounts of nitrogen, pesticides and other fertilisers. The forms of nitrogen provided by chemical fertilisers are readily transformed in the soil, resulting in emission of nitrous oxides into the atmosphere. The scientific findings have confirmed that these nitrous oxides are 300 times more damaging than CO2 in contributing to green house gas emissions. Worst still is the fact that they destroy ozone layer.
Giant footprint
If these real time calculations of industrial farming are incorporated, the carbon footprint of USA, which is estimated to be 18 per cent, jumps to 30 percent. Obviously, the so-called 'wealth' created by the only super power is at the cost of damaging the fragile ecosystems of the Earth. Ironically, the developing countries are trying to imbibe this industrial agriculture as a way to resolve the crisis in the farming sector.
A recent study by Barcelona-based international organisation GRAIN (Genetic Resources Action International) has done research to see how the farmers can contribute towards addressing the issue of climate change and mitigation. The findings show that the key component to mitigate the crisis in agriculture is to increase the soil organic matter (SOM). The living soils function through a mixture of substances that originate from decomposition of plant and animal material. In common language this is called farmyard manure used for millennia in Indian and Chinese agricultural systems. They have the capacity to absorb 100 times more water and nutrients to be released to the plants later.
The accumulation of organic matters in the soil is the key factor in lowering the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The sustainable agricultural systems that survived for thousands of years in the east were those, which were able to maintain the regular cycle of SOM in their soil. This was done with the integration of the farming system with livestock, forestry and green manure. Once this cycle was broken by adoption of industrial agriculture, it led to depletion of the SOM resulting in poor quality of food, diseased soil and adding emissions.
GRAIN has calculated that by adding organic matter into our agricultural soils, in next 50 years we could capture 45 billion tonnes of CO2, more than two thirds of the current excess of CO2 in the atmosphere.
But how and who are capable of fixing the SOM in the soil? The methodology for enhancing the organic matter needs to be based on decentralised animal husbandry that is integrated into diversified crop production. It is only the small farmers who have the capacity and willingness to work it out on the fields.
Fortunately, small and marginal farmers in numerous regions of India are specifically practicing this technique. Imagine the contribution of diversified cropping systems with millets, organic manure and livestock integrated together in several eco regions. These resource and knowledge rich farmers would be able to get some benefits from the business of carbon sequestration. Unfortunately, we stamp them as 'primitive' farmer who is not progressive enough into adopting fossil fuel based chemical agriculture.
This is a very positive case for the farming community world wide. Countries like India can take it to the logical end in the Copenhagen summit to press for policies to mitigate the crisis of climate change. But it is doubtful if our policy-makers would be willing to even consider this as a possible solution. Small farmers are ready to cool the Earth, but who cares?
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DECCAN HERALD
EDITORIAL
CLEARLY AMBIGUOUS
GREEK ORACLES KNEW CLARITY IS GOOD BUT AMBIGUITY CAN SERVE YOU BETTER.
LEELA RAMASWAMY
One of my favourite short stories is an old Indian tale. It tells of two men who were good friends. One of them fell seriously ill. When he realised that his days were numbered, he called his friend and committed his young son into his care. His written instructions regarding his property said, "When he comes of age, give him what you want and keep the rest".
Soon after this the man died. The friend looked after the son. When he reached adulthood, the young man asked for his share. The friend was now overtaken by greed. He kept a major portion of the property for himself and gave the son a very small part. The young man was upset and approached a wise old judge. After hearing him out, the judge summoned the friend. "How much do you want?" he asked. Confident that he was justified by the terms of the will, he specified almost the entire property. "Is this what you want?" asked the judge again. The man affirmed it was. "Then," pronounced the judge, "you must give all that you want to this young man. That is what the will says." Ambiguity had won the day!
The ancient Greek oracles knew that clarity is good but that ambiguity can serve you better. Famous for their predictions, they often found themselves in a dilemma. They resorted then to answers that could be interpreted in different ways. When the King of Lydia inquired what would happen if he attacked Persia, he was told that "a great kingdom would be destroyed". He assumed that Persia was the kingdom referred to, but as it turned out it was Lydia — also a great kingdom — that was destroyed.
Diplomats take refuge in ambiguity to avoid offence. A famous author told an aspiring writer "that he would lose no time in reading his book". A well-known socialite who did not want to attend the party of a great bore wrote to him, "We are entertaining ourselves this evening."
Newspaper headlines that have to say a great deal in a few words often convey two meanings without meaning to and with hilarious results. "Kids make nutritious snacks" and "Milk drinkers are turning to powder" are startling, but the one to make your eyebrows go up is this one — "Prostitutes appeal to the Pope."
Metaphors, we know, are implicit comparisons, but they could hide a bit of ambiguity as well. Shashi Tharoor, of the famous tweet 'cattle class' and 'holy cows', used it to stir action and reaction. The furore has died down, but the question remains — was it misunderstood semantics or political antics?
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THE JERUSALEM POST
EDITORIAL
WHO LOST TURKEY?
Could Israel have done anything to avoid the apparent rupture of its relationship with Turkey? Could we have made it inconceivable for the Turks to air, on state television, a serial portraying the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a struggle between sociopathic Zionists and wholesome Palestinians?
No doubt, had Israel responded to the violent Palestinian "resistance" not with an Operation Cast Lead but with Gandhi-like passivity, with a declaration that so long as there were women and children in Gaza, our army would not shoot back - had Israel, instead of imposing a "siege," responded to Hamas's takeover of Gaza by supplying concrete for an airstrip that would accommodate Iranian cargo planes - Israeli and Turkish jets might now, we suppose, be conducting joint maneuvers.
But let us go further.
If tomorrow, Israel withdrew to the 1949 Armistice Lines, redivided Jerusalem, abandoned Judea and Samaria, strategic settlement blocs, the Jordan Valley - the whole kit and caboodle - in the name of "ending the occupation;" if we came down from the Golan Heights, accepted the influx of millions of Palestinians "returning" to our newly truncated, 15 km.-wide state; agreed not to contest the extradition of the IDF General Staff to The Hague to face trumped-up war crimes charges; and if the Jews held their tongues as their state was dismantled while Palestinian factions fought it out for supremacy - comity would likely reign in Turkish-Israel relations. We can even imagine the UN General Assembly deferring discussion of "the Question of Palestine."
Plainly, what is inhibiting this nirvana is Israel's stiff-necked insistence on the same right to self-defense other sovereign states enjoy.
THE TRUTH: Turkey's turn against Israel is best understood in the context of its evolutionary transformation from the secular, nationalist and Western-oriented ethos of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to the dogmatic, radical, pan-Islamic and Middle Eastern attitudes of its current rulers. This is most clearly reflected in Turkey's apparent decision not to actively pursue membership in the European Union because it has given up trying to reconcile what it wants for itself with what the West wants for it.
On Wednesday, Olli Rehn, the EU official in charge of enlarging the community, sharply criticized the Islamist government in Ankara for imposing punishing taxes on media outlets critical of the regime. But today's Turkey feels the EU needs it more than it needs the Europeans.
As for the military, which has historically served a homeostatic function whenever Turkish governments strayed from Ataturk's path, it has been politically neutered and made subservient to the regime.
IT IS senseless for Israelis to ask ourselves what we did to cause Arab, Persian and now Turkish rulers to ascribe the most villainous of intentions to us - for example, conspiring to demolish Muslim shrines on the Temple Mount, or relishing the systematic murder of Arab children. While not wishing to disregard the damage caused by this or that Israeli policy of commission or omission, in the final analysis, Israel did not lose Turkey any more than it lost Iran or the "moderate" Palestinians.
The Palestinian national movement, for all its self-destructive obduracy, appeared under Mahmoud Abbas and Salaam Fayad to be glacially inching toward grudging acceptance of a two-state solution. But it has been outmaneuvered by Hamas. Any move Abbas now makes in the direction of moderation - agreeing to temporarily shelve the reprehensible Goldstone Report for instance - gets pounced upon as perfidy. This environment has led even a sensible man like Fayad to hold cabinet deliberations on whether Israeli soldiers are stealing the organs of Palestinian youths. This week, he referred to a Palestine born of territorial compromise as a potential "Mickey Mouse state."
THE overriding explanation for what is happening in Turkey and among the Palestinians (and happened decades ago in Iran) is that these polities could not make peace with modernity. Instead, to varying degrees, they turned to radical Islam, which promised an end to ethnic and national rivalries and the promotion of socioeconomic equality.
These fragmented societies succumbed to the opiate of radical Islam because it provides absolute answers about right and wrong and uplifting distinctions between believers and infidels.
But it also ensures never-ending estrangement from those who have chosen another path.
Since this predicament stems from within Muslim civilization, so, too, must any solution.
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THE JERUSALEM POST
EDITORIAL
'GOLDSTONE REPORT A DISGRACE TO JUSTICE'
The chief rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein, has blasted fellow countryman Judge Richard Goldstone's report on Israel's assault on Hamas last winter as "a disgrace to the most basic notions of justice, equality and the rule of law."
In an op-ed for The Jerusalem Post, Goldstein, who also holds a PhD in human rights law, notes that the report "uses the veneer of respectability that comes with legal methodology, and with the presence of an internationally respected judge, to gain credibility."
Citing recent history close to home, he adds that "the South African Apartheid Government was very legalistic in its approach to racial oppression, and was punctilious about promulgating proper laws, and about maintaining a fully functioning judiciary to give the façade of respectability to its repugnant policies."
In the case of the Goldstone mission, the chief rabbi writes, "careful analysis reveals that the legalities utilized are merely a cover for a political strategy of delegitimizing Israel... Any civilized legal system requires that justice be done on two levels: procedural and substantive. The Goldstone mission is replete with procedural and substantive injustices."
Goldstein sets out a series of alleged procedural injustices and, as regards substantive injustices, writes that the Goldstone panel imputes "the worst of intentions to the actions of the State of Israel, finding that Israel's conduct was motivated by a desire to repress and oppress, and to inflict suffering upon the Palestinian people, and not primarily for the purpose of self-defense. It does this without any evidence and then, without any supporting evidence, asserts that many of Israel's military operations, such as that of Lebanon, were motivated by the same goal."
By contrast, as regards the Palestinians, he goes on, "there is very clear evidence as to Hamas's intentions - the Hamas charter openly calls for the destruction of Israel, irrespective of borders. It also calls for the murder of all Jews worldwide. Hamas's clear intention was to murder as many Israeli civilians as possible and to use its own civilian population as human shields. But not a word of Hamas's expressly stated intentions appears in the report."
The various procedural and substantive injustices, argues Goldstein, demonstrate a "complete lack of integrity and fairness of the process. It looks like law, but it is not. It is just politics."
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HAARETZ
EDITORIAL
NOT ABOVE THE LAW
BY HAARETZ EDITORIAL
Following a long court battle, the Mossad, Israel's espionage agency, has released a document from its archives for publication. Haaretz published yesterday the formal order to establish the Mossad - issued by the first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, 60 years ago. Similar requests made by Haaretz journalist Yossi Melman, seeking the release of documents from the archive of the Shin Bet security service and the Atomic Energy Commission, are under evaluation and pending approval.
Six months ago, the three organizations responded to a petition that Yedioth Aharonoth and Haaretz had filed with the Supreme Court, and agreed to place their archives under the state archive, but without providing any details as to their location, the hours of operation or the regulations that would govern access to the material. Following this agreement, the Mossad approved the release of the Ben-Gurion document.
Most of the activities of the Mossad and the Shin Bet are secret, while the AEC is bound by the policy of "nuclear ambiguity." Their demand for secrecy beyond that of other government and defense-related bodies is understood. However, they do not exist in a parallel world - they are part of the state mechanism, with their budget provided by taxpayers. Therefore, they are obligated to obey the law and also report to the public, within reasonable restrictions.
The release of a 60-year-old document should be the first step in controlled exposure of the history of important state institutions, which are not operating above the law.
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HAARETZ
EDITORIAL
IS THE OBAMA EFFECT TURNING THE WORLD AGAINST ISRAEL?
BY YOEL MARCUS
The cancellation of the international air exercise with Turkey is no big deal. It harms the strategic interests and international standing of Turkey more than Israel. Even when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan explains his decision by saying the Israel Air Force killed children with phosphorous bombs during Operation Cast Lead, he is harming his country's security interests more than Israel's.
During the battles against the Kurds in southern Turkey, to say nothing of the Armenians, the cruelty involved would not put Turkey on the list of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Mercy. But don't expect any television series on this subject in Istanbul.
The NATO air drill, with the participation of the American army, is first and foremost of benefit to Turkey's security and its drive to join the European Union. But Turkey's rapprochement with Syria brings it closer to the Axis of Evil than to the EU.
If Erdogan's intention is to weaken the supreme authority of the Turkish army and its ability to defend democracy in that country, it may be wise to tell him now that he shouldn't mess with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's heritage - which entrusted the army with guarding both democracy and the secular nature of the regime.
Ataturk would turn over in his grave were he to find that the republic he founded is on its way to becoming part of the Axis of Evil.
Over the past year, Israel has found itself having to fight for its honor and reputation, and has become the world's doormat. As if Israel's history of wars (about one every six years), two intifadas and many terror attacks on its civilian population were not enough suffering, Hamas rained Qassam rockets and mortar shells on the communities in the south of the country for eight years.
No one spoke out against this, and no one's conscience was pricked, not that of Erdogan or of any other bleeding hearts, wherever they may be.
Moreover, Hamas fighters carried out a massacre of Fatah supporters in Gaza and the entire world watched as the functionaries of Fatah were tossed to their deaths from the rooftops. Not one Islamic country demanded Hamas stop the massacre.
How is it that no Goldstone panels were set up to examine the destruction Hamas sowed in Gaza or the murderous attacks that the terrorist organizations perpetrated on women and children in the heart of Israel?
Just as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is busy arranging an agreement and turns out to be the most level-headed leader in the region, King Abdullah of Jordan suddenly warns us that he is planning to recall his ambassador to Amman.
With all due respect to his majesty, he should be more restrained in view of the constant threat that the Palestinians will flood his kingdom. He also has no reason to rejoice over the connection between Syria and Turkey. It was via Syria that Iran transported the missiles and weapons it sent to Hamas and Hezbollah. And it was Israel's ultimatum that prevented a Syrian invasion of Jordan during Black September.
But now Israel finds itself having to defend its honor and reputation. What has happened? Is the whole world really against us once again?
In my opinion, only one thing has changed. It is the emergence of the "Obama effect," similar to the theory that when a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil it can cause a tornado in Texas.
In the eyes of Israel's enemies, the election of Barack Obama has turned what was considered the unwavering American support of Israel into something that is not taken for granted any more. And when the nuclear-producing Ahmedinejad calls the Holocaust a lie, it is clear whom he is threatening.
The "Obama effect" is encouraging Iran. Dialogue? Go for it. The Iranians are known for their salesmanship - when someone asks the owner of a carpet store the time, he will end up buying three rugs before getting an answer.
Anyone who expected Obama to put Israel at the top of his priorities made a mistake. After eight months in the White House, one can see that his emissary George Mitchell has drawn a blank.
But Obama has no intention of subduing Israel. He is a president who believes in dialogue but who can be resolute when necessary. For Israel's good.
Netanyahu took a giant step forward when he proposed two states for two peoples. But that is not enough for them and they want more and more. To be more accurate, they themselves do not know what they want.
Gaza will be just Gaza? And the West Bank will be just the West Bank? And will there be no union between them?
The problem is that there is no Palestinian leader today who can speak in the name of a Palestinian state. When they were at Camp David, Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat some 97 percent of the territories, and Arafat was the only person who had the authority to decide.
But instead of holding talks, he initiated the second intifada during which he himself died under mysterious circumstances.
Go to Washington, Bibi was advised time and again. He went and he came back; he went and came back and offered them what he had proposed during his speech at Bar-Ilan University.
Mahmoud Abbas is acting out of anger. The more we help the West Bank to flourish and to take care of its security, the more he bad-mouths us, and the same holds true of what he has done in the wake of the Goldstone report.
Still, the fact that the Palestinians are once again missing an opportunity does not free Netanyahu of the need to do everything possible to implement his plan for two states for two peoples. That is the only way for him to be recognized as Israel's leader.
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HAARETZ
EDITORIAL
ETHICAL AFFAIRS MINISTER
BY NEHEMIA SHTRASLER
It can be stated confidently that Ehud Barak has a sophisticated sense of humor. Otherwise, he would not have dismissed Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog from the ministerial ethics committee and appointed himself to the job.
He wanted us to burst out laughing from the very thought that he, Barak, will be the one to dictate to Israel's government ministers the rules regulating their behavior and ensuring their integrity, fairness, efficiency, and stinginess with taxpayer funds.
Herzog could not have imagined that his good friend would remove him in such a public, humiliating fashion, but this is exactly what happened during this week's cabinet meeting. The cabinet secretary suddenly announced that the Labor Party wished to replace Herzog with Barak on the ministerial ethics committee.
Herzog was overcome with shock. He said that the move was conceived behind his back, but he eventually gave up and remarked, "I hope that whoever replaces me will devote the appropriate amount of attention to the issue of ethics."
In his statements, Herzog hinted at the lengthy and growing list of scandals tied to Barak, a list which casts his desire to preoccupy himself with ethics in a ridiculous light.
The last instance of wrongdoing was cited Wednesday in a special report issued by the State Comptroller, who leveled harsh criticism against the defense minister for unscrupulously wasting enormous sums of money on hotels in Paris while the country is in the midst of a serious economic crisis.
One month before the Defense Ministry delegation flew to the Paris Air Show this past summer, the government resolved to slash all room and board expenditures abroad by 25 percent.
Yet this minor detail did not deter Barak and his star-studded entourage. He departed for Paris at the head of an excessively large delegation made up of 50 people, 16 of whom comprised his own personal entourage - as if he were a prince from a Persian Gulf emirate or the head of a banana republic.
Barak's delegation broke all previous records by accruing astronomical expenses (not including meals and airfare) of upwards of NIS 944,000.
In 2007, then-defense minister Amir Peretz headed the delegation to Paris. Peretz's suite cost 1,000 euros per night, and we thought that was excessive. But how can one compare a lightweight like Peretz to Barak the King? Indeed, Barak's royal suite cost 2,500 euros per night, but because the entourage stayed at the hotel just four nights despite the fact that it paid in advance for six nights, the actual sum was 3,750 euros, which equals NIS 20,500 per night, a new record!
This week MK Aryeh Eldad, who heads a parliamentary anti-corruption lobby, appealed to the attorney general as well as the state comptroller to launch a probe into allegations first raised in an expose by Haaretz. The newspaper revealed that since Barak was named defense minister, NIS 6.5 million have been transferred to companies owned by his daughters.
Barak founded these companies in 2002 in order to better manage his international business affairs. In June 2007, he transferred all his shares to his daughter and joined the Olmert government.
Eldad wants to ascertain which services Barak provided in exchange for these payments and to whom these services were provided.
There is, however, a more fundamental question. Is a former prime minister and IDF chief of staff permitted to exploit his past titles to make money? Can he alternate between various jobs which permit him access to state secrets, while providing consulting services in order to "tend to his business"? From an ethical standpoint, this is certainly wrong.
As such, the public needs to know with whom Barak has conducted business. Are they associates who now enjoy entree to the minister and the Defense Ministry? Are they granted access into Barak's bureau by way of a phone call because the minister knows them from his past business dealings? The public is entitled to answers to all these questions, yet Barak remains silent.
By law, ministers are required to submit a declaration of assets to the State Comptroller. The details of the declarations, however, are kept sealed. It is now imperative to reveal the contents of the ministers' declarations to the public in full. They should contain the names of those with whom the minister had business dealings so that the public can determine who acted improperly and who is clean.
Nor have we forgotten the Taurus affair. In 2008, Barak's wife, Nili Priel, founded Taurus Israel Financial Ventures. Priel boasted of how her company served as a conduit for foreign investors to gain access to 800-900 key decision-makers in Israel. Critics claimed that it was her proximity to Barak that drove her business and spawned profits.
Can the Defense Ministry director general refuse a telephone call from Priel, who would like the former to meet with an "important" businessman?
Barak did not receive proper authorization to found the company, and the public criticism compelled Priel to shut down its operations. Yet the appearance of avarice and twisted ethics has left a bad taste.
Even Barak's conduct regarding the state budget raises ethical questions. One cannot speak in flowery speech of the decrepit state of the weaker and poorer sectors of society while at the same time demanding an additional NIS 1.5 billion for the defense budget.
This is an infuriating instance of Barak speaking from both sides of his mouth, and the result is clear: a slash in the social affairs and welfare budget, which is exactly what is happening now.
But Barak has a sophisticated sense of humor. If he is reading this, he is certainly thinking to himself that while the watchdogs keep up their barking, he'll be laughing all the way to the bank.
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HAARETZ
EDITORIAL
ABBAS IS A DEAD MAN - NETANYAHU AND BARAK KILLED HIM
BY YOSSI SARID
Mahmoud Abbas might as well be considered a dead man; Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak have killed him. Following a brief and angry meeting, they left a cyanide pill for him on the table and exited the room. He still managed to make two or three trans-Atlantic telephone calls and in a moment of despair swallowed the Goldstone report, which he is now trying to regurgitate in Geneva.
To force the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, of all people, to withdraw his demand for a discussion of the report - that is an Israeli-American dictate tantamount to pressuring him to commit hara-kiri. Extortion through the use of threats has paid off, and once again there is no party to speak with, nor will there be in the near future. This is what happens when one turns a partner into a collaborator.
Now efforts are being made to revive Abbas (Abu Mazen) - there's even talk of removing two or three roadblocks to help restore his pulse.
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Netanyahu does not merely want to win; he also wants to humiliate. He does not merely want to stab a knife in the back, but also turn it in the stomach. Bibi understands the nature of the beast's soul - that of Israeli public opinion, which cheers on the toreador who places his foot on the bull when it is already dead.
History repeats itself, but does not teach any lessons. It is full of examples of short-sighted stupidity - of how people cannot make do with victory and insist on abusing the bull's body. This arrogant abuse creates a fertile ground for calamity and always ends with a high cost. Germany was defeated in World War I. At that time, Woodrow Wilson had the insight to call for a "peace without victors and vanquished." But the British leader David Lloyd George, Italy's Vittorio Orlando and especially Georges Clemenceau of France had eyes bigger than their stomachs. They wanted to have their cake and eat it too; and so they broke Germany's arm as they tried to bend it - wanting it not only on its knees, but crawling. That is how the peace and humiliation treaty was signed at Versailles. That is how the ground on the other side of the Rhine was laid for Hitler's rise to power. That is how the seeds were sown for the World War II. And Clemenceau, who in his stupidity thought he could ensure France's security for generations to come, brought on his people a giant disaster just one generation later.
Egypt, too, was defeated in the Six-Day War. A defeat we immortalized in elegant albums which featured barefooted soldiers marching together on faltering legs with their hands raised, alongside embarrassing photographs of the boots discarded along the path of their flight. But their disgrace was not complete - not yet. That is why we ignored Anwar Sadat's peace feelers and threw salt in his wounds. We were determined that "a deep water port" would be set up at Yamit; those Egyptians will still see which way the wind is blowing in the waters of Bardawil, we thought. And that is how the Six-Day War led to the Yom Kippur War, which did not end with photo albums, but with a great deal of books commemorating fallen soldiers.
But it is Abu Mazen who has been humiliated more than anyone else, ever since Ariel Sharon called him "a plucked chicken." Next they'll try to paint leopard's spots on his body, just as the stripes of a zebra were painted on donkeys at the zoo in Gaza. The real zebras that had been there, and who had made the sad children happy, died during the last war along with the camels.
When a successor is found for him - for that reasonable man, that good Palestinian - only then will we once again learn the hard way: "Do not be too good, and do not be too bad." But mainly, do not be too victorious.
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HAARETZ
EDITORIAL
THE LAST NOBEL PRIZE?
BY CARLO STRENGER
The last week brought Israel's universities one reason to celebrate: Ada Yonath winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry; and one reason for deep concern: the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion both fell in The Times' rankings. Israel no longer has even a single university in the top one hundred. How did this happen?
The explanation for Professor Yonath's achievement (in addition, of course, to her extraordinary talent and devotion to research), as she has said herself, is that until the 1970s - at the onset of her career, even during times of economic hardship - Israel's leaders saw higher education as one of their highest priorities.
The explanation for the deterioration in the standing of Israel's universities is that in the last decade the country's leadership has regarded universities as simply another operation that can be made more cost efficient. The numbers speak for themselves: In the last 20 years the student body in Israel has tripled, and now stands at 250,000 (which is more than 40 percent of the relevant age group), a very favorable development. But during the same time period, the number of senior faculty has decreased. Israel now has 4,300 senior lecturers and professors - fewer than in the 1970s, when the population was less than half of what is today and the number of students a small fraction.
Under such conditions, it is no wonder that quality deteriorates. Our students do not have one-on-one contact with professors - not, as some ignorant detractors argue, because professors don't work, but because we teach classes comprised of hundreds of students, who are further deprived of teaching assistants because the universities no longer have the budgets to pay them. In addition, research infrastructure has not been renewed in many laboratories, putting Israeli universities at a disadvantage academically.
The damage that has been done thanks to years of neglect is enormous, but not beyond repair. In terms of pure academic quality, our universities are still doing well, and we remain among the leading nations in the world. But this will change irremediably if drastic measures are not taken now.
Therefore I call upon Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take immediate steps to rescue one of Israel's most valuable assets: our university system. There is a simple, measurable plan that can turn the tide.
More than 25% of Israeli academics teach abroad. Eighty percent of them would be willing to return to Israel, if only they were given an appointment, even if this entails a decrease in salary. Many of them teach at the best of the world's universities, and yet they want to teach and research here, in Israel. The cost of educating a top researcher is enormous. The academics abroad have already been trained, mostly at Israeli universities. In order to capitalize on the investment Israel has already made, these academics must be brought back home.
We must make it a national priority to have 150 of these researchers return to Israel within the next three years, and the price tag is manageable: NIS 150 million a year. The impact would be immediate, as the standing of Israel's universities would rise for the three following reasons: First, the ratio between faculty and students (one of the central benchmarks of quality) would automatically improve; second, we would increase the most important measure of all - the number of citations per faculty; and third, we would improve the internationality of faculty, another important measure.
In the long run, this investment will prove economically profitable. Higher education is big business. Students are willing to pay $40,000 a year to study at universities ranked in the world's top 20. Israel's universities can get there within a few years, if the government starts to see the phenomenal impact of higher education on the economy. This may sound unrealistic, but look at the following datum: When you look only at the quality of research (citation per faculty), Tel Aviv University is already ranked 22 in the world, with the Hebrew University and Technion similarly placed.
For Israel, an elite university system is not a luxury, but a matter of life and death. We are a small country with no natural resources, and we cannot compete with the Far East in manufacturing. Israel will either be a knowledge society thriving on research and development, or it will starve. In dealing with truly existential threats, like Iran, our survival depends on technological superiority, which in turn depends on top-quality researchers. Saving the universities must begin immediately. This is how we can make sure that Ada Yonath's Nobel Prize will not be the last awarded to an Israeli scientist, but one in a long series to come.
Prof. Carlo Strenger teaches in the Psychology Department of Tel Aviv University.
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HAARETZ
EDITORIAL
SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR
BY TAMAR ARIELI
Much has been said about the cooperation between Israel and Jordan following the signing of their peace agreement 15 years ago, in October 1994. That agreement is based on very clear security interests, but its appendixes go far beyond those issues and stress the potential that exists in good neighborliness, cooperation and reciprocity.
The border area figures at the heart of this vision. King Hussein imagined the Jordan Valley and the Arava being a "valley of peace" that would serve as a basis for "good neighborly relations." The reality, of course, is much more complex.
The border area continues to play a prominent part in the two countries' concepts of security. These concepts, however, are being altered by various initiatives for Israeli-Jordanian civilian cooperation along the shared border.
There are many examples of joint initiatives - whether environmental, agricultural, scientific, educational or social in nature. One unique undertaking promoted the establishment of agricultural communities near the Jordanian village of Rahma in the southern Arava. The project was premised on the initiatives and expertise of farmers in neighboring Kibbutz Yotvata. The activity in those communities helped to create employment in neighboring Jordanian villages, as well as to improve infrastructure, housing, health and education in the area. Over the years, the project also promoted contacts between Rahma's farmers and the kibbutzniks; the former attended courses in Yotvata, while joint events and educational programs brought together young people from both sides.
Another example, also unusual by international standards, has been the establishment of joint municipal committees for Eilat and neighboring Aqaba, which has spawned many cooperative ventures. These ongoing activities stem from the two cities' interdependence, since they are both far away from other population centers and both depend on the Red Sea for tourism. As an independent Jordanian economic-administrative unit, Aqaba has a unique administrative framework and its local authority officials have developed close personal relations and a sense of commitment vis-a-vis their Israeli counterparts.
Most of the difficulties in cross-border interaction stem from the great bureaucratic hurdles that Jordanians experience when trying to get visas to visit Israel. Israelis can get entry permits to Jordan at the crossing itself. Jordanians, however, must present their passports at the Israeli Embassy in Amman, and wait for weeks or even months for an answer. Often, when Jordanians have been invited to an event Israel, their visas arrive too late. Furthermore, since they are good only for single visits, one must repeat the process. It is not unusual for the applications of Jordanians, even those who have already visited Israel, to be rejected.
This degrading situation has a negative effect on joint activities and on the atmosphere in which they are carried out. Many Jordanians do not wish to repeat the process of requesting entry permits. Consequently, most of the encounters with Israelis are held in Jordan, and activities in Israel are canceled or held without the Jordanian invitees.
The location of border crossings is another logistical obstacle that impedes contacts. The extreme climatic and environmental conditions at the Dead Sea, the unexploited economic opportunities there, and the mutual dependence on this body of water for tourism - all make the area ripe for Israeli-Jordanian cooperation.
However, to meet each other, Israelis and Jordanians who live in the Dead Sea area must travel huge distances: While Jordanians may enter Israel at the Allenby Bridge, which is north of the Dead Sea, Israelis can only pass through the border at the Jordan River terminal near Beit She'an, or via the Rabin (Arava) crossing near Eilat. In both cases, the round trip takes eight hours, a huge effort, just to travel for a meeting with someone who lives just across the border.
Opening a local border crossing could serve the economic needs of citizens on both sides, increase the potential for regional tourism, and provide Jordanians with jobs in Israeli agriculture. Heads of the local authorities have expressed interest in such a crossing, but any decision on this is subject to political, security and economic considerations that are not under their control.
Officially, Jordan supports cooperation in the border areas, mainly in agricultural and environmental endeavors. In practice, however, it does not publicize them at home due to a fear of the reaction of the trade unions and political elements in the kingdom that staunchly oppose normalization of relations with Israel. Even in the border areas, only those directly involved in a project are aware of Israel's involvement.
Moreover, even projects that contribute to the well-being of people on both sides of the border require the financial and organizational assistance of external mediators. Thus, Israeli-Jordanian interactions are indirect and are channeled through various national institutions and foreign organizations. This is the reason why 15 years after the Israel-Jordan agreement, interaction and cross-border cooperation are still not perceived as natural and legitimate facts of life along their shared border.
Dr. Tamar Arieli lectures at the Ashkelon Academic College and Tel Hai College, and participated in establishing a cross-border research center at Ben-Gurion University's Eilat campus. Her doctoral thesis dealt with the Israeli-Jordanian border since signing of the peace treaty.
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HAARETZ
EDITORIAL
STOP USING ISRAEL AS A SHIELD
BY AFDHERE JAMA
Haaretz recently published an article about queer issues in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories ("Stop using Palestinian gays to whitewash Israel's image," October 7). The piece, by Morten Berthelsen, was a long interview with Haneen Maikey, an Israeli Arab and lesbian activist, who is very critical of Israel's treatment of gays and lesbians. But by insisting that there is nothing for Arabs or Muslims to learn or adopt from Israel, Maikey almost comes off as if she's defending the homophobia in Palestinian society, if not blaming the problem on Israel altogether.
The idea that "others" are somehow behind the extreme homophobia in our communities is something one encounters often in the Arab and Muslim world. I myself encountered this attitude repeatedly during research for my recent book on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) lives in the Muslim world. Such an approach does little to help gays and lesbians, who face threats that can range from harassment to capital punishment. But until Muslim and Arab activists learn to admit that homophobia is a problem in our societies, and one for which we bear the responsibility, things are just not going to change. Only after one accepts the facts is it possible to move on to the next step. And the fact is that homophobia has been a problem in Arab and Muslim societies since long before Israel was created or the West colonized us - or whatever other "foreign" entity folks decide to blame, on any given Friday. When an Israeli Arab gay woman blames the occupation for the hatred of queers in Palestinian society, that is equivalent to declaring the baseless homophobic notion that homosexuality itself was introduced into the region by Israel or the West.
Beyond that, the article seemed to be using Israeli society's purported homophobia - including the claim that court rulings in favor of gay people's rights have benefited only a handful of people, and mention of August's fatal attack on a clubhouse for young gay people in Tel Aviv - to support the argument that Israel is "just as bad" as the rest of the Middle East for gays. Anyone familiar with queer issues in the Middle East can appreciate the silliness of such an idea.
I would like to tackle the most horrific example cited: the shooting in Tel Aviv, which left two dead and wounded some 15 bystanders. Many years ago, while traveling in Israel, I met a Jewish woman who had immigrated from the United States and had been injured in a suicide bombing. I asked her why she would choose to leave the safety of the United States for a country that's in a constant state of conflict. She responded with words that truly changed my understanding of Israel and of Jews' relationship to it. She said: "It is a privilege to be injured or even killed in a Jewish state."
For a gay person in a country like Israel, in a region like the Middle East, with its historically conservative religions and societies, as horrific as violence is, one could similarly say that it is a privilege to be shot in a gay social center. The very fact that there are such centers to visit is a privilege. In most other countries in the Middle East, there aren't any social centers for gays.
Likewise, it is a privilege to be able to challenge discrimination in the courts. There isn't any country in the Arab world where one can take on homophobia via the legal system. In fact, in most Arab countries such action would truly compromise your personal safety, and endanger the very lives of the people you are trying to defend.
So, when a gay woman in Israel declares that "there are no gay rights in Israel" - from the office of the gay organization that she heads, and in the knowledge that she enjoys the legal rights and protections enshrined in that country's legal system - one can appreciate the stark similarity to the hypocritical denials of leaders from Arab and Muslim countries, who declare with a straight face that there are no gays in their states.
Regardless of how people feel about the occupation, or about Israel in general, it helps to focus on the reality and the facts. If we are going to change the homophobic attitudes in our societies, we have to stop using others as a shield. Otherwise, our hypocrisy will spit in the face of our own struggles, and ultimately serve only to increase homophobia.
Afdhere Jama is the author of "Illegal Citizens: Queer Lives in the Muslim World" (Salaam Press). He is based in San Francisco.
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HAARETZ
EDITORIAL
ANOTHER CASE OF FRENCH EXCEPTIONALISM?
BY CORINNE MELLUL
The latest phase in the transmutation of France Telecom - the owner of the "Orange" cell-phone provider in France - into a private company exposed to global competition has bred an unprecedented wave of suicides among employees. Among its 106,000 workers, 25 have killed themselves over the last 18 months (one of them yesterday), with many leaving behind a note blaming work-related stress.
France's mammoth, former state-run telecommunications provider, a monopoly since its creation over a century ago, has been undergoing privatization for 20 years. It has been implemented via a staggered series of restructuring plans, in-house training programs and layoffs (22,000 workers made redundant in the last two years), of the type now familiar to many Western countries, where services were once supplied via a huge public sector that faced no economic challenges and pampered its civil servants.
But the "Time to Move" program, the latest management-decreed installment in this tale of faulty adaptation to a globalizing world, seems to have pushed some employees over the edge. Besides those who ended their lives, several dozen more failed at the attempt and countless others have taken sick leave because of nervous breakdowns. The program - now indefinitely suspended - required managers to change posts every three years, introduced as a diktat quantitative objectives for every employee, and generalized the rule of performance-based salaries.
It is perhaps bitterly ironic that Didier Lombard, France Telecom's CEO, should have chosen an English name for the program, which union figures and mid-level managers refer to as "management a l'americaine." It wasn't just the name that was incomprehensible to most of the staff - who, like the rest of France, are still lagging behind many other EU countries in mastery of the English language. The initiative, flexibility, adaptability, salesmanship, and the ability to multitask and work under pressure that were called for in the program were, historically, never part of France's work culture, let alone in a company where the state is still, for the time being, the main shareholder and 65 percent of those on the payroll still retain civil-servant status.
Yet what is most amazing about this episode is the fact that, in a large company engaged in restructuring, employees - many with spouses and children - should have been so driven to despair by work pressures as to want to take their own lives. Strangely, this aspect of the France Telecom bungle has not been commented upon anywhere in the French media. In the frenzied national debate the suicides have stirred on the subject of workplace stress, plenty of blame has been attributed to the inept, ruthless practices implemented by Lombard and his staff, and rightly so. What became clear overnight was that management wanted to import an Anglo-Saxon work code that was thoroughly alien to a French company rooted in a public-sector culture, and that it miserably failed to engage the employees in the process. Work-related suicides have also occurred, albeit on a smaller scale, in other French companies undergoing restructuring - the pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis, automaker Renault - yet in those firms, management reacted quickly and was able to halt the desperate trend by opening up the lines of communication with employees.
There has been no debate, however, as to why a change in status, assignment or workload - which is difficult for any employee - has made these white-collar workers feel that life is no longer worth living. Could this be, then, another case of France's exceptionalism?
It's no secret that France is a change-resistant country. For decades, its undemanding work culture, combined with huge concessions to the labor movement - e.g., a five-week paid vacation, a 35-hour week (the full list is a lot longer) - have managed to ward off the demands of an increasingly globalizing world. Even Nicolas Sarkozy, who ran for president on a platform of labor-market reform and won overwhelming support from the French business community, has only been able to push through a few half-hearted reforms that have had no dramatic effect. His proposal to allow stores and retail chains to open on Sundays over a year ago caused a national uproar and ended up as a limited authorization affecting a handful of areas, mostly ones visited by tourists. And there is no sign that the recession has played any part in the country's staunch resistance to these timid shots at liberalization.
In France, firing a worker for mere incompetence is still a Kafkaesque endeavor, mid-career retraining remains a vastly alien concept, and being both over 45 and unemployed often means, simply, never getting another chance. All this, while much too often work is perceived as an unpleasant though necessary fact of life rather than a source of pride and identity, and making money is viewed by many as a demeaning activity.
Is it so surprising then that these France Telecom workers, unprepared and unable to adapt to the sudden, new rhythm of the workplace, and daunted by the prospect of looking elsewhere, felt trapped enough to want to end it all?
Other countries with similar histories of all-encompassing public sectors have managed the transition successfully - Israel first and foremost, though not without acute growing pains. But France has not been able to rise to the challenge. And now, it might be too late.
This lack of appetite for self-transformation also seems to be part of l'exception Francaise.
Corinne Mellul is a political commentator in France.
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HAARETZ
EDITORIAL
RECONSIDERING CARBON CUTS
BY BJORN LOMBORG
COPENHAGEN - A sense of panic is gripping many campaigners for drastic cuts in global carbon emissions. It is becoming obvious that the highly trumpeted UN Climate Change Conference set for Copenhagen this December will not deliver a binding international treaty that will make a significant difference to global warming.
After lofty rhetoric and big promises, politicians are starting to play the blame game. Developing countries blame rich ones for the lack of progress. Many blame the United States, which will not have cap-and-trade legislation in place before Copenhagen. The UN secretary-general says that "It may be difficult for President Obama to come with strong authority" to reach agreement in Copenhagen. Others blame developing countries - particularly Brazil, China and India - for a reluctance to sign on to binding carbon cuts. Wherever you turn, somebody is being blamed for the conference's apparent looming failure.
Yet, it has been clear for a considerable time that there is a more fundamental problem: Immediate promises of carbon cuts do not work. Seventeen years ago, in Rio de Janeiro, industrialized nations promised with great fanfare to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2000, but the emissions overshot the target by 12 percent. In Kyoto, leaders committed to a cut of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. The failure to meet that target will likely be even more spectacular, with emissions expected to exceed the goal by about 25 percent.
The plan was to convene world leaders in Copenhagen and renew vows to cut carbon while committing to even more ambitious targets. But it is obvious that even a last-minute scramble to salvage some form of agreement will fare no better than previous attempts in actually helping the planet. With such a poor track record, there is a need for soul-searching and openness to other approaches.
A realistic "Plan B" does not mean plotting a second meeting after December, as some have suggested. It means rethinking the strategy. This year, the Copenhagen Consensus Center commissioned research examining feasible ways to respond to global warming. The center convened an expert panel of five of the world's leading climate economists, including three Nobel Prize winners, to consider all of the new research and to identify the best - and worst - options.
Their research examined how much we could help the planet by setting different levels of carbon taxes, planting more trees, cutting methane, reducing black soot emissions, adapting to global warming or focusing on a technological solution to climate change.
The panel found that expensive, global carbon taxes would be the worst option. This finding was based on a groundbreaking research paper that showed that even a highly efficient global CO2 tax, aimed at fulfilling the ambitious goal of keeping temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius, would reduce the annual world GDP by a staggering 12.9 percent, or $40 trillion, in 2100. And if politicians choose less efficient, less coordinated cap-and-trade policies, the costs could escalate a further 10 to 100 times. Instead, the panel recommended focusing investment on research into climate engineering as a short-term response, and on non-carbon-based energy as a longer-term response.
Some proposed climate-engineering technologies - in particular, marine cloud-whitening technology - could be cheap, fast and effective. (Boats would spray seawater droplets into clouds above the oceans to make them reflect more sunlight back into space, reducing warming). Remarkably, the research suggests that a total of about $9 billion spent implementing marine cloud-whitening technology might be able to offset this entire century's global warming. Even if one approaches this technology with reservations, as many do, we should aim to identify its limitations and risks sooner rather than later.
It appears that climate engineering could buy us some time, and time is what we need if we are to make a sustainable and smooth shift away from reliance on fossil fuels. Research shows that non-fossil-fuel energy sources will - based on today's availability - get us almost halfway to a state of stable carbon emissions by 2050, albeit only a tiny fraction of the way toward stabilization by 2100.
If politicians change course and agree this December to invest significantly more in research and development, we would have a much greater chance of improving this technology to the necessary level. And, because investing in R&D would be cheaper and easier than carbon cuts, there would be a much greater chance of reaching a genuine, broad-based - and thus successful - international agreement.
Revenue resulting from putting a price on carbon could be used to finance research and development, and to send a signal to promote the deployment of effective, affordable technology alternatives. Investing about $100 billion annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate-change problem by the end of this century.
While the blame game will not solve global warming, the mounting panic could lead to a positive outcome if it involves reconsidering our current approach. If we want real action, we need to pick smarter solutions that will cost less and do more. That would be a result for which every politician would be happy to accept responsibility.
Bjorn Lomborg is director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, author of "Cool It" and "The Skeptical Environmentalist," and an adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School.
Copyright Project Syndicate, 2009.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
BACK WHERE HE BELONGS
Zachary Christie is back in his first-grade class. Delaware's largest public school district has rescinded its order to punish him (and send him to a disciplinary school) after he came to class with a Cub Scout camping utensil that contained a small foldout knife.
This was a painful experience for the 6-year-old, and we are relieved that the school district has now amended its overly zealous disciplinary code. But far too many other communities are inflicting even greater damage on young children: handcuffing them or shipping them off to juvenile court for getting into minor skirmishes or for being unruly or disobedient at school.
In 1994, Congress required states to pass laws mandating expulsion for students who bring firearms onto school property. But many states overreacted and began to criminalize minor offenses.
This growing trend — and the distressing costs — were laid out a few years ago in a study by the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization. The group found that adolescents and young children across the country were being hauled off to jail and charged with adult crimes for cursing in front of teachers, shoving classmates or participating in food fights — misbehavior that in more sensible times would have merited detention or suspension.
The study also found that these disproportionate punishments were being used far more often against black and Hispanic children than white children. And once these youngsters have a first contact with the courts, they become far more likely to drop out of school or get permanently entangled in the criminal justice system.
A few jurisdictions have adopted new strategies designed to keep the police out of minor disciplinary matters at school. A lot more must be done. Discipline is an essential part of education. But turning schoolchildren into criminals for minor offenses benefits no one.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
EDITORIAL
OCTOBER EXODUS
If you drive from Lander to Jackson, you get the full brunt of Wyoming on the move. The town of Farson — about halfway — is a good place to take it all in. It used to be little more than a dusty crossroads. Now it's a staging and storage depot for equipment used in the Jonah Field, a gas field that has become the economic heart of western Wyoming over the last decade. The highway ripples with pickups with jib cranes for lifting pipe, bigger trucks towing crane-fitted pickups, the biggest trucks hauling machinery and rigging.
It's October, so everyone is on the move. Ranchers on horses are moving cattle down off their leases well upslope, and a statewide convoy of cattle trucks is moving to meet them at the corrals and chutes. The cattle trucks move in a hailstorm of grit. With the wind blowing stiff out of the west and snow kicking up from the tires of the trucks coming at me, I can't tell which ones are loaded and which ones are empty.
As the cattle move down from the high country, the elk hunters move up. Most of the pickups without jib cranes have four-wheelers in the back — all-terrain vehicles with scabbards on the sides. Horse trailers stand parked at nearly every access point along the road. Three or more trailers means elk hunters. One or two most likely means ranchers on horseback gathering cattle. Every trailered horse I pass on the highway is already saddled, ready to step down and ride out.
An early snow plummets from the clouds. It isn't cold enough for drifts, but it does bring down limbs on the cottonwoods, which still have their leaves. It feels as though there's an underlying code, a semaphore of some sort, in the vehicles that pass me — schoolbus, gas-hand, rancher, hunter, four-door Buick — but the code is always shifting, mile after mile. I see a band of antelope standing in a hollow under the wind. Just up the road, three riders make their way back to the horse trailer and home. It's a good direction to be going.
VERLYN KLINKENBORG
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
EDITORIAL
GOV. PATERSON'S WARNING
Gov. David Paterson of New York has finally delivered the painful truth: The state will need to cut spending by $5 billion to preserve its credit rating and keep it from going into default. "Not on my watch," he vowed.
He also vowed not to raise taxes again, having already increased levies on wealthier New Yorkers — a promise he may have to revisit. And he acknowledged that the $5 billion in cuts — which fall most heavily on educational and health care facilities — may be only a prelude to more pain down the road.
The state faces a nearly $50 billion deficit over the next three and a half years, and federal stimulus money, which eased the pain last year, is fast disappearing.
Tough talk is fine. The real question is whether the governor can get the Legislature to deliver. To do so, he must show the real toughness that is the only way to coax or shame lawmakers into doing what is necessary, while rallying the public to his cause.
Mr. Paterson sounded a similar alarm last year when Wall Street revenues plummeted. Then along came the stimulus money — a last-minute reprieve that allowed him and the Legislature to retreat from many of their promised cuts, especially those causing the most political noise.
Nobody is galloping to the rescue now, meaning that this time Mr. Paterson will have to do everything he can to goad an irresponsible Legislature into line. No easy task, though he has good arguments on his side. He has already cut $500 million out of his administration's budget. And the loss of the state's credit rating could make borrowing vastly more expensive.
Mr. Paterson worried aloud at his press briefing that he sometimes gets a "delusional" response from lawmakers and others who do not see the urgency.
The signals from legislative leaders are far from encouraging. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Thursday that he would hold hearings on the proposal, which is fine as long as the hearings aren't simply a way to stall any real dealing with the state's troubles.
The Senate's top Democratic leaders are in China on what is described as a trade mission, and Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has promised to hold hearings only to see whether the proposals "are fiscally prudent and deserve further consideration."
Mr. Paterson's proposed cuts will inevitably draw fierce opposition from the biggest targets: schools that would suffer $480 million in midyear cuts and health care facilities that would lose $471 million. His scaled-back pension plan for new state employees is also likely to draw strong resistance from the unions.
Other ideas offer only short-term gains: a tax amnesty to encourage people to pay back taxes; a one-time bonus from whoever develops a gambling facility at the Aqueduct racetrack. His no-new-taxes pledge sounds good for now, though it will soon be time to consider a fairer, more progressive tax structure for everyone.
Mr. Paterson has delivered the tough talk. Now Albany's lawmakers have to do their jobs quickly. It is the only way to keep the state afloat.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
EDITOTRIAL
10,000: THEN AND NOW
Dow 10,000 brings back glowing memories of good times — and not just for the people in pinstripes walking around Wall Street with "Dow 10,000" baseball caps. When the Dow Jones industrial average first closed above 10,000 on March 29, 1999, the economy was in its eighth year of uninterrupted growth. The jobless rate was so low — 4.2 percent — that economists called it "full employment."
The Dow passed the milestone again this week. It was the 25th time since that day a decade ago. As far as we can tell Wall Street is the only place celebrating.
The chasm between the Dow's stellar performance and the dismal state of the American economy is of historic proportions. The unemployment rate is now at 9.8 percent. Employment as a share of the population is at its lowest level since January 1984. State governments are teetering near bankruptcy. Solvent businesses are seeing their credit lines cut or canceled. Consumer and mortgage lending are both down, while foreclosure filings rose to a record in the third quarter.
And more than a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers sent the financial system and the economy into a tailspin, the Obama administration and Congress have yet to make the promised financial reforms that are essential to ensure that it all doesn't happen again.
While the House Financial Services Committee passed a bill on Thursday to regulate trading in derivates — the opaque and complex financial instruments that played a pivotal role in the crisis — the financial industry has managed to carve out far too many exemptions. Under pressure from banks, businesses and their high-priced lobbyists, the House committee also approved a bill that would seriously weaken the oversight powers of a proposed new consumer financial protection agency.
So why is the Dow doing so well while the rest of the country is struggling?
The stock market usually recovers before the economy does, as managers wring profits from their companies by cutting costs even before sales recover.
The fiscal stimulus headed off an even worse disaster, and investors — who have no place else to put their money with interest rates so low — are elated that things weren't as bad as they had feared. Not only are banks still around, many have posted stellar profits.
In six of the eight months since March, which is when the Dow started rising, the best-performing stock in the index has been a bank. Many of these banks are doing so well by trading the same sort of financial products that originally drove the system to ruin.
JPMorgan Chase's otherworldly second-quarter profits, which sent the Dow vaulting over 10,000 on Wednesday, came mostly from investment banking, notably trading in bonds and other fixed-income securities. At the same time, the bank has curtailed consumer and business lending.
Every week that banks refrain from lending — trading their way to a profit while they clean out bad loans from their portfolios — is a lost week to the recovery.
In June, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, said that the Fed's objective in mobilizing hundreds of billions of dollars to stabilize the financial sector wasn't saving banks: "We care about Wall Street for one reason and one reason only — because what happens on Wall Street matters to Main Street." We can say with no hesitation that there are no Champagne corks being popped on Main Street.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
OPED
THE REALITY MOMENT
BY DAVID BROOKS
That which can't continue doesn't. A nation can spend and spend, pile debt upon debt, but eventually there comes a reality moment when some leader emerges to say enough is enough and when decent people, looking around at themselves and their own best nature, respond by demanding a return to responsibility.
In the United States, we're not at that moment yet. Private debt is being replaced by public debt. New entitlements are being created, and the money that could be used to ward off fiscal disaster is being used for other things. Here, Democrats still get ahead by promising tax cuts for the bottom 98 percent and Republicans get ahead by promising tax cuts for all and Medicare cuts for none.
But Britain has hit its reality moment. The Brits are ahead of us when it comes to public indebtedness and national irresponsibility. Spending has been out of control for longer and in a more sustained way.
But in that country, the climate of opinion has turned. There, voters are ready for a politician willing to face reality. And George Osborne, who would become the chancellor of the Exchequer in the likely event that his Conservative Party wins the next election, has aggressively seized the moment.
In a party conference address earlier this month, Osborne gave the speech that an American politician will someday have to give. He said that he is not ideologically hostile to government. "Millions of Britons depend on public services and cannot opt out," he declared. He defended government workers against those who would deride them as self-serving bureaucrats: "Conservatives should never use lazy rhetoric that belittles those who are employed by the government."
But, he pivoted, "it is because we treat those who work in our public sector with respect that I want to be straight with you about the choices we face." The British government needs to cut back.
Osborne declared that his government would raise the retirement age. That age was scheduled to rise at some point in the distant future. Osborne vowed to increase it sometime in the next five to 10 years.
Osborne declared that there would be no tax cuts any time soon. He said that as a matter of principle he believes that the top income tax rate of 50 percent is too high. But, he continued, "we cannot even think of abolishing the 50 percent rate in the rich" while others down the income scale are asked to scrimp.
Osborne offered government workers the same sort of choice that many private sector executives are forced to make. He proposed a public sector pay freeze in order to avoid 100,000 layoffs. He said that the pay freeze would apply to all workers except those making less than £18,000 (nearly $29,000) "because I don't believe in balancing the budget on the backs of the poorest. Nor do you."
There were other austerities. Osborne vowed to cut a program he once supported but which has not proved its worth: a baby bond program that was meant to help offset the costs of childhood. There would no longer be means-tested tax credits for families making more than £50,000.
Osborne's speech was not an isolated event. The Conservatives have treated British voters as adults for a year now, with a string of serious economic positions. The Conservatives supported the Labour government bank bailout, even though it was against their political interest to do so. Last November, Osborne opposed a cut in the value-added taxes on the grounds that the cuts were unaffordable and would not produce growth. It is not easy for any conservative party to oppose tax cuts, but this one did it.
And the public has responded. The Conservatives now have a dominating lead over Labour. Over all, support for the Conservatives rose by 4 percentage points after Osborne's speech. The polls reveal that nearly 60 percent of Britons support the austerity measures. The Conservatives have a 21-point lead when it comes to being honest about public finances and a 14-point lead on economic policy generally.
The key is that Osborne is not merely offering pain, but a different economic vision — different from Labour and different from the Thatcherism that was designed to meet the problems of the 1980s.
In the U.S., the economic crisis has caused many to question capitalism. But Britain has discredited the center-left agenda with its unrelenting public spending, its public development agencies and disappointing public-private investment partnerships.
Osborne and David Cameron, the party leader, argue that Labour's decision to centralize power has undermined personal and social responsibility. They are offering a responsibility agenda from top to bottom. Decentralize power so local elected bodies have responsibility. Structure social support to encourage responsible behavior and responsible spending.
If any Republican is looking for a way forward, start by doing what they're doing across the Atlantic.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
OPED
HAS CONCEPTUAL ART JUMPED THE SHARK TANK?
BY DENIS DUTTON
ART's link with money is not new, though it does continue to generate surprises. On Friday night, Christie's in London plans to auction another of Damien Hirst's medicine cabinets: literally a small, sliding-glass medicine cabinet containing a few dozen bottles or tubes of standard pharmaceuticals: nasal spray, penicillin tablets, vitamins and so forth. This work is not as grand as a Hirst shark, floating eerily in a giant vat of formaldehyde, one of which sold for more than $12 million a few years ago. Still, the estimate of up to $239,000 for the medicine cabinet is impressive — rather more impressive than the work itself.
No disputing tastes, of course, if yours lean toward the aesthetic contemplation of an orderly medicine cabinet. Buy it, and you acquire a work of art by the world's richest and — by that criterion — most successful living artist. Still, neither this piece nor Mr. Hirst's dissected calves and embalmed horses are quite "by" the artist in a conventional sense. Mr. Hirst's name rightfully goes on them because they were his conceptions. However, he did not reproduce any of the medicine bottles or boxes in his cabinet (in the way that Warhol actually recreated Brillo boxes), nor did he catch a shark or do the taxidermy.
In this respect, the pricey medicine cabinet belongs to a tradition of conceptual art: works we admire not for skillful hands-on execution by the artist, but for the artist's creative concept. Mr. Hirst has a talent for coming up with concepts that capture the attention of the art market, putting him in the company of other big names who have now and again moved away from making art with their own hands: Jeff Koons, for example, who has put vacuum cleaners into Plexiglas cases and commissioned an Italian porcelain manufacturer to make a cheesy gold and white sculpture of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp. Mr. Koons need not touch the art his contractors produce; the ideas are his, and that's enough.
Sophisticated gallery owners or curators normally respond with withering condescension to worries about the lack of craftsmanship in contemporary art. Art has moved on, I've heard it argued, since Victorian times, when "she'd painted every hair" was ordinary aesthetic praise. What is important today is not technical skill, but skill in playing inventively with ideas.
Since the endearingly witty Marcel Duchamp invented conceptual art 90 years ago by offering his "ready-mades" — a urinal or a snow shovel, for instance — for gallery shows, the genre has degenerated. Duchamp, an authentic artistic genius, was in 1917 making sport of the art establishment and its stuffy values. By the time we get to 2009, Mr. Hirst and Mr. Koons are the establishment.
Does this mean that conceptual art is here to stay? That is not at all certain, and it is not just auction results that are relevant to the issue. To see why works of conceptual art have an inherent investment risk, we must look back at the whole history of art, including art's most ancient prehistory.
It is widely assumed that the earliest human art works are the stupendously skillful cave paintings of Lascaux and Chauvet, the latter perhaps 32,000 years old, along with a few small realistic sculptures of women and of animals from the same period. But artistic and decorative behavior emerged in a far more distant past. Shell necklaces that look like something you would see at a tourist resort, as well as evidence of ochre body paint, have been found from more than 100,000 years ago. But the most intriguing prehistoric artifacts are much older even than that. I have in mind the so-called Acheulian hand axes.
The earliest stone tools are choppers and blades found in Olduvai Gorge in East Africa, from 2.5 million years ago. These unadorned tools remained unchanged for thousands of centuries, until around 1.4 million years ago when Homo ergaster, Homo erectus and other human ancestral groups started doing something new and remarkable. They began shaping single, thin stone blades, sometimes rounded ovals, but often in what to our eyes are arresting symmetrical pointed leaf or teardrop forms. Acheulian hand axes (after St.-Acheul in France, a site of 19th-century finds) have been unearthed in their thousands, scattered across Asia, Europe and Africa, wherever Homo erectus roamed.
The sheer numbers of hand axes indicate a rate of manufacture beyond needs for butchering animals. Even more curious, unlike other prehistoric stone tools, hand axes often exhibit no evidence of wear on their delicate blade edges, and some are in any case too big for practical use. They are occasionally hewn from colorful stone materials (even with decoratively embedded fossils). Their symmetry, materials and above all meticulous workmanship makes them quite simply beautiful to our eyes. What were these ancient yet somehow familiar artifacts for?
The best available explanation is that they are literally the earliest known works of art — practical tools transformed into captivating aesthetic objects, contemplated both for their elegant shape and virtuoso craftsmanship. Hand axes mark an evolutionary advance in human prehistory, tools attractively fashioned to function as what Darwinians call "fitness signals" — displays like the glorious peacock's tail, which functions to show peahens the strength and vitality of the males who display it.
Hand axes, however, were not grown, but consciously, cleverly made. They were therefore able to indicate desirable personal qualities: intelligence, fine motor control, planning ability and conscientiousness. Such skills gained for those who displayed them status and a reproductive advantage over the less capable. Across many thousands of generations this translated into both an increase in intelligence and an evolved sense that the symmetry and craftsmanship of hand axes is "beautiful."
Aesthetically pleasing hand axes constitute an unbroken Stone-Age tradition that stretches over a million years, ending 100,000 to 150,000 years ago, about the time that their makers' African descendants, now called Homo sapiens, started to become articulate speakers of language. These humans were probably finding new ways to amuse and amaze one another with — who knows? — jokes, dramatic storytelling, dancing or hairstyling. Alas, geological layers do not record these other, more perishable aspects of prehistoric life. For us moderns, the arts have come to depict imaginary worlds and express intense emotions with music, painting, dance and fiction.
However, one trait of the ancestral personality persists in our aesthetic cravings: the pleasure we take in admiring skilled performances. From Lascaux to the Louvre to Carnegie Hall — where now and again the Homo erectus hairs stand up on the backs of our necks — human beings have a permanent, innate taste for virtuoso displays in the arts.
We ought, then, to stop kidding ourselves that painstakingly developed artistic technique is passé, a value left over from our grandparents' culture. Evidence is all around us. Even when we have lost contact with the social or religious ideas behind the arts of bygone civilizations, we are still able, as with the great bronzes or temples of Greece or ancient China, to respond directly to craftsmanship. The direct response to skill is what makes it possible to find beauty in many tribal arts even though we often know nothing about the beliefs of the people who created them. There is no place on earth where superlative technique in music and dance is not regarded as beautiful.
The appreciation of contemporary conceptual art, on the other hand, depends not on immediately recognizable skill, but on how the work is situated in today's intellectual zeitgeist. That's why looking through the history of conceptual art after Duchamp reminds me of paging through old New Yorker cartoons. Jokes about Cadillac tailfins and early fax machines were once amusing, and the same can be said of conceptual works like Piero Manzoni's 1962 declaration that Earth was his art work, Joseph Kosuth's 1965 "One and Three Chairs" (a chair, a photo of the chair and a definition of "chair") or Mr. Hirst's medicine cabinets. Future generations, no longer engaged by our art "concepts" and unable to divine any special skill or emotional expression in the work, may lose interest in it as a medium for financial speculation and relegate it to the realm of historical curiosity.
In this respect, I can't help regarding medicine cabinets, vacuum cleaners and dead sharks as reckless investments. Somewhere out there in collectorland is the unlucky guy who will be the last one holding the vacuum cleaner, and wondering why.
But that doesn't mean we need to worry about the future of art. There are plenty of prodigious artists at work in every medium, ready to wow us with surprising skills. And yes, now and again I walk past a jewelry shop window and stop, transfixed by a sparkling, teardrop-shaped precious stone. Our distant ancestors loved that shape, and found beauty in the skill needed to make it — even before they could put their love into words.
Denis Dutton is a professor of the philosophy of art at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and the author of "The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution."
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I. THE NEWS
EDITORIAL
TERROR UNRELENTING
The simultaneous attacks by up to 20 terrorists on three separate targets in Lahore Thursday morning have added to the mayhem caused by militants who have struck repeatedly over the last week. At least 17 people, among them five militants, were reported dead. The toll is expected to rise as the chaos created by the multiple attacks clears and a more complete picture emerges. We are fortunate there was not greater carnage. Media reports immediately after the siege -- that began just after 9 am was ended between two and four hours later at various places -- spoke of unexploded grenades and suicide jackets being discovered. The terrorists had also evidently planned for a long siege. The fact that they failed must count as some kind of success. It seems apparent the militants will make more such attempts in the future. This is something that we must focus on.
The attacks in Lahore took place despite warnings from intelligence agencies that this would happen. Some of these warnings had appeared in the media. The Punjab government had spoken openly of them and had cited the security threat as a reason to delay by-polls. If we are unable to stop the militants despite such precise intelligence, there is quite obviously something that is very wrong. We need to find out where these oversights or lapses or negligence are occurring and why. In times of war there can be no room for mistakes, especially ones that lead to death and destruction on this scale. Worse still are the reports that at the Bedian Elite Force Training Centre, the militants, who reportedly included three women, may simply have climbed in over a back wall and taken up positions. A number of the militants are said also to have escaped, possibly by fleeing into the fields around. No one quite seems to know what has become of the terrorists who were not killed by the military operation staged at Bedian. The tactics used by the highly organized militants were an obvious replication of what we saw just days ago at GHQ. Three buildings belonging to the security apparatus were picked out and moved on almost simultaneously. The FIA building at Mozang, the police academy at Manawan and the sprawling Elite Force Training Centre at Bedian Road were obviously selected on the basis that they housed the personnel entrusted with the task of battling militancy. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has quickly claimed responsibility and the Lahore attack may have been a part of its bid to warn against an operation in South Waziristan. Police believe Punjab-based groups may have aided the TTP. The same partnership could be used again to stage more coordinated attacks. We do not yet know if a suicide bombing in Kohat that killed at least ten people was linked to the Lahore incidents. But the mere thought of strikes at the same time in different cities is terrifying. The war in our tribal areas has once more forced its way into our cities. There is a possibility that rival Taliban groups are engaged in an attempt to demonstrate superiority. It is possible too that the daring assaults are an act of desperation by a militia that faces defeat. But whatever the truth may be, the government must assess why authorities have repeatedly failed to pre-empt the strikes despite the existence of intelligence and why terrorists from the northwest have faced few problems in moving into fortified cities. For all the claims of our interior minister of having 'foiled' the militants, the fact is that bodies today again lie in morgue and the injured crowd hospital wards. We must find out why it has occurred and come up with ways to stop the other bombers who even now may be chalking up their plans and detecting security weaknesses they can exploit.
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I. THE NEWS
EDITORIAL
A CLEARER MESSAGE?
The explanatory note attached to the Kerry-Lugar Bill following the Pakistani foreign minister's talks in Washington does not change the contents of the legislation. Nor is it in any way binding. It is a sort of letter of intent which legally has no force of law behind it. But it does help to soften the impact of the bill and makes it distinctly more palatable, like a dose of cod liver oil followed by a heaped spoon of sugar. The major issue with the bill had indeed always been the question of the language used and the rather unnecessarily harsh tone it struck, apart from the certifications, which will stay. The new note acts to partially explain this and spells out the purpose behind the legislation, trying to clarify, for instance, that the US has no intentions of tampering with Pakistan's sovereignty. The requirement of 'effective' civilian control over military promotions and planning has not been mentioned, though how a statement by two sponsors of a bill can override the majority votes in both the houses of US Congress has not been explained as there are very few precedents of such explanations, if any. The new note also significantly tones down requirements that Pakistan interrogate any individual involved in nuclear proliferation and allow US officials to question them, by speaking only of cooperation between the two countries in controlling the growth of nuclear weapons. These of course are two of the clauses that had given rise to most disquiet within the military with the top command making its feelings known loudly and clearly to the government and to the people.
Possibly to assess how far the new note has helped calm the army, Senator John Kerry, one of the principal authors of the bill and Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, are also expected to visit Pakistan in the near future. Their action to try and salvage the situation for the Pakistan government indicates a desire to ensure stability in the country. In a joint press talk with Senator Kerry, the Pakistani foreign minister has described the authorization of US$7.5 billion in non-military aid as a 'historic step' in the relations between the two countries. Mr Shah Mahmood Qureshi should not be too excited and should not believe that he has been able to win from the US some concessions except that there is a realization of the issues the bill's text was creating. Given that some of the most controversial clauses were not included in the original text of the bill, the matter of why they came in and at whose suggestion is somewhat intriguing and some sort of probe in needed to find out why. However, the main challenge now for the government is to see how strongly it can present the bill as an aid package that has the potential to significantly better the plight of Pakistan's people. All will, however, depend on how the bill is implemented as it continues to provide the US administration a lever which can be used at any stage to cut off our aid. The continued criticism of the legislation would subside only when what is practised matches the promises made.
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I. THE NEWS
EDITORIAL
DEMOCRACY UNDER A CLOUD
AYAZ AMIR
Pakistan's American relationship will surely survive the Kerry-Lugar Bill (KLB) but Pakistani democracy --the post Feb 2008 phase of it--may not. One of the stated, indeed touted, aims of this bill is to strengthen democratic institutions. The way it is turning out, the KLB --or rather the manner of its handling by our diplomatic and political wizards --may well be the demolition explosive which brings the house of democracy (our perennial house of cards) down. Think again of the law of unintended consequences.
To be fair to the KLB, it isn't the sole or primary cause of tensions between the Presidency and General Headquarters (GHQ). These tensions predate this controversy and centre on a growing level of mistrust between these two centres of power. But the KLB has brought this mistrust into the open. Pretence has vanished and good manners too are falling by the wayside --if there is any truth to the report that Interior Minister Rehman Malik received a cold shoulder when he went to place a wreath at GHQ (for the dead in the GHQ attack).
Are the knives out completely? Is another night of the long boots at hand? This is pretty melodramatic stuff and we may not be at that stage yet because, with Pakistan engaged so closely with the US in its Taliban wars, it may not quite be the season of unilateral decision-making (also translatable as unilateral adventures). But the signs are ominous and Islamabad's atmosphere is once more heavy with foreboding. The faces of those who matter --or those in the know of such things --are getting noticeably longer.
The Joint Explanatory Statement read out by Senator Kerry with our increasingly quixotic foreign minister in attendance alters nothing. It is merely an explanation of provisions in the bill and, in legal terms, worth less than a statement on a Rs20 stamped paper from the District Courts, Islamabad.
Why is the foreign minister so in awe of his American interlocutors? When the KLB was first passed he hailed it as an historic achievement. If only he had checked the temperature in Islamabad he might have saved himself this misplaced bravado. Once again he is pushing his luck by declaring that the Explanatory Statement was "historic". Israel is America's closest ally. No Israeli official behaves like this in Washington.
Of course, if we are looking for a face-saving formula, and provided everyone is on board, including the praetorian element in GHQ, we can paint this as a huge concession--which it is not--and raise a joint toast of acceptance to the KLB. But this wouldn't square with the current mood in GHQ which, if journalist friends in touch with the army are to be believed, is about as dark as ever. The army in one of its super-patriotic moments: it is no laughing matter.
Do I exaggerate? Perhaps. I may have splashed too much colour on the canvas. But this should take away nothing from the fact that things are grim and could get worse if the political class doesn't wake up and arrest the slide.
What is GHQ's major grouse against the Presidency? Nothing more damning than the perception that it has a one-on-one relationship with the Americans above and beyond the usual channels of engagement and communication. Singled out on our side as the key players in this relationship are two figures: our man (or suspect, depending on one's taste) in Washington and my friend Herr Rehman Malik in the interior ministry. In the praetorian mind the emotion they arouse the most is suspicion touched with anger.
And why is this out-of-the-loop American connection so worrisome for the guardians more of our ideological than geographical frontiers (for their success in guarding geography has been less than impeccable over the years)? Judging by the buzz emanating from army-savvy media conquistadores, the army high command is worried about two things above all: the CIA's expanding footprint in Pakistan--too many Americans going about business that few people seem to have any clear idea of--and the threat that this may pose to our nuclear programme.
From this it would seem that the army's real objection to the KLB relates not so much to such high-sounding concepts as honour, national dignity and inviolate sovereignty as to the fear that the KLB will provide an enabling environment for the CIA to further expand its presence in Pakistan, thereby posing a greater threat to our nuke arsenal.
The irony couldn't be richer. The world in its more paranoid moments thinks Pakistan's nukes could fall into the hands of the Taliban. The Pakistan army thinks that if there is a threat to our nukes it comes principally from the knights of Langley.
At the heart of army angst lies another sliver of suspicion. All previous aid programmes from the US were the property of military regimes: Ayub, Zia, Musharraf. This one is painted for the most part in civilian camouflage and the army doesn't trust the civilians in charge.
Musharraf opened the floodgates to American intrusion and interference. It is only now we are getting to know some of the concessions he gave the Americans, unchecked entry through our airports being one such concession amidst a host of others. The CIA station in Islamabad is amongst the biggest CIA centres in the world. To honour one of its greatest facilitators it should raise a statue to Musharraf in its courtyard.
To think that the army endured Musharraf for eight and a half years but its cup of patience vis-à-vis Zardari is spilling over after only a year and a half. Obviously, different standards are at work in GHQ when it comes to evaluating threats to national security: when a military strongman is in the seat of power and when it is democracy's turn to enter the well of death (maut ka koonwan).
And the catalyst of all this, the thing which has brought army suspicions to the boil, is the KLB. Senator Kerry may not be remembered for anything else but he might command a footnote in history as the unwitting layer of the minefield which brought grief to Pakistani democracy once again. This was a land always dedicated to intrigue and cynicism. Now in its list of dedications must also be included irony.
Does the army have any right to monitor the political horizon? Of course not. Politics and governance are not its province. But since when did a verbal position, or constitutional niceties, stand in the way of 111 Brigade, for much of Pakistan's history its highest judicial forum? The constitution was no bar to Zia's generals when they overthrew an elected government and seized power. It did not stand in the way of Musharraf's generals when they deposed another elected government. Article Six of the constitution, which prescribes the death penalty for subversion of the constitution, will remain a fantasy --a daydream to beguile Pakistani minds --if democracy is not backed and buttressed by superior political performance. If generals could be kept in check by sermons we would all be riding the finest race horses.
Zardari is an elected president --there can be no quarrel with this. But his performance or, more accurately, his inadequacy is hastening the demise of democracy. If he is to survive, and Pakistan's fledgling democracy is not to collapse, some of the political baggage he carries will probably have to be discarded. The clouds on the horizon, if not the gods, are demanding a sacrifice and to appease them some heads may have to roll.
This is not a happy prospect, for after the Feb 2008 elections we had convinced ourselves that democracy was secured and the era of Westridge interventions (where 111 Brigade is stationed) was forever over. The more things change … the more they add to the sum of Pakistani cynicism.
The fresh wave of terrorist attacks --from the audacious assault on GHQ to the coordinated multiple attacks on police centres in Lahore --is adding a further note of grimness to an already dark situation. For these attacks could be cited as justification for wrapping up the civilian order and taking on the Taliban under a 'unified chain of command'. We had a unified chain of command under Musharraf and look where it took us.
Anyway, the horses are out and, to echo Ghalib, there is no hand on the reins and no foot in the stirrups. And even Ghalib had no idea where the galloping steed would come to rest.
Email: winlust@yahoo.com
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I. THE NEWS
EDITORIAL
THE KERRY-LUGAR DISTRACTION
AHMAD RAFAY ALAM
The Kerry-Lugar Bill has become the black-hole of Pakistani political debate. Its din of conflicting rhetoric and opinion drowns out everything else -- even good sense. Sovereignty, which reference to any nearby encyclopedia will tell you, is a quality possessed by a sovereign, of having supreme and complete control over a territory. In light of the KLB (it's even got its own acronym), we seem to have got this concept mixed with ghairat. While all this is most amusing, it is no substitute for meaningful debate about the future of this country.
Many others have offered their expert opinion on the new American administration's attempt to change how and who it funds in this Islamic Republic. It's mildly surprising how so much of the debate has remained centered on the idea that Pakistan's "sovereignty" will be irrevocably tarnished. This is an old debate that has its antecedents in our characteristic dependency on the United States and paranoid concern of what others think of us. I'm surprised that the debate hasn't moved beyond the hackneyed jingoism we've been forced to read and hear these past few weeks. I'm surprised that so little of the debate has dealt with the reality that it's basically the folks whose names have been left off the payroll who are hopping mad at being passed over. But that just proves that KLB is a massive black hole of political deWhile the bill debate goes on consuming all the air in the room, the real challenges this country faces remain unaddressed. We are a country of nearly 170 million mostly poor and illiterate people that is facing an energy crisis, a population explosion and potential water scarcity.
Environmental degradation already costs the economy at least one billion rupees a day and kills hundreds of thousands of us a year. And soon we will be forced to play one of the worst hands nature has ever dealt man -- climate change and the water scarcity, food shortages, population migrations, increased incidents of disease and natural disaster it will bring. To this equation, add the variables religious extremism, militancy and terrorism.
And here we are, with this Kerry-Lugar Bill debate, talking of nothing but whether or not it is acceptable for Pakistan to be a beggar and a chooser. I would think that saner counsel ("get whatever you can get and be thankful") should prevail.
In the next 10 years, it is estimated that rural to urban migrations will transform our rustic rural people into an urban people. It's estimated that, by 2050, as many as 65 per cent of Pakistanis will live in cities. The failure of population stabilisation policies means that by then, there will be nearly 300 million Pakistanis. Three challenges immediately come to the fore.
First, where are we going to get the electricity? We've got a woefully inadequate installed capacity somewhere in excess of 20,000MW, nearly 25 per cent of which is wasted in an efficient distribution and transmission system (a day ago, I read that, "because of forced closures, fuel shortages and some scheduled closures", the PEPCO system is only generating 11,750MW). The planning commission estimates that, by 2030, Pakistan will need approximately 164,000MW of electricity to meet it demands. Of course, at the moment, such an amount seems impossible and if efforts don't start now to increase installed capacity, improve line-losses and think up ways of jumping to a "smart grid", our ability to industrialise our economy Second, will there be enough water? About 90 per cent of our water resources are consumed in irrigation, yet unlined canals, water theft and outdated farming practices mean that 40 per cent of this is lost to inefficiency. The remaining 10 per cent of our water resources are consumed as drinking water and for sanitation. Almost all of our water resources are from the glacial melt. At partition, our water resources stood in excess of 5,000 cubic metres per capita. Now, they are fast falling to less than 1,000 cubic metres per capita. The rate at which climate change is affecting the glacial melt have surprised researchers, and it is predicted that, after accelerated melting (which means flooding and lots and lots of silt) our glacial water resources will be depleted. This is set to happen in the next 100 years.
Third, will there be enough food? Climate change, outdated farming practices and depleting water resources will have an effect on food productivity. All of our cash crops are going to be affected by climate change. Of course, there will always be mitigation and adaptation, but even if food production can be maintained through science and discipline, there is no telling its effect on rural economy and society. Certainly, climate change will contribute to the great desire of people to move from the labour of subsistence farming to the potential offered by the cash economy of an urban area.
Parenthetically, let me again mention that the proposal to lease hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of hectares of arable land to certain Arab is a bad idea that hasn't been clearly thought out yet. Also, how is it that no one raises the question of sovereignty at the thought that our government was/is to negotiate the lease of such land under the guise of foreign investment? The Lahore High Court (LHC) has done the right thing, while disposing of a petition filed before it by a farmers' union, by requiring any such negotiation be brought to its notice.
An increase in the number of people in cities will put stress on the availability of housing, sanitation infrastructure, employment opportunities, healthcare facilities, educational institutions, transportation services and recreational space. All these are already stretched beyond capacity, but nobody involved in the windbag debate seems to have an eye on what's around the corner.
The three challenges highlighted above also overlap in one way or another with the role of the city. The centrality and importance of urban management in the future of Pakistan must not be underestimated.
In the near future, the issues of housing, sanitation, employment, health, education and poverty will all primarily be urban issues. Even issues like energy can be regulated by the size and manner in which our cities are run. The latest sustainable development initiatives are experimenting with "urban farming" to reduce emissions resulting from the transport of produce from the field onto the dinner table. Urban areas produce disproportionately large quantities of the world's green house gas emissions, and for sure climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies have huge urban components.
At the moment, our cities are managed by junior to mid-level bureaucrats acting on the instructions of provincial governments (though the City District Government of Karachi, it must be said, is the most independent) that have woefully little knowledge of what makes cities tick. At the moment, they are centres of sprawl, congestion and pollution with rapidly growing katchi abadis and slums. Yet, while these challenges seem insurmountable, they are, in fact, completely manageable. Enrique Penalosa, the charismatic former mayor of the Colombian city of Bogota who transformed his city in only three years, told me once that the only thing we need to do to start is a vision of the type of city we want to live in.
Now wouldn't that be a debate worth having?
The writer is an advocate of the high court and a member of the adjunct faculty at LUMS. He has an interest in urban planning. Email: ralam@nexlinx.net.pk
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I. THE NEWS
EDITORIAL
INCOMPETENCE INC.
ZAFAR HILALY
That is even more pervasive in Pakistan than the stench of corruption is incompetence, the unmistakeable fog of which envelops just about every institution. Two glaring instances of incompetence surfaced almost simultaneously last week and eroded, if nothing else, our already low sense of self esteem.
It is unthinkable that a handful of desperadoes, under any ruse or pretext, should have been able to get within hailing distance of such a sensitive military encampment as General Headquarters, what to say of actually entering it. There may be many explanations why this happened but only one reason, crass incompetence. The fact that fewer lives were lost because two SSG commandos, assigned to rescue hostages, heroically undertook to flag their presence and draw the fire of the terrorists is irrelevant. Their sacrifice was only made necessary by the incompetence of those responsible for GHQ security.
What makes the lapse inexcusable was the subsequent revelation by Hamid Mir that the 10 terrorists had taken up residence within a stone throw of GHQ and actually announced the purpose of their mission in wall markings that were plainly visible from the street. About the only thing the terrorists did not do, it seems, was to phone up the quarter guard on duty warning them of their impending arrival.
No one is prepared to believe any longer that anything is safe in Pakistan. And the moment one sees Rahman Malik on TV telling us differently one is reminded of what a British poet once said: "He is like narrow necked bottles; the less they have in them the more noise they make in pouring it out." An earlier example of gross, nay criminal incompetence, and far more costly in lives, had taken place in Kargil in 1999. Then, unimaginably brave men had to defend themselves against odds that were incalculable, at least in fire power. They had died where they fought cold, hungry and abandoned. And again they had found themselves in that predicament because of the rank incompetence of their leaders. One of whom now struts about like a peacock abroad as he "immatures with age".
Similarly had those handling the passage of the Kerry Lugar Bill, whether in Washington or Islamabad, been a tad more competent the nation would have been spared the hurt of being slighted by a boorish US Congress. Although no inquiry was held to determine the culprits of Kargil happily an inquiry is under way to discover what precisely went wrong in the case of the attack on the GHQ. In contrast, the Government intends to do nothing to ascertain who or what is to blame for the Kerry-Lugar fiasco. Meanwhile, the Opposition has already concluded its investigation of the Kerry-Lugar fiasco and determined who the culprit is. The blame is being laid at the door of our ambassador in Washington.
It is both easy and tempting to blame him. He was our man on the spot no doubt, and many of the sentiments expressed in the bill, to which our legislators took exception, did accord with his own views (and of many others) expressed in his very readable book published recently. The impression, contrived or real, that somehow he has the ability to sway Congress is however farfetched. What American presidents have difficulty in achieving is impossible for the Pakistan ambassador or even a political Houdini. Hence for our parliamentary luminaries to blame the Ambassador suggests that their capacity for self deception is as great as their ignorance.
Admittedly the ambassador's past proclivities have not strengthened his denials. Pampering high-ups and earning their favour has been a feature of his mode of operating, although no more than those of his opponents. However, unlike them, it has taken him far, in his own country and in America. In Pakistan, it has given rise to envy, which is more implacable than hatred, while in Washington, where it matters more, it has earned him lavish praise and excellent access.
Unfortunately, ambassadors too cannot have their cake and eat it at the same time. Inevitably, the praise bestowed on him by some of his interlocutors, like Holbrooke, has led some at home to aver that the ambassador had contracted a familiar diplomatic ailment known as "localitis". A condition that ambassadors often develop in their efforts to become popular in the country of their accreditation; the first signs of which is a pronounced tendency to project the views of the host state more forcefully than that of ones own.
What also seems to have hurt the ambassador's standing is the legion of detractors he has acquired in the course of an eventful and chequered career. Before he alighted on the PPP the ambassador had hawked his loyalties to several other parties; and political apostates like him are rarely spared by those whom they abandon. And, as it happens, all of them are now in the Opposition. To be fair to the ambassador there are many among his opponents who have been no less politically promiscuous but they, it seems, have escaped much of the odium that he has garnered; perhaps because they do not possess his enviable abilities or are less garrulous, glib and arrogant. Of course, it does not help that the ambassador is as hard to pin down as mercury on a plate.
Nevertheless, to blame the Ambassador without a shred of supporting evidence, save conjecture and circumstance, for the fiasco is not only unfair but positively unjust. Only after a through examination of the correspondence exchanged between the embassy and the Foreign Office, including "eyes only" missives, between the key players will the true position emerge. However, this is a remote possibility. Hence, yet another fiasco will have come and gone with no one the wiser, nor any lessons learnt.
Given the solid support that the ambassador enjoys in Islamabad he is likely to survive the incident. However he would do well to remember that just because he has a neck he does not have to stick it out all the time; and also, that the trouble with brains is that they do not breed common sense. Moreover, merely because he feels he is wiser he need not tell others because that way he will make mortal enemies of them.
But it is the inexperienced president who has most to learn from the Kerry-Lugar fiasco. He should begin with telling his own coterie to stop believing their own lies. America has no friends only interests, she will not bail him out, she cannot. Furthermore he has crawled so far up the backside of America that one cannot even see the soles of his feet. It is about time that he crawled back because that is what the people want. A close friendship with America does not mean having to share his bed with her. Pakistan can ill afford any more spectacular displays of incompetence on the part of the government and, more crucially, the armed forces. Today, at the cusp of the Waziristan operation, surely a prelude to a long war, that will determine the shape of things to come in Pakistan, we do not have the luxury of being "surprised" by the "unexpected" or to blame imaginary villains for our own, and by now legendary incompetence.
The writer is a former ambassador. Email: charles123it@hotmail.com
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I. THE NEWS
EDITORIAL
KERRY-LUGAR AND OUR RESPONSE
DR MASOODA BANO
AThe stiff response of the Pakistani military leadership to the Kerry Lugar Bill has led to the Pakistani government and its US counterparts agreeing to mellow down some of the clauses. The joint explanatory statement issued by the US Congress shows a softening of the clause that stirred the heaviest resistance from the Pakistani military: i.e., asking for greater civilian control over the promotion of military officials and strategic planning within the military. This softening of the position can hardly be argued to be a means of establishing Pakistan's sovereignty. The fact of life is that the US has been playing a highly interventionist role in Pakistan especially since the Sept 11 attacks and will continue to do so. Ironically, when there is resistance to the US, it is not to protect the interests of the ordinary Pakistanis but of the Pakistani military. It shows the military is in no mood to become more accountable to civilian authorities.
Aimed to strengthen Pakistan's capability to resist militancy, the Bill, unlike in the case of the last eight years of US engagement with Pakistan, prioritises investment in long-term development of Pakistan. Rather than channelling aid towards the Pakistani military to meet immediate security targets, which are related to US interests, the Bill in principle priorities investment in socio-economic development of Pakistan to ensure long-term development. It argues for supporting the economic activity, and investment in education. It also emphasises reaching out and adequately compensating the people who have been displaced due to the military operations conducted by the Pakistani army to check the militants. It asks for closer scrutiny of the utilisation of the aid money. And since the Bill also states strengthening of democracy as an important objective of this new aid package, among other things it puts some requirements for better accountability of the military to the civilian leadership.
Coming from a country whose leadership has since 2001 only been concerned with using Pakistan to flight its war against the Al-Qaeda, the clauses in the Bill were actually a positive shift. It is easy for people to start talking about sovereignty of Pakistan but why does the sovereignty only matter when the external party is arguing for the military to be made more accountable to civilian-- i.e., elected leadership of the country? As the Bill also notes in the background section, Pakistan has since 2001 received two times more military aid than civilian aid. Out of $15,000,000,000 US assistance to Pakistan since 2001, more than $10,000,000,000 has been paid as security-related assistance and direct payments.
This huge flow of security related assistance has primarily been channelled through the military. The Pakistani public has no means to make either the US or the Pakistani military accountable for how that money was used. Gen Musharraf himself acknowledged in his controversial autobiography that the Pakistani military and the related agencies have been handsomely rewarded by the US government for handing over Pakistani suspects to the US. The military-led government of Gen Musharraf was actually receiving US dollars for handing over Pakistanis without giving them a trial in country. The scale of such cases was large enough to result in the missing people's campaign by the families of the victims. Yet, the Pakistani military top command did not seem to face any moral dilemma about the sovereignty of the country being affected by receipt of huge flow of unchecked military aid.
The question is that what is more objectionable: a foreign state directly channelling huge amount of funds to Pakistani military without involving civilian leadership or the foreign state trying to ensure that the Pakistani military actually becomes more responsive to the civilian command structure. The US engagement with Pakistan under the Bush administration has been led by the former approach. This was also the easiest route for the US: keep giving aid to Pakistani military to carry out the counter-militancy operations don't be that concerned about the long term development of the country.
The Kerry Lugar Bill on the other hand makes a conscious shift towards engaging with the civilian command structure and more importantly investing in the long-term development of Pakistan. True, Pakistan would be better off with less of US intervention. However, when the intervention has to be there, it is better that it is designed to help civilian rule rather than supporting military intervention in state governance. Kerry Lugar Bill tried to shift the balance but it is clear that the Pakistani military is not ready to adjust the power balance against the civilian leadership.
The writer is a research fellow at the Oxford University. Email: mb294@hotmail .com
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I. THE NEWS
EDITORIAL
TAKING ON THE REAL ENEMY
SHAFQAT MAHMOOD
Does the brazen attack on the army's General Headquarters (GHQ) show the terrorists' strength or weakness? However contradictory as it may sound, it demonstrates both.
The strength is in the fact that disparate militant elements coming from different parts of the country have coalesced into a coordinated terror network. The weakness is that to make their presence felt, desperate acts with loss of precious assets, have to be undertaken.
Let us look at the strength first. Radical religious groups originating from the Punjab either had an anti-India/pro-Kashmir jihad agenda, in which they had some collaboration from the state. Or they were sectarian outfits targeting Shias, in particular, but also other Sunni groups. Tribal area based militants were a product of the long Afghan conflict starting in the 80s. After the American invasion of Afghanistan, they became aligned with Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. To find out in detail how this happened please read Imtiaz Gul's book, The Al Qaeda Connection.
Their objective initially was to provide support and safe haven to fleeing Al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban. As Gul points out, money played an important part in this. When the Pakistani state began to make life difficult for them, they took it on. Later, their objective morphed into controlling Pakistani territory and establishing a state within a state. This was visible in their Malakand outreach and deliberate infiltration into other parts of NWFP.
These dissimilar groups have now come together with the common agenda of fighting the Pakistani state and this has become the militancy's strength. This merger has been facilitated by their shared hatred of the United States and a warped perception of an ideal Islamic state. They seek to establish it in Pakistan.
The weakness of the terrorist network is reflected in the reckless nature of the GHQ attack. It was indeed audacious and achieved some early results until the Pakistan Army commandos ended it an operation. Many brave soldiers gave the ultimate sacrifice and no words can express the nation's gratitude to them. But, from the militants' perspective, this attack cost them heavily. They sacrificed an important asset in the shape of the terrorist Aqeel, who has been captured. This raises the possibility of at least parts of their network being exposed.
They could not have been unaware of these pitfalls while planning the operation. It must have been obvious that attacking the GHQ is nothing short of a suicide mission with a low chance of success. The only explanation for this is desperation.
This stems from victory of the armed forces in Malakand that has dealt a deadly blow to the militants, both physically and to their aura of invincibility. The elimination of some top leaders like Baituallah Mehsud and other prominent Al Qaeda allies has further weakened them. The current wave of terror attacks and, particularly, the GHQ operation was a desperate attempt to project strength at a time when the noose is tightening around them.
This is where the forthcoming Waziristan operation becomes so critical. It will be tough given the terrain and the strength of the militants and, sadly, many brave soldiers will die for their country. But, it is the ultimate safe haven crammed with Al Qaeda, Afghan and local Taliban, Uzbeks and Chechens and many wanted terrorists from Punjab. This scorpions den has to be wiped clean.
It will require coordination with American/NATO forces in Afghanistan because unless these elements are interdicted from the other side, they will just vanish and regroup on Afghan territory. The Americans have been pushing for this operation and should do what it takes but will the current imbroglio over the Kerry-Lugar Bill have any effect? Unlikely, because the military to military cooperation is apparently good. While there has been a political reaction to the Pakistan Army's public stance against clauses of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, there has not been a word from the US military. Representative Berman who has taken a lead in this was clearly defending his own position because he is responsible for the folly of putting intemperate language in the bill.
This is also now being widely recognised in the United States. An important commentator in The Washington Post, David Ignatius, said that "the finger-wagging conditions in the bill illustrate a special form of American hubris. US politicians become so accustomed to lecturing others that they lose sight of how their words will be read in foreign capitals and how legislative boilerplate will play on foreign insecurities and anxieties."
Ignatius has aptly identified the kind of mindset that prevails in the American legislative branch. It would also be useful to understand that the parliament, known as Congress in the US, can often act like loose cannon. Its pronouncements, particularly of the lower house, can totally be at variance with the policy of the executive branch.
The various lobbyists that surround it have influence, particularly the Israeli lobby on Mideast issues. But to imagine that on every matter interest groups and particularly foreign representatives will be able to insert language of their choice in legislative acts displays total ignorance of the American system. It is in this context that I find dark conspiracies attributed to Pakistan's Ambassador Hussain Haqqani so overblown. Haqqani has been a public figure for a long time and many people, including me, can have issues with his political choices and policy postures. But to attribute downright treachery indeed treason to him is uncalled for and entirely without substance.
This may not relate to the topic at hand but if one has to go looking for people who have harmed the country, there is no need to go further than Jamshed Dasti, MNA. This man, who is the chairman of the National Assembly committee on sports, severely damaged our cricket team's already controversial image by alleging match fixing.
Such people have no right to operate at the national level. He showed his true colours by hurling filthy abuses during a session of the national assembly. While I am no fan of Faisal Saleh Hayat, people like Dasti should be told to go back to the hole they have come out of.
What of the Kerry-Lugar Bill and how are we going to move forward? As I said last week, there is little chance of the bill's language being changed. A sop to the Pakistani sensibilities is coming in the shape of a statement that will swear everlasting commitment to Pakistan. This fig leaf will be gratefully accepted by the government. The language of the bill will not change.
The reality is that Pakistan and the United States both need each other. Some would argue that the US needs Pakistan more than we need it but this is nothing more than bravado. Pakistan has severe economic and security problems and US help is important.
This can change if the society transforms itself and particularly the well off are willing to reduce their lifestyle. But, that is unlikely to happen. In the meantime, the equation is simple. We need the money.
Email: shafqatmd@gmail.com
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I. THE NEWS
EDITORIAL
ROCKY ROAD AHEAD
TAYYAB SIDDIQUI
Recent developments in Pak-US relations signal serious challenges and strains. Emerging perceptions on a host of issues are therefore more divergent, even contradictory. Despite all the bonhomie and talk of strategic partnership, the relations are adrift and in need of clarity and focus. The Kerry-Lugar bill is a prime example. Its response in Pakistan has been largely negative, even hostile. The majority of political parties, think-tanks, the media and policy planners consider the package an affront to Pakistan's sovereignty, dignity and honour.
The Pakistan government has been put on the defensive and the earlier euphoria has dwindled. Whatever the impact of conditionalities attached to the bill, the fact remains that adverse public reaction reflects the fundamental lack of trust and confidence in US intentions. Most believe that American policy vis-a-vis Pakistan has been to safeguard US interests in the region at the expense of Pakistan. The resolution of the Afghan crisis has also been linked to Pakistan. In this context, US pressure on Pakistan to dismantle Taliban's command structure in Quetta and reports that the US may unilaterally use drones against 'Quetta Shura' should Pakistan fail to respond certainly does not square with US assertions of Pakistan being an 'important ally,' 'valued friend' and 'strategic partner'.
Ironically, most initiatives taken to widen and intensify bilateral cooperation and restructure the relationship have produced the opposite effect. Ill-conceived statements by senior US officials have shown a tragic failure to comprehend Pakistan's national psyche and mood. The recurring allegations of relations between the ISI and the Taliban and the deterioration of the security situation have put Pakistan in the international spotlight as an irresponsible nation.
American focus on the vulnerability of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and undue concern over the possibility of weapons falling into the wrong hands and alarming scenarios of such an eventuality have annoyed the army brass and have not been well-received by the public either. To make matters worse, John Bolton, former deputy secretary of state, urged the Obama administration that it should try to take away as many weapons as possible from Pakistan.
US allegations betray a regrettable lack of sensitivity towards Pakistan's institutions, interest and image. The general complaint is that despite Pakistan's huge sacrifices in the war on terror, Americans show little recognition and appreciation of the services rendered.
The unauthorised drone attacks on Pakistan territory in clear violation of our sovereignty have hurt national pride and there has been understandably an intensification of anti-American sentiments. The intensity of feelings about the strings attached to the Kerry-Lugar bill represents the frustration with the Americans and serious concerns about the credibility and sincerity of American commitments for a long-term relationship and strategic partnership. The Obama administration will be well-advised to address true concerns of Pakistan. Bilateral trust cannot otherwise be restored and until then, America's battle to win the hearts and minds of Pakistanis will not succeed.
The writer is a former ambassador. Email: m.tayyab. sidiqui@gmail.com
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PAKISTAN OBSERVER
EDITORIAL
WINDOW-DRESSING OF KLB
IN a bid to pacify injured sentiments of people of Pakistan, the US Congress has issued a five-page explanatory note on the controversial Kerry-Lugar Bill. The note declares that the US has no intention of micro-managing Pakistan and clarifies some of the disputed provisions of the bill.
It is good of the US leadership and the Congress that they have tried to allay fears of Pakistan about the Kerry-Lugar Bill, which has been titled as "Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act". There was adverse reaction in the length and breadth of Pakistan and appreciating the sensitivities of Pakistani people, President Obama withheld signing of bill into law, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi dashed to Washington to apprise the US leadership of the ground realities and consequently the face-saving mechanism of issuing explanatory note was adopted. No doubt, the issuance of the note itself is manifestation of the fact that the US administration and Congress were aware of the sentiments of the Pakistani people. However, the move falls short of the expectations of the people as what they are demanding is removal of the controversial clauses of the bill. In the very first place, the question arises whether an explanatory note has the force of the law and the answer is definitely 'No'. The law would be there with all its provocative and insulting provisions and, therefore, the main cause of rejection of the bill by the popular public opinion in Pakistan would remain intact. At any point of time, when the United States finds it so convenient, the clauses would be used to dictate and pressurize the country by interpreting them in a manner that suits the US designs and agenda. It is also worth mentioning that the explanatory note is mainly directed at blunting the army reaction while irritants regarding nuclear proliferation issue and alleged militants training camp in Pakistan have still been dealt with in a casual fashion. Under these circumstances, we believe, the objective of 'enhanced partnership' would remain an elusive dream and the bill would instead breed more misunderstanding and confusion. No doubt, revision of the entire aid bill would not be advisable and feasible in view of the time factor but what the US administration might do is to seek from the Congress early amendments in the controversial clauses of the bill.
PAKISTAN OBSERVER
EDITORIAL
SCO CAN CONTRIBUTE TO PROSPEROUS FUTURE
PRIME Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani while addressing the annual meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Beijing has proposed initiation of a high-level strategic dialogue to crystalize a comprehensive and large scale trans-regional development agenda. The proposal is in line with group's professed purpose to further cooperation in various social, cultural, security and economic fields.
The SCO which started in 2001 has grown from an organization that at first helped settle border disputes to a group that now runs joint military exercises, is considering creating a gas cartel, and has Pakistan, India, Iran and Mongolia as Observers. The member countries and the observers with a population of more than 2.5 billion have the world's largest markets and could assert for a greater role in international economic and financial matters. They can raise the living standard of their people provided they move for greater trade and cooperation with each other and in the development of indigenous resources of the fellow members. That was the objective behind Prime Minister Gilani's emphasis for adopting a shared vision of trans-regional cooperation to achieve peace and development in the region. In the present-day scenario there are many challenges being faced by the world including financial crisis, terrorism, energy, food, environment and information security which could be addressed through joint efforts. Pakistan has been seeking full membership of the SCO and one hopes it would get this status soon. Pakistani seaports at Karachi and Gwadar provide the shortest and cheapest route for not only China and Central Asian Republics but Russia also for trade with the rest of the world. Pakistani Prime Minister's proposals for free trade among the member countries of the SCO to shield the regional economies from vagaries of financial turmoil as well as development of SCO's Banking Association and Business Council to harness the potentials of private and corporate sectors are laudatory and deserve to be given due consideration. Regional groups like the EU and ASEAN have contributed immensely in the development and peace and stability of Europe and South East Asia. Likewise we are of the considered opinion that SCO by the collective and concerted efforts of the leadership can contribute to building a prosperous future for the people of member countries.
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PAKISTAN OBSERVER
EDITORIAL
POLITICAL STORM IN AJK
AZAD Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Yaqoob Khan resigned on Wednesday to avoid an imminent defeat that he was to face the following day when the Legislative Assembly was slated to vote upon the no-confidence motion against him. The numbers were clearly against the Prime Minister and he acted wisely by tendering resignation that has paved the way for another in-house change in AJK in a short span of time.
Political manoeuvrings are part of the democratic process but what we have been witnessing in Azad Kashmir was sheer horse-trading and deplorable attempts of grabbing what is democratically not legitimate for some parties and individuals. At the very first signs of meddling into the AJK affairs by the PPP Government in Islamabad, we had warned that the party should respect mandate of other parties and Governments. But the PPP was in no mood to listen to such pieces of advice and continued with its plans to conquer Kashmir and Punjab. While its plans to get Punjab backfired, the PPP succeeded in creating rifts in the then ruling party in Azad Kashmir and engineered formation of the PPP Government in AJK despite the fact that it had no locus standi to do so because of its negligible numerical strength in the Legislative Assembly. However, it is all the more regrettable that even after formation of a "Government of minority' in Kashmir, the PPP leadership made no conscientious efforts to ensure good governance and that is why it collapsed just within nine months. We hope that Muslim Conference factions too must have learnt the right kind of lesson and would not take things for granted. Apart from maintaining unity in its ranks, the Muslim Conference, which is a source of ideological strength for freedom struggle of Kashmiri people, should make every endeavour to turn AJK into a model of good governance. The Centre is also better advised not to poke its nose into AJK affairs.
PAKISTAN OBSERVER
EDITORIAL
INDIA, CHINA, PAK: THE THREE DONKEYS
M D NALAPAT
After nearly five centuries of dominance over the rest of the globe, Europe began to fallback during the first half of the 20th century, because of the two World Wars. The devastation of 1914-19 gave heart and power to national liberation movements across Asia,while the weaknesses within their countries caused by the bloodshed and economic cost of 1939-45 enabled Egypt, India-Pakistan,Indonesia and other countries to become independent brief years after the end of that conflict. By the 1960s, most of Africa was free, with even South Africa following in the 1980s. Today,apart from specks on the map such as Diego Garcia (forcibly taken away from Mauritius), almost all of Asia is ( legally,at least) independent, with the exception of Iraq and Afghanistan,where foreign countries guide much of state policy,and where foreign troops are based in large numbers.
After reviewing the effects of the carnage,European statespersons resolved to prevent war by making borders irrelevant. Today, most of Europe has fused into a single visa-free zone, and people from different locations freely visit and work wherever they wish to. As a consequence,the psychological differences between the different countries in Europe are beginning to narrow, thus making war between them improbable. These days, even the French have infused themselves with an overlay of culture and attitudes from neighbours,including from Britain and Italy. In 1985,when this columnist and his wife went on a honeymoon visit to Paris, the natives refused to speak in English, until we retorted back in our own language,Malayalam. On being bombarded with what they thought was gobbledygook, the reluctant French finally began to reply back in the international link language. These days,however, it is almost a mark of distinction in France to be able to speak English well,especially with a Texan twang!
If France and Britain could become allies in the 20th century despite the many wars that they fought with each other, if even Germany and France could become friends as early as the 1960s, surely the countries of Asia can replicate such a situation. After all,whether in India or in China or in Pakistan ( the three big countries that are being discussed now), there are millions who ape the hairstyles and fashions of Europe. These belong to the elite, the very group that has refused to imitate one of the most positive parts of Europe, that continent's newfound amity. Just as took place in Europe,in Asia too borders need to be made irrelevant, so that war gets taken off the table. By fighting each other,by obstructing each other,all that India,Pakistan and China are "achieving" is to ensure that outsiders continue to have the upper hand in all three. Either we become friends of each other,or we each remain the substantive servant of other powers.
Sadly,in none of the three has such wisdom dawned.Instead, all three continue their rhetoric against each other, oblivious to the long-term harm this does to each. India,China and Pakistan are in a class by themselves, with no paralell in modern Europe, not even that long-sparring pair,Greece and Turkey,who have after all never actually gone to war with each other. If India,China and Pakistan take out their calculators and compute the costs and benefits of each war that they have fought with each other,they will see that the cost has been borne by them while the benefit has flowed to outside powers. Had India and Pakistan become military allies,for example, the two together could have helped ensure security for their friends in the Middle East, thus permitting local governments to dispense with the troop presence from North America, Australia and Europe. A presence that by its huge logistical cost,its unbrarable level of civilian casualties and its cultural differences has created a distance within the Arab world between ruled and rulers who permit such an occupation of their terrritory to take place.This is the case even in Kuwait, a country that still has grateful memories of the US troops that liberated them in 1990.
Contingents from India and Pakistan could train local citizens in military and counter-terror tactics, without creating a cultural divide.After all,Arabs were welcome visitors on the shores of "Al-Hind" for a millenium. Today,millions from both countries live and work in the Middle East. As for security of sea lanes,this too could be assured by both powers,who have the logistical capability to ensure that these be kept open for commerce, another essentiality for the Middle East. Were China too to join the two subcontinental giants in a trilateral alliance,the reach of such a troika would stretch across the whole of Asia. Once the three come together,other powers are sure to join in,such as Russia, a fact that would make the grouping even stronger.
Small wonder that some countries would like to see perpetual war between India and Pakistan and perpetual tension between China and India. Unfortunately,the statespersons in the three countries have thus far not emulated the wisdom of their counterparts in Europe,by working out a matrix of conciliation and cooperation rather than incessant confrontation. Friends in Pakistan will say that settlement of Kashmir is a pre-condition for "establishing trust between India and Pakistan". The view of this columnist is that the dispute will never get settled unless there is trust between the two countries. Once this gets established - through a vigorous partnership in multiple fields - a practicable solution to the dispute can be found with despatch. The lack of progress over sixty years is because the "cart" of a solution has been put before the "horse" of trust.
The same dynamic operates between China and India. Both sides need to talk frankly about their apprehensions, rather than avoid discussing them. Once India and Pakistan become friends and hopefully allies,India's primary grouse with China, which is that country's nuclear and missile assistance to Pakistan,will get eliminated. The root of China's mistrust of India to be the Tibetan Government-in-exile at Dharamshala,in North India, an entity which has a Prime Minister and Ministers, none of whom accepts that China has a role in Tibet. The "Government of Free Tibet" wants the authorities in Beijing to amalgamate vast territories in Qinghai and Gansu provinces into a Tibet that would be free of Han settlers and be ruled by its own Kashag or Council. Short of a 1930's -style collapse of the PRC,such an objective seems unachievable. Once China and India get closer, suspicion that Delhi is seeking the separation of Tibet from China will lessen and hopefully disappear, for such is emphatically not the case.
India,Pakistan and China are the big losers of the present uneasy dynamic between the three (excluding the close China-Pakistan partnership). Some other powers are the gainers,exactly as in the case with the Tibetans,where the geopolitical costs of hosting the Tibetan exile community are being borne by India,while the benefit flows to other countries (who are delighted to watch India and China snarl at each other,the way they are doing these days) The danger in the current situation is that it is not in equilibrium. Fresh terror attacks in India,even if not the responsibility of the Pakistan military, can create a dynamic that leads to incidents that can expand in scope .A similar situation exists on the Sino-Indian border,where a single hotheaded response can remove hopes of a Sino-Indian partnership for a generation. Once again,there is need tro bring out the slide rules and the abacus, to accept that the costs of tension between India,Pakistan and China can be massive,while the gains from such a state of affairs accrues to outside powers. Conversely,the gains to India,Pakistan and China of cooperation can be immense. Statespersons in each of the three countries should stop being donkeys led by outsiders,and instead work to forge the 21st Century India-Pakistan-China alliance that Asia needs for its stability and salience.
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PAKISTAN OBSERVER
EDITORIAL
DOWNSIDE OF MORE INDIAN N TESTS
SULTAN M HALI
There is a sudden flurry of revelations by Indian scientists that its 1998 thermonuclear tests were a failure and India needs to carry out more tests. Such revelations are not a flash in the pan but there is definite method in the madness that Indian nuclear scientists are trying to bully their government into testing a nuclear weapon. It has been deducted that such a folly would have far reaching effects. It would be a huge setback for India's relations with Washington, for the battle against terrorists, and for global efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is resisting so far and he must continue to resist in the best interests of India and the world.
If India tests, the United States is bound by a 2008 agreement to cut off all sales of nuclear fuel and technology. That would be a huge setback to India's plans to expand its nuclear power generation and its economy. It is feared that if India tests, Pakistan may follow suit. That would raise tensions between the two longtime rivals, and it would further distract Islamabad and its Armed Forces from the raging battle against the Taliban and other extremists inside Pakistan and along its border with Afghanistan. US Congress recently approved a five-year, $7.5 billion aid package to strengthen civilian rule in Pakistan and encourage the fight against extremists. The bill has a number of encumbrances where the US State Department has to certify deliverables on the part of Pakistan, There would be strong pressure to cut that aid if Pakistan tested. In case India and Pakistan test (China also may be unable to resist), it could make it even harder for President Obama to persuade the US Senate to ratify the test ban treaty, which he has painstakingly reinstated last month.
India (followed by Pakistan) last conducted nuclear tests in 1998. The earlier notice by India to test again has been received with mixed feelings in the Indian media as well as the scientific community. In recent weeks, the debate took on a new urgency when some a top nuclear scientists made the case public. K. Santhanam, a director for the 1998 test-site preparations, claimed those tests did not yield the desired results and were a fizzle. One has to wonder why he waited 11 years to raise the alarm. It is suspected that Mr. Santhanam and his colleagues are worried that if Washington finally ratifies the treaty, India may feel compelled to sign on. The treaty's appeal is undeniable. Some 182 nations have signed it and 150 have ratified it. It limits the ability of nuclear states to field fancier warheads and makes it harder for nuclear wannabes to develop weapons. But it cannot enter into force until nine key states including the United States, China and India also ratify. Mr. Obama has pledged to work for Senate ratification and urged all other holdouts to do so. So far, New Delhi does not seem to be taking Mr. Santhanam's bait. India does not need to carry any more nuclear tests, the Indian Atomic Energy Commission chairman, Anil Kakodkar, said last month. He insisted that his agency has confidence in its ability to get the weapons data it needs by conducting simulated tests. He should keep insisting. The United States should make it clear that India has more to gain by focusing on economic growth and expanding global cooperation than on developing more nuclear weapons. And it should leave no doubt about how much India and the rest of the world has to lose if New Delhi makes the wrong choice.
While this shadow boxing continues, details of Indian nuclear proliferation continue to accumulate, which the world in general and USA in particular remain oblivious of. India's nuclear assets are far from being safe as Hindu fundamentalists are too rigid to realize the norms of civilized world. They are power hungry and can go to any extent to achieve their objectives. A number of freedom movements are a constant source of trouble in India. Similarly Hindu extremists running their own bomb factories may try to grab Indian nukes. There is a lack of information about security lapses / accidents which took place in Indian nuclear program as compared to other nuclear states. We need to expose the vulnerabilities of Indian nuclear assets. Following aspects explain the extent to which Indian nuclear assets are poorly safeguarded:
Indian Atomic Energy Regulatory Board has documented more than 130 extremely serious safety issues in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC); Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research; Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited; Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Indian Rare Earths Limited; Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC), and Heavy Water Board. Cirus, 40 MW has a history of developing radiation leaks. Candu reactors are suffering from massive leakage of heavy water. Waste tanks at BARC habitually develop major leaks. Dhruva suffers from design problems, fuel leakages. The Fast Breeder Test Reactor of 40 MW at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, built with French assistance, was rated 'not safe', and discarded. Similar reactors, like Super Phoenix of France and Monju of Japan, were also discarded because of safety hazards. Incidents of leakage took place in Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) in 1986, 1988 and 1991. Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant, Narora, Kakrapar, Gujarat, Tarapur, Maharashtra, Russian VVER Light Water Reactor and NFC Hyderabad developed safety problems.
It is a misconception that India has a clean proliferation record and hence deserves to be supplied with nuclear material / technology. Following aspects merit cognizance: US based Safe Energy Communication Council has described the Indian nuclear program as the least efficient and most dangerous in the world. US Congressman Ed Markey, noted that India is not successfully guarding its nuclear facilities. Mr. R.K.Yadav a former employee of RAW, filed a case against 19 senior officials of RAW for leaking sensitive information. The mysterious death of Indian nuclear scientist has given rise to profound doubts about the loopholes in Indian nuclear programme. Important nuclear installations and research centers such as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and a number of other nuclear plants and uranium conversion facilities are not part of IAEA safeguards and are also not protected effectively.
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PAKISTAN OBSERVER
EDITORIAL
HOLY PROPHET'S (PBUH) MESSAGE OF PEACE
SANIYASNAIN KHAN
A major part of the Prophet's (PBHU) mission was to bring peace to the world. One of the ways in which he strove towards this end was to attempt to convince people that all men and women, albeit inhabiting very different regions of the world, and seemingly different from one another in color, culture and language, etc., were in fact each other's blood brothers and sisters. His message was crucial, for a proper relationship of love and respect can be established only if that is how human beings regard one another. To inculcate such feelings, the Prophet would preach to his followers: "You are all Adam's offspring and Adam was made of clay." And in his prayers to his Creator, he said, "O Lord, all your servants are brothers."
The Prophet (PBHU) would exhort his followers to live in peace with their fellow men, saying, "A true believer is one with whom others feel secure—one who returns love for hatred. He used to teach believers that anyone who would return love only when love was given belonged on a lower ethical plane. The true believer never reasons that it is only if people treat him well that he will treat them well in return. He is accustomed rather to doing good to those who mistreat him, and to refrain from harming those who do him injury. The Prophet (PBHU) himself set the example. All his recorded words and actions reveal him as a man of great gentleness, kindness, humility, good humor and excellent common sense, with a great love for all people and even for animals.Despite his position as leader, the Prophet never believed himself to be greater or better than other people. He never made others feel small, unwanted or embarrassed. He urged his followers to behave kindly and humbly, releasing slaves whenever possible, and giving in charity, especially to very poor people, orphans and prisoners—without any thought of reward.
He would tell people that "every religion has some special characteristic, that of Islam being modesty." In the absence of such a virtue, no community can have lasting peace. The Prophet's (PBHU) own modesty, coupled with great strength of character, is depicted in a well-known story of an old Meccan woman who hated the Prophet. Every morning when the Prophet passed by her house, she would empty a basket of rubbish on his head from the upper story of her house. He never once remonstrated with her about this. One day, when the Prophet (PBHU) passed through this area, no rubbish fell on his head. Thinking that the old woman must be ill, he went upstairs to inquire how she was, and found her ill in bed. When she discovered that the Prophet (PBHU) had come to see her, she began to weep: "I ill-treated you, and now you come to inquire after my health!" Ultimately, she became one of his followers. What strength of character, what patience and tolerance the Prophet (PBHU) evinced in refusing to be provoked, preferring rather to show kindness and magnanimity to one who had wished him ill. His was a high moral character, so that even if badly treated by others, he went on returning good for evil. People harmed him, yet he would pray for them. He would remain patient in the face of oppression and, regardless of the provocation, he would refrain from becoming incensed. In setting this example, his ulterior aim was to fashion souls which were God-oriented, which found God so great that everything else paled into insignificance. He wanted everyone to have such boundless peace of mind that nothing could disturb them. Such balanced individuals, would never then became a prey to worldliness.
Totally free from negative reaction, they would then be able to turn everything in this world, whether material or spiritual, into food for more profound thought, rather than into pretexts for rash and vengeful action. The essence of this philosophy is expressed in one of the Prophet's sayings: "Nine things the Lord has commanded me: Fear of God in private and in public; Justness, whether in anger or in calmness; Moderation in both poverty and affluence; That I should join hands with those who break away from me;and give to those who deprive me; and forgive those who wrong me; and that my silence should be meditation; and my words remembrance of God; and my vision keen observation." (Razin)Throughout the first thirteen years of his Prophethood, Prophet Muhammad (PBHU) preached in Mecca, but it was in the face of bitter opposition from the Meccans. When it became impossible for him to stay there, he left for Medina. Wars were waged against him, but he showed his antagonists that the power of peace was far greater than that of war. The peace treaty of Hudaybiyyah is a clear example of this, when the Prophet agreed to every demand his antagonists made on the sole assurance that peace would subsequently prevail.
His life's experience ranged from penury to prosperity, from defeat to success, yet whatever the degree of well-being or hardship, he steadfastly trod the path of moderation. At all times and right till the end, he remained and patient and grateful servant of the Almighty, bringing his message of peace and tolerance to mankind.
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PAKISTAN OBSERVER
EDITORIAL
S WAZIRISTAN, FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION
DR HUMA MIR
Operation Rah-e-Raast in Swat has been a great success not only for the Army but also for the elected government which took the risk of ordering a military operation in settled areas. Alhamdolillah, the Army came out with flying colors having decimated those who audaciously challenged the writ of the government. In our history, this is perhaps the first Internal Security Military Operation where the population supported and celebrated the military intervention. Their sufferings at the hands of Taliban were so grisly that the damages to property etc that they suffered in the course of the military operation were overlooked.
The army has given blood to succeed and has gained pride and professional confidence in its ability and capacity to fight terrorists as well as has gained the confidence of the nation. It has driven the fear of God in the hearts of the mercenaries who are fighting the proxy war in the name of Islam for the benefit of the traditional enemies of Pakistan. The short Taliban domination of Malakand, Swat and Buner was a nightmare for those who were lashed, looted, those whose family members were hanged, slaughtered or shot, those whose sisters, daughters and wives were abducted, those whose sons and brothers were kidnapped and for those children whose schools were burnt. The people of Swat are thus unanimous in condemning the plague of Talibanisation. Their nightmare continues at lower intensity because Taliban leaders remain alive and some of their diehard followers remain in the field occasionally disrupting life. Although the ISPR has been giving out figures in tidbits but the people still don't know how many Taliban were killed, how many arrested how many surrendered and a major concern is what will be done to the arrested Taliban? Would they be tried, and by whom, Civil courts, Anti Terrorist Courts or Army Courts? Whose custody these people are in? police, army or Scouts.
People have serious reservations about the courts that would be lavish in granting bail and everyone remembers famous terrorist Rashid Rauf who was allowed to escape from Police Custody. Its not hard to imagine that if Taliban are released or they get bail what they will do. They will regroup and may take revenge from the people. The nature of the operation was such that failure was simply not an option either for the army or the government. After Swat Operation the military has been under pressure from the US as well as US influenced political leadership to mount a similar operation in South Waziristan. To put pressure on Pakistan to enter Waziristan, there is a well orchestrated campaign to internationally stigmatize our Armed Forces and our intelligence agencies for their alleged links with the religious extremists. This campaign is spearheaded by our supposed US and Western Allies with the usual Indian inputs. Pakistan has become a plausible scapegoat for their failures in Afghanistan and I believe that even if we succeed in taming Waziristan, pressure on Pakistan will not recede. The US has already come out with the next pressure point and that is the farfetched "Quetta Shura". It almost appears that there is a conspiracy to wear down our armed forces and their equipment in Internal Security Operations. We have enough problems in Baluchistan to be drawn into another witch hunt in Quetta.
The South Waziristan region is seen as the "Epicentre" of terrorism not only within Pakistan but also for Afghanistan. It's vital to national security that the army takes on these elements at the earliest, however, it is equally critical to examine if the army should undertake a full scale assault on South Waziristan with an unfinished business in Swat and adjacent districts. Moreover, irrespective of the pressure on the army to launch an operation, does the army feel that the conditions in Waziristan are presently conducive to a military operation? Secondly, has the army logistically recuperated from the Swat offensive?
What has the government and the army done in terms of Psychological warfare Operations to sensitize the people to the impending operations. Do we have a scientific database to conclusively say that the army operation shall have local understanding and support. Have we dominated the airwaves to challenge the poison being spread by numerous FM radio stations run by Taliban and their supporters. The US and anything Western is highly unpopular in Waziristan. US drone attacks which have killed extremists as well as civilians including women and innocent children has further exaggerated that perception. When our army undertakes operations in South Waziristan, would it be seen as acting in support of the US or will it be seen as a national army out to extend the writ of the government. Do we have adequate intelligence to conclusively say that a very costly but successful operation in South Waziristan would ease our troubles as well as give relief to the US and NATO Forces in Afghanistan. The success of the Swat operation can also be partially attributed to the relative harmony and shared perspective on terrorism of the political leadership and the Army. Whether by design or simple mistiming, that harmony has been given a jolt by the US over the acrimony it generated through the Kerry Luger Bill.
The terror attack on the Army Headquarter in Rawalpindi has drawn public attention away from the Kerry Lugar Bill at a time when the Anti Americanism was at its peak. Would it be naïve to think that the Americans and our other enemies had nothing to do with this attack or realism and understanding of their role in our internal affairs impinges that we also look at this attack as a diversion from the aftermath of the Kerry Luger Bill saga.
According to an analyst, Pakistan is today facing upto nine hostile intelligence agencies which are constantly conspiring to destabilize us. The political leadership and the army have to be wary of the conspiracies to place wedge between them and maintain harmony at all costs while we fight OUR war on terror. The nation wishes the army success in Waziristan as and when it is ordered to mount that operation. However, the people demand that the army should only be asked to mount the operation when it is fully prepared and focused.
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PAKISTAN OBSERVER
EDITORIAL
CLOSE THE WINDOWS..!
ROBERT CLEMENTS
Creak! Squeak! Creak! I'm trying to open a window; amazed at the audacity of a government telling me what to do and when. "You can't buy liquor today?"
Why?" "Because it's a dry day!""Dry day?""It's the birth anniversary of our revered leader!" "There may be people who would celebrate a birthday with a glass in their hand?""That's against our culture!" "Are you sure?" "Yes!""Lets open that window and see what you mean by our culture! Hey what's that guy sipping while his family watches TV? And in the next house and the next and the next, what's that sound? It's the clinking of glasses, the opening of bottles, the laughter of men as they listen to one another's stories!"
Close those windows!" "Want to open the windows of our political leaders and see the same thing?""Close the windows!" "Why? Before the world sees our hypocrisy? That a dry day is a wet one behind closed windows? Tell me, how much does the Supreme Court fine political leaders for enforcing a bandh?" "Why?" "Because the same fine should be levied on the government!" "On the government?" "Yeah for enforcing their 'dry day' bandh on people! Like goondas go about downing shutters against our will, the government is imposing its will on my freedom of choice! It is my right to decide what I want to do, and no goonda or government has the right to impose themselves on me!" "But drinking on voting day could cause a law and order situation!" "So arrest those who cause problems, like you arrest those who drink and drive!""Now close the windows!" "No!" I said, "Let the world see our hypocrisy!" I heard the angry sound of windows being closed and looked out to see bootleggers and illicit liquor sellers looking at me angrily, "We are closing the windows!" they shouted.
Why?" I asked. "Because hypocrisy is profitable!" they shouted and laughed as they passed a bottle through the window to the people inside..!
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THE INDEPENDENT
EDITORIAL
HAMID'S PRUDENT MOVE
JS TAKES A PRAGMATIC DECISION
In a distinctive move, parliament has decided to recover through legal procedures, the money from former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, his deputy Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain allegedly drawn by submitting inflated medical bills, additional fuel allowances and other expenses during the last Jatiya Sangsad. Also important here is the fact that the Jatiya Sangsad unanimously rejected the parliamentary committee's suggestion for cancelling parliament membership of Jamiruddin Sircar. Instead, the House passed a resolution to send the matter to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for further investigation. During the two-hour deliberation on Tuesday, Speaker Abdul Hamid observed that there was 'neither any specific constitutional provision nor any precedent for stripping a lawmaker of membership.' His observation certainly had a sobering effect on the proceeding and helped reach a pragmatic resolution both on the membership status of the former speaker as well as the alleged corruption, abuse of authority and misappropriation of public money by the trio.
The sitting Speaker has struck the right chord. He has saved the day for parliament. This decision highlights the fact that corruption and abuse of power in high places are not being ignored but those must be duly taken note of by appropriate organs of the state. Parliamentary standing committees or special probe committees constituted by members of parliament can investigate cases of such irregularities and abuse of power before suggesting actions. But all this must follow due legal courses with ample opportunity for the accused to defend their cases before punitive measures are taken.
NEED FOR FAIR HEARING OF CASES
Now that the decision is in favour of referring the matter to the ACC, much depends on how the case is framed and pursued in the court. We will hope that the case receives a fair hearing and sooner this is done the better. After all in the interest of justice and greater good of the public, the importance of this case cannot be overemphasised. If the accused come out clean, fair enough; if they are found guilty by the court, the three powerful political men will have to suffer the consequences.
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THE INDEPENDENT
EDITORIAL
'NOW CLAWLESS TOO'
FRUSTRATED ACC CHIEF SPEAKS
The chairman has said that the current recommendations that have been sent to parliament for examination is inconsistent with the commitment of the prime minister made earlier in parliament. It is surprising to see that there are some people within the government who are out to subvert the premier's public commitment. The ACC chairman has also mentioned that his organisation badly needs reforms, indicating the lack of integrity among some of his officers. This is an important issue, which needs to be addressed as well. But then given the constraints set by government's rules and regulations that guide recruitment and accountability or the lack of it, it is difficult to build a totally corruption-free organisation. The nation will have to go deeper into the factors that contribute to corruption and way beyond the penalty system.
CORRUPTION VS ECONOMIC GROWTH
The ACC chairman has also complained about weaknesses in the criminal judicial system and that, too, needs to be looked into. The judiciary and the legal system must also share some of the responsibility in the gradual deterioration of corruption and other crimes in society, although it is true that they alone cannot resolve it. Corruption has become a major national issue; it is estimated to gobble about two per cent of our GDP, every year. If the country cannot do anything about it, there is little chance of high economic growth. In addition, it has also become a serious political agenda thereby undermining political stability. Unless taken care of, it has the potential to destabilise the nation again.
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THE INDEPENDENT
BOB'S BANTER
CRIME FREE INDIA...!
"...Policemen refusing to register an offence on the pretext that it was committed outside their jurisdiction is something that has frustrated citizens for years…" Oct 11th Oct
We are slowly becoming a crime free nation! Police stations across the country are steadily recording less and less vice and violations and very soon we could indeed become the first nation in the world with a zero crime rate! I decided to congratulate the police for the excellent job they were doing. "It's an excellent job you're doing," I said, "may I have your autograph?"
"If I may borrow your ball pen," smiled the inspector. "Where's yours?" I asked. "It's dried up with no one wanting to register any offence," said the inspector as a very hassled looking young girl entered the station. "Inspector, my cell phone has been stolen, please register my complaint, I saw the pickpocket running away with it." Inspector, "Which bus stop did it occur at?" Young girl, "Three bus stops away." Inspector, "Then you will have to go that police station, madam." Young girl, "But I went there and they directed me here." Inspector, "Oh they did, did they? Will madam be able to come here everyday between nine and twelve in the morning? Everyday madam, everyday?" said the inspector sternly. "Why should I? I have come to register my complaint. I have come to make an FIR," said the girl. "Madam has to understand that if an FIR is registered, madam is also a suspect," said the inspector winking at me. "Madam could have thrown away the phone to get insurance, or maybe madam wants her father to buy her the latest cell phone? You will have to report here every morning, so our constable can interrogate you. In fact if madam will step into the back room, we can start questioning madam as soon as our lady constable who is on bandobast duty returns. Where are you going madam?" Shouted the girl, "Home!" as she ran out of the police station like a frightened bunny nearly throwing aside the man who came running into the police station. "Inspector! My flat has been burgled and my mother injured in the scuffle." Inspector, "How much stolen?" The man, "Three lakhs inspector, and gold and jewellery." Inspector asks, "Income tax has been paid on it?" Man, "What inspector?" Inspector reassuring, "I will send a constable to your house…" Man grateful, "Thank you inspector sahib." Continued the inspector, "Along with an income tax official. Now let me register your complaint." Said the man, "Its okay inspector," pulling out a five hundred rupee note and laying it on the table. "My mother is a strong woman she will recover!" Said the inspector, "See! My complaint page is blank. You must tell your readers that because of us there is less crime." I said, "Yes, I will. I most certainly will...!"
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THE AUSTRALIAN
EDITORIAL
HOSPITAL PASS NOT AN OPTION FOR RUDD
CANBERRA MUST TACKLE THE STATES OVER PROBLEMS ON WARDS
KEVIN Rudd's response to the Australian Medical Association's scathing report on the performance of public hospitals was good. But while the Prime Minister's Wednesday call for a national debate on how to fix the system was welcome, a statement of what he thinks should be done would be even better. In opposition, Mr Rudd said that unless public hospitals were fixed by the middle of this year he would ask the electorate to approve a federal takeover in a referendum. But while the quality of hospital care has continued to decline since the last election, Mr Rudd is not as focused on the problem as he once was. This is understandable - the global financial crisis reshaped the government's agenda in the past 12 months. But after nearly two years in office, Mr Rudd cannot keep acknowledging the problems in public hospitals and leaving it at that. His new deadline for a solution is early next year, when the government will put its response to the July report from the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission to COAG. As a commitment to co-operative federalism, this is hard to beat. But as the states are responsible for underperforming hospitals, anything perpetuating present practice would be less a cure than palliative care.
The core complaint afflicting public hospitals is the way they are controlled by three centralised systems. Canberra allocates money to the states, which in most cases send a cheque to regional authorities. These then fund the actual hospitals. The problem is each set of administrators has their own procedures, policies and performance objectives. It is hard to imagine a better way to build a bureaucracy or a worse one to support the doctors and nurses who keep patients alive. And the number of jurisdictions makes it hard for an Australia-wide approach. As Siobhain Ryan reported in The Australian last month, a national registration plan for 10 health professions required nine sets of submissions and two versions of legislation to keep everybody in the states and territories happy. And while the states always argue more federal funding is the only answer, it is not. Spending on public hospitals increased from $10 billion to $25bn in the decade to 2006, but as the Prime Minister has previously pointed out, more than 15 per cent of patients wait longer than is recommended for elective surgery, a figure that has not improved over time. As the population ages - the number of people aged 65 and over will nearly double to 25 per cent by mid-century - so will demands on hospitals. That Australia will spend more money on them is a given. The challenge is to ensure it buys better and lower-cost patient care. And it would help if the states spent money intended for hospitals on hospitals. Canberra gave NSW hospitals a $400 million emergency injection last financial year, while the state government was leaching cash out of the system.
That the empire-building, buck-passing and cost-shifting inherent in the existing arrangement must end is manifest. What Mr Rudd must carry to COAG is the way to do it. One option is to empower hospitals managed by their own boards. This approach is used in Victoria, where figures in a Productivity Commission report released yesterday show hospitals have the lowest-cost patient care in the country. But given the way the states can argue over a registration scheme for medical professionals, agreement to such a radical approach is unlikely among ministers and mandarins with bailiwicks to protect. Mr Rudd may yet have to ask the voters how to cure public hospitals.
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THE AUSTRALIAN
EDITORIAL
REFORMS THAT WORK
REDUCING INTERGENERATIONAL WELFARE DEPENDENCY IS VITAL
THE Howard government, in general, was a big spender on welfare, but it achieved an important reform with its welfare-to-work policy for single parents whose children had reached school age. Centre for Independent Studies research has found the number of families dependent on "parenting payments" has fallen by 120,000, or 20 per cent, since job-search requirements were imposed in 2006. Unpopular as the move was at the 2007 election in seats with high concentrations of single parents, mainly mothers, it has given the Rudd government a useful platform from which to further reduce inter-generational welfare dependency.
Welfare accounts for one-third of federal spending. Faced with the need for tough decisions to repair the budget after the global financial crisis, the government must be wary of rejecting further reform because the welfare-to-work measures were a factor in John Howard's defeat. Recognition that the best form of welfare is a job is largely a bipartisan consensus around the world. Rather than being part of the agenda of conservative politicians only, welfare reforms pioneered by the Hawke and Keating governments were taken up and advanced significantly by such social democrats as Bill Clinton in the US and Tony Blair in Britain.
The CIS has also set out a good case for why the disability support pension, currently paid to 720,000 people, a slight increase since 2006, should be the focus of future reform. Nobody is suggesting that the sick, the frail and the disabled who are unable to support themselves should be disadvantaged. To the contrary, a more efficient system might enable governments to look after those in dire need even more generously. But it is a concern that welfare recipients often move between payments, with 60 per cent of those taking up the DSP switching from another payment, mainly unemployment benefits.
The Henry tax review should address middle-class tax and welfare churn. But in reviewing the eligibility criteria for support payments, "tough love", while difficult to implement, has real benefits not only for taxpayers but also for recipients themselves and their children. Intergenerational unemployment is an acute problem in pockets of the nation, among both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Too often, the lack of a job is inextricably linked to a serious breakdown in parental responsibility, contributing to a pervasive cycle of educational under-achievement, truancy, substance abuse and youth homelessness. Welfare-to-work reform and the Rudd government's extension of income management are useful measures for reminding parents being supported by taxpayers of their responsibilities to care for their children properly.
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THE AUSTRALIAN
EDITORIAL
A NEW WORLD ORDER
REINVENTING THE MEDIA DOESN'T MEAN IT HAS TO BE FREE
WE agree with ABC managing director Mark Scott when he says the rules have changed in media and that solutions will not be found by looking back and engaging in "legacy" thinking. But in his A.N. Smith Memorial Lecture in Journalism this week, Mr Scott was talking his own book when he suggested media companies were on the wrong track in wanting to charge for their online content.
When you do not need to make a profit and your journalists are paid by the government, it is logical to argue that news should be "free". Rupert Murdoch does not have that luxury. For News Corporation (publisher of this newspaper) and other commercial media companies, charging for online content is not about harking back to the past but about creating a business model for the future. Serious media coverage means employing skilled reporters and analysts. Giving news away for free devalues the product and does not compute in business terms.
Yet there is a clear social benefit in commercial media. This week's shortlisting of finalists in the coveted Walkley Awards for journalism shows that overwhelmingly scoops come from commercial media. The ABC, with its international coverage and bureaus, plays an important role, but its culture is not focused on breaking stories. Commercial media knows that to prosper, it must be much more aggressive than the 7 o'clock news.
Despite the doomsayers, even fragmented audiences are prepared to pay for distinctive print product. And there is emerging evidence from the US that, given quality and difference, consumers are willing to pay for online content as well.
Mr Scott makes much of the ABC's focus on constant reinvention yet fails to acknowledge the innovation behind moves to create a user-pays model for the internet. He calls for "transformational" thinking yet seems more intent on shoring up his already protected position online. Meeting the challenge of the internet will not be easy for commercial media with a commitment to quality, but writing off the "legacy" companies just yet is surely
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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
EDITORIAL
THE WRONG END OF THE MICROSCOPE
CLEVER countries innovate. Globally, the link between investment in research and development and economic productivity and competitiveness is widely recognised. Australia has slipped from fifth to 18th in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness rankings over the past eight years and total spending on research and development is near the bottom among advanced economies - 2 per cent of gross domestic product.
This is not surprising given the sharp decline in government spending on innovation and science in the mid-1990s, the collapse of business investment in research in the late 1990s and steady cuts to university funding. Public investment no longer meets the full cost of university-based research, forcing universities to obtain money from business and elsewhere. Yet universities are at the heart of research. They conduct 78 per cent of basic research - from which commercially important applied research is built - and 89 per cent of research into the humanities, arts and social sciences. Meanwhile, research and development investment in emerging economies, and innovation frontrunners such as Finland, South Korea and Singapore, is rocketing.
The Federal Government has made much of its determination to turn this trend around. Research grants are up; more that $2 billion has been allocated for new research infrastructure. Business is also being encouraged to invest in collaborative, university-based research projects. This makes sense: up to three-quarters of private-sector patents, which become private-sector profits, draw on public-sector research. Cash-strapped universities are more than happy to see the private sector put some money up front. Collaboration also reduces industry research costs and builds the critical masses of researchers vital to innovation. Last year, industry, government and community groups contributed more than $200 million to targeted university-based projects. Such links smooth the transition from laboratory discovery to products and services: consider the benefits of the commercialisation of Australian research triumphs such as the cochlear implant.
But several questions arise. First, to what extent should the commercial priorities of any industry drive the public research agenda? And, second, when collaborating, how close is too close? A Newcastle University researcher received substantial government co-funding for research largely sponsored by a commercial weight-loss company for which she also works as a consultant. Conflict of interest declarations for research grant applications are compulsory, but there must be much clearer demarcation. And choco-shakes as meal replacements for dieters should not feature on the national innovation agenda.
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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
EDITORIAL
SILK ROAD NEEDS A CLEARER MAP
The decision of one barrister, Gregory Curtin, to speak out against the process by which senior counsel are appointed has opened an otherwise obscure process to public scrutiny. Senior counsel - silks - are chosen by their professional peers. Junior barristers apply for silk, and are vetted by a group of about 650 senior members of the profession, including judges, senior and junior counsel, and solicitors, who are asked to express a view on applicants of whom they have had professional experience in the past five years.
Though this system would seem to ensure the process is as open as a closed profession can make it, Curtin's analysis of recent appointments indicates that the committee which has the final say awarded silk to barristers from their own chambers five times as often as to applicants from outside.
This looks unfair. Is it? It may just be a result of the quaint traditions which determine the hierarchy within the bar. Some barristers' chambers, and some floors in those chambers, are regarded by lawyers as professionally stronger than others. Competition is fierce among junior barristers to obtain rooms on a strong floor, because other things being equal, a barrister may charge higher fees based on the reputation of his or her floor and chambers. Existing tenants on such a floor vet applicants to ensure that only the most talented are admitted when others move on.
Looked at dispassionately, this system seems haphazard, almost feudal. Yet given this organisation, it is hardly surprising that those chambers which attract the most talented juniors will also have the most barristers taking silk in any one year.
The public needs to know the process promotes those who best represent the whole profession, not just members of a narrow group. Here the Bar Association's response to Curtin's criticisms seems too defensive: they have been attacked as a slur on all involved in the process. That was hardly Curtin's point. Many of his claims are simply fact: the process is of necessity secretive and non-transparent, because it involves professionals giving their opinion of the skill and standing of their peers. Without confidentiality, those opinions would not be forthcoming.
More serious is his view that the process is open to invalid voting and the acceptance of false accusations. In the end, decisions on which individuals are the leaders of a profession will always be for the profession itself. But in the legal profession as elsewhere, justice has to be seen to be done.
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THE GURDIAN
EDITORIAL
BANKERS' BONUSES: GOLDEN SACKS
And so it begins again. Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street bank that makes rivals green with envy, is gearing up for the end-of-year bonus season. Its giveaway fund is £10bn and rising, meaning that bankers will score an average £323,000 (emphasis on average; plenty of the traders will walk if they do not pocket far more). Just a year after the crisis that nearly toppled Wall Street, this is set to be the bank's biggest bonus season ever. Those green shoots in the wider economy may still be hard to spot, but the greenbacks are certainly raining down on a chosen few.
Of course, Goldman has the money for all this corporate largesse. Yesterday it announced a fourfold rise in quarterly profits, to £1.96bn in the three months just gone. Those investment banks still standing are beneficiaries of the consolidation that swept through high finance last year, leaving them with much less competition and a licence to print money. Only this time around, the masters of the universe are even more aware of how this might look to the little people; that is why Goldman's management (not the most communicative bunch) have spent the past few weeks on a PR offensive – and why the bank is putting £122m into a charitable foundation to support educational initiatives. Think of it as tip money, for all our hard work in rescuing the banking system (Goldman held out its hand for $10bn from the US taxpayer), wrecking the public finances – and bearing up through the worst recession in decades.
And then there is the supine Labour government, boasting about having signed up City banks to the G20 principles on pay – which they would have to follow anyway, and are in any case not too onerous. The story in yesterday's Guardian about how the Treasury is preparing to hand Lloyds Banking Group £5bn to help it escape the official asset-insurance scheme, and so avoid further intervention from Whitehall, is just one more example of how ministers are letting financiers off the hook. The banks are finding their feet, the stockmarkets are soaring (hello, Dow 10,000): Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling can move on to the rest of their in-tray. Think the Tories would be any stricter? George Osborne's speech to the Conservative party conference skimped on proposals to reform finance – and a party whose two treasurers are a hedge-fund manager and a broker is unlikely to give the City too hard a time.
Weak politicians who have been ensnared by powerful bankers: this is one massive obstacle to serious reform of finance. Another is the prevalent view that the UK would be sunk without a massive finance industry. A version of that story could be heard yesterday from Goldman Sachs, in its observation that it would contribute £2bn to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs this year, and in its exhortation to journalists to focus on "how well we're doing and how well our people are performing". What is good for General Motors is good for America, a car industry executive once said. The modern version is: what is good for Goldman Sachs (and Barclays and all the rest) is good for America and the UK.
An excellent corrective to this Whig view of our economic history can be found in a new study by the Centre for Research of Socio-Cultural Change at Manchester University (www.cresc.ac.uk). It points out that while the finance sector paid £203bn in taxes in the five boom years up to the start of the credit crunch, the upfront costs of the UK bailout are estimated by the IMF to be a minimum of £289bn, possibly rising to over a trillion pounds. Job creation? Finance companies employ a million people, mainly in high-street banking. Add in all those working around core finance, and the industry still employs no more than 6.5% of the workforce. These facts help dispel the pernicious notion that finance is vital to the UK. And unless that fairy story is disproved, all proposals to reform finance are doomed to die at the hands of assiduous Square Mile lobbyists – or disappear up a cul-de-sac of technicalities.
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THE GURDIAN
EDITORIAL
IN PRAISE OF… KINDER SCOUT
The wild moorland plateau of Kinder Scout would be wonderful anywhere, but its place on the roof of the Peak District national park makes it especially welcome as Britain's newest national nature reserve. Three of the busiest (and in the past, dirtiest) of Europe's cities lie within a cycle ride or brief train journey, and this proximity to large populations has moulded the topography and celebrated history of the heather, peat hags and bony stone. Paths which cross the plateau were a marvellous escape for industrial workers but had to be fought for, step by step. The Kinder Scout mass trespass of 1932 was an act of desperate frustration at the lack of progress towards access after 40 years of politely lawful negotiations with landowners. The Pennine Way took another 33 years to inch its way across the Dark Peak. Arguments against access were built on the premise that the wilderness would be overwhelmed by the likes of Benny Rothman's British Workers' Sports Federation, which rallied communists, ramblers and students for the trespass. Proven wrong, the objections are stood on their head by Natural England's designation of this 224th national nature reserve. Its reasoning emphasised not only protection for the hen harriers and rare mosses but the education of thousands of people who can reach Kinder easily, enjoy it and get home in time for tea. Few who visit Mount Famine, Mermaid's Pool and the river Kinder's "scut" (waterfall), which gives the hill its name, do not return as missionaries for nature and the wild.
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THE GURDIAN
EDITORIAL
PAKISTAN: A FIGHT TO THE FINISH
The Pakistan army is taking a beating for its summer offensive in Swat and the drone attack which killed Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. Not only is Baitullah's successor Hakimullah very much alive (the army claimed he had been killed in a shoot-out with a rival over the succession) but his organisation has shown in the last 11 days that it can orchestrate mayhem throughout the Punjab. Yesterday saw a first – a Mumbai-style series of co-ordinated attacks on three high-profile targets in Lahore, as well as a suicide bombing in the North-West Frontier province. At least 38 people died, but this was, by the militants' standards, a failure. What they had in mind was a series of mass hostage-takings. Two of the three targets in Lahore, the Federal Investigation Agency and the Manawan police training centre, were hit for the second time in a year.
The implications of the last 11 days are profound: they represent a major intelligence failure by an army that cannot even protect its own headquarters; the attacks could not have been planned without militant sleepers or sympathisers at some level, however lowly, within the ranks of the army itself; and obviously Tehrik-i-Taliban are not the only players. Penetration of this sort throughout the Punjab would have to involve Punjabi gunmen and suicide bombers as well. Militant attacks of this sophistication and scale represent more than just a pre-emptive strike against a long-heralded army offensive in South Waziristan, where Hakimullah is based. A new front has been opened. It is a battle that the army cannot afford to lose, because it is being fought in the Punjab itself, the very heart of the Pakistani state.
The west has zeroed in on the argument that some elements in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are still feeding the jihadist monster, because India remains in their eyes the strategic threat. The less stable Afghanistan becomes, the more the ISI needs to think ahead. And it is true that not everyone sees militant groups as an internal threat. Hafiz Saeed, a cleric whom India accuses of playing a major part in the Mumbai attacks, walked free from court because a prosecutor said the charity he heads, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, had not been banned. The madrasas remain unreformed.
But if the army should now go after the militants wherever they are based – in Waziristan or in Bahawalpur, the centre of the hardline madrasas – then the wildfire could spread, because it is from Punjab that the army is raised. Its in no one's interests to see two dysfunctional armies, a Pakistani as well as an Afghani one. An increasingly interventionist US military could merely be making problems worse for the one relatively functional army in the region.
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THE KOREA HERALD
EDITORIAL
KOREA-VIETNAM TIES
South Korean troops fought in the war in Vietnam for seven years, from 1965 until their withdrawal in 1972. About 3,000 soldiers in the ROK Forces-Vietnam, consisting of two Army divisions and a reinforced Marine brigade, were killed in action and another 8,000 were wounded.
Korea participated in the Vietnam War out of its obligation as an ally of the United States, which was protecting South Korea against the military threat of North Korea. The overseas troop dispatch ended a cutback in U.S. aid to Korea and helped South Korean business activities in Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some radical circles branded the troops as mercenaries, but any historical assessment should recognize their positive role in that sphere of the Cold War and in opening South Korea's political and economic advancement into the world.
Putting the brief chapter of hostility behind, Korea and Vietnam established diplomatic relations in 1992. Business ties and people-to-people exchanges have grown rapidly since Vietnam chose a course of economic reform and openness. Numerous Korean enterprises invested in the Southeast Asian country with dependable manpower. The increasing number of marriages between Koreans and Vietnamese has helped narrow the distance between the two countries.
As we look over the path of pragmatism the two nations have taken, it is a little embarrassing that Hanoi recently objected to planned legislation in Korea regarding the treatment of the veterans of the war in Vietnam. It was reported that the Vietnamese authorities questioned the appropriateness of the expression, "Vietnam war veterans who contributed to the maintenance of world peace," in the draft revision bill to the Law on the Treatment of War Veterans.
The bill was put to public notice as of Sept. 3, 2009. President Lee Myung-bak was scheduled to make a tour of Southeast Asia, including Hanoi, late in October. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, who had accompanied the president on his tripartite summit with Chinese and Japanese leaders in Beijing on Oct. 10, made a sudden visit to Hanoi on Oct. 11, Sunday, and returned to Seoul on Tuesday. The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday officially announced the president's travel plan, which includes a visit to Vietnam on Oct. 22.
There was no official explanation on why the foreign minister had to go to Hanoi so hurriedly, arousing speculation that it was related to the presidential tour. That the tour schedule was announced by the two countries immediately after the foreign minister's return indicated that he had somehow managed to allay the Vietnamese side's resentment.
At this moment we are not particularly interested in having an argument with the Vietnamese on the nature of the war, which ended more than three decades ago. It is of no use to try to explain that the legislation is aimed at identfying the beneficiaries of the statute on the treatment of veterans more clearly and to inspire pride and honor among those who went to war for their country. Debate on just and unjust wars is the task of historians. No one-sided opinions should be allowed to interfere with the process of former adversaries building new relations.
"Future-oriented cooperation" is the great theme of today's diplomatic world, as nations are seeking to maximize their interests and bury their pasts. Korea and Vietnam are now poised to announce a "strategic partnership" which is becoming the standard mode of ties between nations entering full-scale political and economic cooperation so as not to be left behind in global competition. Such relations require abstention from each other's domestic matters.
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THE KOREA HERALD
EDITORIAL
INTEGRATION PANEL
Yet another presidential commission is being created, this time with the important mission of promoting "social integration." When established, it will consist of people of perhaps the most clout in various sections of society.
Ranking secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae are poring over extensive personal information data of a number of influential figures to pick up representatives from the right, left and center and contact candidates to win their consent to join. As the nation has witnessed ideological diversification and polarization in virtually all areas, the projected 35 members of the Social Integration Commission are being picked to cover a broad range of the intellectual spectrum, whether in the literary, academic, business or civic circles.
The Cabinet meeting presided over by President Lee Tuesday passed a decree on the establishment of the commission, which will be charged with "identifying the basic direction of and formulating the strategy for social integration, collecting opinions from different social strata, activating communication among them and resolving conflicts existing within and without." Cabinet ministers are obligatory members of subcommittees related to their own administrative disciplines. A former prime minister, who is known as a man of integrity with ample government experience, is being considered as a candidate to chair the panel, along with a few noted professors and a retired justice.
Many people shared President Lee's opinion when he emphasized in his Aug. 15 Liberation Day address that "we have too easily divided this world into two parts; mine, which is right, and yours, which is wrong. This kind of dichotomy has made our life miserable." Still, many others doubt that a new presidential commission, staffed with so many people of great careers - and self-esteem for that matter - can really achieve its aims. Social integration, after all, needs compromise and concession.
It is feared the commission may end up becoming a body that is effective in exposing conflicting social interests but is unable to come up with solutions. Otherwise, it may turn out to be one that is ready to endorse whatever "social integration" initiatives the president may decide on.
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THE KOREA HERALD
EDITORIAL
TREATING OF AL-QAIDA BY SAUDI ROYALS
BERNARD HAYKEL
PRINCETON - Although al-Qaida's leadership, beliefs and ideology are rooted in Saudi Arabia, the organization has been all but crushed in the kingdom by a government policy that combines a big carrot and an even bigger stick. The recent attempted assassination in Jeddah of Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, deputy interior minister for security affairs, demonstrates both elements of the Saudi strategy, and how a bold attempt by al-Qaida to revive its fortunes has failed.
The bomber was Abdullah Asiri, a Saudi citizen and al-Qaida member who had returned from Yemen, claiming to have renounced terrorism and wishing to surrender directly to Prince Muhammad in his palace. Earlier that day, the prince had the bomber flown in on his private jet from the Yemeni-Saudi border and reportedly ordered that he not be carefully searched. Yet, Asiri had indeed hidden a bomb inside his body, a one-pound explosive that he detonated near the prince. However, the bomb was not encased in metal and the terrorist was the only person killed.
To an outsider, the episode looks like a colossal security failure, as if the head of the FBI personally greeted one of bin Laden's lieutenants at a garden party. But it is just this highly personalized form of politics that the Saudi royals have adopted with defecting al-Qaida's members. Indeed, this policy, even with its risks, partly explains al-Qaida's defeat in Saudi Arabia. Highly personalized politics form part of what might be called Saudi Arabia's theater of state, which keeps the royals firmly in power.
Since 2003, Prince Muhammad has been in charge of a successful campaign against violent Islamism in the kingdom. In terms of armed security action, he has developed a strong domestic intelligence and police service that is both efficient and brutal in its tactics. At the same time, the prince has cannily used deeply rooted cultural and religions norms to pressure al-Qaida's recruits to give up violence.
For example, he offers significant financial inducements to individual jihadis, as well as their families, in return for political obedience. In effect, by not accepting Saudi largesse the militant will be keeping food off his own family's table - a powerful restraint in a culture and religion in which parents are highly regarded and respected.
Prince Muhammad has also established a rehabilitation program that seeks to de-program the jihadis from their radical beliefs through a course of study that teaches that Islam requires obedience to a Muslim ruler. Repentant jihadis are taught that violence undertaken by individuals - not by the legitimate ruler - is sinful and will be punished by God. These lessons do not rule out all violence, focusing instead on al-Qaida's justifications for its attacks and the forms that the violence takes. As such, both fighting without the ruler's explicit permission and suicide bombing are unlawful.
Entry into the program often involves a personal audience with the Saudi prince, in a ceremony that emphasizes the paternalistic and personal nature of governance in the kingdom, where all subjects are regarded as well-cared-for children of the royals.
Finally, Prince Muhammad has launched an internet monitoring and disinformation campaign that keeps close tabs on jihadi websites and online forums. As a result, the Saudi security services have a feel for the pulse of jihadi debates, as well as for the radicals' recruitment strategies.
Al-Qaida has also damaged itself with the Saudi public, which has been repeatedly victimized by terrorist attacks. Suicide bombings of public buildings and attacks on oil and other government installations have alienated many Saudis. With at least 80 percent of the population dependent on government salaries or grants, the attacks have proved very unpopular.
In addition, ordinary Saudis see the chaos next door in Iraq and do not want the same turmoil at home. For most people, stability, even if imposed by authoritarian means, trumps disorder.
In the last two years, al-Qaida's increasing failures in the kingdom have forced the surviving members to regroup across the border in Yemen. The rugged mountain terrain, a religiously conservative population, and a weak government with a history of collaboration with al-Qaida have created a relatively sheltered haven. As a result, al-Qaida has had a respite to try to rebuild itself and to organize attacks in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. With two ongoing domestic rebellions, a large population and the rapid disappearance of oil and water resources, Yemen is quickly emerging as a Western policymaker's nightmare.
For now, however, the Saudi royals have a prince who is seen as a courageous hero for having survived an assassination attempt while offering the hand of generosity to an unrepentant zealot. Saudi King Abdullah chastised Prince Muhammad for recklessness, but the king must also be thankful that his family has produced a security chief who has broken the back of al-Qaida, at least inside kingdom.
Bernard Haykel is a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University. - Ed.
(Project Syndicate)
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THE JAPAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
CLARIFYING THE IDEA OF COMMUNITY
Japan, China and South Korea agreed at a trilateral meeting in Beijing on Oct. 10 to work toward early resumption of the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak also said their three countries are committed to creating an East Asian community as a long-term goal.
Despite Mr. Hatoyama's enthusiasm for establishing an East Asian community, the approach so far looks foggy. As a preparatory step, Mr. Hatoyama wants to strengthen economic cooperation and joint efforts to combat global warming.
Many problems must be solved before the idea of an East Asian community becomes clear. One is how to dispel U.S. suspicion of the idea. In Beijing, Mr. Hatoyama said: "It could be said that we have so far depended on the United States too much. While the Japanese-U.S. alliance is important, I want to devise policies that focus more on Asia, as a member of Asia." Japan must strive to avoid alienating the U.S. or creating the feeling that the East Asian community would be hostile toward the U.S.
Japan reportedly envisages an East Asia community encompassing Japan, China, South Korea, the 10 member states of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) plus India, Australia and New Zealand. China, which wants to maintain its influence, appears to want such a community to comprise only China, Japan, South Korea and the ASEAN member states.
Mr. Hatoyama's idea is said to be modeled after the European Union. But it should be kept in mind that EU is the result of decades of effort and cooperation.
East Asia includes possible flash points like Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula as well as the challenge of dealing with undemocratic countries like North Korea and Myanmar. Memories of Japan's military aggression in the region are still vivid. The prerequisite for an East Asian community is that each nation commit itself to protecting human rights, upholding democratic principles and, especially, not creating a military threat to another nation.
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THE JAPAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
WINNY CREATOR RIGHTLY ACQUITTED
In December 2006, Mr. Isamu Kaneko, a former University of Tokyo researcher, was fined ¥1.5 million for enabling two computer users to illegally make movies and other files available to download. The Kyoto District Court said he was guilty because he had continued to offer the peer-to-peer file-sharing software Winny, which he had developed, via his Web site since May 2002, even though he was aware it was being used for the illegal copying of copyrighted material.
On Oct. 8, however, the Osaka High Court acquitted Mr. Kaneko, pointing out that although he was aware of the possibility of copyright violations when he posted Winny on his Web site, he also warned computer users not to illegally share files.
Winny enables the anonymous exchange of documents, music, images and other files through a network of computers instead of a central server. Users designate which files can be copied, and other users search for the files on the Internet and download them free of charge. Both the lower and high court rulings deem Winny as value-neutral. Still, illegal downloading of music and images through Winny is a fact.
Winny users can expose their computers to data theft. If they download a virus-infected file, other files on the computer not designated for sharing can be instantly leaked to the Internet. This vulnerability has led some people to develop viruses targeted at secret information held by the police, the Self-Defense Forces, enterprises, etc.
Mr. Kaneko's case is the first of its kind to come before the courts in Japan: A software developer has been implicated in copyright violations that were actually committed by users of the software. He said he fears the district court ruling will deter engineers from developing new technology.
The point of the high court ruling is that the crime of assisting in copyright violations is committed only when someone's main intent is to get others to use their software for copyright violations. Improvement of copyright protection and promotion of new computer technology must go hand in hand. The government should write new rules that meet this goal.
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THE JAPAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
SUMMIT HIGHLIGHTS MEDIA PROBLEMS IN CHINA
BY FRANK CHING
HONG KONG — It seems that almost every week brings new signs of China's rise, with a commensurate increase in its international influence and soft power as well as in its economic, political and military clout.
Last week saw Beijing hosting an unprecedented international media summit, attended by most of the world's media empires, such as News Corporation, the Associated Press, Reuters, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Turner Broadcasting System and Google.
The World Media Summit was hosted by the Xinhua News Agency. Altogether, 300 media representatives from more than 170 media outlets and 40 countries met to discuss the challenges faced by the industry.
The fact that major Western media companies flocked to attend an international conference held in Beijing and hosted by Xinhua, the mouthpiece of the Chinese government, speaks volumes about the changes that have taken place in recent years.
To be sure, that does not mean that Western media organizations have compromised their principles. In fact, a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the conference voiced the hope that "media organizations around the world will provide accurate, objective, impartial and fair coverage of the world's news events, and promote transparency and accountability of governments and public institutions."
It also called on media organizations to "promote transparency and accountability of governments and public institutions" and facilitate understanding as well as exchange of views and ideas among different countries.
While media companies made clear their interest in cooperating with China, the problems of the Chinese press were highlighted by the international organization Reporters Without Borders, which issued a statement to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1.
"Reporters Without Borders would like to participate in this anniversary in its own way," the statement said. "The past 60 years have been difficult for journalists as the Maoist regime wanted to turn the media into nothing more than propaganda tools. Journalists and bloggers nowadays are no longer locked in a totalitarian grip, but the censorship has never stopped. The Communist Party continues to exercise direct control over the news agency Xinhua, newspapers such as People's Daily, and the national broadcaster CCTV."
The executives attending the World Media Summit were, of course, much more diplomatic in their presentations. Even so, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, called on China to "compete in the marketplace of ideas" and to allow a more open media sector.
Similarly, David Schlesinger, editor in chief of Reuters, called for "openness, transparency and accountability," which, he said, "may lead to momentary discomfort and sometimes embarrassment" but which are "a precondition for a truly healthy, stable and successful system."
While the conference was to discuss the future of the media, there was much interest in the situation of foreign journalists working in China. There has been some relaxation since the Beijing Olympics last summer, but the situation is still far from ideal.
Three journalists working for the Japanese news agency Kyodo were attacked in their hotel room by plainclothes men while covering a rehearsal for the 60th anniversary celebrations.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a keynote address at the opening of the conference, pledged to protect the rights of international news organizations reporting in China: "We will continue to make government affairs public, enhance information distribution, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign news organizations and reporters, and facilitate foreign media coverage of China in accordance with China's laws and regulations."
News coverage of China has exploded in recent years as China's global role has expanded. Hu acknowledged that the foreign media had played an "important role" in telling the world about the changes in China and called on the media to promote world peace.
Beijing has become much more sophisticated in recent years about how the media can help project Chinese influence around the world. It has announced plans to set up media companies that will compete with the world's media giants, including News Corporation and Time Warner.
Hopefully, in the process, it will understand the need to loosen its control over the media.
The effort to project Chinese soft power is going on even in remote corners of the world. Only last month, state-owned CCTV began Russian-language broadcasts in Kyrgyzstan.
China's increasing exposure to the international media as well as its own growing media presence is a trend that reflects the country's growing importance. Hopefully, as time goes on, it will internalize the values of the global media rather than just see the media as a propaganda tool to serve the interests of the government.
Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based journalist and commentator. (Frank.ching@gmail.com)
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THE JAPAN TIMES
EDITORIAL
GOVERNMENT'S GATEKEEPER
A month in office, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appears to face difficulty in effecting his key slogan of reducing, if not eliminating, the government's heavy reliance on the bureaucracy, due mainly to confusion as to who will take the lead andwith how much power.
In leading his Democratic Party of Japan to a big victory in the Aug. 30 general election, he pledged to create a "National Strategy Bureau" responsible for mapping out a vision for the nation's future and for the budgetary outline.
After being named to head the government, Hatoyama chose long-term colleague Naoto Kan as deputy prime minister for national strategy and economic and fiscal policy. According to some insiders, though, Kan was not happy with the appointment and did not understand what was in Hatoyama's mind. It was rumored that Kan had wanted the post of chief Cabinet secretary.
Although Kan has a handful of lawmakers assisting him, he does not have a staff for the day-to-day work as the Diet has yet to pass new laws to formally establish and define the job of the bureau that he heads. This isolation means that the government lacks the "control tower" to combat the bureaucracy.
The day after he was appointed deputy prime minister, Kan is said to have told Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii that he would not be involved in the review of a supplementary budget passed on from the previous administration, because he said he was totally unprepared.
Although the DPJ manifesto says the National Strategy Bureau will also be responsible for drawing up the nation's basic diplomatic agenda, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told reporters that he would not regard the bureau as having almighty power.
Even though Kan has not been successful in building teamwork with the finance and foreign ministers, his presence has helped newly appointed Cabinet ministers increase their independence from bureaucrats. At their initial press conferences, most of the ministers put an end to the past tradition of speaking solely from memos provided by bureaucrats and, for the most part, told in their own words how the DPJ election campaign platform will translate into action.
Several key ministers lost no time in drastically changing major programs that bureaucrats had inherited from the previous administration.
Land minister Seiji Maehara, for example, said he was determined to suspend a large dam construction project and to make expressways toll-free; welfare minister Akira Nagatsuma said he would end the current health insurance program for those at least 75 years old; and farm minister Hirotaka Akamatsu proposed institutionalizing income compensation for farmers.
These moves should not be viewed as the beginning of the all-out battle between elected politicians and bureaucrats. Instead, the battle should be seen as between those who follow the Finance Ministry's conventional idea — for whom maintaining the established budget distribution is of utmost importance — and those who seek reform. The latter include not only Cabinet ministers and their deputies assigned by the prime minister to various ministries and agencies but also certain bureaucrats who want to bring about changes in cooperation with the politicians.
So far, the all-powerful Finance Ministry bureaucrats seem to have the upper hand, and it is not at all certain that Hatoyama has the nerve to collide head-on with them.
To accurately comprehend what has been going on during the initial days of the Hatoyama administration, it is essential to understand the relationship between the prime minister and Ichiro Ozawa, who was forced to resign from the DPJ presidency earlier this year because of a campaign funds scandal involving his chief secretary and was then named the party's secretary general by Hatoyama after the election.
Although Hatoyama insists that he selected his Cabinet ministers without being influenced by Ozawa, it is fair to wonder why Ozawa — who didn't seem much interested in the appointment of Cabinet ministers — got the all-powerful post of party secretary general.
Hatoyama reportedly had wished to maintain the pre-election party leadership consisting of Ozawa as deputy party president and Okada as secretary general. On Sept. 1, however, Azuma Koshiishi, head of the DPJ Upper House caucus, phoned Hatoyama to tell him that there was only one person suited to lead the party as secretary general.
Two days later, Hatoyama met with Ozawa and offered him the important party post, and the latter accepted it. After the meeting, Hatoyama reportedly called Koshiishi to make sure that this was what the latter meant.
On the day of the general election, Okada, who had earlier lost the party presidential election to Hatoyama, met with five of his top supporters who were rumored as having a good chance of being assigned Cabinet posts. Surprisingly, Hatoyama chose none of these five for his Cabinet. This is said to reflect Ozawa's anger over the way Okada's top lieutenants had behaved.
On Sept. 18, all DPJ members of both Diet chambers received a one-page notice from secretary general Ozawa. In blunt language, he said all policy matters would henceforth be debated within the administration and that various intraparty policy panels would be abolished. This change is regarded by political observers as an indication of Ozawa's stronger autocratic rule of the party.
As for the functioning of the National Strategy Bureau, Ozawa has been quoted as saying he does not know much about the plan. Apparently he, too, is not keen about fighting with Finance Ministry bureaucrats.
Having gained complete control over the party, Ozawa is now watching how each of the newly appointed Cabinet ministers performs. If one falters for any reason, he is expected to step in immediately to make a replacement. Nor is the prime minister himself immune.
This is an abridged translation of an article from the October issue of Sentaku, a monthly magazine covering Japanese political, social and economic scenes.
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THE JAKARTA POST
EDITORIAL
GIVE SBY-JK A SIX FOR TRYING
On a scale of one to 10, what would be a fair score for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla as they end their five-year term on Monday?
We think the pair, and their Cabinet, deserve a mediocre six.
They were not excellent, great or even good, but they were not disastrous either. They missed opportunities as well as avoided situations where the country could have gone down the drain.
Pessimists may say they could have done better, while optimists may say they could have been worse.
Under the circumstances, a six seems a fair if not generous score.
What is certain is the SBY-JK partnership did not deliver much of its 2004 election promises that had put them in the nation's two top offices.
They promised prosperity, particularly for the millions who live below the poverty line by creating more jobs and increasing their income. Things did improve for some, but only marginally when measured against the high unemployment and poverty rates and slow growths in the GDP and per-capita income.
For the most part, many people saw their income falling or improving only slightly, while forking out more money for essential services such as healthcare and their children's schooling.
SBY-JK promised a better business environment by amending the investment, taxation and labor laws, but only managed to reform the first two. Foreign investors adopted a "wait-and-see" attitude at best, but most went to China and other Asian countries where they felt more welcome.
The pair promised to build and develop economic infrastructures, but failed to address bottlenecks that limited faster growth. They organized two major infrastructure summits and proposed dozens of projects to potential investors, but only a handful materialized because of the classic land-acquisition problem.
They continued with major political, economic and military reforms but made little headway in reforming the legal system, and with the exception of the Finance Ministry, left the bureaucracy largely untouched by reforms.
They arrested, prosecuted and convicted many corrupt officials, but corruption is as rampant as always, suggesting the anti-graft campaign has had little impact on politicians and bureaucrats' practice.
On the human rights front, they failed to prosecute the murderer of human rights campaigner Munir, even though SBY had personally promised the widow of Munir he would, just after he became President.
Concerning counterterrorism, the National Police has only managed to kill terrorist mastermind Noordin
M. Top last month. Noordin had been involved in most of the deadly terrorist attacks dating back to the 2002 Bali bombings.
For these less-than-mediocre achievements, some would give SBY-JK a score of five or even four. But we should recognize the unforeseen challenges they faced, including a devastating tsunami and three major earthquakes, a sharp rise in world oil prices and the global economic crisis. Other leaders might not have performed as well.
This could be the reason SBY received a new vote of confidence during the August presidential election, gaining more than 60 percent of votes, this time partnering with economic professor Boediono.
SBY could not have been elected for his mediocre performance. Instead voters decided to give him a second chance to keep his 2004 promises – in the absence of an alternative credible candidate.
Contrary to his election slogan Lanjutkan! (Continue!), voters do not want a repeat performance of his five years of mediocrity.
His re-election meant Indonesians want SBY, with Boediono on his side, to deliver this time. No more excuses.
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THE JAKARTA POST
EDITORIAL
THE END OF RI'S DEMOCRACY OR A REBIRTH OF PLURALISM?
AHMAD JUNAIDI
Many observers feared the possible coalition between Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Golkar would kill the country's young democracy.
The appointment of Megawati's husband Taufik Kiemas as the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairman, which was supported by the Democratic Party (PD), displayed signs of such political cooperation. Similarly, the newly elected Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie did not refuse to collaborate with the President's party.
The cooperation of the three largest parties is largely believed to diminish the checks and balances of the government - a fundamental aspect of democracy - due to the absence of an opposition party that was earlier played by the PDI-P, although many legislators have individually been more outspoken than their parties.
The cooperation of the three nationalist-secular parties, however, will raise hope for another important aspect of democracy: a respect for pluralism and the protection of minorities that some believe were disregarded during the President's first term.
A substantive democracy needs to respect civil liberties, which among others includes the freedom of religion.
The endorsement of the anti-pornography law and sharia-inspired bylaws in regions, including the recent stoning bylaw for adulterers in Aceh, highlighted the government's failure to maintain pluralism.
The burning and closing down of churches and mosques belonging to the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect are evidence of the failure of the state to protect its minorities.
Syaiful Mujani and Ihsan Ali Fauzi in the recent book Gerakan Kebebasan Sipil (Civil Liberty Movement), published a survey on how several regencies and municipalities, such as Padang in West Sumatra, Pandeglang in Banten and Bulukumba in South Sulawesi, tried to control the moral and fashion choices of their residents through such bylaws.
Many of the regulations targeted women, including banning them from going out at midnight and obliging them to wear a jilbab, or veil, on certain days.
The regulations are problematic because they do not just discriminate against non-Muslims, but also against other Muslims that disagree with such interpretations of Islam. In a democracy, a regulation should be applicable to all, not just certain religious groups.
In a soccer game, all players wear shorts – of course the colors are diverse, which demonstrates the plurality of the teams. The laws of the game are applicable to all teams and players.
A referee issues yellow or red cards based on the grade of violations committed by the players regardless of their backgrounds.
Using the analogy of a soccer game, certain Muslims here want to score as many goals as possible by using laws that favor them and discriminate against others.
The referee (or the state in a democracy) who should remain neutral, has also taken sides with certain groups that claim to represent the majority of players (or citizens).
We all know that sharia-inspired laws were suggested mostly by lawmakers from Golkar, not the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) – except for the current controversial ban on karaoke in Depok.
The lawmakers did this in return for securing votes from the Muslim community in this year's elections.
In fact, Golkar's vote decreased from being the largest party in the 2004 legislative elections to third in the recent elections.
The election of Aburizal, including the inclusion of the young intellectual Rizal Mallarangeng on the board of Golkar, will bring energy back to Indonesian pluralism as stated in his acceptance speech at the end of the party congress in Pekanbaru earlier this week.
Apart from Golkar, we need a strong pluralist commitment from the PDI-P lawmakers, not just their intellectual ability, to maintain the country's safety for everyone.
We want the country to mature into a modern country along with "the rise of the rest" countries described by Fareed Zakaria in The Post American World. We don't want Indonesia to be continuously categorized as a messy country that could turn into a failed state.
The cooperation of the three nationalist parties will ease tension among religious followers. The opposition role can be filled by individual politicians, as seen previously, along with civil society organizations and the media.
The author is staff writer at The Jakarta Post.
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CHINA DAILY
EDITORIAL
COUNTY PARTY SECRETARIES
Whether the Party secretary of a county - the top leader in the area - uses his power in the best interests of local residents makes a huge difference to the political stability and economic prosperity of this country.
As the old adage goes, when all counties are governed well, there should be no problem for the running of the entire country. In spite of the great change in the political system, county government as the lowest level governing body has been playing a pivotal role when it comes to how the country is run.
In a survey on the image of county Party secretaries conducted online by People's Forum magazine and People's Daily website, 74 percent of the more than 5,000 respondents said that they are more powerful than ever and enjoy more public attention.
True, compared with their counterparts before the 1970s and even those in the 1980s, they shoulder not only the responsibility of carrying out the policies of the central authorities, but that of being the general architect of local economic development and social progress.
They are the ones who make sure that central policies are duly implemented. So any malpractice or mistake in the process of carrying out the policies gets reflected as specific problems at this level. Of course, the role they play has a direct impact on how well the policies are implemented. In addition, as local decision makers, their decisions have a direct bearing on the lives of people in the area. That is why they get so much attention.
That also explains why more than 80 percent of respondents agree that corruption affects the image of this group of leaders the most.
They are the closest to the locals and it is easy for them to know about their real concerns. But at the same time, as they are the farthest from the control of the central authorities, it is easier for them to bend central policies and abuse power.
Eighteen county-level Party secretaries were investigated for selling government positions in 2007 in East China's Anhui province; and in a single county, Party secretaries during three consecutive terms were arrested for abuse of power. There are other examples of how despotic and corrupt some county Party secretaries are.
There are more than 2,000 county Party secretaries, and how they discharge their duties has a bearing on the future of the Party and the country.
Fortunately, the central authorities arranged for them to receive training in the Party School of the Central Committee the Communist Party of China (CPC) . The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee has launched a program from 2002 in four provinces on how to best supervise county Party secretaries in their selection and appointment of officials. The program, on a trial basis, has been carried out in 17 provinces and regions.
Most county Party secretaries are young and well educated. But education has often failed as a check against being corrupt in office or by power. There is still a long way to go before the use of power by county Party secretaries can be kept within limits.
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CHINA DAILY
EDITORIAL
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
The World Food Day that we observe today highlights the urgent need for more international effort to address an emerging food crisis currently eclipsed by the global financial and economic crises.
With an estimated increase of 105 million hungry people in 2009, a recent report by the Food and Agricultural Organization found that there are now 1.02 billion malnourished people, meaning that almost one sixth of humanity is suffering from hunger.
If the international community does not respond swiftly and adequately to the worsening problem, the 1996 World Food Summit goal of reducing the number of hungry people by half by 2015 will never be achieved.
Since food is a prerequisite for human survival and well being, and a basic human necessity, policymakers around the world must attach equal, if not greater, importance to food security for all members of society than the short-term economic downturn.
After spending trillions of dollars to resuscitate wealthy economies from the current economic crisis, world leaders have no reason to continue to ignore the dire need of investing $30 billion a year in agriculture in developing countries to help farmers.
Besides, it is estimated that global food output has to increase by 70 percent to feed a projected population of 9.1 billion in 2050. In view of this, agricultural aid to poor countries needs to be increased from the current level of $7.9 billion a year to $44 billion to increase access to irrigation systems and modern machinery as well as build roads and train farmers.
As the world's most populous country, China has always given top priority to food security.
Despite unexpected drought and the global economic recession, China is expected to have a big harvest this year, underpinning the country's stable and fast economic growth.
But continuous years of grain output increase have not blinded the Chinese policymakers from the long-term prospect of tight supply of food as the country's infrastructure for grain output remains poor, grain planting efficiency relatively low and natural calamities frequent.
The Chinese government has decided to take further measures to improve subsidy policies and encourage grain planting, stabilize market prices to protect farmers' interests and promote technology services for farmers.
It is hoped that the World Food Day will heighten public awareness of the hunger problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
More important, rich countries should shoulder their obligations to help poor countries protect the most vulnerable from the worst effects of hunger and malnutrition even in times of crisis. This resolve needs to be heard across the world, in every forum, and as loud and clear as the assertions to overcome the economic crisis or the resounding cries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
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CHINA DAILY
EDITORIAL
CHALLENGES ABOUND IN VULNERABLE AREAS
The paradox of development and environment is most obvious on the sad faces of the lead-poisoned children in central and western China and their perplexed farmer parents.
For centuries, people in underdeveloped areas have been tilling their land and patiently awaited modernization. They ignored the fact that some of the country folks were falling prey to strange diseases after returning from contaminated workshops near the coast, and some of them dying.
Now, it seems their turn might come as eastern China's industries shift westward in quest of cheaper labor and land.
Not at a perfect time though. The greenhouse gases accumulated over decades of industrialization elsewhere have closed the way for them to repeat the growth stories of eastern brothers.
While they rush to embrace industrial chimneys moved near their homes, their hearts are ripped apart by the recent lead poisoning scandals in Shaanxi, Hunan and Henan provinces that sent thousands of their children to hospitals.
They may complain about why they and their children should suffer, and why they could not do what others have done so freely for decades. But the cruelness of today leaves them no choice but to share the burden of environmental pollution created by those they do not know, opting for a clean-energy growth.
That is also a path planned for them by the State Council. In a document released on Oct 9, ecological protection is stressed as a must for western regions. So building roads, railways, airports and urban facilities should be coupled with planting trees and returning farmland to greenery.
Singling out "orderly industrial shift" from the east to the west, the State Council stresses "preventing backward capacity from being moved to the west". It stresses the demand for "being strict with industrial policy, environmental protection and intensive exploitation of resources".
Yet such prevention would be better if the measure is letting western areas launch or relaunch industries from a higher starting point. Instead of using what eastern areas used, these regions should focus more on next-generation processing and production.
A higher-level start would keep the west in environmental-friendly growth and help to avoid overcapacity in production.
Such a ground means higher industrial and environmental standards. Marking the World Standards Day on Wednesday, Ji Zhengkun, chief of the State Standardization Administration, said they are making or amending national standards in energy saving, water saving, material saving, land saving, new and renewable energy, use of mineral resources, waste recycling and clean production.
The efforts of Ji's office will also promote good practices for environmental management and foster energy-efficient technologies and services needed badly in the west. It's better Ji's people speed up to apply the standards as soon as possible.
However, the capitalist urge for profit is always stronger than ecological push. This explains why Greenpeace found 18 big names such as Shell, Samsung, Nestle and Shenhua have fudged their pollution information. Worse, not one locality has gone for polluting plants for the sake of GDP. Which explains why the State Council document emphasizes "being strict" three times in a row.
The loopholes that allow for business and administrative wrongdoing should be corrected by legal and administrative means besides public opinion.
To make local governments toe the line, environmental quotas should be included in the evaluation and promotion of officials. A high-handed supervision, represented by the environmental agency of the government should play its role in earnest. This requires that environmental officials, dubbed as having "the toughest jobs under heaven", have their pressure eased by higher authorities and law enforcement.
Strict observance of environmental law is a necessary step. Cost for court proceedings should be lowered for poor victims while penalties awarded should be increased for polluters.
Still, challenges abound for these vulnerable areas with unsatisfactory basis for industrial development, especially when the world has little know-how on achieving industrialization while maintaining sound environment.
But one thing is certain: Shifting of industrial capacity cannot be reloading of the polluters in another area. The tragedy of children being poisoned and adults dying of pollution-related diseases should end there and then.
E-mail: wenjia@chinadaily.com.cn
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CHINA DAILY
EDITORIAL
PILLARS OF MA'S CROSS-STRAITS POLICY
Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou will officially assume his office as Kuomintang (KMT) chairman at the 18th KMT congress on Oct 17, that is tomorrow. He emphasized in a speech on Oct 10 that he would make efforts to rebuild cross-Strait relations in the future. This cannot be done overnight considering the long-term gap and misgivings across the Taiwan Straits. To peacefully develop cross-Strait ties, both sides should be patient and face realities so as to strengthen mutual trust, seek common ground and overcome differences.
In his speech, Ma introduced the expression of "Chinese culture with Taiwan's characteristics", indicating an intention that Taiwan province might "peacefully compete" with the mainland in times of peace. The orientation of cross-Straits relations in the future deserves more attention.
After resuming the new position, as both the regional leader and chairman of the ruling KMT, Ma will be veritably the top leader of Taiwan. This is vital to the relationship between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and KMT as well as cross-Strait relations.
It is believed that both sides of the Straits will continue to follow a path of peaceful development after Ma takes up KMT chairmanship. After he wins, Ma has stated clearly that he proposes to incorporate the "common vision of peaceful development across the Taiwan Straits", developed by General Secretary Hu Jintao on behalf of CPC and Lien Chan on behalf of KMT, into KMT's political guidelines at the 18th congress. In his response to Hu, Ma said that the two parties should "face realities, build mutual trust, shelve disputes and create a win-win situation", reflecting his idea of adhering to the path of peaceful development of cross-Straits relations.
Ma's promise reflects widespread public sentiment. In the past 20 years, despite the ups and downs of cross-Straits relations and unstable political conditions on the island, the mainstream of public opinion in Taiwan has always favored peace, stability and development. In June 2008, the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) resumed negotiations after nine years of suspension, bringing cross-Straits relations to a new phase of peaceful development. Until now, there have been three rounds of talks between ARATS and SEF leaders, with nine agreements and one consensus reached between the two organizations. Public opinion polls indicate that the trend of peaceful development of cross-Straits relations has people's support on both sides.
After Ma becomes the KMT chairman, the CPC-KMT platform will continue to play its key role in cross-Straits relations. Even if the meeting between top leaders of the two parties cannot be facilitated soon, the CPC-KMT platform is still an extremely important force for promoting development of cross-Straits ties.
As the regional leader and the ruling party chief, Ma will be the top decision-maker of the island's policies toward the mainland. It would be easier for Ma to help implement the objectives of the Cross Straits Economic and Trade Forum and agreements between ARATS and SEF.
According to Taiwan's regional political system, although the leader of Taiwan is vested with executive powers, his influence on elected bodies, mayors and county magistrates is much less than that of party chiefs. As new chairman of KMT, Ma can facilitate communications between the administrative authorities and representative bodies, in which he will also have a say.
To make substantial progress, cross-Straits ties have a long way to go. Doubtless, there are also disadvantages to cross-Straits relations in Ma's election. As the regional leader, Ma must face the pressure of re-election, which can make him more cautious than his predecessors in terms of cross-Straits relations. After Ma takes up the post of KMT chairman, he will have to carefully balance the interests of different sectors including the US and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) - the island's biggest opposition party - to win maximum support and minimum criticism. Hence, Ma's cross-Straits policy of "three no's" (no unification, no independence and no use of force) will not change in a short term.
In terms of cross-Straits policy, Ma's "administration" also faces strong pressure from the DPP. In the island, consensus on such issues as the future development of both sides across the Straits and the framework of cross-Straits interaction cannot converge in the short run. That is also the difficulty Ma needs to make breakthrough in his cross-Straits policy.
Moreover, as the leader and ruling party chairman, Ma will regard the interests of the island and the local people as the main goal of his "administration". It is necessary for Ma to fulfill his political plank of "promoting peaceful development and ending the state of hostility across the Straits, and signing the cross-Straits peace agreement" mentioned in 2008 during his election campaign.
The author is a researcher at the Institute of Taiwan Studies under Beijing Union University.
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THE MOSCOW TIMES
EDITORIAL
KNOW-IT-ALL ATTITUDE
BY MICHELE A. BERDY
The other day a translator friend reminded me how much I loathe the phrase как известно (literally, "as is known") and its various derivatives, such as как всем известно (as everyone knows) and общеизвестно (it is generally known). If I were editorial queen of the universe, I'd grab my red pencil and strike these phrases from the majority of texts.
I know what you're thinking: Berdy's finally lost it. It's a benign little phrase that can be easily rendered in English. What's the problem?
The main problem is that the ubiquitous как известно can serve several functions in Russian sentences, while the phrase "everyone knows that" is not nearly as common in English and usually serves one function. In most cases it sets up a contrast between common wisdom and a narrower truth. "Everyone knows that fast food is unhealthy. But few people know how to choose a healthy diet."
Sometimes you find the same construction in Russian: Как известно, по законодательству продажа спиртных напитков разрешена лицам, достигшим 18 лет. Но мало кто знает, что распитие спиртных напитков разрешено только с 21 года. (Everyone knows that alcoholic beverages can be legally sold only to individuals 18 years or older. But few people know that the legal drinking age is 21.)
But in most cases, when как известно is used in Russian, "as everyone knows" would be deemed unnecessary in English. Как известно, пробки для вина изготавливают из коры пробкового дуба. If you translated the phrase literally as, "Everyone knows that corks for wine bottles are made from the bark of cork oaks," an English-speaking reader would expect a "but" in the next sentence. If the text just meanders on about cork-making, the reader of the translation is left waiting uncomfortably for the shoe to drop.
In cases like these — when как известно is simply throat clearing before a statement of fact — I leave it out of the English. For example: Как известно, после образования СССР Белоруссия вошла в его состав в качестве одной из союзных республик. (After the U.S.S.R. was formed, Belarus joined as one of the union republics.)
In other cases, I rephrase in English to avoid the shoe-in-the-air problem. Как известно, наш организм состоит из воды почти на 90%. (Science has shown that our bodies are almost 90 percent water.) Общеизвестно, что дети лучше всего обучаются во время игры. (It's an established fact that children learn best when playing games.)
And then there are times when как известно doesn't mean "everyone knows"; it really means "I know." For example: Известно, что Владимир Путин не любит принимать решений. (Literally, "It's known that Vladimir Putin doesn't like to make decisions.") Here "известно, что …" might stand for: "I've been told by a number of sources I can't quote that …" Or it might mean: "I've written about this in detail before, so trust me on this." If I were an English-language newspaper editor, I'd never let a journalist get away with that. But when I'm wearing my translator's hat, I grit my teeth and type: "It's common knowledge that …"
In other cases как известно is used to pass off an outrageous assertion as accepted fact. Take this heinous example: Как известно, украинский язык смешной. In these cases I don't try to fiddle with the English to make it more palatable. I translate baldly: Everyone knows that Ukrainian is a comical language.
But if red pencils could be used as weapons …
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
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