EDITORIAL SAMARTH: EDITORIAL 18.06.10

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Editorial

month june 18, edition 000542 , collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

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THE PIONEER

ISI SETS UP SECOND FRONT
TWO MONTHS TOO LATE
ASTOUNDING CRIMINALITY - SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY
SOME QUESTIONS ON BHOPAL - PRIYADARSI DUTTA
PARADISE LOST - ANURADHA DUTT
BP NAILED, ANDERSON STILL FREE - KALYANI SHANKAR
EDUCATION AS TOOL FOR GLOBAL DIPLOMACY - VINAYSHIL GAUTAM

MAIL TODAY

PROSECUTE RAJU A BIT MORE PURPOSEFULLY
THE DEAD DESERVE DIGNITY
IF YOU CAN'T RIDE TWO HORSES AT ONCE GET OUT OF THE CIRCUS - BY MANOJ JOSHI
THE LAHORE LOG - BY NAJAM SETHI
DEFENCE MINISTRY PROBES SOLDIER'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH - BY ASHISH SINHA IN NEW DELHI

THE TIMES OF INDIA

BALANCING ACT
OFF TARGET
'THERE IS NO ROOM FOR INCOMPLETE SEARCH HERE' - SHERRY M JACOB-PHILLIPS
QUEEN'S GAMBIT - JUG SURAIYA

HINDUSTAN TIMES

MEET THE TRAILBLAZER
A PRISONER OF BIRTH
A JUDICIOUS OVERHAUL - HK DUA
THERE'S NO HONOUR IN THIS - PREETI SINGH
THE ART OF THE MATTER - NAYANJOT LAHIRI

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

POLITICS AS UNUSUAL
SLICE BY SLICE
MIXED MESSAGES
BUCK STOPS WITH AN EGOM - PRATAP BHANU MEHTA
THE PARTY POLICE - SARITHA RAI
DIVORCE, AMERICAN STYLE
STORY AND HISTORY - JAITHIRTH RAO
THE PARTY POLICE - SARITHA RAI
THE BORING SPEECH POLICY

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

PROFIT AND SPEND
WHEN MLAS BREAK THE LAW
GOVERNMENT GIVES IN ON DTC - MK VENU
WHAT DOES QINGHAI SAY ABOUT CHINA? - P RAGHAVAN
MANGOES SET AN EXAMPLE - SANDIP DAS

THE HINDU

HOPE IN MANIPUR
THE POWER OF CASH INCENTIVES
TO GO FROM MEDIOCRITY TO EXCELLENCE - N.R. MADHAVA MENON
THE PAST IS NOT PROLOGUE - PRANAY GUPTE
PUTTING VICTIMS AT THE CENTRE OF LIABILITY LAW - SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
REVIEW PANEL JUDGES SEE A CULTURE OF U.N. SECRECY - NEIL MACFARQUHAR
OIL SPILL: COSTNER'S CLEANING MACHINES - LEO HICKMAN

THE ASIAN AGE

HYPOCRISY OF PAK, US GETS EXPOSED
MODI VS MODI - SWAPAN DASGUPTA
TAKING SCIENCE SERIOUSLY - SHIV VISVANATHAN

DNA

THE GIVING PLEDGE
CHINA'S NUKE TRADE
PROTECTING THE VULNERABLE
SONAL MAKHIJA, SWAGATA RAHA / DNA
IT DON'T MATTER IF YOU'RE BLACK, WHITE OR BROWN - MADHU JAIN

THE TRIBUNE

SHOCKS FROM POWER
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
BAIL FOR A TERROR SUSPECT
CHANGING BALANCE OF POWER - BY HARSH V. PANT
PRICE OF NOSTALGIA - BY PARBINA RASHID
"WE WANT HIGH-END TOURISM BUT FACE MAJOR CONSTRAINTS"
PREM KUMAR DHUMAL - BY RAJ CHENGAPPA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

MUMBAI MIRROR

SPARE THE ROD, SAVE THE CHILD

BUSINESS STANDARD

PULLED BY DEMAND
RATIONAL USE OF GROUNDWATER
RAJAPAKSA'S VISIT - A LOST OPPORTUNITY - NISHA TANEJA
SUNITA NARAIN: THE BHOPAL LEGACY - SUNITA NARAIN
BHUPESH BHANDARI: HEALING IN A LOW-COST ERA - BHUPESH BHANDAR

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

WRAP UP PPF
SINGLE FINANCIAL SECTOR REGULATOR
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK & OPPORTUNITY
BP BEGINS TO ANTE UP
IT'S SCARY. GENERAL PRICE RISE HAS BEGUN: PRONAB - V YOGASRI POORNA & SURABH
HR DOESN'T TAKE A HUGE INVESTMENT TO START: TOMMY WEIR - ANIRVAN GHOSH
90% of our products are sourced locally: President, Wal-Mart India - Nidhi Nath Srinivas

DECCAN CHRONICAL

HYPOCRISY OF PAK, US GETS EXPOSED
MODI VS MODI - BY SWAPAN DASGUPTA
WILL JUDGE DO US PART, IN NO-FAULT STYLE? - BY STEPHANIE COONTZ
TAKING SCIENCE SERIOUSLY - BY SHIV VISVANATHAN
YOU ARE A PRIEST, FOREVER - BY FRANCIS GONSALVES
NEW GIFT IDEAS FOR FATHER'S DAY - BY NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

THE STATESMAN

STRATEGY RE-CAST
HIGHWAY PATROLS
BSP IN BIHAR
ARMY AGAINST MAOISTS - MG DEVASAHAYAM
A NEW MAYOR WITH FRESH IDEAS
THAT PERSISTING TRUST DEFICIT IN INDO-PAK RELATIONS
100 YEARS AGO TODAY

THE TELEGRAPH

ENEMY LINES
KILLING SPREE
COME OUT CLEAN - MALVIKA SINGH
HARD TIMES - ASHOK MITRA

DECCAN HERALD

STRENGTHEN VIGIL
MAN OF VERSATILITY
CONGRESS, NO. 1 CULPRIT - BY KULDIP NAYAR
RACIAL DIVIDE IN INDIA'S NORTHEAST - BY BHASKAR DUTTA-BARUAH
THE ALL-TIME HERO - BY DOROTHY VICTOR

THE JERUSALEM POST

THE LOST JEWS

HAARETZ

GOOD MORNING, EHUD - BY YOEL MARCUS
WHERE IS THE SILVER PLATTER? - BY ISRAEL HAREL
WHICH IS WORSE, A POEM OR A FLOTILLA? - BY YOSSI SARID
PR FOR INTERNAL CONSUMPTION - BY DORON ROSENBLUM
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
THE HIGH COURT ISN'T RACIST - BY YAIR SHELEG
A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS - BY YEDIDIA STERN
NO TO RACIST EDUCATION - BY SEFI RACHLEVSKY
ANALYSIS / EASING OF GAZA BLOCKADE MARKS VICTORY FOR FLOTILLA ACTIVISTS - BY AMOS HAREL AND AVI ISSACHAROFF TAGS: ISRAEL NEWS GAZA
ISRAELI APATHY IS TO BLAME FOR ULTRA-ORTHODOX ARROGANCE - BY ANSHEL PFEFFER TAGS: ISRAEL NEWS

THE NEW YORK TIMES

COMMON SENSE AND PRIVATE PROPERTY
FINISH THE JOB, ALBANY
A BAD DAY FOR BP AND MR. BARTON
THAT CHEATS THE KIDS
HIJACKING THEIR WAY OUT OF TYRANNY - BY GAL BECKERMAN
THAT '30S FEELING - BY PAUL KRUGMAN
TRIM THE 'EXPERTS,' TRUST THE LOCALS - BY DAVID BROOKS

USA TODAY

OUR VIEW ON GULF DISASTER: BIG OIL'S SHODDY SPILL PLANS REFLECT INDUSTRY'S ARROGANCE
OPPOSING VIEW ON GULF DISASTER: WE WILL MAKE CHANGES -BY JACK N. GERARD
FATHER'S DAY TREAT: THE BRADLEES BOOK
PLAIN TALK BY AL NEUHARTH, USA TODAY FOUNDER
IN DEATH, ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT DAD MELT AWAY
OPINIONLINE
'TEA PARTY' TOOK ROOT BEFORE OBAMA - BY CHUCK RAASCH

TIMES FREE PRESS

DIETARY HABITS IN NEED OF CHANGE
GOOD LOCAL JOB NEWS IN BAD TIMES
BILLIONS MORE $$ FOR GOVERNMENT?
THE EPA AND 'MILK POLLUTION'

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

FROM THE BOSPHORUS: STRAIGHT - ASSERTIVE TALK NO GOOD FOR FINE DIPLOMACY
BEING 'ORIENTALIST' OR BECOMING 'MIDDLE EASTERN' - NURAY MERT
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD - FATMANUR ERDOĞAN
DIRE REMARKS ON EUROPE FROM MEN AT THE HELM - SEMIH IDIZ
WITH LOVE FROM HAMAS - BURAK BEKDİL
INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY - YUSUF KANLI
A DIFFERENT JURIST: OSMAN CAN - MEHMET ALİ BİRAND
THE GREEK TEAM: TIRED AND DEMORALIZED - ARIANA FERENTINOU

I.THE NEWS

RESIGNATIONS IN HAND
BEWILDERING FIGURES
SAFETY NET
LOVE AMONG THE RUINS - AYAZ AMIR
STRUGGLES ARE NOT LOST - NAUMAN ASGHAR
THE BELIEF IN CHANGE - AHMAD RAFAY ALAM
DESCENT INTO ANARCHYSHAFQAT MAHMOOD
THE CULTURE OF PATRONAGE - AYAZ AHMED
SIDE-EFFECT - HARRIS KHALIQUE

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

MPS THOUGHT-PROVOKING BUDGETARY PROPOSALS
MNS DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM FAKE DEGREE HOLDERS
GADDANI SHIP-BREAKING INDUSTRY IS BREAKING
COST OF AN INDIAN LIFE $500 - M D NALAPAT
THE RISE OF MULTIPOLAR WORLD - SHANZEH IQBAL
PIT OF FIRE - AHMAD HASAN SHEIKH
ISRAEL IS FUELLING ANTI-AMERICANISM - NICOLA NASSER
REIMAGINING LIFE, WAR IN MIDDLE EAST - JULIA KELLER

THE INDEPENDENT

DECODING JUTE GENOME
MEXICO GULF OIL SPILL
THE PAINTER'S LOVE AFFAIR..!
WHY BOYCOTT THE BUDGET SESSION? - PRANAB KUMAR PANDAY
CLIMATE BLUEPRINT COULD HIT POOR NATIONS - JOHN VIDAL
US POLICY: DISARM MUSLIMS, ARM ISRAELIS - YAMIN ZAKARIA

THE AUSTRALIAN

WHY SPOIL A GOOD WINE BOTTLE?
POLITICAL POTS ATTACKING MEDIA KETTLES
NOT ABOUT POLICE PURITY, IT'S ABOUT FACTS

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

BANALITY RULES AT BARANGAROO
LIABILITY HAS ITS LIMITS
MAKING GOOD ON THE PROMISE OF MORE KINDER
KOREAN BRINKMANSHIP RISKS DISASTER

THE GUARDIAN

IN PRAISE OF … NAN GOLDIN
FAMILY POLICY: THE STATE SECTOR
CAMERON'S FIRST EU SUMMIT: DAVE MEETS THE NEIGHBOURS

THE GAZETTE

TIME TO GET A GRIP ON SECURITY AGENCIES
ALL ABOARD -AGAIN

THE MOSCOW TIMES

A GUIDE FOR PARKING, SWEARING AND WEEING - BY MICHELE A. BERDY
MODERNIZE OR MARGINALIZE - BY ANDERS ASLUND AND ANDREW KUCHINS

THE KOREA TIMES

MEDICAL REFORM
POLICE TORTURE
SANCTIONS AGAINST NORTH KOREA - BY ANDREI LANKOV
NO JOBS, NO HOPE — NOW NO SOCCER - BY DALE MCFEATTERS
OBAMA DISAPPOINTS ENVIRONMENTALISTS - BY BONNIE ERBE

THE JAKARTA POST

TAX HOLIDAY NOT THE CORE ISSUE
LACK OF VISION FOR SMALL FARMERS - TEJO PRAMONO
IDEOLOGICAL INTEREST IN INTERPRETING THE KORAN - AHMAD NAJIB BURHAN
OUR COAL: ITS DEVELOPMENT AND CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES - HANAN NUGROHO

CHINA DAILY

TRANSPARENT BUDGETS
SHARE INFORMATION
LEGISLATIVE MYOPIA
TAKE MULTIPRONGED APPROACH - BY LIU JUNHONG (CHINA DAILY)
SOUTH AFRICA EXTENDS ITS FRONTIER TO SPACE - BY G. PASCAL ZACHARY (CHINA DAILY)
LABOR UNREST AND ROLE OF UNIONS - BY ANITA CHAN (CHINA DAILY)
SAVE THE GREAT WALL FROM PHILISTINES - BY DAVID CHARD (CHINA DAILY)

THE HIMALAYAN

FOREST LOVE
NOW SCARCE
AUSSIE TEENAGER IN DOCK OVER INDIAN STUDENT'S MURDER
TIME TO STOP GAMES:IS DEMOCRACY ON SICKBED OR IN REVERSE GEAR? - GANGA THAPA
TOPIC: SURF, BUT SAVE CHILDREN - BUDDHI GAUTAM
BLOG SURF: STRIKES
THUNDERLIGTS.COM

DAILY MIRROR

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

ISI SETS UP SECOND FRONT

LET EXPANDS NETWORK IN AFGHANISTAN

Even as the Obama Administration, ignoring the ground reality, continues to pamper and mollycoddle the criminal Army-ISI-Jihad enterprise in Pakistan, the evil forces of Islamism continue their inexorable march to capture Kabul after US-led foreign troops begin to depart from Afghanistan in July next year. Latest revelations, ironically emanating from Washington, DC, provide ample evidence of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, which is a 'strategic asset' of the ISI and is used for furthering Pakistan's interests through bloodshed and worse, as was witnessed in Mumbai during the 26/11 attacks on multiple high profile targets, has been silently expanding its network in Afghanistan. The ISI is clearly working on two fronts. First, it has been bolstering the Taliban and providing it with all necessary resources, including funds (redirected from billions of dollars in unaccounted for US aid) and weapons (also of American origin) to grab control over vast stretches of Afghanistan. Had it not been for the ISI's support, the Taliban could not have put up such a stiff resistance to either American troops or Nato forces in the Provinces; nor could Taliban fighters have staged spectacular attacks on Kabul. While the ISI never stopped providing logistical and military support to the Taliban even after one-eyed Mullah Omar and his thugs were chased out of Afghanistan post-9/11, it has escalated its assistance to the goons ever since Mr Barack Obama took over as President from Mr George W Bush. The Democrats' victory in the presidential election, as is now acknowledged even by the Americans, came as a respite for the Taliban and a boon for its sponsors in Pakistan. American policy under Mr Obama's tutelage over the last two years has shown that neither the Taliban nor the ISI was wrong in assuming that both would have a free run in Afghanistan. That the situation in the strife-torn nation has worsened or that disorder has given way to chaos is of no consequence to either the US President or his advisers: What matters most for them is to keep Pakistan in good humour, no matter how high the price that has to be paid for achieving this questionable — some would say deplorable — goal. Wimp-like responses of the effete UPA Government on issues related to Afghanistan and Pakistan and the desperation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to appease the Americans by compromising India's national interests have only emboldened the Pakistani Army, the ISI and the terrorist organisations they sponsor.

Having had its way with promoting the Taliban in Afghanistan, the ISI is now looking at other options of expanding the Pakistani Army's influence in that country. This is where the second front of the ISI's operations in Afghanistan comes in. By helping the LeT to rapidly increase its network and terror organisation in Afghanistan, the Rawalpindi establishment is really putting in place its own men disguised as Lashkar jihadis. In case the Taliban were to turn against Pakistan or, like other ISI-sponsored terrorist groups, decide to bite the hand that lovingly fed them all these years, the LeT network would be operationalised as a counter-strike. And, if the Taliban were to remain loyal to the ISI, Pakistan would have a force multiplier in Afghanistan in the form of the LeT. In other words, it's a win-win situation for the US's staunchest ally.

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

TWO MONTHS TOO LATE

MANIPUR BLOCKADE SHOWS CENTRE'S INDIFFERENCE

In a first of its kind experience, Manipur has had to put up with an economic blockade imposed by several Naga organisations since April 12. The blockade was enforced by disallowing traffic into the State via arterial highways which are Manipur's lifelines as far as the supply of essential commodities is concerned. National Highways 39 and 53 connect Imphal and Dimapur and Imphal and Silchar, respectively. It's not surprising that the blockade should have caused a full-blown humanitarian crisis in this North-Eastern State. People were forced to pay exorbitantly high prices for essential commodities. The blockade was called by the All-Naga Students Association of Manipur and United Naga Council in protest against elections to the Autonomous District Councils under the 3rd Amendment of Autonomous District Councils Act, 2008. One of the groups, ANSAM, is still continuing with the blockade inspite of it being called off by the Naga Students Federation on Tuesday evening. The blockade was also in response to Manipur's refusal to allow NSCN(I-M) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah to visit his ancestral village, Somdal, in Ukhrul district of the State, fearing large scale violence.

It took two months for the Union Government to realise that the situation in Manipur was fast moving towards an unmitigated catastrophe. It was only then that the Centre decided to act tough by summoning the officials of Manipur and Nagaland and asking them to find a quick solution to the problem. It was Union Home Secretary GK Pillai who decided to send a convoy of trucks carrying essential commodities to Manipur under heavy security. He is understood to have directed the Nagaland Government to persuade ANSAM to lift the blockade so that the trucks could safely reach their destination. Even Manipur sent a stern warning and declared a reward of Rs 1 lakh to any person who would furnish information regarding the acting presidents of ANSAM and UNC. All this has fetched temporary relief, but not helped solve a long-festering problem. What has made the situation worse is the Union Government's neglect and indifferent attitude. Shockingly, the rest of India remained silent, too. It's tempting to pose the question: Would the Government and the people of this country have remained silent had Uttar Pradesh or Punjab, or, for that matter, Rajasthan or Tamil Nadu, been blockaded for more than two months? This reflects our attitude towards the north-eastern States and how little we, as a nation, care for them.

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

ASTOUNDING CRIMINALITY

SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY

While the United States turns the screws on British Petroleum, Indians must contend with the mockery of the June 7 verdict sentencing seven Union Carbide employees to two years imprisonment and fines of Rs 1 lakh each. The contrast again highlights the need for some semblance of balance in India's relations with the US.

It is not for laymen to comment on the technicalities of the disaster that engulfed Bhopal in 1984 or the tortuous legal processes that followed. But the outraged British response to US President Barack Obama's pressure on BP and the fears expressed for the future of the 'special relationship' confirm that such episodes cannot be plucked out of the diplomaric context. The old identification of General Motors with the US remains valid. Whatever the cause of the Bhopal tragedy, its subsequent handling exposed the danger of dependency.

That is why I called my book on India-US relations Waiting for America. It emphatically asserted that India needs the US. But it also stressed that the connection must be consonant with India's self-respect. Indians are waiting for the US to realise that their country cannot be the new Pakistan, to cite Mr Sitaram Yechury, and that relations cannot resemble those between the US and the Shah's Iran or erstwhile South Vietnam. My case was that India's size, population, resources, strategic potential and civilisational heritage demand a more equal partnership.

I was living in Singapore when the book appeared and received thunderingly good reviews in some of our most respected journals. Then I learnt to my surprise that the publisher had asked the American Ambassador to release it and that His Excellency had asked for a copy to read and turned down the request. The last was no surprise: Anyone who was aware of the book's contents and knew anything of how American politicos think would have expected nothing else. This Ambassador, moreover, was a close friend of the President whose "if you are not with us you are against us" declaration justifying Operation Enduring Freedom articulated a basic premise of American statecraft.

There was no launch and no publicity after the ambassadorial frown. The book disappeared from shop shelves. It was not visible at the Calcutta Book Fair. Shops told me they presumed it was out of print since requests for fresh stock were ignored. Direct approaches to the publisher were rebuffed. Eventually, the publisher e-mailed me to say the book had "not sold well" and would be pulped. A minor incident but revealing, perhaps, of attitudes.

Immediately after the Bhopal tragedy, when the paper I edited published a hard-hitting editorial demanding firm action by the Government, a senior New Delhi bureaucrat tried to persuade me to change our line. His case was that American law would not allow Union Carbide to concede what my paper demanded. I recalled his advocacy later when other Indians argued that companies like Enron could not have bribed anyone in this country because bribery is a federal offence in the US.

This readiness to adopt the American position might partly be explained by Mr Natwar Singh's claim that eight out of 10 diplomats hanker for a Green Card for their children. Similarly, I describe in Waiting for America that Joseph Korbel, Ms Madeleine Albright's father, was waiting for his American naturalisation papers while he was the United Nations adjudicator on Jammu & Kashmir. But the subservience of Indians in high position goes beyond calculations of self-interest. The excitement when Mr Obama attended a reception for Mr SM Krishna or an ethnic Indian won the Spelling Bee competition has no logic beyond the inferiority complex of a colonised people.

The flurry of excitement in a Dhaka hotel — flower pots brought in, carpets unrolled — once prompted me to ask the cause. "Ambassador!" a Bangladeshi breathed. Which Ambassador? But "Ambassador" needed no elaboration. Eventually I discovered it was the Saudi Ambassador. America's Ambassador may not occasion quite the same furore in New Delhi but the senior diplomat I had just sat down to interview in his South Block office (after two abortive appointments) when I was researching Waiting for America jumped up with alacrity when a burly White man pushed the door open and strode in.

He was the acting US Ambassador. "Hope I'm not disturbing anything" he said breezily. "I'd come to see so-and-so and thought I'd drop in." Honoured by the intrusion, my IFS host drove me away, my questions unasked. He is now one of India's senior Ambassadors. Given his grovelling, why blame a Lok Sabha member from Bihar for vowing not to wash for three months the hand that Mr Bill Clinton had shaken?

We now learn that corners were cut to get Union Carbide's licence to manufacture pesticide, early warnings about the factory were ignored, and India's official team of scientists not allowed into the company's plant in Virginia. In his paper, "Unsettling Truths, Untold Tales: The Bhopal Gas Disaster Victim's 'Twenty Years' of Courtroom Struggles for Justice", Delhi High Court's Justice S Muralidhar called the settlement the Supreme Court approved in February 1989 "severely flawed". We also learn that Mr Arun Jaitley and Mr Abhishek Singhvi both advised Dow Chemicals, which took over Union Carbide in 2001, that it had no liability for the tragedy.

Commonsense suggests that liabilities go with assets. Commonsense also suggests that the top man — Warren Anderson — must be accountable for everything that happens in his company. I was only following established practice when as editor I appeared before the West Bengal Assembly's privileges committee and took the rap for a junior colleague's indiscretion. Mr Anderson's evasiveness indicates a conscience as dead as that of the Exxon chief who retired recently with a $400 million handshake from a company that paid a similar sum (after fighting tooth and nail against the initial $ 5 billion award) for 40,000 victims of the 1989 Valdez oil spill.

The criminality of those who allowed Anderson to escape is even more astounding. They soft-pedalled charges against Union Carbide, ensured that the case was not heard in the US where damages would have been much higher and did nothing to scotch American whispers blaming the tragedy on a disgruntled workman's sabotage.

The nation expects the Group of Ministers to impress upon the US that there can be no strategic alliance based on injustice. India is still waiting for America.

sunandadr@yahoo.co.in

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

SOME QUESTIONS ON BHOPAL

PRIYADARSI DUTTA

Upon the wrecked Pompeii of UCIL's compound in Bhopal, cobwebs of confusion dart in the air. All the former Prime Minister's men and all the ex-Chief Minister's men are trying hard to put together again the Humpty Dumpty shattered by the June 7 court judgement. Is there any credible evidence, apart from Mr Arjun Singh's trumped horse-sense that law and order deteriorated in Bhopal on December 7-8, 1984? What else did Mr Singh do to control it apart from aiding Mr Warren Anderson to flee? How was bail granted to him by the investigating officer without his ever being produced in court? How did Mr Anderson pole-vault out of a two-tier security, provincial and national, to escape unscathed to the US?

Why was Mr Anderson never quizzed — extradition was half a world away — by intelligence agencies as was David Headley? There seem to be a pile of questions never satisfactorily asked. A tragedy caused by "the synergy of the very worst of American and Indian cultures" was how the Chief Judicial Magistrate described the Bhopal disaster in his 95-page judgment.

The confusion was compounded as no judicial inquiry or commission was set up to go into the antecedents and aftermath of the gas tragedy. The reason for this is not known. The Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act, 1985 was enforced with effect from February 20, 1985. The Act conferred upon the Central Government the power to secure claims connected with the Bhopal gas leakage. But sadly, no inquiry commission, headed by a sitting or retired judge of the Supreme Court, was ordered though there were reportedly 17 ministerial committees and now another GoM (Group of Ministers) to look into the issue.

In the meantime, international organisations like Amnesty International, Greenpeace Research Laboratories, University of Massachusetts and the Pesticide Action Network have conducted case studies and research on Bhopal nailing Union Carbide India Limited. Sanjoy Hazarika came to limelight with Bhopal: The Lessons of a Tragedy (1987) and Dominique Lapierre with Five Minutes Past Midnight in Bhopal (2002). But it is a riddle why there's no official report on the Bhopal catastrophe.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

IT'S POLITICS AS USUAL

THE UNION GOVERNMENT HAS ABYSMALLY FAILED TO ACT IN TIME AGAINST THE UNCALLED FOR BLOCKADE OF MANIPUR WHICH LASTED FOR MORE THAN TWO MONTHS. THIS REFLECTS AN INDIFFERENT ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE NORTH-EAST AND ITS FESTERING PROBLEMS

ARINDAM CHAUDHURI

The people of Manipur will hopefully be getting some kind of relief from the ordeal that started on April 11. It was on that day that the All-Naga Students Association began its blockade of National Highway 39 (the lifeline of Manipur) in retaliation to the Manipur Government's decision to not permit National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) leader Mr Thuingaleng Muivah to visit his native village in the State.

The Manipur Government took this stance as it feared Mr Muiviah's visit might again instigate unrest in the region. In fact, it even turned down the Union Government's request to provide adequate security to Mr Muivah during his visit, forcing him to camp at the border of Manipur. The situation further flared up when a couple of NSCN(I-M) supporters were killed in police firing.

What followed after that was an indefinite blockade by NSCN(I-M) supporters, which almost drove Manipur into a state of complete collapse. With rice selling at Rs 100 a kg, petrol at Rs 150 a litre, and a gas cylinder at Rs 1,500, prices shot up to such a level that many things went out of reach of most people in Manipur. It was only when the Prime Minister intervened and met the Naga students that they agreed to lift the blockade — albeit 'temporarily'.

Although for the time being there will be momentary respite for Manipur, the problem is complex and it would require the intervention of the Union Government on an immediate basis. There are three key stakeholders in the issue which has led to this problem.

First, the NSCN(I-M) which since decades has been demanding a larger and extended territory for the State of Nagaland, which eats into the territories of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, much to the dislike of all the three States. The second stakeholder is the Manipur which has been at the receiving end and is determined not to allow Mr Muivah to visit his native village for these reasons. And the third stakeholder is the Union Government which has been a mute spectator while the situation turned from bad to worse.

In fact, the Centre's stance is nothing unexpected. Neither is it the first time that Manipur has faced such a situation nor is it the first time that the Union Government has chosen to remain silent for such a prolonged period when a State, any State, has been suffering. Be it Telangana, Bodoland, Vidharba, Purvanchal or Jammu & Kashmir, the Union Government seems to deliberately delay decisions, perchance to seek maximum political mileage from the same.

It has become almost a routine that prior to elections, every political party commits itself to honour the demands of regional entities with respect to formation of separate States clearly to gain political advantage from the announcement and mollycoddling. Once in power, neither do they honour their commitments nor do they provide an alternate workable solution. Territorial problems are ubiquitous to India and lack of political decisiveness has a historical precedence.

Every stakeholder to the current problem in Manipur has its own self-centred political agenda. First, let us understand Mr Muivah's agenda. For that, one would have to understand why Mr Muivah decided to visit his native village in Manipur now after so many years. The reason is quite evident.

The entire existence of NSCN(I-M) and Mr Muivah is based on the creation of a Greater Nagaland. And Mr Muivah has so far been unable to negotiate an extension of the ceasefire (which was last extended in 2001) by the Union Government. In the absence of the ceasefire, Mr Muivah planned his visit to appease the Nagas in Manipur, who incidentally are also the most active cadre of the NSCN.

Similarly, in the absence of the ceasefire agreement, the Manipur Government also turned down the Union Government's directive to provide security to Mr Muivah during his visit, again to appease its own electorate. It could have hardly imagined then that this stance would inflict more suffering on its own people. Not that the Manipur Government wants the Union Government to extend the ceasefire, which would virtually mean giving in to the demands of NSCN(I-M).

And, finally, as far as the Union Government is concerned, not only has it been indecisive about extending the ceasefire agreement but it has also failed in providing any kind of clear directives in order to permanently resolve the crisis. All in all, it is politics as usual, and like always, it is the common man who is at the receiving end..

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THE PIONEER

OPED

PARADISE LOST

CONSTRUCTION BOOM MAY KILL SULTANPUR SANCTUARY

ANURADHA DUTT

Growing alarm over Haryana's dwindling water reserves, which are anyway meagre, has conservationists worried. After the drying up of three lakes — Damadama in Gurgaon, and Suraj- kund and Badkhal in Faridabad — the very existence of the renowned Sultanpur bird sanctuary and lake is now threatened. Nature lovers, who have seen the Bharatpur bird sanctuary in adjoining water-starved Rajasthan withering away because of sheer neglect, fear the same fate befalling Sultanpur. Minister of State for Environment and Forests Mr Jairam Ramesh has brought the matter to the attention of Haryana Chief Minister Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, pointing out in his missive that it was at the behest of the late Indira Gandhi that Sultanpur was declared a sanctuary in 1972. Therefore, the sanctuary's "pathetic state", with water drying up, is "doubly unfortunate".

And, indeed, the neglect is unforgivable, given that the place for long was a haven for local and migratory birds, water species, and Neelgai and the like. Haryana, plagued by aridity and scanty rainfall, can ill-afford the loss of another water body. Otherwise, if the decline continues, with nothing being done to conserve water sources and green cover, glitzy National Capital Region towns such as Faridabad and Gurgaon may well go the way of Sultan Mohammed bin Tughlaq's Daulatabad in the early 14th century, and the Mughal Emperor Akbar's Fatehpur Sikri in the late 16th century; both abandoned for want of water. Some archaeologists aver that Indus Valley Civilisation sites such as Mohenjo Daro and Harappa had to be abandoned by their inhabitants because of the drying up of water sources.

The prevailing lack of interest in conserving water sources, earlier synonymous with tourism in this arid state, clearly owes its origin to the shift in focus from tourism to the frenzy of construction/colonisation, currently the staple of Haryana's economy. Consequently, farmlands, grazing pastures, hills and lake environs have all been appropriated for development purposes, with corresponding degradation of the environment. Incessant and relentless digging, construction and mining in NCR towns over the past two decades have assumed such threatening dimensions that conservationists apprehend desertification of the whole area. Denudation of the Aravalli hills, earlier acting as a barrier against the creeping sands of the great Thar desert; depletion of green cover; and the drying up of water bodies and sharp fall in ground water conjure up the fearful spectre of a wasteland swamping the Capital in the near future.

There are ample intimations of this in the battered and ravaged landscape of Faridabad and Gurgaon, and further afield in Uttar Pradesh's Brajbhumi and Rajasthan, where the hills and jungles are being pounded into submission. Not just wildlife, this habitat will not be fit even for humans as water sources, trees and vegetation disappear. NCR has already witnessed the disappearance of the beautiful Damdama lake in Gurgaon, and tranquil Surajkund and Badkhal lakes in Faridabad. Till a few years ago, these were favourite weekend getaways, epitomes of the sylvan idyll. But indiscriminate colonisation of their environs, excessive mining in the hills and use of ground water led to these lakes drying up. And the Hooda Government in Haryana has callously reneged on its pledge to revive at least two of them, the water bodies at Surajkund and Badkhal, before the hosting of the Commonwealth Games this October. Not even the lure of impressing "foreigners", the Congress' Achilles heel, seems to have worked its influence in this matter.

At present, nature lovers such Mr Anand Arya, who campaigned hard to protect the Okhla Bird Sanctuary from encroachment by the covetous Mayawati-headed UP Government, are focusing their energies on saving Sultanpur sanctuary and its wildlife. He ascribes its plight to "poor, unthoughtful and callous management", with no clear reason evident for the lack of water as earlier, the lake had managed to exist and sustain birds, fish and other creatures. He points out the obvious, that water is necessary for survival of wildlife, as of any life. And the time now is crucial for the breeding of heronry — storks, ibises, cormorants, egrets, spoonbills — which, last year, flourished in this season. It is significant that some birds such as the comb ducks have not been spotted this year.

Conservation of water bodies, which have been suffering the onslaught of unsustainable development, must be recognised as a priority. Towards this end, the Wetland Conservation Guide-lines, pending since long, need to be immediately implemented after being divested of flaws. And, above all, policy-makers must ensure that there is a complete ban on the conversion of wetlands, even for supposedly aesthetic purposes.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

BP NAILED, ANDERSON STILL FREE

KALYANI SHANKAR

The differences in the way the Gulf of Mexico and Bhopal disasters — both manmade — are being handled exposes the double standards of the West

Is there any difference between the Bhopal gas leak of 1984 and the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010? The most glaring difference is the way the two are being handled and the double standard adopted by the Western world.

While the Bhopal gas leak had left nearly 15,000 dead and several lakhs affected, the BP leak is a developing story. It has so far claimed only 11 lives but the flora and fauna and jobs in the region are in grave danger. Following a public outcry, the Obama Administration now holds the BP officials accountable for the spill. It is clear that they will not escape unscathed as did the Union Carbide top brass.

Facing media and public criticism, US President Mr Barack Obama now speaks a tough language. In an NBC show recently, he asked "whose ass he has to kick" over the oil spill, adding that the BP CEO should be sacked. Looking for a permanent solution to check such disasters, he has assured the people: "I am with you and my administration is with you for the long haul."

In comparison, the Indian authorities did not act firmly nor did they fear media or public criticism for over a quarter of a century. Successive Governments since 1984 ruling the States and the Centre did not do justice to those affected (according to official figures, they number 8,94,000). On the contrary, they helped Mr Warren Anderson, chairman of Union Carbide at the time of the leak, leave the country.

Look at how India and the US reacted regarding compensation. British Petroleum has already paid its first installment of $ 69 million for the damages caused. Mr Obama has pushed BP to pay for the environmental disaster, and the company is liable to pay a fine of up to $ 4,300 per barrel. With the BP's liability still undecided, the amount is expected to go higher.

In contrast, Union Carbide got away by just paying $ 470 million. According to official figures, about 30,000 people are still admitted to various hospitals as outpatients and are receiving treatment. The State Government figures say that a total of Rs 512 crore has been spent in medical, economic and social and environmental rehabilitation as of 2009.

There are some similarities between the two gas leaks. They are both man-made disasters. Safety mechanisms were untested and overlooked in both. But the similarities end here.

The Bhopal gas leak is a classic case to show how justice delayed is justice denied. It has brought to focus the functioning of the judicial system and the need for speedy justice. The court in Bhopal has sentenced the seven surviving defendants to two years in prison and a fine of $2,100. Sadly, the convicted employees managed to get bail immediately. Union Carbide India Limited, which no longer exists, was fined less than $11,000. Ironically, while the accused were initially charged with culpable homicide Supreme Court in 1996 reduced the charges to death by negligence, which carries a maximum two-year setence.

Secondly, it brings to focus the callousness of the political system. Almost all the political parties have been at the Centre as coalition partners in the past two decades. The BJP and the Congress alternatively ruled Madhya Pradesh. Now they are all engaged in a blame game.

Thirdly, the media and the environmentalists also failed the victims. The issue should have been kept in focus until justice was done.

Fourthly, even the public failed in its duty to hold the politicians responsible. The Bhopal gas tragedy was never been an election issue in all these years.

Fifthly, the investigating agencies also failed in their duties. The CBI now admits that its case in the court was weak while the accused had better defence lawyers. The CBI is known for its lack of enthusiasm in prosecuting the accused be it in the Bofors case or any other issue.

Sixthly, the Prime Minister is keen to ensure that the nuclear civil liability Bill is in place before Mr Obama visits India in November. The Bill needs a careful examination.

Seventhly, Indian authorities tried unsuccessfully to prosecute Mr Anderson. He came to India after the disaster, was briefly arrested but released on bail. UCIL claims the company and its officials were not subject to the jurisdiction of the Indian court since they did not have any involvement in the operation of the plant, which was owned and operated by Union Carbide India Limited. Can New Delhi put pressure to extradite Mr Anderson, now 90, living in New York?

US Assistant Secretary of State Mr Robert Blake has ruled out reopening of the case. "I don't expect this verdict to reopen any new inquiries. On the contrary, we hope that this is going to help to bring closure, to the victims and their families," Mr Blake said. Does it not expose a double standard being adopted by the US?

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THE PIONEER

OPED

BP NAILED, ANDERSON STILL FREE

THE DIFFERENCES IN THE WAY THE GULF OF MEXICO AND BHOPAL DISASTERS — BOTH MANMADE — ARE BEING HANDLED EXPOSES THE DOUBLE STANDARDS OF THE WEST

KALYANI SHANKAR

There are some similarities between the two gas leaks. They are both man-made disasters. Safety mechanisms were untested and overlooked in both. But the similarities end here.

Thirdly, the media and the environmentalists also failed the victims. The issue should have been kept in focus until justice was done.

Fourthly, even the public failed in its duty to hold the politicians responsible. The Bhopal gas tragedy was never been an election issue in all these years.

Sixthly, the Prime Minister is keen to ensure that the nuclear civil liability Bill is in place before Mr Obama visits India in November. The Bill needs a careful examination.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

EDUCATION AS TOOL FOR GLOBAL DIPLOMACY

VINAYSHIL GAUTAM

Institutions such as AIIMS, IIMs and IITs have given India a sharp brand image

The nature of international diplomacy has changed. The nature of education has changed. What is taking time is our ability to recognise both or either in sufficient measure to gear up to the new challenges. We now have a Minister for Human Resources Development who not only has an appreciation of what is happening but is leading from up front. He instinctively realises that in the present day and age one of the core struggles is for control over the minds of the people.

It is a well-accepted fact that education conditions people's world view and also gives them a framework of reference. It provides the moorings to which one often returns to make sense of the external world.

The education systems in countries such as the US, the UK, Canada and Australia have earned generously and gained much mileage for national policies by letting their educational institutions take their campuses abroad, letting foreign students have appropriate facilities for working and studying on their own campuses and encouraging distance education by using technology for creating the educational link. The effects of such an interaction last for generations and lifetimes.

Given the usefulness and the prestige attached to such an education, those educated here often emerge as leaders in their chosen professions and indeed in public life. The synergy of their ideas with the decision-making paradigm of their alma mater in matters of values, ethics and worldview creates a good base for these persons to serve as ambassadors of the place where they were educated. This could manifest itself in the manner of handling special trade relations, unique security arrangements and definitive combinations in various international fora. India should gear itself in a focused manner to project the Indian perspective proactively.

An assessment needs to be made for using education as a tool of diplomacy. India has a well-developed brand image, having created institutions such as the IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and Indian School of Mines not to mention certain prestigious universities with specialisation in classical languages, science subjects and literature studies. In several of these cases, statutory provisions prevent them from opening campuses abroad. These need to be loosened up in a structured manner and with due preparation. Institutions such as National University of Education Planning and Administration could pilot this transformation.

The promotion of Indian education abroad has been attempted through education fairs. To do what is required to take this matter forward, careful synergised thought is needed. The support provided by the British Embassy in this regard is an outstanding example of what can be achieved if there is synergy of thinking and action to use education as a tool of diplomacy. The Indian Embassy will have to be provided with the wherewithal to gear up for the situation.

Support system for foreign students in educational institutions needs to be strengthened. The way forward would be to identify select institutions where such facilities could be created. The International Students House of Delhi University provides an useful precedent. Area studies programmes must be started in more educational institutions. The Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of External Affairs would need to enmesh their domains and range of competencies. Programmes to respond to the contextual requirement of the locations from where the students come would be required.

As a short-term plan it is suggested that a shortlist be made of the institutions, universities and deemed universities not fettered by legal and other constraints. There are some who are already having campuses abroad in a limited way.

Simultaneously, a study for developing a medium and long term action plan must be commissioned to look into the issue of making available courses in select areas of humanities and social sciences, science, engineering, management and medical studies including the Indian system of medicine where Indian education can fulfil a felt need.

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MAIL TODAY

EDITORIAL

PROSECUTE RAJU A BIT MORE PURPOSEFULLY

IT has been the biggest fraud in Indian corporate history, worth an estimated Rs 7100 crore, which caused nearly 40,000 people to lose their jobs, and yet the trial is leading nowhere. The reason is that the prime accused, Satyam's founder Ramalinga Raju, is allegedly seriously ill and undergoing treatment at the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences ( NIMS) in Hyderabad.

While it may seem unfair to doubt the seriousness of Raju's illness, serious questions arise about the manner in which his treatment is taking place. In a report carried by M AIL T ODAY in May, it was pointed out that he had received hundreds of visitors, including friends and lawyers, in a period of six months. The reports from the hospital have been extremely vague from a medical perspective and don't mention whether his Hepatitis C ailment is of the kind that will allow him to go back to jail and live on weekly injections, or that he cannot be discharged from hospital. Or, for that matter, whether he has irreversible liver damage requiring a liver transplant. And this, mind you, is from a government- run hospital.

The case of Raju is unique, not because of his illness but because of his status. The system of justice and law- enforcement seems to operate very differently for rich and powerful people like him. The Central Bureau of Investigation has been lax on this score. It has neither challenged the NIMS reports, nor insisted on a second medical opinion. Indeed while it has completed its other investigations, it has not yet managed to even interview Raju.

With the hospital recommending that Raju be excused from the trial for another 28 weeks, we can expect justice to be delayed yet again.

One big problem is that there is a tendency to treat white- collar crime as being different from acts that involve violence or threats. But, the sheer magnitude of Raju's actions, and the unhappy consequences that have visited thousands of young people who lost their jobs or investors who lost their money should be a matter of concern to everyone. Given the history of leniency to white collar crime in India, the CBI should have used the opportunity to make the Satyam scam an example of stern action and zero tolerance against such crime.

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MAIL TODAY

EDITORIAL

THE DEAD DESERVE DIGNITY

THE images of dead Maoists— three of them women — slung on poles like animals by Central Reserve Police Force personnel has left a bad taste in the mouth. The CRPF ought to be congratulated for the successful operation in West Midnapur district of West Bengal that led to the killing of eight Maoists, but what was the need to have released such pictures into the public domain? Perhaps the aim was to send a psychological message to the adversary, or, maybe they were trying to overcome the ignominy of having 75 of their personnel killed in April in neighbouring Dantewada.

In 2001, 15 personnel of the Border Security Force were killed by the Bangladesh Rifles after they ventured

into the neighbouring country's territory. India had been rightly outraged at pictures showing the dead constables being carried in the same manner by the Bangladeshi personnel. At the time the Bangladeshi officials had claimed that the place where the encounter took place was a vast paddy field and it had been difficult to take out the bodies in any other way. No doubt the CRPF will also claim that the exigencies of the terrain compelled them to take recourse to that method of carrying the dead.

But it is the custom in almost every society to cover the faces of the dead. The issue then, as now, is the manner in which the dead, even adversaries and terrorists, ought to be treated, or even depicted.

What this episode reveals is the primitive conditions in which the CRPF and other forces are being tasked to take on the Maoists. Is it too much to ask that helicopters be used for tasks like medical evacuation or to recover the remains of the dead? We know that the operations of the paramilitary forces against the Maoists are often bloody but this can be no justification for putting aside norms of civilised behaviour.

One of the things that differentiate modern combat from medieval warfare is that even enemy combatants have rights. To treat prisoners of war in a proper way and grant the dead their due dignity is an integral part of this code.

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MAIL TODAY

EDITORIAL

IF YOU CAN'T RIDE TWO HORSES AT ONCE GET OUT OF THE CIRCUS

BY MANOJ JOSHI

THERE IS a distinct feeling among the players and observers of the Afghanistan scene that we are now approaching crunch time. It is not just that the US is now finally ready to sharply escalate the battle, even though it has set itself an impossibly short period of one year in which to regain the momentum and thereafter commence withdrawal.

The stakes are high for many of the players in the new Great Game. That is the reason why, according to Wednesday's The New York Times report, Pakistan has upped the ante by unleashing its private army, the Lashkar- e- Tayyeba, against Indian interests in Afghanistan.

But many observers believe that after the London Conference that decided to accommodate the Taliban into a new Afghan structure, New Delhi is effectively hors de combat.

The news coming out of Afghanistan is confusing. It is not just the fog of war, though there is a great deal of that there as well. It is also the inevitable consequence of a complex struggle that pits the United States- led coalition against the Taliban- al Qaeda alliance, along with side battles between alliance partners Pakistan and the US, and the strategic struggle between Pakistan and India, the US versus Iran and, finally, Pakistan against the Tehreeke- Taliban Pakistan. With so many variables at play, is it any surprise that things are as perplexing as they appear? To understand what is happening in Afghanistan we need to understand the aphorism of the Greek philosopher Heracalitus that " you cannot step into the same river twice". Of course the original fragment attributed to him has a more complex interpretation, but its simpler version means that the Afghanistan of today is not the Afghanistan of 2001.

It has witnessed a great deal of flux.

Neither, of course, is the US the same country that went to war then riding a crest of global support in the wake of Nine- Eleven. It has undergone the disaster in Iraq, the sub- prime led economic crisis all of which have eroded its political will to stay the course in Afghanistan, leave alone the money to fund the enterprise.

As late as October 2009, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates declared that the US was in Afghanistan for the long haul.

Yet six months later when President Obama delineated his Afghan strategy, he set the July 2011 deadline to begin bringing the troops back home.

Obama's statement laying out the date in which the US withdrawal will begin, set the proverbial cat among the pigeons. It gave hope to the beleaguered Pakistan

Army that if they could maneuver a little longer between the US and the Taliban, they would soon be dictating terms in Kabul. The needless controversy over Karzai's election has alienated the one major Pakhtun leader who was with the western alliance. It has shaken the alliance itself with many of its European allies wanting out, or refusing to commit themselves to the required escalation.

In the coming months we will see how the endgame planned by Generals Petraeus and McChrystal works out. One of the world's great strategic thinkers Helmuth von Moltke the Elder once observed, " No plan survives contact with the enemy". That is what seems to be already happening to the ambitious US plan to carry out a quick surge in its capabilities in Afghanistan, followed by an intense offensive involving military power and political reconstruction to break the Taliban's hold in the key provinces of Helmand and Kandahar,followed by a triumphant withdrawal, beginning July 2011.

The two- month old operation in Marja in the Helmand province led by the crack US marines has failed to provide a decisive outcome. So, the US has postponed or altered the plans of its longawaited offensive in the neighbouring Kandahar province.

India

This is, of course, good. Persisting on a time- line which is not working would be folly. Speaking in Brussels last week, the US commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen Stanley McChrystal conceded that the Kandahar operation was not going as planned and that the operation which was to have begun in June and ended by August will now go on till October.

McChrystal did not point out that the problem in Kandahar was more basic. The US and its allies were finding that the locals did not see them as liberators, but rather as foreigners, and that the intolerant Taliban had probably successfully transformed themselves into the vanguard of Afghan nationalism, which has historically historically been strongly xenophobic anyway.

The Afghan component led by Ahmed Wali Karzai, the controversial brother of President Hamid Karzai has not

been able to deliver the political part of the operation— the support of some key tribal leaders who are clearly hedging their bets. But the more alarming news for the US is that even President Karzai may be doing so.

India is therefore stuck between a rock and a hard place. It has left New Delhi holding the proverbial can. It is the only actor, along with, perhaps, Iran, which does not see the return of the Taliban, in whatever form, in a sanguinary light. It has developed enormous stakes in the establishment of a non- Taliban government in the country. It is the fifth largest donor to Afghanistan and besides infrastructure projects, it has sought to build a stake by training Afghan bureaucrats and professionals. In this it has had the support and backing of the United States and the European Union. But, unlike the Nato- led alliance, it has little leverage beyond what little goodwill it can gather from the Karzai government. But it has only itself to blame for its predicament.

Its policy has been half- baked and devoid of strategic content. The only way in which it could have retained some autonomous leverage outside American whims and Pakistani ill- will would have been in cooperation with Iran. Because the key to autonomy is physical access to Afghanistan. In clear terms, New Delhi needed to see Iran and Afghanistan along with Pakistan in one regional continuum rather than as two discrete entities.

Iran

In September 2005, some months after the announcement of the Indo- US nuclear deal, India voted with the US and other western countries to send the Iranian case to the United Nations Security Council at the IAEA governing board meeting. Since then Indo- Iranian relations have been in a tailspin.

It is true that it is in India's interest that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.

But that is a longer term prospect than the possible return of a pro- Pakistan regime in Kabul. Unfortunately, New Delhi decided that the Indo- US nuclear deal trumped all other considerations.

India needed to finesse its US and Iran policy in such a manner that it did not lead to a breakdown with one or the other.

Actually maybe even that may not have mattered because India has simply hitched its wagon to the US star and ignored the imperatives of an autonomous regional policy. Since the late 1990s, the Iranians have offered India possible access to Afghanistan and Iran via the port of Chah Bahar. The proposal was that India build a modern container terminal there, build a railway line from the port to Bam via Faraj and to Zahedan on the Iran- Afghan border. However, New Delhi has willfully ignored this option, choosing to put all its eggs in the American basket.

What our Afghan policy demanded was to work constructively with the Americans, even while keeping the Iranian option open. If you can't ride two horses at once, as the song goes, you should get out of the circus— or the Great Game.

manoj.joshi@mailtoday.in

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MAIL TODAY

EDITORIAL

THE LAHORE LOG

THE KEYIS CHECKS AND BALANCES

BY NAJAM SETHI

T RANSPARENCY International's yearly reports on corruption are an anathema for governments of countries which score badly on the corruption scale because these are seen as an indictment of the government in office rather than of the state, civil society or political system. Thus when a TI country- report is published, the domestic focus is not so much on the country's standing in the global corruption index but on how the government of the day fares in comparison with its predecessor or its proposed successor- in- waiting.

In Pakistan, however, a rather different sort of comparison is also made, albeit implicitly: whether there is more or less corruption in a quasi- legitimate militarydominated government compared to an elected civilian government. From this follow prescriptions for a change in government and, sometimes, even in the political system. Is this fair? Corruption first became a major political issue in Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto became prime minister in 1988. Indeed, it was the main plank used by the conspiratorial remnants of the Zia regime to oust her from office barely two years later. Much the same reason was given when three democratically elected regimes— one led by Ms Bhutto again and two by Nawaz Sharif— were prematurely ousted by the ubiquitous military- bureaucratic " establishment". It was significant, too, that whenever an elected civilian regime was ousted, " democracy" and " parliament" were conspicuously discredited, finally paving the way for the military takeover in 1999 when no public tears were shed for the demise of " another corrupt democracy". OMINOUSLY, the latest TI report on Pakistan arrives at a time when, once again, an elected civilian regime is besieged by corruption charges, and angry voices in the media, civil society and opposition are demanding its ouster.

Here is a checklist of its findings. ( 1) 70% of Pakistanis say that the present federal and provincial governments, excluding Punjab, are more corrupt than the previous governments.

( 2) The police force retains its unenviable record as being the most corrupt institution in the country. Surprisingly, though, certain other findings are more significant. ( 1) The Federal Board of Revenue's Customs and Taxation Departments and the Tendering and Contracting Departments of public sector corporations and local administrations are ranked as the least corrupt sectors of the economy.

( 2) In USA and UK, among other democracies, parliament and political parties are perceived by Americans to be the single

most corrupt sector of society while in Pakistan that dubious honour goes to civil servants and unelected officials. This means that the institutions of the state like the unaccountable bureaucracy, army and judiciary are relatively more corrupt in Pakistan than in robust democracies where there is institutional accountability.

Therefore the solution to the problem of corruption in Pakistan doesn't lie in periodically kicking out parliaments and governments and thereby discrediting electoral democracy but in firmly establishing a political system of checks and balances and accountability of state institutions so that unelected officials of the state are selected on merit, paid well and legally protected against the discretionary ravages of bad and corrupt politicians. Under the circumstances, a vibrant media armed with a strong freedom of information act and an independent judiciary at its back is a necessary condition for accountability.

Unfortunately, however, the free media and higher judiciary are not playing this role properly in Pakistan. When the media seeks to play a partisan power role in the making or unmaking of governments, it loses credibility and becomes an instrument in the hands of anti- democratic forces. Similarly, when the higher judiciary focuses its energies on abstract constitutional matters or partisan power politics rather than on improving the system of justice and administration at the lower level, then it too helps to sustain the procorruption status quo of state institutions.

No wonder the latest TI report claims that corruption in the judiciary, education sector and local government has also balancesincreased in Pakistan in the last year or so.

The link between corruption, dictatorship and democracy should not be misplaced.

TI's global corruption index shows that robust democracies are relatively less corrupt than full or quasi dictatorships. Democratic India, for example, which is made of the same post- colonial politico- cultural mould as Pakistan, has climbed the ladder from being the 9th most corrupt country in the world in 1996 to the 95th most corrupt in 2009. In the same period, Pakistan's chequered history of alternating between dictatorship and democracy places it at 42nd position today compared to 2nd in 1996.

A reason why India's democracy took so long to make progress against corruption has to do with the weight of the corrupt and inefficient " bureaucratic" public sector model adopted by its founding fathers ( which is now being dismantled slowly) just as Pakistan's dismal situation today is attributed to the unaccountability of the same state institutions and civil- military bureaucracy that dominate its politicoeconomic landscape.

The Auditor General's latest report claims that over Rs 300 billion were lost to malpractices and unaccountable discretionary rules and procedures in the civil institutions of the federal government.

There is no figure or even guesstimate for leakages in the budgets of the armed forces which account for nearly one- third of the entire tax revenue.

TI Pakistan estimates corruption to cost over Rs 1000 billion a year. That is about one- third of the federal budget and over half the total tax revenue. If this percentage could be even halved by appropriate and responsible interventions by the free media and newly independent judiciary and channeled into education and health every year, the impoverishment of the masses would stop and the lingering threat to democracy would dissipate.

The writer is Editor of The Friday Times

MONI MOHSIN

GUESS what? I'm in London. Ji haan, I'm here. In a flat in Anusmore Gardens on the back side of Knightsbridge.

A grenade's throw from Harrods. Two bed, two bath. Sitting dining are one, but. We're here because Janoo's old friend from Oxford, John Porter or Potter or Porker, I don't know what ( these goras have such strange names vaisay) is getting married.

He's Janoo's age and he's getting married now only.

Imagine! Anyways it's to be big party in his country state in Norfuck.

We are supposed to go, in fact that's why we're here but I think so at last minute I'll make excuse and say I have measles or mums or meaningitis or something because who can be bothered to spend whole day talking to goras? So bore, no? After all, it's a full year since I've come to London and then for Janoo to expect me to meet goras while I'm here, it's just not fair.

Haan so what I have been up to for the last week that I've been here? Aik tau I went to Harrod's pre view sale. Bought one bag by Mullbury. The Alexa.

One pair of shoes by Moo Moo. Didn't get Prada because Pakistan mein slum jo aya hua hai na and least I can do is be a bit kifayat shaar and buy Moocha, Prada's cheaper line, no? After all, baba, I'm a patriot.

Talking of patriots, Janoo's friend, an Indian called Ajit who was also from his college and now lives in Bombay ( I think so he's something big in sewage) took us to this place called Mark's Club which I think so used to belong to Mark Bully who was married to Jemima's mother, Anna Bell. And guess who was sitting there smoking a cigar as long as my arm? Musharraf. Ji haan. Stuffed into a suit. Calm as a cucumber with white white side burns and rest of head as jet black as Aunty Pussy's. Not looking least bit ashamed. I wanted to go up and tell him, while you are sitting here smoking cigars and dying your hair and being looked after by MiFix, we are sarrhoing in 120 degrees heat and that also without electricity, without water with bombs bursting around us. Janoo karaowed him a dirty look, but not even this much effect it had on him. So besharam.

Honestly! Because I'm fair minded I went to Selfridges sale also and bumped into whole of Chiniot there in the ground floor only. Also went to SOS play organised by Dr Anwar's daughter Sammy – voh yahan hoti hai na in Kingstone – and met rest of Pakistan there too.

Lubna Majeed was there, bhai Izzat's wife, and Dr Ghazala Hameed and Anwar and Nazli Majeed and Meliha Zaman and so on and so fourth. You know, this is what I love most about London. It's Pakistan with shops and electricity.

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MAIL TODAY

EDITORIAL

DEFENCE MINISTRY PROBES SOLDIER'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH

BY ASHISH SINHA IN NEW DELHI

THE defence ministry has ordered a probe into the mysterious death of a soldier. While his family alleges that he was murdered, the army says he killed himself.

M AIL T ODAY had reported the matter on April 2 this year, citing details of a magisterial probe that had found loopholes in the army's suicide theory.

Eight days before 27- yearold Rajeev Kumar Singh — of 7 Guards infantry battalion who was on attachment to 11 Guards in Dibrugarh ( Assam) — was to proceed on leave, he was found dead inside a sentry post at Chabua camp on the night of May 8 last year.

His mother, Indu Devi, had sought justice not only from the army but even the President and Prime Minister.

The family, based at Bokaro in Jharkhand, finally approached Dhanbad MP P. N. Singh, who wrote to defence minister A. K. Antony seeking a fresh probe into the case.

In a letter to the MP on May 24, Antony wrote that he had ordered an investigation. " I am getting the matter investigated," he said.

The jawan's brother, Raju, said: " After almost a year, it looks like the real cause of Rajeev's death will be known.

There was no way he could have committed suicide. The circumstantial evidence and the magisterial probe findings point to loose ends in the army's account." Rajeev's body bore two bullet marks — one on his chin from ' contact range' and the other on his right cheek from ' close range' — bringing the army's suicide theory under doubt.

The jawan's superiors in the 11 Guards testified before an army court of inquiry that such bullet entries were possible from the ' burst fire' of an AK rifle. But it looked improbable because a bullet couldn't have " entered" the right cheek unless it moved like a projectile.

The statements of Rajeev's superiors — in the initial police report, before the magisterial inquiry constituted by Dibrugarh deputy commissioner G. D. Tripathi and then at the court of inquiry conducted by 181 Mountain Brigade — had revealed not only gaps, but also serious procedural lapses into the circumstances leading to his death.

Rajeev's body was found without a proper uniform, let alone a bulletproof jacket which is mandatory for all those on sentry duty. His trousers were unzipped and there was no belt, headgear, anklet or nametag on his person.

The AK- 47 rifle that he was supposed to be carrying on the fateful night had been issued in the name of some other soldier.

The army described this as a usual practice, saying reissuing weapons for successive duties isn't exactly adhered to.

In his initial statement to the police, Major Gagandeep Singh, commander of Charlie company where Rajeev was deployed, said he was at a party on the night of the incident. It was hosted by a surrendered ULFA activist, Babli Konwar, at his house near the camp and other officers were also present.

He said he came to know of the death from someone at the party.

But the major's testimony changed when he deposed before the army court about 15 days later. " On May 8, 2009, at about 0040h ( 12.40 am), I was sleeping in my room at Chabua army camp when I awoke to the sound of commotion outside my room. I came out towards sentry post No. 4 and saw Capt.

Gurpreet ( medical officer) attending to late Guardsman Rajeev Kumar Singh, who was lying on the ground with his weapon beside him," he said.

The magisterial inquiry conducted on the direction of the Dibrugarh deputy commissioner found contradictions in the statements of the army officers and documents such as the postmortem report.

The inquiry report recommended that the case should be probed by a senior police officer or by Assam's Criminal Investigation Department as it could not be definitely concluded that death was " suicidal, accidental or homicidal". On March 8, Rajeev's mother also wrote to army chief General V. K. Singh, who was then heading the Eastern Command.

NDPL cites new credit rating to seek tariff hike

Mail Today

NORTH Delhi's power supplier has come up with a fresh credit rating report to push its demand for a tariff hike.

The move comes more than a fortnight after the power regulator, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission, cited an earlier rating that showed the company had healthy financials.

The North Delhi Power Limited ( NDPL) has claimed the report prepared on Wednesday suggests tariff must be raised by up to a tenth if the company were to realise its accrued profits in cash over the next two years.

" The hike required could even be higher if the current tariff is not commensurate in relation to the power procurement cost for the financial year 2010- 11," the report states.

In its letter to the DERC on Thursday, the company claimed: " Despite our superlative commercial and operational performance vis- a- vis the regulatory targets set for us to achieve, paradoxically the financial health of the NDPL has deteriorated due to tariff determination issues as also highlighted by the ICRA ( credit rating agency)." The company has asked the power regulator to consider the ICRA's latest report while determining this fiscal's tariff. But a DERC officer said the purpose of credit ratings was more about establishing a company's creditworthiness than its liquidity position.

The DERC had written to the NDPL last month, saying the company's claims of funds crunch were untenable. It cited an earlier ICRA report stating: " The ICRA has drawn comfort from the strong liquidity position of the NDPL, as measured by unutilised bank limits."

RAISINA
Tattle

Birthday plans

RAHUL Gandhi will turn 40 on June 19. The AICC general secretary, however, is a tad wary of partymen making special efforts to celebrate his birthday with pomp and splendour.

So in all likelihood, the Congress icon would not make a public appearance among Youth Congress and party workers on his birthday.

The old guard in the party is more interested in keeping an eye on Rahul's post- birthday reflection, wondering whether party chief Sonia Gandhi would reward him with a more meaningful role.

A secular note

AMITABH Bachchan may not be shy of sharing the dais with Narendra Modi, but he loves to flaunt his secular credentials. So when recently his daily habit of writing a blog touched the number 786, Big B could not resist striking an emotional chord with his readers.

Bachchan made an entry recalling, " DAY 786! 786 being the most sacred number in Islam and among Muslims. Bahut hi paak mana jata hai! Before beginning anything new, 786 has always been imprinted on the top. And of course closer home, I can never forget the 786 badge of Deewar and the Coolie Number in Coolie ."

Tussle on cards

UMA Bharti is once again knocking on the BJP door, but Suresh Soni, a powerful party general secretary, is said to be against the sadhvi's homecoming.

Soni also has the backing of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state party chief Prabhat Jha. But BJP patriarch L. K. Advani and former party chief Rajnath Singh have taken upon themselves to push for Uma's return to the part fold.

A keen tussle is on the cards.

Where's Alagiri?

NGOS working with the Bhopal tragedy victims have a problem on hand. On the eve of the crucial meeting of the Centre's group of ministers ( GoM), the activists have failed to establish any link with Union chemical and fertilisers minister M. Alagiri, whose ministry has a crucial say in matters related to gas.

In fact, when Ram Vilas Paswan was the chemical and fertilisers minister during the UPA- I government, he had resisted efforts of some of his cabinet colleagues to give a clean chit to Dow Chemical, which has bought Union Carbide.

Alagiri's lack of familiarity with Hindi or English has reportedly come in the way of the NGOs' meeting with the minister.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

BALANCING ACT

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it the gravest internal security challenge facing the country. Yet there appears to be confusion regarding the security response against the Maoists. On the one hand, the government has stated that the army will not be serving in any combat role in counter-insurgency operations, while on the other, the army is reportedly drawing up plans to raise five divisions, or 50,000 soldiers, of crack anti-Naxalite commandos. Given the seriousness of the Maoist problem, such dichotomy is best avoided. For, in order to mitigate the insurgency there needs to be an ironclad consensus at the leadership level. We cannot have multiple strategies being followed by different states. Coordination is the key to success.

That said, the only role that the army should be playing in the fight against the Maoists is that of support and training. There are several good reasons for this. First, the Maoist insurgency is a low-intensity, guerrilla warfare. Hence, the appropriate security response also has to be low-intensity and local. The army, which is responsible for defending our country's borders and adept at conventional warfare, does not fit the bill here. It is the Central Reserve Police Force along with the local state police forces that must continue to lead the counter-insurgency operations. Second, deployment of the army could very well exacerbate the insurgency.

If our experiences in Jammu & Kashmir and the north-east - two regions where the army has undertaken counter-insurgency operations - are anything to go by, they suggest that the presence of the army in these areas has played into the hands of the militants. It helped them perpetuate the 'us versus the Indian state' propaganda and feed on the people's grievances. This must be avoided at all costs.

The Maoist problem is also a failure of governance in tribal areas. The solution lies in following a three-pronged strategy that includes security, development and good governance. Even though Maoist-dominated areas need to be won back inch by inch, care must be taken to avoid creating any perception of the Indian state at war with its own people. The successful model for this is the one that was developed by Andhra Pradesh. The state not only raised a highly trained local anti-Naxalite commando force in the Greyhounds to tackle the Maoists, but also followed it up with development and an attractive surrender and rehabilitation scheme to wean away the middle-level Naxalite cadre. This needs to be replicated in all Maoist-affected areas. It is only when we are able to work out the right balance between force, development and negotiation that the Maoist problem will begin to recede.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

OFF TARGET

It's early days yet for the 2010 World Cup. But now that it's been a week since the kick-off and each team has played at least one game, a few initial trends are apparent. Despite FIFA's constant efforts to increase the number of goals being scored, there have been too few till now. The average number of goals per match is only 1.56, which is lower than earlier editions. One explanation for the fewer goals could be the narrowing of the gap in the quality of teams. Hence, a lowly North Korea lost to mighty Brazil by a scoreline of 1-2. There is also the safety-first approach with no team wanting to lose their first match, which has led to dour contests. The African teams, from whom much was expected, have by and large disappointed. There have, however, been a few sparks of brilliance such as the magical goal by Brazil's Maicon and a great display of skills by Argentine star Lionel Messi. And we saw a real upset when Switzerland beat Spain 1-0.

Off the field, the South African organisers have belied expectations by putting up excellent stadiums. But there have been glitches too. Security stewards in several venues struck work earlier this week over low wages, forcing the South African police to deploy extra personnel. Worryingly, there were empty seats in the stadium even during the crucial South Africa-Uruguay game which the hosts lost. For the South Africans it was a great start when they drew their first game with Mexico. But now they face the prospect of an early exit. That could definitely dampen the World Cup fervour - and the sound of the vuvuzelas - in the host country.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

EDITORIAL

'THERE IS NO ROOM FOR INCOMPLETE SEARCH HERE'

SHERRY M JACOB-PHILLIPS

Daniel M Russell , uber tech lead, Google Search Quality, is an expert on search quality and takes the lead in evangelising search education. Busy holding a series of search education classes for Googlers in India during a brief visit, Russell talks to Sherry M Jacob-Phillips how the most powerful tool - the Web - has much more to offer than just 'search' :

Google is synonymous with search? Did you foresee its success?

This is one that i will claim a big 'yes'! In the mid-1990s, i was working at Xerox PARC on a large-information search service analogous to Google Search in its scope and breadth. (This predated the Web, so it was primarily scholarly literature search service.) I had several mind-opening experiences then, moments that made one realise that everything will change once such search capability became widespread. So, yes, this has driven my research agenda for many years. I believe even Google founders (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) did foresee this kind of uptake.

How did Google consciously decide to focus on search?

Ever since Google was launched in 1998, the focus was all about growth. Initially, it was about Web pages, then images and now, it's also about news. We wanted to give our users something more. We wanted to introduce 'universal search' in terms of content. The way people think about 'search' has changed. Today, the internet can do anything. There are words you wouldn't find in the dictionary, you can find them on the Web. We even have a feature on Google Earth where the user can search for places under water...they can spot water canyons and sea creatures. It doesn't end there. The evolution has just begun.

How important is real-time search in today's scenario?

It's incredibly valuable because the time cycle of information transmission is growing ever shorter. This is pretty much true across the board, and the nearly instantaneous availability of information (once it's posted) is a game-changing development. Although we currently see many real-time feeds (such as Twitter, Facebook), we're also seeing an ever-decreasing amount of time between when something is posted on the Web, and when it's available in the search results.

So real-time search is important because the searcher's expectations about information availability are changing.

Instead of Google, netizens choose networking sites to get answers to their queries. Is that a threat?

What's new? People do that for a personalised answer. That's the way networking sites work. When in office if you want to know which is the best place to savour mutton biryani, you just stand up and ask your colleagues. Today, people ask such questions online. Google acquired a social networking Q&A site called Aardvark recently. After you post a question on it, that's sent to thousands of people connected on the site at that time.

Have you ever faced failure?

Failure is inevitable. It's easy to come up with ideas, but it's tough to chalk out ways on how to shift the product from where it is at present to where it should be 10 years from now. There have been instances where netizens search for words that cannot be found anywhere. That's the challenge. We need to advance search tips and tools. One thing's for sure - there's no room for incomplete search here.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

QUEEN'S GAMBIT

JUG SURAIYA

Queen Elizabeth has decided not to attend the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Instead, she is planning to send Charles as her badli. A CCTV picked up the following scene in Buckingham Palace:

Queen: We have decided that We are not going to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Charles: We? I didn't know i was meant to go with you.

Queen: Try not to be a proper Charlie, Charlie. When i say We, i don't mean you and me. I mean just Me, or rather, just We, to use the royal prerogative. All Us monarchs refer to Ourselves in the plural: Me, i mean, We; the King of Tonga; Soniaji. So, as We were saying, We are not going to Delhi. You're going in Our stead.
Charles: But why aren't you - i mean, We - going?

Queen: Because We went and checked the Royal Coffers.

Charles: Empty?

Queen: Not quite. There was a spider in them. Spinning a cobweb. A very large cobweb.
Charles: Which means that We are broke?

Queen: You bet your sweet batootie, We're broke. We're broker than Greece and Italy and Spain and Ireland put together. In fact, We're so broke, We're positively fractured. Which means that We can't afford the air fare to Delhi. You, however, don't need a ticket. You can go as cabin crew, as the regular British Airways cabin crew is on strike, as always. Just remember to practise saying 'Coffee, tea or me?' to passengers.
Charles: I've heard that some other Commonwealth countries, like Australia, might not be going to the Delhi Games because of the terrorist threat.

Queen: Terrorist-sherrorist. They're not going to Delhi because they're broke too. In fact, almost everyone in the Commonwealth is broke. We don't know why they keep calling it the Commonwealth; they should rename it the Commonpoor.

Charles: But dash it all, India's not broke. India's the second fastest growing economy in the world after China.

Queen: India's already spent Rs 30,000 crore on the Games. By the time the Games are over it'll have spent another Rs 30,000 crore. Don't worry. The Games will ensure that India becomes a bona fide member of the Commonpoor. But till that happens, We want you to explore export opportunities to India.
Charles: But Britain's got nothing it can export to India, not even the Jaguar, which now belongs to Ratan Tata. The only thing i can think of to export to India is that gold thingummy We're wearing on Our head.

Queen: You mean this old crown of Ours? It's not gold; We flogged that to Lakshmi Mittal a long time ago. The one We wear now is a nakli one, made of brass. Which reminds Us. We owe Mr Patel from the corner shop for a month's supply of Brasso to keep the damned thing polished.

Charles: So what can We export to India?

Queen: Something India's long wanted. The Kohinoor.
Charles: But hang it all, India's going to be so broke after the Games it won't be able to afford to buy the Kohinoor!

Queen: You're quite right. India won't be able to buy the Kohinoor. But there's one person in India who'll always be able to afford not one but 10 Kohinoors. She knows that diamonds are a Behenji's best friends.
Charles: Okey-dokey. I'll push off and have the Kohinoor gift-wrapped for Behenji.

Queen: You do that. (Thinks) The real reason We're sending him to India is that We're hoping he gets a job in a BPO and doesn't come back here wanting Our job which he's been doing for yonks....

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

MEET THE TRAILBLAZER

What could be a fugitive terrorist's worst nightmare? Your doppelganger on your trail. So we can only sympathise with Osama bin Laden on learning that Gary Faulkner, from Colorado, armed with a samurai sword and pistol has been nabbed from Chitral, where many intelligence analysts say bin Laden is holed up. The hunter and the huntee are two peas in a pod — both are religious loonies, both are in the construction business, both have beards and both have bad kidneys. The point to be noted for US super sleuths is that this crazy coot from Colorado has washed up in the same area at a fraction of the cost as them.

If Faulkner had been allowed to go unhindered, the Osama hunt could have been over. Imagine the uber terrorist's discomfiture when Faulkner turns up at his cave quoting the Scriptures to him. The hunter believes that God told him to go on this mission, Osama is a regular interlocutor for the Almighty who seems keen on video-conferencing. Faulkner may be in the net, but who knows how many more, overcome by the desire to meet bin Laden face to face, are out there roaming the Hindu Kush passes. Sooner or later, they will all congregate in the same place and then bin Laden and his lads will have a task on their hands beating them back. The Pentagon's had a tough time getting to chez bin Laden, so leave it to the teeth-gnashing nutters to look for each other.

We must commend Faulkner once more for his sense

of direction. For the Americans, especially the armed forces, are well known for being locationally challenged, often turning up at the wrong place at the wrong time. A trait made famous in a Monty Python movie in which the Marines land in the backyard of a Birmingham home, frightening the daylights

out of the old couple there by asking them if this was Eyerack. So to all those in search of bin Laden, we say carry on from the Khyber.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

A PRISONER OF BIRTH

Kyrgyzstan is a nation divided, burning and hard to find on a map. Its southern half has rejected the rule of its government, centred in the northern capital of Bishkek. Weakened central authority has allowed long-standing ethnic differences between the Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks to flare into violence. It could be a long time before stability is re-established. Neither the rebels nor the government are strong enough to defeat the other. Consensus is difficult in a polity based on local clans, many of whom seek support from outside groups. Which is why the world is looking to Moscow, and to a lesser extent Tashkent, when it comes to intervention.

Like most ex-Soviet Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan is an artificial nation deliberately crafted by Joseph Stalin, and thus doomed to be unstable and ethnically volatile. Being the smallest, most isolated and poorest Central Asian nation, Kyrgyzstan has been less of a front page political story than its neighbours. With the present ethnic unrest, this mountainous nation has, at last, fallen afoul of the same problems that beset all of Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan's fragmented polity makes it similar to Tajikistan. The larger Central Asian countries have tackled their patchwork nationhood through one-family dictatorships. They run a spectrum from a relatively benign Kazakhstan to a fiercely repressive Uzbekistan. The Kyrgyz troubles will not give an immediate fillip to Islamic extremism — a constant concern in this area. However, they do raise concerns about the long-standing tension between Russia and the most powerful Central Asian nation, Uzbekistan. Recent Kyrgyz politics can crudely be described as pro- and anti-Russian governments taking turns at toppling each other. In this zero-sum game, a Russian gain is often seen as an Uzbek loss. The fear of alarming Uzbekistan is probably one reason Moscow is still weighing military intervention.

A long-term view of the region cannot ignore Islamic extremism. Uzbekistan aside, the Fergana Valley has not been a fertile ground for militancy. However, Islamicism's fortunes have tended to be in inverse proportion to those of representative government. A key criticism of the last Kyrgyz regime was its anti-Islamic bent — in a country that is nearly 80 per cent Muslim. Unfortunately, untangling a cynical Soviet legacy and surviving a regional balance of power game so consume Central Asian leaders that few can even contemplate a reformist vision.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

A JUDICIOUS OVERHAUL

HK DUA

Over the years, the vital wings of the State — Parliament, the judiciary and the executive — have not taken steps to retain the respect of the people. People are disappointed especially with the judiciary because the court is their last resort when the other two fail.

There are indications that the government intends to push judicial reforms in the next few months. Time was when any attempt made by Parliament or the executive to set things right in the judiciary was suspect in the eyes of the Bar and the Bench. Way back in 1970s, protests greeted any discussion on the judiciary's commitment or when pliable judges were appointed.

It was in this context that the Supreme Court snatched from the executive the power to appoint judges to the high courts and the apex court. In 1993, the Supreme Court came out with a judgement that enabled it to appoint judges by consultations in a collegium, thus depriving the government any opportunity to pack the courts with their own men. This system of appointment is now under threat. The way the collegium has functioned over the last 17 years, it's placed the judiciary on the backfoot.

Not all the appointments made by the collegium are questionable, but some of them have been the subject of cynical comments. It is extremely difficult to get rid of a corrupt judge, as was evident in the case of Justice V. Ramaswamy, since the impeachment process is rigorous. He survived the House's attempt in the 90s because MPs from Tamil Nadu joined hands and protested to the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao on a peculiar plea that a judge from the state was being hounded out. Interestingly, this move failed in Parliament just about the time the apex court came out with a verdict taking away from the executive's domain the powers to appoint judges. That power has been exercised by the collegium of judges for nearly 17 years. But the quality of selections has not improved.

That the balance of power in the constitutional scheme of things is slowly shifting away from the apex court will be evident when Parliament chooses to debate the cases of Justice Soumitra Sen of Kolkata and Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran of the Karnataka High Court.

The judiciary as an institution itself will be the subject of critical examination by the MPs during the discussion, further weakening its support base. Whatever be the outcome of the debates in Parliament on the two judges, the collegium's utility is bound to come under serious questioning.

The apex court took away the power to appoint judges from the executive with the promise that it will select only the best. To ward off the executive's interference, it also promised that it would deal with corruption and misuse of power in-house. On both counts, the judiciary has left much to be desired.

It also remains to be seen how Parliament and the government will set up a system that will help select the best of the judges without undermining its independence. Involved is the question of whether the system of institutional checks and balances will willy-nilly get disturbed in the judicial reforms that are in the works.

HK Dua is a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. The views expressed by the author are personal

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THERE'S NO HONOUR IN THIS

PREETI SINGH

On Tuesday, readers awoke to the Capital's night of horror. A young girl, Asha, and her lover, Yogesh, were tortured to death by her family members inside her home, even as neighbours chose to shut out the victims' screams. Those who tried to intervene were brushed off by family members claiming it was a 'private matter'.

This gruesome crime, committed in the name of 'family honour', raises three important questions. First, how can there be any honour in punishing your children, with death no less, for the life choices they make? Second, how can the quantum of any such 'punishment' — one that is meted out with shocking regularity not only across our country, but in societies around the world — be left to the discretion of a bunch of patriarchs for whom 'honour' is synonymous with preserving outdated social diktats? Third, how can such a crime be a 'private' matter and why are we, as a nation, not outraged?

The idea that honour killings are restricted to Taliban territory or feudal groups in nondescript villages is like saying that domestic violence or marital rape occur only in those wretched slums. Be it books, Bollywood or saas-bahu capers, popular culture around us is full of references to the fate of those who choose to defy parental choice. From the native tales of Heer-Ranjha and Sohni-Mahiwal, to Laila-Majnu and Shakespeare's famous star-crossed lovers or even Aamir Khan's debut hit Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, most (forbidden) love stories it seems don't end well for defiant lovers. A look at any matrimonial ad will tell you how prospective life partners are slotted into neat little squares of desirable conformity.

Indian society, especially, continues to weigh in on the side of tradition. From parents forcing their children into loveless marriages to refusing to let them leave abusive ones, honour raises its ugly head in the most dishonourable of ways. What's more, there is no bar on the sort of offences that can turn the wrath of a family upon its own. From marrying outside the caste to marrying within the gotra, from being the victim of rape to being in a same-sex relationship, a misguided sense of wounded family pride is all the justification it takes to claim a life.

Here we are not alone. Ghettoes of intolerance exist wherever there are men (or women) who cling to the absurd notion that their children are their property or asset. In 2008, faced with numerous complaints from immigrant communities, and a spate of murders in the name of honour, the British government passed a law under which anyone can ask a court to implement a Forced Marriage Protection Order, which can stop a person being married against their will, prevent them from being taken abroad, and ask those involved to hand over passports or face imprisonment for up to two years.

Similarly, giving more power to the community without criminalising forced marriages back home might help harassed youngsters take on their families to avert a tragedy, but creating awareness must be the first step.

The very idea that a parent can kill his/her own child places honour crimes in a macabre league of their own, so the lack of remorse shown by those accused of killing Yogesh and Asha should come as no surprise. What's more distressing is the fact that — even as we are quick to call the police over minor matters like loud music or parking rights — the neighbours of the ill-fated couple did nothing to stop the gruesome crime.

There has been a debate in recent months about the need for a separate law to deal with honour killings. Suggestions vary from enacting an abolition-of-Sati type of provision, to changes in the Indian Penal Code, which can add urgency to prosecuting such crimes. Perhaps there is some merit in that, but more important is the need for an immediate withdrawal of the carte blanche that seems to have been given to a bunch of elders in village/caste panchayats, enabling them to order the annulment of legal marriages, demand public apologies and ostracise entire families — leading to an unfortunate trickle-down effect.

Heaven and hell, they say, are ours to choose. By that logic alone, no one should be allowed to determine who we decide to spend the rest of our lives with, much less punish us for the choices we make.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE ART OF THE MATTER

NAYANJOT LAHIRI

The news that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will negotiate the return of antiquities taken away from India through a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco)-supported international network, has been greeted with ridicule by the print media. This is not surprising. India's track record in maintaining its museums and conserving its own protected monuments, to put it most charitably, is an indifferent one. For this reason The Times of India has asked the ASI to focus on "preserving and displaying well the artefacts it presently has instead of pressing patriotic buttons," while a column in The Telegraph (Kolkata) has condemned the flawed "nationalism" of this demand "based on wanting that which is bring protected elsewhere and not respecting, protecting, or conserving that which lies with us".

Apart from ignoring the fact that the artefacts India 'wants' are Indian and were largely removed in situations of conquest or under duress, such a myopic focus on the compromised character of preservation in India, trivialises what is involved in the return to their homelands of cultural treasures. Museum curators, activists, archaeologists and lawyers all over the world have debated extensively on the question of the ownership of archaeological finds and antiquities. Some of the legal and ethical issues involved in that debate need to be restated.

To begin with, objects of Indian origin in England have been returned to India from early-20th century onwards. It was at the initiative of none other than Lord Curzon as Viceroy of India, that the pietra dura panels — which today form the backdrop to Shah Jahan's throne in the Diwan-i-Aam of the Red Fort in Delhi — were brought back. The panels had been taken away by Captain John Jones in 1857 and were bought by the British government for £500 when Jones returned to England, after which they became part of the collection of Indian artefacts in the Victoria & Albert Museum. In 1902, Curzon requested for the return of the panels which were then successfully restored. As Curzon underlined, by restoring them to their original place, the panels would serve as a symbol of the 'generous enlightenment' of a more cultured British India.

Another instance of the return of antiquities is that of the Buddhist relics, believed to be from Sanchi, that had been taken away to England in the 19th century. This included the corporeal relics (in this case, tiny bone fragments) of Sariputa and Mahamogalana, Buddha's direct disciples, and the reliquaries in which they had been placed. In this case, it was Ali Haider Abbasi of the Bhopal Darbar who was instrumental in bringing back the relics to Sanchi. These were returned by the Victoria & Albert Museum in the 1940s. While the Museum had wanted to hand them over to the Mahabodhi Society for their enshrinement in the Buddhist temple in New Delhi, the Bhopal Darbar highlighted that the relics should be rightfully kept near the place where they were discovered. Eventually, it was the same Darbar that donated land at Sanchi and contributed to the construction of a vihara to house them.

In more recent times, the Sivapuram Nataraja, a 12th century bronze image, was illicitly removed from Tamil Nadu and eventually, through a chain of buyers, was purchased for the chairman of the Canadian Bumper Oil Co. In a court case that continued for several years in London, even though it was demonstrated that the statue had been purchased in good faith, the high court judgement upheld the rights of the temple. It held that the pious intention of the 12th century noble who gave the land and built the Pathur temple in Tamil Nadu remained in being and were personified by the temple itself. The temple as a juristic entity, therefore, could rightly claim title to the Nataraja, one which was superior to that of the representative of the oil company.

So instead of hammering away at the indifferent state of conservation in India, an understanding of the principles that should be taken into account when demanding return of cultural treasures is likely to be more meaningful. Has the material been illegally removed as it was in the case of the Sivapuram Nataraja? If so, such antiquities should be sought. Also, for whom do the objects have special significance? In the case of the Buddhist relics, certainly, the bones and reliquaries of Buddhist sages are objects of worship and have a far greater significance at Sanchi, an important site of Buddhist pilgrimage, than in a museum in England. Finally, has the removal of objects affected the integrity of the monument? This seems to be the case with regard to the Amravati relics that are on display in the British Museum and in the Government Museum in Chennai. Their value would be greatly enhanced if the separated slabs are reunited at the stupa site itself at Amravati in the Krishna valley of Andhra.

In this, perhaps, the two museums can take heed from the experience of the two pieces of a bronze sculpture of Bartolomeo Bellano, one of which was in the National Gallery of Washington while the other was at the Louvre in Paris. When the two pieces were revealed to be parts of a single sculpture — St Christopher Carrying the Christ Child with the Globe of the World — the National Gallery gave its sculpture on permanent loan to the Louvre. The principle was that the aesthetic value of the reunited sculpture is greater than the value of dismembered parts.

Surely, in a globalised world, cooperation of this kind can be explored so that the integrity of some of our important monuments and objects is restored.

Nayanjot Lahiri teaches at the Department of History, University of Delhi. The views expressed by the author are personal.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

POLITICS AS UNUSUAL

You wouldn't steal a car. You wouldn't steal a handbag. You wouldn't steal a mobile phone. You wouldn't steal a DVD. Downloading pirated films is stealing. Stealing is against the law. Piracy: it's a crime." So went the step-by-step logic of the Motion Pictures Association of America, as it tried to staunch the free flow of bootlegged copies. And now, the BJP might have to walk the plank for its act of criminality. The party, which had practically abducted and holed up its Rajasthan MLAs in a resort near Jaipur to prevent last-minute temptation before the Rajya Sabha vote, found itself foiled by a different kind of Raajneeti.

To divert the restless MPs, the party had thoughtfully provided up-to-the-minute entertainment, allegedly treating them to the latest Bollywood flick on the amoral world of Indian politics. Unfortunately, the film is still running in theatres, and so the DVD would have to be a pirated one. Its director Prakash Jha has threatened legal action against the BJP and declared himself appalled the very guardians of the law were flouting it. (Of course, Jha wouldn't blink at S&M, murder, rape, abandonment of babies, rampant corruption, extortion etc, which features as a fact of political life in his films — but a DVD rip-off shakes him to the core.) BJP MLAs, though, seem unrepentant about the IPR iniquity, saying Jha was "making a mountain out of a molehill".

As for Jha's question about how lawmakers can be lawbreakers, perhaps because intuitively many in India do not equate piracy with straightforward theft, any more than they view photocopying as one. The general attitude is much like Jha's own vision of Indian politics — ethically indifferent, caught up with immediate gain, and accompanied by a rather dim sense of consequences.

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INDIAN EXPRESS

SLICE BY SLICE

Narrowing of the gender gap in education is a key measure of a nation's progress on the development arc. And India's made some progress. According to data from the Central Statistical Organisation, in 1950-51 there were just 15.4 women for every 100 men in the arts discipline in universities. In the commerce stream, there were just about 0.5 women for every 100 men, and in engineering, 0.3. Change began to be consolidated in the 1990s and later. By 2004-05, there were 87.3 women for every 100 men in the arts, and just about as many in the sciences. The corresponding figures for commerce and engineering were 51.6 and 31.1. That's progress, but it is not near enough.

The first question that arises therefore is, will the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to enforce reservations for women in state universities and affiliated colleges make a difference? The Mayawati government issued an order on June 11 stipulating a 20 per cent quota for women in all categories to be implemented horizontally. That is, there shall be a 20 per cent sub-quota for women within existing quotas — for instance, for SCs, STs and OBCs. Should there be an insufficient number of women eligible for a certain course and category, the seats would be filled by other candidates. As enrolment figures indicate, women tend to be present in relatively abundant numbers in arts, sciences and commerce courses. Therefore, the impact of the quotas will likely be felt in engineering and perhaps, medical courses. The measure is also clearly targeted at rural areas, and at increasing enrolment within socio-economic subsets.

But given that the UP government has dovetailed inexplicable quotas for assorted categories (dependents of ex-army personnel and freedom fighters, for instance), admissions departments will be pulling out their calculators for a perfect fit. Indeed, to optimise benefits of affirmative action, India needs to move away from indelibly laying down exactly how many of a particular category of aspirants must be included in each course. Nonetheless, by adding different criteria like gender and physical disability and overlapping them with existing ones for reservation, Mayawati has recast the debate on how to measure and extinguish disadvantage.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

MIXED MESSAGES

Corporate social responsibility", a mantra dear to the hearts of many in this country and across the world, isn't an easy thing to understand. A persuasive argument can be made that the only "social responsibility" that corporates have is to their shareholders and to the law of the land and the regulations that govern their industry. Using money that could be sent back to minority shareholders to fund projects, even if charitable, dear to the heart of the companies' promoters or its directors can become exploitative. Hence, few will be pleased with the news that the government is planning to get public sector companies that make a profit to treat the UPA's social sector schemes as CSR vehicles — as The Financial Express reported on Thursday, quoting Minister of State for Heavy Industries Arun Yadav.

It also raises larger questions about the UPA's orientation about public sector industries. Certainly, there have been useful moves towards disinvestment in public sector units. But there are worrying trends that demonstrate a push in the other direction as well. There's the admiration for "success" stories elsewhere in state-led development in sectors such as petrochemicals, mining and utilities — such as the giant Chinese and Russian utilities. An acceptance of the principle that such sectors need to be subordinate to state dictates has very real repercussions: consider, for example, the recent letter from Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh to the mines ministry. The mines ministry is in the process of carrying out much-needed reform to increase transparency and reduce rent-seeking in the mining sector. But the steel ministry insists that "specified quantities of mineral resources" be reserved for PSUs, tilting the playing field in their favour, as "they needed continued support in the larger national interest". Such thinking is dangerous, misguided, and backward-looking, and mustn't be allowed to catch on.

So it is important to remember that this will not increase the revenue for the government from those PSUs except to the extent that it reduces the amount paid out in dividends to other shareholders. That's problematic. It also matters in another, more conceptual way. Were the government to start making a practice of directly linking public sector profits to its prized social sector schemes, it inhibits the scaling down of government participation in the economy. Seen from that point of view, this is storing up trouble for the future. Both out of fairness to its minority shareholders, and from a desire to keep the momentum on reformist economics going, this is a proposal that should not be accepted.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

BUCK STOPS WITH AN EGOM

PRATAP BHANU MEHTA

There is a harsh, if not entirely off the mark, joke going around. A teacher asks, who is the prime minister of India? A student replies with some excitement, "Ma'am, EGOM." The joke is harsh in so far as it entirely rubbishes the authority of the PM. Recently, the Naga students blockading Manipur had the courtesy to acknowledge the PM's credibility when he chose to directly intercede. But this episode cannot disguise the fact that the conduct of government leaves it unclear exactly who is in charge, and where the buck stops. The EGOM (empowered group of ministers) is a useful mechanism for policy coordination and consensus building. Instead it seems to now exemplify the pathologies of governance; it has become a knee-jerk response to crises and often appears more like an elaborate mechanism to evade responsibility than to produce results.

The way in which the government uses the EGOM is unsettling. There is something seriously amiss in the way in which the Congress is handling the relationship between political and government decisions. The division of labour between the Congress president and the prime minister was always something of a convenient myth. But recent decisions have shown that you cannot govern if the party hierarchy and government work at cross-purposes, with no clear sense of direction or strategy. Most crises have their origins in this chaos. The crisis in Manipur was a dual failure of party and state. Just a little coordination between the Congress in Delhi and the Congress in Manipur could have pre-empted the crisis, and to exacerbate matters, the government literally paralysed itself on the issue. Again, the party's mishandling of its own constituents in Andhra Pradesh exacerbated the Telangana crisis. The government's confused announcements left it unclear whether it was doing the party's bidding or thinking like government.

Then there is a curious phenomenon. The normally reticent and restrained Sonia Gandhi decided to intervene on two issues whose logic from the point of view of governance is half-baked: the women's reservation bill and the caste census. Both these issues, in different ways, increased governance challenges. But while no one doubts that she is the ultimate power, it only adds to confusion when no one is clear why she chooses to assert herself on some issues and not on others. The failure of anyone in this supposedly pro-poor government to try and convince us that they take inflation seriously, is just one example where we are left wondering why our leaders get agitated about some issues and not others. The same confusion applies to the prime minister. Hence the sense of disarray.

In this context, the EGOM has become a peculiar institution. It is a backhanded acknowledgment of several things. First, that government gets into action only in a crisis which has in part been created by its own ministers. Why would you need EGOMs if the normal functions of ministries and cabinet were being carried out? EGOMs are undermining confidence that normal processes of government can work.

Second, the EGOMs signal a vacuum. Both the prime minister and Congress president seem to be unmindful of one important function of government. In times of crisis, or national anger or shame, leaders perform two functions. They provide a reassurance that someone is clearly in charge and takes responsibility, that someone has the capacity to reconcile differences and be decisive. The second — and this is particularly the function of a prime minister — they have the ability to send a signal that they truly care and are listening. Instead, what we seem to get is a parcelling of responsibility off to this collective group. Leaders give genuine reassurance, restore confidence and give consolation. Does anyone imagine that an EGOM on Bhopal might perform that function?

Third, the EGOMs may directly be contributing to skewed governmental priorities. Being a finance minister or a home minister of a country like India is, even under the best of circumstances, a difficult job. But you can't help but think that if two or three key figures in the cabinet are acting as a sort of firefighting mechanism on every issue, they are probably ignoring simmering fires in their own domain. The home ministry was outright caught napping on as vital an internal security issue as Manipur, and it can't be because the home minister doesn't work hard.

Fourth, let us also look at EGOMs in the context of Congress culture. On some issues, there is bound to be genuine disagreement within any political party, and some of these disagreements are intellectually productive. But often in the Congress you get the feeling that Congressmen are criticising their colleagues simply in order to pull them down. The timing of these criticisms often casts doubts on their sincerity. And one plausible explanation is that Congressmen are often more intent on ensuring that their other colleagues do not acquire an unchallenged credibility or authority. This is even more likely to be exacerbated in a context where almost no political leader has the confidence of a political base outside their own constituency. In this context, constantly referring to EGOMs is a signal that routine political coordination within the cabinet and party has broken down. An EGOM is more like a huddle in a crisis to broker deals than it is an instrument to promote public reason.

You can add to this mix the curious phenomenon of Rahul Gandhi. His attention to the party and building a democratic youth cadre is important. But those experiments will generate more skepticism if they do not have any tangible results for transparency in the relationship between party and government. If the Congress cannot solve its internal coordination problems, what confidence will it inspire that it can negotiate the thicket of new social conflicts about to arise? It is very hard to make the case that there has been a visible improvement in the functioning of the Congress party on any issue, whether it is the distribution of Rajya Sabha tickets, or its ability to come clean on its own past.

The Congress will need to ask sooner or later: how long can this supposed division of political responsibility and responsibility for government continue? At the moment it is producing a situation where both head of party and head of government emerge only very episodically to perform any leadership function. And if at the very top there is so little decisiveness, you can only imagine what signal this sends to the rest of the system: that individual responsibility can be evaded by lobbing the ball in the court of an EGOM.

The writer is president, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi

express@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

THE PARTY POLICE

SARITHA RAI

Lately, Bangalore's citizens have been made to feel like rebellious teenagers begging their unfeeling parents' permission for a late night out. After much pleading and many tantrums later, the decision is just out — they cannot party beyond the existing 11.30 pm deadline.

And so it goes that the widespread demand for extending the deadline for night-life in Bangalore to 2 am has been turned down yet again by the government. To thousands of hopeful revellers, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa came off sounding like a hardhearted parent as he declared, "We will not extend the 11.30 pm deadline at any cost".

Bangalore is hailed as India's next-gen city. Here, thousands of 20 and 30-somethings work hard at making the city globally competitive. After work hours, they look to party just as hard. But a combination of moral policing, an archaic excise law and domineering politicians has stymied that prospect.

Bangalore was India's original pub city, and this is where it all started. As far back as the 1980s, when the first

pub was yet to make its appearance in the New Delhi, theme pubs, DJs, ladies' nights and bouncers raised the "cool" quotient of this city.

Women could enjoy a night out without worrying about unwanted male attention or fearing their own safety. Bangalore led other cities in ushering in attitudinal and cultural change towards drinking, pubs or women drinkers.

Today, the fast-growing city has its share of swanky lounge bars, pubs and night spots which offer an excellent diversion to its overworked residents. Many of these spots are as famous for their music and ambience as for the quality of their cocktails and food.But everything closes well before the Cinderella Hour, putting Bangalore's cosmopolitan tag at stake.

While Mumbai and New Delhi party until 2 am and beyond, tourists and an ever-growing number of expatriate workers are greeted with the shocking news that all pubs, bars and restaurants in the city close at 11.30 pm. Along with the unending traffic jams, the early night deadline is another thing Bangaloreans are embarrassed about.

Workers in Bangalore's technology industry are sore that the government's decision means "lights out" for extended merrymaking. Many say that the industry's late working hours and the city's early closing time closes the leisure options. Gulping down their drinks or being hounded out of pubs are common features of any night out in town.

The question that many Bangaloreans ask is, does a grown-up city deserve to be policed this way? After all, nightlife is not only about pokey dance bars and smoke-filled gambling dens. In a young city, an evening's energy could be expended on a host of nightly activities such as shopping, dining, and even browsing in a bookstore besides drinking at a pub.

The greatest cities in the world have a thriving nightlife, whether London or New York. Closer home, even the highly regulated Dubai or the discipline-obsessed Singapore have a vibrant variety of late-evening entertainment options.

A dose of conservatism has crept into a once-lively city, making Bangalore regress. It is surprising that, despite such setbacks, the city remains at the top of a list of India's best city for expatriates in terms of quality of living as ranked by Mercer study this year. The quality of night-life does not just make a city attractive to foreigners and tourists, it also keeps the economy chugging. But it seems that the extension of nightlife deadline has become one more issue for the politicians to weigh in on.

Members of the Youth Congress opposed the extended deadline and petitioned the city's police comissioner, saying that any extension would only benefit outsiders and not the people of Bangalore. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is doing its own bit in appeasing its conservative vote-bank. Home Minister V.S. Acharya says people from the lower middle-class and lower classes are vehemently opposed to the extension. Only a few amongst the upper classes favour a new deadline, he says. "This is a decision based on what the majority wants, so there is no need to extend the deadline," says Acharya.

So, Bangalore isn't getting its mojo back anytime soon.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

DIVORCE, AMERICAN STYLE

Forty years after the first true no-fault divorce law went into effect in California, New York appears to be on the verge of finally joining the other 49 states in allowing people to end a marriage without having to establish that their spouse was at fault. Supporters argue that no-fault will reduce litigation and conflict between couples. Opponents claim it will raise New York's divorce rate and hurt women financially.

So who's right? The history of no-fault divorce may provide some answers. Before no-fault, most states required one spouse to provide evidence of the other spouse's wrongdoing (like adultery or cruelty), even if both partners wanted out. Legal precedent held that the party seeking divorce had to be free from any "suspicion that he has contributed to the injury of which he complains" — a high bar for any marital dispute.

As the Maurer case suggests, such stringent standards of fault often made it easier for couples who got along relatively well to divorce than for people in mutually destructive relationships. Cooperating couples would routinely fabricate grounds for their divorce, picking one party as the wrongdoer.

This strategy was so common in the 1950s that divorce cases seemingly gave the lie to Tolstoy's famous observation that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. "Victim" after "victim" testified that the offending spouse had slapped him or her with exactly the same force and in exactly the same places that the wording of the law required. A primary motivation for introducing no-fault divorce was, in fact, to reduce perjury in the legal system.

Initially, some states limited no-fault divorce to cases in which both partners wanted to dissolve the marriage. In theory, limiting no-fault to mutual consent seemed fairer to spouses who wanted to save their marriages, but in practice it perpetuated the abuses of fault-based divorce, allowing one partner to stonewall or demand financial concessions in return for agreement, and encouraging the other to hire private investigators to uncover grounds for the court. Expensive litigation strained court resources, while the couple remained vulnerable to subjective rulings about what a spouse should put up with in a marriage.

Eventually every state except New York moved to what is in effect unilateral no-fault, wherein if one party insisted that his or her commitment to the marriage had irretrievably ended, that person could end the union (albeit with different waiting periods). New York has been the holdout in insisting that a couple could get a no-fault divorce only if both partners agreed to secure a separation decree and then lived apart for one year. Otherwise, the party who wanted the divorce had to prove that the other was legally at fault.

In every state that adopted no-fault divorce, whether unilateral or by mutual consent, divorce rates increased for the next five years or so. But once the pent-up demand for divorces was met, divorce rates stabilised. Indeed, in the years since no-fault divorce became well-nigh universal, the national divorce rate has fallen, from about 23 divorces per 1,000 married couples in 1979 to under 17 per 1,000 in 2005.

Even during the initial period when divorce rates were increasing, several positive trends accompanied the transition to no-fault. The economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of the University of Pennsylvania report that states that adopted no-fault divorce experienced a decrease of 8 to 16 per cent in wives' suicide rates and a 30 per cent decline in domestic violence.

Fairer division of marital assets can reduce the severity of this problem. And fault can certainly be taken into account in determining spousal support if domestic violence or other serious marital misbehaviour has reduced the other party's earning power.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is more often the wife than the husband who is ready to leave. Approximately two-thirds of divorces are initiated by wives. This jibes with research showing that women are physiologically and emotionally more sensitive to unsatisfactory relationships.

But once you permit the courts to determine when a person's desire to leave is legitimate, you open the way to arbitrary decisions about what is or should be tolerable in a relationship, made by people who have no stake in the actual lives being lived.

A far better tack is to encourage couples to mediate their parting rather than litigate it, especially if children are involved. To my mind it is better to have regrets about the good aspects of your former marriage because you were able to work past some of your accumulated resentments than to have no regrets because you had to ratchet up the hostility to get out in the first place.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

STORY AND HISTORY

JAITHIRTH RAO

Manohar Malgonkar was a man of many distinct, impressive and splendid parts. He wrote interesting history, presenting a worms-eye view of episodes, people and events from a perspective that academics often ignore. He wrote several fine novels that captured the spirit of the times that they were set in. Historical accuracy, rather than history as a metaphor, is his forte. In this, he comes more in the tradition of a Meadows Taylor rather than that of a Kipling or a Rushdie.

He wrote essays that were characterised by a stately prose style. He dabbled in politics of the correct kind — he stood for elections on a Swatantra party ticket — and lost. Defeat does not make a good cause less worthwhile, after all. He was a shikari who transformed himself into a conservationist. Like the princely order to which he distantly belonged, he faded away with a quiet grace and aplomb in a manner completely different from the noisy vulgarity of our socialist lounge lizards.

I first read A Bend in the Ganges when I was in college. I remember it as a book of implausible and oddly enough, therefore very real characters set in a time in history — the last days of the Raj, Independence and Partition which were described with uncanny plausibility. The unusual focus on the sexual desires of an older couple, the confused protagonist who betrays himself and his self-professed ideals at every turn, the wisp of a girl who makes sure that she avenges herself by treating a pathetic husband and an even more pathetic would-be lover in a detached manner which is simultaneously sour and dulcet, the layer on layer of cruelty (to use a Naipaulian expression) that Indians inflict on each other while loudly, hysterically complaining about the British — all of these have stayed in my memory at an astonishing level of detail. I cannot think of many so-called classics where I can remember the plot, the situations and the characters at such a granular level.

After that, I made sure that I read pretty much all his novels. And he almost never let me down. The Devil's Wind, a fictional autobiography of Nana Sahib has to be one of the best books about the Indo-British encounter. It is also a fine study of the problems one faces in remaining a balanced, sensitive and clear-headed individual when you live in times of turmoil where events can overwhelm you with their confusion. British correspondents thought of Nana as a wicked monster who loved to massacre women and children. Revisionist Indian historians now consider him a glorious freedom-fighter. Malgonkar's Nana is a likeable, pleasure-loving, sensible person and one who tries to remain that way vis-à-vis his memoirs despite the extremes that he could have pandered to. Nana's virgin wife who seeks forbidden pleasures in fractious Nepal may be just a minor character, but like Charmian in Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra', she is quite unforgettable.

Malgonkar's different books involved painting pictures of the place and times they were set in with an apparent ease until one notices the meticulous way in which he went about his task. Distant Drum is about the British Indian Army in the days when it started admitting Indian officers (reluctantly, slowly and clumsily); Princes is about the maharajas of India, puppets in the hands of their British masters who encouraged them to play at being kings in a toy kingdom of sorts and the fate of these rulers as the rules of the parlour games change abruptly; Combat of Shadows is set in the world where tea-planters were white and their assistants fractionally white Anglo-Indians (or Eurasians as they were called), categories which have become meaningless today; Bandicoot Run is about the old Indian army which was more cruel to eccentric Englishmen than to Indians. The reasons all of them are delightful are that while describing the settings so well, as you read them you get a sense of the sameness of the human condition — the inanity, the mock-heroism, passions — exaggerated, understated and unstated often all at the same time. It is a bit like reading Somerset Maugham to learn that people behave pretty much the same in Lambeth, the French Riviera or the Malay States.

Malgonkar wrote some fine well-researched history. Sea-Hawk is about the life and times of Kanhoji Angrey, the intrepid Maratha admiral. It is a balanced book written in a direct and utterly non-pedantic style that reminds you of George Orwell or Antony Beevor writing about Spain. The current ruling class in Maharashtra despite indulging in parochial hysteria has little genuine interest in its history. If we really wanted students to enjoy reading the history of this region, I would prescribe Sea-Hawk along with Denis Kincaid's Grand Rebel and Gangadhar Gadgils's Prarambh. But then, who is listening? The Men Who Killed Gandhi is a riveting book which describes a dark chapter in our recent history making a case for the everyday "banality of evil". Given the ubiquity of terrorism today, we all understand that a person you meet at a party could very well turn out to be a bomb-throwing maniac. In the same way, in 1948, your neighbour could have been an assassin, and not a very competent one at that.

Malgonkar's best writing though was reserved for his first love — shikar — and later, the bonding with the jungle and its inhabitants. You find this interspersed in virtually all his books and some of his fine essays. One can argue that if you do not have a love for ruined temples and semi-tropical jungles then you cannot and do not love India. In the "shining" future that we are heading towards, the forests will almost certainly not be there. So India-lovers of Malgonkar's ilk will have no place. It is therefore just as well that our prince and gentleman officer of the Maratha Light Infantry has passed on. His India will live in his words and his readers will always be grateful for the palimpsest he has left behind.

The writer divides his time between Mumbai and Bangalore

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

THE PARTY POLICE

SARITHA RAI

Bangalore was India's original pub city, and this is where it all started. As far back as the 1980s, when the first pub was yet to make its appearance in the New Delhi, theme pubs, DJs, ladies' nights and bouncers raised the "cool" quotient of this city.

So, Bangalore isn't getting its mojo back anytime soon.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

THE BORING SPEECH POLICY

On Monday night in Ohio, a 62-foot-tall statue of Jesus got hit by lightning and burned to the ground. (The adult bookstore across the street was unscathed.) Less than 12 hours later, Gen. David Petraeus — who is not God, although certain members of Congress have been known to worship at his altar — semi-fainted at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Then Bravo announced that the White House gate-crashers were getting a TV show. Al and Tipper remained in Splitsville. And the oil kept on spilling.

So you sort of knew from the portents that President Obama's big Oval Office speech was not going to be a terrific game-changer. The way things had been going, the president was lucky that a man-eating pterodactyl didn't come crashing through the window during his remarks.

Still, it was a disappointment. I was hoping for a call to arms, a national mission as great as the environmental disaster that inspired it. After the terrorist attack, George W. Bush could have called the country to a grandnew undertaking in which everyone sacrificed personal or regional advantage for the common good. The fact that he only told us to go shopping was the one unforgivable sin of his administration. OK, also attacking the wrong country. And creating the deficit. But I digress.

All we got from President Obama was a vague call for some sort of new energy policy. Plus a Gulf Coast Restoration Plan, an oil spill study commission, a reminder that the secretary of energy won a Nobel Prize in physics and 17 references to God, prayer, blessings or faith.

We wanted him to declare war on the oil companies! At the ritual Congressional lashing of CEOs this week, we learned that none of the major oil companies have any idea how to control a spill like this, and that their faux plans for handling one in the gulf were made up of boilerplate so undigested that several had sections on protecting walruses — mammals that have not been seen in the area since the Ice Age.

Obama held back on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, he and the BP chairman announced that the company — which is, in theory, only liable for $75 million in economic damage payments — was forgoing its dividend and setting up a $20 billion fund to compensate the workers and businesses who have been harmed by the spill.

In the negotiations, Obama said, he had stressed that for many of the small business owners, families and fishing crews "this is not a matter of dollars and cents, that a lot of these folks don't have a cushion." His brief remarks were more effective than his 18-minute effort the night before, particularly when coupled with all that cash. "He is frustrated because he cares about the small people," said the chairman of BP, who is Swedish. The word choice made the president sound as if he was working on an environmental disaster in Munchkinland.

We are frustrated, too, and it's possible that Obama may never be able to give the speech that will make us feel better. He may never really lace into the oil companies or issue the kind of call to arms on energy that the environmentalists are yearning for. That's because it won't get him anywhere. Unlike Bush, he has no national consensus to build upon. As a political leader, Barack Obama seems to know what he's doing. His unsatisfying call for a new energy policy sounded very much like the rhetoric on health care reform that used to drive Democrats nuts: open to all ideas, can't afford inaction, if we can put a man on the moon...

But at the end of that health care slog, he wound up with the groundbreaking law that had eluded his predecessors for decades. The process of wringing it out of Congress was so slow and oblique that even when it was over it was hard to appreciate what he'd won. But win he did.

Ironic. The man we elected because we hoped his feel-good campaign speeches might translate into achievement is actually a guy who is going to achieve, even if his presidential speeches leave us feeling blah.

The New York Times

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

PROFIT AND SPEND

The UPA government has, on more than one occasion, indicated its commitment to continue spending on welfare programmes. The real constraint, however, is on the fiscal account—the government simply cannot afford to let the deficit expand any more. The department of heavy industries and public enterprises has now floated a proposal, as reported in FE on Thursday, to use the profits of public sector enterprises to finance the government's spending programmes. Needless to say, this is a completely ill-advised strategy. Under the proposal, PSUs with a profit of below Rs 100 crore will have to allocate 3-5% of their profits under a head marked corporate social responsibility, those with profits between Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore will have to allocate 2-3%, and those with profits over Rs 500 crore will have to allocate between 0.5% and 2% of those profits for 'corporate social responsibility'. It is reasonable enough to question the distribution of this levy, which is the highest on firms with comparatively lower profits. But that's not the main point. The real question must be asked of the basis on which such a plan is believed to be workable.

All profit-making PSUs pay dividends to the finance ministry, which can then in any case be used by the government in a way that it chooses. By forcibly allocating a share of their profits for government programmes, the dividend paid out to the finance ministry will go down. How this will help solve the government's expenditure and revenue equations satisfactorily isn't clear. In any case, apart from dividends to the owners, PSUs should be allowed to reinvest profits to upgrade their own competitiveness. Also, many of the more profitable PSUs are listed companies with minority shareholders. It doesn't seem in the interest of minority shareholders to have a part of a company's profit arbitrarily hived off for government spending. If the government does so, it will be making a mockery of corporate governance norms. Details aside, the government's latest plan only proves that PSUs are viewed as cash cows to fulfil populist objectives, and not as firms that should be allowed to compete in the market place. This sort of arbitrary decision making by the government is at the centre of the problems that PSUs face in functioning as regular corporate entities. That the entire sum raised through this proposal will only amount to just over 1.5% of the government's total spending plan makes it hardly worthwhile, especially if it destroys the profitability and reputation of the few decent PSUs that remain. It would be only sensible for the government, therefore, to turn down this proposal of the department of heavy industries and public enterprises.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

WHEN MLAS BREAK THE LAW

This is surely a real life scene worthy of making it to the screen. A bunch of BJP MLAs who were reportedly being restrained within a Rajasthan stronghold to ensure that there would be no cross-voting during the Rajya Sabha elections, were discovered watching a pirated version of Prakash Jha's newly released Raajneeti. These BJP folk apparently decided that the Election Commission documentary on Rajya Sabha polls, which was on the official schedule and which would have also been completely legit, was not worth their while. A Jaipur court has ordered that an FIR be lodged against both the Rajasthan BJP chief whip and the owner of the hotel in which the MLAs were lodged. An infuriated director is also considering legal action. "How can lawmakers break the law like that? They should be the ones to put a stop to such illegal things and create examples but they are blatantly breaking the law," Jha lamented. We agree. From Bollywood to the regional industries, copyright infringement has grown into a serious threat over the years, given that its revenue toll is exacerbated by its ties to a dangerous, cross-border, underground network that actually has linkages with insurgents in the worst instances. The RAND report on film piracy had demonstrated that film piracy funds terrorist activity. When lawmakers who are supposed to come down hard on copyright theft are instead caught participating in the crime, and en masse at that, it is more than shameful. And they must be subjected to demonstrable penalties. Or else, the message that would go out is that piracy is innocuous and doesn't merit punishment. What will be the point in making everything from theatres and the Internet more secure if the the lawmakers themselves watch pirated DVDs with impunity?

This incident has come to light even as the intellectual property produced in India is growing in brand and dollar terms. On their part, both implementation agencies and the industry have been investing in technologies and international cooperation to defend such property. At the Ficci Frames conference this year, for example, the MPAA chief announced a historic alliance between the Hindi and Hollywood studios. This alliance has come into being because co-productions, joint TV ventures, shared distribution rights, joint ownership of technology companies et al mean that domestic and international companies are going to rise or sink alike, in the face of the piracy threat. So it's not just domestic players who will be looking closely at how the Raajneeti crime is tackled.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

GOVERNMENT GIVES IN ON DTC

MK VENU

The changes announced by the finance ministry in the direct taxes code has diluted the spirit of the original draft, which had essentially sought to codify a modern tax law for a rising economic power that the world sees in India. The basic spirit of the proposed law was to have one of the simplest and lowest direct tax regimes in the world, which would incentivise tens of millions, who currently avoid paying taxes, to come into the tax net voluntarily. The necessary condition to achieve this objective was to remove the plethora of exemptions enjoyed by powerful sectional interests—whether companies or individuals—on one pretext or the other. The changes in the draft code suggest some of these sectional interests have won on account of political populism.

The special interest groups, always a vocal minority, actually managed to win the perception battle because the government could not convince them that, in reality, they would not have lost out if the original draft code had been adhered to. In my view, the two seminal proposals in the original draft were a) bringing the income tax rate down to 10% for nearly 97% of the current tax paying population. The draft code proposed that all taxable incomes up to Rs 10 lakh a year will fall in the 10% tax bracket. Currently, annual taxable income of Rs 10 lakh attracts a 30% tax rate.

Thus, the draft tax code would have ensured that almost the entire individual tax paying population remained in the 10% tax bracket. In which other country will you find such low tax rates for individuals? This would actually have won UPA-2 a permanent place in the hearts of the burgeoning middle class population of India. However, with the government deciding to continue with certain tax exemptions in the modified draft, there might be a need to increase the tax rate from 10% suggested in the original draft.

Similarly, b) the original draft plumped for a corporate tax rate of 25% provided the plethora of exemptions enjoyed by capital intensive big businesses in India were withdrawn. This also got stymied because capital intensive businesses raised a howl of protest against the proposed 2% tax on gross assets of a company in lieu of the current regime of minimum alternate tax (MAT) levied on book profit. This was proposed by the draft code to make companies flog their assets more efficiently. There is evidence to show that nearly 50% of all registered Indian companies have been showing losses for years on end but continue to carry large assets in their books. This is a bit of a paradox. If you lose money for decades on end, what do you do? Simply shut down the business and not carry more assets in the books, don't you? The tax on gross assets was aimed at curbing this unusual practice of carrying assets even while making 'losses' year after year.

However, the big business lobby succeeded in ensuring that the modified draft went back to status quo—MAT on book profit. There would be a big revenue loss on this count. This will certainly ensure that the corporate tax rate of 25% proposed in the original draft will have to be raised back to 30%.

A tax rate of 25% would have been hugely beneficial to the vast majority of the small and medium business enterprises in India who are essentially more labour intensive. In fact, the original draft was weighted in favour of small businesses. The changes in the code shifts the advantage again to capital intensive big business lobby, which is happy paying 18% MAT on book profit. There is some murmur that the finance ministry may later align MAT closer to the corporate tax rate of 30% to neutralise the advantage gained by the bigger business lobbies.

The government must realise that the next big wave of tax collections will come from small businesses for whom a moderate and transparent tax regime is a must. It is important to attract smaller businesses with a lower corporate tax rate because once they voluntarily come into the tax net, India's black economy will progressively become white and that itself will give GDP growth a big boost.

The debate over retirees paying a tax at the time of withdrawing their provident fund savings also got a bit skewed. The principle behind imposing a tax at the time of withdrawal was to encourage savings rather than consumption. At a macro level, you do need higher savings to sustain long-term growth. Today, some of the Asian economies are not affected so much by the global economic headwinds because of the right balance struck between consumption and savings.

In any case, withdrawal up to Rs 10 lakh a year from the provident fund would have attracted only 10% tax. A better solution would have been for the government to retain the idea of taxing at the time of withdrawal of PF, while giving the individual the option of tax exemption if he or she puts the same money in another designated saving instrument, like a 5-year fixed deposit. This would prevent wanton consumption among retirees. It appears the government lost sight of the big picture while making some sections of taxpayers happy.

mk.venu@expressindia.com

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

WHAT DOES QINGHAI SAY ABOUT CHINA?

P RAGHAVAN

China has tolerated unequal growth and the growing divide between the rich coastal regions and the western hinterland in the last few decades, following the dictum of its iconic leader Deng Xiaoping who famously declared: "Let part of us be richer first." But there has been a growing realisation that smoother development requires pulling up laggard regions and helping them keep pace with the faster growing ones. Innovative steps to reduce regional inequalities received a big boost when China first launched the western development programme in 2000 and then the flourishing borders and prosperous people programme in 2005. Consequently, more money and aid has flowed into the western region.

A good example of the gains being made is the Qinghai province located in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau region. What makes the place different is its wide mix of topography and people. Deserts and glaciers, mountains and lakes, grasslands and cities, all coexist in this large province. And even more diverse are the ethnic groups and minorities that account for a sizable 44% of the population in the province.

The new programmes to reduce regional inequalities have been a boon to the provincial governments, especially in Qinghai, which has been reinventing itself to attract new industries. Trade fairs are being held regularly for almost a decade now. The most recent one, held last week, attracted a flurry of new investors from distant places, including the Middle East.

The results, so far, show that the impact of the efforts to boost investments has been largely restricted to agro-processing industries. The focus has been on using local expertise in traditional products like Tibetan medicines and health foods. Processing of meat products has also got a fillip, with the use of new technologies and better marketing. But the expansion is limited for two reasons. One, the harsh climate—with very low temperatures for at least six months and limited rainfall—makes the expansion of agriculture a formidable task. So less than a million hectares of land is cultivated. A major part of agriculture is limited to the rearing of animals like sheep, yak, horse, camel and goat in the vast grasslands, spread over four million hectares. A lucrative niche area is the production of vegetables, where efforts have focused on increasing year-round availability by using green houses.

An important natural resource is Qinghai's abundant energy capital. The source of two of the most important rivers in China—Yangtze and Yellow—the province is an important supplier of hydro power, with as many as 158 generating stations. The Qaidam Basin is also rich in oil & natural gas and is yet to be fully exploited. The potential to exploit the energy reserves is immense, given that the province is also rich in minerals. It ranks on top of the list of locations with the largest reserves of 50 important minerals, including potassium chloride and manganese. In addition, Qinghai has more than 30 salt lakes with proven reserves of 70 billion tonnes.

However, long distances from the industrial heartland and harsh climate remain the major barriers to tapping the full potential of minerals. So, despite being one of the provinces richest in minerals, it remains one of the poorest, with large disparities urban and rural income.

Despite these glaring limitations, Qinghai and three other provinces with a sizable Tibetan population have gained from the large infusion of funds that focus on infrastructure development. A major outcome of the efforts to boost the western region is the Qinghai-Tibet railway project. It is the world's highest railway line with oxygen supplies for each passenger and became operational in 2006. A technological marvel that can withstand the extreme climate, the new rail link has raised hopes of accelerating development by enabling unhindered access to far-flung locations in the region.

The improved infrastructure has also boosted tourism. The scenic beauty and innumerable historical Buddhist and Tibetan monuments have drawn a large numbers of domestic tourists to the region. But language barrier, inadequate marketing and the political sensitivity of the region have ensured that not too many foreign tourists flock in.

Another great challenge is the full incorporation of ethnic minorities into the development programmes. Though some success has been achieved in this regard in the urban areas, where extensive housing programmes have attracted a large number of people, the hurdles are far greater in the oxygen-thin high-altitude grasslands, where people still live in tents with their cattle as they have been living for hundreds of years.

p.raghavan@expressindia.com

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

MANGOES SET AN EXAMPLE

SANDIP DAS

Quality Indian mangoes have been satiating the appetite of discerning US consumers for the last couple of years. This is thanks to the sea-route trade and a new irradiation facility that checks weevils and fruits flies in mangoes, assuaging the food safety concerns of the US health authorities. But the big change in the last couple of years, apart from increasing quantity, is the high premium that Indian mangoes are commanding, purely because of their quality and efficient branding.

According to the Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority, in 2009, Indian mangoes fetched $20 per 3.5 kg pack, which has already gone up to $28, while mangoes from other countries cost only $5-6 for the same quantity. Indian mangoes, earlier exported to Middle East and neighbouring countries for a fraction of this price, have started commanding huge premiums in high-value markets like the US and the UK. A crucial game-changer, this should act as an example for all of India's farm exports. The focus should be more on value than volume. It is always advisable to sell low quantities at high prices rather than high quantities at low prices.

Ironically, until recently, India, the world's biggest producer of mangoes with output estimated at around 12.5 million tonnes, exported only around 80,000-90,000 tonnes. In the US, officials said the import potential is almost 500 tonnes of mangoes annually, of which only half has been realised in the past two years. Opening up of the sea route is also a lesson on how exploring new avenues for exports could reap rich dividends, not only for growers but also for exporters. Because this mode is cheaper, large consignments of 15-20 tonnes can be moved, against 1-1.5 tonne consignments by air. India had been pushing to resume mango exports to the US ever since they were banned in 1989 because of the pest problem.

The issue was resolved during George Bush's visit in 2006, following which the country set up an irradiation facility at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Lasalgaon, Nasik, that can handle 500 tonnes of mangoes annually. The takeaway from this case is how different agencies can work together to boost farm exports.

sandip.das@expressindia.com

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

HOPE IN MANIPUR

It is good that the United Progressive Alliance government has finally woken up to the suffering of the people of Manipur brought on by the 65-day economic blockade of the State by Naga political groups. The decision to send a convoy under armed escort to Manipur came after Naga student groups in Manipur refused to withdraw the blockade of National Highway 39 even after Nagaland-based groups lifted their siege on the State's crucial road link to the rest of the country. The latter were protesting Imphal's refusal to allow Thuingaleng Muivah, the leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (I-M), to travel to his ancestral village in Manipur. The Manipur-based Naga groups, on the other hand, are protesting the Ibobi government's decision to hold elections to the Autonomous District Councils, which they fear will erode autonomy for Naga tribes living in the hill districts of the State. The two sets of protests were provoked by different events but both are linked to the demand for Nagalim, a "greater Naga land" that will include territory from adjoining States, including Manipur. With each passing day, it became clearer that the central government's failure to end the blockade, and the attendant shortages and rise in the prices of essential commodities, including medicines, was a dereliction of constitutional and humanitarian duty. The first hopeful sign came when Nagaland student leaders met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. The government is still trying to persuade the Manipur-based Naga groups to withdraw their siege, failing which trucks escorted by paramilitary personnel will take supplies to Manipur. That the Centre had to cite in support of its decision a recent Guwahati High Court order asking it and the Manipur and Nagaland governments to clear the highway speaks volumes about the complexity of the situation.

The Meities of Manipur and the Nagas have adopted inflexible positions that make compromise seem difficult. While the Nagalim demand is totally unacceptable, Manipur's decision to hold the ADC elections, after a controversial amendment to the relevant law affecting the authority of the elected councils, exposed an exclusivist ethnic approach to politics and governance. Deplorable as the Naga blockade is, the Manipur government's decision to bar Mr. Muivah from visiting his village in the State has caused problems for the central government, which has been in peace talks with the separatist leader for more than a decade. While there are no easy answers, what the situation cries out for is a responsible and coherent policy approach that places the interests of ordinary people at the centre of decision-making.

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THE HINDU

THE POWER OF CASH INCENTIVES

The Janani Suraksha Yojana, a path-breaking conditional cash transfer initiative launched in 2005 to encourage deliveries at government health care facilities, has achieved some of its goals. It was launched at a time when India accounted for 20 per cent of maternal and 31 per cent of neonatal deaths in the world. Benefits started accruing a year after the scheme came into operation — the number of deliveries in government health facilities shot up by 36 per cent in Rajasthan and 53 per cent in Madhya Pradesh. A study based on survey data put out by the government for the period between late 2007 and early 2009 has been published recently in The Lancet ("India's Janani Suraksha Yojana, a conditional cash transfer programme to increase births in health facilities: an impact evaluation," by Stephen S. Lim et al.). The study revealed that cash payment led to a reduction of about four perinatal deaths per 1,000 pregnancies, and two neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births. The analysis found no reduction in maternal mortality based on the district level data. The uptake of JSY did not vary much between rural and urban areas, despite rates being higher in rural areas. But other parameters, including wealth, age, and education of women, had a bearing across both high-focus and non-high-focus States. For instance, at the national level, the uptake was highest among those who had 1-5 and 6-11 years of education. Women availing of the cash incentive showed a typical pyramid profile, with those who were neither poor nor rich accessing it the most.

With a budget of Rs.1,540 crore and 9.5 million beneficiaries, JSY is the world's largest conditional cash transfer scheme. It has demonstrated that providing an incentive of Rs.600 and Rs.700 to women in urban and rural areas in non-high-focus States, and Rs.1,000 and Rs.1,400 in the case of high-focus States can bring about an overall reduction in the perinatal and neonatal deaths. However, effective measures are required to ensure that the benefits reach the poorest and the least educated women, who are in most need of skilled birth attendance. Although women availing of the cash incentive are required to attend three antenatal care visits, adherence was not good. Earlier studies have shown that quality of care is compromised for various reasons. For instance, early discharge after delivery, as soon as the women availed of the incentives, was reported. A modified system of staggered payments may be one way of ensuring better care. Though it may strain the system further, it can help reduce the number of maternal and neonatal deaths.

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

TO GO FROM MEDIOCRITY TO EXCELLENCE

THE CHALLENGES BEFORE LEGAL EDUCATION REFORM IN INDIA ARE MANY.

N.R. MADHAVA MENON

At a National Consultation organised by the Law Ministry during May 1-2, 2010, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described legal education in India as a "sea of institutionalised mediocrity with a few islands of excellence," and stressed the need for dramatic reform in terms of its scope and quality. He wanted the legal education system to be sensitive to the needs of the marginalised sections of society, particularly in the context of globalisation and the retreat of the state from some of its traditional roles. He felt that in future, domestic legal mechanisms will increasingly interact with both international and foreign legal systems and that the law schools should prepare themselves to face consequent challenges. The reforms he suggested included multi-disciplinarity in legal studies, flexible curricula, improved service conditions for law teachers, continuing education programmes for legal professionals and placement-internship programmes for all students.

This subject has indeed received the attention of several expert committees recently, including the National Knowledge Commission and the Committee on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education (the Yash Pal Committee). These commissions and committees found three fundamental drawbacks in the objects, structure and content of legal education as it is being imparted in nearly a thousand law colleges in India, most of them functioning in the private sector.

First of all, the objects of legal education in the changing socio-economic context are neither clear nor prioritised. The Advocates Act and the Bar Councils seem to think that the only object of legal education is to produce lawyers to practise in courts. Today, people seek legal education for a variety of purposes: to meet the demands of trade, commerce, industry, governance and international relations. The practising profession itself is getting increasingly internationalised, warranting the study of other legal systems and practices. These multiple goals raise questions of content, structure and regulation.

Currently, the content of legal education is considered to be a function of the regulatory bodies (read Bar Council of India) and the universities are obliged to follow it. This has adversely affected curriculum development in terms of serving the multiple objects of legal education and inhibited innovation and experimentation that are essential for academic and professional excellence. In a sense, it has alienated law schools from its essential function of legal research and development.

Law grows when it engages with society and interacts with other branches of knowledge. Engagement with social problems and movements make legal education relevant and contextual. For this to happen, a liberal, holistic and decentralised approach to curriculum planning and development is necessary, for which each university teaching law should have the primary responsibility. This was the essence of the National Knowledge Commission's and the Yash Pal Committee's recommendations. In other words, according to the expert committees the future of legal education will depend on how the role of universities (law schools) is conceived on the one hand, and on what the goals and objects of legal education are determined to be, on the other. Whichever way one looks at the situation, one thing is clear: the existing regulatory mechanism under the Advocates Act, 1961 is far too weak and inadequate to chart the future course of legal education.

Access and equity are important considerations in higher education, and this is particularly so in law education. The Bar Council's efforts over the last 50 years did succeed in making the so-called legal education accessible to all sections and keeping the costs low for students. But in the process, quality was neglected or allowed to be diluted. Many universities practically avoided their responsibilities, and put the entire blame on the Bar Council. An attempt was made at the instance of the Bar Council to improve quality by introducing the five-year integrated LL.B. programme, and by establishing a series of autonomous National Law Schools. But they have remained islands "in a sea of mediocrity" — as the Prime Minister described it.

The challenge before legal educators and the regulators of higher education today is two-fold.

First, how to promote competitive excellence in a global context in the few National Law Schools and others of its kind that are maintaining some degree of quality in education. Secondly, how to take the mediocre institutions — which are too many in number — to improve their performance towards achieving some degree of professionalism and academic excellence in the shortest possible time.

The major problems cited in this regard are inadequacy of resources including lack of competent teachers in adequate numbers. Given that most of these institutions are privately managed and have very little investment and faculty resources, it is not possible to transform them unless the managements themselves mobilise the finances. Others that are in the government sector, including university departments, can prepare plans for development and seek funds from governments, Central and State. There exists a case to increase tuition fees and development charges while making the institutions provide better teaching and learning facilities to consumers of education.

Finally, if quality is to be improved the key institutions for regulating legal education should be the universities themselves. Let there be competition among universities to deliver quality educational services. The external regulator's function should be limited to setting goals, setting minimum standards, and facilitating the exercise of academic autonomy by individual institutions. In this regard, the proposal of the Knowledge Commission for a multi-member single regulator involving all stakeholders is an excellent idea that deserves attention. The shortage of teachers can be addressed partly through a flexible approach in faculty composition: this may include more visiting and adjunct teachers, partnership arrangements, contractual engagement of professionals and so on. There could also be an organised plan to prepare teachers by selected institutions with special support from government.

It will take a decade or more to create a research environment in the existing law schools, particularly for cutting-edge research that contribute to law reform and development. Meanwhile, the recommendation of the Knowledge Commission to set up a few advanced research centres that can attract available talent to plan and develop legal research is worthy of immediate attention. This is where the Central government should invest, as it did in the field of scientific and industrial research in the early 1960s and 1970s. They can be networked with the law schools of the region: this will be of mutual advantage.

The initiative on Second Generation Reforms developed by the Union Law Ministry (2010) and the Task Force on Legal Education constituted by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development should work together to develop a plan of action to push forward the agenda of legal education reforms. This should serve not only the needs of the practising profession but also the emerging demands of society and government for law trained persons. The Judicial Academies training judges should tie up with selected law schools of the region to enrich the content and process of judicial education and training, while providing opportunities to law schools to understand and inform themselves of the problems and challenges of the administration of justice. Bar Councils should set up a chain of continuing legal education centres, similarly tying up with law schools for mutual benefit. What the nation needs now is an organised movement involving legal educators, lawyers and judges, not only to learn the practice of law but to transform law and legal institutions to maximise justice in society and to put legal education at the centre for better governance under democracy and rule of law.

(Professor N.R. Madhava Menon is founder-director of the National Law School of India in Bangalore, the National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata and the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal.)

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THE HINDU

THE PAST IS NOT PROLOGUE

WHEN THE PAST IS GONE, IT IS GONE; NO AMOUNT OF IMAGERY CAN TRULY RECONSTRUCT IT.

PRANAY GUPTE

I travelled to Boston a few days ago to attend the 40th reunion of my college class, my first such get-together with former classmates since I graduated from Brandeis University in 1970. I went because I hadn't stayed much in touch with them, I went because I was curious how their lives had played out over these long years, and I went, perhaps most of all, to revisit the past that had shaped me, a past that I had always thought served as a prologue to everything that subsequently happened in my life.

But that past had disappeared from view. I found myself a stranger among classmates whom I hadn't even known during my college days. The campus had changed — it's still pretty, of course, but it has suffered from the "edifice complex," that peculiar American condition where wealthy donors raise buildings as much to promote education as to set their names in stone, or marble. What once was a bucolic area was now filled with malls and a bewildering maze of highways. There was a superficiality to the reunion parties, the food wasn't very good — it never is on American campuses — and it became quickly clear that the courteous young students who served as guides for the occasion had little cognisance with the past I'd experienced, and even less curiosity about it. They seemed eager to talk about themselves, and so I did what I like to do best — ask questions.

I went to the United States in 1967 at a time of great cultural upheaval over its involvement in the Vietnam War, which cost nearly 60,000 American lives — and those of a million Vietnamese — and maimed tens of thousands of young soldiers on both sides, and altered forever the lives and destinies of untold numbers of men, women and children in Indochina. In the end, it was all for nothing — America lost that war, its only such defeat, and, Vietnam still figures as a metaphor for how the best and brightest policymakers of a wealthy nations can misread developing societies many thousands of miles away.

Coming from the relative placidity of my native Mumbai — then known as Bombay — I wasn't prepared for the tumult and turbulence that I would encounter in a country that I'd never before visited. America was alluring, to be sure, but it was also completely alien. What I'd seen in the movies produced by Hollywood wasn't quite the reality I'd encounter. The weather was unpredictable, I had no friends, and, as an only child, I missed my parents terribly. I missed the colour and clangor of Mumbai. I missed the ethos of India.

It wasn't easy to acclimatise myself to a new country that would eventually be my permanent home – although I would have had no way of knowing it at the time — and it wasn't easy being at Brandeis University near Boston, a campus of ambitious, politically hyperactive, and sexually libertarian students and faculty. Much of my time was spent covering the huge war protests in and around Boston for the campus newspaper, The Justice — named after the man in whose honour my nonsectarian university had been established in 1948, Louis D. Brandeis, an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, a great legal scholar. Little wonder that my newspaper articles sparkled more than my grades.

But that was where my professional life as a journalist began. I went on to be a foreign correspondent at The New York Times, then at Newsweek International and Forbes, and later as a producer of documentaries for public television, an author of 14 books, and as the founder and editor of The Earth Times, a newspaper on the environment and sustainable development. I don't mean to seem facetious, but I am what I am because I skipped those stimulating classes at Brandeis and opted to attend antiwar rallies and write about them for The Justice. This also offered ample opportunities to meet women whose personal and political passions nicely intertwined.

I looked for some of those women at my class reunion, but none was there. There were those with whom I hadn't enjoyed liaisons, but I could scarcely recognise. The years hadn't been biologically kind to most of those who attended. Many of my classmates — both women and men — had gone on to great distinction in fields as varied as the law, the sciences, medicine, the theatre, and academe, of course. We took a lot of pictures, some with cameras, most with our eyes. It will be the last such album that I will preserve.

That's because when the past is gone, it is gone; no amount of imagery can truly reconstruct it. Before I made the journey of 10,000 kilometres from my current home in Dubai to Boston for the class reunion, I knew full well that one could never recapture the past. I did not realise that one couldn't really relive the past either. Forty years is a very long time — two full generations have been born and graduated since my college days. None of the professors who taught me is still around at Brandeis. My parents aren't around either; they aren't there to write home to about my travails in what was then an alien experience. Two larger-than-life figures in Massachusetts who welcomed me into their homes and hearts — Selma Feinstein and Charles Noble — are long dead, and I didn't even know about their demise; my failure to keep in touch with them may have been one of omission and not commission, but it certainly showed that I didn't bother to nurture my past.

There is no way that I can translate my regret into something more meaningful. My past was lived in a different time, and although it will linger on in my mind I don't think that I will revisit it through another punishing physical journey. With every word I write, that past recedes, it moves away beyond my grasp. Perhaps just as well.

( Pranay Gupte is a veteran international journalist and author. His next book, on India and the Middle East, will be published at the end of 2010.)

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THE HINDU

PUTTING VICTIMS AT THE CENTRE OF LIABILITY LAW

THE NUCLEAR LIABILITY BILL NEEDS TO BE AMENDED TO ENSURE ADEQUATE COMPENSATION IN THE EVENT OF AN ACCIDENT.

SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN

The bill must be amended to allow for a proper level of compensation, well beyond the Rs. 2,050 crore "maximum amount of liability"
It extinguishes claims for compensation for damage made more than 10 years after an incident. An unconscionable limit

The nuclear liability bill is currently being reviewed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests. There are several clauses and concepts that need to be amended to ensure the legislation meets its intended purpose.

1. The "maximum amount of liability in respect of each nuclear incident" is fixed at 300 million Special Drawing Rights, approximately Rs 2,050 crore. This figure is too low and can't possibly cover the kind of nuclear damage a major incident would cause to human life, property and the environment. Since the government wants to accede to the IAEA's Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC), 300 million SDRs has been chosen as national cap so as to receive compensation from countries that are parties to the CSC beyond that. One assumes the government will have to provide compensation above whatever limited sums come from the CSC. Some explicit commitment to this effect, therefore, is essential.

It is worth noting that the CSC will only enter into force if a country with a major nuclear programme like Japan accedes. That is unlikely to happen soon. If every country in the world joins the CSC, a maximum of 300 million SDRs would be available. But since the CSC will never attract universal adherence, the best a member state can hope to receive is around 50 million SDR. Either way, these are not substantial sums. Thus, the Bill must be amended to allow for a proper level of compensation, well beyond the Rs. 2,050 crore "maximum amount of liability". Since the CSC says the compensation amount a signatory specifies prohibits discrimination between national and cross-border victims of a nuclear accident, some national cap may be necessary. But legal language is needed to assure the people that the government will compensate them fully in the event of an accident.

2. Like the national cap, the liability of nuclear operators is also capped too low at Rs. 500 crore for each incident. The bill says the government shall be liable for nuclear damage exceeding that amount. Two amendments are needed to protect public interest. First, the law must clarify that the cap applies only to public sector operators. Second, the Rs. 500 crore cap is low even for a public sector operator. It creates a double social cost. The fact that the operator is not forced to internalise the cost of damages he may cause will lead to the under-provisioning of safety. And, to the extent to which the operator cap is a subsidy towards the true cost of nuclear power, this would lead to the over-optimal share of nuclear power in India's energy mix. Depending on the extent to which society wishes to subsidise nuclear energy, the operator cap should be set at some point between Rs. 500 crore and Rs. 2,050 crore. The higher figure would be more in keeping with enlightened liability regimes in other countries.

Some argue that raising the operator limit will increase insurance costs. But nuclear plants around the world take out property insurance for sums several times higher than their accident liability and this does not affect the viability of nuclear power. Insurance premia, in any case, represent a very small fraction of the total cost of a nuclear plant worldwide.

3. The operator's right of recourse against suppliers under 17(b) should be preserved and perhaps strengthened to include defective equipment and design flaws. India should leverage its mammoth imports to get the supplier to accept a measure of liability in the commercial contract itself. Moreover, the right of recourse must be for the total damage caused by the supplier's negligence and not be limited to the operator's liability cap.

Since 17(b) deviates from the right of recourse envisaged by the CSC, India may have to enter a reservation if it accedes to the convention. Alternatively, it can adopt the liability bill but stay outside the convention like South Korea, which faces no impediment in doing business with U.S. suppliers. Not signing the CSC will also preserve the right of Indian victims to approach the courts of the country to which a nuclear supplier belongs in the event of an accident involving their negligence.

4. The bill extinguishes claims for compensation for nuclear damage made more than ten years after an incident. This limit is unconscionable. There is no reason why Indian law should impose such a limit for injuries to humans, especially when the Vienna and Paris conventions on nuclear liability allow a 30 year claim period. In Bhopal, many illnesses are manifesting themselves years after the original incident, and affecting subsequent generations. Physical damage may also require more time to assess. Twenty-five years after the Bhopal disaster, there is still uncertainty about liability for plant remediation. Certainly no claim was brought against Carbide on the question of site clean up within 10 years.

5. It is unsettling that the bill leaves the assessment of damages and claims for a nuclear accident to an executive rather than judicial body. While there is no reason to assume judges will be more sympathetic to nuclear victims than bureaucrats, the prohibition of judicial oversight embodied in clauses 16 and 35 cannot be justified. These will have to be amended or deleted, especially in order to end the ambiguity about the victim's right to file tort claims.

6. Ironically, nearly half the bill's clauses deal with the service rules etc of the officers who will process compensation claims rather than victim rights. As far as the composition of Nuclear Damage Claims Commission, it is shocking that more attention is paid to the bureaucratic qualifications of commissioners rather than their knowledge or competence to assess damage claims. In line with the complete exclusion of the health ministry and health professionals from the drafting process, the bill envisages no role for health and environment experts. Amendments are needed to remedy this.

7. Clause 46 says the Act's provisions "shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other law for the time being in force" and that the operator will not be exempted "from any proceedings which might, apart from this act, be instituted against [him]". According to officials, the stated intent of this clause is to preserve the victims' right to file tort claims. It also raises the possibility of criminal liability in the event of negligence on the part of the operator or, presumably, the supplier. But Indian tort law is poorly developed. As for criminal prosecutions, nothing more needs to be said in the light of Bhopal. Thus, for this clause to have any meaning, it must be accompanied by clauses that would facilitate tort claims.

The law ministry should also be asked to clarify what the intent behind mentioning only the "operator" in this clause is. Is it to simplify the filing of victim claims by channelling fault-liability on to the operator leaving him to recover damages from suppliers via his right of recourse? If so, does this mean tort claims cannot be filed against anyone other than the operator? Given the unhappiness over the Bhopal settlement of $470 million – the Centre, in a sense, channelled the claims of victims through itself but sold them cheap — the Standing Committee must ensure the nuclear bill does not dilute the victims' right to file tort claims against any party in the event of an accident.

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THE HINDU

REVIEW PANEL JUDGES SEE A CULTURE OF U.N. SECRECY

CRITICS SUGGEST THE SECRETARY-GENERAL IS VIOLATING AT LEAST THE SPIRIT AND POSSIBLY THE LETTER OF THE RULES APPROVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

NEIL MACFARQUHAR

Independent judges appointed to revamp the way the United Nations reviews decisions on matters like hiring, firing, promotions and raises are accusing Secretary-General Ban Ki—moon of shielding an unhealthy culture of secrecy and trying to undermine the new system.

The U.N. Dispute Tribunal, inaugurated last July to replace a process so deteriorated that employees challenging employment decisions sometimes waited years for answers, has succeeded in shrinking a backlog of about 300 cases.

But some of the decisions issued by the tribunal contend that Mr. Ban and the highest levels of management are determined to preserve a system in which their personnel decisions remain absolute. One judge even characterised their lack of cooperation as "an attack on the rule of law."

Diplomats, lawyers and others tracking the cases describe the U.N.'s stance on the tribunal as contradictory, if not hypocritical, given the organisation's role in promoting the rule of law globally. "The organisation has to decide from the S.G. on down whether this is an organisation that respects the rule of law or not," said George Irving, a former president of the staff union and a lawyer who has worked on administrative cases at the U.N. for more than 30 years. "What you are witnessing essentially is a power struggle. It is all about control, who is going to control the system."

In several instances, the U.N. has ignored a judge's orders to produce documents or have officials testify about how decisions were reached. In one case, the judge ordered the organisation to pay $20,000 in compensation for the mistreatment of a translator who questioning why he was not promoted.

"Sometimes there may be some cases of decisions which are not totally in line with what the Secretariat has been doing," Mr. Ban said at a news conference last month. "But we will try to respect all the decisions."

Mr. Ban and his advisers believe they have the prerogative to make decisions in some administrative matters, which has become an issue with the court, he acknowledged. He declined to discuss specific cases.

Critics suggest the Secretary-General is violating at least the spirit and possibly the letter of the rules approved by the General Assembly.

The old system was completely internal. There were no hearings, and the Secretary-General essentially served as his own judge and jury. It was deemed too slow and too haphazard to cover the needs of about 60,000 U.N. employees globally.

The new system, which the internal literature describes as "independent, professionalised, expedient, transparent and decentralised," is run by independent judges whose decisions are binding. U.N. employees cannot sue the organisation in national courts, so the tribunal is their sole route to address grievances. New York, Geneva and Nairobi, Kenya, each have a judge, with some extras appointed to deal with the case backlog. A three-judge appeal panel will begin hearing appeals in New York on Monday.

Without the power to declare someone in contempt of court, the tribunal judges rely on the Secretariat to engage with them in good faith. But some judges believe accountability goes only so high. Part of the problem stems from the rigid hierarchy of the U.N., lawyers and other experts say. The judges were assigned an administrative rank that puts them below an assistant Secretary-General, so those who rank higher often feel that answering the tribunal is beneath them, they said.

Noting that an employee was fired despite a pending tribunal hearing, a May order from the Nairobi tribunal said that the decision ``is significant for the contempt it shows of these proceedings.'' It said that the U.N. response ``does not bode well'' for a system supposedly based on international law and due process.

"You have to look at the culture here," Judge Michael F. Adams, an Australian judge, said at the end of his stint on the dispute panel in New York. "Someone in the position of Undersecretary-General is never confronted with the requirement that particular questions be answered."

Adams has been notably scathing in his written decisions about the lack of due process in the tribunals. "The United Nations legal system may be an island, but it does not inhabit its own planet," he wrote in one.

The outcomes of three appeals of Adams' rulings are being watched with particular interest to see what power the higher panel grants the tribunal.

In one case of an employee passed over for a promotion, Susan Maddox, the lawyer representing the Secretary-General, refused to produce any of the crucial documents requested or even identify the person who made the decision to refuse to cooperate. The Secretary-General, like a head of state, had to be allowed to make some decisions in private, the U.N. maintained.

Adams dismissed the idea that the Secretary-General is akin to a head of state, calling him the chief administrative officer. The tribunal is not examining whether the decision was right, he said, but whether it was arrived at in the right way.

In another case, James Wasserstrom, who now serves as the anti-corruption officer at the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, is seeking $1 million in lost wages, compensation for defamation and mental distress, plus legal expenses. He contends that he was fired from his job with the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Kosovo after reporting his suspicions of corruption. He said his mistreatment included being arrested at the border, having his house searched and having posters bearing his picture hung around the headquarters to bar his admittance.

Because he had been identified by internal investigators as a whistle-blower, he should have been protected from losing his job, he contends. But an Ethics Office investigation found no link between his allegations of corruption and his dismissal. Adams ruled that the U.N. turn over that report and the evidence behind it, but Maddox refused.

In a third case, Samer Abboud, a senior translator, said he was passed over for promotion, the victim of discrimination by Egyptian officials who dole out plum jobs to their inner circle.

Shaaban M. Shaaban, an Undersecretary-General and the most senior Egyptian official at the U.N., initially testified to the tribunal, but then refused any further dealings pending the appeal. Adams found that Shaaban's testimony lacked credibility, calling him "an unreliable witness in respect of every important issue of fact." The judge also found that Abboud was "subjected to insult, patronising comments and retaliatory threats," and ordered the U.N. to pay him $20,000 in compensation. The decision is under appeal.

— New York Times News Service

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THE HINDU

OIL SPILL: COSTNER'S CLEANING MACHINES

WE COULD BE WAITING MILLIONS OF YEARS BEFORE THE HOLLYWOOD STAR'S 'CLEAN MACHINES' WASH BP'S OIL FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO.

LEO HICKMAN

A Hollywood superstar riding in to save the day? Who could resist a storyline like that? So it has come to pass with the news that the Oscar-winning actor Kevin Costner has just signed a deal to help beleaguered BP clean up its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The oil giant has signed a letter of intent to purchase some of Costner's oil-cleaning machines, which he introduced with much fanfare to the world's media last month.

After investing $20m of his own money in an effort to develop the technology, Costner says the machines will now be dragged out into the Gulf of Mexico on barges and set to work on the oil slick as soon as possible. Here's what the machines, which are built by Ocean Therapy Solutions, are said to be able to do: The machines are taken out into the spill area via barges, where they can separate the oil and water. The machines come in different sizes, the largest of which, the V20, can clean water at a rate of 200 gallons per minute. Depending on the oil to water ratio, the machine has the ability to extract 2,000 barrels of oil a day from the Gulf. Once separation has occurred, the oil is stored in tanks. The water is then more than 99 per cent clean of crude.

Hats off to Costner and his colleagues at Ocean Therapy Solutions for investing so much money and effort in developing these machine, but before we all get too carried away by the good news let's also invest in a much-needed reality check.

The machine can clean 200 gallons of water a minute, says the manufacturer. That sounds impressive, but just how much water is there in the Gulf of Mexico? According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the volume of water in the gulf — the ninth largest body of water in the world — is 643 quadrillion gallons. We don't get to deal with quadrillions too often in our everyday lives, so let's put it another way. We're talking about 643,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of water.

So let's do the maths. Just how long would it take Costner's machine to rid the Gulf of Mexico of its oil? Well, if we accept that there are 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year, then we arrive at the conclusion that it will take the V20 — give or take — 6.1 BILLION years to clean up the Gulf of Mexico.

Just in guess you are seeking some context: the age of the Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years.

Ok, I accept that's being a little unfair. Not all the Gulf of Mexico has (yet) been affected by the oil spill. Let's be generous and say that only one hundredth of the volume of water in the gulf has somehow been tarnished with oil. But that's still a clean-up time of 60 million years. (Remember that the current legal limit for oily discharge from a ship is 15 parts of oil to one million parts of water — or 15 parts per million — so let's assume any concentration of oil to water worse than this is unacceptable and requires some form of cleaning.) Costner says that he will be supplying not one but 32 of his machines to BP. Again, every little helps, but we're talking about a leak that some experts now say has a flow rate as high as 2.5 million gallons of oil a day. Costner says his machine can get water 99 per cent free of crude oil. That's the equivalent of 10,000 parts per million.

No matter how you look at it, the sums just don't seem to add up. These machines appear to be a token effort at best, a distraction at worst. They might have their uses in, say, lagoons where the water is contained to some extent, but I fail to see how they can have a meaningful impact in the open sea, unless dispatched in their tens of thousands.

And that then leads to another interesting question: how much oil would you need to power them all?

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

HYPOCRISY OF PAK, US GETS EXPOSED

There is predictable unease in Pakistan — in official circles as well as analytical comments — with the key finding of a Harvard scholar's report prepared for the London School of Economics that the relationship of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence with the Taliban and the Haqqani group is anchored in official policy — that it "goes beyond contact and coexistence". This would be a seriously damaging appraisal if it were new. The truth is that scholars and observers of the Afghan-Pakistan scene have attempted to say exactly this for years, although with varying degrees of definitiveness. As for the historical record, there has never been any ambiguity that Pakistan created the Taliban to bolster its regional ambitions. However, Pakistan has sought to deflect attention by suggesting that only rogue elements, or some retired personnel of its security apparatus, were mixed up with the jihadist insurgents. Publicly, the West, and the US more specifically, bought this line for reasons of expediency as America believed it simply could not afford to show up Pakistan's falsity as it needed the assistance of the Pakistan Army to pursue its objectives in the Afghan theatre. The LSE report blows the lid off this obfuscation, and shows up the ISI's double-dealing — pretending to back America's war against terrorism while being actively engaged on the side of the same terrorists. Herein lies the intrinsic value of the study, which is based on interviews done between February and May this year with Taliban commanders and their associates. It is unlikely, however, that the recent findings will have serious policy implications. The United States is not expected even now to point up the failures of the Pakistani establishment for fear of losing an ally of long standing.

Nevertheless, there is another aspect of the study that is of greater interest now. The interviews with the Taliban camp — conducted after this January's London Conference, which sanctioned the tactic of getting insurgents to negotiate with the Karzai government — show that many in the Taliban harbour great bitterness towards the ISI. They believe that Pakistan and the ISI are working for destabilisation of Afghanistan — their "nation and country" — and that the Pakistanis are opposed to negotiation with the government in Kabul as peace in Afghanistan does not suit Islamabad's long-term designs. From Islamabad's perspective, it is this which is really unpalatable. At one stroke the emergence of this sentiment in the public domain punctures a hole into Pakistan's boast that without its assistance the West and the Kabul government cannot get the Taliban to the negotiating table. This particular finding clearly suggests that the Taliban are not the monolith they were meant to be. It also indicates that if the tactics are right a section of the Taliban can switch sides. It has indeed been known for some time that Kabul has been working on deepening the fissures within the Taliban, although the fear of the ISI in the Taliban leadership is considerable, for the ISI controls its own fraction within the grouping, says the report — a hardcore party of mercenaries within a party — and that this pampered sub-set is the most violent element in the Taliban ready to do the ISI's bidding.

These are matters of detail, however, and ways could be found to get around this problem if the West is able to muster sufficient political will to stymie Pakistan's ambitions in Afghanistan. Unrelated to its main conclusions, the LSE report gratuitously suggests that if Pakistan's problems with India can be sorted out, its interests in Afghanistan will matter less and that Afghanistan's problems stem from the so-called India-Pakistan rivalry. Historically speaking, such a hypothesis has no leg to stand on. Of late, Washington too has said as much.

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

MODI VS MODI

SWAPAN DASGUPTA

Having been shaken by the controversy over an advertisement, the leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now taken to describing the spat that defocused its National Executive meeting in Patna as a proverbial storm in a teacup. It is clear that despite all the talk about maintaining its "self-respect" and not yielding to every tantrum, the BJP has no desire to walk out of the alliance in Bihar and weaken the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) further. Likewise, it is also clear that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is not yet ready to do a Naveen Patnaik on the BJP, yet.

The fragile truce that was negotiated after Mr Kumar took umbrage to an advertisement featuring a year-old photograph of him with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi at the NDA rally in Ludhiana last year, may well withstand the forthcoming Bihar Assembly poll. There is no indication as yet that the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has the necessary support base to go it alone. And more to the point, the idea of teaming up with the Congress is still not very appetising to a party that swears by Ram Manohar Lohia.

Yet, last week's kerfuffle in Patna didn't need a provocation. It had an air of inevitability, advertisement or no advertisement. Aware that every vote counts in the forthcoming Assembly polls, Mr Kumar was concerned that the larger-than-life presence of Mr Modi in Bihar would be used by his opponents to prey on Muslim fears. He needed to do something symbolic to signal that he was in alliance with Sushil Modi, not Narendra Modi.
In politics, it is difficult to be nuanced. There may be a world of difference between the BJP as envisaged by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and that imagined by, say, Murli Manohar Joshi. At a popular level, the BJP is the party of Mr Vajpayee and L.K. Advani but it is also the party of the Gujarati Modi. Indeed, after Mr Vajpayee, Mr Modi is the tallest leader of the BJP. Among the committed BJP voters, Mr Modi's status is iconic. It was hardly realistic to even imagine that an executive meeting of a national party could be held by excluding its longest-serving chief minister.

To signal to a section of voters that he is all right with the BJP but not Mr Narendra Modi is a difficult exercise in hair-splitting. In a stark world, Mr Kumar had a choice of breaking with the BJP in its entirety or allowing the National Executive meet to pass without controversy. He needn't have shared a platform with Mr Modi in Patna but he needn't have rescinded a dinner invitation and then let Sharad Yadav pretend all was well. If placating Muslim sentiment was what Mr Kumar was after, his mission was unsuccessful because it led to nothing tangible and, in fact, allowed Mr Modi to grab the national stage momentarily. In the coming months, especially if the JD(U) are in alliance, Mr Kumar will be taunted by ultra-secularists for being a paper tiger.
Not that the inability to drive home his displeasure with what Mr Modi allegedly represents will necessarily be damaging to Mr Kumar. The Bihar Assembly election will be fought on local issues. The Gujarat chief minister will, in all probability, not even be a campaigner in Bihar. The verdict of the electorate will not be shaped by what happened in Godhra and its aftermath eight years ago. There is invariably a mismatch between what activists imagine is important and what voters believe are the main issues. In any case, while Muslims vote enthusiastically, they are not the only people who vote.

All the same, last week's almost-crisis in Bihar is a pointer to the persistence of political posturing. Since the tragic riots in Gujarat in 2002, Mr Modi has won two Assembly elections and helped the BJP win a majority of Lok Sabha seats from the state on two separate occasions. Whatever carping noises may be made about his political orientation or even the administration's culpability in the riots, there is no question that Mr Modi enjoys popular legitimacy in Gujarat. To make his presence in a state a subject of controversy is not merely distasteful but undemocratic. If Mr Modi is anointed the next prime ministerial candidate by the BJP, his credentials will be examined afresh and may become a subject of passionate politics. In the meantime, he is the popularly-elected chief minister of Gujarat and disrespecting him in Patna runs counter to all norms of federalism.

There has been a tendency on the part of some Muslims to use mr Modi as their favourite whipping boy, particularly when invoking the bogey of "Hindu fascism". Muslim activists have an inalienable right to oppose Mr Modi and even hate him. But it is excessive when all other issues are sought to be buried in the quest for an anti-Modi communal mobilisation.

Since his victory in Gujarat in 2002, Mr Modi has been attempting to put the riots behind him and re-invent himself as the most efficient agent of modernisation and development. Gujarat has been one of India's most astonishing success stories. Unfortunately, the recognition of that success has been patchy, not least because of an inclination to view the state solely through the prism of one unfortunate development. As a parallel, it would be a travesty if Rajiv Gandhi's entire political career was seen through the prism of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
By reducing Mr Modi to a caricature, some self-serving politicians may have succeeded in keeping alive a ghetto grounded in fear and insecurity. But using the block vote to intimidate politicians is a dangerous game. It can yield handsome returns when communal polarisation is confined to the margins. However, it would be a sad and dangerous day for India if one religion-based mobilisation produced a countervailing force.
This hasn't happened so far and hopefully it never will. But playing with fire is potentially hazardous.

Swapan Dasgupta is a senior journalist

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

TAKING SCIENCE SERIOUSLY

SHIV VISVANATHAN

One of the great stalemates in recent times was the moratorium on Bt brinjal. The India debate on genetically-modified (GM) food froze to a still life, with activists confused as to the next step. Meanwhile, environment minister Jairam Ramesh seems content with his decision, without realising that moratorium beyond a point is a non-decision. I was wondering whether there was a way of unravelling such debates. Sitting at one of Netherland's most prestigious academic centres, I decided to ask how the Dutch thought through science and technology. My meeting was with Wiebe Bijker, Director of Science Studies at Maastricht University.
Professor Bijker smiled. He warned me that the European reaction to GM foods was absolutely virulent. There was the failure of social trust around the technology. There was a split between citizens and scientist, with the government playing the bumbler. But the Dutch learnt quickly when it came to nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology deals with particles which are less than one-billionth of a metre. When the Health Council invited him to chair a committee on it, Mr Bijker admitted that he initially thought the technology was hype and one could wait it out. The committee's invitation was however flattering. The challenge before him was how one creates methodologies of trust. Social movements are intellectually and emotionally intensive. What we need are methods, a sense of norm, an ability to build institutions which operate on trust and openness. There was one advantage. Dutch society is unique in one aspect. It sees science studies as a form of expertise different from science and takes it seriously. It holds that science is too precious to be left to scientists. More crucially, the scientist as expert and citizen is involved in the process. But the process is democratic, open and institutionalised.

Initially, scientists on the committee for nanotechnology and health were wary. They had their fingers burnt over the GM debate. Many were just not used to seeing the public as a part of any serious debate. The learning process was both on the citizen's and the scientist's side. Initial citizen's reaction would be a shrug and a question, "What is it?" The challenge was how to take them past indifference and fear to an open-ended idea of technology.
Mr Bijker made a subtle distinction. He said confidence in a society can be brittle. Faith can be almost magical and when the cards collapse you overact in terms of rage and disappointment. What one needs to build is trust — trust about knowledge, trust about the processes by which knowledge is discussed, generated and applied. There is an everyday ethics to it which is crucial. Social trust is what anchors science policy and democracies. In that sense, science studies can help the democratisation of democracies through an understanding of knowledge as a process.

Societal debates are, however, not easy. In this case, the scientists being twice bitten were thrice shy. There was also a tremendous hype about nanotechnology. It promised breakthroughs in longevity, cosmetics, health and, most of all, sustainability. But the technology was more in the form of a promissory note. Society could move from hype to fear in a few minutes.

One of the interesting things about Europe and the US is the role of think tanks. They are usually small outfits with an unusual cast of scholars. One can think of Rand, the Stanford Institute, the Brookings Institution and the Adam Smith Institute. These institutes try to highlight issues, play the role of middleman, brokering key issues for a society. It is true that some are pressure groups but others play a more public function attempting to retain knowledge as a public good. For nanotechnology, this role was performed by the Walter Rathenau Institute which created a small forum on nanotechnology that went beyond civil servants to create a wider sense of expertise and stakeholder representation. It set the right context for societal debate.

The government set up the committee soon after. The Health Council provided a secretariat of scientists and lawyers. They did the basic research which the committee then sifted through. Process was crucial and the continuous conversation between the team of researchers and the chairman was vital. It allowed for experts to evaluate and respect each other. Expertise, instead of being valorised or overrated, becomes a functional, professional term.

Trust, responsibility needs a culture of debates and controversies. Dutch society tends to see creativity and fairness in balance. Balance is not mere compromise or adjustment; it is a synergy of representations. It is a search for middle ground, the middle path. Every policy process is a thought experiment; it demands skill in problem solving, where trust and intelligence work towards solutions. The drama is not in the process of decision-making. Policy-making, like institution building, is an art form that the Dutch enjoy and take pride in.
The key to the solution was a classificatory act. Classifications need not be bureaucratic. One has to develop a model for handling problems. The committee came up with a four-fold classification. The first dealt with "simple" issues. These were strictly technical and there was clear cut knowledge about it. An example of this would be asbestos poisoning.

Then there were more complex issues. These could not be textbook assignments. They involved multiple worlds where details were clear but relationships were not. Here one addressed the implication of nanotechnology for Third World agriculture.

In the third category one moves to precaution. Scientific knowledge itself is not clear. One needs other forms of expertise — like the citizen, the lawyer, the ethics professor. Decision involves a variety of stakeholders. Balancing is tougher. One faces up to fears and fantasies.

Then there are ambiguous problems which society does not know how to handle. Consider the issue of human enhancement. Many religious groups would object to the idea.

Each category demands more and more of the democratic process. A working model created a framework of trust. Politics and policy making is like carpentry. Small pieces count.

Bijker hinted policy is like craftsmanship. We need to steer between technology and populism or even a romantic direct democracy. But when scientists behave like citizens and reciprocal citizens take science seriously, an imagination is born. One wishes India could conduct a similar experiment. Our minister has the intelligence to create such a process. The question is does he have the will. One has to wait and watch.

Shiv Visvanathan is a social scientist

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DNA

EDITORIAL

THE GIVING PLEDGE

Good friends Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have embarked on a very intriguing enterprise: to persuade their super-rich friends to donate at least half of their money to charity. Microsoft founder Gates is perhaps one of the biggest donors in the world as his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds humanitarian efforts just about everywhere. A few years ago billionaire investor Buffett followed his example and gave 99% of his massive wealth — about $46 billion — to charity.

The Giving Pledge, as this campaign is called, has received a positive response from the few people who have been contacted so far. The minimum goal is about $600 billion.

Much is made of the number of rich people in the world, how their earnings go up and down and where they feature on various lists featured year after year. Certainly, attainment of wealth is one of the major aspirations across the world and the wealthy are seen as not just powerful but also, hopefully, happy.
On the other side, stand philosophers and theologians who point out that the pursuit of money does not necessarily lead to salvation. After all, it is not the Communist Manifesto but the Bible which states that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
The motivations of Gates and Buffett are known only to them. But what is known is that the western world has a long history of philanthropy and this is particularly evident in the United States with its puritanical origins and its underlying Protestant work ethic. Industrialists and businessmen have patronised the arts, education and given to the less fortunate — a role fulfilled by royalty and the aristocracy in older societies like Europe and even ours. This giving does not spring from self-righteousness alone — many donors are ruthless in their business practices. But atonement, awareness and generosity all come in many forms.

By making giving a part of their culture, people like Gates and Buffett have not only upheld an American tradition but have also held themselves up as examples to the rest of the world. In India, we are proud of our wealth-makers and follow their progress up and down the rich lists. Our wealth creators might want to introspect on why the Gates Foundation funds so many humanitarian efforts in India when we appear to be bursting with billionaires. Perhaps now the time has come for them to also make the "giving pledge".

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DNA

CHINA'S NUKE TRADE

It is understandable that India should worry about the implications of the China-Pakistan civil nuclear deal, in which Beijing has agreed to supply reactors to Islamabad. The concern arises from Pakistan's near-certain nuclear proliferation with AQ Khan at the head of the nuclear establishment. There is enough evidence to infer that Khan has supplied centrifuges to aid Iran's nuclear programme, and there has been a secret transaction with North Korea as well.

On the face of it, China's sale of reactors to Pakistan is unexceptionable because they are meant for generating electricity. Apprehensions arise because Pakistan's political, military and scientific establishments have always acted in a manner that is contrary to the spirit of nuclear non-proliferation. They have indulged in acts that endanger regional and global security.

Pakistan as a nursery for global jihad only proves the point that it cannot be relied upon to conform to the security imperatives.
Americans are quite worried over the deal because of the volatile security climate in Pakistan. The main concern of Washington is that nuclear facilities should not ever fall into the hands of Islamic militants. Islamabad has been giving assurances that there is no likelihood of such a dangerous outcome. And Pakistan's political and military leaders did not hesitate to use this as a bargaining counter for economic and military aid. The demand has always been that to avert a disaster, the rest of the world must guarantee the viability of the state of Pakistan. This included assurances that India will not pose a challenge to Pakistan. Islamabad did not ever hesitate to use blackmail as a foreign policy tactic. It is this tendency that makes it the bad boy in the international community.

It would be unfair for India or others to argue that Pakistan should be denied nuclear technology for civilian purposes. But there is certainly need for sufficient assurances and safeguards to see to it that Pakistan does not misuse its access to strategic technology for military purposes. China as a supplier would indirectly and inevitably become a guarantor for the good behaviour of Pakistan. With China emerging as the leading economic power in the world, it cannot shrug off its global obligations. That is why, it could not avoid a tough stand on Iran's nuclear programme. A similar stance will be necessary on the part of China in the case of Pakistan as well.

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DNA

PROTECTING THE VULNERABLE

SONAL MAKHIJA, SWAGATA RAHA / DNA

The ministry of social justice and empowerment has proposed to draft a new legislation to replace the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. The ministry recently constituted a committee to draft the law. The draft legislation, to be submitted by August, will be in consonance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

The need for a new legislation that respects and protects the rights of persons with disabilities is undisputed.

However, the rights of and safeguards for persons with disabilities have to be integrated in all existing laws for India to meet its obligations under the UNCRPD. It requires states to recognise that people with disabilities "enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.

Here, we illustrate the need to review existing legislations by drawing attention to laws pertaining to domestic violence, rape and marriage.

Discussions on the need to amend the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA) have been on the agenda of women's networks. The Act, that came into effect on October 26, 2006, protects women from violence in intimate relationships within the home. Although, it is being used extensively by women to obtain civil reliefs — such as protection, maintenance and residence orders — some key provisions need to be revised for its effective functioning. The PWDVA needs to integrate the concerns of women with disabilities, which it has failed to do so far.

The UK-based organisation Women's Aid in 2007 reported that disabled women were twice as likely to suffer from domestic violence. It pointed out though the violence suffered by disabled women may not be any different, they may find themselves in vulnerable situations with less access to help. For instance, in case of disabled women the violence may be faced at the hands of a care-giver. This care-giver may be someone the woman is living with.

That disability may be the cause for domestic violence should be taken into consideration. The explanation to the definition of domestic violence which presently includes physical, mental, verbal and emotional, sexual and economic abuse, should expressly incorporate acts such as taunting/insults directed towards the woman's disability.

Under the PWDVA, acts of omission also constitute domestic violence. In case of disabled women, acts of omission would lead to greater hardship, especially, when such acts by her care-giver/partner socially isolate her, deny her health services or impede her social interaction and mobility.

Likewise, Protection and Residence Orders under the PWDVA have to consider circumstances where a woman suffering from physical, visual or sensory impairment may need assistance/care of her partner and at the same time need a protection order restraining him from perpetrating violence.

The need for sign language to courts and other service providers is essential for making the PWDVA and other laws available to the disabled.

Incidents of rape of women/girls with disabilities have been rising. The provisions on rape in the Indian Penal Code need to be revised to recognise rape against a woman with disabilities as an aggravated offence warranting a higher penalty. Presently, if the victim of rape is disabled but not a minor, the offence is punishable with a maximum of seven years imprisonment.

The Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2010, does prescribe a minimum of 10 years imprisonment or life imprisonment and fine for "sexual assault on a woman suffering from "mental and physical disability". The use of "and" suggests that the victim must be living with both a mental and physical disability for the provision to apply. Although, the courts have often interpreted 'and' to imply 'or', it is recommended that the Bill is revised at this stage to avoid confusion.

Under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, a marriage entered into by a person "incapable of giving a valid consent" due to "unsoundness of mind" or "capable of giving a valid consent" but "suffering from mental disorder" that would make him unfit for marriage and procreation is voidable under the Act. The Special Marriage Act, 1954, contains similar provisions. The presumption of legal incapacity of all persons with mental disabilities deprives them of their right to marry.

Thus, drafting of the new law should be accompanied by amendments to the existing laws in order to ensure protection of rights and recognition of legal capacity of persons with disabilities. Legislation for the disabled needs to be integrated with existing laws

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DNA

IT DON'T MATTER IF YOU'RE BLACK, WHITE OR BROWN

MADHU JAIN

Well, they may not quite be Bunty aur Babli. Actually, they are not even a pair. But Bobby and Nikki are youngish desi-Americans from small towns in southern United States living — and actualising — big dreams. We all know about Bobby Jindal, the present governor of the state of Louisiana, currently in the news because of the catastrophic BP oil spill lapping the shores of his state. In fact, in some circles it is even being whispered that he may be the Republican vice-presidential candidate for the next general elections.

And now comes Nikki Haley, formerly Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, putting in her bid for Governor of South Carolina. This Haley is streaking across the American political firmament like the comet with which she shares a name, give or take an l. She recently won 49% of the vote in her state's Republican primary for governor.
It's quite a leap for a 38 year old attractive sardarni married to a gora American to get this far in this deeply conservative state known for its ol'boy network, where racial discrimination was prevalent in the not-too-distant past, and can still raise its ugly head. If she succeeds, she will not only be the first non-white governor of South Carolina, but the first woman to occupy the gubernatorial chair.

Her recent political rise has not been without hiccups. Along with it have come allegations about her marital infidelity: a political blogger and a lobbyist for the rival for the gubernatorial post have claimed to have had affairs with her. Nasty digs about her ethnicity and religion are also surfacing. South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts referred to her as a "raghead", offensive slang used derogatively for Muslims and those who wear turbans. (Towelhead is more commonly used for the turbaned.)

Ms Haley (interestingly both her family and Jindal's are originally from Punjabi — his hails from Maler Kotla) deftly fielded questions about her religion and ethnicity and has navigated through the slurs with dignity. In fact, the parochial onslaught seems to have increased her popularity. Among her staunch supporters is Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska who was the Republican vice-presidential candidate during the last general elections. Palin, known for her sassy and silly remarks as well as her peep-toe shoes, has made robocalls in support of Haley's candidature.

Haley's ascent could easily be made into a Hollywood film. Going public started early for her. When she was five, her mother entered Nikki and her sister in the Little Miss Bamberg pageant. Recounting this in an insightful article in The Washington Post, Shaila Dewan and Robbie Brown write that the Randhawa sisters were disqualified by the judges of the contest since they were neither black nor white. Brown didn't exist in this then-working class town: the Randhawas were the first Indian immigrants here. Her father was a biology professor.

But little Miss Randhawa did not give up without a fight. She sang This Land Is Your Land. The spritely child might as well have sung This Land Is My Land. For, she looks like an all-American desi, with that perfect smile with her beauty pageant winner teeth (often the result of American dental wizardry). Dressed immaculately in sharply cut suits and shoulder length hair she almost looks like a desi version of Sarah Palin — without the folksy touch though.

Like Jindal, Haley has assimilated perfectly into the landscape — both social and political. She was also luckier with her name. While Jindal dropped Piyush for Bobby and converted to Christianity early on in his life, Haley simply used her middle name — Nikki is also an affectionate Punjabi word for the little one.
Nor did Haley drop her religion. She simply embraced both — born a Sikh, she married a Methodist. According to the Post article the Haleys had two wedding ceremonies: Sikh and Christian. It's the best of both possible worlds.

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

SHOCKS FROM POWER

IT IS A COLLECTIVE FAILURE

Though industrialists are known for squeezing benefits out of governments by raising a hue and cry over their problems and blowing up ordinary issues as matters of life and death, some concerns, nevertheless, are genuine and expensive power is one of them. Power shortage in Punjab used to be their usual grouse around this time of the year when the supply to industry was curtailed to help farmers grow paddy. This season Ludhiana's induction furnace and steel mill owners have taken time off their busy schedule to highlight how expensive power has become. For once, no one is cribbing about power shortage. This is because the new power utilities, created by splitting the state electricity board, have an easier access to credit due to the revaluation of their assets and they seem to have done sufficient power shopping well in time.

The successive governments in Punjab have messed up the power sector by giving free electricity to farmers and not paying for the subsidy in time. Since the farm sector supply is not metered, board officials conveniently dumped their huge theft and transmission losses in the farmers' quota. The board, driven to the edge, was starved of investible funds to enhance power generation. Though fed up with power cuts, the domestic consumer was partly protected on political considerations. It was industry, therefore, that had largely to pay for the competitive populism the ruling political parties have indulged in over the years. Industry, too, is not blameless. Power pilferage is rampant. How many corporate as well as domestic consumers pay their bills honestly?

So it is a collective failure on the power front. Power reforms have raised hopes in some states, but not in Punjab. The government has unbundled the board to form two separate government departments with the same work culture and the same freebies. There is no competition or pressure to perform. Inefficiency and corruption will raise the costs for everyone. Lack of quality power at a reasonable rate is majorly responsible for slowing Punjab's industrial and agricultural growth.

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

NEED FOR A STRONG DETERRENT AGAINST IT

A spate of cases of children driven to death by corporal punishment have come to light in recent months which have shocked the conscience of the nation. The case of Kolkata schoolboy Rouvanjit Rawla, who committed suicide after allegedly being "humiliated and caned" at his school La Martiniere for Boys, has understandably stirred a debate on the whole issue of such punishment, which is known to lead to an increased drop-out rate, school avoidance and school phobia, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and even suicide.

That Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has announced in an interview to The Tribune that guidelines will be framed soon to hold schools responsible if a child faces disability or death due to harassment by teachers is a measure of the outrage that has been caused by Rouvanjit's untimely death. Mr Sibal's promise to withdraw the protection of IPC Sections 88 and 89 which the school authorities cite when their acts of violence against children lead to serious consequences is as it should be. The sections deal with "good faith" and "child's benefit" as mitigating factors.

Ever so often, however, the intent is sound but its translation into reality is aborted. Corporal punishment had been banned under the Right to Education Act, but it still continues in actual practice. It is, therefore, vital that Kapil Sibal and the government in general be kept under relentless pressure by well-meaning organizations and individuals to act on the issue. It has been found time and again that mere guidelines do not fulfil the intended purpose and reports of committees (Sibal has promised to set up one) gather dust unless there is sustained move towards implementation.

Indeed, India needs to take a leaf out of the book of most of Europe, Canada, Japan and South Africa, among other countries, where corporal punishment has not only been outlawed but it is also deterred by stringent punishment. If the present law is inadequate in its scope on the issue, new legislation must be brought forth so that proper deterrent is devised.

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

BAIL FOR A TERROR SUSPECT

RELEASE OF BHATKAL IS A BLOW TO THE POLICE

THE unexpected release on bail of the prime accused in the German Bakery blast case at Pune not only raises embarrassing questions about the credibility of our investigating agencies and the quality of investigation, but will also continue to cloud other terror trials in the country. After all, the Union Home Minister himself had congratulated the Maharashtra Police last month for arresting the 'mastermind' behind the Pune blast in which 17 people, including five foreigners, were killed in February this year. Earlier, Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil announced in the Legislative Council that the police had identified the terrorists and that suspects would be arrested soon. The Anti-Terror Squad ( ATS) of the Maharashtra Police then travelled all the way to Mangalore to pick up Yasin Bhatkal alias Abdul Samad Bhatkal at Bajpe airport when he arrived in a commercial flight from Dubai. He was arrested for allegedly supplying illegal firearms to three persons detained by the Mumbai police in August last year. Yasin Bhatkal, the police also claimed, was a cousin of absconding Indian Mujahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal, was close to gangster Chhota Shakeel and had plotted the terror strike at the bakery.

And yet, when he was produced before the court, it was found that the police had goofed up and had no evidence against him. Contrary to the claims made earlier to the media, he wasn't even an accused in the illegal arms-supply case. The court also observed that the three people arrested by the police in that case had already been enlarged on bail. Also, the over-confident police had named Yasin Bhatkal as the prime suspect a month before in April and, therefore, his decision to return in May, only to be lapped up by waiting policemen at the airport, appears inexplicable.

It is not often though that the police admits to mistakes, either here or anywhere for that matter. Nor is it very common for the subordinate judiciary to let off a proclaimed terrorist on bail for want of evidence. Despite the obvious goof up therefore, the candid admission of the Maharashtra DGP, D. Sivanandan, that the investigation was wrong and that the arrest was a mistake needs to be commended. The business-like disposal of the case by the court is also a silver lining and would go a long way to restore people's faith in the fairness of the judicial process.

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

CHANGING BALANCE OF POWER

ENCOURAGING SIGNALS FROM US

BY HARSH V. PANT

THE US-India Strategic Dialogue ended with a new momentum having being imparted to the flagging US-India ties. The Obama Administration has now made it clear that it will indeed be following the Bush Administration's approach vis-à-vis India by underlining that the US wants to help India's rise to great power status. After a year and a half of neglect and daydreaming, the Obama Administration has come to realise that India's rise after all is good for the US and the world.

Just a few days before the dialogue, the Obama Administration released its National Security Strategy (NSS), and the central part of the new strategy is expanding US engagement with "other key centres of influence - including China, India and Russia, as well as increasingly influential nations such as Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia." The new NSS describes a world in which emerging powers are beginning to erode some elements of American influence around the globe. It describes an America "hardened by war" and "disciplined by a devastating economic crisis." It insists that the US "will maintain the military superiority that has secured our country, and underpinned global security, for decades."

The document's treatment of China and India is markedly different. Though it welcomes a China "that takes on a responsible leadership role in working with the US and international community," it makes it clear that the US "will monitor China's military modernisation program and prepare accordingly to ensure that US interests and allies regionally and globally are not affected." The treatment of India, meanwhile, is all positive. The NSS says, "the US and India are building a strategic partnership that is underpinned by our shared interests, our shared values as the world's two largest democracies and close connections among our people." It also underlines that "India's responsible advancement serves as a positive example for developing nations."

The US-India strategic dialogue, therefore, took place in a context where Washington seems to be putting in a lot of effort to impart a new dynamism to its ties with New Delhi. But most of it is at the level of symbols. It is time now to move to the substance. The focus of the dialogue was on strengthening cooperation on energy, climate change, education, trade and agriculture, and strategic issues. Predictably, the "Singh-Obama 21st Century Knowledge Initiative" was prioritised and food security and health partnership between the two got a boost. A global disease detection centre in India is being planned as one of the flagship science and technology ventures between the US and India.

On two crucial issues, terrorism and Afghanistan, the joint statement issued at the end of the dialogue struck all the right notes. The US not only committed itself to bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice but also assured India of its continued support in the ongoing counter-terrorism investigations. India has been given access to David Headley, the Lashkar operative who has confessed to its role in the Mumbai attacks. Welcoming India's vital contribution to "reconstruction, capacity building and development efforts in Afghanistan," Washington has also undertaken to regularly consult Delhi on Afghanistan.

The US is coming to terms with its relative decline and limits on its ability to shape the global agenda. The rapidity with which the global balance of power is changing is being reflected in the increasing assertiveness of China, but fantasising about China seems to be over in Washington. The US Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, has made it clear that the Chinese military is an impediment in the efforts to strengthen Sino-US ties. Gates was about to go to Beijing en route to Singapore in response to an invitation extended by Chinese military leaders who had visited Washington but the invitation was cancelled by China at the last minute. The idea of "Chimerica" was always too good to be true. But the rapidity with which the Sino-US ties have unravelled over the past few months has even surprised those who were cynical about Barack Obama's overtures to China to begin with. The state of Sino-US ties has been so pitiful in recent months that while the Chinese Commerce Minister was openly warning the US that it would suffer more if it decided to levy punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, Chinese military leaders have been contemplating the possibility of an all-out war with the US to gain the status of global super power.

The West, meanwhile, is souring on China. Gone is the talk of China as a responsible stakeholder in the international system. Instead, Google's withdrawal from China after a high-profile public spat is being seen as symptomatic of the problems that China's rise continues to generate for global norms set by the West. China's undervalued remnibi is no longer the problem solely for the US, but the Chinese behaviour is questioning the very foundations of the global trade regime. China has failed to play a constructive role in finding a solution to the North Korean and Iranian nuclear issues much to the consternation of the West and has, in fact, made it impossible for the international community to resolve these dangerous flashpoints. There is a growing fear that China might soon become the pre-eminent world power without even the patina of democracy with grave consequences for the global order.

Meanwhile, America's main ally in the Asia-Pacific, Japan, is unlikely to be of much help in emerging as a balancer as it is finding it difficult to manage its internal problems. The Democratic Party has lost its popularity since its election victory last summer. Yukio Hatoyama had to resign after he gave in to the Obama Administration's demands that the American base, Marine Corps Air Station Futenna, stay on the island, Okinawa. Public opinion turned against Hatoyama for appearing indecisive and causing mistrust with the US, Japan's security guarantor. Japan's new Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, will be looking to move beyond the air base issue and has already reaffirmed that his nation's security alliance with the US remains the cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy. But Tokyo cannot afford to ignore China, given the economic relationship between the two.

In order to manage this changing balance of power in the Asia-Pacific, the onus is clearly on the Obama Administration to demonstrate its commitment to a partnership with India. So, when Under Secretary of State Bill Burns underlined that the Obama Administration remained committed to supporting India's rise and to building the strongest possible partnership between the US and India, he was not merely assuaging Indian anxieties about China but was also rebalancing US foreign policy that seemed to be tilting towards Beijing to the consternation of American's partners in the region. The signals emanating from Washington in the aftermath of the Strategic Dialogue with India are that it is ready to put its ties with New Delhi back on track. It is now up to India to make its own assessment as to the direction it wants to take this relationship towards and convert the soaring rhetoric of the Clinton-Krishna joint statement into tangible action.

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

PRICE OF NOSTALGIA

BY PARBINA RASHID

As I looked out of the window, the familiar-looking fields, the vast expanses of water, the thick jungles and the hills far below brought a lump in my throat. It never fails to, though I have been doing it year after year without fail.

Even though the pilot warned us of a troubled landing as Guwahati was experiencing heavy rain, it was not a dampener for me. As the plane touched the ground, my eyes got moist too. Finally, I was home!

The car I was asked to get into was not my father's weather-beaten Omni. The explanation came from him as I raised my eyebrows: "As our area is under water, I could not take it out of the garage. So, I borrowed this from a friend who lives in an upper area." I thought nothing of it after that.

The car ride to home was not exactly a joyride but then who cares. Our vehicle was in a serpentine queue that moved at snail's pace. One half of Guwahati had been swallowed up by water from the first monsoon rain. So the traffic had to be diverted to the existing high roads. Who can fight nature's fury, I thought a bit philosophically.

As was my wont, I kept marking each noticeable change on the way - a new building here, a new market there and an old tree gone. But the shock came when I saw the river which segregates the commercial area of the city from the residential. It was not the river I remembered from my last visit. It had become much leaner and even the course had been distorted beyond recognition, not by natural means but because of concrete boundary walls.

Was our old "Bahini river" strong enough to carry the volume which came surging from the hills that marked the horizon in front of my house? I had a bad feeling about it.

It didn't take long to confirm what I had already suspected. My father stopped the car and hailed a rickshaw-puller. The patch of road that led to my home was totally under water. From the people wading through it, I could make out that the level was waist-deep. So close, yet so far!

Patience was running low and we hopped on to one of the waiting rickshaws. The owner was only too happy to oblige us but the price he quoted for his service left my mouth agape — Rs 100 for this short trip.

"Look, you have travelled all the way to be home but what happens if we refuse to get you there? How will you reach there with all your luggage?" asked the wise guy who had noticed the airline tags on my luggage. I conceded. Who would not? After all, nostalgia comes with a price tag!

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

"WE WANT HIGH-END TOURISM BUT FACE MAJOR CONSTRAINTS"

PREM KUMAR DHUMAL

BY RAJ CHENGAPPA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Midway through his second term as the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Prem Kumar Dhumal appears to be still firmly in command. Major problems continue to beset the state, including a shortage of financial resources, growing water scarcity and its inability to adequately cash in on its rich tourism potential. In Shimla, Dhumal spoke at length to Editor-in-Chief Raj Chengappa on a range of issues. Excerpts:

Q Himachal has such great attractions for tourism but yet it does not seem to have achieved its full potential. What have you been trying to do to make it boom?

With over 1.14 crore domestic and foreign tourists visiting last year the hill state is not doing badly at all but we are aware of the fact that a lot more needs to be done. A majority of the visitors are religious tourists who come to the "land of gods" for pilgrimage. We are trying to attract high-end tourists but there are some inherent constraints like lack of air services and rail connectivity. We have been impressing upon the Centre to expand the rail network not only to boost tourism but also from the defence point of view in the larger national interest. We must connect the borders properly so that the Army can transport men and material with ease. We have tried to improve infrastructure with our limited resources. A lot is being done to improve the conditions of roads with World Bank assistance and funds available under the Prime Minister's Gram Sadak Yojna.

Have you tried any other initiatives?

The response to the recent home-stay initiative to disperse the tourism industry to the interiors has been encouraging and already 246 units have been registered. These units are charged for electricity and water at the domestic rates and not the commercial rates as an incentive. Ex-servicemen, in particular, are being encouraged to create requisite facilities for tourists under the scheme and the tourism department is providing training to manpower in catering, housekeeping and other disciplines to ensure quality services and help manage the home-stay units in a professional manner. The forest rest houses located in secluded but most picturesque settings have been thrown open to tourists to give a boost to eco-tourism for which the state has a vast potential. The focus is also on adventure tourism and activities like skiing, heli-skiing, river rafting, and mountaineering. The AB Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports at Manali is doing a fine job. The man-made reservoirs of Gobind Sagar and Pong Dam are ideal for promoting water sports. The private sector is being invited to fill the gap in air services and process has been initiated to operate heli-taxis to enable people to visit Kinnaur, Lahaul Spiti and other distant areas as tourists are averse to undertaking long, time-consuming and rather arduous journeys by road. The state has been declared the best tourist destination for the past two consecutive years by different organisations associated with the tourism industry.

Somehow the state is short of cash and you are mostly dependent on central funds. What steps are you taking to raise your own resources?

The greatest resource the state has is its vast hydroelectric potential of over 23,000 MW. When I first came to power in 1998 only 2,838 MW was being generated. The government has been trying to harness the potential expeditiously by involving the private sector in a big way, besides getting some major projects executed in the state, central and joint sectors. At present 6,500 MW has been tapped and the figure is likely to touch 12,500 MW by the end of the 10th plan and 15,000 MW by 2017.

The second most important source of revenue is, of course, tourism but the most important emerging area, where a silent economic revolution is taking place, is the agriculture sector. Cultivable land is extremely scarce in the hills and, thus, to get higher returns farmers are being encouraged to diversify to off-season vegetables, floriculture and other high value cash crops. Apple is the main cash crop but most of the orchards are aged with productivity declining to a meagre 5 to 7 tonnes per hectare. Advanced countries like Israel are having a yield of 50 tonnes per hectare. The government has decided to implement a Rs 85-crore scheme to rejuvenate 12,500 hectares of old apple orchards to improve yield. Then herbs are also vanishing due to unscientific and excessive exploitation. With 7.32 percent of the country's biodiversity and varied agro-climatic conditions Himachal can play an important role in the preservation of this vanishing treasure. The government is promoting commercial cultivation of herbs and medical plants on a large scale.

There is a huge shortage of water across the state and it is going to be a major crisis. What are you doing to conserve it?

In my last term a water harvesting scheme was launched on an experimental basis in Hamirpur, one of the most dry districts, under which civic structures like check dams were raised to harness the surface runoff. The results are encouraging as is evident from the fact that while the water table is declining everywhere, it has actually increased by 2 m in Hamirpur and some old water sources have been rejuvenated. Now a Rs 300-crore rainwater harvesting plan is being implemented through panchayats under the rural development department. A water management board has been set up. Himachal is the first state to make a rain-harvesting structure mandatory for every building. A failure to do so could lead to the disconnection of water supply.

Himachal is one of the most environmentally fragile states with issues like melting of glaciers to address. You had convened a meeting of the chief ministers of the Himalayan states for the purpose. What are you trying to do on the ecological front?

We imposed a complete moratorium on green felling as early as 1986, much before the Supreme Court stepped in. Still illicit felling takes place at times. It could be stopped only if the community feels that forests are for its benefit and belong to it. The focus is to create awareness among the people for which we introduced a number of schemes. Under one initiative the plantation of deodar was undertaken in a big way in the state capital keeping in view the fact that the existing stock has almost completed its life span of around 150 years. The entire city was divided into 11 zones and the protection of the saplings has been assigned to many non-government organisations. The catchment area treatment plans are being implemented on a large scale and one eco-battalion consisting of ex-servicemen has done a very good job in the Sutlej basin. A nine-point environment code has been introduced in schools as part of the morning prayers to inculcate green habits among the young ones.

How cooperative is the Centre, given the fact that you come from the opposition party? Do you have any problems?

Personally I have a good equation with the Prime Minister who is very kind and considerate. But we do feel at times that we are not getting our due. For instance, under the Punjab State Reorganisation Act the assets and liabilities were to be transferred to the successor states on the basis of population, and accordingly, Himachal was entitled to 7.19 percent share in the assets. However, we did not get it in the Bhakra Beas Management Board projects till this day. The real shock came when the Government of India recently filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that the issue had been decided finally. We expected protection as it was the responsibility of the Centre to implement the Act.

Shimla used to be one of the best hill stations but you can see so much of construction taking place and it is developing in an unplanned manner. What are you doing to stop this?

Shimla should not become a concrete jungle. We are trying to check haphazard construction to the extent possible under the rules but at times people approach courts and get relief. The hands of the government are bound. The hill station was built for a population 25,000 but today over 1.25 lakh people are living in the city and a large number of tourists add to the burden on the basic amenities. It is the state capital and if it is to be a tourist destination, construction has to be restricted and some offices must be shifted out. We all have to cooperate to preserve the city located on a hillock which could come down any time.

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MUMBAI MIRROR

EDITORIAL

SPARE THE ROD, SAVE THE CHILD

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT REINFORCES THE USE OF VIOLENCE TO ASSERT DOMINANCE, VALIDATES CRUELTY AND DISCOURAGES INDEPENDENCE OF THOUGHT

If the tragic death of Rouvanjit Rawla, a 13-year-old student of Kolkata's La Martiniere for Boys, shows us anything it is this: that for all our gleaming buildings and sixlane expressways, we are still stuck in a time warp. It seems unbelievable that anyone, least of all the head of a school, should still believe that corporal punishment of students has value. This belief is rooted in our impression of the English public school system and largely influenced by books like Tom Brown's Schooldays.

Set in England's Rugby school in the 1830's, Thomas Hughes' 1857 novel extols the virtues of the English public school system and the values it supposedly instilled: defending the weak, standing up to bullies, nightly prayer, and not cheating on your exams. Some things were taken for granted: among them, corporal punishment by caning.

England's Parliament banned corporal punishment in state schools in 1986-87, as it happens, by a margin of one vote, 231 to 230 (Margaret Thatcher, the PM, was at dinner with Nancy Reagan and did not vote; and other Conservative MPs who favoured caning were caught in a traffic gridlock caused by preparations for a royal wedding and missed the vote altogether). Three years later, corporal punishment was banned in private schools too. Over 30 states in America have banned it, as has almost all of Europe.

So, too, has our own Supreme Court in 2000, and Section 17 of the newly minted 2009 Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act specifically prohibits it.

Mr Sunirmal Chakraborty, the principal of La Martiniere, is supposed to have said that he knew the law banning corporal punishment but yet made "judicious use" of his cane. How does anyone make any use, judicious or otherwise, of something that is illegal? You cannot instill discipline by committing an illegality. There is no greater indiscipline than the commission of that illegality.

Pro-caning arguments are so weak that they are their own rejoinder: that the alternatives, suspension and detention, give the student a time off from class; they remove the student from the classroom; they strain the time and resources of parents and teaching staff.

Chakraborty and others, including the head of an umbrella organisation of several hundred missionary schools in Kolkata, continue to defend corporal punishment. It teaches students discipline, and something called "the right way of life", they say.

It does nothing of the kind. It only reinforces the use of violence to assert dominance, validates cruelty, discourages independence of thought, and equates questions with insubordination. This is exactly what a school should not do.

The case against corporal punishment is overwhelming: an increase in aggression and disruptive behaviour, deliberate vandalism, more bullying (including a direct correlation to "ragging" and "hazing"), a drop in academic achievement and attendance, lowered self-esteem and an extreme fear of school and learning. There is also a vast body of evidence linking corporal punishment to psychological conditions including clinical depression and suicide.

Chakraborty's deliberate refusal to follow the law says only this: I am above the law. Implicit in this, and in the helplessness of the student driven to take his life, is a damning indictment of our society's failure to protect those who most need it. It also mirrors our attitude to almost everything. We have become a nation of VIPs. Jumping queues, spitting, honking, entering a tiger reserve after closing hours, bribing someone – it's all ok because the law always applies to others, not to us. We are quick to accuse courts of passing unenforceable orders. But what order or law can ever be enforced if we continue to defy it? And so corporal punishment still has vociferous proponents who believe that it is all right to continue acting illegally.

It is not all right. Our very existence as a civil society demands that we follow certain rules. It is also a lesson that no amount of caning can teach.

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EDITORIAL

PULLED BY DEMAND

A TEXTBOOK INFLATION NEEDS TEXTBOOK SOLUTIONS

Batten down the hatches? Pull out all the stops? It might be difficult to find the cliché that adequately emphasises the urgency with which the government needs to tackle inflation. The worry is not just that May inflation was in double digits (10.16 per cent). It is also a fact that prices of commodities other than food are now beginning to gallop. Inflation in non-food manufactured products (often referred to as core inflation) was 6.7 per cent in May, up from 6 per cent in March and 3.6 per cent in January. Non-core inflation actually declined in this period. Thus, inflation now seems to be in textbook territory where rising demand on the back of strong growth pulls up prices. It is no longer principally a supply-side problem driven by shortfall in food production. "Demand-pull" inflation has the nasty habit of embedding itself and feeding off growth. Its stubbornness makes it a much more difficult malaise to cure than supply-driven inflation. The data on the index of industrial production (IIP) for April, released just a couple of days before that on inflation, should dispel any doubts about the robustness of growth. Industrial growth for that month clocked a spectacular 17.6 per cent, a good two percentage points higher than even the most aggressive forecast. Thus, to cut a long story short, the government should lose some sleep over prices.

Textbook problems tend to have textbook solutions. If indeed excess demand is pushing up the price line, the remedy would be to try to put a lid on it. That is primarily the remit of monetary policy and the ball is now squarely in RBI's court. The central bank needs to hike the so-called policy interest rates — the repo and reverse repo rates that set the level of overnight borrowing rates of banks and ultimately determine all other lending and borrowing rates in the economy. The question of whether this is likely to do the trick immediately is somewhat irrelevant. A majority of economists seem to think that the central bank is behind the curve in responding to rising prices and has been too distracted in chasing other goals like keeping the government's borrowing costs low. Thus, the central bank must reaffirm its commitment to holding the price line and its willingness to jettison other targets that conflict with this objective. The signal that the monetary authority is in charge of the situation is itself likely to dampen inflation expectation and work at the margin to ease inflation. In the longer term, a calibrated increase in interest rates will help in moderating demand pressure. Could the rise in interest rates arrest the economic recovery? Industrial growth statistics for the January-April period (average IIP growth in this period was 15.8 per cent) suggest that the turn in the industrial cycle is well entrenched. They also show that the recovery is fairly broad-based and not riding on the backs of a handful of sectors. Investment activity seems to be picking up at a rapid pace (the capital goods component of the IIP increased by 73 per cent in April). A modest increase in interest rates is unlikely to take the fizz out of this entirely. What it will certainly thwart is the danger of an overheated economy that implodes later.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

RATIONAL USE OF GROUNDWATER

PRICING AND REGULATION OF ALL FORMS OF WATER USE NEEDED

The Planning Commission's advice to the Haryana government to levy a cess on agricultural power to raise funds for replenishing dwindling groundwater is wise counsel that is likely to fall on deaf ears. There is no denying that the continuous decline in groundwater levels across the subcontinent and weak attempts at replenishment constitute a grave threat to human security in this part of the world. Haryana is not a lonely sinner. Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in its vicinity are equally guilty of extracting more groundwater than is naturally replenished, causing the water table to decline sharply. Though the gains from tapping groundwater for crop production have, in the past, been spectacular, it has now reached a stage where it is jeopardising the future of agriculture in this key bread basket of the country. What is worse, in peninsular India, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, groundwater use has reached an unsustainable level. India is the world's largest user of groundwater because of the seasonal nature of the monsoons and the need to draw on a few weeks supply of rainwater over an entire year. What is, therefore, worrying is that India is also the world's most wasteful user of groundwater. A recent World Bank report says that of India's 5,723 groundwater blocks, as many as 1,615, or 29 per cent, are now classified as over-exploited, critical or semi-critical, depending on the extent of depletion of aquifers. If the trend endures unabated, 60 per cent of all groundwater aquifers would be in a critical state in 20 years.

Therefore, curbs on unsustainable use of groundwater are indispensable. The suggestion of the planning commission seems implementable only in those states where agricultural power is metered and priced. But in states where governments are supplying power for agricultural purposes free or at highly subsidised rates, imposition of a cess will be politically difficult. Any regulation of groundwater use through executive orders would also be difficult as it involves too many small users — there being over 21 million tubewells in operation today. The Central Ground Water Authority has issued regulatory directives for over 100 critical water blocks, but neither the Authority nor the state agencies have the manpower or resources to enforce these regulations. However, there are other ways to check excessive withdrawal of groundwater. Punjab has passed a legislation prohibiting early planting of paddy (in the hot and dry months of May) to cut down on water absorption by this water-guzzling crop. Haryana has followed suit. But more needs to be done. A community management approach — making the local community responsible for sustainable groundwater management — is said to have worked well in the drought-prone areas of Andhra Pradesh. Gujarat has shown that restricted, but assured, power supply according to an announced schedule can also be helpful. However, such measures need also to be supplemented with actions aimed specifically at promoting percolation of rainwater down to subsurface aquifers to refill them. Watershed development technology is available for such rainwater harvesting. However, since watersheds cut across political and administrative boundaries of blocks, districts and even states, appropriate institutional devices will have to be created to ensure cooperative management of water use.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

RAJAPAKSA'S VISIT - A LOST OPPORTUNITY

INDIA COULD HAVE USED THE LANKAN PRESIDENT'S VISIT FOR ENHANCING INDO-SRI LANKA TRADE TIES

NISHA TANEJA

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's recent visit to India during June 8-11, 2010 culminated in a joint declaration between the two countries. The declaration aimed at building peace and reconciliation in war-afflicted northern Sri Lanka. India agreed to give a grant for rehabilitation and resettlement of internally displaced persons. India also offered to support a major initiative to undertake reconstruction of various infrastructure projects, including the Madu-Talaimannar railway line, the Palay Airport and Kankesanthurai Harbour. The two countries also agreed to resume the ferry services between Colombo and Tuticorin and between Talaimannar and Rameswaram. To foster closer economic ties, the two countries agreed to enhance cooperation in agriculture and livestock development, energy, education and telecommunications.

Perhaps what has gone unnoticed is that President Rajapaksa's visit marked a special occasion — the completion of 10 years of the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The two countries are currently carrying the burden of an unsigned Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that has gone through several rounds of consultations since 2003 but has failed to break ground as there is a fear amongst various stakeholders that the CEPA could undermine the interests of parts of the economy. The joint declaration recognised the need for a more comprehensive framework of economic cooperation but simply directed the officials of the two countries concerned to hold further consultations.

Rajapaksa's visit was an excellent opportunity for India to address some of the outstanding issues under the Indo-Sri Lanka FTA. A Joint Study Group set up by the two countries has identified several key issues that needed to be addressed. First, the tariff rate quota on tea and garments, and the restriction on ports of entry for these products were unduly restrictive for Sri Lankan exports into India. Second, undue delays caused due to doubts raised by the Indian customs regarding the authenticity of certificate of origin issued by Sri Lankan authorities. Third, discriminatory sales taxes charged by some Indian states adversely affected some preferential exports from Sri Lanka. Fourth, insufficient preferential tariffs on items of export interest to Sri Lanka, e.g. textiles and fifth, large sensitive lists which effectively blocked out preferential trade in items of export interests of both countries.

Even though India has taken some corrective measures, the delayed action seems to have caused irreparable damage. India removed port restrictions on tea in June 2007 and on garments in April 2008. India also allowed duty-free import of garments without any restriction on sourcing of fabric from India up to a limit of three million pieces. Discriminatory taxes being imposed on Sri Lankan products by some state governments were also abandoned. These amendments came much too late — as there was a deep resentment against the fact that India failed to take into account the export interests of Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan President's visit was an ideal opportunity for India to declare measures that could have signalled its interest in enhancing the pace and scope of economic cooperation between the two countries. A further pruning of the sensitive lists, devising procedures for acceptance of rules of origin certification without delays and signing mutual recognition agreements are some measures that India could have announced.

The bumpy path that the two countries have followed under goods liberalisation has had an adverse impact on the conclusion of the CEPA. There are fears in several quarters that Sri Lanka may get an unfair deal under the new agreement. India needs to reiterate that an agreement in services would provide both the countries a great deal of flexibility in making commitments for liberalisation. Thus, Sri Lanka can lay down the extent of market access in various modes and sectors in which it would like to offer market access to India. This is unlike the goods agreement where all products are liberalised except those specified in the negative list. By taking corrective action on some of the pending issues under the goods agreement, India could have paved the way for the signing of the CEPA.

The author is a professor at ICRIER. The views expressed are personal

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

SUNITA NARAIN: THE BHOPAL LEGACY

THIS IS THE RIGHT TIME TO ASK THE GOVT TO RETHINK THE CIVIL LIABILITY FOR NUCLEAR DAMAGE BILL

SUNITA NARAIN

Days after President Barack Obama lashed out at British Petroleum (BP) saying he would not let it "nickel-and-dime" his people in the oil spill case, the sessions court in Bhopal did precisely that with the victims in one of the world's worst industrial disasters. There is no doubt this is one case where the victims have been let down completely by the Indian state — the government and the judiciary.

It is well accepted the Supreme Court erred badly first in 1989 by settling all civil and criminal liability at a piddling sum of $470 million (in 1991, it reopened the criminal case). Later, in 1996, the apex court reduced criminal charges from section 304 — culpable homicide with a maximum punishment of 10 years — to a milder section 304a, used in traffic accidents for deaths caused by rash or negligent acts, which limits the term of imprisonment and provides for lighter fines. In all this, the court has been strangely silent about the management of relief and the lack of medical research and treatment for the victims.

The apex court, known to side with environmental victims, has also been vacillating on the matter of what should be done with the abandoned factory site, which is full of toxic contaminants that the company left behind.

Bhopal is about shame. Bhopal is also about what the country, indeed all countries, must do about corporate liability for the unknown. In 1984, when the pesticide factory's poison gas hit Bhopal, killing and maiming thousands, nobody had seen or imagined a disaster of this kind. The question of liability was hushed up, largely because it involved a US company. Nobody wanted to mess around with this corporate powerhouse, even in those times of relative innocence. The liability was established in ignorance, combined with powerlessness.

As a result, the amount settled for the disaster — still unfolding because lives continue to be lost and ailments do not go away — was less than what was agreed in the Exxon Valdez case that occurred a few years later in 1989. In this oil disaster, which hit the coast of Alaska in the US, the toll on the natural environment — the flora and fauna — was priced at double (some $1 billion settled for punitive and economic damages) of what was paid for the thousands of human lives lost and maimed in Bhopal.

But, oil interests in the US are not small fry. In 1990, post-Exxon Valdez, the Oil Pollution Act was passed. The Act capped the liability of economic damages from such an oil disaster at a mere $75 million. Today, even as the US is learning how it never anticipated a disaster such as the BP spill — a leak in an oil well so deep in the ocean that human intervention is not possible — this cap has become a point of friction in the country. Today, the Senate wants the cap removed. Otherwise it will have to prove that BP's oil spill was the result of deliberate and gross negligence and/or regulatory non-compliance. The Senate knows this will be difficult to establish, given the country's legal process. The issue is not negligence per se, but the fact that the regulator underestimated the risk of this drilling. They did not provide for safeguards. It is also no surprise then that Obama has accepted that in his country, regulations have been played around with and diluted because of the "cosy relationship between big oil and government".

This is the right time to ask the Indian government to rethink the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill. The Bill caps the operator's liability at Rs 500 crore per incident, with additional damages of approximately Rs 2,300 crore to be made good by the government. This amount is even less than what was paid in the case of Bhopal, a ridiculously low amount, and a joke when it comes to a nuclear accident.

US companies with an interest in the nuclear business desperately want India to pass this Bill. It will cap liability and hence reduce their insurance cover and costs. It is, thus, not a surprise that the official US response to the trial court judgment on Bhopal mentions this Bill and wants the Indian government not to link the two.

But there is a link. The issue of liability must be established and it must be based on full costs. All technologies must pay the real cost of their present and future dangers. Only then will we, as a society, try and understand the risks better. Only then will we, as a society, make better technology choices. After the shame of Bhopal, nothing less is acceptable.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

BHUPESH BHANDARI: HEALING IN A LOW-COST ERA

IF THERE CAN BE LOW-COST CARS AND LOW-COST HOUSING, WHY CAN'T LOW-COST HEALTH CARE BE POSSIBLE?

BHUPESH BHANDAR

Is a low-cost health-care model possible? To put it differently, can a hospital charge low, affordable fee and still make money? This is the new debate that has gripped the industry in India. Most private hospital chains, at least the ones in news, cater to the top-end of the market. Can they afford to move down the value chain? Tata Motors has made a low-cost car, GE has come out with inexpensive medical equipment and experiments are afoot in low-cost housing. Why not low-cost health care?

Anand Burman wants to set up a chain of such hospitals in Tier II and III towns, where ordinary folks can come for treatment. If it succeeds, it will blaze a new trail. The demand for good-quality health care will only rise in the days to come. So, it is the right business to be in. But the cost of real estate has deterred people like Burman from taking a top-down approach.

A large hospital can cost as much as Rs 1 crore per bed — more or less the same as a five-star hotel. This is somewhat similar to the United States where the norm is $200,000 for a bed. High real estate prices have made the business economics of hospitals go totally haywire. Most hospital chains have opened shop in high-street addresses because of the prosperous catchment area. On the flip side, it can take up to six years for investors to recover their money. These days, hospitals can be found lobbying the government hard for a tax holiday.

The other capital cost is equipment. Almost 70 per cent of the high-end medical equipment in the country are imported. It comes not from low-cost producers like China and Taiwan but from the United States and Europe. Doctors often say they feel more comfortable with imported machines. This is a challenge that Indian makers of medial equipment need to overcome. It may take long because mindsets don't change overnight. Hospitals, of course, have petitioned the government to cut the import duty of 8-12 per cent to zero. After all, the equipment are used to treat the masses, they have argued.

To be fair, there are hospitals which are delivering low-cost health care. ChrysCapital Managing Director Sanjiv Kaul thinks it is an easily-doable proposition. A bed in the intensive care unit can be done for as little as Rs 25 lakh, according to him. ChrysCapital, in fact, had come close to investing in one such chain of hospitals. The deal fell through in the final lap after differences arose between the private equity firm and the promoter over the valuation of the company.

The Centre for Emerging Market Solutions at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad wants to develop a low-cost model for health care. The Centre began to study the sector when it realised that though 80 per cent of patients go to private hospitals for treatment, the bulk of the aid goes to government hospitals. Some two-and-a-half years ago, it started monitoring the various business models in use. To its surprise, it found in use several best practices that cut the cost of delivery. For instance, some hospitals were found to use their machines round the clock — out-patients during the day and in-patients at night. In the West, these machines are generally used nine to five. It also came to light that several hospitals used paramedics for low-end services. This brought down the cost. The Centre is now doing an in-depth study. At the end, a model might emerge that can be transported to all emerging markets.

Bhavdeep Singh, the CEO of Fortis Healthcare, is hopeful that health care will slowly spread to the masses, much like mobile telephony. The sheer growth of chains like his, Singh says, has improved the penetration of high-quality health care. In the nine years that the company has been around, it has held on to most of its price tags, Singh claims. In some cases, like cardiac care, the prices today are lower than what they were five years ago. This has brought health care closer to the masses. The company has identified 150 touch points with consumers where efficiencies can be brought in. In spite of high real estate prices, it has capped investments at less than Rs 50 lakh per bed. After large cities, Fortis has in its crosshairs smaller towns like Kangra in Himachal Pradesh and Jodhpur in Rajasthan.

There is another reason for hope. Uttar Pradesh, some years ago, had debated a revolutionary idea: Why not get into partnership with the private sector for health care? The state runs primary health centres in remote villages and full-fledged hospitals in towns and cities. It would help, the Lucknow think tank suggested, if private medical colleges were attached to these hospitals. It would be beneficial to all. The hospitals would get new investments. The medical colleges would get hospitals, which is vital for medical education. But then the government changed in the state and nothing more was ever heard of the proposal. But it is important that such a chain of thought has been set in motion. Sooner or later, somebody is likely to latch on to the idea. That will change the health care landscape in India.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

WRAP UP PPF

The finance ministry's proposal to shelve the plan to tax public provident fund (PPF) on maturity will provide relief to investors. However, the proposal in the revised discussion paper on the direct taxes code is antireform .

The artificial distortions created by offering fixed rate of return on PPF when interest rates on most financial instruments have been deregulated will continue .

Also, PPF is expensive borrowing for the government as it can easily borrow at much cheaper rates in the market and avoid undue pressure on the exchequer. The administered interest rate on PPF is 8%. However, the tax breaks raise the effective yield to 11.25-12 .5%.

This is far higher than the prevailing yield of 7.6% on a 10-year government paper. Sure, the returns make PPF attractive to investors, but the high tax-free interest rate makes it costly borrowing for the Centre. All the more so for the states that are charged a 9.5% interest on the small savings proceeds transferred to them.

It would make sense to wind up the PPF scheme and, instead, encourage people to invest in pension schemes that provide annuities.

The revised code wants a tax-free regime on PPF till a universal social security system is in place and a solution is found to handle the administrative and technological challenges. This is weak defence. Unlike pension, the PPF is not a social security scheme but just a savings scheme with guaranteed returns — a subsidy that hurts the exchequer.

A well-functioning safety net requires the option of stable income after retirement. The new pension scheme (NPS) will provide that stability. The government now contributes Rs 1,000 to the pension account of every new NPS subscriber.

The NPS will ensure positive returns from the very day a subscriber joins it. The revised code has made withdrawals from NPS tax-free . This could make it an attractive alternative to PPF. But the biggest problem with the NPS is that it is relatively unknown. The government has to market the pension scheme better to rope in more subscribers.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

SINGLE FINANCIAL SECTOR REGULATOR

The single all-powerful financial regulator model, touted by many as the most effective way of ensuring there are no more financial crises, received a death blow on Thursday with the UK Chancellor of the exchequer , George Osbourne, abolishing the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA).

With this, the curtain comes down on a 13-year experiment that in the words of the new Chancellor was responsible for the most 'spectacular regulatory failure' .

In its vastly-diminished role, the FSA will now function as Consumer Protection and Markets Authority, responsible for ensuring individual banks, building societies and insurance companies operate safely.

And lest there be a doubt about who is the boss, it will exist as a subsidiary of the Bank of England whose powers have been vastly enhanced with its head, Mervyn King, chairing a new Financial Policy Committee that

has been given carte blanche to stop a 'dangerous build-up of credit or asset bubbles' .

For us in India, the UK move to scrap the FSA is particularly relevant as it comes soon after the finance minister announced the decision to set up an apex-level Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) in Budget 2010.

To be sure, it would be premature to jump to the conclusion that our existing model with the RBI at the helm of a loose conclave of financial sector regulators is necessarily the best.

The unseemly tussle between the capital markets regulator, the Sebi, and the insurance regulator, the Irda, is clear proof that it could do with some fine-tuning . Nonetheless, there are two reasons why we need to pause before we rush in and replace a reasonably well-functioning model for a yet-unproven one such as the FSDC.

One, the present model has served us well (we are one of the few countries to have emerged from the crisis with our banking sector unscathed). Two, countries such as the UK that tried the alternative are now turning back to a model akin to ours. The old maxim, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, works as well for the financial sector as for as for any other.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK & OPPORTUNITY

It would have been hard to convince people a year ago that in June 2010, we would be looking at yearon-year growth of 19% for manufacturing output or 36% for exports. Or, for that matter, that we would have had double-digit inflation for four months in a row to May.

The Indian economy has indeed bounced back sharply from the downswing induced by the global financial crisis. It is now poised to consolidate the recovery of economic expansion, especially that in investment, and set the stage for a new round of sustained investment and growth.

We should, however, not fall prey to the illusion that we are entirely out of the woods. This is especially true given that the advanced economies have yet to overcome the effects of the crises and that they now face new problems flowing from their overstretched public finances.

In this, both Europe and the US are both in a difficult position, although the erosion of confidence in Europe, particularly in the eurozone, is more pronounced. India's problems have been compounded by the very high inflation that has hit us so early into this new phase of growth.

In large measure, this was due to the adverse expectations on food prices flowing from the very poor monsoon of 2009 and the devastating late season floods in parts of southern India, the sizeable loss of foodgrain output and the unhappy coincidence that it overlapped a year in which international cotton and sugar prices tested new records. It was also a year that held salutary lessons on how to improve on the speed and design of our interventions to try and contain such price storms.

The fixed investment rate held up well through the crisis. It was 31.4% of GDP in 2006-07 , rising to 33% in 2007-08 , last year of the global boom, remained there in 2008-09 , and was only marginally lower at 32.4% in 2009-10 .

True, the overall investment rate did fall from the 2007-08 level of 37.7% of GDP to 34.9% in 2008-09 and to an estimated 36% in 2009-10 .

But that was due to a drawdown of inventory, not a decline in the fixed investment rate. However, the resilience exhibited in fixed asset creation through the crisis does not necessarily mean that the Indian corporate sector, which had not rolled back its ongoing asset-creation programmes, would not have reconsidered its portfolio of new projects.

Surely, the effects of seeing once-great corporate names crumble into dust, the new-found fascination in the advanced world for antediluvian ideas of how government knows best and markets are never to be trusted and Nobellaureate economists predicting the end of the market economy as we knew it, should surely have sowed the seed of corrosive self-doubt , even amongst the hardiest of entrepreneurs.

Perhaps it did a wee bit, but the fear does not seem to have survived into 2010. This speaks volumes for how well-founded the economic transformation of the Indian economy has been. For, it is when change manifests in the realm of ideas, or as some would call it the superstructure or others the governing paradigm, that such change is indeed a lasting one.

The challenge before public policy is how to leverage on this happy endowment of robust economic dynamism. In order to consolidate the return of

the Indian economy to the growth trajectory of 9%, we must be able to do certain things and do them well.

First, the deficits in physical infrastructure — power, road, rail, ports, airports, urban mass transit and municipal economic infrastructure — remain. We have to push hard on these investments, a large part of which will be either in the private sector or in public-private partnerships. We must be able to gain traction on the issue of better use of water resources, particularly in agriculture and encourage recycling in urban and industrial use.

Second , in order to leverage the momentum of growth, the government has to facilitate not only investments in infrastructure but also the large investments that will be needed in manufacturing and other businesses to support sustained growth of the Indian economy at 9% and higher.

This needs clarity in policy, in the interpretation of these policies and coordinated and cooperative action by the wings of the government.

Further, this agenda of public action must include the reform of the market for infrastructure services, particularly that of the power sector. This is not only a doable proposition, but one on which a lot of ground has indeed already been covered.

Now it is a matter of completing the journey , albeit with some obstacles that are yet to be overcome. Third, the farm sector needs the benefits of technology, especially in water use and improvement of soil quality, which must be combined with a dramatic improvement in the supply chain that connects the farm to the kitchen table.

This is the only way to reduce wastage and inefficiency , improve the net price that the farmer receives and lower the price that the consumer has to bear.

This will not only help us to rein in food price inflation, which in our country has consistently underpinned overall inflation , but it will also improve farm incomes and help bring rural economic transformation into the fast lane. The effort and investment in health and education has to be accelerated, in the full realisation that the lead time to get results are longer, and to sustain the growth process in India, very significant improvements in these fronts are vital.

Trade and investment relations with the rest of Asia, as well as Africa and Latin America, hold the potential of fruitfully deepening the mutually-beneficial engagement with these emerging economies that are today the focus of global growth.

Finally, in a world rudely awakened by the nightmare of a shadow on the solvency of advanced economies, it is ever more imperative that we pursue the course of fiscal consolidation that we have set ourselves with determination and clearly perceptible resolve.

The present decade holds the potential of taking India into the league of the four largest national economies measured at market exchange rates.

We owe it to ourselves, to those who preceded us and on whose shoulders we have the benefit of standing, as well as to tomorrow's generation, that we successfully realise this potential.

(The author is member of Planning Commission)

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

BP BEGINS TO ANTE UP

Given the size of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, we suspect that $20 billion may not be enough to compensate all of the people whose lives and futures have been derailed by the spill. But it's a good start.

It took days of very public pressure from President Barack Obama and countless hours of private negotiations, but BP finally agreed on Wednesday to put $20 billion in an independently managed compensation fund.

After meeting with the company's top executives at the White House, Obama stressed that the amount is not a ceiling on BP's obligations, which by some estimates could exceed $40 billion when the costs of cleaning the spill and restoring the gulf's damaged ecosystem are also factored in.

"The people of the gulf have my commitment that BP will meet its obligations," the president declared, adding that the agreement would not pre-empt any claims in court.

BP did not publicly address the issue of a cap, but its chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg did apologise "to the American people" and vowed to "look after the people affected" and "repair the damage to this region and the economy." There are a lot of reasons, of course, not to trust BP.

The company insisted for years that it was ready to deal with a huge oil spill in the Gulf, and it was completely unprepared . After the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon rig, it downplayed the size of the spill, starting with 1,000 barrels a day, then moving to 5,000, then — as its tallies became less and less credible — turning over the job of estimating to government scientists.

Their present estimate is as much as 60,000 barrels a day. When Obama first started pressing for an escrow fund, and a suspension of dividend payments to BP's shareholders, the company pushed back hard, rallying British politicians to argue that they were being unfairly roughed up by the Americans.

Svanberg appears to have decided that fessing up and anteing up is now the best course. On Wednesday, BP also announced that it would suspend dividend payments of about $7.5 billion over the next three quarters — in effect giving Gulf residents higher priority over its own stockholders.

It also agreed to set aside an additional $100 million to pay workers idled by Obama's suspension of deep-water drilling in the Gulf. This should relieve the pressure on the president to resume that drilling.

Having $20 billion in guarantees should reassure the spill's victims, and all Americans, that BP will not be able to walk away from its responsibilities. It is also reassuring that the fund will be managed by Kenneth Feinberg, a veteran administrator who won high marks for overseeing the 9/11 victims' compensation fund.

Feinberg's task then — determining the value of a life, in nearly 3,000 cases — was extraordinarily daunting. This one will involve many more claims from many more people.

There is not a lot of time for Feinberg to get up to speed. BP is currently handling individual claims and has been criticised for uneven treatment and not responding quickly enough to people who could be weeks or even days away from losing their businesses.

The White House will need to keep pressing BP hard. The agreement gives the company several years to deposit the $20 billion in order to manage its cash flow and not scare off investors. It must be held to that timetable. And it must begin making provisions to ensure a full payout of the billions more in cleanup and restoration costs and civil penalties under the Clean Water Act that are also its responsibility.

We would like to think the battle is over. It is not. Claims in the 1989 Exxon Valdez case were not finally adjudicated until two years ago, and there is still oil on the rocks of Prince William Sound.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

IT'S SCARY. GENERAL PRICE RISE HAS BEGUN: PRONAB

V YOGASRI POORNA & SURABH

The Indian economy is on a roll with industrial production surging the most in 15 years and the government confident of a near 9% growth in the first quarter. But the potential inflationary spiral and European crisis can play spoilsport, says country's chief statistician, Dr Pronab Sen, in an interview with ET. Excerpts:

Why is the food inflation still high despite some measures?

What we have right now in terms of the measured inflation is really what had happened to the same numbers a year ago. We have had a period of high inflation, prices went up to a level and have stabilised at that particular level. The little variation in the inflation are nothing but minor fluctuations, they are statistically not meaningful. The inflation rate will start diminishing either if the prices come down or when we reach the point when prices started climbing last year or some combination of both.

Will a good monsoon actually help cool food prices?

Yes, but there is a contradictory influence. For instance, if today a farmer is expecting a good monsoon, he expects to have a good income in the future. He might actually start increasing his consumption in anticipation of a good harvest. Then, there will be no change in supply, but demand will increase. That pushes the inflation a little bit more. It happens every year.

Has food inflation moved to a more generalised inflation?

Well, it certainly has. This is the danger that has been worrying us right since January. At that time, the non-food inflation was low at around 2-2.5%. But even then it was starting to rise. Food price inflation can trigger off a generalised inflation through a wage price spike and that appears to be taking place now.

Do you see the rising international commodity prices will affect India's inflation rate?

That's not really clear. In 2008, there was an upsurge in the international commodity prices, which included minerals as well as agro products. This time around, the upsurge is only in minerals and it's not as bad as two years ago. But even the international prices of minerals are fluctuating a lot, but this is because of the ambiguity over the global economy.

Will further government or monetary intervention help cool prices?

I am not particularly clear on that. The growth process came to an abrupt stop in February last year. Investments went down, projects that were in the pipeline were completely shelved and everything froze. Then from December, a very strong recovery in both consumption and investment started. This boosted demand and led to some amount of inflationary pressure. So we need to be a little careful about taking measures, as we don't know till when this demand supply imbalance will last. The problem is when this gets built into the expectation. That's when the food price inflation comes in.

What are your views on the industrial production numbers? Do you think the current high growth is an aberration or will it continue?

They have to be understood in context. The sector-by sector average for the last two years shows the industrial growth would be around 8-9%. This is the same growth rate that we had from 2002 to 08. We are only making up for what we lost last year. But that doesn't mean that this double-digit growth rate will continue unless other growth drivers come into play.

What are these growth drivers?

The main drivers for industry are the internal demand and normal export growth, which have been leading to an industrial growth of 8% to 9%. The industrial growth of 10% or so was essentially driven by higher exports. So the international economy is important to target a high IIP.

The finance ministry recently said GDP growth in the first quarter could be 8.9%. Will GDP be above the forecast 8.5% for 2010-11?

That's not clear. IIP will gradually taper to 8% in the coming months. So, the 8.5% will be difficult, but not impossible. It will need some supportive environment, but we don't know what will happen in the global economy.

How far will the European crisis affect the Indian economy?

We don't know right now. The European banks are in trouble and there is no idea what will happen. On the positive side, having been through this experience last year, I think we are better placed to manage the problem. We won't see the same kind of shock as last year.

At that time, a large volume of our exports was based on trade credit, which was taken from international banks. When they dried up, exports came to a halt. Indian banks were not prepared for this. Now Indian banks have come back to the trade credit business. Even if there is banking crisis globally, the trade credit is not going to affect that much. What will affect us is the slow down in international demand. If international trade comes down, it'll impact us, but the effect won't be too large.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

HR DOESN'T TAKE A HUGE INVESTMENT TO START: TOMMY WEIR

ANIRVAN GHOSH

HR was a function always relegated to the background in companies. So when Jack Welch, former chairman of GE, decided to make it a priority, it was something of a novelty. Now, HR has transformed many companies. Dr Tommy Weir, global vice-president of Kenexa,which offers human capital management solutions, talks to ET about how and why small businesses need to adopt modern HR practices.

Why haven't Indian SMEs adopted modern HR practices yet?

Lack of exposure for one. The team members lack exposure to best practices in HR followed by some of the larger companies. But I must point out one thing—that even among larger firms, there are hardly any which have a modern integrated HR policy.

Has the IT sector in India shown innovative HR practices?

Yes, but more needs to be done. If the concern is just to hire good people and stopping at that, then HR clearly has not done its job. The idea is to be involved across the life cycle and not just at one or two stages. It is not just India where we find antiquated HR. We find that in lot of other countries too in the Middle East and in most parts of Asia.

So what is the way forward? How can Indian companies adopt modern HR practices?

That is for the organisational leadership to decide and push. The employees need to be taken into confidence, and new talent at the top level might be needed to implement them. This can be a good opportunity for emerging companies to implement integrated HR policies to reap the benefits through their life cycle.

Frontline managers, especially in SMEs, complain that their training needs are hardly taken care of.

That's true for most companies. I would say that frontline managers are largely ignored. Most training programmes are for senior level officers or executives, while these guys also need it as much, if not more. I have been advising companies here, and other parts of Asia, on this aspect. It might take a bit of time but its slowly happening.

Is HR only about recruitment or should it continue after that as well?

Absolutely. The good thing is that among our clients here, we are seeing much more interest to first know the modern techniques and then implement them. Some of the smaller firms are better placed to put in place these things. The idea is to first do a culture test when you are hiring. Then you build managers around the culture that you have. Understanding the culture is key.

How often do companies need to change their HR practices?

It depends on their needs, but if you take the theories and practices, then I would say every 4-5 years. Every five years, something new has been discovered and added. Organisations which already have the modern integrated systems are better placed to make subtle changes that will better manage their existing and new employees to come. HR is not just one subject. It includes elements of psychology and sociology as well. So new advances in these fields leads to improvements in HR. The good part is that even if you haven't followed advances for sometime, it does not take a huge investment to start off.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

90% of our products are sourced locally: President, Wal-Mart India

Nidhi Nath Srinivas

FDI in Indian retail may be a while away, but the $405-billion Wal-Mart Inc is not letting grass grow under its feet. As its annual shareholders meet in Bentonville, the spotlight was on Wal-Mart's two Indian cash-and-carry stores that were an instant hit and are now the blueprint for similar stores in Brazil and Mexico. With board approval for an accelerated rollout this year, Wal-Mart India president Raj Jain tells ET in an interview that a perfect business opportunity is in place for cost-efficient local suppliers. Excerpts:

Most large Indian retailers are discounters. What makes Wal-Mart different?

Raj Jain :There is a difference between lower and lowest prices. We are the lowest. We have an elaborate system of price benchmarking. And for a similar basket of goods, we are always 2-5% cheaper at Bharti and Wal-Mart. That's our claim.

If the government opens 100% FDI in retail, what would you do differently?

Raj Jain: We would invest in the front-end and show our commitment to retail. We would enter into more alliances and joint ventures. It would also be easier to sell bigger plans to the board of Wal-Mart International.

Are the top brands willing to offer significant discounts?

Raj Jain: Lack of scale hampers our ability to bargain hard. But the serious large players and suppliers know we mean business. Moreover, we give 50-70% more sales per square foot compared to competition. That's an incentive.

But you are not able to call the shots.

Raj Jain: The larger brands are sharing trade margins with us. But India is in the early stages of retailing. Power of pricing is still with manufacturers. It will take two decades before power of pricing shifts. The change will happen very fast in apparel where there are no entrenched brands.

How much do rentals eat up your margins?

Raj Jain: Rentals continue to be very high at 3-7% of sales. That is a concern because the global norm is maximum 3%. The problem will become worse in the next 12 months. Our strategy is to get more real estate into play. We are explaining to builders our ability to become an anchor tenant. For cash-and-carry, we are going outside town. If there are good promoters, banks are willing to lend. It is a capital-intensive business in initial years. Companies such as Vishal and Subhiksha expanded too fast and fell into a cash trap. But if you expand very slowly, then you get no scale.

What about supplier credit?

Raj Jain: It continues to be a market problem. Farmers don't give credit. Large manufacturers don't want to give us credit. But they want us to hold their inventory. So we say give us just-in-time delivery if you don't give credit. That's where they are struggling. We have two-week payment terms with suppliers for private labels because they can't afford more than that. We can borrow money more cheaply than them. We have about 800 suppliers and will add another 150 each year.

Will lack of scale delay break-even?

Raj Jain: If in the next five years there is no FDI in retail, then it certainly will. In short term, no.

You have backward linkages for fruits and vegetables in Punjab. Are you extending that to other states?

Raj Jain: We will extend it to UP, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. We will extend it to grains from next season. Punjab has already given us permission to procure grains directly.

Have your local suppliers started exporting to Wal-Mart International too?

Raj Jain: Rice and towels are two categories where we share a supplier with Wal-Mart International. There is a lot of reverse synergy here. Honey, grapes, bananas, Indian ethnic food are other categories where local suppliers can be utilized.

Reducing costs has been a big factor in Wal-Mart's success globally. Has that worked for you in India as well?

Raj Jain: Ninety per cent of our products are sourced locally. Our model is not to buy cheap by negotiation. Instead we reduce waste and total cost in the supply chain. India is a very frugal market. So waste is already low. We find suppliers are willing to listen to suggestions for change if it makes economic reason. No one is interested in feel-good.

So what should your suppliers start doing differently?

Raj Jain: The challenges are quite different. Our large MNC suppliers have the financial, managerial and technological bandwidth and know what has to be done. They only need the will to do it. Large Indian suppliers have everything except technology, where we can help.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

HYPOCRISY OF PAK, US GETS EXPOSED

The truth is that scholars and observers of the Afghan-Pakistan scene have attempted to say exactly this for years, although with varying degrees of definitiveness. As for the historical record, there has never been any ambiguity that Pakistan created the Taliban to bolster its regional ambitions. However, Pakistan has sought to deflect attention by suggesting that only rogue elements, or some retired personnel of its security apparatus, were mixed up with the jihadist insurgents. Publicly, the West, and the US more specifically, bought this line for reasons of expediency as America believed it simply could not afford to show up Pakistan's falsity as it needed the assistance of the Pakistan Army to pursue its objectives in the Afghan theatre.

The LSE report blows the lid off this obfuscation, and shows up the ISI's double-dealing — pretending to back America's war against terrorism while being actively engaged on the side of the same terrorists. Herein lies the intrinsic value of the study, which is based on interviews done between February and May this year with Taliban commanders and their associates.

It is unlikely, however, that the recent findings will have serious policy implications. The United States is not expected even now to point up the failures of the Pakistani establishment for fear of losing an ally of long standing.
Nevertheless, there is another aspect of the study that is of greater interest now. The interviews with the Taliban camp — conducted after this January's London Conference, which sanctioned the tactic of getting insurgents to negotiate with the Karzai government — show that many in the Taliban harbour great bitterness towards the ISI. At one stroke the emergence of this sentiment in the public domain punctures a hole into Pakistan's boast that without its assistance the West and the Kabul government cannot get the Taliban to the negotiating table. This particular finding clearly suggests that the Taliban are not the monolith they were meant to be. It also indicates that if the tactics are right a section of the Taliban can switch sides. It has indeed been known for some time that Kabul has been working on deepening the fissures within the Taliban, although the fear of the ISI in the Taliban leadership is considerable, for the ISI controls its own fraction within the grouping, says the report — a hardcore party of mercenaries within a party — and that this pampered sub-set is the most violent element in the Taliban ready to do the ISI's bidding.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

MODI VS MODI

BY SWAPAN DASGUPTA

In politics, it is difficult to be nuanced. There may be a world of difference between the BJP as envisaged by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and that imagined by, say, Murli Manohar Joshi. At a popular level, the BJP is the party of Mr Vajpayee and L.K. Advani but it is also the party of the Gujarati Modi. Indeed, after Mr Vajpayee, Mr Modi is the tallest leader of the BJP. Among the committed BJP voters, Mr Modi's status is iconic. It was hardly realistic to even imagine that an executive meeting of a national party could be held by excluding its longest-serving chief minister.

Not that the inability to drive home his displeasure with what Mr Modi allegedly represents will necessarily be damaging to Mr Kumar. The Bihar Assembly election will be fought on local issues. The Gujarat chief minister will, in all probability, not even be a campaigner in Bihar. The verdict of the electorate will not be shaped by what happened in Godhra and its aftermath eight years ago. There is invariably a mismatch between what activists imagine is important and what voters believe are the main issues. In any case, while Muslims vote enthusiastically, they are not the only people who vote.

By reducing Mr Modi to a caricature, some self-serving politicians may have succeeded in keeping alive a ghetto grounded in fear and insecurity. But using the block vote to intimidate politicians is a dangerous game. It can yield handsome returns when communal polarisation is confined to the margins. However, it would be a sad and dangerous day for India if one religion-based mobilisation produced a countervailing force.

This hasn't happened so far and hopefully it never will. But playing with fire is potentially hazardous.

* Swapan Dasgupta is a senior journalist

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

WILL JUDGE DO US PART, IN NO-FAULT STYLE?

BY STEPHANIE COONTZ

FORTY years after the first true no-fault divorce law went into effect in California, New York appears to be on the verge of finally joining the other 49 states in the US in allowing people to end a marriage without having to establish that their spouse was at fault. Supporters argue that no-fault will reduce litigation and conflict between divorcing couples. Opponents claim it will raise New York's divorce rate and hurt women financially.
So who's right? The history of no-fault divorce may provide some answers. Before no-fault, most states required one spouse to provide evidence of the other spouse's wrongdoing (like adultery or cruelty) for a divorce to be granted, even if both partners wanted out. Legal precedent held that the party seeking divorce had to be free from any "suspicion that he has contributed to the injury of which he complains" — a pretty high bar for any marital dispute.

In 1935, for example, reviewing the divorce suit of Louise and Louis Maurer, the Oregon State Supreme Court acknowledged that the husband was so domineering that his wife and children lived in fear. But, the court noted, the wife had also engaged in bad behaviour (she was described as quarrelsome). Therefore, because neither party came to the court "with clean hands", neither deserved to be released from the marriage.
As the Maurer case suggests, such stringent standards of fault often made it easier for couples who got along relatively well to divorce than for people in mutually destructive relationships. Cooperating couples would routinely fabricate grounds for their divorce, picking one party as the wrongdoer. "Victim" after "victim" testified that the offending spouse had slapped him or her with exactly the same force and in exactly the same places that the wording of the law required. A primary motivation for introducing no-fault divorce was, in fact, to reduce perjury in the legal system.

Initially, some states limited no-fault divorce to cases in which both partners wanted to dissolve the marriage. In theory, limiting no-fault to mutual consent seemed fairer to spouses who wanted to save their marriages, but in practice it perpetuated the abuses of fault-based divorce, allowing one partner to stonewall or demand financial concessions in return for agreement, and encouraging the other to hire private investigators to uncover or fabricate grounds for the court. Expensive litigation strained court resources, while the couple remained vulnerable to subjective rulings based on a judge's particular opinion about what a spouse should put up with in a marriage.

Eventually every state except New York moved to what is in effect unilateral no-fault, wherein if one party insisted that his or her commitment to the marriage had irretrievably ended, that person could end the union. New York has been the holdout in insisting that a couple could get a no-fault divorce only if both partners agreed to secure a separation decree and then lived apart for one year. Otherwise, the party who wanted the divorce had to prove that the other was legally at fault.

Social changes always involve trade-offs. Unilateral divorce increases the risk that a partner who invests in her (or more rarely, his) marriage rather than in her own earning power, and does not engage in "bad behaviour", may suffer financially as well as emotionally if the other partner unilaterally ends the marriage. When courts have not taken this sacrifice into account in dividing property, homemakers have been especially disadvantaged.
Fairer division of marital assets can reduce the severity of this problem. And fault can certainly be taken into account in determining spousal support if domestic violence or other serious marital misbehaviour has reduced the other party's earning power. Still, the ability of one partner to get a divorce over the objections of the other may create an atmosphere in which people think twice before making sacrifices that will be costly if the marriage ends.

It's true that unilateral divorce leaves the spouse who thinks the other's desire to divorce is premature with little leverage to slow down the process or to pressure the other partner into accepting counselling. It allows some individuals to rupture relationships for reasons many would consider shallow and short-sighted.
But once you permit the courts to determine when a person's desire to leave is legitimate, you open the way to arbitrary decisions about what is or should be tolerable in a relationship, made by people who have no stake in the actual lives being lived. After all, there is growing evidence that counselling can repair some marriages even after infidelity.

A far better tack is to encourage couples to mediate their parting rather than litigate it, especially if children are involved. In a 12-year study of divorcing couples randomly assigned to either mediation or litigation, the psychologist Robert Emery of the University of Virginia found that as little as five to six hours of mediation had powerful and long-term effects in reducing the kinds of parental conflict that produce the worst outcomes for children. Parents who took part in mediation settled their disputes in half the time of parents who used litigation; they were also much more likely to consult with each other after the divorce about children's discipline, moral training, education and vacation plans.

Paradoxically, people who went through mediation were also more likely to express regret over the divorce in the ensuing years than those who litigated.

* Stephanie Coontz, a professor of history at Evergreen State College, is the author of Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage and the forthcoming history A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s.

By arrangement with the New York Times

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

TAKING SCIENCE SERIOUSLY

BY SHIV VISVANATHAN

Mr Bijker smiled. He warned me that the European reaction to GM foods was absolutely virulent. There was the failure of social trust around the technology. There was a split between citizens and scientist, with the government playing the bumbler. But the Dutch learnt quickly when it came to nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology deals with particles which are less than one-billionth of a metre. When the Health Council invited him to chair a committee on it, Mr Bijker admitted that he initially thought the technology was hype and one could wait it out. The committee's invitation was however flattering. The challenge before him was how one creates methodologies of trust. Social movements are intellectually and emotionally intensive. What we need are methods, a sense of norm, an ability to build institutions which operate on trust and openness. There was one advantage. Dutch society is unique in one aspect. It sees science studies as a form of expertise different from science and takes it seriously. It holds that science is too precious to be left to scientists. More crucially, the scientist as expert and citizen is involved in the process. But the process is democratic, open and institutionalised.

Initially, scientists on the committee for nanotechnology and health were wary. Many were just not used to seeing the public as a part of any serious debate. The learning process was both on the citizen's and the scientist's side. Initial citizen's reaction would be a shrug and a question, "What is it?" The challenge was how to take them past indifference and fear to an open-ended idea of technology.

Mr Bijker made a subtle distinction. He said confidence in a society can be brittle. Faith can be almost magical and when the cards collapse you overact in terms of rage and disappointment. What one needs to build is trust — trust about knowledge, trust about the processes by which knowledge is discussed, generated and applied. There is an everyday ethics to it which is crucial. Social trust is what anchors science policy and democracies. In that sense, science studies can help the democratisation of democracies through an understanding of knowledge as a process.

The key to the solution was a classificatory act. Classifications need not be bureaucratic. One has to develop a model for handling problems. The committee came up with a four-fold classification. The first dealt with "simple" issues. These were strictly technical and there was clear cut knowledge about it. An example of this would be asbestos poisoning.

Then there are ambiguous problems which society does not know how to handle. Consider the issue of human enhancement. Many religious groups would object to the idea. Each category demands more and more of the democratic process. A working model created a framework of trust. Politics and policy making is like carpentry. Small pieces count.

Mr Bijker hinted policy is like craftsmanship. We need to steer between technology and populism or even a romantic direct democracy. But when scientists behave like citizens and reciprocal citizens take science seriously, an imagination is born. One wishes India could conduct a similar experiment. Our minister has the intelligence to create such a process. The question is does he have the will. One has to wait and watch.

* Shiv Visvanathan is a social scientist

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

YOU ARE A PRIEST, FOREVER

BY FRANCIS GONSALVES

If I told you "You're a priest", you'd either laugh or send me to a psychiatrist. But I'm neither joking nor have I gone crazy; for, the Bible suggests that everyone, in some manner and measure, is created to be a priest. It matters not whether you're blissfully meditating atop the Himalayas or busily mediating at the stock exchange. The Biblical concept of "common priesthood" is relevant to all.

The Bible speaks of God making a pact with people. The content of this covenant is condensed in the Book of Exodus, which says: "You shall be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (19:6). God expects people to be priestly and holy since we're all created by God, and just as a child naturally reflects the goodness of his/her parents, so must you and I reflect God's holiness. The Book of Leviticus quite simply says: "You shall be holy, for I, God, am holy" (19:1).

In the pre-Christian era, many patriarchs, prophets and kings performed priestly tasks. For instance, Abraham offered sacrifice to God (Genesis 22:13), Prophet Moses spoke God's word to the people and mediated at the sacrificial altar (Exodus 24:3-8) and King David offered sacrifices, blessed the people and distributed food to them (2 Samuel 6:17-19) much as a pujari offers prasad to devotees. Indeed, the roles of priest and king coalesce in David whom God reminds: "You are a priest forever" (Psalm 110:4).

From the above it seems that popular leaders, heads of families and kings — besides, of course, the "professional priests" — all served God as priests. Their tasks were basically three: (a) communicating God's word to people; (b) offering sacrifices and performing rituals; (c) taking care of the general welfare of all people as visible representatives of the Invisible God: Loving Parent of us all.

Studying Jesus' words and works in the four Gospels, one is struck by the dearth of references to priests. In fact, Jesus mentions priest just once in the Gospel of Luke, when, in his famous "Good Samaritan" parable (10:29-37), he portrays a priest not as a hero but as a villain. Reason? This priest avoids caring for a wounded traveller attacked by robbers.

Among the "letters" in the Bible, there's one to the Hebrews whose anonymous author presents Jesus as a priest. One prayer from Christ's lips is striking: "Offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me… O God, I have come to do your will!" (10:5-6). Here, Jesus is regarded as priest neither because he busied himself "professionally" with rituals nor because he belonged to some blue-blooded family, but because he sacrificed his whole being in loving God and caring for all God's children.

India is truly a punyabhoomi (holy land) that has birthed matas, mullahs, gurus, priests and pujaris by the thousand. Their three tasks, as seen earlier, can be summarised as: speaking God's word, offering sacrifices and caring for all. You might assume that this is best done by holy brahmacharis — literally meaning "those who walk in Brahman, God" — who, in extended sense, become limbs (anga) of God. But aren't you — who teach the unlettered, till the land and tend the sick — also God's anga: God's mouth, hands, feet, body? Truly, in your teaching, tilling, trading and tending, you are priestly.

Today, June 18, marks the ends of a memorable "Year for Priests" announced by Pope Benedict XVI who, in his message to Catholic priests, said: "God needs you!" This applies to all people. God needs your mouth to denounce evil, your hands to bless, your feet to tread pathways of truth.

Centuries ago, Apostle Peter reminded his people: "You are a royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9), while Paul recommended that they "offer their bodies as a living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1). Can't you too offer up your whole being for a better world? Remember, David was told: "You are a priest, forever!" If I say that to you, will you still laugh? Or, send me to some psychiatrist?

— Francis Gonsalves is the principal of the
Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi. He is involved in interfaith dialogue and peoples' initiatives for fostering justice, harmony and peace. He can be contacted at fragons@gmail.com [1]

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

NEW GIFT IDEAS FOR FATHER'S DAY

BY NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

No more neckties!

Sunday is Father's Day, and we dads will be overwhelmed with neckties and wrench sets. We will feign ecstasy, and our loved ones will pretend to believe our protestations of pleasure.

But for a really nifty Father's Day gift, how about sponsoring a rat? Specifically, an African giant pouched rat, about 30 inches long including tail. These are he-man rats, the kind that send cats fleeing. What's more, we're not talking about just any giant rat, but an educated one with the rodent equivalent of a PhD.

A Dutch company, Apopo, has trained these giant rats, which have poor sight but excellent noses, to detect landmines in Africa. The rats are too light to set off the mines, but they can explore a suspected minefield and point with their noses to buried mines. After many months of training, a rat can clear as much land in 20 minutes as a human can in two days.

In addition to earning their stripes as mine detectors, the giant rats are also trained in health work: detecting cases of tuberculosis. Possible TB sufferers provide samples of sputum, which are then handed over to the rats to sniff out. This detection process turns out to be much faster than your typical microscope examination. A technician with a microscope in Tanzania can screen about 40 samples a day, while one giant rat can screen the same amount in seven minutes. What man wouldn't pass up a necktie for the chance to be associated with an educated, supermacho giant rat? For just $36, you can buy a year's supply of bananas to feed one of these rats. Or, for a gift more on the risqué side, $100 will buy a "love nest" for a breeding pair of rats.

Both options are at www.globalgiving.com [1], a site that allows donors to browse aid projects around the world and make a donation on the spot.

Father's Day tends to be less a celebration of fatherhood than a triumph of commercialism. The National Retail Federation projects that Americans will spend $9.8 billion on Father's Day this year. To put that in perspective, that's more than enough to assure a primary education for every child on the planet who is not getting one right now.

In fact, we could send every child to primary school and have enough left over to get each dad a (cheap) necktie. And if we skipped store-bought cards (almost $750 million annually) and offered handmade versions, the savings alone could make a vast difference to great programs that help young American men escape poverty.

Think of the National Fatherhood Initiative, www.fatherhood.org [2], which works to support dads and keep them engaged in their children's lives. There's some evidence that absent fathers create a vicious cycle: boys grow up without positive male role models, get into trouble and then become absentee fathers themselves.

Another group is the Black Star Project, www.blackstarproject.org [3], which seeks to get families in low-income communities more involved in the educational lives of kids. Or there's World of Money, www.worldofmoney.org [4], which coaches kids in poor communities on financial literacy and business skills.

For gadget lovers, how about a donation in dad's name to the National Urban Technology Center, www.urbantech.org [5], which helps low-income youths gain computer skills?

Or for those into automotive accessories or tools and appliances (almost $1 billion a year, by the way), why not rev up instead a motorcycle used to bring medical care to people in remote areas? An aid group called Riders for Health, www.riders.org [6], provides motorcycles and cars to health workers in Africa, along with rigorous training on maintenance and repair. Health workers end up reaching roughly five times as many patients as they would on foot.

And if you give dad a stake in a motorcycle at a clinic in Zambia, you can be pretty sure he won't crash it.

Wouldn't most dads feel more honoured by a donation to any of these organisations than by a donation to commercialism?

I think so. My hunch is that family members, manipulated by commercial messages, think that they aren't showing dad enough love if they don't buy him something expensive. But give us some credit! The friend who suggested this column, Sam Howe Verhovek, noted the huge sums spent on cuff links and Best Buy gift cards and said: "I don't know about you, but I don't really need any of the above. A handwritten, 'Thanks, Dad!' note from my kids would mean more than anything Hallmark's poets could come up with".

That's the truth. But if you must pull out the credit card, this is my sincere advice: It's a rare dad who would choose a store-bought card over a homemade card; or for that matter, a necktie over a gigantic, bomb-sniffing rat.

By arrangement with the New York Times

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

STRATEGY RE-CAST

CHIDAMBARAM BATTLES ON ~ ALONE?

FROM North Block's perspective they were not the best seven or eight days. The CCS dithered over (dodged?) providing the home minister enhanced army/air support to contain the Maoists. Consequently, pilots of Pawan Hans operating BSF helicopters wavered over a more combative role: scuttling a key element of the strategy being revised to compensate for the defence ministry's virtual non-cooperation. Pressure eventually forced action on the Manipur blockade, meanwhile Bhopal blew up and P Chidambaram was drafted to give effect to Dr Manmohan Singh's refined brand of decision-ducking. Time was when committees, then commissions, were tasked with averting hard decisions for those mandated to take them: now ministerial groups are in vogue. Given the reality of his handling what the Prime Minister identified as the gravest of threats, surely another minister could have been entrusted with dousing the resurging flames from the simmering shame at Bhopal. Or does the UPA have only Pranab Mukherjee and Chidambaram to emulate Houdini? A lesser man might have buckled, fortunately for the home minister some successes in anti-Maoist actions in Jharkand and West Midnapore have proved encouragement to keep battling on. Certainly he has learnt lessons, efforts to secure more positive involvement from the states are underway (an impediment has been removed with Jharkhand now under President's Rule), less bombast flows down Raisina Hill. It will be a long, un-dramatic slog out there, with the Maoists occasionally displaying their headline-striking ability. If only there was a magic wand to overnight convert sections of the all-purpose CRPF into a focused anti-naxal force.

A critical question remains unanswered. Has the home minister ~ as it appears ~ been isolated in the counter-Maoist endeavour? While there will always be more political backing for a "development-oriented" strategy the UPA has not officially indicated any abandoning the "military option". Then why back off from hitting the adversary hard? There is no end to the philosophical debate over utilising the Army for internal security, but some of the reasons put forth invite ridicule. Is the Army more over-stretched than the CRPF? Are helicopters not "national" assets to be used where required? Hopefully history will not conclude the Army allowed a sore to fester. But in the short term there is a case to freeze/slash defence expenditure and re-allocate the funds to meet "live" internal security challenges: rather than prepare for a war that diplomacy would probably avert.

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

HIGHWAY PATROLS

WILL DELHI STAY THE DISTANCE?

ANXIOUSLY awaited will be the movement of the first convoy to Imphal scheduled for this weekend, yet it will take more than an ad hoc deployment of 2,000 paramilitary personnel to keep the two highways constantly open. For while it took a crippling, extended blockade to shake North Block out of its customary North-east slumber and persuade some of the Naga groups to relent, the harassment truckers endured having to pay a host of "taxes" extorted by various extremist groups is a torment that has persisted for decades. And they are demanding assurances before resuming operations. What is the mandate of the so-called highway patrol? How frequently will its units ply the two affected roadways? Will it be authorised and equipped (in terms of both men and weaponry) to clear blockades and drive away the well-entrenched "tax collectors"? Effective measures on that front will require the cooperation of local police units, the latter have obviously condoned such extortion for too long to be galvanised into immediate action. Movement of trucks and buses in escorted convoys cannot be a permanent arrangement: commercial and personal vehicles must be assured free movement before some confidence is restored. The trauma has a huge human dimension, people have been "trapped" in Manipur for over 60 days, it was more than economic hardships that New Delhi shamelessly ignored. Would a shutdown of the Jammu-Srinagar highway have been thus tolerated?

A question that will be asked in those troubled parts is whether New Delhi will stay the distance and sustain the highway patrol, progressively providing its personnel with suitable vehicles, maintenance support, accommodation, medical cover and so on. Equally important is monitoring the personnel lest they either link up with the extortionists or indulge in similar activity of their own ~ cops, after all, are cops. Apprehensions will be entertained that once immediate problems dissipate, the Government of India's focus will shift or get diluted, it has indicated no comprehensive remedial policy, just temporary crisis management. That the blockade was allowed to continue some 60 days reinforced the impression that the "distance" between New Delhi and the affected region was more than a multiplication of the combined length of the two lifelines.

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

BSP IN BIHAR

MAYAWATI BANKS ON BROKEN ALLIANCES

AFTER officially declaring personal assets to the tune of Rs 83 crore ~ a quantum leap from around Rs 15 crore barely five years ago ~ Miss Mayawati may not sound very convincing with the anti-capitalist slogan she has coined for the Bihar Assembly election. Nevertheless, she may have discovered entry points into the state which are tempting enough. In the normal course, the Bahujan Samaj Party would have been considered as much of an "outsider'' in Bihar as the Communists who must latch on to one of the major contenders if they have any ambitions of ruling the state. But the UP chief minister, whose rise has been quite meteoric, is not just the strategist dealing with high-profile rivals such as Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi in her home state but sensible enough to realise that the divided polity in Bihar provides her a good opportunity to record a reasonable presence even if it doesn't mean a successful bid for power. At her rally held at the spot where LK Advani regretted the misunderstanding in the ruling alliance, Miss Mayawati pressed the solitary cause of "oppressed Dalits'' that would fetch votes in a state where elections have traditionally been held on the basis of caste and community. The old claimants to vote-banks have suffered fluctuating fortunes and Miss Mayawati may have smelt an opportunity to grab a slice of the cake. The BSP begins with the distinct advantage of laying no particular claim to ideological principles except for its Dalit credentials. That doesn't make it untouchable to anyone with the exception of Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party which itself is in trouble after the departure of Amar Singh. Mayawati's fulminations against the UPA on prices, poverty and unemployment don't preclude the chances of bonhomie in a compelling situation, just as the CPI-M had counted her among its "friends'' in the Third Front. She places herself judiciously. Significant in Bihar at the moment are the frictions among different partners ~ whether between Congress and RJD or between BJP and JD-U. When the electorate has reason to be confused, this could leave Mayawati with unexpected gains ~ maybe bargaining power as well in a fractured mandate.

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

ARMY AGAINST MAOISTS

THE INHERENT RISK OF A DUAL SHAME

MG DEVASAHAYAM

THE Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) deliberations on the 'larger mandate' sought by Home minister Chidambaram to annihilate the Maoists with the might of the Armed Forces ended in a stalemate in view of the sharp differences between the Defence and Home ministries. It now looks highly doubtful whether the military will be deployed in "a direct combat role'' in the anti-Naxal battle.

Now that the issue is out in the open, Defence minister AK Antony cannot stick to his oft-repeated stand: ''I don't want a public debate on this. The government will take a decision after carefully assessing various implications. We will come to a conclusion only after weighing the pros and cons of a possible deployment of armed forces in the fight against Maoists.''

While the need to weigh the pros and cons cannot be disputed, to reject the public debate is untenable. Governments have used all agencies, forces and resources at their command ~ civil services, state police, mercenary agencies like the Salwa Judum and central forces ~ to combat the Maoists and have failed. The Army is the 'last resort' and there is no other force left. Therefore, the people have a right to know and debate as to how state and paramilitary forces were used, why they failed and what difference can the deployment of the army make. More importantly, should the Armed Forces, trained and equipped to wage war and decimate enemies, be used at all to fight and kill our own people.

PC's 'development model'

What needs to be debated is why the Home ministry, particularly Chidambaram, aided and abetted by certain media channels, is hell-bent on India's 1.2 million strong regular well-equipped Army getting into direct confrontation with the itinerant, ramshackle 'Maoist militants' probably numbering a few thousands. Obviously to capture, hold and hand over tribal territories for 'development' purposes.

Let us take a reality-check on the kind of 'development' that Chidambaram has in mind. In a Congress-ruled state with a large mineral belt, deals were signed with two alumina refining companies for mining 7.5 million tonnes of bauxite. While fetching the government a mere Rs 64.5 crore as royalty, both companies would make a staggering profit of Rs. 3610 crore per year. This loot has been given the protective cover of a Public Sector Undertaking which would do the notional mining and sell to the alumina refineries. For the community, mining operations would at best create 400 additional jobs against nearly 100,000, mainly tribal people, who would be rendered homeless.

One of the media channels, fascinated with this 'development model' had trumped up an 'opinion-poll' suggesting 67 per cent public support for the 'use of the Army against the Naxals'. Interviewed by this channel, Chidambaram gleefully endorsed this farce and said that he was not surprised at all. Anchors of this and other media channels have been screaming and screeching for launching the Army for area domination so that this 'development model' could be implemented in the entire tribal territory.

It redounds to the credit of the military establishment that even amidst all this sound and fury they have analysed the situation dispassionately. Their main ground of course is the fear of collateral damage and the predominant view is that the Army should step in only as the last resort since this task really belongs to the state police, familiar with the local terrain and local conditions. The Generals rightly feel that the presence of soldiers in civilian areas could lead to a greater sense of alienation among the tribal population who are deprived even of basic facilities.

Another factor is that a military offensive could intensify NGO resistance and that the damage to the social fabric could be more serious. An already over-stretched Army doubts whether it can sustain another major long-term internal security commitment.

This discourse reminds me of the deep faith in the Army expressed in a Time magazine article at the height of the Emergency in August 1975. Describing the predicament of Indira Gandhi between choosing to become a dictator on her own or with the support of the Soviet agents, the author Claire Sterling wrote: "Neither development is likely to leave the Indian Army unmoved. And that is perhaps the crux of the situation. India's standing Army of nearly a million men has been resolutely non-political since Independence. But it is also sensitive to the smallest slight to its honour, dignity and military independence, not to mention the nation's sovereignty; and it is steeped in loyalty to constitutional principles……".

The article concludes: "Depending on how fast and how far she goes in changing from a traditional Prime Minister to the one-woman ruler of a police state, the Indian Army ~ the one group with the power to stop the process ~ could intervene. If it were to do so, it would almost certainly be not to replace her with a military dictator, but to restore the institutions it has been drilled into defending since birth".

The Indian Army has lived up to this faith. But the tragedy is that some of the present-day democrats are turning dictatorial and in their desperation are handing over one-third of India ~ Jammu & Kashmir, the north-eastern states and now the vast Dandakaranya territory ~ to an unwilling Army. Now is the trying time for the Army's loyalty and core values.

Participating in a 'war' against our own people, suffering from long years of neglect, injustice and repression, runs against the most basic value system of India's proud Army enshrined in the soul-raising credo of the Indian Military Academy: "The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time."

Responsibility of police

THE top military brass has realized this and have stood their ground. They have also disregarded the incessant spin-doctoring by the electronic media who have roped in some ex-Army busybodies also in support. Under immense MNC-media pressure the weak and unstable political set-up seems to be vacillating.
But there is no need for the Defence ministry and military chiefs to dither. They have already spoken their mind, and are on a strong wicket. Combating Naxalism is indeed the job of the state government, more particularly its police force. The Union Home Ministry should support them with well-trained and better-motivated paramilitary forces. Instead of doing this in a professional manner, Chidambaram and his team want to achieve their mining/MNC agenda riding on the back of the armed forces whose duty lies in upholding the 'safety, honour and welfare of the nation and its people' and not in securing and holding territory for the multinational billionaires and assorted carpetbaggers. Though a tentative decision has been taken not to involve the Army in 'direct action', the CCS would be taking a final call soon on this extremely sensitive issue. Before doing so it should deeply ponder and ask two critical questions: One is, will not militarization of the Dandakaranya tribal territory signify the collective and complete collapse of civil governance? And the second, will not the world opinion justifiably equate India with Pakistan, which is considered a 'failed state'?

Do we really need this dual shame?

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

A NEW MAYOR WITH FRESH IDEAS

A young councillor in 1985, Sovan Chatterjee has grown in political stature to become the mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. He is the first mayor from the added areas of Kolkata ~ something that the CPI-M had failed to provide during its tenure, due to opposition from within the party. A staunch Mamata Banerjee loyalist, he joined Trinamul Congress in 1999. As a member, member-in-council in the Trinamul-led KMC administration (2000-2005)

he had charge of the water supply department. Since 1985, he has never lost any election in Behala. Later, he also took charge of the South 24-Parganas district unit of the Trinamul Congress. In an interview with Abhishek Law, the new mayor speaks about his plans for development of the city.

Q. One of the major decisions of the Left Front board was imposition of the unit area assessment method of taxation. But the project is still far for implementation. As the new mayor, what will be your action in this regard?

A: The provision for the unit area assessment tax system has been passed in the state assembly. Unfortunately, the Left Front board has not done anything to implement the unit area assessment of tax. It smacks of their callousness.

However, we have plans to implement the scheme. We plan to set up a committee to look into the provisions of the taxation. We will also implement the tax structure but in a simplified manner.

Q: What about water tax? The Asian Development Bank has made it clear that water charge has to be imposed, otherwise loan repayment will have to be done through the civic body's own resources.
A: Water tax will not be imposed and that is our mandate. As regards repayment of loans, we will arrange funds from our own resources.

Q: What about water meters?

Ans: Water meters have nothing to do with water tax. I have been to France to see how metering is done there. There are several points that have to be looked into at the time of installation of water meters. Installation of water meters is required to determine water usage and minimise water wastage and not just for imposition of tax.

Q: What about the problems of touts having a free run in the KMC? From assessment to the solid waste management department, touts are active in all departments of the civic body. As mayor of Kolkata what steps do you plan in this regard?

A: Yes, I am aware of touts having a free run in various departments of the civic body. I need to look into the matter. We have plans to have a scientific approach to stop this menace. The tout menace will end soon.

Q: Till 2000 the KMC had a football team that would be sent to Europe to participate in the Gothia Cup.

However, this was stopped since 2005. Any plans to revive it? What about the reviving the sports tent of the KMC?
A: I have not thought about the matter yet. I will be looking into these issues once I take charge properly. But before that I need to know the details.

Q: Every year waterlogging remains a major problem in the city. People are harassed and there seems to be no end to the woes of citizens. Any specific plans in this regard?

A: Well, as you know the Left Front board has been unnecessarily politicising the issue of waterlogging. When I came to the civic headquarters as mayor-elect to look into the issue, a controversy was created. Naturally, it will take some time for the Trinamul board to identify the problem and resolve them. But I assure you that all necessary steps will be taken to ensure that people do not suffer during the monsoon. I will see what can be done.

Q: When the Trinamul-BJP board came to power in 2000, augmentation of water supply in the city was a major success story. In 2010 non-availability of water in different pockets of the city became a major poll issue. Rampant sinking of tubewells have been a problem during the last five years. Any plans now to augment the water supply in the city?

A: The Left board has been a failure in ensuring proper supply of water across the city. We increased the capacity of the Garden Reach Waterworks to 120 million gallons per day. But the Left board could not take any benefit from this.However, some projects have been taken up that include setting up a 15 million gallon water treatment plant in Garden Reach. Dhapa is also there.

Other than this, we are planning to set up a new water treatment plant to augment water supply. We are looking into various aspects of this project.

Q. As the new mayor, what are your plans for the city's beautification?

A: Our focus will be on beautifying the ghats located along the river Hooghly. A comprehensive plan in this regard has been proposed by Mamata Banerjee. The Kolkata Port Trust, KMC and Railways will work together to beautify the ghats and its adjoining areas.

Across the city we plan to plant different saplings and go on a massive plantation drive. We will take the help of non-government organisations in this regard. We have already asked some non-government organisations to help us out.

Q, What would be the new board's focus on employee welfare?

A: We have not decided anything as yet. We need a little more time to study the matter and then I can say something concrete.

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

THAT PERSISTING TRUST DEFICIT IN INDO-PAK RELATIONS

Will the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) never learn from experience? A little ahead of resuming Indo-Pak peace talks in Islamabad, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao participating in a Delhi seminar repeated all the worn out prescriptions – put an end to terrorism, make borders irrelevant, remove trust-deficit through dialogue, etc., etc. She also said: "Asymmetries in size and development should not prevent us (India and Pakistan) from working together." Was this observation intended to reduce trust-deficit? Translating it in street talk meant: "Look, we're big and strong, you're small and weak! That don't mean we can't be partners right, dude?"
Ms Rao recalled how the Indo-Pak peace process was derailed by 26/11. She should have jogged her memory a little more. Each time India and Pakistan approached agreement there was derailment caused by an event. The Lahore summit was derailed by Kargil, the Agra summit was wrecked by a last-minute semantic dispute, the Musharraf initiative was aborted by his ouster and the Manmohan Singh-Zardari effort was knocked out by 26/11. Each time warmth creeps into the Indo-Pak dialogue, a major event inflames public opinion to ruin the atmosphere. Does it need Sherlock Holmes to deduce that there is a link? There are powerful interests with a long reach dead set against Indo-Pak peace. These interests will never allow any step-by-step progress towards peace.

That is why this scribe rightly predicted failure of the Musharraf-Manmohan Singh peace effort to make borders irrelevant by creating trust through confidence building measures. As pointed out, it required very little for the wreckers of peace to derail the peace effort. Confidence building measures from the ground up will never succeed. Indeed, far greater trust among the common peoples of India and Pakistan already exists than it does between their official establishments.

To remove mistrust there must be an irreversible commitment at the top. No peace effort to make borders irrelevant can ever succeed unless there is trust between the armies of India and Pakistan. It may take a long time to entirely eliminate terrorism. But if in the interregnum the armies of both nations genuinely cooperate to fight terrorism, peace will be achieved. That is why the PM and MEA, if they seriously seek a breakthrough in the peace dialogue, must think out of the box. They must involve the army chiefs of both nations in the nitty-gritty of composite dialogue. Only if they start talking from this end would they succeed. Commitment at the top would frustrate opponents of peace. If commitment is not forthcoming MEA should stop wasting time. In all fairness the Foreign Secretary cannot publicly reveal the government's cards in a seminar. But let's hope MEA officials in Islamabad will lay their cards on the table.

If they do so they would clear the fog from their minds. Pakistan's reaction is predictable. General Kayani will have returned from his five-day visit to China for strengthening ties with the People's Liberation Army (PLA). China's softer civilian government merely facilitates success for the relentless foreign policy goals of the PLA. How long will India continue to deceive itself and refuse to confront the real challenge for which formulation of an adequate response is desperately needed? By pursuing a fruitless peace process, the government may please America and deceive itself. It will not thwart the disaster looming ahead.

The writer is a veteran journalist and cartoonist

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

100 YEARS AGO TODAY

The problem of the distribution of the Monsoon rainfall is one that has as yet successfully defied the efforts of science wholly to solve it. As the Meteorological Department state in their forecast of the rainfall for 1910, which appeared in our telegraphic columns yesterday, "it is certain that we do not know more than half of the conditions on which the Monsoon rainfall of India depends," while it may be added, the influencing factors which are known are of such a complex character and of such variety as to make the task of deducing from them reliable indications one of great difficulty. What is commonly described in India as the Monsoon is primarily caused by great world movements of air currents in the lower atmosphere, which, as a result of passing from cooler to warmer areas, ultimately enter the Indian seas and approach the Asiatic coasts highly charged with aqueous vapour. The probable variability of these movements may be judged by the conditions which they have produced in their earlier courses in other parts of the world. Thus the conditions prevailing in certain areas in such widely separated continents as Australia, Africa, and South America, supply data for estimating the intensity or volume of the two great currents governing the Indian rainfall. But the character of the Monsoon may be greatly modified also by local conditions, such as a heavy or late snowfall in the Himalayan regions, or abnormal pressure conditions, which may have been set up during the hot weather antecedent to the arrival of the rains. In the face of all these varying factors there is every justification for the declaration of the Meteorological Department, that it is only when indications are strongly favourable or unfavourable that a definite forecast is justified. Fortunately on the present occasion the indications are such as to comply with the condition, and the Department is enabled thereby to give us a forecast which is of a distinctly favourable character.

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THE TELEGRAPH

ENEMY LINES

No two insurgencies are quite the same and the strategies to fight them cannot but be different. The Maoist "people's war", therefore, poses challenges to the Indian State that are different from those encountered by the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir and parts of the Northeast. But no counter-insurgency offensive can be effective without two primary conditions — a reliable information network and an ability to change strategies and tactics as and when necessary. The failure of the anti-Maoist campaigns in Lalgarh has largely been due to the authorities' inability to garner precise information and act on it with precision. The "success" of the joint forces in their operations against the rebels early on Wednesday morning shows how adequate preparedness can achieve results even in difficult circumstances. It also points to the failures of the past and to the priorities for the future. More than anything else, the West Bengal police seemed to have been unequal to the task of containing the Maoist campaign because of the collapse of their intelligence network. That again was largely due to the fact that the police and the administration in the state had long been made to serve political interests of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist). The result is a sharp decline in the efficiency of the police that makes the force utterly incapable of tackling serious law-and-order problems, let alone a full-blown insurgency.

However, the authorities have no reason to sit on the "success" of their latest campaign. It is almost certain that the Maoists would try to hit back in their own ways. There is thus a need for constantly reviewing the state of preparedness of the forces. The Maoists' audacious attack on a camp of the Eastern Frontier Rifles at Shilda last February exposed the gaps in the planning of the counter-insurgency measures. With president's rule in Jharkhand opening up new possibilities for the battle there, the West Bengal government needs to coordinate its strategies and actions better with those in the neighbouring states. All sides agree that the battle is going to be a long and hard one. But defeating the Maoist rebellion is not just a question of superior strategy; it is ultimately a commitment that the State has to fulfil. Political rhetoric has often clouded this simple truth. The Maoist challenge cannot be a matter of political one-upmanship.

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

KILLING SPREE

Ethnic violence is usually the result of chronic insecurity over the allocation of limited resources. It is significant that the Uzbeks, who are being exterminated in a frenzy of slaughter by the native population of Kyrgyzstan, happen to be a more or less prosperous community. The ethnic Uzbeks, who make up only 15 per cent of Kyrgyzstan's population, are reputed to be an industrious people. They are also in the minority in the towns of Osh and Jalalabad from where they have been practically wiped out. Worse still, the Uzbeks find themselves on the wrong side of the political divide. A majority of them are sympathetic towards the new government that came into being in April this year, ending the misrule of the last president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fomented ethnic disputes. Since then, the volatile south, where Mr Bakiyev's supporters lord over, has turned into the centre of a brutal civil war.

What is the new government, which has been supported by so many Uzbeks to their great detriment, doing? Apparently, not much. The interim government, led by Roza Otunbayeva, did try to quell the dissent in the Fergana Valley, but finally threw up its hands when faced with an increasingly belligerent Kyrgyz mob out there on a killing spree. So the only hope now is to wait for a Russian intervention, although Moscow has made no such overture so far. Twenty years ago, Mikhail Gorbachev had sent troops to Osh to control another outburst of ethnic violence. But that was in a different era, and Russia has quite sensibly moved on from its Soviet hangover. So, in spite of its desire for supremacy in Central Asia, Russia is unlikely to jump headlong into the fray. After the recent disaster with Georgia for control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia will probably wish to avoid being dragged into yet another quagmire — this time, not even of its own making. Among the so-called global superpowers, China is keeping quiet, probably because of its economic interests in the region. The United States of America is also being tardy, possibly because it leases an airbase vital to its interests in Afghanistan. The Uzbeks are left with no choice but to flock back to their native country, which too, after a point, will stop accepting refugees. This collective ducking of responsibility not only helps strengthen authoritarian leaders in the region but also portends bigger catastrophes in the days to come.

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

COME OUT CLEAN

MALVIKA SINGH

The manifold tragedies of India stare us in the face every waking moment. They are a result of decades of bad governance and neglect. The inability of those who administer us to adhere to the rule of law has deepened the corruption of mind, body and soul in our benighted land. The latest amongst the many mala fide acts that are ignored by the government and its law enforcing agencies are the ruthless murders of innocent people, who are in love with each other, by order from the khap panchayats — our version of the kangaroo courts. It is a shame to witness this kind of brutality in our backyard, especially since no single political entity is held responsible for these daily murders. Haryana is reeling from this shock, with representatives from the state going to the absurd extent of supporting such murders in Parliament.

Where are the progressive leaders of India? Why are our national leaders not condemning these crimes? India is

being engulfed by all the negative traditions of a long and layered history thousands of years old. Sati, a 'tradition' where the wife committed suicide on the pyre of her husband, was banned, but there are people in power who continue to support the practice. Under the Indian Penal Code, murder and suicide are criminal acts. Why does the law not kick in with immediate effect? Why do the judiciary, administration and political class find endless excuses for the delay of human justice?

From Bhopal to the khaps, India seems to be sliding rapidly into the morass that some countries to our west have sunk into. Is that where this emerging economic power is being led by rapacious and exploitative politicians whose prime and often the only interest lies in making personal good at any cost? Is this where a progressive party like the Congress, the party of India's stalwart international leaders, would like to take the nation?

Such rubbish

Why does no single individual at the helm of power in Delhi or in the states address the people on Doordarshan and apologize for the murder of innocent lovers, the exploitation of the poor, the creation and nurturing of the Naxalite and Maoist menace, for the failure to compensate those who were killed, and maimed in Bhopal, and much, much more? Why does the leadership not lay down a strategy for bringing about radical change and for an overhaul of the corroded mechanisms of governance?

We are constantly being briefed about the importance of the economic 'rate of growth' but the same leadership has not addressed the rate of growth of corruption, murder, illegalities, perhaps because we, the fortunate ones, have not lost our own in Bhopal or at the hands of the khap panchayats. Whenever I suggest that the economic rate of growth needs to connect with the many critical issues of existing environmental laws and suchlike, I am brushed aside as a 'leftie'! Such rubbish is responsible for the complete lack of debate and discourse on issues that confront India at this point in time.

Jats hold Delhi water supply to ransom as they demand some caste status or the other. These 'political' demands have reached a point where blackmail would seem a polite threat. Successive governments — in their desperation to remain in the gaddi, to the detriment of the values and ethos of India — have perpetuated the caste system in its worst form in order to garner votes and divide Bharat forever. If division of India and the breaking of law are the two priorities of those who have been elected to govern us, then courts should revert to khaps and India should be readied for Balkanization. Let us come out clean. The syndrome of 'this-too-will-pass' has killed contemporary India.

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

HARD TIMES

BY BEING OBDURATE, THE LEADERS OF THE LEFT MAY IMPERIL INDIA

CUTTING CORNERS - ASHOK MITRA

Local elections in one of the 28 states constituting the Union of India should not ordinarily be of any significance. The outcome of the recent municipal polls in West Bengal has turned out to be an exception; it has created an existential crisis for the Left at the national level. The kind of outrageously unequal society the country's rulers are hell-bent on building calls for the safety valve of a viable Opposition working within the contours of the constitutional framework. The Left preferring to walk the parliamentary path fills that role. Any weakening on its part may cause some short-term jubilation in the ranks of the conventional parties on the right and the middle but the real beneficiaries will be the non-parliamentary Left out on the lawless road.

As in nearly everywhere else, the parliamentary Left in India has been steadily in retreat in recent decades. Its main constituent, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has been, in effect, pushed back into the sanctuary of three states, Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal. Tiny Tripura can be passed over. Kerala, the land of A.K. Gopalan and E.M.S Namboodiripad, is, of course, a vastly different proposition. Even so, the heavy influx of gulf money has introduced otiose factors in its social infrastructure; it is now more of a 'swing state', the Left's hold is no longer as sure as it was in earlier days.

West Bengal, in contrast, provided the impression of a Left continuum. The CPI(M) succeeded in welding together formidable mass organizations representing major segments of peasants, workers and the middle and lower-middle classes, including from among the minority communities. It could take legitimate pride in its phalanx of dedicated cadre deeply imbued with ideological conviction. The West Bengal electorate voted decisively for the Left Front under the stewardship of the CPI(M) in the post-Emergency assembly election in 1977. That mandate was renewed, in poll after poll, at different levels, for the next 29 years. This enduring confidence reposed on it was on account of the Left administration's series of measures supportive of the weaker sections, including land reforms which ensured land to the hitherto landless and legal status to share-croppers. Much ahead of the rest of the country, it introduced the three-tier panchayat system based on adult suffrage. The Left Front government also saw to it that a hefty chunk of the funds earmarked in the state budget for development work flowed to the local bodies, including the panchayat. Its initiatives in the industrial sphere — so crucially important for curing the scourge of joblessness — were hamstrung because of the lack of resources at the disposal of a state regime. It therefore spearheaded a searing national campaign for re-structuring Centre-state relations which could provide the states with more administrative power and financial resources.

A long tenure can generate complacency. That apart, the state CPI(M)'s rustic approach to things was not always conducive to administrative efficiency. Nor did its ministers occasionally not fall prey to such bourgeois vices as hauteur and sycophancy. The continual renewal of the mandate, however, proved the point: on a balance of considerations, the West Bengal electorate was reasonably satisfied with the performance of the Left Front.

Perhaps influenced by the doubt expressed in some quarters over the genuineness of the electorate's repeatedly renewed confidence in the Front regime, the Election Commission enforced extraordinary surveillance during the state assembly polls in 2008. The Front nonetheless once again emerged triumphant, winning 235 seats out of a total tally of 294.

The Left had ushered in no El Dorado in West Bengal. But it re-established a measure of social tranquillity so missing in the state for some time and it steadfastly kept the interests of the poor in the fore. For the immiserized and exploited masses across the country, the Left regime in the state indeed offered a ray of hope. Globalization had shrunk the space for radical initiatives, whether the poorer classes lived or perished was no longer on the agenda of those who had taken charge of the national polity. West Bengal offered a base from where those on the other side of the class barrier could hope to launch a counter-attack. The Left hinterland in the state, it was assumed, was indestructible.

That assumption was torn asunder, in the course of two swift years between 2006 and 2008. A critical proportion of the traditional supporters — roughly one decile or thereabouts of the total electorate — walked away from it in the wake of the crass insensitivity exhibited by the Left Front regime on the issue of land requisition for industrialization under private auspices. Arrogance on the part of the new generation in charge of both the state government and the CPI(M) state party apparatus, coupled with their total disregard of Left ideology and praxis, caused strong resentment often mounting to fury. Those with umbilical links with the party grumbled silently. But thousands, who had supported the Left come hell or high water for decades on end, were determined to take revenge on the betrayers of their trust. They voted against the CPI(M) in the panchayat polls in 2008 and the Lok Sabha polls the following year. Their ire, the results of the local body elections held last month indicate, has not abated one bit.

What is most bizarre is the apparent inability of party leaders and ministers to comprehend the magnitude of the catastrophe they had brought upon themselves. And they have the gall to persist with the claim that the reverses suffered in the Lok Sabha polls were exclusively on account of the CPI(M)'s decision to withdraw support from the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre on the issue of the India-United States of America nuclear deal, a decision which supposedly did not receive public approval. But had not an alienation of voters on the same scale already taken place in the panchayat elections which took place a full 15 months before the withdrawal of support to the UPA? Would these discredited leaders also venture to suggest that the voters had rewarded the Left in the Lok Sabha poll in 2004 with as many as 60 seats because they were sanguine it would form a post-poll alliance with the Congress?

Inanities of ministers and leaders gone wayward can be treated with the pity these deserve. Far more relevant is to search for an answer to the query, whether, despite the significant erosion that has taken place in the Left hinterland, the damage is reparable. Admittedly, the immediate prospect does not look at all cheerful. It appears nearly inevitable that the of-late most-talked-of lady is going to grasp the reins of state administration once the next assembly elections are held. Her campaign hysterics, including wildly irresponsible statements, have frightened the daylights out of many who are otherwise peeved no end with the Left Front. She may change, but habits and propensities die hard. Demagogues, especially those who under-emphasize the task of building, brick by brick, the network of an organization, are prone to self-destruction; it might not be different in her case either. The Left could then be presented with another opportunity to provide the state and the country with a radical alternative. The ground reality would thirst for such an alternative, for meanwhile gross domestic product growth fetishists would have continued their vicious onslaught against the peasantry, the working class and the lower middle classes.

But this possibility of a Left revival in West Bengal hinges on an important assumption. No point in being polite about it, what has happened in the mindset of a not inconsiderable section of the electorate is a meshing of subjectivity and objectivity. They have come to identify some faces as much with the outrage of the land acquisition episode as with the general wobbliness of the state administration. Till as long as these faces are not substituted, any chance of the Left staging a quick comeback in the state would remain wobbly.

Every extra day, the Left Front government stays in office, it actually alienates the people some more, quite apart from the fact that its effectiveness has now touched zero, as is abundantly evident in its failure to save its own supporters from Maoist depredations. To put it even more bluntly, so that the Left can hope for a restoration of its fortunes in the longer run, the present Left Front government needs to terminate itself without further ado.

There is a parallel problem with the CPI(M)'s state party leadership too. The huge army of party cadre, loyal and honest to the core, is no less keen to have a new set of sentinels who could lead them out of the cul-de-sac they have reached. Unless the present leaders step down on their own, the structure of discipline within the party will stand in the way of that transition. Curiously enough, given the overwhelming dominance of West Bengal in the party, the central leadership too will fail to remove the current leadership in the state. Obduracy of the latter might then imperil the Left all over the country.

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******************************************************************************************DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

STRENGTHEN VIGIL

'H1N1 COULD POSE SERIOUS RISK AGAIN THIS YEAR.'

The launch of an indigenously developed vaccine against the H1N1 influenza has come almost a year after the outbreak of the disease in the country. The single shot vaccine was developed by a private pharmaceutical company from H1N1 strain supplied by the WHO and is much cheaper than imported alternatives. Still at Rs 350 it is not affordable to the common man. It is expected that the price will come down further when vaccines developed by other companies also come into the market. The authorities will have to take the initiative for vaccination as awareness about the disease is low. Even though it spread fast in many parts of the country last year and is estimated to have killed over 1,500 people, it is not considered to be in the category of major killers.

But there is no place for complacence. The disease or its variants has killed several thousands of people in many parts of the world in the last century and there are different strains of the virus. It had taken about 20,000 lives all over the world last year and was active in most countries. After a seasonal hibernation it is now being reported from America and parts of Asia. In the last few weeks many cases have been reported from within the country also. If reports of 16 deaths in Kerala in one month are true, the disease can assume epidemic proportions with the strengthening of the monsoon. Karnataka and Maharashtra have also seen three deaths each. The health authorities need to be prepared with vaccines, drugs and adequate testing facilities.

The WHO has again sounded a worldwide alert against the disease. This is in spite of the criticism received by the organisation for allegedly exaggerating the seriousness of the H1N1 threat last year. Some investigations recently found that scientists who advised the WHO on the disease also had links with the pharmaceutical industry. It was even alleged that public health priorities were distorted and money wasted because of the scare. If the findings are true they could lower the WHO's credibility. But the organisation has defended its warnings last year and issued a fresh one this year. In the case of public health it is not wrong to be prepared for a bigger threat than there might actually be.

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

MAN OF VERSATILITY

'MALGONKAR WAS A PIONEER-ING INDIAN ENGLISH WRITER.'

Manohar Malgonkar, who passed away on Monday, was not only a novelist and columnist but also a historian, conservationist, soldier, farmer, businessman and even an amateur politician. The varied vocations marked the versatility of his personality and the range of his interests. A person whose life spanned so many different fields has a touch of the renaissance character in him and that distinguished him from many of his contemporary writers. It is ironical that a life lived actively on different planes for many decades would move into a shell of solitude in later years. But even when he engaged with the world in real life and in imagination there was a distinctive streak of individualism in his perspective and that might explain his withdrawal into the remote obscurity of a northern Karnataka village, away from the distant drums of a tumultuous world.

That tumult and even violence was however the theme of some of his best fiction. Partition, the most searing event in modern India's collective experience, formed the backdrop of his well-known novel, 'A Bend in the Ganges.' As a pioneering Indian English writer he shaped a niche for himself and was among the few to earn early international recognition. He did not have the earthiness of a Mulk Raj Anand, the evocativeness of an R K Narayan or the philosophical subtleties of a Raja Rao but had a strong sense of the social and political milieu of pre-independence India. Malgonkar's stories had a historical dimension and they drew on the ebb and tide of shifting times, and he succeeded in bringing history to life through an interplay of human relationships. Historical fiction often suffers from an imbalance between the two. But history does not weigh down heavily on the story in Malgonkar's world, and imagination and craft redeem it from the prosaic march of events.

There is a view that Malgonkar has been underrated as a writer. He has also been criticised for his sometimes benevolent characterisation of English men. But a writer is judged not only on his attitudes, but on their value and relevance in the world that he creates. Malgonkar did not always readily accept the world in which he lived and questioned its beliefs and values. The diversity of his tastes and talents and his pursuit of many interests might have helped him to make sense of a changing world in the most turbulent of recent times.

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

CONGRESS, NO. 1 CULPRIT

BY KULDIP NAYAR

By shouting down its critics, the Congress underlines its arrogance of power. It must own the responsibility and apologise to the nation.

Democratic polity in India has been again exposed when the details of Bhopal gas tragedy have come out. There was a nexus between the judiciary, the executive and the bureaucracy. All the three joined hands to let chairman Warren Anderson of Union Carbide, the company which owned the gas plant, escape from India. They also scaled down the compensation that the company had offered and delayed the court judgment by 26 years.

This was like the Emergency, a decade earlier, when prime minister Indira Gandhi battered the polity on June 25, 1975, denying even the fundamental right. It was the same story: the judiciary, the executive and the bureaucracy falling in line to justify an authoritarian rule. Scant attention was paid to the democratic constitution. In fact, the organs of the state were part of the tyranny perpetrated.

On both occasions, the ruling Congress was in power at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh where the gas plant was located. And on both occasions the prime ministers, Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi, became law unto themselves and inflicted deep wounds on the democratic structure which is still recovering from the staggering blows it received.

Rajiv is said to have told state chief minister Arjun Singh to let off Anderson, which what a top Congress functionary characterised as under 'US pressure.' Rajiv consulted the cabinet subsequently, if he at all did. Indira too imposed the emergency on her own, consulting the cabinet only subsequently.

Both happenings show that the army does not have to walk in to make the judiciary, the executive and the bureaucracy to toe line. The prime ministers who can concentrate power in themselves can flout all the norms and rules which necessitate accountability.

Indira had the supreme court uphold by 5 to 1 her authoritarian rule in the emergency like Pakistan chief justice Munir who justified the takeover by General Ayub through 'the doctrine of necessity.' Such instances indicate that the judges are as much dictated by 'other considerations' as civil servants. They are just afraid to stand up to the government's aggrandisement. Chief Justice A H Ahmadi diluted the section under which the perpetrators of Bhopal gas tragedy were booked, from section 304 of the IPC, which laid out a punishment of 10 years, to section 304-A, where the maximum sentence given was two years.

As far as the bureaucracy, including officials of the CBI, is concerned, it has become too hapless and too obliging, ready to 'serve' any party which comes to power. Over the years, it has got over the qualms of conscience, if it had any, and high ideals of service without fear or favour.

Chief minister's orders

It was comical to find the same deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police, who put Anderson under arrest on arrival for the gas tragedy, escorted him to the airport to fly out in the state plane. The chief minister's orders had made all the difference. None of the two stood up to the oath they had taken to uphold the constitution and the country's integrity.

I have seen similar things happening in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The ruler counts, not the rules. The ethical considerations inherent in public servants have become generally dim and in many cases beyond their mental grasp. Anxiety to survive at any cost forms the keynote of approach to the problems that come before them.

Accountability is the only way to ensure that those who violate the norms followed in a democratic system do not go scot-free. I have never seen an erring judge, a tainted minister or a delinquent civil servant getting punishment. They are chips of the same block, using all methods if and when they are arraigned even before any tribunal.

In fact, the Congress has put all the blame on the then chief minister, also a Congressman. Even if the party is able to deflect the blame — as it did when it came to saving Indira — there is something called the value system. True, political parties have substituted it with power. But then they must be prepared for the violent, desperate forces like that of the Maoists or the Taliban.

Home Minister P Chidambaram, appointed by the prime minister to preside over the Group of Ministers and look into the Bhopal gas tragedy was trying, as finance minister, to push through a decision that would absolve the Dow Chemicals, which had bought Union Carbide, of responsibility. By shouting down every critic, the ruling Congress underlines its arrogance of power. It must own the responsibility and offer apologies to the nation. At least, it can take immediate steps to rehabilitate thousands of victims still in the cold. The Congress must learn humiliation.

Yet, if the nation has to preserve the fundamental values of a democratic society, every person — whether a public functionary or a private citizen — must display a degree of vigilance and willingness to sacrifice. Without the awareness of what is right, there may be no realisation of what is wrong.

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

RACIAL DIVIDE IN INDIA'S NORTHEAST

BY BHASKAR DUTTA-BARUAH

People specific states and Autonomous Councils have helped in the protection of the identities of the tribals.

A friendly chat on a sultry summer evening in Kokrajhar with my Bodo friends — in low voices — the arrest of Ranjan Daimary (commander of the Bodo rebel outfit, NDFB) and the visible mistreatment meted out to him by the Assam government crept into the conversation. Questions that arose — why the bias in the manner Daimary was handled compared to Arabinda Rajkhowa (chairman of the ULFA) after their arrests? How did the Guwahati blasts turn Daimary into a bigger criminal than Rajkhowa who was accountable for the killing of schoolchildren in Dhemaji?

Daimary and NDFB are the prime accused in the serial Guwahati blasts of 2008; the ULFA has been charged of the murder of 10 schoolchildren in 2004.

We talked about my 'foreign' ancestry and my invading forefathers — a tinge of guilt overshadowed the feeling of pride in my mind.

A cold spring afternoon in Nagaland; the conversation I was having with a senior Naga associate went into the days of the Naga movement in the early 1950s and the punishments his father's generation faced from the Indian authorities. A majority of the Naga people had voted for independence during the plebiscite of May 16, 1951. The Indian authorities' efforts to suppress this movement resulted in countless atrocious incidents and the ugly memories they left behind will probably remain in the Naga pyche for another generation or more.

Five of the seven northeastern states were a single entity before the 1950s — Assam. One by one, the indigenous people rebelled and succeeded in forming their own political entities namely Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. I can give other examples of this global phenomenon of 'assimilation.'

Australia, 1869-1969: The white settlers created the 'Stolen Generations', ie the indigenous Australians victimised during the process of forced assimilation — most went missing, many died and the aboriginal gene became endangered in Australia.

North America, late 18th century: The European settlers took steps to eliminate the culture and traditions of the indigenous Red Indians. The resulting Indian wars lasted for more than a hundred years.

Ancient India (Indo-Aryan transmigration theory): Immigrants from the western side of Hindukush settled in the Indian subcontinent — without going into the debates and ongoing researches on this theory and stating from the old chronicles, we find citations of many 'clandestine' people in parts of what is now India, namely Asur, Daitya, Danava, etc. It is difficult to believe they were simply mythical creatures; the fact is that basically everything non-Aryan or native was branded Pagan (negative) and had to be either assimilated or obliterated.

In the northeast: The indigenous people never gained the 'mainstream' status among the 'more advanced' people that migrated here from Uttar Pradesh in the 14th century — these warlords called the Baro-Bhuyans bulldozed the indigenous culture, especially in the plain areas through their customs, language and later their religious views.

Barring the ruling Ahoms that were the 13th century settlers of Assam, the indigenous people including the Kacharis were pushed to lead an obscure existence. Something that both my Bodo and Naga friends had told me separately, "I lived in Delhi for so many years, but never was I invited by my friends to their homes for a meal because I am a Bodo/Naga."

It may not be what they think it was; maybe their friends never thought about it that way, but something, somewhere must have hit them to shape their mindsets in this manner. It is easy to see what this factor might have been — Kachari is a metamorphosis of Ku-Achari (people of an evil nature) in the Assamese language — most of the tribes have the suffix Kachari added to the name of their tribe.

Majority of the modern Assamese (read: until a generation back) scorn the Kacharis because "they eat pork, drink alcohol, dress scantily and possess a bad temper". No reader of this article, Kachari or non-Kachari can deny having heard this in the past.

Today, people specific states and Autonomous Councils for the tribal people have forged strong environments for the protection of their identities. The rebellions, past and present, were in fact ways these indigenous people hit back at their oppressive conquerors. 'The invader-native conflict in north-east India' is by far the longest of such wars in the world and it still continues.

We do not need any more 'lands' or bloodshed here — this is a time for unity and for these wars to stop. Let the invaders realise the mistakes of the past and rectify the future and let the natives forgive and start the social order afresh.

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

THE ALL-TIME HERO

BY DOROTHY VICTOR

The day comes as a fitting gesture to convey our regard to these all-time heroes.

The new era has many a super hero. Superman, Spider Man and the all-new Iron Man are all heroes of the 21st century. From among these mega men there stands one stalwart, taller and stronger than anyone else, from the Stone Age to the age of supersonic jets. He is in a league of his own — incomparable to any magic-man the world can produce. He is the first love of any girl and the best friend to any boy. The world calls him 'dad' and he is the true face of god's love here on earth.

To me, through the ages, my dad has always been a real hero. Kind-hearted, warm, understanding, gentlemanly, diligent, well-read and god-fearing is all that he personifies. He has a way with all his children. He shares a special and unique bond with us that very strangely, each one of us sincerely believes that "I am his favourite, the blue-eyed one!" Of course, we still argue on that one and as the old belief goes "no one has won that argument" so far. Yet, there is one fact that we siblings unanimously agree — our dad, a superhero of our childhood days continues to be an evergreen hero even as we have moved out of our homes to raise families of our own.

My brother recently confessed that his habit of refraining from coffee came out of his desire to imitate his 'super hero.' "As a child, I looked at dad and thought, if dad does not have coffee and drinks only tea, then there must be something wrong about drinking coffee," he said with a chuckle. That is how blindly and fervently we children looked up to our dad, mundane as it sounds!

My brother is still a 'no coffee' person and those who know him well are intrigued by the inconsistency of a person who is fine with tea but allergic to coffee. However, amidst inconsistencies there is always the clarity of a perfect understanding between a dad and his child. With Father's Day around the corner, I salute every father who through his hard work and labour, sweat and toil, patience and endurance, affection and care has been a blessing to his family and an inspiration to society. A day set aside to all fathers comes as a fitting gesture to convey our respect, regard and gratitude to these all-time heroes! I raise a toast to all dads in the words of the great poet William Wordsworth: "Father! To God himself we cannot give a holier name!"

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

THE LOST JEWS

A collective abandonment of authentic Jewish values seems to have overtaken the haredi community.

A collective abandonment of authentic Jewish values seems to have overtaken the haredi community.

Nothing else can explain the phenomenon of tens of thousands of religious zealots, dressed in black hats and coats, congregating under the glaring midday sun to fight for the right to discriminate against their fellow Jews.

A group of haredi families in Emmanuel has for months contemptuously refused to abide by a High Court ruling that reflects what the US Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education ruled back in 1954: segregation is unjust. Emmanuel's Ashkenazi families, most of them members of the Slonim Hassidic movement, have refused to integrate their elementary school girls with a group of Sephardi peers. They insist, instead, on maintaining a quota of "quality" Sephardi girls that makes up about a quarter of the total school body, while separating the rest. At the same time, they insist on receiving full funding from the State of Israel for their segregated educational enterprise.

Walls inside the school and on the playground that once separated the "Ashkenazi" and "Sephardi" sections were taken down under court order. As a result, the Ashkenazi families, in violation of the mandatory education law, have refused to send their children to school. Attempts to reach a compromise were rebutted by order of Rabbi Aharon Barazovsky, the leader of the Slonim Hassidim. Families were fined for being held in contempt of court, to no effect. Finally, the judges lost patience and ordered the mothers and fathers to sit in prison for the remaining two weeks of the school year.

One can argue that it was unwise for the court to imprison the recalcitrant mothers and fathers, even for such a short spell. True, they will receive special prison conditions, including separate cells, but they are not criminals in any conventional sense. They are guilty of holding the opinion – widespread in the haredi community – that Sephardim are culturally inferior to Ashkenazim. Even some Sephardim share this opinion, which explains why many – including prominent Shas MKs – choose to send their children to Ashkenazi schools, while at the same time fighting to ensure that a strong Ashkenazi majority is maintained.

MEANWHILE, DURING Thursday's mass demonstrations, which drew over 100,000 in Jerusalem and in Bnei Brak, haredi leaders, in a convoluted perception of history, compared the High Court's decision to incidents of repression perpetrated by the Greeks, the Romans, Tzarist Russia and even Nazi Germany.

Rabbi Yosef Efrati, a protégé of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the most important living halachic authority for Ashkenazi haredim, likened the High Court's attempt to bring together students of diverse backgrounds to idolaters striving to coerce Jews to bow down to a statue.

No, Rabbi Efrati, agreeing to learn with fellow Jews who come from a different cultural background as a condition for receiving state funds is not idolatry – it is acting like a mentsch. Even if Slonim Hassidim did not enjoy the Zionist state's largesse, they should have accepted elementary school girls different from themselves – even those with a lower level of religious observance – as an expression of their care for fellow Jews. This is the way of Chabad and religious Zionists, among others.

To call such an arrangement idolatry is a distortion of Judaism. To compare it to the situation in Tzarist Russia reveals a total lack of appreciation for the Jewish state's role in helping haredi Judaism rebuild itself after the Holocaust. Thanks to the security provided by the IDF, the generous funds made available by successive governments, and the exemption enjoyed by young haredi men from the obligation to serve in the IDF, there are today more devout Jews dedicating themselves to the full-time study of Torah than ever before in history. And they have the privilege of doing so in the Land of Israel thanks to the secular Zionists whose initiative broke nearly 2,000 years of humiliating exile.

Nor does the haredi community seem to appreciate Israel's democracy. Despite the short notice, police fastidiously guarded the haredi community's right to protest the High Court's ruling. Haredi leaders were free to publicly criticize the court and the state. If one day the haredim become the majority in Israel, would they treat minority groups so fairly? Ask the Sephardi girls who were walled out in Emmanuel.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

GOOD MORNING, EHUD

THE ONLY WAY BARAK CAN MAKE HIS INFLUENCE FELT IS BY THREATENING TO PULL THE LABOR PARTY OUT OF THE COALITION.

BY YOEL MARCUS

I don't know in what order Defense Minister Ehud Barak reads his newspaper, but it's doubtful he could have missed Haaretz's five-column headline on Wednesday for a story by Barak Ravid: "Barak tells Netanyahu: Israel needs 'daring political initiative' to emerge from international isolation." In any case, there's no question that the story made his morning, if not his day.

The screw-ups of recent weeks have not been kind to Barak. The defense minister with the high IQ has been the focus of criticism about the flotilla foul-ups, the deterioration of relations with Turkey and the tension between him and the Israel Defense Forces. On top of all that is the threat that he might be mentioned by every investigative committee, including the one by the state comptroller, who doesn't miss a chance to slap a high-ranking person in the face. Barak heads for the United States in the middle of next week, and a few days later Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be going to the White House. I don't want to suspect that Barak is pushing his trip forward to steal the show from Netanyahu. Both are cooking in the same boiling pot of stew. Nor is it clear whether Barak is willing and able to play the role played by Moshe Dayan, Menachem Begin's foreign minister. In secret talks, Dayan initiated and led the way to peace with Egypt. He got Begin to forcibly remove settlements in the Rafah Salient and withdraw from Sinai up to the last millimeter.

Observers in both courts say Netanyahu treats Barak with respect, and that is the secret of their close relationship. And when Barak declares that Israel must lead rather than be led, the question is: What are the limits of the pressure he can apply? Is he capable of taking the risk that he will lose the defense portfolio that is so dear to him? Were he to pressure Netanyahu with the same determination he used to have Silvan Shalom appointed chairman of the Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, I would believe him, says a Labor Party hack. But according to Ravid, Barak did not issue an ultimatum and did not threaten to resign from the government. Everything he says is under the category of ministerial advice that Israel should lead rather than be led.

An associate believes that Barak is saying that he will discuss new ideas with the Americans and create solutions rather than problems; he'll examine whether it's possible to remove Syria from the axis of evil, whether it's possible to sever Iran from Hezbollah and return relations with Turkey to where they were. "It's impossible to live in a villa in a jungle," says a friend, quoting Barak. In any case, Israel cannot be in the situation of the old woman who was helped across the street by 20 Boy Scouts - not because she had trouble walking but because she refused to cross.

If Barak is serious about the daring political initiative, he has two options: to resign from the government along with the Labor Party and lose his favorite portfolio, or bring Kadima into the government and remain defense minister. Kadima leader Tzipi Livni doesn't seem to be refusing. She says Barak is right about the daring initiative, but he continues to serve in the government. Had the flotillas come against the backdrop of a peace plan, the global reaction would have been different.

"When Israel does not operate according to a plan, every minor operation is colored according to its image. It's never clear where Israel is heading, so every incident becomes an issue," says Livni.

When Barak notes that the situation will worsen, he is right, says Livni, because the gap between vigorous activity and the absence of action is tremendous. And the only way to change the situation is to move to another court. Even Turkey would have behaved differently, and we would not have deteriorated to a situation where Hamas is gaining legitimacy while Israel is losing it. We have reached a point where the country can't defend itself without being thought to be threatening the neighborhood.

The question is whether Netanyahu understands how bad our situation is and how urgently we need any kind of plan that will relieve our distress. The ambition to survive as prime minister is not a solution for anything. The only way Barak can make his influence felt is the threat that Labor will resign from the government and leave Netanyahu with Shas and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu. That would be accompanied by the danger of deterioration, ending with Netanyahu losing the premiership for the second and final time and leaving behind a country considered a leper by the world.

Barak got a nice headline in Haaretz. But despite the daring plan that he spoke about already a few months ago without doing anything about it, we have deteriorated to a point where we're a hair's breadth away from an imposed solution.

There is only one way to stop the deterioration, and that is to bring Kadima into a functioning broad government. A government that will implement the plan of two states for two peoples and get all the world's lepers off our back.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

WHERE IS THE SILVER PLATTER?

THE 9TH OF THE HEBREW MONTH OF AV WILL MARK THE CENTENARY OF NATAN ALTERMAN, THE MOST PROMINENT OF A LARGE GROUP OF WRITERS WHOSE WORK HERALDED THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE.

BY ISRAEL HAREL

The 9th of the Hebrew month of Av - when the Book of Lamentations says "All thy enemies open their mouths wide against thee" - will mark the 100th birthday of Natan Alterman, the most prominent of the large group of writers and poets whose most important work was intertwined with encouraging the establishment of a state for the Jewish people. Whenever an injustice was done us - as it seems the vast majority of Israelis feel is happening right now - these writers and poets, together with other intellectuals and public figures, inspired faith in the righteousness of our path and condemned the falsification, hypocrisy and wickedness of the enemies of the people and of Zionism.

When necessary, they also knew how to criticize and reprove. But they did not do so with the avidity, sometimes stemming from impure motives, that some of their most prominent modern-day counterparts display. At this time, when Israel's citizens are enduring a global torrent of malicious accusations, only a very small number, if any, of those in that gallery have mobilized to offer words of comfort, encouragement and consolation. Even worse, some of those who could lift our morale a bit, or even a great deal, and who could also, due to their status abroad, play a role in moderating the onslaught against Israel, have themselves sprinkled additional drops of venom into the cup of poison. Their words are quoted throughout the world and serve Israel's worst enemies. There is no way to explain this except by saying it is apparently a unique Jewish trait.

The prestate Jewish community was able to withstand all troubles and setbacks in part thanks to the courageous, visionary poems of these writers, and Alterman above all. In the days when everything seemed lost, he wrote "Fate has given us millions of tomorrows." And when the attacks grew worse, he inspired faith: "And it is not in vain, my brother, that you have plowed and built: We go to war for our lives and for our homes ... We will not fall back, for there is no other way. No nation would retreat from the trenches of its life."

It would be one thing if there were no one left today capable of writing such words (or setting them to music, as Daniel Sambursky did ). But since we do have such people, why - especially at a time like this - do they not raise their voices?

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tel Aviv Municipality, Army Radio and the Culture Ministry organized an event about a week ago that was billed as featuring Alterman's work - that same Alterman who "gave three generations of Israelis what a true poet can give: the symbols they needed" (Nissim Calderon ) and "influenced everything that took place here from the 1940s to this very day" (Culture Minister Limor Livnat ).

But instead of a comprehensive program that included all the symbols, the organizers of the event (which was musically and technically impressive) omitted any national symbol of the poet identified more than any other with such symbols (see "Song of the [Army] Companies" or "The Silver Platter" ). The audience was treated to 28 songs, plus interstitial material, but there was no mention whatsoever of the Alterman of "This is my land and its fields, this the Jezreel Valley." Yet of course, his "Song of the Drunkard" and "Song of Wine" were heard, along with an endless roster of his other generic poems (though these would also be charming and wonderful in the right proportion ).

The IPO (as expected ), Army Radio (as expected ) and the Culture Ministry (not as expected ) skipped over his nationalist poetry, as well as the moving pieces in his regular newspaper column, "The Seventh Column." In their eyes, what was important and symbolic were the two songs that were each presented in two versions - "He Popped Up and She Popped Up" and "The Bargain Market" - as well as a profusion of pieces from the musical "King Solomon and Shlomi the Shoemaker," which is not even one that Alterman wrote.

After all, our children never wept in the shadow of the gallows; the state, as all know, was presented to us on a silver platter; the journey of the "Exodus," as the New Historians have confirmed, was a Zionist manipulation, and the Italian captain's speech was never made. And Operation Magic Carpet was also merely a fable. But "Uriana" (a popular Alterman lyric ) was there for sure.

At the close of his short life (he died at 60 ), Alterman obviously foresaw this development, for he wrote the following hair-raising lines:

"Then Satan said: How do I overcome / this besieged one? / He has courage and talent / And implements of war and resourcefulness. / And he said: I shall not take away his strength / And I shall not curb him with bit and bridle ... / And I shall not weaken his hands as in days of yore. / Only this shall I do: I will dull his mind / and cause him to forget / the justice of his cause / ... And it was as if the heavens blanched in terror / As they saw him arise / To carry out his plot."

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

WHICH IS WORSE, A POEM OR A FLOTILLA?

THIS WEEK, HUNDREDS TURNED OUT FOR THE INAUGURATION OF A CULTURAL CENTER NAMED AFTER THE POET MAHMOUD DARWISH, INCLUDING AT LEAST THREE JEWS.

BY YOSSI SARID

Relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel have never been as bad as they are now. This week, I once again experienced the alienation. A cultural center named for the poet Mahmoud Darwish was inaugurated in Kafr Yasif, near Acre. Hundreds of people came, all of them Arabs. The Jews could be counted on the orphaned fingers of one hand. I identified three, but even Jews do not have horns.

One of the ships of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla that was intercepted by the IDF enters the port of Ashdod.

Photo by: Eli Hershkovitz

Either they were invited and did not come, or no one bothered to invite them to begin with. Either options bodes ill. I still remember similar events in the past that bore the stamp of partnership and hope. I shall not describe them now, lest I burst into tears of nostalgia and anxiety. A great deal of sewage has flowed through the country's drains since then, even before the Knesset woke up to the song, "Go to Gaza, you traitor!" Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was present and infused the event with a good feeling of moderate optimism, or optimistic moderation. But not one Hebrew newspaper reported a word about the beautiful things we heard at Kafr Yasif; it is not of any interest.

When I was asked to say a few words about the man in whose name we had gathered there, I described how I tried to introduce three poems by Darwish into the school curriculum, and how the country responded with an outcry. The heavens almost fell in.

I also told the audience how the idea had germinated. I once spoke with Darwish about his experiences as a student in Israel. "I am happy that I studied Bialik's poems," he told me. "He is a great poet, and through his poetry, I learned to understand the shadows that pursue you and the hopes that go before you."

At that point, I said to myself: If an Arab pupil found interest in our national poet, why should a Jewish pupil not be interested in their national poet? On the contrary, let him read and become familiar with his neighbors' dreams and sufferings, and think about how, together, we can heal each other's wounds.

The most vocal protesters were, as usual, the uneducated, who had never even read one of his poems. But apparently, they had heard about one of his poems - that offensive poem that told us to get out of this land, with all our belongings and our memories, our names and our dead.

On another occasion, I asked Darwish, who was a sober man, what had led him into this foolish act. He directed my attention to an interesting fact: He had published some 40 books, and this poem, "Those Who Pass Between the Fleeting Words," had never been included in any of them. "I wrote it in a moment of anger," he explained. And he had since regretted it.

We, in our holy wrath, will also not forgive his regret. As if Bialik had never written in a stormy mood, as if Uri Zvi Greenberg had not poured out his wrath on the gentiles, as well as on those he considered Jewish apostates, whom he hated and cursed and wished death on.

The storm over the three poems was frightening. Once again, we appeared like budding saplings that have no roots; once again, we seemed like leaves being blown through history, with no history of their own. I felt sorry then for all those who feel at home only when they are in a ghetto, surrounded by high walls and fences, for whom only a home with moat and gates is a castle. I still pity them, and also rather scorn them. They have not yet been set free.

Recently, I have been searching for an answer to this question: What threatens us more, what does more to erode "the rock of our existence" - a poem or a flotilla?

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

PR FOR INTERNAL CONSUMPTION

NETANYAHU'S PR, WHICH PLAYS ON THE PARANOIA AND DEEPEST FEARS OF THE GHETTO , IS WORKING - BUT ONLY INTERNALLY.

BY DORON ROSENBLUM

If the Israeli public employed the classification system famously used by Napoleon Bonaparte - who made light of the courage and cleverness of officers who were recommended to him, focusing instead on the question "But are they lucky?" - there is no question that not only would Defense Minister Ehud Barak drop to the bottom of the popularity scale, but so, and to the same degree, would Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It is hard to be certain which of them is the schlemiel and which the schlimazel, or whose luck is worse. But one thing is clear: Every time those two grab the steering wheel - whether together or separately - they find themselves battered and bruised, limping from mishap to fiasco, from screw-up to snafu, and from there to all kinds of bad luck that have not yet even made it into the slang dictionaries.

It wouldn't matter if it were only them. The problem is that those two get all of us into trouble: Shortly after the journey begins, the entire Israeli bus finds itself overturned on the side of the road with its wheels spinning uselessly on top.

In order to understand why public opinion surveys nevertheless tend to fault the ticket taker more than the driver, you have to get to the bottom of the difference, which does exist, between Barak's schlimazel personality and Netanyahu's schlemiel personality. The former, despite his great expectations, sees every initiative blow up in his face. But the latter has no intention of succeeding, and never did have.

In his ambition to perform spectacular pirouettes that will take the region's breath away, Barak repeatedly finds himself on the boards. Netanyahu gets even more battered, but somehow looks less ridiculous, since he repeatedly tries - and repeatedly succeeds - to prove his standard opening argument: The floor is crooked. It was, still is and always will be. Or as he summed up his own failure of statesmanship this week, "Once again, Israel faces hypocrisy."

For Barak bad luck is random, an accident (even if it is a multivehicle pileup ). For Netanyahu, bad luck is a worldview, a psychological situation assessment, almost an ideology - the decree of "Jewish" fate. That is precisely the difference between Barak's premature assertion in the city square - "This is the dawning of a new day" - and what Netanyahu told the Likud Knesset faction this week: "Benighted medieval forces are rising up against us ... A wave of hatred is flooding us ... They are trying to grip us in an iron vise of missiles and terror." Perhaps these words were a boastful "I told you so," or perhaps they were a type of vision: a pessimistic vision that, whether consciously or not, fulfills itself every day as long as the prophet of destruction - this Job, who scratches himself with a potsherd - continues to serve as prime minister.

Is it by chance that during the term of "Mr. Public Relations" of all time, Israel has become one of the most ostracized and misunderstood countries in the world? Ironically, the person who built his entire political career on being a fluent spokesman for Israel's righteousness to the outside world changed the direction of the loudspeaker the moment the responsibility became his. He has turned into the great rebroadcaster of every external threat for internal consumption - into a person who repeatedly plays on the paranoias and deepest fears of the ghetto mentality.

In that sense, Netanyahu's PR has in fact succeeded, but only internally: The national PR man has once again succeeded in explaining to the domestic consumer, who is wallowing in his fears and hatreds, that there really is a reason for the sense of siege, isolation and persecution: The world is hypocritical, the wave is getting stronger, the vise is closing in.

Ostensibly, his reason for doing so is clear: to obviate the need for action and to avoid personal responsibility. For if this is a deterministic existential situation, there is nothing to be done: There is no point in further shaking up the ship that is being flooded in any case, or in trying to navigate it. All that remains is to sit and curse the entire world. But in that case, one question arises: Why did Netanyahu want to be prime minister, and for a second time yet?

After all, he can be a "concerned citizen" at home, too. So why is he behaving this way? Where is he actually trying to lead us? What does he want to promote, if anything - even according to his own lights? The answers to these questions have long since gone beyond the political realm. They apparently belong to the realm of the soul. And not only Netanyahu's.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

THE ARMY'S FAILURE TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGATIONS FOR CRIMES IN THE GAZA WAR HAVE SHOWN HOW MUCH ISRAEL NEEDS GROUPS LIKE B'TSELEM TO EXPOSE THE TRUTH.

The military advocate general is poised to file a grave indictment against an Israel Defense Forces soldier from the Givati Brigade who allegedly shot and killed two Palestinian women carrying white flags in an open field during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. Riyeh and Majda Abu Hajaj, a mother and daughter, were killed while fleeing their home after the IDF had ordered them to leave it. This severe incident of killing was first exposed by B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and by Haaretz reporter Amira Hass - both of whom investigated the suspicions and collected testimony from eyewitnesses shortly after the incident. The IDF Spokesman's response to Haaretz's query at the time was, "the event was examined over the course of several days, and these checks found that the IDF is unaware of any such case."

About a year and a half have gone by, and now Military Police investigators and army prosecutors have concluded that Staff Sgt. S. opened fire on the two women contrary to regulations. After a hearing for the suspect next week, the MAG will decide what charge to indict him on - manslaughter or causing death by negligence.

The army prosecution should be commended for its courageous and necessary decision to put the soldier on trial. Shooting at civilians who are carrying white flags and pose no threat to the soldiers is a war crime. If it transpires that the soldier did so, he must be severely punished.

However, one must wonder why the IDF initially tried to ignore and deny the story, and why the investigation dragged on for so long. A more vigorous investigation into this and other serious incidents could have warded off some of the international criticism hurled at Israel following the army's operation in Gaza. It could also have helped the IDF and the Israeli public discover the truth, so that they could learn the required lessons to prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future.

The slaying of the two women is included in the Goldstone Committee's report. Instead of slamming the report, as the Israeli government did, it should have studied its contents. Perhaps its pages hide other incidents that require thorough investigation and whose perpetrators should be brought to justice.

But Israel's fury was not directed at Goldstone alone. Since Operation Cast Lead, Israeli human rights groups, first and foremost B'Tselem, have been subjected to an unbridled public onslaught. Even graduates of the Rabin premilitary academy, who testified about a similar killing, were harshly castigated. Now, after the IDF has admitted that the investigation into the women's slaying was based on testimonies it received from B'Tselem, all the slanderers and mudslingers must retract their deplorable smear campaign. The IDF needed the human-rights organization's investigators in order to probe its soldiers' conduct, and Israeli society needs organizations like B'Tselem to expose that which must be exposed, to investigate what must be investigated and to draw the necessary conclusions. Without such organizations, there is no real democracy. Now it is time to praise the army prosecution, make sure the truth comes out and conduct a swift trial. And it is also time to repent the sin of having slandered and smeared nongovernmental groups that are doing sacred work on behalf of democracy.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

THE HIGH COURT ISN'T RACIST

IN THE BATTLE OVER SEGREGATION IN SCHOOLS, THE ISSUE IS NOT JEWISH RELIGIOUS LAW, BUT THE RACIST SOCIAL NORMS THAT CHARACTERIZE THE ENTIRE ULTRA-ORTHODOX WORLDVIEW.

BY YAIR SHELEG

The case of ethnic discrimination at a girls' religious school in Immanuel should be examined from the standpoint of both principle and practicality.

Haredim protesting at the High Court of Justice on Tuesday June 15, 2010.

Photo by: Emil Salman

On the level of principle, there are no words to describe the shame provoked by this blatant ultra-Orthodox racism. This isn't a debate between a High Court of Justice ruling and orders from on high, as some Haredim would have us believe, because there is nothing in the leading halakhic texts, such as the Shulhan Arukh and the Mishneh Torah, that sanctions such discrimination.

Indeed, there could be no such ruling, since both Joseph Karo and Moses Maimonides, who compiled the Shulhan Arukh and the Mishneh Torah, respectively, were themselves Sephardim.

The issue, then, is not Jewish religious law, but rather the racist social norms that characterize the entire ultra-Orthodox worldview. (The Haredim, as we know, also discriminate against the newly religious. )

Nor is there any justification for comparing this obvious racism with the extent to which Sephardim, or religious Jews, are represented as justices on the High Court itself. Indeed, it is a pity that in the name of multiculturalism and the desire to "include" the Haredim in mainstream discourse, secular media figures fall into this simplistic trap.

The criteria for appointment to the Supreme Court must be the quality of the candidate's rulings, character and intellect. In my view, they also include the capacity for a complex, considered perspective on the needs and values of Israeli society.

On the practical level, however, the problem should be addressed more cautiously than it was in the High Court this week. There was no need to reach the point of attempting to impose integration by judicial fiat, even if this segregation is infuriating to any level-headed person.

In a society that contains communities whose identities are different from, and sometimes even polar opposites of, each other, there is a constant tension between the right of each community to maintain its way of life and the enforcement of universal norms of human rights. The test, as always, is one of maintaining this delicate balance, and of proportionality.

In this respect, it seems that the injury to the Sephardi students' human rights was not so grave as to warrant the imposition of integrated classrooms by judicial fiat, particularly in light of the fact that they could easily have avoided this slight to their dignity by relinquishing, from the outset, the dubious "right" to attend a racist school.

It would therefore be appropriate to make do with the court's long-term solution - revoking the school's state funding - instead of insisting on arm-twisting tactics during the two weeks remaining in the school year.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS

DEMONIZATION OF THE HAREDIM BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS GROWING, AND REPERCUSSIONS WILL SOON FOLLOW.

BY YEDIDIA STERN

There is no choice but to enforce court rulings. Even those who take issue with the way the High Court of Justice handled the Immanuel school case should say loudly and clearly that court rulings must be respected. The courts provide the societal restraints that enable us to live together. They are the spearhead of that sovereign power whose might keeps men from devouring each other, and nothing must be done to diminish their authority.

But that bottom line does not absolve us of substantive discussion of the event itself. How is it that in a Jewish state, the emotionally charged words that symbolize martyrdom - Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel ) - are hurled defiantly at the symbol of the state, the menorah, inside a courtroom? How is it that average, ordinary people are being thrown in jail as a group? What happens to the court's image in the deepest recesses of our culture when a provocative, contemptuous dance is performed in the courtroom? How did a localized dispute, which could be resolved in myriad ways, turn into a dispute over the principle of religion and state, exacerbated by a dose of communal tensions?

The Haredim (ultra-Orthodox ) made a strategic error. Since they are always in the minority, they ought to be striving to bolster the status of the courts. For if court rulings are not respected, who will defend the Haredim when the Israeli majority decides to take out its growing anger at them by infringing on their rights? MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism ) knows quite well that his real protection is ultimately not the legislature, but the courts.

On the other hand, sober judgment must prevail at the High Court. The court must maintain respect for itself as an institution; it must not allow the slightest doubt to develop as to whether it represents sovereign Israeli authority. And for that reason, it should avoid placing itself in the eye of the storm whenever possible. As with any power, the court's power is actually strengthened by sparing use. When power is unleashed, it should be clear that it is the last resort - and that it is guaranteed to work.

Mistakes come at a high societal price. Demonization of the Haredim by the general public is growing, and repercussions will soon follow. And this is happening at a time when Haredi participation in the work force, and even in the army, is making hesitant progress. Now, this progress could be lost.

But worst of all, we are evidently undergoing a historic process in which religious authority is becoming a substitute for the authority of the state.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

NO TO RACIST EDUCATION

EVERY ISRAELI SYSTEM OF INSTITUTIONS, CERTAINLY THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, MUST OPERATE WITHIN THE PROVISIONS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 'IRRESPECTIVE OF RELIGION, RACE OR GENDER'.

BY SEFI RACHLEVSKY

At the ultra-Orthodox demonstrations in Jerusalem and especially in Bnei Brak, there was a recurrent theme in conversations with the people in the crowd and in the rabbis' speeches. It is a moment before the coming of the Messiah.

What was condemned in the past as messianism of the Zionist strain of thinking of former chief rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook is now considered obvious. A sign of the coming of the Messiah, in addition to the great flourishing of yeshivas, is what was promised in the mystical book the Zohar. The Zohar speaks of the harshest exile of all, the exile of the multitudes who joined the Exodus from Egypt, Amalekites posing as Jews, which is why secular Jews hate the ultra-Orthodox, the Haredim, more than all the non-Jews do.

The drawn-out entry of the High Court of Justice into the frenzied relations between religion and state does not stem from the court's passion but rather from the state's extreme negligence. But even worse is that the autonomous racist and messianic system of institutions that threatens to swallow up Israel not only grew under state auspices and funding but is entirely the creation of that weak secular state.

In the Orthodox world, there is no greater figure than Maimonides. His ruling is clear and unequivocal: "Anyone who devotes himself to study Torah and does not work and supports himself through charity is as if he profaned the name of the Almighty and the Torah and deprived himself of an afterlife." This means if Orthodox faith is the truth, anyone from among these Karaites who God forbid goes to hell will find himself in the company of many Haredim.

True, the 16th-century Shulchan Aruch limited Maimonides' prohibition a bit, in providing that "if there are no billy goats, there are no kids," meaning that rabbis could earn a living through Torah, though Maimonides disagreed with even that. There is an absolute Torah prohibition, however, against an entire population supporting itself this way, and such a situation had never occurred anywhere in the world (though maybe it would occur when the Messiah comes ) until secular Jews came to Israel.

The High Court of Justice must now deal with the issue of teaching of core subjects in the religious education system. This is expected to be a 10-second ruling and not a 10-year one, but that's not enough. A state should not fund even a shekel of support for an education system based on racism and hostility to democracy. Education funding is not an absolute right or a caprice. The state has an obligation to give young people a basis for critical thinking, a response to their natural curiosity as well as self-evident values.

It's clear that an educational system that enforces a racist policy of separation should not be subsidized. Nor should communal separation, separation of boys and girls, or separation that bars secular citizens from teaching.

Every Israeli system of institutions, certainly the educational system, must operate within the provisions of the Declaration of Independence, "irrespective of religion, race or gender." It is understood that a system that exists in contradiction to that and preaches to its children about a fundamental and qualitative difference between women and men, Jews and non-Jews, cannot receive a cent from the state.

A ruling such as Rabbi Kook's, who ruled that the difference between Jews and Gentiles was immeasurably greater than between Gentiles and animals, cannot exist in any public education system. According to Kook, there was a quantitative difference between non-Jews and animals, but there was an infinite qualitative difference between Jews and non-Jews. And we see that in Israel, "moderate" Rabbi Kook's views are the basis of state religious education. Haredi education goes even further.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

ANALYSIS / EASING OF GAZA BLOCKADE MARKS VICTORY FOR FLOTILLA ACTIVISTS

ENFORCEMENT OF THE SIEGE HAS ALL BUT ENDED - PART OF THE PRICE ISRAEL IS PAYING TO RESTORE ITS INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION AFTER ITS DISASTROUS FLOTILLA RAID.

BY AMOS HAREL AND AVI ISSACHAROFF TAGS: ISRAEL NEWS GAZA

Despite the contradictory statements issued by the Prime Minister's Office yesterday, the general direction is clear. Whether the decision has already been made, as the English statement indicates, or will become official only at a later stage, as the Hebrew statement implies, Israel has folded.

Enforcement of the blockade - the purpose of the government's order to stop a Gaza-bound flotilla by force on May 31 - has effectively ended. This is part of the price Israel is paying the international community in order to end the flotilla affair and prevent a rerun of the uproar that led to last year's Goldstone report.

But perhaps the price is not so high. Israel will give up something that was unnecessary anyway: the ban on allowing food products and other goods classified as "luxuries" into Gaza. This ban was actually a collective punishment for the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Israel will probably compromise on allowing building materials into the Gaza Strip, because this embargo is preventing the reconstruction of neighborhoods that were destroyed during last year's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

According to international organizations, 3,400 Palestinian houses were destroyed during the offensive.

The battle against arms smuggling into Gaza will continue. And if there is ultimately no choice but to end the naval blockade, Israel will consider involving international forces in searches of Gaza-bound ships.

The right flank of Netanyahu's cabinet is far from thrilled with these steps, and the same goes for senior defense establishment officials. But when the Obama administration insists, the Netanyahu government gives in.

The world, of course, is responding to Israel's statement in English. But Jordan's reaction typifies the international community's impression: "Cosmetic measures," Amman's statement sniffed, though adding that it was a step in the "right direction."

As far as Gaza's people are concerned, the situation will not change much.

The extensive smuggling via tunnels from Sinai has made up for many of the shortages Israel tried to cause. Halva, jam and chocolate have found their way into Gaza in roundabout ways, while the official ban on letting them in brought Israel nothing but embarrassment.

The recent cabinet discussions appear to be cementing Israel's image in the Arab - and perhaps also the Western - world as a state that mainly understands the language of force.

The Turkish passengers who beat Israeli naval commandos with clubs on the deck of the Mavi Marmara have scored a victory. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will now be portrayed as the leader who broke Israel's resistance.

But even so, a partial easing of the blockade at an inconvenient time is better than continuing the current flawed policy.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

ISRAELI APATHY IS TO BLAME FOR ULTRA-ORTHODOX ARROGANCE

WHY DO THE HAREDIM HAVE THEIR OWN SCHOOL SYSTEM? BECAUSE THE STATE LETS THEM GET AWAY WITH IT.

BY ANSHEL PFEFFER TAGS: ISRAEL NEWS

I really would like to dedicate this column to praising Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy for standing up for the rule of law and calling time on the despicable segregation between girls of Ashkenazi origin and those of Sephardi or Mizrahi origin in ultra-Orthodox schools. But as much as his decision to jail the 74 couples who are refusing to allow their daughters to attend a desegregated school in Immanuel for their breathtaking contempt of his court is justified, his judicial wrath is misdirected.

Justice Levy has changed the rules that allow the ultra-Orthodox rabbis to decide upon every aspect of the education of 20 percent of Israel's children. One can understand the anger of the parents and the rabbis at the fact that nobody told them about the change. But you can be certain that the final outcome of the Immanuel saga will take the form of a new school, solely for girls from the "Hasidic stream" (that is, Ashkenazi ). Instead of one small school, split done the middle, there will be two tiny ones. A monument to Haredi separatism and bigotry, and also to the limits of Israeli sovereignty.

The issue of state versus private education is a controversial one in most democracies. But even in the most liberal countries private schools must accept some form of government supervision and calibrate at least part of their schedule to the national curriculum. In those countries, "private" schools are just that, privately funded. In Israel, the vast, overwhelming majority of ultra-Orthodox schools receive most of their funding, usually around 75 percent, from the state. They are not required to teach the core subjects determined by the Education Ministry, nor are they obliged to prepare their students for national examinations. Officially, they are under the aegis of the woefully understaffed Haredi education department in the ministry. But the education inspectors, omnipotent when it comes to the other educational streams, have no real say when it comes to ultra-Orthodox schools. Most are Haredi themselves, and wouldn't dream of contradicting the rabbis who control the schools.

But even this is too much for some Haredi schools. They go for the option of rejecting even token supervision while still being entitled to have the taxpayer provide 55 percent of their budget.

We can blame the Haredi community for its arrogance, but the real blame lies with all of Israel's successive governments. For 62 years they allowed it to happen, approving ever-greater budgets and increased autonomy for the ultra-Orthodox schools. That's not something the High Court of Justice can change. The court would not be challenging the status quo had a small number of brave petitioners not decided to go all the way against the segregation in Immanuel. But this is a local issue, which has been inaccurately portrayed in the media as a matter of Ashkenazy bigotry, even racism. It is actually an example of the Haredi class system by which those who were born into the community will always be superior to the ba'alei teshuva, those who choose religious observance later in life.

The real issue at stake here is the extent to which a closed and separate community can be allowed to manage its own affairs in a democratic state. Does the government have any responsibility to children whose parents choose to belong to a group that shuns modern education? When can the courts intervene to prevent perceived injustices carried out in the name of a belief that is not the norm? Where do we draw the line between the duties of society and a dictatorship of the majority? The Haredi leadership claims to uphold not only Jewish values, or their interpretation of those values, but also the sacred cause of democracy. How can the government tell them how to educate their children, they ask, this is a secular Zionist dictatorship!

On the airwaves, they liken the justices to the Bolshevik commissars who shut all Jewish schools in the Soviet Union. In booklets intended for internal consumption the comparison is with the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust. But there's no need to go that far; how are ultra-Orthodox schools faring today in the lands of the goyim?

The Immanuel parents are willing to go to prison to defend their "pure education" and a way of life they claim to have been leading for 3,000 years. For them, the Slonim Rebbe's rulings take precedence over the law of the land. But somehow their brothers abroad seem to have no problem subjecting their children's schools to the inspectors of the non-Jewish authorities. Haredi schools in every country in the West teach the subjects of the national curriculum and are tested by the same examinations as everyone else.

If this was indeed a matter of life and death, a cause worth sitting in jail for, surely the ultra-Orthodox communities of New York and London would long ago have uprooted themselves and moved to the only country in the world that not only allows them total educational freedom but even pays for it. There is only one reason the Haredi leadership in Israel insists on running a totally independent education system, with no governmental involvement. They know they can get away with it. David Ben-Gurion, in the early days of the state, wanted a single education system for all, but political and practical circumstances precluded this. Then, it was the powerful secular parties that insisted on keeping their special schools. The only community whose schools were controlled closely was the Arab community. For security reasons, of course.

Ben-Gurion wasn't worried about the ultra-Orthodox. He believed they were a small, archaic group that was destined to dwindle and die out. He was sure that just as he had put aside the tefillin and prayer book of his childhood, so too would the young generation of Haredim choose to be part of a brave new society. How wrong he was. Today, almost 300,000 children are enrolled in ultra-Orthodox schools in Israel - 51 percent more than a decade ago.

With the exception of a muted response from Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar, no senior cabinet minister has said anything about the Immanuel situation. They can do the political math. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will lose his coalition if he is seen in any way to be supporting government interference in Haredi schools. If Justice Levy genuinely wants to establish the supremacy of law over a recalcitrant minority, he should direct his efforts toward the government.

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******************************************************************************************THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

COMMON SENSE AND PRIVATE PROPERTY

Not a single Supreme Court justice agreed with the harebrained notion that some Florida property owners were entitled to the extra land created when the state widened the beach in front of their houses.

But in an opinion issued Thursday, four justices came very close to creating an equally harebrained precedent:

that a court decision about the application of a state's property laws can amount to a "taking" of private property, as if a city or state had confiscated it.

The case was brought after the state began adding sand to miles of eroded beaches in Florida's panhandle. Homeowners said they should have exclusive access to the newly created beach, but the Florida Supreme Court said in 2008 that the owners had rights only to the old land. The owners said that would bring unwanted visitors, damaging their property values, and demanded compensation as a result of the court's decision.

When their demand went to the United States Supreme Court, it was championed by leaders of the "property rights" movement, who are somehow convinced that the government, courts included, are bent on the confiscation of too much private property. At last, the movement thought it might have a chance at achieving its dream ruling: that courts — along with cities, states and Washington — are required to compensate property owners for adverse decisions based on their reading of a state property law.

There are, in fact, many good reasons why the legal system has never accepted this idea. As Solicitor General Elena Kagan noted in her brief to the court last year, it would have a profoundly chilling effect on judges trying to interpret property statutes. It would raise a host of practical questions. Who would have to pay the compensation? Would federal courts have to begin reviewing hundreds of state court property rulings? Many legal scholars think the idea is thoroughly unworkable.

But four justices — Antonin Scalia, John Roberts Jr., Samuel Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas — seemed to have hoped this would be the case that would establish the concept of "judicial taking."

It was clear from Justice Scalia's opinion that he wanted to do that, even though he disagreed with the beachfront property owners. The harsh sarcasm he directed toward justices in disagreement may have reflected anger at his inability to win a fifth and deciding vote for his belief.

Justice Stephen Breyer presented a calm rebuttal. Adopting Justice Scalia's idea, he said, would create a huge and unnecessary mess in both the federal and state courts, and could force federal judges to rule on purely local matters of property law. More important, as he and Justice Anthony Kennedy reminded Justice Scalia, it was perfectly possible to decide the beach case without creating a huge new judicial doctrine.

Justice Scalia has never been a proponent of judicial minimalism, but even for him, the reach he attempted in this case was a little breathtaking. Fortunately, for the lack of one more vote, common sense dodged a bullet.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

FINISH THE JOB, ALBANY

Hard as it may be to imagine, New York legislators have actually managed to agree to about half of the state's $135 billion annual budget through Gov. David Paterson's tactic of attaching parts of it to the weekly emergency-spending measures that are keeping the state government from shutting down.

The bad news is that the other half is the hard part.

The state faces a $9.2 billion deficit this year, and, so far, lawmakers and Mr. Paterson have agreed on about $4.2 billion of health care, welfare and administration cuts. That still leaves a big hole, especially since New York had been hoping for $1 billion from the federal jobs bill, a hope that seems to be fading daily.

Cuts in health care, welfare and a few other parts of the state budget have already been passed, which leaves education as the big hurdle. Mr. Paterson has proposed $1.6 billion in school aid cuts, and the Assembly wants to restore about $420 million, including about $200 million for New York City schools. The Assembly's speaker, Sheldon Silver, and Mr. Paterson could reverse some of the governor's cuts, especially as they affect poorer districts. But Mr. Silver and his supporters — like the teachers' union — will have to find revenues to make up the difference.

There are some obvious fixes, but they take nerve, which is in short supply in this Legislature. A tax on sugary drinks, for example, could raise $600 million this year and $1 billion next year to help pay health care costs. But the tax offends bottlers with very fat wallets. Similarly, the sale of wine in grocery stores, in addition to beer, would add $250 million in fees — but has ignited a powerful lobbying backlash. Other taxes could surface in the scramble to create a budget over the next few weeks. If necessary, they should be aimed at people with higher incomes and kept to the short term.

Mr. Paterson has been recently insisting that he refuses to support any borrowing to fill the deepening hole in the budget. He doesn't seem to count his tricky "amortization" of the state pension plan costs that, in effect, borrows from the pension fund and results in far higher payments in the future. That kind of high-jinx borrowing is almost as bad as the State Senate's proposal to extend the bonds taken out with New York's share of the nationwide tobacco settlement.

Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch has rightly warned that New York's deficit will eventually require limited careful borrowing. The tobacco bond idea sounds mostly like a plan to make someone rich on Wall Street.

Meanwhile, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reported on Thursday that the state has once again run out of money and may have to delay payments. That is no way to run a state. It's time for Albany to pass a real budget.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

A BAD DAY FOR BP AND MR. BARTON

It's hard to imagine anyone having a worse day than Tony Hayward, BP's embattled chief executive, who spent Thursday in the cross hairs of an angry Congressional committee and turned in a mind-bogglingly vapid performance. But he got a run for his money from Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, who inexplicably decided to call the escrow account agreed to by BP and the White House a "$20 billion shakedown."

If Mr. Barton was trying to be supportive of Mr. Hayward, who looked like he had not slept in weeks, he failed. Mr. Hayward delivered an opening statement full of contrition for the immense damage his company has done. He then faced Henry Waxman and other veteran interrogators armed with truckloads of documents suggesting that BP had behaved sloppily at best and at worst sidestepped safety precautions to save money.

Mr. Hayward insisted that he had never heard of any problems in drilling and completing the well that is now spouting 60,000 barrels of oil a day. He further confessed that he did not even know his company was drilling the doomed well until the day it hit oil.

"I had no prior knowledge of the drilling of this well, none whatsoever," he told Representative Michael

Burgess, a Texas Republican. "With respect, sir, we drill hundreds of wells a year around the world." To which Mr. Burgess shot back: "That's what's scaring me now."

While the final verdict on this disaster is not in, BP's boss should at least be prepared to concede what everyone else in the world knows: BP was utterly unprepared to handle a blowout at 5,000 feet below sea level. As Mr. Waxman put it, "There is not a single e-mail or document that shows you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at the well."

BP's cause was hardly helped by "Smoky Joe" Barton, a reliable friend of big coal and big oil and no stranger to rhetorical excess. His "shakedown" remark was too much for some of his Republican colleagues, especially those from other gulf states. Jeff Miller of Pensacola, Fla., said Mr. Barton was "out of touch." Even John Boehner, the House minority leader, who normally cannot resist a partisan roundhouse, said "BP ought to be held responsible for every dime of this tragedy."

Apparently chastened by these and other reprimands, Mr. Barton later apologized for his apology to Mr. Hayward and said he regretted using the word "shakedown." He was not entirely convincing.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

THAT CHEATS THE KIDS

The parents of children attending George Washington Elementary School in Baltimore were understandably outraged when they learned last month that someone at the school had altered thousands of answers on students' 2008 state math and reading tests to raise their scores. Following a lengthy investigation, state education officials did exactly the right thing. They revoked the principal's state teaching license and made clear that educators elsewhere could expect the same if they tampered with test results.

Most educators across the country administer these tests honestly and in good faith. But as The Times's Trip Gabriel reported last week, cases of test-tampering have recently turned up in at least a half-dozen states. The problem seems to be spreading since states began to evaluate teachers based at least in part on how well they improve student performance.

In Georgia, state officials are looking into suspicious test results at nearly 200 schools. The inquiry was triggered when computer analyses showed that someone at each of the schools had erased an inordinately large number of incorrect student answers and penciled in correct ones.

Groups that dislike standardized tests — and teacher accountability systems based on them — are blaming both for the cheating problem. But that's like blaming the biopsy that turns up evidence of serious disease.

Yearly testing, required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, is the cornerstone of the school reform effort. It allows districts to know which reforms are working and which are not. And it is the only way to ensure that poor and minority children are being taught to meet the same standards as their affluent and white counterparts.

George Washington Elementary, which serves mainly poor and minority children, has clearly benefited from school reforms. In 2003, about 35 percent of the children passed the state math test. In 2009 — when the state monitored testing to prevent tampering — the pass rate reached an impressive 78 percent. One of the tragedies of the fraud is that it casts doubt on the honest achievements of hard-working children.

This is no time to back away from testing. States need to develop clear, well-publicized antifraud policies and act decisively when test-tampering is uncovered.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

HIJACKING THEIR WAY OUT OF TYRANNY

BY GAL BECKERMAN

LATE one summer night 40 years ago this month, Yosef Mendelevich, a young Soviet Jew, camped with a group of friends outside the Smolny airport near Leningrad. The next morning, they planned to commandeer a 12-seat airplane, fly it to Sweden and, once there, declare their purpose: to move to Israel, a dream they had long been denied.

Most in the group were pessimistic about their chances — but none more than Mr. Mendelevich. He felt sure they would get caught, but to his mind, a group suicide was preferable to a life of waiting for an exit visa that would never arrive. Even a botched attempt, he figured, would at least attract the eyes of the world.

Early the next day, as the plotters walked onto the tarmac, they were, indeed, caught. The K.G.B. had known of their plan for months. And the two leaders were later sentenced to death.

But Mr. Mendelevich was also right that their desperate act would make their demand for free emigration impossible to ignore. Now largely forgotten, this planned hijacking, and the Soviet government's overreaction to it, opened the first significant rip in the Iron Curtain, one through which hundreds of thousands would eventually flee. With great drama, it undermined Communist orthodoxy. After all, if the Bolsheviks had built the perfect society, why would any well-adjusted citizens want to leave, let alone risk their lives to do so?

The essential weakness of the Soviet Union was exposed: to survive, the regime had to imprison its own population. This would be the beginning of the end.

Jews were understandably at the forefront of the emigration battle. Even as they were forbidden to exercise any kind of Jewish identity, they also had no option to assimilate in Soviet society. Their internal passports were stamped "Jew," a word that three generations after the 1917 revolution signified little more than their status as outsiders. Many had come to feel that their existence inside the Soviet Union was untenable, that the only way to escape this paradox was to move away. But the doors were firmly shut; those who requested permission to leave were refused and then ostracized.

The push to emigrate, which had begun in the early 1960s as an underground movement, had grown by 1970 into an open campaign. Letters to the United Nations were signed by hundreds of Soviet Jews. Only a few months before the hijacking attempt, the Kremlin had called for a public relations counteroffensive that would paint Zionism as "a vanguard of imperialism." A large press conference was arranged with "acceptable" Jews, including the prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and the comedian Arkady Raikin, vowing loyalty to the Soviet Union and denouncing Zionism as expressing "the chauvinistic views and racist ravings of the Jewish bourgeoisie."

This was only the opening act. On the morning of June 15, 1970, K.G.B. agents tackled the would-be hijackers on the tarmac in Leningrad and threw them in jail. Afterward, dozens of Jewish activists unconnected to the plot were arrested. The government saw an opportunity to present Zionists as nothing more than subversive hooligans. But six months later, at their trial, the hijacking plotters offered the more compelling narrative: their story of unrequited longing for a homeland.

In her closing statement, Sylva Zalmanson, the only female defendant, recited from Psalm 137, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand wither." While she was trying to repeat the words in Hebrew, the judge shouted at her to use a language recognized by the court. In the end, Mark Dymshits and Eduard Kuznetsov, the two leaders, were sentenced to face a firing squad.

Worldwide reaction to the news was immediate. Overnight, the small cause of Soviet Jewry — until then supported only by impassioned students and isolated activists — became a mass movement. Italian longshoremen in Genoa refused to unload Soviet ships. Students in Stockholm marched with torches through the streets. Even Salvador Allende, Chile's Marxist president, called for clemency. In Israel, air-raid sirens blasted through the cities and 100,000 people gathered in front of the Western Wall. In Washington, Richard Nixon held an emergency meeting with leaders of Jewish groups.

More was at stake than just the fate of the two men. As The Times editorialized, "The real defendants in the court were not the handful of accused, but the tens of thousands of Soviet Jews who have courageously demanded the right to emigrate to Israel."

On New Year's Eve, less than a week after the trial, Eduard Kuznetsov was taken from his cell, certain he was going to be shot. But the prison warden told him, "A humanitarian gesture has been made on your behalf." His sentence was commuted to 15 years. All the hijackers had their time reduced, though they still spent years at hard labor camps in the Urals. Only in 1979 were Mr. Dymshits and Mr. Kuznetsov released in a spy exchange. Yosef Mendelevich was freed in 1981.

By overturning the death sentences, the Soviet government tacitly accepted that the hijackers' cause was one the world found to be just — and demonstrated that it was not deaf to outside opinion. Apparently, the leaders realized a hammer alone could not solve their Jewish problem. Yet neither could they simply meet the Jews' demands to allow unfettered emigration. As Anatoly Dobrynin, the longtime Soviet ambassador to the United States, would later admit in his memoirs, the Kremlin feared that emigration would "offer a degree of liberalization that might destabilize the domestic situation."

Still, within a month of the trial, more exit visas were being granted to Jews. By the end of 1971, 13,000 had been issued — more than in the previous 10 years combined. The following year, 32,000 people got permission to leave.

The bravery of the hijacking plotters also ignited a movement in the United States that would lead Congress, a few years later, to pass the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which withheld preferred trading status from the Soviet Union until it allowed tens of thousands of Jews to emigrate. The American action so exasperated Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, that he demanded that his Politburo find more creative answers to the "Jewish question." "Zionism," he told them, "is making us stupid."

Emigration was now linked to the Soviet-American relationship. In 1979, when the Soviets were hoping to buy more American grain and wanted to make sure a new arms limitation treaty would be signed and ratified, an unprecedented 50,000 Jews were allowed out. Just as quickly, a year later, after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, the spigot was turned off.

Ronald Reagan saw in the Soviet Jews the perfect poster children for his view of the Soviet Union as an evil empire. Unlike Richard Nixon, President Reagan was publicly sympathetic to the emigration movement, and unlike Jimmy Carter, he wielded human rights as a strategic weapon rather than just touting it as a moral cause. Only a few months after Yosef Mendelevich was let out of prison, he was invited to the White House.

George Shultz, the secretary of state in the Reagan administration, made it clear time and again that not only trade but even arms control talks would depend on the emigration issue. By 1985, well before glasnost and perestroika, Anatoly Chernyaev, a foreign policy aide to Mikhail Gorbachev, would write in his diary, "We have to solve the Jewish question, the most burning of human rights problems."

But the true solution was no less mortal a threat to the Soviets in the late 1980s than it had been in 1970. If they let the Jews leave, what would keep everyone else from doing the same?

When Soviet Jews finally emigrated en masse — nearly 1.5 million by the end of the 1990s — it looked like just another happy side effect of the Soviet Union's collapse, another wall crumbling. Forgotten were the decades of pushing from the inside. The Soviet Union might have gone the way of China and had an economic liberalization that ignored human rights. But this option was not open, because the Soviet Jews made it clear that any change would need to include open borders.

As a result, not only were hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews able to build new lives, but forces were set in

motion that would bring down the Berlin Wall and, eventually, an empire — a world-shaking transformation born from the hopes once placed on a small airplane that never even left the ground.

Gal Beckerman, a staff writer at The Forward, is the author of the forthcoming "When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry."

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

THAT '30S FEELING

BY PAUL KRUGMAN

BERLIN

Suddenly, creating jobs is out, inflicting pain is in. Condemning deficits and refusing to help a still-struggling economy has become the new fashion everywhere, including the United States, where 52 senators voted against extending aid to the unemployed despite the highest rate of long-term joblessness since the 1930s.

Many economists, myself included, regard this turn to austerity as a huge mistake. It raises memories of 1937, when F.D.R.'s premature attempt to balance the budget helped plunge a recovering economy back into severe recession. And here in Germany, a few scholars see parallels to the policies of Heinrich Brüning, the chancellor from 1930 to 1932, whose devotion to financial orthodoxy ended up sealing the doom of the Weimar Republic.

But despite these warnings, the deficit hawks are prevailing in most places — and nowhere more than here, where the government has pledged 80 billion euros, almost $100 billion, in tax increases and spending cuts even though the economy continues to operate far below capacity.

What's the economic logic behind the government's moves? The answer, as far as I can tell, is that there isn't any. Press German officials to explain why they need to impose austerity on a depressed economy, and you get rationales that don't add up. Point this out, and they come up with different rationales, which also don't add up. Arguing with German deficit hawks feels more than a bit like arguing with U.S. Iraq hawks back in 2002: They know what they want to do, and every time you refute one argument, they just come up with another.

Here's roughly how the typical conversation goes (this is based both on my own experience and that of other American economists):

German hawk: "We must cut deficits immediately, because we have to deal with the fiscal burden of an aging population."

Ugly American: "But that doesn't make sense. Even if you manage to save 80 billion euros — which you won't, because the budget cuts will hurt your economy and reduce revenues — the interest payments on that much debt would be less than a tenth of a percent of your G.D.P. So the austerity you're pursuing will threaten economic recovery while doing next to nothing to improve your long-run budget position."

German hawk: "I won't try to argue the arithmetic. You have to take into account the market reaction."

Ugly American: "But how do you know how the market will react? And anyway, why should the market be

moved by policies that have almost no impact on the long-run fiscal position?"

German hawk: "You just don't understand our situation."

The key point is that while the advocates of austerity pose as hardheaded realists, doing what has to be done, they can't and won't justify their stance with actual numbers — because the numbers do not, in fact, support their position. Nor can they claim that markets are demanding austerity. On the contrary, the German government remains able to borrow at rock-bottom interest rates.

So the real motivations for their obsession with austerity lie somewhere else.

In America, many self-described deficit hawks are hypocrites, pure and simple: They're eager to slash benefits for those in need, but their concerns about red ink vanish when it comes to tax breaks for the wealthy. Thus, Senator Ben Nelson, who sanctimoniously declared that we can't afford $77 billion in aid to the unemployed, was instrumental in passing the first Bush tax cut, which cost a cool $1.3 trillion.

German deficit hawkery seems more sincere. But it still has nothing to do with fiscal realism. Instead, it's about moralizing and posturing. Germans tend to think of running deficits as being morally wrong, while balancing budgets is considered virtuous, never mind the circumstances or economic logic. "The last few hours were a singular show of strength," declared Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, after a special cabinet meeting agreed on the austerity plan. And showing strength — or what is perceived as strength — is what it's all about.

There will, of course, be a price for this posturing. Only part of that price will fall on Germany: German austerity will worsen the crisis in the euro area, making it that much harder for Spain and other troubled economies to recover. Europe's troubles are also leading to a weak euro, which perversely helps German manufacturing, but also exports the consequences of German austerity to the rest of the world, including the United States.

But German politicians seem determined to prove their strength by imposing suffering — and politicians around the world are following their lead.

How bad will it be? Will it really be 1937 all over again? I don't know. What I do know is that economic policy around the world has taken a major wrong turn, and that the odds of a prolonged slump are rising by the day.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

TRIM THE 'EXPERTS,' TRUST THE LOCALS

BY DAVID BROOKS

On Tuesday, The Times ran a front-page article on the chaotic efforts to clean up the oil washing around the Gulf of Mexico. Campbell Robertson reported on an incident in which boats that were supposed to be laying boom were, in fact, anchored on the wrong side of a bay in Louisiana. They were helpless as oil oozed in from the gulf, and BP had no way of contacting the workers to get the boats moving.

The article described a cleanup operation that is overwhelmed. "From the beginning," Robertson wrote, "the effort has been bedeviled by a lack of preparation, organization, urgency and clear lines of authority among federal, state and local officials, as well as BP."

Some of the chaos was inevitable, once this much oil started gushing into the coastal waters. What was not inevitable, however, was the sense of insult and rage local officials now feel.

If you talk to elected leaders from Louisiana to Florida, they fill your ears with tales of incompetence — of advice that was not heeded, of red tape stifling effective operations, of local knowledge that was cast aside and trampled.

If you read the local news media from the gulf region, this anger flows out in article after article. "The information is not flowing," Senator Bill Nelson of Florida told a Senate hearing. "The decisions are not timely. The resources are not produced. And as a result, you have a big mess, with no command and control."

Tony Kennon, the mayor of Orange Beach, Ala., waited helplessly as federal planners failed to protect his town's beaches. "It was a very discombobulated and discoordinated effort. It still is," he told The Press Register of Mobile last week. "And they've had five weeks to plan this."

The most common complaint you read in the local papers is that lines of authority are either tangled or opaque. "If you asked me today, 'Who was in charge: the Coast Guard, BP or their subcontractors?' I couldn't look you in the eye and tell you who was making the decisions," Billy Nungesser, the president of Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

Local officials in Magnolia Springs, Ala., drew up plans to protect the Magnolia River. They sent the plans up the chain of command for approval in mid-May, and it took weeks of confusion before they heard back. "This is the biggest damn mess I've ever seen," Gib Hixon of the Fish River/Marlow Fire and Rescue Department told Jay Reeves, a reporter for The Associated Press.

Others describe times when the cleanup plans were effective, but there was no follow-through. An article in The Advocate of Baton Rouge, La., described how federal, state and BP officials fly over coastal areas and recommend where cleanup work should be done. But then the plans don't get executed.

"It's drawn up right. It's just not happening that way," said Louis Buatt of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.

Leaders in Okaloosa County, Fla., had a state-approved plan to protect their waterways, but then the Coast Guard raised a fuss, and now they've got to start over, according to The Northwest Florida Daily News of Fort Walton Beach.

The Times-Picayune reported this week that state officials claim "Louisiana's efforts to attack oil approaching coastal wetlands have repeatedly been stymied by BP and federal officials."

Many locals say that they are perpetually in the dark. "Calls go into a maddeningly circuitous string of dead ends, as local residents, businesses and Herald reporters can attest," declared an editorial in The Bradenton Herald of Bradenton, Fla.

In Louisiana, Deano Bonano, a Jefferson Parish administrator, has tried to get information on marsh cleanup plans. "I cannot get an answer," he e-mailed The Advocate of Baton Rouge.

In article after article, you see local officials exploding in anger. Bill McCollum, Florida's attorney general, has called himself "absolutely appalled." Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said this week, "We are not winning this war."

The county commissioners in Okaloosa County, Fla., got so fed up with outside interference that they unanimously voted to give their emergency management team the power to do whatever it wants. "We made the decision legislatively to break the laws if necessary," Chairman Wayne Harris told The Northwest Florida Daily News.

Some of this rage is unavoidable when you have a crisis that no one can control. But it's also clear that we have a federalism problem. All around the region there are local officials who think they know their towns best. They feel insulted by a distant and opaque bureaucracy lurking above.

The balance between federal oversight and local control is off-kilter. We have vested too much authority in national officials who are really smart, but who are really distant. We should be leaving more power with local officials, who may not be as expert, but who have the advantage of being there on the ground.

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

OUR VIEW ON GULF DISASTER: BIG OIL'S SHODDY SPILL PLANS REFLECT INDUSTRY'S ARROGANCE

It was almost comical to hear chief executives of major oil companies sheepishly admitting to Congress this week that most of them had virtually the same worthless, cookie-cutter plan for coping with oil spills. It vowed to protect walruses, a species that hasn't inhabited the Gulf of Mexico for 3 million years, and as part of the emergency response, it listed the phone number of a marine biologist who has been dead since 2005.

Far less amusing is the fact a federal agency used those plans as the basis for granting the companies drilling permits. Apparently, none of the drillers — or the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency in charge of holding their feet to the fire — had the imagination, the humility or the integrity to think it might actually have to put such plans into operation.

The consequences of this smug assurance are on display every day on BP's "spillcam" and on beaches around the Gulf. The industry cleanup consortium that objected to being called "overmatched" in the early days of the spill can hardly argue anymore that it's up to the job.

The reality is that the industry was ready for routine spills from tankers and barges, or from production platforms damaged by storms, but it wasn't even remotely prepared for a spill now estimated at up to 60,000 barrels a day. Permit applications that asserted the companies could handle spills twice or three times as big were simply a fraud, one to which the executives essentially confessed at the hearing.

"When these things happen, we are not well-equipped to deal with them," ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson said matter-of-factly, as if that's something everyone should have expected from one of the wealthiest industries on the planet. "There will be impacts, as we are seeing. "

Tillerson and the other executives implied that they wouldn't have made the same mistakes that BP did in bringing the Deepwater Horizon well to grief, and here they might have a point. The more we learn about what happened in the final days and hours before the April 20 blowout, the more it looks as if BP officials made a series of reckless, corner-cutting decisions. Until this incident, the industry had a remarkable safety record — no serious drilling-related spill in U.S. waters since 1969, including numerous deep-water wells in the Gulf.

Even so, the accident exposed the fact that the other major oil companies are in no better position than BP to plug this sort of deep-sea blowout or clean it up. Given that revelation, the Obama administration imposed a six-month moratorium on new deep-water drilling in the Gulf. This will allow time to make sure the rigs — 33 of which were already deployed — can operate as safely as the companies claim. One obvious safety improvement is to mandate more redundant shut-off mechanisms to stop a blowout.

The moratorium is not an action to be take blithely. It carries major economic costs in the Gulf, and if it can be shortened, it should be. But first, the administration must be able to plausibly tell people that the chance of a new blowout is in fact as remote as it seemed to be for the past four decades. To do otherwise would be like allowing a restaurant to stay open after discovering it had been serving rancid food. In addition — and apart from the moratorium — oil companies must be forced to show that if there is another accident, they could snuff the well a lot more quickly than BP has — and contain the spill as effectively as they claimed when they got their drilling permits in the first place.

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

OPPOSING VIEW ON GULF DISASTER: WE WILL MAKE CHANGES

BY JACK N. GERARD

President Obama spoke eloquently from the Oval Office Tuesday night about the challenges facing our country as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since the tragic accident, our thoughts and prayers have been with our workers and their neighbors along the coast. Our focus, however, has been on helping to stop the spill, clean up the oil and — once the causes of the spill are known — prevent it from happening again.

In fact, we have already begun. We have assembled five expert task forces to address issues related to offshore equipment, operating practices, oil spill containment and cleanup. Two of those task forces have submitted recommendations to the Department of the Interior, which incorporated them in its report to the president.

The industry's commitment to safety and environmental protection is real and strong, but the tragedy in the Gulf clearly demonstrates the need to review our practices. Investigations will identify needed changes. We will make them.

We support the efforts to halt the spill, make the Gulf whole and find ways to prevent future spills. We have great concerns, however, about what an extended moratorium could mean to the nation.

It could endanger our nation's economy and its energy security. And, because it will place in jeopardy thousands of offshore and onshore jobs, it will particularly hit hard those already suffering, the Gulf states' residents.

An extended moratorium wouldn't reduce our need for oil and natural gas. It would only force us to import more because idle rigs can move to operate in other countries' waters. It would take months or longer to bring them back once they are gone.

Americans are frustrated, and they expect better industry performance. We accept that and are committed to providing energy safely and reliably. But halting offshore development, despite successful safety reviews of every Gulf rig, without a definite end date, must be evaluated with a realistic view of the energy needed to keep our economy moving, and an understanding of what it would do to Gulf coast states.

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

FATHER'S DAY TREAT: THE BRADLEES BOOK

PLAIN TALK BY AL NEUHARTH, USA TODAY FOUNDER

The dad is 88 years old. Ben Bradlee. As longtime executive editor of The Washington Post, he became one of the best-known media executives in the country.

The son is 28. Quinn Bradlee. He was born with a heart defect and a learning disability. Now he has overcome or learned to live with his challenges.

They have co-authored a new book called A Life's Work: Fathers and Sons (Simon and Schuster, $19.99). It's available just in time for a Father's Day gift. It sure beats giving Dad a necktie or a bottle of booze.

Father and son both tell moving stories. But the son's personal achievements are most compelling. Examples:

•He has launched the website FriendsOfQuinn.com to help learning-disabled kids and their families.

•He has made a series of short documentary films about children with learning disabilities (LD).

The book recites touching accounts of how they bonded best by working outdoors together in the woods on a farm on weekends. The wife and mother, Sally Quinn— noted journalist in her own right — adds some forceful family stories.

For those who knew Bradlee in the olden days, his transition is especially telling.

When he edited The Washington Post, he was one of the crustiest journalists in the Nation's Capital. He realized how good he was, but he expressed little regard or respect for others in the news media.

After we started USA TODAY in 1982, a reporter asked him whether he thought it could qualify as one of the top newspapers. His reply: "If it can, I'm in the wrong business."

I responded publicly that I agreed he was in the wrong business.

Since our retirement, we've both mellowed as old dads (88 and 86). But he had further to go than I did, so he deserves a better grade.

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

IN DEATH, ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT DAD MELT AWAY

I didn't think my father cared about me. I left Hong Kong at age 5, when my mother divorced my father in 1968. My father never contacted me. I lived in America. He lived a world away. Then in 1996, at age 33, I returned with my mom to Hong Kong and met my father. I spoke only English. He spoke only Cantonese. My mother needed to serve as interpreter.

After I married my wife, Quyen, in 1998, I visited Hong Kong again to introduce her to my father. When Quyen and I had kids, I heard through my mom that he wanted to see our children. So I invited him to the U.S., told him I would pay for his plane ticket and that he could stay with us. But I never received a response. I didn't think he cared. So I went about my life.

In March, my father suffered a stroke and died. It was my family's obligation to go to Hong Kong to take part in the funeral. I was his only child; my kids were his only grandchildren. Once there, my father's younger brother brought my father's possessions to me. From a faded, leather carrying bag, my uncle took out a small, tarnished brass picture frame holding a photo of Quyen and me at our wedding reception. My uncle told me that my father kept the picture on his nightstand beside his bed. It was his favorite. Then my uncle handed me a worn, crusty plain brown packaging envelope, which contained photographs and cards my mom had sent my father throughout the years.

There were pictures of me in my college cap and gown, Quyen and me at a formal dinner while dating, the two of us beaming at our wedding reception, our son Kevin on his third birthday, a 5-month-old Kristie cradled in my left arm on the couch. I found Christmas cards from my mother nestled between the photos, and a neatly folded paper with a hand-drawn heart and a message of love from Kristie.

I leafed through more pictures and discovered a group shot of my father, mother and me next to a number of relatives and friends on a pier in Hong Kong. I must've been 4 at the time. I came upon another photo of me in elementary school, maybe 8 years old and wearing a gaudy blue sweater. My father had kept every item relating to me and my family.

My uncle said my father never traveled. In his 76 years of life, my father had never been on an airplane.

For most of my life, I didn't think my father cared about me. As I looked upon the pictures of my family with tears in my eyes, I knew I was wrong.

Ray M. Wong is a writer based in San Diego.

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

OPINIONLINE

Alan Colmes, radio host, on AOL News: "President Obama gave his first Oval Office address since becoming president, and he clearly and concisely explained what had been done, what is being done and what needs to be done to address the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Who among us would do a better job in such a crisis? ... Yes, President Obama was short on specifics, but ... this speech was meant to give a broad overview and to let America, and the world, know that the president is in charge and can even feel our pain. ... Obama can't 'stop the gusher,' but neither can his critics. If they can, it's their patriotic duty to catch the next plane for the Gulf and do so immediately."

Tina Brown, blogger, on The Daily Beast: "Obama's speech was a strong energy bill pitch, necessary and resounding — a good use of the Rahm Emanuel theory that you should never let a crisis go to waste. But he didn't do what was needed: convey the sense that the CEO is back from offsite and now deeply, viscerally engaged in the messy process of management. The speech showcased what he has always shown us he is good at — articulating the overarching goal, and ramping up the rhetoric to meet it. But he cited too many names that have already lost our vote. ... Energy Secretary Steven Chu (is) leading what Obama called 'a team of the nation's best scientists and engineers' in combating the spill, even as he ups the estimate of how much is gushing out from the ocean floor: The fishermen of the Gulf probably have views of where he can put his Nobel."

The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune, in an editorial: "We ... want (Obama) to understand that his most decisive response to the oil spill — a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling — threatens to capsize our already struggling economy. We want specifics about what his administration plans to do to help sustain the economy in the meantime, and we want specifics about his plans for restoring 'the unique beauty and bounty of this region.' ... The president said he understands that his moratorium 'creates difficulty' for us, but he wasn't very convincing. He's right when he says the oil is producing anxiety that we'll lose our way of life but seems unaware that his moratorium does the same thing."

Byron York, columnist, in The (Washington) Examiner: "Stopping the leak ... was a topic the president sidestepped during his 18-minute speech. And yet polls show it is the most pressing priority for Americans when they think about the Gulf oil disaster, with many Americans wondering whether the federal government has really done everything that can be done to stop the flow of oil. Hearing the president invoke American technological genius in the service of his political goal — a cap-and-trade bill — while remaining silent on the application of that technological genius to the problem at hand in the Gulf cannot have increased the public's confidence in Obama's ability to handle the crisis."

The New York Times, in an editorial: "We know that the country is eager for reassurance. We're not sure the American people got it from a speech that was short on specifics and devoid of self-criticism. Certainly, we hope that Obama was right when he predicted that in 'coming weeks and days,' up to 90% of the oil leaking from the well will be captured and the well finally capped by this summer. But he was less than frank about his administration's faltering efforts to manage this vast environmental and human disaster."

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

'TEA PARTY' TOOK ROOT BEFORE OBAMA

BY CHUCK RAASCH

WASHINGTON — It is a misnomer and political miscalculation for detractors and supporters of the "Tea Party" movement to view it strictly as a recoil to President Obama and his policies.

Indeed, as leading conservative activists, thinkers and writers said this week, millions of conservative Americans seethed in quiet discontent over the spending and growth of the federal government under Republican George W. Bush. Only the fight against terrorism kept the fire from breaking out under Bush's watch.

Some trace the Tea Party's roots as far back as Bush's decision to endorse then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter over his limited-government primary opponent, Pat Toomey, in a 2004 Pennsylvania Senate primary.

Specter later switched parties, lost a primary as a Democrat this year, and will leave office as the target of much ridicule on the right. Toomey is the GOP nominee in a closely contested Pennsylvania Senate race with liberal Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak.

"Whatever lit the kindling that caused this conflagration, what dried out the kindling in many respects was eight years of George Bush," said conservative author and columnist Jonah Goldberg. "There is a certain element of the Tea Party movement that is delayed Bush backlash (to the) . . . endorsement of Specter, the largest expansion of entitlements since the Great Society in the expansion of Medicare, No Child Left Behind (education reform).

"There was a lot that a lot of loyal Republicans put up with, and conservatives put up with, because the war on terror was a legitimate, overriding issue," Goldberg said.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who voted against the Wall Street bailout last fall, says the Tea Party is an "authentic American movement" that is "not from any political party."

"There was a sense that compassionate conservatism (under Bush) was just another phrase for big-government Republicanism," said Pence, who some think might run for president in 2012.

Goldberg and Pence spoke Wednesday at a forum on the Tea Party and populism sponsored by the conservative Hudson Institute's Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. The panel also included former House Republican leader Dick Armey, who has helped organize Tea Party protests; author and commentator Bill Kristol; and Michael Barone, author and editor of the influential Almanac of American Politics.

Among the key agreements:

— Tea Party stirrings picked up with the bailout of Wall Street banks and brokerage houses under Bush in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign, and really accelerated with Obama's $787 billion stimulus package early in 2009.

"The Obama administration took runaway spending under the Bush administration and put it on steroids," Pence said.

Some economists believe that, while the spending did not prevent unemployment from rising above 8% as Obama predicted, it helped the United States avoid far worse economic fallout from the failure of big banks, brokerage houses and the bursting of a decades-long real estate bubble.

— Attacks on Sarah Palin, who has become a voice if not a leader of the movement, also helped galvanize Tea

Party protesters. Kristol said that "liberals and a media elite" were bent on destroying Palin because she "didn't

come from them." Kristol was an early supporter of Palin before Sen. John McCain asked her to run for vice president during his presidential campaign against Obama.

— This Tea Party is the fifth grassroots, limited-government movement in the past 50 years, but only the second rising from what Armey called "fear and despair."

Armey said the movement behind Barry Goldwater in 1964, the one that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980, and the one that led to Republican takeover of the Congress in 1994, were "waves of optimism, hope and expectation."

But this movement, and the one that led to Ross Perot's third-party candidacy in 1992 and 1996, were products of "angry disappointment," Armey said.

— Perot is a lesson for Tea Party activists tempted to start a new party, and for a GOP establishment unsure of how to react to it. What started out as a Perot-led, centrist movement around the deficit and entitlement reform faded into a distant third party in both 1992 and 1996.

"Third parties are like bees," Goldberg said. "They have their influence by stinging, and then they die. If the Tea Party successfully stings the Republican Party into girding its loins and returning to its roots and providing a choice and all of these sorts of things, it will already have served its purpose." He predicted the Tea Party would fail if it turned into "a fighting wedge for pro-life causes" or strayed from a "constitutional argument" focusing on "government living within its means." Echoing a familiar Tea Party claim that Obama is pushing the United States toward European big-government models, he said the Tea Party would be most effective as an "antibody to the imposition of Euro-sclerosis that we see from Obama."

(Chuck Raasch writes from Washington for Gannett. Contact him at craasch(AT)gannett.com, follow him at http://twitter.com/craasch or join in the conversation at http://www.facebook.com/raaschcolumn)

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

DIETARY HABITS IN NEED OF CHANGE

Many Americans are aware of what they should do to improve their diet and health. The mantra is familiar -- eat more fruits, vegetables, high-fiber whole grains and certain types of seafood and cut back on salt, sugar and saturated fats. Not enough people heed that advice. The result is that Americans are increasingly overweight and obese and, as a result, more prone to diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle and a poor diet.

The federal government is aware of the problem and has long been involved in providing information to correct it. The familiar food pyramid is the most prominent example of that campaign. Every five years, in fact, an advisory panel surveys the nation's dietary habits and then suggests changes to the food pyramid and other federal projects and programs -- including school lunch and other nutrition programs -- to improve the U.S. diet.

This week, the panel made preliminary recommendations for revising those guidelines for the next five years.

The panel specifically suggested that the government encourage Americans to reduce their daily salt intake from the currently recommended 2,300 milligrams to 1,500 daily. That is an ambitious goal; average daily consumption of salt now stands at 3,400 milligrams. The experts recognize the difficulty in achieving that goal.

The panel says it will be "challenging to achieve the lower level." It does recommend that the reduction take place over time, though it offers no advice on how long that should be. Given Americans' demonstrated propensity for ignoring dietary advice, more specific guidelines might be useful, or at least harder to disregard.

The panel also suggested that officials emphasize the importance of a balanced diet and improve nutrition education and cooking programs to promote consumption of healthy foods. They recommended, as well, expanded school-based emphasis on health, nutrition and the need for physical activity. The recommendations have merit, and should be incorporated into the final version of diet guidelines issued at year's end.

That's the easy part. The more difficult task will be to convince Americans to incorporate the guidelines into their daily lives rather than to acknowledge and then ignore them.

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TIMES FREE PRESS

GOOD LOCAL JOB NEWS IN BAD TIMES

It's a terrible thing if anyone really needs a job, and really wants a job, but can't find one. That is especially challenging in a time of general economic crisis. But we hastily observe that Chattanooga-area people have more reasons for optimism than most.

There are many job opportunities beginning to be developed in our area. Foremost, of course, is the big, new Volkswagen plant. It will provide about 2,000 jobs -- and then generate thousands of others that will be related closely or generally.

Several other significant companies are planning to locate or expand here. Their job openings will "fit" many local people, but also will create large and small opportunities for both skilled and unskilled people who want to work and make significant contributions for self-support and general economic benefit.

There are lots of eager and able Chattanooga-area people who want to be a part of success and earn just rewards.

For example, when the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and the Chattanooga Times Free Press invited job seekers to a JobsFest 2010 event at the Chattanooga Convention Center Wednesday, about 1,500 people showed up. We hope all of them were inspired and that most of them will find positive answers, or at least some leads, for jobs that need to be done.

Nearly everyone really wants to be financially independent, to have a constructive purpose in life, and to earn

good results.

We are fortunate that Chattanooga is a progress-minded community and that our local economy is better than most -- and "looking up."

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

BILLIONS MORE $$ FOR GOVERNMENT?

Nobody should delight in the prospect that someone will be laid off -- even if that "someone" is part of a bloated government bureaucracy.

Government has undoubtedly gotten far too big and has many employees who never should have been hired in the first place. But that is more the fault of lawmakers who decide how to spend your tax dollars than of individuals who are hired by government. Regardless, it is unpleasant to see the rug pulled out from under any worker who is trying to make ends meet.

But with all that said, can you believe that Democrats in Congress have been demanding that billions more dollars be spent to prop up jobs in state and local government around the country? President Barack Obama supports the spending and "did not propose to offset the cost of any state aid with savings from other spending cuts or tax increases," The New York Times reported.

Has it escaped Democrats' notice that most of the millions of layoffs over the past couple years have come not in government but in the private sector? Are they unaware that Congress' so-called "stimulus" spending has often protected government jobs rather than "created or saved" jobs in the productive private sector?

Do they not realize our nation faces a debilitating $13 trillion national debt, on which we must pay hundreds of billions of dollars in interest every year? Those monstrous payments require money that cannot be used for constitutional purposes such as national defense, nor be left in taxpayers' pockets so they can invest in job-creating ventures.

When politicians want to raise taxes, they often talk of "shared sacrifices" by everyone. But when will government -- especially the federal government -- begin "sharing in the sacrifice" by tightening its belt? Is there any reason why government workers ought to be provided special protection (courtesy of taxpayers) from the economic crisis that is taking a painful toll on everyone else?

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

THE EPA AND 'MILK POLLUTION'

We don't doubt that it would be a big mess if a storage tank containing thousands of gallons of milk were suddenly to rupture and spill its contents. But would any reasonable person liken that to the environmental hazard of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico?

Well, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does. It has classified milk as "oil." Why? Because milk contains some animal fat -- even though it is biodegradable and certainly is nothing like petroleum.

Under the EPA's regulation, come November, dairy farmers would have to develop and put into place expensive plans to prevent spills from their milk storage tanks. That process could cost thousands of dollars, a spokesman for the Michigan Farm Bureau told The Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press, and that would mean higher prices for consumers.

"This is an example of where we have overreach by the department that defies common sense," said Matt Smego, of the Michigan Farm Bureau.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed a bill that would forbid the EPA to enforce such ridiculous rules about milk storage.

It is a sign of how absurd some federal regulation has become that such legislation should even be necessary.

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

FROM THE BOSPHORUS: STRAIGHT - ASSERTIVE TALK NO GOOD FOR FINE DIPLOMACY

A lot has happened since May 31, the date of a tragic event that claimed the lives of nine civilians by Israeli troops what foreign minister described as Turkey's 9/11. Turkey launched a diplomatic war against Israel, used almost all international forums for the condemnation of the Israeli assault on humanitarian ships in international waters, looked into some potential measures to take as a show of reaction and continuously slammed the Israeli government.

In parallel, it also made clear that it had some expectations from Israel, if the latter did not want further deterioration in bilateral ties. "If these are not met, we'll downgrade our diplomatic representation in this country to the level of chargé d'affair," Thursday's Daily News quoted Turkish diplomatic sources as saying. Among expectations are an official apology, compensation for victims on the aid ship Mavi Marmara, the return of the three Turkish ships in the flotilla and the establishment of an impartial inquiry commission into the incident.

On the other side of the coin are the expectations of some circles of the Turkish public opinion. These circles are pressing on the government to cut all diplomatic ties with Israel, to annul all military and defense deals and etc. They are one step away from asking the government to declare war against Israel. It was Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç who replied to those groups in the early days of the flotilla crisis when he said: "No one shall expect us to declare war."

We applauded Arınç when he said this. But doesn't the government have responsibility in provoking the masses against Israel? What Israel did has no definition in the dictionary of humanity. It's in its clearest form of brutality that obviously requires reciprocity – as the government assured – in legal and diplomatic ways.

What we observe, however, is going beyond what a mature and responsible government would do in such cases.

Statements by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and some other Justice and Development Party, or AKP, officials can be seen as evidence of the ruling party's intention to exploit the Israeli crisis in the domestic politics. The decision not to include deputies from opposition parties in the delegation of AKP lawmakers sent to Israel for the safe return of the activists strengthens this view.

The government is likely to announce "its new round of sanctions" against Israel in the days ahead.

For a fine and respected diplomacy, we believe the steps to be taken should be free of domestic policy concerns. These steps should not target Israeli people and should not hurt Turkey's interests either. That's the only way for a great state like Turkey to keep itself balanced in the worldwide debate on shifting axes.

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

BEING 'ORIENTALIST' OR BECOMING 'MIDDLE EASTERN'

NURAY MERT

These are not the issues that can be explained in an article deservedly. But I've tried to write about how I look at the "shift of political axis." I said my real concern was the danger of a "shift in the axis of democracy" in national politics via a shift in foreign policy of Turkey.

In the meantime, internal politics turning more authoritarian every day and the setup is via anti-Semitism. I said this will take Turkey closer to the Middle East, not the authoritarian political scene of the Middle East. But saying is one thing and adopting an "Orientalist" language by using a term like "becoming Middle Eastern" is another.

Kadir Gürsel of Milliyet daily in his article "To be or not to be Middle Eastern" (June 14, 2010) adopts a somewhat sharper and more direct language as opposed to what some imply indirectly.

"In the political culture of the Middle East," he wrote "theocracy, fundamentalism, monarchism, authoritarianism, nepotism, tribalism, sectarianism, pressuring religious and ethnic minorities, genociders and insults to women are together. In addition to all these, can you point out a single positive dominant element?"

Now, at this point, I want to say to him "Wait a minute."

To say "Let's look at today's Middle East, we see authoritarian regimes, monarchism, sectarianism etc. So we have to question all these and save ourselves from a romantic atmosphere of the Middle East," which is one thing. To read all negativities of mankind into the political culture of the Middle East - such an approach is the very self of "Orientalism," which reads what is "historic" into "cultural." And this is not different from "anti-Semitism" and "Occidentalism," which sees the West as the center of all evil. Moreover, Orientalism is a hegemonic approach bothering the mind of men excessively via colonialism.

Aside from the Western look to the East, not only in Turkey but in non-Western countries, the "internalization of Orientalism" dominates. What I mean by "internalized Orientalism" is "being part of Orientalism" or "penetration into Orientalism." In other words, it is to look down on the West, or the Arab, or non-Western everything. It is to experience an inferiority complex because of seeing one's self in this angle.

Apparently, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is trying to refer to this angle as part of his latest "Arab"

initiative! However, his referrals are problematic, just like the "Arab initiative" itself.

First of all, the only reason why Turkey has been standing at a distance from the Arab World or the Middle East for a long time is not the "internalized Orientalism" that undoubtedly dominates the republican period of Turkey. The main element here is political preferences of the Cold War period! Secondly, the approach that Erdoğan complains about - "Some name their dogs after Arabs" - stands on a different reference point. Let me elaborate this:

Although the word "Arab" has been modified in our culture, since the Ottoman period, we have meant not the Arab nation but dark-skinned people by the word "Arab." I am not saying to make an excuse for "naming dogs after Arabs." To the contrary, the issue turns more racist at this point.

Secondly, negative remarks about Arabs have not been explored in the Republican era. The Ottomans term Arabs as "Noble People" (kavm-i necip) and come up with idioms involving the term. This, in general, is about the Ottoman aristocratic looking to all people. For this reason exactly, Turks are termed as "unperceptive" (etrak-ı bi idrak).

At milestones of history, in particular, historic prejudices, national/religious identities, Orientalism, "internalized Orientalism" etc. all these concepts and categories should be re-checked. Let's mull over them. At this point, again, let's discuss the issue of "anti-Semitism." On this particular subject, lastly, I see Deputy Prime Minister Hüseyin Çelik's interview with Devrim Sevimay of Milliyet daily on June 14. Clearly, he is not convincing when Çelik blames the single-party period for the anti-Semitic approach in Turkey and ignores the anti-Semitic tradition that appears as a mentality trying to link anything negative to Jews.

It seems that, however, those who have adopted a way of thinking that reads history as a "Jewish plot" and links

every ill to Jews easily uses "anti-Semitic" language. On the other hand, those who start from an Orientalist approach find themselves in the very same language. In the end, unless everyone stops labeling each other and starts questioning himself/herself first, we will not be able to discuss the issue properly.

Most importantly, what we call "discussion" is not "brainstorming." We always forget that debates are the final resort of democratic politics. If we lose it, everyone will pay the price!

* Ms. Nuray Mert is a columnist for the daily Radikal, in which this piece appeared Thursday. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

FATMANUR ERDOĞAN

fati@fatierdogan.com

As I write this week's column, I am sitting in a large conference hall at the Swiss Hotel in Istanbul, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Thomas Friedman. Friedman is an internationally-renowned author, reporter, and columnist, the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes and the author of five bestselling books. His latest work is called "Hot, Flat, and Crowded," and that perfectly describes the packed room where he is about to speak.

These days Friedman talks a lot about the environment, but he is no Al Gore. His PowerPoint presentation doesn't overwhelm the audience with gloriously-lit charts and he doesn't speak of devastation and doom to come. Instead, he is a "sober optimist" who sees in environmental challenges the opportunity to become better citizens of the world.

Friedman's speaking style is genuine and informative, and his words real, serious, and to the point. He envisions a world that takes responsibility now rather than later. He says the baby boomers of 20 or 30 years ago could afford to do things "later," but generations today must act now. He reminds us that simply using the word "green" doesn't make a company green. In fact, he says, companies can use the word green to distract people from the fact they are anything but, like the way BP talks about green practices in its annual report, but is now responsible for one of the world's largest oil spills ever. To Friedman, genuine caring for the world is not expressed through a green revolution per se - after all, he asks us, "Have you ever seen a revolution without a fight?" Instead, genuine caring for the world takes place through the innovation and entrepreneurship that will create sustainability.

His book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" is about exactly that: creating a sustainable world through innovation. By hot, he means global warming. By flat, he means a globalization that has brought sameness to societies. And by crowded, he means a growing population and its impact on biodiversity. He wakes us up to the dangers of an environmental crisis in his own unique way: "The world is warming up by 2 degrees, which doesn't seem much to most. After all the number looks and feels 'small.' But if your body temperature goes up by 2 degrees, you have a fever. And if it goes up by another 2 degrees, you end up in the hospital."

Friedman is convinced that the next era of innovation will be in "Energy Technology," which he calls ET. He says, "I don't know who will lead it, but I know that the next generation will be about ET." He calls on entrepreneurs and researchers to take action so that new, clean, inexpensive alternative energy resources are made available sooner rather than later. The world can't wait. He tells us, "We are the first generation to strategically do something for our survival."

More than just urging a few people to create this new era though, Friedman asks all of us with creative minds to explore opportunities collectively so we can innovate towards a sustainable world.

Put this way, entrepreneurial creativity is not just a path to financial success and happiness. It is a moral calling. It is our duty to the world. When you hear that, how can you not find the courage to venture out of the port and explore unknown seas?

For those of you inspired by Friedman's words, take your quest to Özyeğin University. The university fosters innovation with programs and a center devoted to the kind of entrepreneurship Friedman encourages. And with an initiative called research@ozyegin, the University has set a goal to become a research-oriented institute, a notion unheard of in Turkey in the past. At Özyeğin you will find others of a like mind engaging in passionate discussion and debate and building the foundations of responsible learning.

I am in awe of the faculty's caliber, its boldness, and its vision for the future. Hüsnü Özyeğin and the university's leadership team aim to nurture the actions that will benefit our communities and create a more sustainable world. That is exactly the kind of institution that can forge a path into Friedman's new era.

www.fatmanurerdogan.com

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

DIRE REMARKS ON EUROPE FROM MEN AT THE HELM

SEMIH IDIZ

The head of Turkey's General Secretariat for the European Union, Ambassador Volkan Bozkir, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso were quoted this week uttering what appear to be prophetic remarks about the EU and Turkey's relations with it.

Addressing a conference in Izmir on Tuesday, Ambassador Bozkir was reported as saying "The EU dream is over. The EU is no longer a place that provides money for new members. It has become a place that has to deal with the problems of its own members."

Ambassador Bozkir went on to indicate that this did not mean Turkey was giving up on its EU bid, adding that he still expected membership, which he declared to be "inevitable" from a European point of view.

But his words clearly reflect a growing feeling in Turkey about Europe, and it is not an optimistic one.

Remarks attributed to Mr. Barroso in the European press, on the other hand, were far more dramatic than Ambassador Bozkir's words and will no doubt contribute further to this pessimistic outlook among Turks concerning the future of the EU.

It is indeed hard to believe and perhaps somewhat ironic from a Turkish point of view, but it seems that, according to Mr. Barroso, democracy could collapse in Greece, Spain and Portugal unless urgent action is taken to tackle the current debt crisis wreaking havoc in the European continent and beyond.

The three countries Mr. Barroso was referring to only became democracies in the 1970s and have a history of military coups, of course. The warning from Barroso, which was apparently made during a briefing to trade union chiefs last week, is doubly important since he himself is Portuguese and clearly has a sense of the dynamics of his own society.

All of this immediately begs some questions that should be obvious. If the EU cannot prevent the collapse of democracy, and a possible military takeover in countries that have had sufficient time to consolidate the Copenhagen Political Criteria, then what are its chances of doing so with new members in Southeast Europe, which are on shakier grounds in this respect?

Is Mr. Barroso saying in effect that, despite all the talk over the decades about how the EU perspective consolidates democracies in an irreversible manner, this may not in fact be the case in the event of a major crisis in Europe, such as the current economic one?

If, on the other hand, an economic crisis can have this effect in today's Europe, then does this not question the whole foundation of a union that started off as an economic entity half a century ago and should have long since established mechanisms that help it overcome such crises?

These questions return us to Ambassador Bozkir's perspective. In this column we have frequently touched on the economic crisis in Europe and its political fallout.

We have indicated that EU membership does not appear so attractive to Turks anymore as a result of this.

What we wrote was taken by some as an expression of "sour grapes by someone who is bitter because Europe will not let his country in." What they should have been doing instead is to take note of the Europeans we have been quoting, and who provide not the best of outlooks for the old continent in the face of today's emerging global realities.

Now they have even more food for thought with the startling remarks attributed to the Head of the European Commission, even if we personally consider these remarks to be a little exaggerated.

For example, it could very well be that all Mr. Barroso was trying to do was to scare European Trade Unionists in order to prevent them from using their democratic rights of demonstrating and going on strike.

Those who want to see an early recovery in Europe clearly do not want to see scenes like those in Greece spread to other EU members at this critical juncture. Especially when there are international financial speculators like George Soros, who are warning that the second curtain in the economic crisis has been raised now and there are hard days ahead for Europe again.

Turkey is also suffering the ill effects of the economic crisis, of course. But it is faring better than some EU members, given that it revamped its banking system after the devastating economic crisis in 2001 and enacted major structural reforms in the economic field that are proving helpful now.

Given this, there may be yet another irony here in terms of Turkey's ties with Europe. It appears for all intents and purposes that we are headed for a multi-tiered Europe, where some members are more equal than others, based on their economic performance.

Some are already saying that Europe has been divided into a wealthy North and poorer South. And those in the North are already saying they do not want to pay for the South. It can be expected that, as the economic crisis continues, such sentiments will spread with an inevitable counter-reaction from the South.

It seems therefore that Turkey will be dealing with an increasingly divided Europe even if the overall structure of the EU stands. While such a Europe will perhaps have less time for Turkey collectively, individual European states will want to forge further ties with a country that is considered one of the most promising among emerging markets.

It is also likely that the countries from the richer North will continue to be the ones that are most interested in this country for economic reasons. This in turn will give more clout to Turkey with its EU bid. As matters stand, it is already noticeable that the "No to Turkey" chorus line has toned down its negative rhetoric, especially among mainstream parties in France and Germany.

It is perhaps because of this that it is the ultra-rightwing in countries like Holland and Denmark that are now the ones saying "No to Turkey" openly and vocally. But even this tells us more about Europe than it does about Turkey since the ultra-rightwing is less concerned about economics and more about cultural and religious identity issues.

But as we know "its all about the economy, stupid!" and has always been at the end of the day.

As we have said before, while Turkey's bid for EU membership may be "open-ended," according to some in Europe, it is clear that the whole "EU dream," to use Ambassador Bozkir's words, is in fact "open-ended" also.

If the remarks attributed to Mr. Barroso are not merely designed to scare working men and women from striking, but to carry an element of truth in them, then these provide the best example of just how open-ended the overall European project may in fact be.

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

WITH LOVE FROM HAMAS

BURAK BEKDİL

Since 2001, between 8,000 and 12,000 rockets which future Nobel Peace Prize winner Khaled Mashal once described as "modest, home-made rockets," have been fired. The first casualties were reported in 2004 when two civilians were killed by a "modest, home-made" Qassam rocket, including the four-year-old Afik Zahavi. Afik's 28-year-old mother was critically injured and nine others were wounded. Hamas claimed responsibility.

"Those who support terror are collaborators of terrorists," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan very rightfully asserted a few days ago. Of course, he was referring to the PKK. In the past Mr. Erdoğan's main reference point about Operation Cast Lead, in which the Israeli Defense Forces killed hundreds of civilians in the Gaza Strip, was the famous Goldstone Report.

Last September, Mr. Erdoğan's principal reference point on Israel's Gaza offensive found out that: "…they (Hamas' activities) constitute a deliberate attack against the civilian population. These actions would constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity…The rocket and mortar attacks launched by armed Palestinian groups have caused terror."

Another finding: "Hamas continues to view all armed activity directed against Israel as… a legitimate right of the Palestinian people."

The Goldstone Report, also accusing Israel for war crimes and other offenses, further found out that: "…security services under the control of the Gaza authorities carried out extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, detentions and ill treatment of people…"

No doubt, Mr. Erdoğan is right: supporting terrorists is tantamount to collaborating with them. Last week, Mr. Erdoğan made it clear that "Hamas is not a terrorist organization, and he even said that to President Barack Obama," although Hamas is listed as such by the United States. Good… We can now expect Washington to drop Hamas from its list of terrorist entities.

What makes Mr. Erdoğan think that the Hamas chaps are as remote to terror as U.S. congressmen or members of the European Parliament?

One of Mr. Erdoğan's favorite statements is his famous line, "There is no Islamic terror." Recently online humor "daily" Zaytung fabricated a story whose lead paragraph read: "Erdoğan's claims that 'there is no Islamic terror' have left several Islamic terror organizations heart-broken. A press release from al-Qaeda's press section read: 'The prime minister's remarks are very discouraging. We are doing our best!'"

Last month, at the Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Erdoğan reiterated that "there is no Islamic terror" and that "the words Islam and terror could never come together." I tried, and Google gave me 9,510,000 entries when I typed 'Islam' and 'terror.' It's bizarre that a significantly large crowd all over the world has been producing texts on something that does not exist.

According to Wikipedia, "Islamic terrorism is terrorism committed by Muslims, and aimed at achieving various political ends like Osama bin Ladin's stated goal of ending American presence in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula, overthrowing "infidel regimes" and stopping American support for Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

I have no idea if there can be such things as 'Christian terrorism' or 'Jewish terrorism.' Mr Erdogan did not tell. But he did tell us more than once that Israel committed "state terror." So, there is Israeli state terror, PKK terror and Ergenekon terror, but there isn't Islamic terror. Since Mr. Erdoğan invariably singles out Islam as one religion that cannot be associated with terrorism, he must be thinking that other religions (or atheism) can be.

Too bad, I have never been privileged enough to be physically close to the prime minister and ask him if there could be Christian or Jewish or atheist terror. I might also be curious and ask him what kind of terrorism NATO has been fighting in Afghanistan, with the non-combat from the Turkish military supporting that fight.

Really, why does Turkey maintain a military presence in Afghanistan? What does a multinational NATO task force do in Afghan lands? Fighting insects? Corruption? Having vacation in the Talibanland?

What kind of terror was it, really, which targeted a British bank and two synagogues in Istanbul in 2003, killing over 50 people? Red Army Brigades? The PKK? The Ergenekon?

Mr. Erdoğan's rhetoric on what is and what isn't terror as well as who is and who isn't a terrorist is more than problematic, especially for a prime minister whose country is fighting terrorists who, for some, are 'freedom fighters.' It must be a bad irony that it was the Turks who complained for decades about other nations' double standards on labeling some terrorists as terrorists and some as freedom fighters. Who would know one day…

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY

YUSUF KANLI

The Turkish judiciary is of course "independent" in this country even if the top judges of this country say the opposite and express complaints that the government is in efforts to further enhance its influence on the judiciary in clear breach of the separation of powers principle enshrined in the constitution.

Even though some top judges often come up with "Judges are caught in between their valets and justice" revelations, to claim that court verdicts can be bought in this country through various methods may land someone in prison on the grounds of harming the public image of "independent judiciary" and of humiliating most honorable judges and prosecutors of this country.

There is of course freedom of expression in this country but if an out-of-line columnist comes up with an article suggesting that people inclined to commit crime must make sure to have an "uncle" in the top state bureaucracy, preferably in the justice bureaucracy, before committing a crime may spend years at the doors of court rooms and in trying to defend himself in front of judges and if he – and under the press law the editor of that publication – is lucky enough may be sentenced only to a fine. Of course there is no nepotism in the Turkish justice system.

As neither the lower courts nor the higher courts of this country have any judges involved in nepotism, of course in this country no one can come up with some pervert allegations such as a lucrative land swap deal between a close relative of a top judge and a notoriously corrupt mayor just before the ruling party of the country narrowly escaped a closure case [though condemned as focus of anti-secular activities and subjected to a lofty fine] or no one can feel the slightest need to buy backing of some top men of justice to win a case, let's say, at the Court of Appeals.

Anyhow, under the current laws of this country making an assertion that the judiciary has become subservient to the government or the party in power may land someone behind bars as such a claim might be interpreted as an insult to the "independent judiciary."

Of course there is an "independent judiciary" in this country. There is no question that justice prevails in this country and no one can buy out court verdicts with cash or through blackmail, government pressure or various intimidation tactics, including discipline penalties, posting to some remote Anatolian towns or sacking from the profession. If there are such reports in the media or speculation to that end among the people, it must be acknowledged that there might be "exceptional cases" and of course exceptions are just exceptions, they should not be generalized.

In this country with an independent judiciary, the government cannot of course order a judge and prosecutor of a courthouse to set up a tent-court within the border gate area and offer privileged treatment to a group of not-so-criminal members of a separatist terrorist gang returning from a bordering country.

Naturally, even if such a tent-court is established, of course, Turkish courts don't remove the Turkish flag and portraits of the founder not to offend the returning terrorists. If the returning terrorists don't repent but on the contrary tell the "court" their leader told them to return and indeed they are carrying letters from their chieftain, the unrepentant terrorists are of course cannot be allowed to benefit from a repentance law and set free by the court.

Turkish government cannot of course order impromptu release of the not-so-criminal terrorists irrespective they repent or not. Should the "independent tent-court" decides in goodwill for the release of the terrorists and contribute to national peace and order, the security forces of the country of course don't allow the released terrorists and the supporters of the separatist gang to stage "victory rallies" in many cities.

Almost nine months after the establishment of a "tent-court" and impromptu release of not-so-criminal yet unrepentant terrorists, not some other courts of the country started netting the very same terrorists and placing behind bars as part of a judicial process on the alleged criminal activities they were implicated in.

And in some sections of this country people started to make complaints that if the returned terrorists are brought in front of courts Turkey should forget about return of the remaining terrorists on the mountains.

After all, Turkish courts are "independent." In Turkey's constitution it is said it is a state respecting supremacy of law. Besides, everyone is "equal" in front of law.

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

A DIFFERENT JURIST: OSMAN CAN

MEHMET ALİ BİRAND

A short time ago there was no mention of Osman Can, the rapporteur for the Constitutional Court.

First, he drew attention to the headscarf issue with a report prepared by the Constitutional Court. And now he has become the man of the day with his views he stated before negotiations for the constitutional reform started.

Why Osman Can?

The reason is simple. For, if the constitutional court cancels two articles (the ones concerning the HSYK and the formation of the court) of the constitutional reform package, Can advised the administration to ignore this decision, thus creating a shock. The interesting part of it is that he received criticism from almost each segment of society.

No one, from liberals to conservatives, from jurists to politicians, from the opposition to the administration party, "can request ignoring a decision made by a jurist or the court. It is neither ethical nor acceptable from a jurisdictional point of view. It is a crime."

This debate is still going on and has taken its place in the agenda.

Because of his stunning proposal I invited Osman Can to my program 32.Gün. To tell the truth, I was stunned while listening to Can.

A social democrat who admires Rumi

I did not expect such a rapporteur in front of me. The Osman Can I had in mind was close to the AKP and strong in his religious believes. According to some even a member of them. His statements and gossip made people paint a portrait like that.

I found an extremely well equipped jurist in front of me who was convincing with his extraordinary views and who knew what he was talking about.

I don't know if you had a chance to watch.

But if not, I may give you a summary about his most striking words.

- He does not hesitate to say that despite working there he does not trust the Constitutional Court because of its illegitimate structure.

- Osman Can is not a man of pious or religious groups. On the contraire he has nothing to do with it. Better to say, he is a non-believer. His world and religious beliefs evolve around Rumi.

- According to his own words, he is a social democrat outside of Turkey. When entering through the Kapıkule border he becomes a "confused liberal." But basically he is a democratic jurist.

Fight between old, new minds

So why does he advice such a thing?

Isn't it a crime?

He says, "No."

According to Osman Can, the Constitutional Court can only follow regulations made by Parliament (representative of the people) to check whether or not they comply with the Constitution. It can't judge the content. That is why actually the court would be in violation if it cancels the above two articles in the reform package.

Can says he has only tried to make a warning.

Honestly, he has managed to draw attention.

He says, "The court makes a decision. And the government may or may not comply." His intention is to bring up a basic issue on the agenda.

And that basic issue has to do with the Constitutional Court's structure and mind.

As you see, the real argument is about something else.

These are issues included in his message:

- He says that the Constitutional Court is obligated to protect the secular system but this needs to change. He stresses the fact that the Turkish jurisdiction is not independent. It needs to rid itself of military influence.

- He says that the AKP is a "confused party." If these changes are made then wouldn't the AKP create its own jurisdiction? And wouldn't the secular system be in danger?"

- He says, "No, the AKP can't create its own judiciary this way. Secularists can't get a grip on the courts as they formerly did. To protect secularism, can't be the duty of the military or the courts. It can only be the duty of the people. No one else can protect or watch out for it."

If you failed to watch 32.Gün, you may catch up with it watching CNN Turk today at 9 p.m. and the summary at 2:15 a.m.

I certainly recommend it.

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE GREEK TEAM: TIRED AND DEMORALIZED

ARIANA FERENTINOU

The headline on one of the main Greek sport's newspapers was short but to the point: "Come back!" The strict order was for the Greek national football team, which yesterday was trying to recover from their crushing defeat by the South Korean national team in one of the worst matches of Mundial so far. Some six thousand Greeks who traveled to South Africa with high hopes to watch their team, probably were feeling what everybody else did at home: that the Greeks had shown a terrible performance.

The blue and white flags were quickly folded and put away, the blue and white paint was wiped away from the faces of men and women for whom Mundial was going to be the peak of their summer. Of course, the war has not been completely lost. There are battles to fight in the green fields of Johannesburg, but the low morale of the Greek players was striking. Heads down, few words, no excuses. "Yes, we did badly, very badly."

It seems that very little is going right these days with Greeks. As members of an economic and political union that itself is going through a painful transformation, the Greeks have been picked up by almost everybody who are telling them that they have to feel bad about themselves, that they should accept that have been lazy, corrupt and unreliable, that they should feel ashamed for their lifestyle and that they deserve to be punished by becoming poorer, with lower living standards, unemployed, work longer for lower wages and be happy with meager pensions if at all. The choice is clear and painful. There is no alternative solution to this terrible fate befallen upon them, which they totally deserved. The options are as painfully clear as Mrs. Thatcher's simple advice: "You either swim or sink."

A huge public debt of approximately 300 billion euros, apparently a combination of mismanagement and corruption, is enough for the Greeks' eternal condemnation, which has now placed them under the strict management of the IMF, the ECB and the Eurogroup. Their representatives are now on a regular mission overseeing that Greece is spending wisely the support loans of some 115 billion euros they made available in installments. Monday another group from the "troika," as it is called, will arrive to Greece and make sure that the second installment of that loan of nine billion euros is to be spent for the right reasons, according to a "memorandum" that the government of George Papandreou agreed with last month. The critics of the Greek government believe this agreement, approved by the Greek Parliament, locked Greece into a dangerous straightjacket that will strangulate basic labor rights and freedoms unprecedented in the history of the Greek state.

The low morale of a large part of the Greek society is due to the realization that it is not so much the big debt that their country has to deal with through draconian economic measures. What they are coming to realize is that the debt has become a reason or a pretext for the loss of fundamental labor rights that had never been contested before. And while the presence of the grey-suited IMF technocrats in the central streets of Athens have become something of a familiar sight by now, what the Greeks are really worried about is the team at the Labor Ministry under the leadership of the Constitutional Law Professor Andreas Loverdos that is designing the new labor map. A map that will deprive the employees of their fundamental rights and freedoms as they knew them up to now and give the employers a much larger room for maneuvering to increase their incentives for profit all that for the sake of competition in a globalized tough market. It is a formula that is being applied to the whole of the EU with an increasing pace.

The timetable for the heavily indebted Greece is tight. A deadline placed by the minister to the representatives of employers and employees to put forward their proposals for curbing the current crisis ends this Wednesday. After then, the minister will push a series of ministerial decrees or ask for the issuance of presidential decrees that will, among others, make it easy for the employers to dismiss their personnel by increasing the proportional number of permitted dismissals and by drastically decreasing the compensation paid by the employers. The new labor map will provide lower than the basic pay for young people under 25 years old who first enter the labor market. It will recalculate the pension over a mean average of the whole working life of an employee - and not of the best paid five years of somebody's working life - and will ask most workers to stay at work for at least 35 years.

While watching the match between Greece and South Korea last Saturday, I was struck with how tired the Greek players were. Tired and demoralized. They may have not presented a good picture of a football team in the biggest contest of the sport. But they presented an accurate picture of their society. Tired and demoralized

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

RESIGNATIONS IN HAND

In a move that appears to have taken even the top PPP brass by surprise, President Asif Ali Zardari, in his capacity as co-chairperson of the party, has sought the resignations of all sitting parliamentarians. It is unclear why this move is being made at this juncture, about halfway through the term of the assembly. But quite obviously it seems most likely the decision by the party head is linked to the growing climate of political instability and the possibility of a showdown between the government and the judiciary. Certainly, the government has done little to prevent tensions from mounting and has indeed, from time to time, seemed to act deliberately to stoke up the fires that are now sending up billowing clouds of smoke. Who will they eventually burn? We simply do not know. But it does seem as though the seeking of resignations could be intended to exert pressure at some point in future, when it is perceived that the need exists. The games being played within the presidency are known to few beyond the gilded doors of the building. The possibility of a 'conspiracy' outside parliament has been raised, but there is no way of knowing whether this is a creation of the kind of paranoia we have seen so often in the past or whether the president and his aides are aware of something being cooked up behind closed doors.

Let us, however, put things in perspective. The needs of the people of Pakistan should stand highest on any list of priorities. This is a fundamental principle of democracy. Any amount of rhetoric expounding its virtues and calling for it to be defended is rather pointless unless the people can be served. There can be no doubt about the fact that this is not happening presently. The situation of people is in fact getting worse by the day as they wilt under the burden of unrelenting inflation and an ocean of other difficulties. So, how does all this then tie in to the matter of resignations? Events that take place on various fronts in the country are not isolated. They are bound closely together by strong strands which, like a spider's web, may be invisible at times, but are nevertheless present, waiting to ensnare and trap. The seeking of the resignations only adds to political uncertainty. This means the possibility of improved governance or a stable economic order slips further away. People can then expect little change in their plight, and we wonder whether the leaders seeking resignations even consider their situation when devising their strategies.

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

BEWILDERING FIGURES

The lack of honesty or integrity of the government is not really a matter for much surprise or wonder any longer. There have been reams of evidence to suggest that countless problems exist in this department. But one would think it would still not be too much to expect a small measure of common sense. Even this is astonishingly lacking. According to a report in this publication, a quite bewildering set of figures has been put out for amounts disbursed under the Benazir Income Support Programme and the amount allocated for the coming fiscal year. The government's own documents do not match. One figure was put forward in the budget speech, another one is included in the Economic Survey released ahead of it. The website for the BISP puts out its own projections. Given that the figures run into billions of rupees, and are intended, as members of government are so fond of stressing, to help the poorest of the poor, all this is extremely disturbing, to say the least. There is no way of knowing which figure – if any at all -- is correct, which has been generated by error and which is simply concocted. Anything is possible. The entire charade is one more factor which goes to expose both the ineptitude of the government and its lack of commitment to the cause of the people in whose name it so often speaks.

We hope that these divergent strings of figures are the result of a mistake and that some explanation can be offered up to let us know which ones are indeed accurate. As things stand at present, it is impossible to tell. It is a matter of even deeper worry to contemplate the possibility that the statistics are made up and that the amounts stated have never been given out to people at all. The situation calls for some kind of inquiry. It also calls for calculators to be dispensed to the government's financial team so they can do their maths, sit down together and try and work out for the benefit of all which set of numbers we should go by while attempting to assess a programme that the government has hailed as one of its biggest achievements.

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

SAFETY NET

The social safety net that hangs below the poor exists in the form of aid given out by philanthropists, some schemes offered by the government and the charitable hand-outs doled out in the form of food and clothing by various organizations. We have known for a very long time this net has holes. They seem to be growing larger by the day. Most recently, five members of a single family in Lahore fell through it, after rickshaw driver Muhammad Akbar apparently poisoned himself, his wife and three young daughters. An infant son was spared. There are various accounts of the event. The wife and a 14-year-old daughter who survived have reportedly spoken in hospital of a family decision to commit suicide given growing financial hardship. Relatives suggest the family may have been poisoned following a petty dispute.

Perhaps the full truth will emerge; perhaps it will not. But we do not really require it to gain insight into the kind of lives people lead and the degree of pressure they face as a result of financial hardships. While many suicides and attempted suicides are attributed to domestic discords, the fact is these arise due to the pressure exerted by joblessness or a lack of means to make ends meet even for those who are employed. We need a sounder net to save them. Too many citizens today live in constant peril, facing a constant slippage that brings them closer to the edge of the cliff. They need to be rescued before disaster strikes and leads them to fall a long, long way down to a stony ground that offers no hope of survival.

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I. THE NEWS

LOVE AMONG THE RUINS

AYAZ AMIR

There is this newspaper story in front of me, which everyone must have read, about the rickshaw driver in Lahore driven by poverty and debt to take his own life and that of his two young daughters. A photograph of the family in what must have been good times shows them all reasonably happy. But then something must have happened for darkness to take over and for this tragedy to have unfolded.

Life doesn't come in one piece. It is made up of different things: joy and tragedy, triumph and sorrow, kindness and cruelty, the stars and the gutter. Hegelians perhaps would call this the clash of opposites. Yet no theory of philosophy, no history of the world, quite prepares one for a drama as grim as this.

But even as I write this bromide -- full of sentimentality -- I know that if it is history we are scanning, it predisposes the mind to accept the tragedy of human existence. Life is full of suffering. Even in this century -- forget about the 20th which witnessed war, death and destruction on a scale unparalleled -- the spectres of famine and genocide have stalked different part of Africa. But as Stalin said, an individual's death may be a tragedy. A million dead is a statistic.

We can feel the death of the rickshaw driver because it is, relatively speaking, so close to us. Distant death, say in Rwanda or even at the gates of the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, reads like a statistic.

And I was about to write about Noor Jahan. Should I not write about her? Should I apologise for doing so? In a world full of surprises few things are as amazing as the circumstance that even at the height of the Second World War, when the tide had shifted and the Nazi legions were being rolled back, concert performances were still being held in Berlin.

Even as Jews were being transported to death camps across Europe, Furtwangler was conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. There are downloads on YouTube showing him conducting the Ninth Symphony (Beethoven's) with the Nazi elite in attendance, listening to the music with rapt attention, giant swastika drapes hanging from the walls. Music among the ruins. Bombs falling all around, death on the march, but concert halls, at least some of them, still open.

We have some rain and we cancel the military parade on March 23. In November 1941 the Germans were at the gates of Moscow. The Soviet Politburo was in two minds whether to go ahead with the Revolution Day parade on November 7. Then Stalin decided that the parade would be held. As he and the rest of the Soviet leadership stood atop the Lenin Mausoleum in Red Square, the Soviet divisions marched past and from there went straight to the front, not 20-25 miles away to the west.

Stalin's speech on the occasion is worth listening to (it's on YouTube). Lasting barely seven minutes, in it he says it all, recalling Russia's glorious military past, evoking such names as those of Suvorov and Kutuzov, mentioning Lenin more than once, and exhorting the Soviet masses to defeat and overthrow the Nazi tyranny. It was Stalin's leadership which saved the Soviet Union. He was also a mass murderer, killing far more people than anyone in history, far more than any of the Mongols, and they were destroyers of empires. Stalin was a great man, one of history's colossuses. He was also a tyrant. Such is life.

In his memoirs Babar describes how he had to give up Samarkand to Shaibani Khan Uzbek. Most of his people left him… "Among them were well known begs and old family servants." Only 100 people were left with him. His elder sister, Khanzada Begum, fell into Shaibani Khan's hands. All night they wandered in the darkness, losing their way. But when the morning sun rises what does the fugitive prince do? Does he give way to despair? Does he sit on a rock and mourn his fate? No: "On the road I raced with Qasim Beg Quichin and Qambar Ali Mughal. My horse was leading." Ruin stares him in the face and Babar is racing his horse.

Then, after another day's hard journey, they arrive at the village of Dizak where there were "…fat meats, loaves of fine flour, plenty of sweet melons and an abundance of excellent grapes. From acute deprivation we came to such plenty! From what anxiety to what repose!" Was ever a prince such a romantic at heart as Babar?

Countless are the occasions in his memoirs when he talks of taking wine. He came to drink late but then became very fond of it. If a garden took their fancy he and his begs laid out a drinking party. If they were encamped near a river they would board a boat for an araq party. And Babar was always having maajun (a concoction of bhang, if I am not mistaken), as in this description: "We marched at sunrise. Later, we ate maajun. While under its tranquillising influence, we enjoyed wonderful fields of flowers…We sat on a mound to enjoy the sight…The flower fields near Peshawar were indeed very lovely."

On every page there is something to delight the reader: "At dawn we took our morning drink (of spiced wine)…At noon we rode to Kabul, reached Khawaja Hassan's house quite drunk, and slept briefly." On the next page: "Shah Hassan Arghun, son of Shah Shuja Beg Arghun, asked permission to hold a wine party. I gave it." A few paragraphs later, "Tingri Birdi and other warriors gave a party in Haidar Taqi's garden. I went and drank there. We rose from it at the Evening Prayer when a move was made to the great tent where the drinking continued." And this priceless entry: "Tonight I chose to take opium because of my earache. Another reason was the lustre of the moon." The epicure, the moon's lustre eclipsing the earache.

And there is Babar's famous description of his infatuation with the youth, Baburi. But let me stop here lest upright souls take umbrage. Great injustices may move us not but we take offence at trifles. We like to think of ourselves as successors to the Mughals. Looking at our moralizing and self-righteousness, a far cry from Babar's free and easy ways, this lineage looks doubtful.

But where is Noor Jahan lost in all this turmoil? A few weeks back I wrote about the defunct newspaper The Muslim's first managing editor, flamboyant Jahangir A Khan, and this is something I received from him: " A riposte methinks is due to 'All those years ago' nostalgically recalled in Islamabad Diary, 2nd May. Ref Noor Jahan: but who else if not Jahangir to pair with her in Chan-ve? (the film in which they both starred)…Noori was truly a goddess reincarnated -- a diva of course but also a courtesan in moments of passion. Need I say more? I mourn the fact that Allah Vasai of Kasur whom the magic hand of the Muses touched and who deserved a temple and monument in her hometown of Kasur should lie buried in some God-forsaken suburb of Karachi."

I have been listening to some of her old ghazals recently and the more I listen to that full voice, rich and throaty, cured as if in a wine-chamber of the elect, the more the realisation sinks in that she was truly blessed. Generations from now, when the present will be forgotten, her voice will live on.

Just a few nights ago I happened to come across something I had never heard before, Noor Jahan singing that famous Ghalib ghazal "Nukta cheen hai gham-e-dil, usko sunaye na bane…" Suraiya sang this ghazal to perfection in the film Mirza Ghalib (music by the incomparable Ghulam Muhammad) and I used to think it was impossible to surpass her. But listening to Noor Jahan was a revelation. The voice sounds a bit raw, and here it is less polished than Suraiya's. But the effect is far more overwhelming.

True, her repertoire is uneven. Some of her popular hits, sung for the crowd, are pretty unbearable. But when she sang for the gods there was no one to beat her. As for the diva as courtesan, lucky the souls who knew her in her moments of passion.

Email: winlust@yahoo.com

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

STRUGGLES ARE NOT LOST

NAUMAN ASGHAR

Israel's assault on Freedom Flotilla has once again exposed its blatant arrogance and its determination to starve to death the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip as it continues to deny them their universally recognised right to life. The mild reaction of the US has shows that the Obama administration is not ready to deliver on its promises to the Muslim world at the cost of annoying its watchdog in the Middle East. The history of the State of Israel makes it indubitably clear that all the principles and norms of international laws become insignificant in the realm of realpolitik.

The UN Charter quite explicitly points out that use of force is allowed only under two conditions; in the case of individual self-defence when an 'armed attack occurs' or in the case of Security Council's authorisation. Israel could use neither of these justifications.

Apologists for Israeli aggression proffer the argument that the UN Charter cannot be applied to the West Bank and Gaza Strip since they do not formally constitute a state and are not a party to the Charter. Hence, they say, Israel is not bound to respect their sovereignty. There's little reason to take these objections seriously because the PLO is the sole liberation movement that has been granted the status of observer by the United Nations.

Besides, the UN Resolution 242 condemns, in unmistakable terms, Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory occupied after the 1967 war. Moreover, the International Court of Justice in its judgment in 2004 declared the Israeli settlements as illegal under international law. Also, the much-cited San Remo Manual, used by Israel to justify its attacks on the flotilla, is a non-starter as a legal permission certificate.

There is nothing in the San Remo Manual that allows a belligerent state to target and kill civilians who are known to be on a non-violent humanitarian mission in international waters, especially when they are dedicated to opposing an illegal embargo. The Manual allows countries to intercept "merchant vessels" in international waters if the vessels are believed to be carrying contraband, or engaged in belligerent acts or acting as auxiliaries to the enemy's armed forces.

There is no legitimate basis for invoking the San Remo Manual in case of the Freedom Flotilla.

Since the ship was sailing in the high seas, the underlying international law that applies here is the 'exclusive flag jurisdiction', which has been identified as part of the customary international law by the Permanent Court of International Justice in 1927 (The Lotus Case: France v Turkey): "It is certainly true that – apart from certain special cases which are defined by international law – vessels on the high seas are subject to no authority except that of the State whose flag they fly". Since the ship was flying a Turkish flag it was only subject to Turkish jurisdiction.

The 1982 Convention on Law of the Sea provides for the "innocent passage" of ships in international waters if their behaviour is not deemed "prejudicial to the peace, good order or the security" of the respective coastal state. The attack on the Freedom Flotilla took place 90 miles offshore, clearly outside of Israel's sovereignty (which extends no further than 12 miles from Israel's coast), and in a zone where international Law of the Sea is clearly applicable. Therefore, the Israeli act of violence against the ships on high seas come within the purview of 'piracy'.

In addition, the 1988 IMO Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (to which Israel is a party) also makes the action of the Israeli navy unlawful. Article 3 of the IMO Convention provides that a person commits an offence if that person unlawfully and intentionally:

a. Seizes or exercises control over a ship by force or threat thereof or any other form of intimidation; or b. Performs an act of violence against a person onboard a ship if that act is likely to endanger the safe navigation of that ship.

Furthermore, as an occupying power, Israel is obliged by international humanitarian law – specifically the Hague Regulations of 1907, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the First Additional Protocol to the Fourth Geneva Convention – to ensure the protection of civilians and individuals not taking part in hostilities. The vessels were on a philanthropic mission, carrying humanitarian supplies. Even if Israel were in a state of war with any of the countries whose people were aboard the flotilla, it couldn't have captured the vessels according to the terms of the Hague Convention of 1907.

The implications of Israel's aggression are far-reaching and will impact upon the efforts to restore peace in the Middle East. The western powers must realise that they cannot dissuade Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons if they fail to rein in Israel's aggression. As a result of this deed, Israel has lost the support of its ally Turkey while the Palestinians have gained worldwide moral support. In fact, Israel's rejection of the UN proposal to hold an international inquiry into this matter has further damaged its position. But, the Israeli prime minister continues to defend the attack by accusing the aid ships of 'provocative actions'. Edward Said remarkably noted, "The struggles for justice and peace may be protracted but they are hardly lost."

Israel can kill innocent and hapless Palestinians but cannot kill their determination to resist the illegal Israeli occupation.

The writer is an advocate. Email: naumanlawyer@gmail.com

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE BELIEF IN CHANGE

AHMAD RAFAY ALAM

The Economic Survey 2009-2010 is available and online for all to access. It paints a startling picture of this Islamic Republic and presents ground realities that cannot be ignored. And if one cares to compare what it says with the recent budget, the mismatch between what people need and what the government has proposed to meet those needs reveals itself in sharp relief.

At almost 170 million (officially), Pakistan is the world's sixth most populous country. With a population growth rate of 2.1 per cent (the highest amongst the nine other countries compared with, including the SAARC countries, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia), our population is expected to reach some 300 million by 2050. For those young enough to expect to live so long, pause for a second and consider: there will be twice as many Pakistanis as they are now. If you think the government can barely handle the existing problems, well, double the problems and see if the government has any chance.

As things stand, nearly 62 per cent of the population lives in what are categorised as rural areas (conversely, over 35 per cent of the population lives in cities, making the Islamic Republic the most urbanised country in South Asia). The large rural population is primarily engaged in the agriculture sector, which employs 45 per cent of the workforce. Over half of this work is engaged in livestock and, even though our crop productivity is less than China, India, Brazil and the USA, 21 per cent of the country's GDP comes from the agriculture.

That said, the Agriculture chapter of the Economic Survey states that "without major investments, it is unclear how Pakistan will tackle the emerging challenges such as declining water availability and climate change." Pakistan is already a water-stressed country, and with our population expected to double in the next forty years, the existing per capita water resources will be halved at the very least. Climate change means, eventually, a decrease in glacial melt (which forms over 90 per cent of Pakistan's water resources) and heralds a food security crisis.

Now go and check the budgets for investments or programmes to expand water resources. Mangla Dam is being raised, as are the Gomal Zam and Satpara Dam. According to our federal finance minister, these should be completed in 2010-2011. And the Daimir-Bhasha Dam, which is to be launched as a mega project in the coming financial year, will have a storage capacity of 6,450 MAF. Of course, there is no law, policy or political will dictating that we save or conserve water resources. All efforts are being put into increasing water storage for food production. Meanwhile, as news reports indicate that most of the water in Lahore contains arsenic and the Economic Survey itself states that every other Pakistani in hospital today is there because of contaminated drinking water. Meanwhile, the sahib log keep on washing their cars with drinking water and the faithful perform wu'zu five times a day.

Our health indicators (life expectancy 66.5 years; infant mortality of 65.1 per 1000 and child mortality under 5 years of 95.2 per 1000 are the highest amongst the nine other countries surveyed (i.e not the world) and, in any case, scandalously shocking.

Now go check the budgets to examine what sort of money the federal and provincial governments are setting aside for the healthcare of its citizens and compare it with the 17 per cent increase in the defence budget (this does not represent the hidden allocations for salaries and pensions made to the military under the "General Public Services" category). What use is it, I ask, to spend money protecting the Fortress of Islam when its inhabitants are literally wasting away because of dirty drinking water and a lack of healthcare resources.

Poverty in Pakistan is defined by calorie intake. The cost of 2350 calories per day is quantified and this, along with some other inputs, gives one where the poverty line is drawn. In other words, poverty is not about not having money; it's about not having enough money to buy food. The Economic Survey tries to obfuscate what the poverty rate in Pakistan is. This is because of an unresolved tussle between the ministry of finance and the Planning Commission. But, depending on who you ask, anywhere between 20 to 35 per cent of Pakistanis live below the poverty line. But regardless where this line is drawn, the Economic Survey is clear on one thing: it states that simply "Accelerating economic growth…is not sufficient to bring down poverty levels."

With the population expected to double and with urbanisation set to rise to well over 50 per cent, what we will see happening is the rise of instances of urban poverty. This is an entirely new problem. Currently, poverty is thought of as a rural phenomenon that can be worked on by – and here's the rub – accelerating economic growth. It's essentially a development issue. Urban poverty, on the other hand, will not be a development issue. It will be a health issue.

With most of the people in Pakistan expected to live in cities, there will be huge pressures on safe housing, clean and efficient sewage and sanitation infrastructure, healthcare facilities, job opportunities and recreational spaces. Without these facilities, the issue most pressing will be the effect the water, air and noise pollution will have on the incomes of people. If an urban worker loses a week a month to illness, that's a quarter of his wages lost (with the remainder spent on medicine). At some point, the government must appreciate that cleaning up drinking water isn't merely something the Environment Department should be doing (though, for their part, they don't have National Environmental Quality Standards to enforce. These standards are meant to set by the Pakistan Environment Protection Council, which has met only once since this government was formed). Clean drinking water will actually reduce the incidents of urban illness and will translate into more income for families.

Now go and check the budgets to see what the federal and provincial governments are planning to do about this.
It's becoming painfully clear that the issues we face on a day-to-day basis are linked not just to development but to the state of the environment and the effect of climate change as well. However, it seems that the government has not made this connection. Most debate still revolves around things like the VAT and security. No doubt these things are important (especially the VAT, because reform has to start somewhere), but they cannot be looked at in isolation from the existential problems faced by Pakistanis. Nowhere is the discussion, let alone budget allocation, on how to prioritise the mainstream environmental concerns into budget discussions. The Economic Survey's chapter on the Environment paints a bleak picture of what's going on in Pakistan, yet the list of the federal government's programmes to combat these challenges is negligible (having the Guinness Record for the most number of trees planted in a day is not something a federal government should consider a landmark achievement).

In the chapter on Poverty, the Survey candidly states: "Periods of growth that have occurred at periods of macro-economic stability do not tend to produce desired outcomes regards poverty." It is time for our government and the politicians in it to understand that Pakistan's current and future problems can't be solved by existing thinking. We've got to start thinking outside the box. Of course, the great challenge here is to start believing that we have the ability and capacity to undertake this thinking and bring the change. But then again, it's the job of the leaders to give their people that confidence.

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

DESCENT INTO ANARCHY

SHAFQAT MAHMOOD

Is it the malaise of a long hot summer or a rising despair at the antics of our ruling elite? No specific trigger point is required for feeling like this given that stories of mismanagement and corruption have become an essential part of our political landscape.

But, beyond greedy rulers, it is the pattern of indecency and general contempt for law exhibited by the powerful that point to a more serious disease within our state and society. It is this fracture, between the rulers and the ruled, that is more frightening.

Take the treatment meted out to retried Air Vice-Marshal Ataur Rahman by the loutish progeny of a purported member of the National Assembly. Or, in the same city, behaviour on the road of people guarding a Rangers big shot. On a larger canvas, they are small incidents but indicative of the contempt the powerful have for those who cannot exhibit raw naked force.

In other words, we are becoming a society that does not honour learning -- God forbid -- or even status and position, unless it is backed up by an armed posse of goons. I know of some essentially decent people, who carry with them armed escorts not because their life is in danger. They do it to send out a message that they are important.

When a society sinks to a level where raw display of power is the only measure of success, it is in serious trouble. It does not only mean that the rule of law has withered beyond redemption, that actually is a mild way of putting it. What it shows is a state of anarchy where the only real power is brute force.

It would be easy to blame frequent interruption of military rule for the depths that state and society have sunk into. Martial rule is an obvious victory of brute force over law and the constitution. But, while this contains elements of truth, it would be an easy way out.

Military rule in the macro sense is a negation of the rule of law because it cannot come about without putting aside the fundamental law of the land. But having committed this larger sin, its brute strength has in the past been confined to tackling its enemies.

This it did without a care for rules or procedures. All military rulers are guilty of this and none more so than the brutal Ziaul Haq. He not only contrived to hang Bhutto through pliant courts but also tortured many ordinary PPP workers and murdered some.

Musharraf's was less brutal although if you ask people in Balochistan they would have a different story to tell. But, dealing with his political opponents like the Sharif brothers, he did not have much care for law. He also damaged the judiciary by his peremptory sacking of the chief justice and later imposing another martial law on November 3, 2007.

No rewriting of history can absolve Ayub, Yahya, Zia or Musharraf of these crimes. However, the failings of the institution they headed were less egregious. No doubt, some senior officers indulged in corruption and their juniors were given to throwing their weight around. Also, through legal mechanisms perks and privileges for the officers and men were institutionalised.

But, the military as an institution has an ethos of rules and legality. No one who breaches its discipline is spared. That is the only way it can survive. Therefore, as rulers too, on an operational level, there was greater respect for law and efforts were generally made to enforce it without fear or favour.

Thus, in what we call governance, or a how a state is run on a day-to-day basis, there was an effort by the military rulers to do it with diligence and by and large on the basis of law. Their mistakes in governance were because of poor appreciation of how a state is supposed to work -- for example Musharraf's devolution plan that weakened its structure – but not because they did not have a desire to improve things.

The essentially middle-class background of military's officer corps had an impact too. They were not the idle rich who took power and status as an entitlement. Many of them had risen in life because of hard work and diligence. They valued these qualities and when dealing with the state apparatus tried to promote merit because that is the measure through which they had made it. This attitude had a salutary impact on governance.

Again, this is no advertisement for military rule because its essential lack of contact with the people, particularly in the smaller provinces, was a huge drawback. The mistakes made by it were strategic with perhaps greater consequences. But, in tactical day-to-day handling of governance, they were far more successful.

The political class starts with a huge advantage of democratic legitimacy. No one can question its right to rule. Also, in handling politics between disparate parties and addressing larger questions of provincial rights and fair allocation of national resources, it does a very good job.

Where the political class fails miserably is in governance. It has no concept of organisational discipline or merit. It would staff positions by people who have neither the required seniority nor the ability to hold them. A classical example of this is the new appointments in NAB but it applies across the board in the centre and the provinces.

The thing that politicians value above all else is loyalty and to get it they would ride roughshod over any rules or regulations that stop them. The result is that merit becomes an elusive entity and organisational discipline is severely eroded. This has terrible impact on governance and the state structure starts to wobble. What gives it a deadly blow is penchant for corruption that has been a bane of many political governments. Prime Minister Gilani may well say that corruption is always an excuse to get rid of democracy, but what are the facts on the ground.

Transparency International and other international organisations have documented the increase in corruption. If we don't value them, we know what has happened and continues to happen to state-owned organisations. Whether it is PIA, WAPDA, Steel Mill, or indeed all other state entities, the extent of loot and plunder has reached unbearable limits. Just the Steel Mill bail-out has cost Rs25 billion. It is this massive combination of corruption and incompetence that is eroding whatever was left of governance. It is not a surprise that we are now being ranked as the fifth least stable state in the world. Our problems and challenges are so many that this ongoing plunder and failure of governance will destroy us.

So let us not just blame the military for our failures. It has committed its share of sins but the political class is now compounding them by delivering the worst governance possible. This decline has to be reversed or we have no future.

Email: shafqatmd@gmail.com

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE CULTURE OF PATRONAGE

AYAZ AHMED

Pakistan has been beset with problems like corruption and stagnation for most of its 62-year history. While corruption is perhaps one of the most uttered terms in our political lexicon, few of us directly relate it to our prevailing predicament. It is absolutely imperative that we, as a nation, do our utmost to rid our society from this debilitating curse if we are to have any chance of improving our collective future.

Though the tales of Swiss accounts, Surrey Palace, corruption in defence-related contracts etc. may constitute a few prominent black spots on our chequered history, what also needs to be noticed are some practices that the state of Pakistan sanctions at the expense of its larger citizenry.

Just recently, we have been informed through the latest budget that the salaries of government employees/officials are to be hiked by 50 per cent in one swoop.

The basic question here is, did the government think through the implications of this move on inflation and on private labour market? This will certainly place a tremendous pressure on those who are not fortunate enough to have a government job.

The well-being of the people of Pakistan is the primary responsibility of the government. The fundamental function of a state is to serve the masses through the public-sector employees. Keeping in view the poor performance of various government departments, how is the substantial reward justified? The government of Pakistan is responsible for all of its citizens and it must not further enrich the haves at the cost of the rest.

Another example of rewarding the elite can be gauged by the perks and privileges that the public-sector officers enjoy in Pakistan.

In a country where over 70 per cent of the population survives on less than $2 a day, the government officers are often seen moving around in official, often luxurious, vehicles even for their personal matters.

Whereas the only persons entitled to temporary public housing in the west are those with low income or the unemployed, in Pakistan, bureaucrats and military officers are given the largest plots in the country's finest and most expensive areas. The million-dollar houses in Islamabad are a prime example of this from where the 'government servants' rule the lower- or middle-class Pakistanis.

The attitude of superiority that pervades our government functionaries must be done away with. It must never be forgotten that it is the taxpayers' money which accounts for the government officials' salaries and it is through loans taken on behalf of the people of Pakistan that the high-ups enjoy their perks and privileges.

A government job being more rewarding in Pakistan than a similar job in the United States or Canada points to something seriously wrong. There are not many mid-level bureaucrats in the west who can boast of possessing million-dollar houses.

Besides patronising government officials, the state also facilitates the enrichment of its elite while neglecting the basic needs of its population. The tax exemptions enjoyed by the feudals and the benefits accrued by the stock-market mafias are some other examples where the system works to create greater class divisions.

Nations do not progress through constantly tilting the playing field for a select few. Instead, progress is achieved through focusing on performance and implementing transparent regulations. Each employee, whether in public or private sector, must provide greater output in relation to the resources he consumes. For 60 years Pakistan's elite have consumed much more than they have given back to the system.

It is high time we moved towards a public-sector model that responds to the needs of the people in an efficient and effective manner. The reform drive must commence with those who have brought this nation of ours to the brink of failure.

The writer is a management consultant based in Toronto. Email: ayaza75@hotmail.com

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

SIDE-EFFECT

HARRIS KHALIQUE

The film had a young girl in school uniform. In a mellifluous Sindhi accent, she was struggling to speak chaste Urdu in front of the camera. Her cute little hands had traces of henna and her hair rolled into a tight braid. She said, "When I grow up I want to be a pilot. Most of my classmates want to be doctors or teachers. But I want to fly planes. I have never travelled on a plane but I am fascinated when I see them flying."

Sadiqa Salahuddin, a dedicated campaigner for the rights of the marginalized and my mentor in community development, runs Indus Resource Centre for the past many years. Besides other work, the Centre helps 8000 children, two-thirds of which are girls, get decent schooling. The girl came from one of the schools they are supporting in a village outside Khairpur Mirs.

After decades of unrelenting struggle, Sadiqa's tone had a tinge of helplessness. It doesn't weaken her resolve but makes her sad. She said, "I wish her dreams come true and she flies a plane like some middle class or elite Pakistani women can. I seriously doubt that she ever would but even if one girl is able to break the shackles of poverty and ignorance and get such opportunity, she will be the only one out of millions.

Things won't change unless our power elite pays heed to our needs and are committed to real progress and prosperity for all. It is not poverty alone, social norms in the name of culture and religion become a huge hindrance in the growth of these girls."

Spartans of this world have a long struggle ahead, which is even longer for their womenfolk. Muslims constitute almost half of the third world. Their societies are faced by even more grave challenges. In Pakistan, hundreds of girl schools were blown up in recent years. Discriminatory laws against women stay in law books. In other Muslim societies or countries with significant Muslim population, things are not rosy either.

The Aceh province of the largest Muslim country Indonesia has Shariah policewomen who stop teenagers going to college and ask them not to wear jeans even if they have their heads covered with scarves. Malaysia is considered modern and enlightened by many. Sisters in Islam, a vocal organization there, raised serious concerns over caning of three women for the so-called Shariah offences.

Egyptian women are protesting against judges who voted by majority to bar women from ruling in influential courts. Iran arrested the sister of Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Laureate human rights campaigner, for she couldn't stop her sister from what she says. In the second decade of the twenty first century, a prominent Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa calling for opponents of the kingdom's strict segregation laws to be put to death if they refuse to give up on their heretic ideas.Somehow they always forget that Hajj, the most of significant and sacred of Islamic rituals, has seen no segregation of sexes in 1400 years. It is still debated in that country whether women should be allowed to drive cars or not. For details on the debate, see Shirkatgah's Newsheet, published from Lahore in March this year.

What is happening to Muslim women is not only primitive but amounts to a great disservice to Islam. Women can't make it unless we as men do not learn from our mistakes and compel the male-dominated state structures to support their cause. The writer is a poet and advises national and international institutions on governance and public policy issues. Email: harris.khalique@gmail.com

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

MPS THOUGHT-PROVOKING BUDGETARY PROPOSALS

AS the stage for adoption of the budgetary proposals for the next financial year is coming closer, the debate on the new budget in the two Houses of Parliament has highlighted some of the very pertinent issues and the way out. Apart from members of the National Assembly, who have the authority to approve the budget, the Senate has forwarded a comprehensive list of 71 proposals to the Lower House for incorporation in the budget.

A minute study of the recommendations made by Senate would reveal that the House has justified the demand and the decision to get the budgetary proposals examined by the Upper House as well. It has made thought-provoking proposals and their inclusion in the new budget could make it genuinely people-friendly and business friendly. These suggestions gather added weight if one analyses the ongoing debate in the National Assembly where majority of Members have echoed similar views about the budget. Members have rightly expressed concern over cut in the budget for education and health and demanded of the Government to raise allocations for these sectors in line with its avowed commitments to take them to 15% of the GDP. Health insurance scheme is in vogue in many countries but there is no progress here. The imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) from October next and one per cent across the board increase in GST rate for the interim period have raised concerns that these measures would not only compound the problem of inflation but also create difficulties for the industry and business. Therefore sectors and classes that are still outside the tax net should be made to pay their due taxes. In this context, PML (N) has already expressed its fullest support for imposition of agricultural tax but now it has come as a formal proposal from the Senate as well where almost all parties are represented and that means the demand has the necessary backing and there would now be no justification to defer its implementation. At the same time loss making public sector enterprises must be restructured on a priority basis as demanded by the Senate and Members of the National Assembly as this would also obviate the necessity to secure more foreign loans. There is also consensus that salaries of the Government employees up to BS-16 should be increased to 60% and pension and minimum wage raised further to help disadvantaged sections of the society to lead an honourable life. Though voting on the budget would take place on party lines yet the MPs have made their views known and we hope the Government would revise the budgetary proposals accordingly.

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

MNS DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM FAKE DEGREE HOLDERS

RESPONDING to the will of the people, PML (N) leader Mian Nawaz Sharif has made a welcome announcement that his party would not award ticket to any candidate holding fake degree. He went a step further and demanded of the elected representatives holding fake degrees to resign to avoid embarrassment.

Though PML (N) Quaid has done no favour to any one as there should be no place in a civilized society for those who are morally corrupt and deceive the entire nation, yet the move has special significance in view of the prevailing deaf and dumb environment in the country. This contrasts sharply with the decision of the ruling PPP, which is awarding tickets to each and every fake degree holder, making a mockery of the moral values and disfiguring healthy democratic traditions. It is a shame that we are hearing about one fake degree holder and the other every now and then but the exact number of such elements would be available if the HEC is allowed to do its job of verification of degrees without any pressure or interference. We claim to follow the Westminster parliamentary system but do not care about worth-emulating traditions of the 'Mother Parliament' where presence of a certain number of such unscrupulous elements renders it liable for dissolution. Unfortunately, there is a steep moral degradation in the country and a culture has emerged where scoundrels and those who have ill-gotten money are glorified. It is all the more shocking that powerful government machinery and leadership extends them fullest support in retaining their shameful position and status. All this amounts to slapping on the face of Pakistan. We hope that Mian Sahib would take further steps to purge his party, which is the party of founder of Pakistan, of all such elements to set a precedent for others.

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

GADDANI SHIP-BREAKING INDUSTRY IS BREAKING

SHIP-breaking had been one of the few industries in which Pakistan excelled in the region and it was one of the major sources of cheap iron and steel supply in addition to providing job opportunities to thousands of people. But over the last few years the industry is facing multiple problems like Pakistan Steel Mills and other national institutions and remedial measures seem to be nowhere despite repeated calls by the workers, which is a manifestation of overall decay in our institutions.

Gaddani ship-breaking yard, one of the most active industries, is currently confronted with industrial unrest in the wake of accidental death of 17 workers during the last six months. The workers observed strike on Tuesday and Wednesday demanding of the Provincial Government as well as the companies involved in ship-breaking business to ensure provision of safety equipment. According to workers, the owners even do not provide them facilities like drinking water and first aid treatment. We bethink these are genuine demands and should be attended to without any delay. The ship-breakers and the country would benefit if the workers were satisfied with their wages and congenial working environment. Secure working conditions, particularly in heavy industries like the ship-breaking are prerequisite and Provincial and Federal Labour Ministries are required to keep a strict watch to ensure that minimum security standards are followed by the employers. However it appears that those responsible for this job are least perturbed over the loss of innocent lives. Incidentally many owners and operators of the industry who are not locals feel insecure and unable to operate freely due to prevailing law and order situation in the Province. In fact the non-locals are being victimised and quite a few were kidnapped and killed. In this situation, the owners cannot pay personal attention to the well-being of their employees and the task is left to subordinates. We hope that the Federal and the Provincial Governments would act quickly to remove the concerns of the owners and the workers to keep the ship-breaking industry afloat which is on the verge of breaking.

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

COST OF AN INDIAN LIFE $500

GEOPOLITICAL NOTES FROM INDIA

M D NALAPAT

Prime Minister Rajiv Ratna Birjees Gandhi's political future was permanently darkened by the 1987 revelations about illegal payments made for purchase of Bofors guns. At the time, there were suggestions that the media frenzy in India was being fuelled by leaks from a competitor of Bofors that had lost the gun contract. Whatever the source, the information about illegal payments was so detailed that Rajiv Gandhi spent his last two years in office firefighting, his effectiveness eroded despite an overwhelming majority in Parliament. The Bofors wave resulted in the Congress Party's defeat in the 1989 Lok Sabha (Lower House) elections,resulting in the formation of a government headed by Rajiv's former Defense Minister V P Singh, whose main campaign slogan was that he would bring the guilty to book within a year.

Of course, nothing of the kind happened. As soon as V P Singh began to occupy the Prime Minister's spacious office in South Block, his enthusiasm for Bofors died, perhaps because quite a few of his allies were also implicated in the scandal. Instead of seeking to clean up the administrative machinery of the Government of India (where people turn from paupers to billionaires in a year's time), V P Singh decided to let loose caste fury across the country, by pushing for a higher reservation for "Backward Castes" in government jobs. This group ranks just above Dalits in the traditional Hindu hierarchy (which incidentally is largely followed by Christians and Muslims as well, who are each divided into "high", "middle" and "low" castes, although not on paper. The resultant uproar led to his resignation and replacement by political rival Chandra Shekhar, who in his turn was quickly overthrown by Rajiv Gandhi, who sensed that his party could return to power in the elections. The Congress Party did get close to a majority in 1992,but this was due to the sympathy wave that followed the assassination of the young leader by the LTTE, in revenge for his having sent an Indian military force to Sri Lanka four years earlier.

After Rajiv Gandhi's passing, it was his "apolitical" widow Sonia Gandhi who emerged as the heir to the Nehru family's controlling stake in the Congress Party. The novelist Aubrey Menen (an uncle of this columnist) once said that in Indira Gandhi's Congress Party, "there were only clerks or peons", no matter how glorified the titles of the numerous flunkeys. All, whether Cabinet Ministers or state chief ministers, had to follow the orders of the Family, with the "peons" simply conveying orders and the "clerks" given the right to sign on orders already written out for them. Within two years of the first non-Nehru Family PM in the history of the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi began to cut away at P V Narasimha Rao's support base, weakening him enough by having her followers level charges against him to ensure a Congress defeat in the 1996 polls. Although non-Congress PMs took office after that, each of them was very deferential towards Sonia Gandhi, going out of their way to help her. Indeed, when the BJP Culture Minister (M M Joshi) sought to remove Nehru family loyalists from the many (well-endowed by state funds) trusts and foundations, he was himself stripped of this portfolio by then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, whose "adopted" daughter and son-in-law were close friends of the Nehrus.

Today, India is seeing a coming together of the Establishment that has ensured security for VVIPs no matter what party comes to power. Both the BJP Leader of the Lower House and the BJP Leader of the Upper House have cordial personal links with their Congress counterparts, which is probably why the BJP has been ineffective in channelling to its advantage the swelling public anger at revelations that Congress-led governments valued the life of an Indian citizen at only $500,that too paid to the families of the Union Carbide Bhopal gas victims after an average wait of 17 years. More than 15,000 people died because of the refusal of the US headquarters of Union Carbide to approve new systems that would reduce the risk of contamination. However, despite a clear paper trail, the then Union Government headed by Rajiv Gandhi allowed the company to go scot-free, even ordering the Madhya Pradesh chief minister to release Carbide chied Warren Anderson. Friends of Arjun Singh (who is today being sought to be made the scapegoat for the decision to allow the US company to escape penal consequences) confirm that a direct order came from the Rajiv Gandhi government to free Warren Anderson and not push for compensation. Later, the Indian Supreme Court fixed a value of just $470 million on the thousands of lives lost and hundreds of thousands maimed, while the Government of India prevented the victims from directly approaching US courts for fair compensation.

One reason why the so-called "opposition" party (BJP) may be pulling its punches on the Union Carbide controversy is the fact that some of its top leaders are on record as having argued for the company and its successor, as indeed have some Cabinet ministers in the present Manmohan Singh government. While he was Prime Minister, A B Vajpayee gave up efforts to bring Carbide chief Warren Anderson back to India to face trial. Interestingly, the Barack Obama administration has adopted a very different attitude towards Bhopal than it has over the BP oil spill, where far fewer lives have been lost. Clearly, they agree with a company spokesperson, who said in 2002 that $500 was fair compensation for the loss of an Indian life. While Obama is asking BP for $20 billion, his team has made it clear that the US liability for the world's worst-ever industrial disaster is now zero. It is the Indian taxpayer who will have to pay, as per the judgement of the Supreme Court

of India on compensation.

While the "ruling" and "opposition" parties scratch each other's back (on business deals), there is growing public fury about the facts that are now beginning to tumble out about the way in which more than a million citizens were deliberately betrayed by their own governments over 26 years. It was only a few weeks ago, when a court issued a bailable sentence of two years for the Indians found guilty of negligence at Bhopal. US citizens, of course, have escaped, although they are the ones who refused to sanction funds to the Bhopal plant for systems that could have prevented a disaster that was beveling predicted by local journalists for two years before the Bhopal plant began spewing poison fumes in 1984.

Even though the Indian media have followed their usual line of being very protective of the Nehru family, yet enough bits and pieces are coming out that affect the credibility of the Congress Party and the family that runs the organisation. Who asked Rajiv Gandhi to spare the US nationals involved? Why was there no effort to get better compensation? Why were laws made that favoured not the victims but Union Carbide? Friends of the Desgnated Scapegoat, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh say that - as in Bofors — the facts will keep tumbling out. Despite the strange reluctance of the BJP to talk advantage of the scandal, it seems to be building a momentum as deadly in its affects as Bofors was to Rajiv Gandhi. Finally, the dead of Bhopal may be getting some form of justice, something that has been denied to them all this while.

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

THE RISE OF MULTIPOLAR WORLD

SHANZEH IQBAL

The national security Strategy comprising 52 pages was issued recently. It is made clear in it that US is not indulged in fight against Islam. It is asserted that Barack Obama now faces the surmounting challenges of changing the policies of Bush administration. During that era America acted as the real policemen. This strategy lays stress upon the importance of cooperation and multilateral engagements for achieving the purpose of national security of America. One important part of this new strategy is doing away with the terms of war on terror and Islamic extremism. These terms were used by Bush administration but now we see a clear repudiation of these terms. It was also illustrated in the report that the war is not against any particular religion but this is against Al-Qaeda. Barack Obama had elucidated the main points of this policy few days back before it came to surface in Defence academy west point during a speech. He said that US will continue to guarantee the universal stability.

The American president has explained in his speech that US endorses meaningful international co-operation and it can be based on bilateral relations. Bush policies could not achieve that and this caused a strategic loss to America. In the report of national security policy it is illustrated that International institutes must be made more effective. US National Security Advisor, James Jones and Hillary Clinton told the media that American must pay attention to solve internal problems. The New National Security Strategy has put constraints on pre emptive strategy and the use of force. Preemptive war was an important tenet during the era of George W Bush. It was an important component of his defence policy. The preemptive strategy as devised by Bush jr resulted in 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

This strategy is antagonistic to the Bush doctrine, especially his two national security strategies which he issued in 2002. The Bush Doctrine issued in 2002 said, "We do not rule out the use of force before attacks occur" The eight year rule of Bush was ended in a fiasco so far as its policies were concerned. Some observers opine that the Bush Revolution is over now. This is supported by the radical change in the new National Security Policy enunciated recently. They suggest that the new policy admits of the failures of Bush Doctrine. Keep in mind that in Bush Doctrine it was emphasized that US alone will endeavour to solve the problems faced by US and the entire world. However now it is suggested that to solve the aforementioned problems America will move in Collaboration with the suggestion and assistance of its allies and will consolidate ties with other emerging powers like Russia, China, India, Brazil, S. Africa and Indonesia. Now the ways available to US are limited because of the aggressive attitude of N. Korea and Iran and the increasing influence of other regional powers. As the Bush legacy could not reap fruitful results, now the more likely option is to move ahead taking its allies in confidence. Since many years America has been busy in direct military activities in Afghanistan and Iraq. However America is unable to get worthwhile results in fight against terrorism. There is similarity as well as contradiction with Bush strategy. US is in face to face with fighting many regional powers due to the rising might of China.

Another issue is confronted by America now a days that the American political leadership and the general public cannot muster up consensus regarding the national common objectives. The report is described as a welcome move towards foreign policy. But the real challenge is that the main points expounded in the policy must not be merely words. There should be practical implication of this policy in the strictest sense of the term in order to restore the universal confidence. However there is a great duplicity, America has not yet abated concerns over the nuclear programme of Iran and N Korea. It has imposed sanctions on it through UN Security Council while we see that in the Tehran nuclear Declaration Iran promised to abide by all the conditions prospered by America and its western allies. These related to the transfer of atomic fuel. The Bush Sr used the term of a new world order which was not used by Clinton administration. However what happened in the aftermath of 9-11 incidence was just like the repetition of the new world order. It is mentioned in the National Security Policy report that it concerns the "challenges of Bush-era dream of remaking global order and preventing the rise of any rival superpowers" Just look at the words of rising superpowers. There is a clear indication of the fact that now US is convinced that it is no more the sole superpower of the world. The rise of regional powers like Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Russia, India and more precisely China are now threatening the might of US. International and political influence of china is beyond any doubt.

Again there is an emergence of the multi polar world in which US alone cannot simply force other countries to do its bidding. The situation is quite changed now. The US has admitted in the report that it is hardened by the war and needs to bring down the fiscal deficit and disciplined by a devastating economic crisis. The very words verify the fact that it has failed to achieve the goal which he cherished before invading Iraq and Afghanistan. Its effect is enhanced when one looks at the report of the US Treasury Department that US national budget deficit may exceed $1.5 trillion by the end of 2010. The universal recession has triggered this concept further more. Although countries like Indonesia, turkey, S. Africa and Brazil etc have been the American allies but the fiscal crisis as witnessed in the last period of Bush (Jr) and the result and effects have caused much harm not only to America but to Britain, Spain, other European countries and the developed world.

Andreas Lorenz who has coined the term of the rise of chimerica by which he means that the situation has changed a lot and now the US cannot alone enjoy the status of a sole superpower. When china is threatening the might of US, there is the possibility that the developed countries will be seeking a kind of interdependence and there is an interconnected universal consciousness. Americans are tired of violence now. They want peace on a sustainable basis rather them making adversaries in this global world which has really shrunk the world and the reality remains that US is the biggest Customer of Chinese products. The failure of America in Afghanistan and Iraq is heightened especially when the we see that it is made clear in the national security report that now the basic forum for solving the economic problems of the world will be G-20. The weakness in the economic set up of America has become evident now to the whole world through its invasion in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The general public there is of the view that the US unnecessarily dragged itself in the war keeping in view the economic depression and unemployment.

These facts also bring to my mind the anti war philosophies propounded by the great English writers. If you go through the main themes of Joseph Conrad, it would dawn on you that how he portrayed the ills of colonialism. How he described that the war breeds nothing but another war. Or for instance the philosophy of G B Shaw, the great pacifist. He also upholds the same views that wars bring nothing

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

PIT OF FIRE

THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM

AHMAD HASAN SHEIKH

To lead a people even in normal times is a forbidding undertaking. But to pull a dispirited and dishevelled people out of the trough of despair is truly a Herculean task. As we survey our national scene, do we see any sign of a leadership up to that challenge. Far from it. Only pygmies and morons straddle our polity trying to show themselves as pace-setters. Muck however is all that is daily splashed across the pages of the print media as well as in TV talk shows because there is nothing but loot and grab that is there to report.

One thing of course is sure. The 'awam' beguiled into believing as king-makers during elections have been reduced as vermin, pulverised as routine but pulped out of existence, if they dare squeak. Vultures of every hue are swooping on them, now that they are gasping for last breaths. To relieve the somberness of the scenario, one is tempted to see these 'vultures' playing the role of 'jatti' (the peasant girl) of a Punjabi folklore, who pines for everybody to perish but her lover, Mirza. To quote: A peasant girl (in love) goes to Shah Muqueem's retreat and implores "I will sacrifice a goat in the name of the Pir were: My husband to pass away; some of my women neighbours to meet death; and the rest laid up with fever; the faqir's bitch to perish as she continuously whines; fire to consume the bania's shop which is always open; (and) the neighbourhood to become deserted with my lover, Mirza (alone) roaming about. Even armchair critics are now talking of revolution or rebellion as the only way out to escape from the present throttling impasse. Whichever demolishes and wipes out the existing iniquitous social, economic, political, and even moral order is now awaited with bated breath by a groaning mass of humanity. Does that yearning shock the inveterate optimists whose patriotic fervour refuses to see the writing on the wall? Does that send shivers down the spine of looters whose ravenous greed knows no limits? Does that disturb the sweat dreams of feudals who chain at will hapless humans as cattle to keep their lands green? Does it signal an ominous warning to the entire breed of 'holinesses', the Pirs, the Sajjada Nasheens, the Maulanas, the Muftis, the Mujtahids, who are on a fleecing spree of a populace, terrorized into mute servitude by visitations of hell-fire? Does that strip the mask off the faces of the defenders of our geographical and ideological frontiers?

In fact, we have no identity left, least of all as Muslims. If across the border live idol-worshippers from whom we separated, we are equally ardent grave-worshippers. A young man who studies only the Holy Qur'an remarked that the only difference we have with the Hindus is that of names otherwise our conduct does not reflect a modicum of Islamic values.

Basically, by our behaviour we have repudiated the greatest blessing Allah bestowed on us and therefore stand on the brink of a pit of fire. Says the Holy Qur'an: And hold fast, all together, by the rope of Allah and be not divided, and remember the favour of Allah which he bestowed upon you when you were enemies and he united your hearts in love, so that by his grace you became as brothers: and you were on the brink of a pit of fire and he saved you from it. (3:102)

The pull of faith among the common run of Muslims, however deviant, leads them both to positive and negative action, depending on who motivates them and for what purpose. This is both the strongest and the weakest streak in their psyche. It is not a conundrum but an easily explainable phenomenon only if we were to keep in mind the history of the rise and fall of Muslims. The role of the clergy and others who manipulate them in the name of religion has been pivotal in their decline, both in terms of power and knowledge. The question arises: Why the Muslims have not learnt from history and allow themselves to be duped so easily for serving different agendas. The simple answer is that their attachment to their faith is based on emotion and not reason, on rituals and not the spirit, and on personality cults and not the message. In other words, they have distanced themselves from the pristine source of Divine guidance and the life-pattern of the ideal exemplar (May peace be upon him).

When the Holy Qur'an urges the believers to remember Allah while standing, sitting and lying on their side, it does not mean mere verbal repetition of his name but that the believers should abide by his commandments in whatever posture of life's activities they find themselves — in other words, the entire gamut of life. There is no question of pick and choose on the basis of human preferences and inclinations. "Enter totally into the fold of Islam", Says the Holy Qur'an.

We have been persuaded to believe, and I daresay, erroneously that the knowledge of our faith is circumscribed by five fundamentals alone. The Holy Qur'an brings us face to face with its message by inviting us in about 700 verses to observe and study nature exposing before our quest for knowledge a never-ending vista of Reality. It is in this context that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is reported to have said that every step that is taken outside one's house to seek knowledge is a step taken towards paradise. This indeed is a revolutionary concept of Ibadat, which the Muslims have come to associate exclusively with the prayer carpet and the rosari. A scientist may well rank higher than the recluse, who repairs himself to the mosque for Ehtekaf for the remembrance of Allah, if his endeavours contribute to human welfare. One is a seeker of bliss for himself, essentially a selfish motivation, while the other tries to serve humanity by his findings, thus becoming a better client for Divine grace.

Our adherence to our faith, in the language of Tasuwwaf, is measured by how profusely we weep for fear of Allah and the Hereafter. But is weeping alone the fate of Muslims in this world. Should they continue grovelling in ignorance and ignominy, both at the hands of their own exploiters and enemies without, their present pastime being flying at each other's throat on sectarian and ethnic divides. They have made themselves sitting ducks. Even rabbits are not killed with that abandon.

The writer is a former PIO, Government of Pakistan.

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

ISRAEL IS FUELLING ANTI-AMERICANISM

NICOLA NASSER

The attack in the international waters of the Mediterranean in the early hours of May 31 by an elite force of the Israeli navy on the Turkish – flagged Mavi Marmara civilian ferry crammed with more than 700 international activists, including several Americans, carrying 100 tonnes of cargo including concrete, medicines and children's toys, and leading five smaller vessels of the Free Gaza Flotilla, which left eight Turks and a U.S. citizen of Turkish origin dead and wounded several others, has cornered the United States in a defensive diplomatic position to contain the regional and international fallout of the military fiasco of the "Operation Sky Wind" its Israeli regional ally launched against the flotilla; it "puts the United States in an extremely difficult position," Marina Ottaway wrote in a report published by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on May 31.

Containing angry Arab reaction and adverse repercussions on Arab – U.S. relations was most likely on the agenda of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday. However Biden is the least qualified to allay Arab anger for being the most vocal among U.S. officials in "legitimizing" Israel's blunder. The Gaza flotilla episode has dispelled the benefit of doubt the Arab allies have given to President Barak Obama's promises of change in U.S. foreign policy in their region. To regain Arab confidence it needs more than U.S. official visits whether by Biden or by a better choice because at the end of the day politics is not about "good intentions", but is rather about "good deeds," according to the Egyptian veteran political analyst Fahmy Howeidy.

Despite a pronounced belief to the contrary by U.S. Senator Kerry, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the head of Israel's Mossad, Meir Dagan, was more to the point when he said last week that "Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden." Earlier this year CENTCOM Commander General David Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that "Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in CENTCOM's area of operations and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world."

Washington has found its diplomacy faced with an Israeli fait accompli to be involuntarily embroiled in what the Israeli media harshly criticized as a tactical failure, which engulfed the U.S. administration in the roaring Arab and Muslim anger to be accused of being a partner to the Israeli adventure, thus fueling anti – Americanism in the same arena where the administration is doing its best to defuse and contain the anti – Americanism that was escalated by the invasion of Iraq in 2003, i.e. among U.S. regional allies. Once more, the Free Gaza Flotilla episode "will raise questions —not for the first time—over whether (Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin) Netanyahu can be a dependable partner for the United States," Michele Dunne wrote in a Carnegie Endowment report.

Ironically, the fiasco of the Israeli "Operation Sky Wind" has created a snowballing conflict not between Israel and its self-proclaimed arch enemy Iran, but with Turkey, traditionally Israel's only regional friend, a key regional power, a NATO member, a U.S. ally and a hopeful of EU membership, as well as with the U.S. – allied camp of Arab and Palestinian moderates, whom both Israel and the United States endeavor to recruit in a unified anti – Iran front and who are their partners in the U.S. – sponsored Arab – Israeli "peace process, which Washington is now weighing in heavily to resume its Palestinian – Israeli track.

Israel is not making U.S. life easier in the region. "That's it, Israel. Put your best friend on the spot, with stupid acts of belligerency, when hundreds of its sons and daughters are dying fighting your avowed enemy. It is time Israel realized that it has obligations to the United States," wrote Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the mainstream Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington (CSIS). Stephen Walt, a Harvard international-relations professor and co-author of the 2007 book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," agreed. Professor of International Relations at New York University, Alon Ben Meir, concluded in American Diplomacy on May 10th: "The Netanyahu government seems to miss-assess the changing strategic interests of the United States in the Middle East, especially in the wake of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq." However official Washington so far acts and speaks in a way that would contain adverse fallout of the Free Gaza Flotilla episode on bilateral relations with Israel, otherwise it would make a bad situation worse if one is to remember that the episode made Netanyahu cancel a summit meeting with Obama - after he was forced to cut short his visit to Canada - that was scheduled specifically to mend bilateral fences. But the motion which was unusually "personally" presented to the Israeli Knesset by the opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, for a no-confidence vote in Netanyahu's government on Monday because, as she said, "the current government doesn't represent the State of Israel to the world" and hurts "ties with the United States" made public what the U.S. administration has been trying to keep away from the spotlights. Trying to defuse the repercussions of Israel's blunder, the U.S. leaned on Israel "quite a lot" to release hundreds of Turkish peace activists who were on board of Mavi Marmara, Turkey's Deputy Under Secretary for public diplomacy Selim Yenel told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Fueling anti – Americanism among Arabs and Muslims is absolutely not in the interests of the United States, but this is exactly what current Israeli policies boil down to. Soaring Israeli – U.S. relations further was the first casualty of the Israeli attack.

Disrupting U.S. regional strategic plans was the second U.S. interest threatened by the attack. Both sides of the Arab and Turkish – U.S. alliance find themselves now on the opposite side of the Arab – Israeli conflict, which was on the verge of an historic breakthrough on the basis of the U.S. – sponsored so –called "two – state solution", which enjoys the support of the major world powers thanks only to all of them being on the same side. The U.S. – led Middle East camp seems now fractured and divided. The opposite camp led by Iran and Syria seems more confident and united. The U.S. position is weaker and their stance is stronger. Washing seems to loose the initiative in the region to its adversaries thanks to Israel initiating a conflict with U.S. moderate allies. For Israel and its U.S. advocates this should flash a red light. In this context, U.S. presidential peace envoy to the region, George Mitchell, who unfortunately was already in the region trying, unsuccessfully yet, to overcome the adverse reaction of these same allies to other Israeli blunders, should have lamented his Israeli bad luck and regretted his mission. General Secretary of the Arab League, Amr Mousa, said that "everything" is now left "hanging in the air,", including mainly the Palestinian – Israeli "proximity talks," the focus of Mitchell's mission.

In the wider context, the emergency meeting of the Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on June 2 was in direct opposition to the U.S. stance vis-à-vis the Israeli attack, in terminology, perspective and demands, but specially as regards the U.S. – Israeli justifications for continuing the blockade of Gaza. To make their message for lifting the siege clear, Mousa was scheduled to visit Gaza next week. Without naming the U.S., they stressed that the continued support to Israel "by some states" and giving "immunity" to its disrespect of international law "in a precedent that threatens the whole international system .. is a big political mistake." They reiterated that the Arab Peace Initiative "will not remain on the table for long." 60 percent of Arabs now believe Obama is too weak to deliver a peace agreement, according to a recent poll conducted by YouGov and quoted by The Christian Science monitor on June 4.

The Arab hard core of the U.S. assets of moderates is the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC); in a statement, they condemned the attack as an act of "state terrorism." Kuwait, a member, stands among them as an instructive example of how Israel is fueling anti – Americanism. This country which hosts some twenty thousand U.S. troops on reportedly one third of its territory in support of the U.S. – led "Operation Iraqi freedom" had sixteen of its citizens on board of the Israeli - attacked Mavi Marmara. In response, in a vote by consensus the Kuwaiti parliament in which the cabinet ministers are members recommended withdrawal from the Arab Peace Initiative. With Iran across the Gulf and the explosive situation across its northern borders with Iraq, the echo of General Petraeus' warning reverberates louder here.

—The writer is a veteran Arab journalist-based in Bir Zeit, West Bank of the Israeli-Occupied Palestinian territories.

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

REIMAGINING LIFE, WAR IN MIDDLE EAST

JULIA KELLER

For many authors, a traumatic news event involving the subject of a book they've just written can, perversely, have positive results. But for Stephen Kinzer, whose "Reset: Iran, Turkey and America's Future" (Times Books) was published this month, it's part of the problem he describes: Because we're so accustomed to bad news out of the Middle East, trouble seems inevitable. "Reset" suggests that needn't be so. But can anybody hear its lucid, historically grounded points above the shouting and the gunfire? Just as Kinzer's book was coming out, a ship with Turkish citizens and pro-Palestinian activists bound for Gaza was boarded by Israeli soldiers, with deadly results.

"I knew this book was timely, but I never imagined how timely," Kinzer said in an e-mail exchange. I'm trying to place Iran and Turkey into deep perspective. I look into the future and try to re-imagine the Middle East." Kinzer, who taught at Northwestern University before joining the faculty of Boston University, has served as a New York Times correspondent in Turkey and has travelled extensively in Iran. In "Reset," as in his previous books, including the moving and richly informed "Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds" (2001), Kinzer writes from a deep knowledge — and a deep love — of the nations he chronicles. He has talked with not only leaders and diplomats, but also with shopkeepers, teachers and poets.

Americans are justifiably suspicious of Iran and its nuclear ambitions, Kinzer writes in "Reset." Yet Iran and Turkey are "good soul mates for Americans," he said, and the three countries could form a "power triangle." Americans should realise that Iran "is not fated to be their enemy forever." "When I travel to these countries — I just returned from Iran and Turkey — I like to visit the places where my stories actually took place … I love discovering unknown stories from history." His book concludes with suggestions for policymakers. But is anyone listening? "I am optimistic that if we break away from old ways of thinking and look at the Middle East in a new way, we can find creative ways of easing tensions there," Kinzer said. American leaders, however, "tend to look for short-term gain instead of asking ourselves: What can we do that will be good for us in a hundred years?" — The Chicago Tribune

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

DECODING JUTE GENOME

ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

A group of Bangladeshi researchers, led by expatriate Prof. Maqsudul Alam of the University of Hawaii, has decoded the gene of jute. We congratulate Prof. Maqsudul Alam and his team for this valuable genome sequencing with far-reaching consequences for Bangladesh in particular and the world in general. This milestone research work is significant for the economic and environmental benefits it will bring to the country and the world outside.

We perceive that the understanding of the secrets of the fibre's birth, growth and quality shall now enable us to boost its production, saving it from the attack of pests and freaks of nature such as drought and flood. Over the last decades, fierce competition, emanating from artificial fibres affected eco-friendly jute and the items manufactured out of it. The incumbent government has attached importance to jute production and manufacturing of jute goods. With the decoding of jute genome, the items shall get a new lease of life.

Need for adequate fund

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday was delighted to announce the scientific breakthrough in the Jatiya Sangsad and hoped that this would make the Bangladesh farmers happy. But their happiness will depend on how the painstaking work of the scientists is put to practical use for boosting production of the crop and improvement of its quality. It is a long way from the research laboratory to the field level application and it requires large investment to develop appropriate tools to make the most of the genome sequencing. Let us hope adequate funds will be available for the purpose.

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

MEXICO GULF OIL SPILL

$20 BILLION COMPENSATION FUND

The catastrophic explosion that caused an oil spill from a BP offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, has had a depressing sequel as all attempts at plugging the leak have failed. Dubbed as the worst ecological disaster in US history, the spill soon assumed political dimensions posing a threat to Barack Obama's presidency. However, on June 16 President Barack Obama has been able to wrest a $ 20 billion compensation fund and an apology from the British Patroleum (BP).

The consequences of the explosion that killed 11 workers and has been causing spill of millions of gallons of crude oil from the ruptured well a mile below the ocean's surface are far and wide.
As more and more wildlife, beaches and marshlands are getting affected by the oil spill, there is nothing humanly possible to do to check or reverse the environmental disaster now unfolding. So President Obama's concern was to arrange a compensation fund and avoid a repeat of the painful episode following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska where the lawsuit continued in courts over two decades. The president has been fully successful in creating such a fund for financial compensation for those whose lives are being wrecked by the invasion of oil escaping from the rig. As a responsible president, he has put Kenneth Feinberg, known for his laudable overseeing the payment of the $7 billion government fund for families of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks, in charge of the fund.

Lesson for developing countries

President Obama knew quite well his political future largely depended on how he handled the oil spill crisis. Not surprisingly, he directed his focus solely on this issue relegating all others to the back burner. It is this quality of leadership that leaves a lesson for presidents and prime ministers in the developing countries. We have two cases - one in Bhopal, India involving a tragic accident in a carbide factory and the other Magurchhara gas field disaster at home - where the political leaderships of the time left much to be desired. No compensation is adequate for the havocs wreaked by such accidents to our fragile ecology and the way of life but at least the giant companies can be made to share some its fortunes with the affected people.

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THE INDEPENDENT

BOB'S BANTER

THE PAINTER'S LOVE AFFAIR..!

"It's raining!" said my treadmill with a black disgruntled look.

"So?"
"Why did you go for a walk in the rains, you could have used me instead!"

"What could you have offered me, "I asked, "that is better than my walk outside? Could you have offered me the lovely earthy smell of the first rains? Could you have touched my cheeks ever so gently like those raindrops did outside?"

"I could have offered you your favourite TV show while you jogged on me! You could have laughed out loud at the antics of the 'Friends'!"

"I laughed out loud," I side, "Not at the pranks of characters and actors on TV but at real flesh and blood friends, as they told me about how their yesterday went, at how they slipped in the glorious rain, at how their grandchild stared at their false teeth lying in a glass by their bedside! Oh we laughed a lot this morning!"

"You could have slipped and fallen in the slushy roads, I could have offered you a dry run on me in air-conditioned comfort!"

"I nearly slipped and fell, and felt two strong arms holding on to me, and what a joy to know friends were there, ready to steady me if I fell!"

"I would have seen that you kept an even pace!"

"Ah how I stopped to smell a new flower that had just opened its petals! I walked slowly so that I could continue hearing the cuckoo in its stolen nest above me, crying to another cuckoo in the next tree! I didn't want an even pace."

"You came back wet, you could have caught a cold?"

"How can you catch a cold with the warmth of a friendly world outside?" I asked the treadmill, as it looked at me sullenly. "The outside is God's love affair with me!"

"What?" asked the treadmill, shocked.

"Yes, in the beauty of a sunrise, or that of rain falling I see God showing his love to me! 'Take Bob," He seems to say, 'Take off this world and enjoy it!' Take with you the fragrance of the flower, the whistle of a bird, take with you the sight of a caterpillar crawling onto a leaf and walking across, onto stem, onto branch and slowly back to the ground and then onto the next tree!"

"You watched all that?" asked my treadmill startled.
"Oh yes I did, and in the hazy misty sky and different shades of green, the various trees and plants had to offer, I saw a painter!"

"A Painter?"

"Yes a Painter who was drawing a gigantic picture with His brushes, that said, 'I love you Bob..!' signed…God.

—bobsbanter@gmail.com

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

WHY BOYCOTT THE BUDGET SESSION?

PRANAB KUMAR PANDAY

The budget session of the Parliament started on 2nd of June. If we consider merits of the Parliamentary sessions, budget session is the most important one. Before the Parliament starts its budget session, there was a speculation that the BNP would not join the session. However, we were happy to notice that the opposition had joined the session of the Parliament. But, our happiness did not last long when we saw that the opposition walked out from the Parliament on the issue of closing of Amar Desh and arrest of its acting editor Md. Mahmudur Rahman. Of course, any political party could walk out from the session showing disapproval to crucial decision. But, the BNP did not return to the budget session. The chief whip of the opposition party stated that they had joined the session only to raise their protest against the action of the government regarding Amar Desh.

From an ordinary citizen's point of view, we cannot support the way the government has responded to the case of Amar Desh. Such response would certainly create negative impact on the mind of ordinary people, since the decision of the government to stop the publication of Amar Desh is but denying the freedom of press. It would have been better if the government would have asked Court's interference in this regard.

BNP's move towards this issue is equally unreasonable. They should not put priority on this issue ahead of the budget session. They are playing a game with the government so that government rethinks their stand on the issue of Amar Desh in order to ensure presence of the opposition in the Parliament. This is really ignominious for our democratic culture.

Given the experience of 1/11, it was expected that a qualitative change would be brought in our political culture. Political parties would learn a good lesson since they were worst affected due to emergence of an unusual caretaker government that government the country for two years. However, our expectations were nipped in the bud when we saw the opposition started boycotting the second session of Parliament on a silly issue of allocation of one extra seat in the front line of opposition bench. It does not speak of the government as well since they did not show minimum level of tolerance by allowing one extra seat to the opposition. Moreover, both leading political parties remained busy condemning each other on every issues.

In a democracy, opposition's role is to make constructive criticism of the government's activities while the government should respect all constructive criticism of the opposition. The government should run the country taking the opposition in confidence which is a pre-requisite of any successful democratic practice. But, a reverse situation prevails in our country. If we go back to next year, it would be evident that the opposition remained busy in criticizing all actions of the government without considering its merits. For instance, before Prime Minister commenced her visit to India, the leader of opposition declared that the government would sign some treaty which would serve the interest of India. However, she did not able to produce any proof in support of her statement. Even, when the government attended the Copenhagen Conference on climate change, the opposition criticised different initiatives of the government without analyzing merits of those initiatives.

A pertinent question is: what is the advantage of boycotting the budget session of Parliament? The answer is that the opposition party in Bangladesh does not necessarily react on every issue for gaining political advantages. On this occasion, I did not find any sort of advantage that the BNP could gain from this initiative. Rather they would lose sympathy and support of the common voters. We all know that Mr. Mahmudur Rahman is a supporter of BNP who is now in trouble. Of course, it is the responsibility of any political party to stand beside its supporters when they are in danger. But, at the same time, political party should take into account that people have voted them to oversee whether their interest is getting priority of the government or not. It would have been better for the opposition if they would have raised their voice on the issue of Amar Desh and continue attending the budget session.

The opposition's decision to declare a shadow budget is a notable initiative in the context of Bangladesh. But, the decision to declare it in front of media was not a wise one. The leader of opposition would have declared it in the house of the Parliament so that the government would have accepted some good points from her speech. If this would have happened the opposition would have received whole hearted support from all the citizens.
BNP should consider the importance of the budget session prior to the case of Amar Desh. Although budget is the account of income and expenditure of the government for a particular period of time, but it is the reflection of hopes and aspirations of the 15 crore people of Bangladesh. If the issue of boycotting is seen from strategic point of view, it would be evident that the opposition has an inherent reason behind this boycott. Like the previous year, they do not want to attend the budget session in order to make sure that the government may suffer from legitimacy crisis. They may expect that international organizations including different donor agencies may seek explanation from the government if the budget is passed in the absence of the opposition for the two consecutive years. But, in reality, I don't think it would leave any impact on the credibility of the government since they have more than 90 percent members in their favour.

Finally I would urge the opposition to come back to the Parliament and make constructive criticism on the budget. Their constructive input would help the government recognize their mistakes which would ultimately be helpful for the people of the country. On the other hand, the government should not consider the opposition on their numbers rather they could consider them as a true opposition and respect their opinions. Only then, democracy would find a strong ground to proceed smoothly.

(The writer is Associate Professor and Chair at the Department of Public Administration, Rajshahi University)

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

CLIMATE BLUEPRINT COULD HIT POOR NATIONS

JOHN VIDAL

A new blueprint for a global climate agreement would force the United States massively to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions but could also limit developing countries' attempts to grow their economies, diplomats at the resumed global climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, observed on 11 June.
A new draft negotiating text, prepared by the UN secretariat at the close of two weeks of official talks in Bonn, proposes that rich countries cut their emissions between 25-40 per cent by 2020. The draft follows submissions to the UN by more than 185 countries.

It also outlines a goal of cutting global emissions by "at least 50-85 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050". Rich countries specifically would have to cut at least 50-95 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050".
The new targets are more ambitious than those proposed at the Copenhagen climate summit last December but have done little to appease developing countries. Most are still bitter that pledges from rich countries pledges to cut emissions have been nowhere near enough to avoid catastrophic climate change.

The new draft text is also guaranteed to infuriate the US, which has so far only pledged to cut its emissions 17 per cent by 2020 on 2005 emission levels - far less than European Union countries who have committed themselves to 20 per cent cuts by 2020 and a 30 per cent cut if other countries show similar ambition.
"If this text were to be adopted, then the US would find it particularly difficult. It means they would have to do very much more," said one European diplomat.

Developing countries said they were dismayed the proposed text states all countries should "peak" their emissions in 2020. This would force them to move rapidly away from fossil fuels in just a few years, something which they say is impossible to do given their limited finances and need to improve the lives of their people.
"Peak emissions" was one of the most hotly disputed areas in the Copenhagen summit where China, India and others complained that rich countries were trying to force them to arrest their economic development, effectively handing economic advantage to the US and industrialised countries.

European diplomats professed surprise at the inclusion of the peak emissions reference, even suggesting that a typographical mistake had been made. "This is extraordinary," said one diplomat. "It has no chance of being accepted."

There was little in the new wording that suggested rich countries would try to hold temperature rises to 1.5C, as more than half the world's countries are seeking.

As diplomats pored over the 22-page text which must now be formally commented on by all countries and will then be amended by the UN before becoming a possible final negotiating text in August, the consensus among poor countries was that it was deeply biased against them.

"They have watered down key parts of the text. It has glossed over the preferences of the poorest, least developed countries. It is deeply biased against them", said Qumrul Choudhury, lead negotiator for the group of least developed countries.

Martin Khor, director of the Geneva-based South Centre, an international think tank for developing countries, said the text was a step backwards. He said that the rich countries' 80-95% proposed cut would lock in a "grossly unfair" carbon budget, effectively blocking out the carbon space of developing countries.
In addition, he said that the new text implied "the effective end" of the Kyoto protocol, the only international treaty which legally commits rich countries to cut emissions.

"This is an unravelling of the climate regime. It is more imbalanced against developing countries' interests than the old text and has many new negative points," he said.

"This is a one-sided text. We need something that reflects everybody. It is not a base of negotiations," said Pablo Solon, Bolivia's ambassador to the UN.

"The elements of the Copenhagen accord are all there, but not by name. [The problem is] that developed countries have so far shown no signs that they will increase their targets or provide new money," said Kaisa Kosonen, a Finnish diplomat.

"The US government has stonewalled every attempt to achieve a breakthrough that would secure measures to prevent climate catastrophe," said Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Asad Rehman.
"The American position undermines the whole integrity of the UN framework for tackling climate change, and risks a weak climate agreement with voluntary pledges - leaving little or no chance of averting dangerous global warming," he said.

"Big moves are necessary to get these negotiations back on track. The glaring lack of political will from the richest countries has become a signature for these talks," said Oxfam policy adviser Antonio Hill.
Governments now have just two weeks of full negotiating time left before a final summit in Cancun, Mexico in November.

Guardian News & Media 2010

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

US POLICY: DISARM MUSLIMS, ARM ISRAELIS

YAMIN ZAKARIA

By disarming the Muslim countries one by one, the neo-conservative US policy serves the Israeli objective of 'securing' its expanding borders, which at present is confined to building settlements (land theft) in the occupied territories.

When this episode is forgotten, Israel will try to occupy another piece of land using the pretext of security, no doubt the world will be told, Israel was compelled to act in self-defence; thus, creeping towards its ultimate dream of creating Ertez (greater) Israel that runs from the Nile, to the Euphrates. The latest attempts to intimidate nuclear-free Iran by nuclear Israel, reflects that long term Israeli ambition.

Here are the facts:

- Iran has not attacked any of its neighbours over the last 60 years, unlike belligerent Israel.

- Iran is a signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) treaty, and has no nuclear weapons.

- With the direct help of the US, Israel has been armed with nuclear weapons, and the power of its conventional forces continues to increase in relation to the surrounding countries.

- Israel continues to build more settlement in the occupied territories, openly violating the UN resolutions in place.

- In direct contravention of International Law, Israel denies the right of the Palestinians to return to their homes, and concurrently permits any Jews to come and settle in occupied Palestine.

- In addition to state terrorism, the inhumane and illegal blockade of Gaza has turned it into an open concentration camp, and corroborates Israel's brutal policy of ethnic cleansing.

- Israel refuses to become a signatory of the NPT, and denies the international inspection of its nuclear weapons.

- Recently, United Nations ratified a resolution aimed at creating a Middle East without any nuclear weapons, which is casually ignored by Israel.

- All the 189 signatories to the NPT agreed for the establishment of a Middle East without nuclear weapons. For this purpose, they have called on all Middle East nations to attend a conference to be held in 2012. Israel has confirmed they will not participate in this collective peace process.

- The agreement also, stressed "the importance of Israel's accession to the treaty and the placement of all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards." Israel will not sign the NPT treaty.

Israel and the US oppose this unified move from the International community, the same old excuse of Israel's security, and it rants about the 'threat' from nuclear-free Iran. Over the years, the numerous military adventures undertaken by Israel have proven that its conventional force provides adequate security, not to mention, the mighty US is always ready to help should Israel need it.

Therefore, what does Israel do? It sends two of its submarine equipped with nuclear weapons to the coast of Iran. Israel's possession of nuclear weapons with its record of disproportionately killing Arab civilians is not a problem for the US. Why should it be?

The US has excelled in that arena. As for Israel, it continues to commit state-terrorism, assassination, and now piracy in international waters; from Ban Ki Moon to Obama and every other western leader looks on with regret after regret, whilst privileged Israel continues to ignore and plead the usual 'argument' of: we are victims acting in self-defence.

After disarming Iraq, the first step towards disarming Iran is to ensure that it remains nuclear-free, whilst helping Israel to increase its strength. Power in international arena is always relative.

That would leave Turkey as the only other Muslim country in the region. Perhaps, Turkey has spotted that, even as a NATO ally it too will be subjected to the same US-Israeli policy eventually and the noise is being made about saving the Armenians are ominous.

This may partly explain why nationalist Turkey has started to take a radically different stance on its relationship with Israel and the Arab countries, in recent times.

(The writer is London based contributor of The Independent)

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

WHY SPOIL A GOOD WINE BOTTLE?

HARDENED DRINKERS WOULD TAKE NO NOTICE OF WARNING LABELS

"LIVE a longer, healthier, happier life - drink at least two glasses of wine a day." Innate opponents of the nanny state in all its forms recognise that labelling wine, beer, spirits, chocolate milk, softdrink, cordial or any other type of drink bottle with tobacco-style health warnings is a bad idea. But should the Council of Australian Governments recommend such warnings on alcohol bottles as a result of its review of food labelling laws and policy, winemakers, in particular, would have a strong case for insisting that the labels tell the truth about enjoying a daily tipple.

Unlike smoking, which has proven links to lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema, moderate alcohol consumption, especially red wine, improves longevity, heart health and has a role in preventing cancer. Research published in the International Journal of Cancer shows that a daily glass of red wine may cut men's risk of prostate cancer in half. The protective effects were found to be strongest against the most aggressive forms of the disease. Scientists have also discovered that compounds in red wine slow the cognitive decline caused by Alzheimer's disease.

But even without labels advising them to "drink more and think longer", most adults are capable of taking responsibility for themselves, and for the behaviour of their teenagers, many of whom are more abstemious than their parents at the same age. The dangers of drink-driving, fetal alcohol syndrome and excessive drinking are already well understood. And like determined smokers who ignore cigarette packet warnings, those who don't care or who are not prepared to be drink responsibly would take no notice of warning labels.

Well-enforced drink-driving laws, including zero-tolerance for learner and P-plate drivers, and bans on alcohol sales to minors are far more effective in stamping out irresponsible drinking. However much bureaucrats fancy the idea of devising labels to save us from ourselves, no government has ever found a way to legislate for common sense.

As all three tiers of government have a role in overseeing food labelling, it makes sense to streamline the

process, create uniform standards and reduce the regulatory burden on business. But mollycoddling consumers with warning labels on wine, beer, spirits and even alcopops bottles and cans is enough to drive us to drink.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

POLITICAL POTS ATTACKING MEDIA KETTLES

THE GOVERNMENT'S POOR RECORD DESERVES CRITICAL REPORTING

WHEN Lindsay Tanner was asked on weekend TV whether a Sunday Herald Sun story saying Canberra was spending more money in his not-so-safe seat than on the adjacent electorate, the Finance Minister replied that the paper "should stick to worrying about the whereabouts of Elvis and UFOs". His comrade Anthony Albanese adopted an equivalent approach on Tuesday night when Lateline's Leigh Sales asked him why the electorate was ignoring the government's message. Selling reform was difficult "in today's media climate where there's a fairly shallow focus on the details",the Transport Minister said. Nonsense. Serious newspapers, notably The Australian and The Australian Financial Review, which invest in covering Canberra and exploring and explaining policy, are the strongest media critics of Kevin Rudd and his government.

Still, the pair of ministers have a point - it's just not the one they want to make. There is no doubt parts of the press are dumbing down. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age are heavy on opinion but light on for news and analysis coming out of Canberra, seeing politics as a morality play not a policy forum. Much of the electronic media has abandoned information for infotainment, and political websites are populated by many more ranters than reporters. This is the way the Prime Minister likes it, demonstrated by the media where he prefers to perform. Mr Rudd is keen on the FM format because he can make jokes but he isn't much interested in traditional talkback radio, where politicians who cannot explain policies are put on the spot by audiences more interested in information than amusement. Similarly, Mr Rudd struggled to answer policy questions posed by a young audience on ABC TV's Q&A in February, but he was a hit on games show Good News Week when he knew the number of Australian prime ministers with beards and penises. He also likes Twitter as a way of connecting with voters. But it takes more than 140-character messages to make a case, shown by yesterday's shambles of a Twitter debate between NSW Premier Kristina Keneally and Liberal leader Barry O'Farrell.

This light-weight media approach agrees with the Prime Minister. From the start, his office adopted a state politics style of feeding the not-so-smart media beast with an announcement a day and short-term schemes such as FuelWatch and Grocery Choice. But not all the media is as dumb as Mr Rudd's minders want and although Mr Albanese says the government has a good story to tell, stripped of spin and stunts, what is it?

In less than three years, the Prime Minister has chopped and changed, picking up policies that looked saleable and dropping them when they turned out to be too hard. At first he was an inflation-fighter and then an expert on international financial reform. This was followed by his plan to lead the world in fighting global warming with his emissions trading scheme. Then he was a federal reformer, with a promise to take on the states over their failing public hospitals and mismanagement of water resources. And now Mr Rudd is in a fight with the miners over the resource super-profits tax, as if this single proposal, plucked from many in the Henry review because it might help return the budget to surplus, was all it would take to transform the tax system. And because he cannot sell the RSPT on its merits, the Prime Minister has adopted a new persona, a class-war warrior taxing the mining barons, allegedly to assist ordinary Australians. Certainly Mr Rudd deserves credit for the way the government moved fast during the global financial crisis with his household stimulus package. But other than that, the Rudd government has a long list of projects started and a very short one of those completed.

In part this is a problem caused by Mr Rudd's personal style. As John Lyons pointed out in The Weekend Australian in June 2008, Mr Rudd likes to run everything himself, and in the process of attempting everything accomplishes very little. To an extent, it is due to his media strategy. It is all but impossible to sell complex policy with an announcement-a-day approach. Rather, it takes an ability to explain ideas and make a case for change - all abilities Mr Rudd and his closest ministers have failed to display during the RSPT debate, basically because the proposal was released without sufficient thought of how to sell and implement it. But above all, policy flummery and media spin are the norm because the Prime Minister has no idea what he wants to do in office, except stay there.

Beyond statements to suit stages of the electoral cycle, Mr Rudd has never expressed any consistent objectives. In opposition, he was both a principled fiscal conservative and a social justice crusader determined to protect the poor, conveniently ignoring the way the incomes of the bottom quintile of the community rose faster than those at the top under John Howard. Once in office, the Prime Minister discovered reform is hard, especially when you have no clear idea of what needs to be done, and that it is easier to spend money and appease special interest groups.

That the Rudd government lacked specific objectives and a plan to implement them was obvious as early as April 2008, when the 20/20 summit allowed the Labor Left and its allies in the public sector to write their own agenda for government. Since then, we have seen Whitlamesque spending schemes, notably the $16 billion school building program, where shoveling money into the electorate, without regard to what communities actually need, has become an end in itself. And we have seen schemes to subsidise the car industry and protect the jobs of its unionised workforce. This is a strategy not seen from a Labor leader since the 1960s. The Bob Hawke/Paul Keating approach of the 80s was based on expanding the economy, not protecting union mates in inefficient industries and Gough Whitlam understood the impossibility of protectionism, cutting tariffs across the board.

Mr Albanese unintentionally illustrated the government's problem on Lateline. While he criticised the media for not reporting the government's achievements, he had few to report and spent a fair swag of time attacking Tony Abbott. As for Mr Tanner, when he was asked whether the Sunday Herald Sun's statement was correct, he had to say it was. Not all the media is as dumb as the Rudd government wishes.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

NOT ABOUT POLICE PURITY, IT'S ABOUT FACTS

VICTORIA'S CHIEF COMMISSIONER MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

SIMON Overland's passing-on of secret intelligence from the Operation Briars phone tap must be investigated. At issue is the rule of law and whether the conduct of the Victoria Police Chief Commissioner has been subject to sufficiently rigorous examination by the state's Office of Police Integrity. Several legal experts, including Melbourne QC Peter Faris, former National Crime Authority member Mark Le Grand, the president of the Australian Council of Civil Liberties, Terry O'Gorman, and Liberty Victoria president Michael Pearce, consider there has been a prima facie breach of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act or at least that it must be investigated further. What must be established is whether the OPI treated Mr Overland more leniently than it did former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby, former Police Association boss Paul Mullett and former police media manager Stephen Linnell. Having the OPI's director, Michael Strong, clearing Mr Overland of any wrongdoing is a little like asking the police chief's wife to decide the case, so compromised is the OPI by its close association with Victoria Police. The case against Mr Overland - that by passing on the material from phone taps from a murder investigation, he inadvertently started a chain of events that ended with the collapse of the case - is serious. It cannot be airbrushed out by portraying this as a media stoush rather than a matter of legal substance.

In 2007, Mr Overland spoke candidly under oath of his efforts to "cultivate relationships" with key journalists and of "trying to have them run stories that we were comfortable to have them running". He must be feeling very comfortable about the stories some journalists are producing about his 2007 decision to pass on the intelligence in an effort to head off a story about a $120,000 trip he had been offered to attend a course in France. Journalists from The Age and the ABC have a lot invested in a view of Mr Overland as the avenging angel in the fight against police corruption. Three years ago, Four Corners and The Age presented a view of Operation Briars and Victoria Police that now appears to be hindering their ability to focus on the core issue of Mr Overland's behaviour. On Monday night's Media Watch , Jonathan Holmes said that "The Australian has chosen to take sides in a factional war, but few of those who've reported on police corruption in Victoria believe it has chosen the side of the angels." Perhaps it is easy for Holmes to separate the heroes from the villains from his desk in Sydney's Ultimo. We are not so sure the world can be divided into a cartoon caricature of "white hats" and "black hats", good cops and bad cops - or, for that matter, good journos and bad journos. The Age is also finding it hard to accommodate the facts discovered by The Australian's Hedley Thomas who, for the first time, established the link between Mr Overland's release of the intelligence and the collapse of Operation Briars. Contrary to claims this is old news, Melissa Fyfe's report in The Age on September 13 last year did not mention that the release of information started with the police chief. Fyfe's weekend piece in her own newspaper acknowledges this is where Thomas has advanced her story. The Age appears wedded to a story by Nick McKenzie, published on September 14, 2007, which positioned Victoria Police, Mr Overland and the OPI as the good guys. The subsequent collapse of OPI actions against Mr Ashby and Mr Mullett and the questions about Mr Overland's passing-on of material do not sit easily with that original story. It is disappointing The Age finds it hard to see beyond what was in effect the first draft of history. It is easier, too, for ABC radio host Jon Faine to dismiss this story because of an unrelated dispute between The Australian and the OPI.

In truth, the substance of the case against Mr Overland does not rest on the purity of other police. Neither Mr Ashby nor Mr Mullett has been found guilty of any misdemeanour but even if they had been, it would be irrelevant to the question of whether Mr Overland has breached the law. Similarly, it matters not at all whether this newspaper is in dispute with the OPI. Operation Briars predates by three years our involvement with the OPI. That media commentators like Margaret Simons can so blur the two issues in her attacks on this newspaper suggests that Victoria's police spinmeisters are good at their game. That The Age and the ABC are more concerned with shooting the messenger than acknowledging the need for an inquiry suggests they need to go back to first principles and examine the facts rather than clinging to an image of Victoria Police built on police patronage and selective leaks.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

BANALITY RULES AT BARANGAROO

LEND LEASE has pulled its head in on its redevelopment plans for the Barangaroo site along Darling Harbour. But only a bit, and not nearly enough. It's unfair to blame this big developer, though. It's only doing what big developers do: getting away with as much development as it thinks the government will allow and the public tolerate.

The reduced size of the proposed hotel and the wharf that would support it out from the existing shoreline is still an affront to all Sydneysiders who love their city and their harbour. The three mega-office towers of 50 to 60 storeys almost smack against the waterline go against the basic principles of town planning put into existing controls by the City of Sydney.

Only a desperate state government, out of ideas and money at the fag end of its tenure, would countenance this appalling waste of an opportunity to infuse liveliness and creativity to the city centre. The high-rise concentration at the south end of Barangaroo is being permitted to pay for the government's surrender to the whims of the Labor grandee Paul Keating, self-appointed aesthete of Sydney, and his fixation on an artificial headland at the north. The state and city can't think of taking leadership themselves.

Various city suits have been enlisted to endorse Lend Lease's new scheme. It seems that business wants construction activity, any activity, to keep money circulating in town. There is a longer-term vision: we are told these offices will become the financial centre of the western Pacific. Is anyone reminded of the islanders who built airstrips in the belief that American planes full of cargo would come?

The latest plan is distinguished by its banality - and vagueness. What are the rules that the developer will follow? What is the street plan even? We don't know. The project development agreement between Lend Lease and the government is secret.

The redevelopment of this precinct has been notable for its constricted vision from the start. The original planning competition set the existing container wharf reclamation as a given, and contestants had to do their best with its straight edge. Now even the modulated scheme of the contest winner has been attenuated into a bifurcation between office tower and vast open space best suited to rock concerts and fireworks displays. Most of the time, it will be void of human activity.

A truly creative city would have started from ground zero, or before it actually, by digging out the reclamation. Then we might get the intricate cityscape of finger-wharves, office-studios, apartments, theatres, small parks and plazas that generate urban life.

The office towers can go somewhere else on the city spine: they'll still have a view.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

LIABILITY HAS ITS LIMITS

THE High Court's decision in the case of two policemen who allegedly suffered psychiatric stress as a result of what they saw attending the Waterfall rail disaster in 2003 has brought some comfort to the men themselves. That is a welcome outcome, but the case itself only confuses the situation surrounding compensation for emergency service personnel who suffer as a result of their work.

The High Court has in effect broadened the circumstances in which the Civil Liability Act's provisions can be relied on in compensation cases. That is one aspect of the case, which more broadly assumes that State Rail had a direct responsibility to the policemen who arrived after the derailment. State Rail has admitted negligence in the operation of the railway and in the derailment of the train. Public authorities and others will be alarmed at this broadening of their potential liabilities. The link the case makes may be clear in law, but in administrative or managerial terms it is anything but: is a body set up to run a train system the appropriate one to provide help for policemen suffering damage from what they saw at an accident? The public may well ask: isn't attending accidents, however distressing, what police are paid to do? Doesn't witnessing shocking scenes go with the job?

In raising those questions, we do not seek to diminish the suffering of the two plaintiffs. Their situation raises a broader issue: is this the best way to help emergency services personnel who suffer mentally as a result of their work? It is, after all, a lucky dip. Police may witness equally distressing scenes where there is no one to sue - cliff falls, say, or child drownings.

Appropriateness aside, there is also the time the process has taken. The plaintiffs have had their case heard three times now - an initial hearing and two appeals. The High Court has now sent it back to the Court of Appeal to reconsider arguments about negligence and State Rail's duty of care to the two men. Their ordeal began more than seven years ago and is yet to conclude.

The process was only necessary because access to workers' compensation is so restricted. It is entirely foreseeable that police and others who attend accidents will see, and be deeply affected, possibly damaged, by horrifying sights. They should be well cared for. But this is not the way to do it.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

MAKING GOOD ON THE PROMISE OF MORE KINDER

WE CAN'T AFFORD TO FAIL IN EDUCATING YOUNG CHILDREN.

WHEN the federal Labor Party made an election promise that all children have access to 15 hours a week of kindergarten in the year before starting school, it was clear that delivering on the vow would demand significant investment. More kindergarten teachers would have to be trained and recruited, a challenge partly dependent on raising wages and providing better career paths in the sector. And more money would also be needed for bricks and mortar - all very well to promote universal access and stress the importance of early childhood education if the children have nowhere to go. As the findings of a state government-funded audit reveal, the foundations had better be laid swiftly to avoid serious inequity.

Councils, which own more than two-thirds of Victoria's 1200 kindergartens, have warned of waiting-list lockouts and fee increases after the introduction of the new 15-hour entitlement from 2013. (Four-year-olds in Victoria are currently entitled to only 10 hours.) The audit found Victoria needed at least 600 new preschools to be built within three years and it identified a funding shortfall of $606 million. The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) says it cannot magically create about 50 per cent more kindergartens or conjure an additional 400 trained staff to meet the policy, which has since been formally agreed to by the Commonwealth and state governments.

The task ahead is clearly staggering - although the Federal Government's infrastructure rollouts as part of its stimulus measures show just how much can be done in a short time if the political will is there. (How well the jobs are done is, of course, another matter.) And let's be wise to the political games being played out in the media. After all, as a spokeswoman for state Early Childhood Minister Maxine Morand made clear, the audit results would form the basis of Victoria's submission to the Commonwealth's review of funding allocated under the early childhood agreement. The audit's finding is conveniently alarming for the purposes of Victoria's funding pitch. But it is alarming all the same and, if experience is any guide, the chances of all the best policy intentions coming to nought due to poor planning and underfunding are hardly remote. And the fact that councils were asked, as part of the audit, to explore all options to provide 15 hours of kindergarten for four-year-olds, including Saturday morning timetables, says something about the impact of years of neglect in this area. Options such as kindergartens co-locating with childcare centres and primary schools have their merits - the latter has been encouraged at a policy level as a way of alleviating logistical hassles for working parents. But making up kindergarten hours on Saturdays risks placing more pressure on already time-poor families.

According to MAV president Bill McArthur, some councils in metropolitan Melbourne fear they will be left with no choice but to introduce waiting lists, fee increases and cuts to three-year-old kindergarten programs in order to meet the 15 hours entitlement. This scenario threatens to disadvantage the very children who stand to benefit most from the new kindergarten policy. Key research from around the globe shows that quality early childhood education benefits all children and that children from disadvantaged or at-risk backgrounds gain particular benefit if they attend centres with a mix of children from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. Evidence also suggests that children from disadvantaged backgrounds stand to benefit considerably from two years of kindergarten. Boosting our investment in the early years is crucial to Australia's long-term economic, social and physical health. This is one public policy test we cannot afford to fail.

Source: The Age

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

KOREAN BRINKMANSHIP RISKS DISASTER

IT WAS a proud day for North Korea when its soccer team took on Brazil at the World Cup. Yet the North Korean public could not share the moment, and not only because the reclusive regime does not permit live broadcasts. After the sinking of a South Korean warship on March 26, the Seoul broadcaster that holds World Cup rights for the whole peninsula denied North Korea televised feeds, which it provided four years ago - although the North has aired pirated replays.

The United Nations Security Council is deliberating on a response to the attack on the Cheonan, with the loss of 46 sailors, and tensions haven't been higher in decades.

Long gone are the hopes of 2000, when North and South Korean athletes marched under one flag in the Sydney Olympics. Today, any miscalculation by either side could trigger full-scale conflict. Many nations would have treated the sinking of their warship as an act of war. South Korea has shown great restraint since an inquiry by foreign experts, including Australians, found last month that a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan, despite Pyongyang's denials.

Seoul knows the risks of war: Kim Jong-il has the world's fourth-largest standing army - and has tested a nuclear device - and his heavy artillery along the border could flatten the capital. Pyongyang's UN ambassador warned on Tuesday that any censure would be the end of diplomacy: ''follow-up measures will be carried out by our military forces''.

Despite public anger at the sinking, the final nail in the coffin of the ''sunshine'' policy of engagement, a sense of Korean kinship endures. Events have bolstered approval for President Lee Myung-bak's tougher approach, including sanctions, but few wish to sever all ties. What should be clear to all is that the status quo is unsustainable; events can spin out of control at any time.

The key player is China as a permanent Security Council member and patron of North Korea, which is hugely dependent on Chinese fuel and food imports. Beijing lodged a diplomatic protest against another act of hostility when North Korean border guards shot dead three Chinese nationals two weeks ago. That reportedly resulted in an apology and compensation. If China aspires to be seen as a responsible global leader it must now use its influence to pull North Korea into line and get it to accept the censure it deserves.

It is also up to Beijing to push Pyongyang into talks that offer the only chance to finally end this Cold War conflict. North Korea's nuclear program and the brinkmanship of its regular provocations are simply too dangerous to tolerate.

Source: The Age

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

IN PRAISE OF … NAN GOLDIN

GOLDIN IS THE AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER WHO BALDLY AND BRAVELY DOCUMENTED NEW YORK'S GAY SOCIETY

A surprise awaits visitors to Tate Modern's new Exposed exhibition. File through the rooms devoted to concealed cameras and invasive photographs (from the efforts of the first paparazzi to shots of Japanese peeping toms roaming a park at night) and you come to a giant projector screen. Pictures of children in the bath appear, then teens in cars and bars, men with men, men with women, women with women, couples on beds (during sex, or after violent arguments), in wedding regalia, and finally a sequence of twin graves. These are intimate images and the pictures are close-ups: that gap-toothed lunk perched on a toilet is looking directly at you. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, as this 42-minute "film in stills" is called, is probably Nan Goldin's best work. It captures what is most striking about her style – the willingness to take the side of her subjects (she always shoots people I have "some kind of love for") and to address issues of gender (one of her themes is the pressure on men to behave like men, and where that leaves women). Goldin is the American photographer who baldly and bravely documented New York's gay society, doing so not with a self-conscious political awareness, but as if she were creating a pictorial diary. The resulting images are messy (both in what they show and how they are composed) and sometimes kitsch. But we have enough elegant images taken by Olympians with Leicas: passion and engagement of the kind Goldin brings to her work is much rarer.

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

FAMILY POLICY: THE STATE SECTOR

IN AN ERA OF CUTS, THE ABSENCE OF THE STATE IS LESS A QUESTION OF IDEOLOGY THAN PRACTICALITY

A task force on the family may seem an elaborate way of knitting together competing views within the coalition. But it may also be a device that allows the prime minister to do what he wants regardless of his diehards. Certainly, Tory family policy, apostrophised during the election as little more than a small bribe to couples to stay married, turns out to be rather more substantial, at least when framed in a speech by Nick Clegg. Third-sector organisations involved in family support have been wondering nervously about their future, so they were enthusiastic about yesterday's announcement of the taskforce led by David Cameron and including Mr Clegg, as well as the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, and the universities minister, David Willetts, which puts the question of how best to support families and children where it should be, at the heart of government.

The marriage tax break (left in the short-stay car park during the coalition negotiations to soften up Lib Dem critics) became the representative Tory policy on the family because it reflected the dilemma at the heart of the party's approach, and although Lib Dem language changes the atmosphere in which supporting families is discussed, it does not tackle the problem. When a government knows the result it wants, but as a guiding principle disbelieves the state's capacity to deliver it, its challenge is to find a credible alternative.

That is more than ever true when, as Nick Clegg acknowledged yesterday, being poor is often the main reason families are in crisis. Oddly, Mr Clegg suggested that child tax credits, which many regard as Labour's best tool for lifting children out of poverty, inhibited the independence of the family. The Lib Dem policy of raising the tax threshold, he said, would give families choice. True, but it will do nothing to prioritise the needs of poor families with children.

In reality, in an era of cuts, the absence of the state is less a question of ideology than practicality. The fathers project that was the scene for yesterday's speech, a Family and Parenting Institute scheme, faces a 25% cut. The state cannot afford to get involved in, say, creating secure environments for play – one of yesterday's objectives – while the same austerity makes sense of the decision to redirect the money from the questionable benefits of child trust funds into respite care for families with disabled children. The conversion to flexible working for all employees (if business can be persuaded to buy it) is welcome, and the emphasis on shared parenting is a triumph, but it won't work without a lot of taxpayers' pounds. Good ideas, Mr Clegg, but you know you need the state.

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

CAMERON'S FIRST EU SUMMIT: DAVE MEETS THE NEIGHBOURS

CAMERON – A SELF-DESCRIBED EUROSCEPTIC – HAS NOT, AS OTHER EU GOVERNMENTS FEARED, SHOWN HIMSELF TO BE OBSTRUCTIONIST

Anyone expecting Britain's new Eurosceptic prime minister to storm the barricades yesterday at his first EU summit would have been disappointed. For a start, the barricades have just been been flattened by the latest flash flood. After the constitutional crisis over the Lisbon treaty, eight years of it, comes the euro crisis.Not because of naked short selling, or hedge funds, but because continental banks are perilously exposed to Greek and Spanish debt. Politically, Belgium is unable to form a stable government after a general election produced a seismic shift towards break-up; Angela Merkel is paralysed in a coalition with the pro-business FDP that has turned into a nightmare; and the French have just had to raise the retirement age. This is not a union in expansionist mode. It is one that is struggling to hold it all together for the first time in its 53-year history.

The second point is that David Cameron arrived courtesy of coalition, not a majority Tory government, and as

such he has taken ostentatious delight in upsetting expectations. Mr Cameron – a self-described Eurosceptic – has not, as other EU governments feared, shown himself to be obstructionist. His deal with the Lib Dems has allowed him to tone down his party's hostility – for instance, he has sidelined Mark Francois, who had expected to be Europe minister, replacing him with the more pragmatic David Liddington, once special adviser to the pro-European Douglas Hurd. He has tried to charm other European leaders, going some way to winning back friends lost when he took the Tories out of the European People's party. Nick Clegg's pro-European views and multilingualism have helped too. But the effort has come from both parties. George Osborne impressed finance ministers on his first visit to Brussels, just after the election. So did agriculture minister Caroline Spelman, fluent in French and German. The EU had feared the Tory-led government before it arrived, and some of those fears have eased – for the moment.

José Manuel Barroso had no need to lay on the scrambled eggs and bacon for Cameron at the headquarters of the commission in Brussels. The love-in had started a month ago. As the former Tory minister Lord Garel-Jones said, it is now a firmly established tradition that parties that behave badly in opposition on Europe are more sensible when they get into government. But what Cameron yesterday called "a positive, active, engaged role" should not be mistaken for a change of heart. The presence of Lib Dem ministers will make a difference, but Cameron's co-operation is more an expression of his pragmatism than any sympathy for the EU project. Leading Tories decided last year that a battle over Europe was a luxury they could not afford, given the scale of the economic crisis. They deliberately sidelined the EU as an issue. Battles lie ahead: Britain will not want to contribute to a Spanish bailout because it is not in the euro, but it may have to because of troubled Madrid banks. There is the regulation of hedge funds and the proposed bank levy. But there is no immediate pressure on Cameron to enter the fray. Is this good for the EU?

Multiply Britain's red lines by 27 and you have a recipe for a hobbled Europe. George Osborne may feel he now has Mr Barroso's backing for a stringent spending round in the autumn, because fiscal deficit reduction in Europe is, like scrambled eggs and bacon, on the menu. But if Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy are all in belt-tightening mode, which country is going to provide the growth? Not Germany. It does not even want to buy its own goods. Where else would a delegation of employers go to the government to protest at a plan to cut taxes, on the grounds that it would destabilise public finances? Everyone is haunted by their own ghosts, and Germany's is currency devaluation. This European Union is not threatened by another big "ism", but by its opposite. A vacuum of leadership, a retreat behind national boundaries.

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THE GAZETTE

TIME TO GET A GRIP ON SECURITY AGENCIES

FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE JOHN MAJOR HAS DONE THE COUNTRY AN IMPORTANT SERVICE WITH HIS REPORT, MADE PUBLIC YESTERDAY, INTO THE TERRORIST BOMBING OF AIR INDIA FLIGHT 182, DESTROYED IN MID-AIR 25 YEARS AGO NEXT WEDNESDAY.

We hardly needed a four-year inquiry to tell us that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service bungled the initial investigation. This was, as Major says, the "worst mass murder in Canadian history: In all 331 people died, but because of slow, confused, and often inept police work, nobody was ever convicted of the bombing. Key evidence was destroyed, agencies squabbled, officials passed the buck.

For the families and friends of the slain, ham-handed police inquiries and Ottawa's self-interested handling of the case worsened and prolonged the pain. Brian Mulroney's government was "so keen on debunking any notion that the bombing was tied to any deficiencies in Canadian safety and security that it alienated the very people who deserved support and sympathy -the families of the victims," Major's report says. It proposes -and Stephen Harper seems inclined to make -"a demonstration of solicitude" toward the families.

Beyond the human element lies policy. The Mounties and CSIS were plainly unready for the Sikh extremism that destroyed so many lives. In those far-off times "terrorism" seemed a remote and obscure notion. Alarmingly, though, Major's report signals that Canada is not much better off today in organizing deterrence and prevention, to say nothing of investigation after some future outrage. Turf wars between the RCMP and CSIS, we are told, persist.

Managing national security is a perennial problem. Normal bureaucratic friction is increased by the element of secrecy. Centralizing power in one person has obvious dangers, hinted at in the unofficial title "intelligence czar." But dispersed authority creates a risk of inefficiency.

Aco-ordinatorcapableof settlingturf wars and seeing the big picture seems to be a reasonable compromise, but this approach does not seem to be working south of the border. Last month President Barack Obama fired Dennis Blair, who as director of national intelligence was assigned to co-ordinate 16 intelligence agencies. Blair was the third person in the post in five years. The office of DNI has become, as the Wall Street Journal put it, "merely ... another bureaucracy layered on top of the other bureaucracies."

In that light our cabinet will have to take a hard look at Major's No. 1 recommendation, a greatly expanded role for the national security adviser in the Privy Council Office. This official should have a big staff drawn from numerous agencies, Major said, and be able to "participate in setting strategic national security policies and priorities, ... supervise and, where necessary ... co-ordinate national security activities, ... resolve, with finality, disputes among the agencies responsible, ... provide oversight of the effectiveness of national security activities," and more.

Strikingly, an aide said yesterday that Prime Minister Harper would respond positively to Major's proposals about the families, but there was only silence on the restructuring that was the judge's main recommendation.

But if not this reform, what? Anyone with a better idea for imposing efficiency and creating reliability should speak up now.

Many of Major's other proposals will be less controversial. Improved procedures for terrorism trials, starting with a new director of terrorism prosecutions, and "a lead federal role" in such prosecutions, are logically supported in the report and deserve consideration. A sturdy security-witness-protection program seems self-evident. So does a 25-year ban on destruction of evidence held by CSIS.

There's a lot to do. Major's four years of effort will not be wasted if his proposals get serious consideration.

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THE GAZETTE

ALL ABOARD -AGAIN

Ever since the oil scare of 1973, if not before, Ontario and Quebec premiers have been asking Ottawa to build a high-speed rail corridor from Quebec City to Windsor. Now Dalton McGuinty and Jean Charest are trying it.

Evidently they haven't been paying attention. With "stimulus" money all spent, and a big ugly deficit to deal with, Ottawa is hardly likely to find a few billion dollars for a train. Anyway, the governments are awaiting completion of the 17th feasability study of this idea. Talk about immobilisme.

If there were a real case for high-speed rail, we believe that we would have heard it made long before this, by would-be users or by the private sector.

Jean Drapeau used to claim that his pipe-dream train to New York City would at least pay its own operating expenses, although hardly anyone believed him. No such claim is made for this proposed service.

Via Rail got $226 million from federal taxpayers as an operating subsidy last year. If Ottawa did pay up for new high-speed train tracks and rolling stock, it would then be stuck with higher subsidies as well.

The premiers should try another dodge; this one's getting old.

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

A GUIDE FOR PARKING, SWEARING AND WEEING

BY MICHELE A. BERDY

Кодекс москвича: Muscovite's code

Just when I thought I had mastered the complexities of being a longtime foreign resident of the Russian capital, the Moscow City Duma has decided to produce кодекс москвича (Muscovite's Code) to help us foreigners assimilate.

Although it's still being discussed, a few suggestions for proper behavior were given as examples. Some are easy to follow: Не резать барана во дворе (Don't slit the throat of a sheep in the courtyard). No argument from me on that one, and besides, I think it's against the law. Не жарить шашлык на балконе (Don't grill shashlik on the balcony). I don't have a balcony and besides, I think that's also against the law. Разговаривать по-русски (Speak Russian). Potential problem. Does that mean I can't speak English with a friend in public? And finally: Не ходить по городу в национальной одежде (Don't walk around the city in national dress). Big problem. Do I have to throw out my jeans, sneakers and down parka?

I appreciate that a large influx of foreign workers into a city may create tension and misunderstanding. Since the code's compilers plan to consult with members of the various diasporas, as a responsible member of a diaspora I'd like to offer some suggestions on how to fit in with Moscow life based on the behavior of some of the native Muscovites I see and engage with on a daily basis.

1. Громко ругайтесь матом на улице (Swear loudly on the street). This is an ancient tradition, testified to in the earliest descriptions of the city. Although swearing on the street waned during the Soviet period, it seems to be making a spectacular comeback in our days. For example, I am awakened every morning at 7 a.m. by a foreman swearing loudly, creatively and expansively at the construction site next door. Why, just this morning I learned a fascinating new use of prefixes.

2. Паркуйте машину там, где душа подскажет — на тротуаре, на детской площадке — и желательно так, чтобы она торчала на проезжей части или блокировала другие машины (Park your car wherever and however you feel like — on the sidewalk, on a playground — and preferably so it sticks out onto the roadway or blocks other cars). In fact, if you can figure out how to park it in a tree, go for it.

3. Когда вы выпиваете в парке, справляйте малую нужду за кустом (When you are drinking in a park, relieve yourself behind a bush). Walls are also acceptable, as are entryways and even — disgustingly — elevators.

4. На день рождения жены устраивайте фейерверки во дворе в час ночи (On your wife's birthday, set off fireworks in the courtyard at 1 a.m.) Make sure that you have 37 of your closest personal friends with you — preferably drunk and loud — as well as a pack of howling dogs.

5. Если вы работаете в магазине или ресторане, помните: покупатель всегда неправ (If you work in a store or restaurant, remember: The customer is always wrong). And if you work in a bank, learn how to snap your window down on the hands of a client who has been waiting for 45 minutes as you say: Перерыв! (It's my break!)

Unfair? Absolutely. But honestly, have you ever seen someone killing sheep in your courtyard? Are you upset by the sight of colorful native garb? Do you care if street cleaners chat among themselves in Tajik?

The code may be a good idea, but only if it's distributed to everyone.

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

MODERNIZE OR MARGINALIZE

BY ANDERS ASLUND AND ANDREW KUCHINS

Now that the global financial crisis has abated, this is a good time to take Russia's pulse. We have just edited a book with 12 chapters written by Russians and Americans. The consensus from the authors was clear: Russia has weathered a perfect storm of oil price decrease, reversed capital flows and political isolation following the August 2008 war with Georgia. Russia's short-term prospects appear neither dramatic nor problematic.

Yet Russia faces serious structural challenges in the long-run. The book's authors unanimously concluded that the current system is no longer suitable for the challenges ahead and is facing a dead end. This includes the economy, politics, the rule of law, Gazprom, the Commonwealth of Independent States, foreign relations in general, foreign economic relations and the armed forces.

This discussion is reminiscent of the one in the 1970s about how the Soviet Union would transition from "extensive" growth based on the mobilization of resources to "intensive" growth based on increased efficiency and productivity. The big difference is while reform of the Soviet economic system was not possible, reform of the current state-capitalist system is. In some cases, such as in the military, reform has already started. But if Russia is to succeed in the long run, it urgently needs more comprehensive restructuring.

The good news is that Russia has substantial assets — natural resources and human capital — and huge potential for further change. These changes are not going to be easy, but if they happen the country will be able to capitalize on the true value of its assets.

One of the most profound structural problem facing Russia's future development is the erosion of federalism, the inevitable result of consolidating so much authority in the Kremlin under the power vertical model. Other broad areas of structural concern are the rule of law, state regulation of enterprise and innovation. Disturbingly, corruption has gotten worse since 2000. One consequence is that big companies are given an unfair advantage over small firms. This hampers the development of small businesses, which are important drivers of innovation in the West, as well as in Bangalore and other global technology centers. Apart from the software industry, Russia's high technology is concentrated in large state corporations.

Rampant corruption is arguably the largest factor obstructing the country's ability to develop its infrastructure. Another of Russia's great problems is demography. President Dmitry Medvedev captured the scope of the problem when he said: "Every year there are fewer and fewer Russians, alcoholism, smoking, traffic accidents, the lack of availability of many medical technologies, and environmental problems take millions of lives. And the emerging rise in births has not compensated for our declining population."

Important reforms are taking place in the military, where Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is pushing ahead despite strong resistance from the officer corps.

In foreign policy, Russia's current dilemma is: modernize or marginalize. It makes little sense for Russia to oppose the West. Instead, it should aspire to emulate and join the West. Russia does not have the resources to pursue a separate course. Arguably, the most important issue is whether Russia finally will be able to accede to the World Trade Organization. The country has little to gain from the development of the Customs Union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which would instead represent Russia's marginalization.

The current strategic outlooks of Russia and the United States vary greatly. U.S. President Barack Obama has gone out of his way to reset U.S.-Russian relations. The key line in his big speech at Moscow's New Economic School on July 7, 2009, was: "America wants a strong, peaceful, and prosperous Russia." The U.S.-Russian relationship has improved considerably since its low point following the war with Georgia, but its potential remains unfulfilled.

At present, the Russian leadership has a great opportunity. While it is evident that the current economic model cannot deliver sufficient growth in the next several years and the main problems are plain, the Kremlin does not face any apparent immediate internal or external threats. Therefore, the Russian government can launch reforms if it finds the political will and courage to do so.

But, of course, reforms always involve costs, not least to the insiders. The big question for the next couple of years is whether the stark analysis of Russia's shortcomings, which have been largely overlooked by the country's leaders, will prompt adequate reforms.

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

MEDICAL REFORM

HEALTH CARE BILL GROWING FASTEST IN OECD

Korean policymakers presented the success story of its efficient medical system to Capitol Hill. When the Obama Administration was preparing to reform the health care system this year, Korea was one of the models chosen for benchmarking.

Even the reformed U.S. medical system needs retooling if it is to be more competitive and comprehensive than the Korean system.

Now the country should pay attention to the latest OECD advice. Many Koreans had long taken for granted the efficiency of its health-care system. The country could limit spending to one of the lowest levels in the OECD. Spending is now increasing at the fastest rate in the OECD, growing at double-digit rates since 1995. Every salaried citizen feels uncomfortable when they see their paycheck summary each month.

In addition, the country is becoming one of the fastest ageing societies in the world. The OECD has reported that Korea will become the most aged society among advanced economies in 2050, with nearly four out of every 10 Koreans being 65 or over due to low birthrates and the rapidly aging population. The population will fall from 2018. Between now and 2050, the nation will see a decline of 6.4 million people.

This should put pressure on medical costs. The National Health Insurance Corp. also plans to expand the range of services it covers.

Unless preemptive steps are taken, the medical service will be costly.

As the OECD suggests, the nation needs to raise its efficiency through reforming the medical payment system, slashing drug expenditure, shifting long-term care out of hospitals, promoting healthy ageing and increasing the number of general physicians, generally recognized as gatekeepers.

On top of the double-digit rises in medical insurance fees, patients should bear more and more out-of-pocket expenses. This would reduce adequate access for low-income households. The country also needs to increase the number of general physicians to provide less expensive and more effective primary care. The number of medical consultations per physician is more than three times the OECD average. The country has the highest number of physician consultations in the OECD.

It means doctors are in short supply in providing quality services to patients. As you well know, a consultation at a hospital lasts for less than 10 minutes. Instead of increasing the number of doctors, the country needs to expand the number of general physicians.

It may be naive to expect quality service at a low cost. Hospitals could reduce expenses through restructuring and enhancing transparency.

More incentives should be given to out-patients to reduce long hospital stays and frequent appointments with physicians.

The country has extra room for cutting spending on drugs. Recommended is a strong crackdown on illegal rebates by pharmaceutical makers and ways of reducing the price of generic drugs. As a way of igniting competition, the current rule requiring nonprescription drugs to be sold at convenience stores is advisable.

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

POLICE TORTURE

TIME TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS OF SUSPECTS

Police officers are required to protect the lives and assets of citizens. Their main duty is to crack down on criminals to ensure the rule of law. Their fight against crime, however, does not provide an excuse to ignore the basic human rights of criminal suspects. It goes without saying that suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

But, the inconvenient reality is that police officers have still resorted to torture and other forms of physical abuse to extract confessions from criminal suspects. On Wednesday, the National Human Rights Commission disclosed that torture is still widely used during police investigations of suspects. The revelation was based on an inquiry into 32 criminal suspects interrogated at the Yangcheon Police Station in western Seoul between August 2009 and March this year.

The commission discovered that 22 of the suspects were subject to torture or physical abuse during interrogations. It requested the prosecution to investigate five officers for their alleged involvement in the illegal practices. It also recommended that the National Police Agency inspect the police station to check if there were other cases of torture.

The police station immediately denied the commission's findings. But the policy agency quickly suspended the station chief, the criminal investigation section chief, and the five officers. Most people are not willing to believe the denial because the panel's disclosure was seen as objective and credible.

More worrisome is that torture has been inflicted on the suspects intentionally and systematically. Critics point out that torture has turned into a widespread practice tacitly approved by senior police officers. It can be said that the Yangcheon cases are only the tip of the iceberg. Many police officers are still prone to the easiest way of incriminating suspects without employing scientific methods of investigation and interrogation.

The cases remind the public of the dictatorial regimes in the 1970s and 80s, under which torture had been the order of the day at the police, the prosecution and the intelligence agency. During the dark ages, dissidents, opposition politicians, student activists and unionists were all tortured to make false confessions to made-up charges.

One of the most notorious cases was the torture-death of a university student, Park Jong-chul. His death fueled the June 10 pro-democratic movement in 1987. Another case was the ``sexual" torture of female activist Kwon In-sook. Opposition politician Kim Geun-tae was also a torture victim. Whenever Koreans recall these names, they cannot fail to have flashbacks of the brutal dictatorship, terror, violence and torture.

Now, no one wants to see the nation turn its clock back to the dictatorial period. Police should realize that torture is a crime against humanity, challenging the rule of law and destroying democracy. The Lee Myung-bak administration should leave no stone unturned to eradicate torture that is none other than state violence and crime against criminal suspects. It's time to guarantee the rule of law and better protect the rights of the people. Only then can the nation become a real democracy.

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

SANCTIONS AGAINST NORTH KOREA

BY ANDREI LANKOV

As everybody repeats these days, the ``Sunshine Policy" of engagement and unilateral concessions is dead. After the Cheonan sinking, all Seoul talks about is sanctions and pressure ― and this position finds some understanding in Washington.

It is not likely that talks of tougher sanctions will actually produce tougher punishment against the North. In all probability the attempts to put pressure on Pyongyang will be quietly (or not so quietly) sabotaged by China, perhaps with some Russian support.

This will be disappointing news for many Korean and American hardliners, but they should probably not be that upset: in the very unlikely case of a truly vigorous sanctions regimen being implemented, it is not going to succeed in influencing North Korea's behavior. The peculiarities of the North Korean regime make it essentially immune to sanctions.

How does a sanctions regimen normally work? When a country is subjected to international sanctions, it does not mean that the leaders suffer from malnutrition ― in all probability, their daily intake of caviar and cognac does not go down a lot, and the fuel tanks of their Jaguars are still full.

Contrary to the lofty rhetoric of diplomats, in nearly all cases it is the common population and lower reaches of the elite who feel the brunt of the sanctions.

Depending on the time and place it might mean anything from surviving for years on a starvation diet to a mere inability to buy a new car, but at any rate people do not take the noticeable decline in their living standards lightly.

So, the dissatisfaction begins to build up, and people start feeling bad about the policy which brought the sanctions upon them (and also toward the government which initiated such a policy).

This is bad news for the government. If a country has relatively free and fair elections, chances are that the government will be voted out of power. In less liberal regimes, a revolution is a likely outcome.

And, last but not least, the factions of the ruling elite might seize the opportunity and use the public discontent to stage a coup. At any rate, a government which is too stubborn faces a very real risk of losing its power because of popular discontent.

However, this mechanism is clearly not what is going to work in North Korea. None of the above-mentioned scenarios of regime change can be realistically expected there.

Needless to say, the North Koreans do not vote ― well, they vote with a predictable 100 percent approval rate for the sole candidate, appointed by the government long before elections.

A popular uprising is not likely either. In the late 1990s North Korea suffered a disastrous famine which killed between half a million and a million people. To a large extent it was brought about by the policy of the government which refused to implement reforms out of fear of instability.

But even the famine victims died quietly, with little, if any, resistance. The North Korean population was too terrified and disorganized to stage any efficient resistance movement. The North Koreans did not know much about available alternatives to their regimented existence. Nowadays the situation has changed to some extent, but not that much.

In other words, the North Korean political system does not receive feedback. The economic prosperity and even survival of the population is not high on the regime agenda, and the population itself has neither violent nor peaceful ways to influence the government policy.

It seems that sanctions supporters pin their hopes largely on a coup orchestrated by the dissatisfied elite, so it makes sense to dwell on this scenario a bit longer. Their logic runs like this: Kim Jong-il uses his funds to bribe top officials, providing them with cars, hi-tech gadgets and luxury goods.

If they do not get these giveaways, they will become resentful of Kim Jong-il and his policies and will probably demand changes or even stage a coup ― in order to have a reliable supply of Hennessy.

But will they? This logic would probably work in some Latin American dictatorships of the 1960s and 1970s where the change of the dictator would not lead to a collapse of the entire system, so ambitious colonels were always looking for an opportunity to get rid of the aging generals. This is not the case in North Korea.

The North Korean leaders understand that any attempt to rock the boat is dangerous. A sight of disunity at the very top might send a dangerous signal to the hitherto docile and terrified populace, and the collapse of the entire system becomes a probability (East Europe of the early 1990s demonstrated once again how sudden revolutions can be).

The god-like status of the Kim family complicates the situation further. The top leaders might have more realistic ideas about the dictator, but they understand that for the populace the sight of a god being removed from power will come as a huge shock. After that, people might become ungovernable.

But, unlike most other countries, North Korea is a part of a divided nation, and an outbreak of instability there might bring about unification with the South ― the ultimate nightmare of the present day elite. If that happens, the top officials and generals have no chance of keeping their privileges, and they are seriously afraid of being prosecuted for their past misdeeds.

It is not incidental that Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il's father and founder of the regime, in the early 1990s made sure that all members of his entourage watched the footage of the execution of Ceausescu, a Romanian strongman who was the closest analogue to the Kims, and the violent Romanian revolution.

His message was: if I am removed from power, you will lose everything, including, probably, your lives. The message was not lost, more so since it appears to be correct.

So, the North Korean generals and dignitaries can survive on a reduced amount of Scotch whisky if the most likely alternative seems to be a lifelong survival on prison rations ― or worse. Kim Jong-il is seen by those people as a guarantee of stability, and none of them will challenge his supremacy.

Thus, if by some unlikely miracle China sincerely joins the sanctions regimen and puts serious pressure on North Korea, the immediate result will be neither revolution nor coup, but simply a dramatic increase in the mortality rate ― in other words, a lot of dead farmers.

Perhaps some breaking point exists and can even be reached if sanctions are applied systematically and for a long time, but this breaking point seems to be too many corpses away.

Fortunately for the average North Korean, it is not going to happen. Driven by fear of instability (and decisively unenthusiastic about unification) China does not want to see North Korea cornered, and will not allow any efficient sanctions to be applied.

Prof. Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and now teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul. He can be reached at anlankov@yahoo.com.

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

NO JOBS, NO HOPE — NOW NO SOCCER

BY DALE MCFEATTERS

Scripps Howard News Service

Here's another reason Americans should embrace soccer: Anti-Western and anti-U.S. Islamic radicals are threatening to kill anybody caught watching the World Cup, a special point of pride in Africa because it's the first time the continent has hosted the games.

An organization calling itself al-Shabaab, apparently deciding that the hapless people of the violent and chaotic failed nation of Somalia aren't miserable enough, has decreed that both playing soccer and watching it on TV are un-Islamic.

Several dozen people have already been jailed for the crime of watching the World Cup in their own homes in areas controlled by al-Shabaab and an allied organization, Hisbul Islam. In 2006, Islamic gunmen killed a man and a teenage girl for refusing to turn off a Germany-Italy Cup match.

In areas of the capital, Mogadishu, controlled by the government, people are free ― or as free as anyone gets in Somalia ― to watch the World Cup. The soccer-crazy Somalians have been buying up satellite dishes and power boosters and hiring shade-tree electricians to hook them up for the games.

One Somali channel broadcasts the matches from the safety of the airport, which is held by African Union peacekeepers. And several Arab channels, taking pity on the soccer-deprived Somalis, are beaming the games into the country.

One cinema in the government-controlled part of the capital carries the World Cup to packed houses along with its Hollywood and Bollywood movies from 10 a.m. to midnight. If al-Shabaab should lay hands on the rest of the capital, the Dhamuke Cinema is probably not long for the world because, in addition to outlawing soccer, the radicals also outlawed movies.

It's a ban they enforced in their own areas by rolling hand grenades into theater audiences. Oh, and the Dhamuke Cinema commits one other unspeakable sin ― it allows men and women to sit together.

Al-Shabaab's leaders say they banned soccer and especially the World Cup because they distracted its young male adherents from the task of jihad. Others say the problem was that rather than going off to the front to fight government forces, the youngsters were sneaking off to watch the games.

But al-Shabaab, with its obsessive interest in other people's martyrdom, is one of those joyless organizations that ban lots of things ― music, dancing, mustaches, school bells (too much like church bells), coeducation, large social gatherings.

In the town of Merca, the local al-Shabaab decided that gold and silver dental fillings were un-Islamically decorative and went around yanking out teeth. Al-Shabaab gunmen also go around whipping women they suspect of wearing a bra, bras being un-Islamic because they are ``deceptive."

If there were such a thing as a free and honest vote in Somalia, the unpopular al-Shabaab would be gone tomorrow, but they have what counts ― AK-47s. But it's unsettling and a little sad that the uneducated and unworldly men who run al-Shabaab feel that their religion is threatened by the simple act of running around a field kicking a ball.

Dale McFeatters is an editorial writer of Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com). He can be reached at dmcfeatters(at)shns.com.

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

OBAMA DISAPPOINTS ENVIRONMENTALISTS

BY BONNIE ERBE

Scripps Howard News Service

I give President Barack Obama's Gulf oil disaster responses this week an A for effort but a C for efficacy. He is doing too little and coming too late to the party ― the renewable energy party, that is.

With his prime time speech and White House announcement of British Petroleum's $20 billion cleanup fund, he's doing something, but whether that's enough is an entirely different question.

The president has disappointed so many of his constituencies there are almost too many groups to count. He's disappointed labor unions that poured millions into his campaign coffers and delivered an army of volunteers to get him elected.

More recently some of those unions poured money into the campaign coffers of a left-leaning Democrat who challenged ― unsuccessfully ― the president's candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination in Arkansas.

He's disappointed gay, lesbian and transgender advocates who saw in his candidacy a quick end to the military's ``Don't Ask, Don't tell" policy and higher-profile appointments for openly gay officials.

He's certainly disappointed pro-choice women with his compromise positions on abortion rights, particularly in this year's major health care reform legislation.

But no interest group has suffered as much insult to its basic foundations since the president took office as the environmental lobby. Hopes were high from members of this crowd that they would finally have an enlightened supporter running the country.

Yes, Obama has advocated for large amounts of federal funding for green jobs and renewable energy sources in historical terms. For that he deserves a terrific amount of credit. But he also supports nuclear power and his position-shift on offshore oil drilling coming just about a month before the Deepwater Horizon disaster is particularly unforgivable.

So on Wednesday night when he tried to put the blame for the disaster, in part at least, on Congress, on BP, on any target he could level in his site, on some level he must or should have had himself in mind

I am not unaware of America's love affair with oil and gas. The realists among us understand it's going to be decades before we as a nation are done with gas engines and oil heat.

The transition is going to be costly and painful. But the alternative is an uninhabitable planet. Soon! The president's stingy support for green energy in his originally proposed stimulus package prompted even Senate Democrats to speak out against him:

``Energy is way under-represented here in the package that has been discussed," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., after the meeting. ``We need to do much more in reducing our dependence on foreign energy and that way lies enormous job creation for the country as well."

The meeting came hours after Obama delivered an address in which he touted alternative energy development and energy efficiency as a major part of his effort to pull the country out of the economic crisis.

Obama caved in to Congress on the final stimulus package, which eventually included more than $27 billion in green energy funding and tax breaks.

But as long as the oil, gas and coal energy lobbies continue to hold considerable clout with the Obama White House, Americans will never see the amount of progress on this issue that we deserve.

Bonnie Erbe is a TV host and writes this column for Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com). E-mail bonnieerbe@CompuServe.com.

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

TAX HOLIDAY NOT THE CORE ISSUE

We think it is a misguided sense of priority for the government to revive policy debates over the need for a tax holiday for attracting new investment and set up an inter-ministerial team to study that matter.

This could even distract the government from the real reforms that are more vital for reinvigorating the economy.

First of all our taxation laws stipulate only tax allowances, not tax holidays or complete tax relief. This means the laws should first be amended to allow for such a facility, a process that could take years to complete.

To our knowledge, national businesspeople and foreign chambers of commerce have never cited the absence of a tax holiday in their main list of grievances in doing business in the country. Their main complaint about tax issues is related to inefficient and corrupt tax administration, despite the concerted reform launched in mid 2007.

We think chief of the Investment Coordinating Board Gita Wirjawan exaggerated the role of a tax holiday in stimulating investment in green-field projects.

Most, if not all, reputable investors overseas and within the country realize that tax is a fixed factor within their business operations. After all, tax is paid out of profit.

The main complaints from investors are related to the pre-operation stage covering the costly and time consuming process of obtaining all the necessary permits for business start-up and then the problems encountered during operations such as inefficient tax administration and customs service, policy inconsistency, rigid labor regulations an weak law enforcement.

Just look at how low the Indonesian ranking has been in most of the key building blocks for a good investment climate, as shown in the annual The Doing Business report of the World Bank. All this boils down to bad governance.

Instead of demanding a tax holiday, investors prefer good governance because this factor reduces the costs and risks of doing business and minimizes barriers to sound competition, while strong and consistent law enforcement is key to minimizing government policy-related costs and risks.

Policy credibility and predictability are important for both domestic and foreign investors because direct (not portfolio) investment is basically forward looking or long-term in nature.

We think in so far as tax incentives are concerned, the 25 percent flat rate of corporate income tax imposed since this year is already competitive internationally.

It is better for the team already set up by Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa to focus its attention on the tax incentives already within the government mandate to grant: Tax reduction for companies which sell minimally 40 percent of their shares through the stock exchange and those operating in top priority sectors and few selected areas, the halving of the income tax on dividend and accelerated of depreciation of fixed assets.

In the meantime, the bureaucratic reform should be accelerated if the government is really serious about achieving its target of wooing more than US$20 billion investment a year. But this is not enough because the bureaucratic reform will, at best, be able to make only an incremental improvement..

In this case, the government needs to take bolder moves to make some breakthrough. So instead of wasting energy on the issue of a tax holiday, the government should focus its resources on promulgating the long-awaited regulations on land acquisition for basic infrastructure and allowing foreign ownership of certain categories of properties.

Accelerating the enforcement of the 2009 Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Law also will help jump start new investment in selected areas as the SEZ concept allows for the development of special industrial zones with streamlined licensing procedures, good infrastructure, flexible labor regulations and superior logistical efficiency.

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

LACK OF VISION FOR SMALL FARMERS

TEJO PRAMONO

The plan of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration to open a food estate in the eastern part of Indonesia will create a new dimension in the agriculture sector. For Yudhoyono's agriculture teams, the plan marks a breakthrough in agricultural development because it will bring private investment into the on-farm food sector.

The government says it will contribute to economic growth and will guarantee national food availability. It also argued that it could contribute to world efforts to solve the food crisis.

But behind food estate policy, there is a deep lack of vision on peasant farmers and hunger among the policy makers and agricultural intellectuals. They simply see the problem of hunger and food insecurity from the supply management approach. They are disconnected with the realities that small farmers and rural workers are facing hunger in their daily life. Research revealed that landless farmers and peasant farmers in Indonesia spent more than 70 percent of their income on food.

When the production of food is in the hands of big agribusiness corporations, the fulfillment of domestic needs are often ignored. As the agribusiness book told, the production will only go to the higher price taker. That theory became reality in Indonesia during the food crisis in 2008 when palm oil producers did not want to sell their product domestically. Domestic market obligations (DMO) as the government imposed to the palm oil producers were largely ignored because the international price is higher. It is ironic that people of Indonesia, which is the world's largest oil palm producer, are facing severe shortages of cooking oil.

The food estate plan also does not respect world efforts to solve the global environment crisis, including climate change. Converting 1.6 millions areas in food estate, a monoculture model, will be a disaster for our biodiversity. Local seeds will become extinct when new varieties are introduced in large scale areas.

The use of new varieties will also disturb the ecosystem in regions, that is frequently followed by the outbreak of pests, resulting in large use of pesticides. Once it is applied it will be followed by the disturbance of the natural predatory system and in longer time it will pollute the hydrology cycle.

It seems very clear now that with 1.6 millions hectares of land, it will be converted into a monoculture food estate. The Indonesian proposal to UNFCCC to reduce its emission up to 26 percent is without any clear plan at all.

Worse, the plan of the Yudhoyono administration for food estate will only contribute to global land grabbing, in which big corporations invest in the agricultural sector to have more control of agro-fuel and food.

Instead of providing land to big corporations, the government has better choice, which is redistributing land to the millions of landless and peasant families so they can work again to feed their family. While local ecosystems can be safe using agro-ecological models, it can only be done through diversifying small scale farming.

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

IDEOLOGICAL INTEREST IN INTERPRETING THE KORAN

AHMAD NAJIB BURHAN

A number of ulemas that the Koranic interpretation of jihad (martyrdom) from Amrozi, Imam Samudra, Osama bin Laden and the likes, is misguided.

Their interpretation of the Koran and their understanding of Islamic teachings is against the basic meaning of the holy book.

On the other hand, some other ulemas that liberal interpretation of the words from the Koran such as musawa (equality) and islam (submission) is against the foundation of religion.

Liberal-secular scholars have predispositions or preconceived ideas before interpreting the Koran and try to impose those predispositions on the Koran.

Now, can we interpret the Koran beyond ideological interest, free from liberal and radical inclination or free of any kind of interests?

Most contemporary Muslim intellectuals and exegetes are bound by a certain ideology. Ali Shariati (Iran) is a Marxist and his interpretation is Marxist oriented. Farid Esack (South Africa) applies the Koranic hermeneutic of religious pluralism for liberating people from the apartheid system.

Amina Wadud-Muhsin (the US) uses a feminist perspective in reading the Koran for her ideological interest to create equality between men and women.

Hasan Hanafi (Egypt), Nurcholish Madjid (Indonesia), Fazlur Rahman (Pakistan, the US), and Nasr Abu Zayd (Egypt, The Netherlands) apply their ideology, although perhaps some people would call it humanistic, pluralistic, moralistic or nationalistic ideology.

With all their endeavors, Fazlur Rahman and Abu Zayd claim that they have been trying to eradicate ideological interest and minimize subjectivity.

Rahman's Koranic interpretation is a response toward the way extremist Muslims treat the Koran, which is picking one verse from the Koran and interpreting it without taking into account the entire structure of the Koran or even without understanding the historical context of the revelation.

He called this the "atomistic approach" or "peacemeal treatment" of the Koran. He tries to find the "underlying unity" and "moral" of the Koran, which are humanistic.

Abu Zayd's interpretation of the Koran challenges the monopoly of religious interpretation by the established and regimist ulemas have political and economic interests in government.

It is a response toward the ideological tendency of both liberal and conservative Muslims in their interpretation of the Koran. He proposes a humanistic approach to the Koran by suppressing all bias and ideologies.

The question for these two scholars, "Are not these two approaches also ideologically biased?" It seems that only by attaching the Koran into a certain ideology that the Koran can have a voice. Without ideology this book is silent.

Merely focusing on linguistics and literary criticism, as proposed by Abu Zayd, logically can offer a non-bias and non-ideological interest of interpretation since it deals only with languages.

It will also reveal the beautiful language and the aesthetic aspect of the Koran.

However, with this approach, the Koran will lose its spirit. When it moves into interpretation, it also involves subjectivity.

Another way to avoid ideological interest in u nderstanding the Koran is through historical and philological approaches.

A huge number of works have been carried out on this by Western philologist and historian and other non-Muslim scholars.

The reason why they have been choosing these approaches is because it is the way to open the
path for further scholarship endeavors and it has minimum subjectivity.

Back to the first question, can we have a non-biased or neutral interpretation of the Koran? This question will bring us into the debate between subjectivity and objectivity, between Jacques Derrida and Emilio Betti.

For Derrida, nothing is objective in this world. This is the reason why several people say that the
Koran cannot be used as a constitution.

The jargon that "the Koran is our constitution" promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood is only jargon. In practice, we can say that it is not applicable.

The role that can be played by the Koran is becoming a source among several or the source of the consti-tution or laws. People can extract values from the Koran to create laws.

Fazlur Rahman and Abu Zayd reject this kind of subjectivity theory. Abu Zayd said that absolute objectivity is impossible, but cultural objectivity is something that could be achieved by humans.

Furthermore, if nothing is objective, then we cannot have a firm position, everything is not certain.

However, we can say in different words that what Abu Zayd calls cultural objectivity is nothing more than subjectivity.

The role that can be played by the Koran is becoming a source among several or the source of the constitution or laws.

The writer is a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

OUR COAL: ITS DEVELOPMENT AND CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES

HANAN NUGROHO

Indonesia's production of coal has been growing amazingly. In the mid 1980s, national coal production was less than 1 million tons per annum, whereas energy planners (in the fourth Five Year Development Plan: 1989-1994) pointed at 10 million tons as the national production target.

The current production has jumped dramatically, recorded as 237 million tons in 2008 (predicted to achieve 270 million tons this year), making Indonesia a world class producer and the largest exporter of coal around the globe. The skyrocketing growth of our coal production has also incited many controversial issues.

Coal is considered as the dirtiest among fossil fuels, making environmentalists oppose their wide use
as fuel.

However, the proposal for ceasing use of coal — power generation, for instance — would be challenged by

power utilities demanding low cost fuel that coal may offer and by the government, which has the responsibility to provide electricity as well as have revenue from exploiting its energy resources.

Despite the world's rising anxiety of global warming, IEA (International Energy Agency: World Energy Outlook 2009) statistics shows that the world consumption for coal, for the last decade, is still growing the fastest among primary energy sources.

The environmental problem associated with coal in Indonesia is not limited to green houses gases (GHG), but also damage and pollution since its exploitation, transportation and uses to post mining.

It is easy to find where many coal fields are not mined appropriately according to "good mining and environmental practices", coal transportation is not considering safety standards and is damaging rivers, (public) roads and seashores.

The coal mining has polluted the land, water and air of especially Kalimantan, where more than 90 percent of Indonesia's coal mining operations take place.

It is sad that many of the previous mining areas have been abandoned without being properly reclaimed, whereas thousands of hectares of the island's tropical forests have been converted into desert.

The soaring exploitation, including its negative impact on the environment, has a strong correlation with the number of licensing/permits awarded.

The introduction of the 1999 Regional Autonomy Law, subsequently followed by the 1999 Fiscal Balancing Law between the Central and Regional Governments have — to some degree — impacted on the coal licensing regime, where larger authorities had been given to regional/local governments.

Under the new licensing regime by local governments, requirements for coal permits tend to be relaxed whereas monitoring has not been done properly.

As a result, the number of permits (Mining Authorization/KP) has been growing considerably (currently 462, of which 169 are producing), coal production increases, but also environmental problems and the issues of illegal mining exist.

The question of who really owns the KP licenses exists, which was defined as that it can be owned by Indonesian national/companies only.

While the largest part of coal in Indonesia are being produced by large companies (the holders of Coal Contract of Work/PKP2B), some coal is mined by small scale and illegal miners.

It is believed that a significant amount of coal has been produced by illegal miners (some 5 million tons annually) and part has gone to meet export demand.

Wherever in the world, illegal miners lack interest in responsible mining and mine rehabilitation practices. Illegal mining is a problem for potential investors, the environment and government revenues.

The government has introduced measures to crack down on problems, including arresting illegal miners.

However, it cannot be the only solution since illegal mining is actually rooted in underemployment, local poverty and weak law enforcement, while the number of people involved in these activities is quite significant.

An alternative to confrontation to illegal miners by the central government (who awards the large scale PKP2B mining license) should be a cooperative and more comprehensive approach.

"Despite the world's anxiety of global warming, IEA statistics shows that the world consumption for coal is still growing the fastest among primary energy sources."

Work together with local/rural governments and communities to reduce poverty, educate/assist the illegal miners to increase their awareness on good mining practices (including mine rehabilitation), provide transition period fiscal incentives to encourage illegal mining toward the regulated mining sector, among others.

It needs to maintain an appropriate balance between the soaring exports of coal (about three quarters of production on average) and the domestic growing demand for the same fuel.

Push for exports is still coming largely from the traditional East Asians (Japan is the largest), while the coal-hungry India and China are also increasing their demand for our coal.

The exports will be competed with by the Blue Print for Energy Management 2005-2025 pointing out that one third of Indonesia's energy primary energy mix in 2025 is to be supplied by coal, (the current share is about 15 percent).

Even though it is often mentioned that our coal reserves are quite large (current proven reserves of 5.5 billion tons; estimated resources of 105 tones) and that our reserves for coal are much larger than that of oil and gas, we should watch their fast rate of exploitation cautiously.

It needs to recalculate the benefit of exploiting them, taking into account their damage to the environment and what is left post mining. Where have all the revenues from exploiting that coal gone? Is the escalating export not jeopardizing the domestic energy security in the near future?

We have ample experiences, for instance in exploiting the resources-rich Kalimantan. The forests,
oil and gas reserves have been exploited for about four to five decades, but it seems that the island has not enjoyed the fruits of the excessive exploitation: the current regional economy remains weak, infrastructure is poor and energy supplies for local uses have not been secured.

It needs to promote the terms "resources balance, depletion, sustainability", start internalizing the costs of environmental impact and enforce those concepts into workable policies for our coal mining development.

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

TRANSPARENT BUDGETS

The fact that disclosure of government budgets has become a key public concern marks a step forward in the political democratization of the country. Yet, governments at various levels have done little to inform the public on how their money is being spent.

Only 18 government departments of the 109 that responded to a survey of administrative transparency conducted by the public policy research center under the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, have made public their budgets, but just a part of that, even when the law requires that it should be published in full.

Their degree of administrative transparency is only 3.21 points against the required 100 points as per the State Council's regulations on government information disclosure, the survey published Tuesday has shown.

In an interview, Gao Qiang, director of the budget working committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said that the conditions were mature for the disclosure of government expenditure.

However, there is still a long way to go before governments at all levels reveal information pertaining to money spent on conferences, cars for official use and trips by officials.

Dozens of central government departments made their budgets public during this year's NPC and CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) sessions. But many deputies complained that they could not understand the published documents.

Making budget books hard to understand or selectively publishing only unimportant items seem to be safe tactics used to fulfill minimal requirements. The public may need to push harder to get them to tell the whole truth.

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

SHARE INFORMATION

The trouble with the Daya Bay nuclear power plant is minor and well under control, that is what the concerned authorities are trying hard to assure us. They say it will not impact the environment, and refute foreign media reports that claim some sort of nuclear radiation leak from the plant.

We believe what they say. But there is a lesson in this for the authorities, and it pertains to information control. If it is found to be controlled, such efforts will only backfire.

Perhaps the information was not shared on time in order to stem panic, or they simply did not intend to cover it up in the first place. There is little harm if an insignificant wrong is corrected without the public being made aware of it - especially if it does not threaten its well-being.

Yet, numerous similar cases have shown how hard it has become to withhold such information from the public; it does little good in the end. Incorrect information given out by others may actually do more harm than proper information, released on time by the authorities.

Thankfully, no substantial damage has been caused this time round. And, that is because this issue turned out to be more benign than what the rumor mills claimed.

That the authorities have had to acknowledge the gist of the rumor has actually lent some credibility to its spreaders; this is a potential blow to the credibility of the concerned authorities.

Sharing information on time will still any potential fallout arising out of half truths or malicious rumors.

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CHINA DAILY

DITORIAL

LEGISLATIVE MYOPIA

An interim report by the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of China against a key clause in a US law that prohibits poultry imports from the nation.

This symbolic victory will not much improve the conditions of Chinese exporters given the small proportion of poultry exports to the United States. At best, it can boost China's confidence in the face of a growing number of trade disputes between the world's two major traders.

However, this WTO ruling can serve as pertinent warning to those US lawmakers advocating a short-sighted bill to force China to raise the value of its currency.

The WTO interim ruling has recognized that the US import ban on China's poultry violates the rules of the world trade body.

According to the US law, no government funds should be made available for the establishment or implementation of a rule allowing imports of poultry products from China.

The US can appeal against the decision, but the report will be coterminous with the panel's final verdict in case the US loses the appeal.

The message of the latest WTO report is clear: US lawmakers cannot legislate domestic interests against

international rules without scruple.

While prodding the US government to take a tougher line on China, some US senators are threatening to introduce a bill targeting China's currency and trade practices, insisting blindly that a weak yuan gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage over their US competitors.

Unfortunately, their argument flies in the face of all the hard evidence that the Chinese currency is not the answer to US economic woes. Worse, by playing up to domestic protectionism, these US lawmakers risk undermining trade growth between China and the United States.

The current WTO interim ruling may not be enough to stop these US lawmakers. But it can remind them that nearsighted legislation will not walk long.

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

TAKE MULTIPRONGED APPROACH

BY LIU JUNHONG (CHINA DAILY)

G20 summit should adopt sound mechanisms to push for financial stability and better coordination among key powers

Amid economic instability in Europe and a fluctuating euro fuelled by the sovereign debt crisis in Greece and other European countries, the G20 summit, due to be held in Toronto, Canada at the end of this month, is entrusted with the overwhelming task of enhancing policy coordination among major world powers and promoting stable recovery of the global economy.

At a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Washington in April, participants agreed that the world economy had achieved unexpected recovery.

However, such optimism was soon dampened by the Greek debt crisis, which spread along the Mediterranean and to some Central and East European nations, causing the euro to be devalued and global stock markets to plummet.

In addition to the chain reactions it has sparked across emerging markets, chaos in Europe has also disrupted the pace of global economic recovery and blurred its prospects.

That also explains why the Pusan meeting of G20 finance ministers and chiefs of central banks, convened early in June, gave top priority to coordinating economic recovery between developed and developing countries, along with efforts to reconstruct global financial institutions and tighten financial regulation.

Since the outbreak of the global financial tsunami triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, emerging economies like China have acted as the new engine of the global economy and played a big role in promoting its recovery.

But one and a half years after the global crisis, signs of economic overheating and inflation bubbles have

emerged in these emerging countries. How to effectively curb these tendencies is an intractable and pressing task for them in order to maintain stable growth.

The US, Japan and other developed countries have to some degree shown economic recovery under the effect of a series of stimulus packages and some market factors.

However, this "positive" economic data, indicated by industrial production and export volumes, have not changed the fact that developed countries are under renewed risk of deflation in the context of the pervasive sovereign debt crisis in European countries and a turbulent euro.

In developed markets, the scale of fund-raising by enterprises through the issuance of securities and shares has almost declined to the level it did shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The debt crisis in Europe, which has been intertwined with the banking system, has increased the continent's financial risk. Banks' reluctance to lend has also added to the economic shrinkage.

The emerging deflation in developed countries, along with growing inflation in developing ones, has plunged the world into a "double dip" economic landscape, which is unfavorable for simultaneous recovery of the developed and developing countries.

For inflation-plagued developing countries, any withdrawal of stimulus packages early will possibly sabotage the world's joint efforts for global economic recovery and push it to hit bottom a second time round. However, their adherence to stimulus measures is also likely to brew a more serious bubble.

At the same time, developed countries' adherence to emergency measures will undoubtedly contribute to the flow of world capital to emerging markets, which will not only hamper their own efforts to extricate from a deflation scenario, but will also contribute to the expansion of bubbles in emerging markets.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has repeatedly stressed that the withdrawal of the counter-crisis stimulus packages should be made only after a sound financial infrastructure is set up across the world and after a market-driven economic recovery is achieved.

At the same time, the IMF has also called on member nations to conduct policy coordination and phase out stimulus packages in an arranged and negotiated way so as to jointly maintain global economic stability.

Germany, as a key player in maintaining European economic stability, has chosen to adopt a tight fiscal policy, abandoning its past tax reduction policy and taking no effective measures to boost domestic demand.

The largest European economy has also failed to take measures to promote balanced regional investment, rejuvenate industries and help expand exports of other members in the euro zone. These financial policies have aggravated the regional financial and fiscal instability.

The US, however, has chosen to aim at dominating the process of ongoing reform in global financial supervision and monitoring.

Preoccupied with its own export expansion, the world's largest economy recently declared it would first cut financial spending, a move mainly aimed at rejuvenating the dollar in defiance of other countries' efforts to pursue the stability of their currencies and finances.

Japan has closely focused on bagging more Asian infrastructure construction orders, an alluring cake at a time of economic slowdown. Tokyo's mercantile approach and its aggressive overseas expansion strategy in environmental protection and energy, which has accelerated the outflow of its funds, has made it more difficult for developing countries to implement policies aimed at containing inflation and bubbles.

The counter-crisis measures adopted by developed countries, together with brewing risks in international commodities and financial markets, will be unfavorable to policy coordination efforts agreed upon during previous G20 summits and global efforts to maintain world economic recovery.

The G20 has evolved into one of the most important venues for global policy coordination since the Pittsburgh Summit. At a time when the global economy is facing a "double dip" scenario - measured as inflation in developing countries and deflation in developed ones - ways to use the multilateral platform to promote sound financial strategies across the world and push for financial stability will determine future global economic recovery.

The author is a researcher with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

SOUTH AFRICA EXTENDS ITS FRONTIER TO SPACE

BY G. PASCAL ZACHARY (CHINA DAILY)

By hosting the World Cup, South Africa is set to defy Africa's image as too poor and trouble-ridden to stage one of the world's greatest spectacles. With its pursuit of research into the farthest reaches of the universe - deep space - South Africa hopes to provide further proof that Africans can compete at all levels.

South Africa is investing heavily to join the world's leaders in space research. The government is investing in "micro" satellites, building on its existing SumbandilaSat platform.

It is also leading the African effort to host what is widely described as potentially the world's largest scientific instrument, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope. The SKA, whose massive collection of dishes would stretch across nine African countries, is a next-generation telescope that will examine gas clouds in the early universe at 100 times the power of the most powerful existing radio telescope, the Very Large Array in New Mexico.

To lend credibility to its bid to host the SKA, in 2006 South Africa's government allocated $250 million to build an array of radio dishes within its own borders as a precursor to the SKA. Seven of the planned 80 dishes in the network have been built.

Now people are taking South Africa seriously as a player in space research. Today, the country is believed to have about 60 working astronomers, more than half of all the astronomers working in Africa. "South Africa is the jewel of African astronomy," says Charles McGruder, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western Kentucky University.

In a country that is deeply divided economically, "What on earth is the benefit to the poor and the downtrodden of deep space research?" asks physicist Harold Annegarn, a professor at the University of Johannesburg. "The answer," he says, "is partly that by supporting a thriving top-level intellectual community, we can train our next generation of intellectuals."

McGruder, who works closely with African astronomers, agrees that a space program for the region is critical to raising the profile of careers in science and engineering in a part of the world where the most educated people still go into finance or management. "Success in space research can capture the imaginations of a whole generation of young Africans," he says. "By putting Africa on the world's 'science map,' more brainy Africans will be encouraged to stay at home, because recognition for their talents will come."

Experts in economic development in Africa naturally concentrate on basic technologies: clean water, energy for cooking, electricity, and improved roads. Even in South Africa, the wealthiest country on the continent, millions of people lack basics.

But space research is expected to yield practical benefits. One payoff can come from Africans building distinctive satellite instruments, and thus spawning a globally competitive industry. Better ways to cope with climate change also can come from space research.

Farmers, for example, might choose crops and growing patterns based on knowledge from earth observations. And, because space exploration requires communications and control over vast distances, some of the applications could also enhance South Africa's lucrative mining sector; after all, controlling machines under the ground is similar to doing so in deep space.

To be sure, South Africa's push to join the world's technological leaders is not limited to space research. The country is also home to thriving communities of scientists and engineers specializing in nuclear and solar energy, software encryption, coal-to-oil conversion and even electric cars.

No other African country comes close to matching South Africa in even a single area of research and development. Based on published research papers, the country accounts for 64 percent of all research undertaken in Africa.

"There are a lot of surprising innovations coming from South Africa," says David Kaplan, an economist at the University of Cape Town who specializes in tracking technological change. "But the gap between esoteric knowledge and economic applications remains large." Closing that gap should happen more quickly with the help of the international community. Not only does the world's largest telescope network "belong in Africa", says Sune Svanberg, a physicist at Lund University in Sweden, but also "good forces can join with the African scientist to create many small-scale projects in the region that are realistic to operate".

The author has the book, Married to Africa: a Love Story to his credit.

Project Syndicate

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

LABOR UNREST AND ROLE OF UNIONS

BY ANITA CHAN (CHINA DAILY)

Workers of several factories in Guangdong province have been drawing global attention over the past couple of weeks. First, there were reports of workers jumping to their deaths in a factory of Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturer. Around the same time, some 2,000 workers went on a two-week strike at a Honda component manufacturing factory, halting production in four Honda assembly plants. The two were unrelated incidents but the causes were similar - low pay, long working hours, absence of channels to redress their grievances, and trade union branches that exist only in name.

The methods chosen by the workers to protest against their plight were very different - Foxconn workers committed suicide out of desperation, but despite consequential international publicity their co-workers did not seize the opportunity to organize themselves in protest.

The Honda workers, on the other hand, were well organized, strategic and assertive, demanding sizeable wage increases, proposing a pay scale and a career ladder, electing their own representatives, re-electing office-bearers to their union branch and demonstrating solidarity and a determination to win.

The passivity of the Foxconn workers is not new. Migrant workers generally accept their fate, and protests only flare up when work begins to stretch their physical tolerance to the limit, or when their legal rights are violated and wages not paid.

In contrast, the Honda workers went on strike to demand higher wages and better working conditions, something that is unprecedented among Chinese migrant workers. Their employer apparently had not violated the law by paying them a wage below the legal minimum level. They were fighting proactively for their interests rather than for their minimal legal rights.

The All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has realized that the Honda strike is a different form of labor protest, not least because it goes to the heart of a problem - what is the union's legitimate role. Its impact is potentially enormous.

At Foxconn, the union did not even come forward to make a statement. And at Honda, the union blatantly sided with the local government, which in turn was on the side of the employer. In both places, the workplace unions fitted the stereotypical image that migrant workers have of the official unions - that they are "useless".

There are a handful of city-level and workplace unions in State enterprises or large joint ventures that play an intermediary role between the management and workers. They have softened some of the harsher edges of management practices. They are even able to informally negotiate better wages for workers, which are then formalized by so-called "collective consultation agreements".

In contrast, in foreign enterprises in Guangdong's Pearl River Delta region, union representatives (where they exist, that is) are assigned by the local governments, whose paramount interest is to attract foreign investment. These governments, historically, are former production brigades or communes or townships, which now rent out land to companies and appoint a few local union-ignorant people to run the trade union offices. Even some higher-level union officials dismiss them as "fake unions".The ACFTU has a herculean task ahead if it wants to fulfill its assigned role of representing workers or, if it falls short of this mission, to at least be able to maintain social stability. To do away with the "fake unions", the local trade union offices should be put under the jurisdiction of the upper-level union instead of local governments. The ACFTU should allow workers to elect their representatives to their workplace union committees, too, as has happened in a very modest number of firms. Only then can the union branches demonstrably represent workers' interests rather that the employers' or governments'.

Foreign investors will not easily give up the low-wage, longer-than-normal-working-hours policy they have been practising in China. The ACFTU has had in place for many years a policy of urging workplace unions to sign collective contracts with the managements. But the unions in China do not have much experience in dealing with capital and management. This shortcoming was recognized by an editorial in the People's Daily on June 9.

Therefore, the ACFTU would do well to open up and exchange experiences with unions in other countries. Though this trend has already begun, the process has to be expedited if Chinese unions are to learn how to conduct collective bargaining effectively. To ensure success, the ACFTU will have to join hands with global unions as capital plays off countries against each other.

Fortunately, China's labor laws are favorable to workers. Moreover, the workers are willing to become members of the ACFTU - the Honda workers who went on strike now want to hold a new election to their union branch committee.

This demand should not be confused with workers seeking an alternative union, a point that is often misunderstood by foreign observers. The right to have a democratic re-election is within the purview of China's Trade Union Law. The ACFTU will win the trust of Chinese workers by supporting such elections, which would help place labor relations on a legitimate, constructive footing. A union committee recognized by workers as their own is a pre-condition to successful collective bargaining.

The author is a research professor at the China Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

SAVE THE GREAT WALL FROM PHILISTINES

BY DAVID CHARD (CHINA DAILY)

China's most famous icon is the Great Wall. This national symbol of Chinese strength and determination has stood for thousands of years and remains one of China's most popular and enduring tourist attractions. As a 35-year-old resident of Asia and a fluent Putonghua speaker, I have traveled to Beijing countless times on business. But I never managed to find time to visit the Great Wall and experience its grandeur. I had to be content with studying its history and watching the awe-inspiring documentary films on Discovery and National Geographic channels. I always looked forward to the time when I would stand on the Great Wall and be able to get a personal sense of its majesty and mystery.

Last month I was in Beijing, again on business, and I found myself with a day of free time. I was determined to visit the Great Wall this time. My hotel helped me hire a car and a guide and 90 minutes later we arrived at the entrance to Mutianyu, said to be one of the most photogenic stretches of the Great Wall. With great excitement I walked up past the tourist shops and up the steps to the Great Wall itself. I admit, I was thrilled and couldn't believe my luck.

All that changed, however, after walking about 50 meters. To my utter amazement, I saw two Dutch women, happily scratching their names into the wall! I could not believe my eyes. In full public view, two foreign tourists felt it was no problem defacing a historical monument, a monument that is the pride of the Chinese people.

Unable to stop myself, I walked up to them and asked: "What do you think you are doing?" One of them smiled and replied: "It's OK, everyone is doing it!" I then asked her: "If everyone decided to jump off this wall would you follow them? I hope you do!"

My guide, who understood English, later said to me: "Thank you for doing that. I get very angry when I see such things, but I dare not say anything. It's great that you made them think about what they did."

As I continued along the wall, I found many parts that were completely covered with graffiti - mostly people's names scratched into the bricks. There were one or two names in Chinese - the vast majority were the handiwork of foreign tourists. Reflecting on this on the way back to my hotel, a number of questions arose in my mind:

1. What would happen to a Chinese tourist who dared to scratch his name into the wall of the Louvre in Paris? Or into the bricks of a canal house in Amsterdam? Or into the side of one of the Pyramids? The Washington Monument? (My guess is he/she would be immediately arrested and probably slapped a stiff fine and/or jailed.)

2. What goes in the minds of foreign tourists who do such things? Have they not been educated to show respect to another country's national icons? Do they practise double standards?

3. How can people in China allow this to continue? Would it not make sense to put up a sign at the entrance telling visitors that the Great Wall is not a public blackboard and that anyone caught defacing it will be subject to fine, imprisonment or both? (Better yet: Anyone caught defacing the wall would have to spend two days cleaning it as punishment.) The authorities can then take some photographs of this signboard and send them to the international wire services to get the message across: China welcomes tourists but does not tolerate defacing of its heritage sites.

4. Would it be possible to build a special "Great Graffiti Wall" outside the entrance and invite visitors to scratch their names into it - like a giant "Guest Book"? Photographs of this graffiti wall can then be uploaded on the Internet so that people can revisit the experience as often as they wish. There are a lot of creative possibilities that would be preferable to the defacing of the Great wall.

The Great Wall is, without question, a magnificent piece of history that has much to teach us about what humans can do when they set their minds to it. It stands as one of the greatest historical monuments on the planet and should be preserved for future generations. My message to all tourists who thoughtlessly deface this monument: "Shame on you." My message to the authorities who allow this to continue: "Shame on you."

The Chinese built the Great Wall, overcoming unimaginable challenges, to keep the "barbarians" out. It seems that protecting it from modern-day "barbarians" would not be that difficult!

The author is president of Engaging Minds, a consulting firm that focuses on executive coaching and leadership development for companies in the Asia-Pacific Region.

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

FOREST LOVE

Rampant destruction of the forests was last seen around three decades back in the build up to the first referendum in the country. It had the environmentalists worried, but they had to bow down to the fisticuffs from the political overlords then. It may not have turned a whole cycle, but the way whatever has remained of the vast forest cover is being further stripped under a very sinister teamwork of forest officials and timber poachers has left the environment in dire straits. The criticism is on the rise against the felling of trees on such a massive scale, but the actions that seem to have been declared by the government does not move any step beyond the lip service that it is. To come up with a ban of all logging

activities for two months that is till mid-August (Shrawan) has all the trappings of a strict legal enforcement, but the fact remains that according to the Forest Regulation 1995 no activity such as cutting trees inside the forests are allowed from mid-June to September. The regulation had been stipulated on the basis that the monsoon period was the time for the rejuvenation of the fresh saplings that would grow into the massive trees. The cabinet decision has merely come on top of what was already in force. The manner in which the relevant regulation had been flouted is plain and clear.

To come back to the current chain of events, over 88,000 hectares of forest land has been encroached upon, in the Terai, inner Terai and the mid-hills, which is a sheer blow to the environment conservation slogan of the government. In all this, the collusion between the forest officials and the timber dealers cannot be ruled out. As an eye wash to contain the widespread deforestation and the poaching of the endangered fauna, a month back the a ban was imposed on cutting, selling and export of trees and other forest products in all the 75 districts. But, even before a week had elapsed, the ban was revoked apart in all the 75 districts.

Less than a week later, the ban was lifted except for in six districts including Kailali, Rautahat, Banke,

Sarlahi and Bara. The government decision, despite it being spelt out in the relevant regulation, comes when irreparable damage has already been done. Who has benefited from the plunder of the irreplaceable natural resources will make a fit topic for investigation only for the report to be padlocked for safekeeping rather than for taking action as per the recommendations.

Now, together with the destruction of unaccounted hectares of forest land, the endangered rhinos are also feeling the heat. With the lure for making big money, and cashing in on the political instability that is rife, the poachers have done the damage by making an easy kill of the rhinos. Twenty eight rhinos dead within a year, including eight within the past two months, indicates how the wildlife care is being taken up in the country. Merely coming up with decisions cannot mean anything unless the implementation matches it up. At the same time, corruption is what leads to such catastrophe on the already dwindling forest resources, the effect of which are being felt in the delayed rains, floods and untimely deluge and the like.

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

NOW SCARCE

The shortage of fertilizers has seen a reduction in the production of agricultural products. Since the farmers rely on them they should have access to them preferably at subsidized prices. However, as things are now, farmers often have to queue for hours in depots selling them. Even then the fertilizers are priced beyond the purchasing capacity of most farmers, and what more they are not available in adequate quantities. Since agricultural production relies heavily on chemical fertilizers their scarcity has drastic ramifications. The concerned should see to it that they have adequate stock of fertilizers. Whoever is responsible for importing them should make the necessary arrangements so that there is no shortage.

Shortage of fertilizers has become a perennial problem. They can be found in the black market at inflated prices. So some unscrupulous middlemen use this scarcity to make a tidy sum. Nepal being a predominantly agricultural country stands to prosper only if the farmers do. Instead of solely relying on imports time has come to open more plants capable of manufacturing fertilizers in the country.

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

AUSSIE TEENAGER IN DOCK OVER INDIAN STUDENT'S MURDER

MELBOURNE: A 15-year-old Australian boy was charged today with the murder of Indian student Nitin Garg, which followed a string of attacks on Indians and threatened to derail ties with New Delhi.

The teenager, who cannot be named, appeared before the Children's Court after his arrest in a Melbourne suburb earlier today. His mother wept through the brief court hearing.

Garg, 21, was killed as he walked through parkland en route to work at a burger restaurant on January 2. He managed to stagger to the restaurant before collapsing and dying.

The murder was strongly condemned by both Australia and India, whose Foreign Minister SM Krishna called it a "heinous crime on humanity" and "an uncivilised brutal attack on innocent Indians".

It came after a wave of attacks on Indian nationals who have arrived in the country attracted by its burgeoning overseas education sector and the prospect of gaining a permanent visa.

The muggings and beatings, accompanied by migration scams and colleges charging for substandard courses, prompted street protests by Indians in Melbourne and Sydney last year.

Officials predict Indian student arrivals will drop by a fifth this year after the attacks, hitting an industry which grew to 17.2 billion Australian dollars in 2008-2009, one of Australia's biggest earners of foreign money.

The attacks were greeted with outrage by India's media, with one newspaper cartoon comparing Australian police to the racist Ku Klux Klan for its handling of the Garg case.

However, Detective Inspector Bernie Edwards said today police did not believe racism was the motive. "In our inquiries at this stage, we don't believe it was racially motivated," Edwards told journalists.

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

TIME TO STOP GAMES:IS DEMOCRACY ON SICKBED OR IN REVERSE GEAR?

GANGA THAPA

Mainstream theories on democracy assume that liberal political institutions are not necessary, so long as citizens have access to power and resources. It remains to be seen if that is what will happen here in Nepal. Supposedly, the humiliating nonfunctioning of idiosyncratic regime of pro-India Madhav Kumar sans his democratic demeanor has led to widespread inadequacies, inconsistencies, and altercations that have plunged the nation into a downward spiral affecting the society as a whole, not excluding nondemocratic and exclusive states. Pessimism concerning plural societies seems empirically justified because a large number of them have failed to sustain democracy, or have suffered repeated lapses. Indeed, if somebody thought that Madhav had stood for Nepal identifying himself with a framework of democratic processes and rule of law to promote healthy political practices, ideological pluralism and political diversity, then it was a joke in bad taste, or a case of sick man's paradox; s/he is dead wrong; rather, it can be said that the reverse is true since the regime is surrounded by and is overly dependent on the few foreign powers and security forces in an unprecedented scale; its functioning smacks of medieval feudalism in Europe obsessed with fundamentalism, anti-rationalism, anarchism, and betrayal.

In fact, having no clear mission for human-centered, equitable and sustainable political process, it is clinging to power through backroom wheeling and dealing and remains guided by monolithic vision. It is, ironically, breeding aristocracy in 'Leviathan' tradition and it is overseeing structural erosion of the state power due to its shortsighted populism, which is leading toward long-term pain that must be viewed in the context of personalization and criminalization of politics as in the case of neopatrimonialism when a generation of young people fall victim to what many political commentators now label as Bonapartist regime where democratic institutions are set up to represent the interests of people, but the real power rests with unelected persons, in particular the political executive.

Since taking over power, Madhav has profited wonderfully from the sponsorship scandal, indulged in indecision, and has manhandled the system of which GP Koirala was a founder. It is not clear when and how, if ever, diversity in leadership, economic development and political liberalism would surface. No problem of a nation can be tackled without enlightened, motivated and determined leadership and active awareness and support of the public at large. There will always be some mistakes when humans are concerned. Far from exaggeration, the regime led by Madhav has acted like a schoolyard bully; it has imbibed a culture of hypocrisy, elitism and arrogance, while practicing the principles of justice and common good. Too much attention has been wasted in power grabbing rather than developing a new political system where the state figures prominently to promote civic virtues and the politicians are characterized by the ready acceptance of democratic polity. The simple phrase in these situations is straightforward: "This dog won't hunt."

Indeed it was shameful that the bullheadedness of Madhav-led regime misinterpreted democratic constitutionalism; so, it will remain an historical footnote, albeit negatively, toward building vibrant democracy and preserving national interests. As has turned out, in the atmosphere of Kathmandu, taking power has often been a toxic turn of events. It is high time that everyone in politics acts like a grown-up, dampens rhetoric and refrains from personal attacks. As it is now, the reputation of the political class is tattered enough. Undeniably, democratic leadership is supposed to make rational choices in deference to aspirations of the people. Yet, what we always find is a rotation among corrupt ruling elites who continue playing insipid games that hinder planned restructuring and democratic social peace. Perhaps Lord Action's assertion, 'power tends to corrupt and absolute power to corrupt absolutely' can be vividly seen in action as a case study for propping up a corrupt and undemocratic state. Power, corruption, and democracy are three buzzwords that have created the crisis.

Reaching unanimity can be a long and arduous process, especially if the issue is highly contentious. But, the core reason for the failure of CA to deliver constitution was that we lacked reasonable leaders who could command trust across party lines and work hard for common interest the past two years have been marked by more gaffes than gains. Skeptics in Nepal still believe that democracy is hard to sustain, even impossible to make it perfect. But, May 28 (2010) was perhaps the most tragic day. In fact, it felt like experiencing a coup d'état over people's sovereignty; it was a well orchestrated crime—thanks to jihadist character and sultanist autocracy of fat-cat politicians. The public is right to be furious — and disillusioned — with of all these arrogant, slick, fast-talking politicians.

Thapa is Professor of Politics, TU

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

TOPIC: SURF, BUT SAVE CHILDREN

BUDDHI GAUTAM

Osho defines pornography as 'mental masturbation'! A European psychologist, as if to sound kind of different from the Indian sage, puts it slightly differently: 'mental caresse'! I see no reason why anyone should disagree with them, as the naked truth is: apart from that 'mental thing', there is nothing in pornography. In other words, it's not all it's cracked up to be; it's another 'reel world', not a real one. Hence, mistaking it for a real one can be dangerous. It's a clichéd mention that Internet has made our access to 'information, news, shots and clips' so easy that quite often, we do not even need to look for such stuff – it just shows up at our door: knocking, shouting, gate crashing. Its presence is live and kicking, ubiquitously.

While the Internet contains wonders that marvel and fascinate us like nothing else, it contains also gory and vulgar features within its fold.

Perhaps, that's why Sai Baba considers the most used 'global computer network' a 'rubbish bin'! Some tend to opine 'Internet' is basically a container of vulgar materials. Such opinions feed on the fact that a good majority of web users across the globe consist of 'pornographic site visitors'! Hence, Internet hugely thrives on explicit sexual materials made readily available, sometimes at the expense of some and at the benefit of others. For some, it's a shock; for others, an ineluctable facet of evolved times.

Be it a boon or a bane, reality bites: pornography is out there. And it will stay there, simply because no one in his or her right mind can think of the world without Internet (Granted! the world existed even without Internet in yesteryears!). As such, thinking of ridding the Net of pornography will imply nothing but a crazy idea emanating from a shocked, confused and 'complex' state of mind. Internet is a wonder, but it's also a danger, especially for children.

One dangerous side of the Internet is that even sites that appear to be 'sober' often lead to adult links. This may be done intentionally and may be called 'madness in the name of modernity'.

Hence, the biggest challenge for parents, teachers and 'all who feel responsible' is to make sure children have no access to such stuff. The grown-ups can surf whatever stuff they feel like– let them mind their own business.

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

BLOG SURF: STRIKES

THUNDERLIGTS.COM

Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts are a common phenomenon—about 100 strike Earth's surface every single second—yet their power is extraordinary. Each bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity.This enormous electrical discharge is caused by an imbalance between positive and negative charges. During a storm, colliding particles of rain, ice, or snow increase this imbalance and often negatively charge the lower reaches of storm clouds.

Objects on the ground, like steeples, trees, and the Earth itself, become positively charged—creating an imbalance that nature seeks to remedy by passing current between the two charges.Some types of lightning, including the most common types, never leave the clouds but travel between differently charged areas within or between clouds. Other rare forms can be sparked by extreme forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and snowstorms. Ball lightning, a small, charged sphere that floats along oblivious to the laws of gravity or physics, still puzzles scientists.

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY AND REALPOLITIK

A flurry of shuttle diplomacy always heralds something big – for good or for the bad.With almost coincidental visits by envoys of global allies UN, US and Japan made one wonder whether there was any connection among the three visits.

If not for Akashis statement that international powers should avoid meddling in Sri Lanka's affairs one would have thought they were all party of one big move. Indefatigable Akashi who made his 20th visit to Colombo or for that matter anybody who visits post-war Sri Lanka fortunately is no more in a position to dictate terms to the island as they used to do during the war.

Japan of course has been quite tolerant towards the long-term friend while many others tried to manipulate the war for their advantage. Shuttle diplomacy hardly worked for Sri Lanka during the war. The coercive, goal-oriented realpolitik practised by certain powers did not suit the local context and the inherent antipathy towards them by locals made, even a handful of well-meaning moves by some others, look evil. It was observed especially during the last phase of the war that the country's leadership tolerated the visits by envoys from 'anti-Sri Lanka' nations purely because it did not want to look undiplomatic by snubbing them.

Direct communication in times of conflict by third parties that are not welcomed by both or all parties worsens situations. Even the very sight of certain envoys can bring the worst out of communities especially their radical elements. In short Henry Kissinger type of Realpolitik diplomacy detached from ethics does not work everywhere.

Obama's special envoy and Darfur expert Samantha Power is known to have a specialty in genocide. She has also worked as a journalist covering the Balkan wars. There was concern that she would look at Sri Lankas conflict through dark tinted glasses as a result.

Visiting UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe is on the other hand is better known for his defence of international aid to impoverished North Korea even after latter's declaration that it would go ahead with the nuclear programme.

Perhaps their visits were aimed at starting a new page in relations with Sri Lanka. However undue interference by foreign powers during the 27 years of war has made Sri Lankans a xenophobic nation and it will take some time before they start trusting outsiders.

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

US OIL SPILL: BEND IN THE ROAD OF OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING

BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster occurred on 20th of April and it has become a transforming incident in the history of deepwater exploration inviting all off-shore drilling countries to revisit their original plans. On 20th of April, BP's Gulf of Mexico oil well pressure tests showed an imbalance between the drill pipe choke, and kill lines running from the drill deck to the blowout preventer. Gas alarms kept piling up on top of each other more and more and the rig was hit by a power blackout, and the explosion came soon after.

The original estimate of the oil leak was about 1,000 barrels per day. Federal authorities later on estimated BP's oil well leaking between 12,000 and 24,000 barrels a day. Accordingly since the spill began roughly 0.55 to 1.16 million barrels of oil have leaked into the Gulf. Scientists now say the blown-out well could have been spewing as much as 47,000 barrels of crude a day before a cut-and-cap maneuver started capturing some of the flow, meaning more than 2.36 million barrels may have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since the start of the disaster in April. This amount of is about 10 times more than the Exxon Valdez disaster occurred on March 24, 1989, which spilled 0.260 million barrels.

Since the explosion the BP engineers appear to be trying anything people can think of to stop the leak. BP started pumping heavy mud into the leaking Gulf of Mexico well and hoped the mud and concrete could overpower the steady stream of oil. The device that was supposed to shut off the flow of oil failed. The containment box plan of BP, never before tried at such depths, was designed next, to siphon up to 85 percent of the leaking oil to a tanker at the surface. It had taken about two weeks to build the box and three days to cart it 50 miles out and slowly lower it to the well. All together BP took 1 1/2 months to place the containment box over the busted well. The cap has been siphoning an increasing amount of oil since then and it funneled about 10,000 barrels a day to a tanker on the surface, up from about 6,000 barrels initially. BP is drilling a relief well as well which is considered a permanent fix. A relief well to stop the oil could take three months to drill and it will not be completed until August.

A steady stream of pollution from offshore rigs causes a wide range of health and reproductive problems for fish and other marine life. Offshore drilling activities destroy reefs and coastal wetlands. The spill, which is estimated to be more than 200 km long and 110 km wide, will impact the coastlines of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, and threaten hundreds of species in the Gulf of Mexico, including endangered and rare species. The timing of BP's oil spill was particularly devastating to the Gulf ecosystem because it is peak spawning and nesting season for many species of fish, birds, turtles and marine mammals. Many species remain in long-established breeding areas during this time, some of which are in the direct path of the oil spill. As the oil slick spreads, and pollution travels up the food chain, several important and endangered species will be at risk. The findings suggest that oil spills can have an impact on the environment even decades later.

The Government of Sri Lanka is currently exploring petroleum resources in the territorial waters within Sri Lankas Exclusive Economic Zone. According to experts in charge of the exploration, the estimated deposit in the offshore of the Mannar basin is roughly one billion barrels. This will be sufficient for Sri Lankas needs for about 30 years. However, if demand keeps rising at present levels, then the deposit will only be sufficient for 13 years. Given the current global consumption of oil, deposits in Sri Lankan seas will only be sufficient to meet the global oil demand for a mere ten days.

Offshore oil exploration is complex and is over ten times costly than onshore exploration. In onshore oil exploration a small oil field could be commercially viable but offshore this may not be possible. Massive investment is required for oil exploration, thus, the government was left with no choice but to have international oil companies invest in this venture. This results in the ownership of the oil being divided between the government and the companies even though the oil is rightfully ours. After the 2D Seismic survey government decided to open bidding for six out of the eight oil exploration blocks in the offshore of the Southern Mannar basin.

Cairn Lanka, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India, was selected after the bidding process for

exploring oil and gas in the Mannar Basin. Cairn India Limited is a spin-off of Cairn Energy plc for production interests in Western and Eastern India in 2006. Cairn Energy plc was founded in 1981 in Scotland and had revenue of $233.9 million in 2009. Cairn India, which currently produces eight percent of its country's crude oil requirements, has working interests in 13 fields in India. It conducts 3D deep and ultra deep sea seismic studies in the Mannar Basin covering approximately 3000 km2 in water depths of 200 m to 1.8 km. Cairn Lanka has committed an initial investment of US$ 110 million for the project. The work program includes proposals to acquire 5000 km of 2D, 1000 km2 of 3D seismic and drill three wells in the first three years, of the eight year exploration period.

BP plc which had to face the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster is a British global energy company which is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. BP which was founded in 1909 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company became the British Petroleum Company in 1954 and had revenue of US $246.1 billion in 2009 implying it is 1000 times larger that Cairn Energy plc. BP says the cost of the company's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reached about $1.25 billion. Based on the maximum amount of oil possibly spilled to date, that would translate to a potential civil fine for simple discharge alone of $2.8 billion. If BP were found to have committed gross negligence or willful misconduct, the civil fine could be up to $4,300 per barrel, or up to $11.1 billion. It is worth exploring what will be the response of Cairn Lanka if such a disaster happens in Sri Lankan waters.

There was a campaign against offshore drilling in America during the last 2 decades. In 1990 President George H.W. Bush placed a 10-year executive blanket moratorium on all new leasing or preleasing activity in offshore areas. President Clinton in 1998 extended the 1990 offshore drilling moratorium until 2012, and announces a permanent drilling ban within 12 marine sanctuaries. President Obama's 2010 March announcement however to open Eastern coastal areas to offshore oil drilling was a shock to many. He may have to reverse his decision after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

There is a worldwide trend to protect sensitive ecosystems from oil pollution and promote maximum conservation to curb dependence on all fossil fuels. Global oil production is peaking right about now. Everyone must get ready for sustainable alternatives to survive oil scarcity. It's time for revisiting offshore oil drilling as a form of fossil fuel combustion. It's time to protect the environment and stop giving out more corporate welfare to the polluting energy companies. It's time to assess the possible impact on the Sri Lanka coastal belt civilization if such an accident occurs in the Sri Lankan waters. This incident should be considered as a transforming incident in the history of deepwater exploration and it's time for Sri Lanka to revisit its original plans of off-shore oil exploration.

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

PRESIDENT HAS HIS FEET ON THE GROUND BUT LACKS VISION

BY DIANNE SILVA

UNP MP Ravi Karunanayaka spoke to the Daily Mirror on the much needed "Radical Reforms", the need for unity and the possibility of a refreshed leadership council in the United National Party. He also shared his personal opinion on the leadership skills of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Q: You have been calling for "radical reforms" in the UNP and not simple superficial changes. What do you really mean by "radical reform," is it a change in leadership or the constitution of the party?

I have been calling for changes which will put the UNP on a winning streak, rather than reforms for the sake of reforms- we have had enough of these reforms. so, radical reforms means something that is substantial and believable enough, that it gets to the people and are accepted by the people which shows them that we are on a new mode. Reforms that ensure we get into power-rather than simply change three or four names around. Well the impression of the party, the people who hold power should be able to reach the people- that is what I mean by a radical change, not a plastic surgery.

Q: Can the change you are asking for, come within the present party constitution, if the leaders were to change? Or does the party constitution itself have to change?

It is the fault of the perception of the party- it is seen as being in the hands of a few, being ruled with ulterior motives and not with the people being put first. You said that the party leadership should be able to reach the people. Yes. What I meant was that the party should be structured in a way that the people feel it is a party of the people, by the people, for the people- that is where it needs to change. Now the committee in power is a façade, it is just in power to appease three or four people and that does not get the restructuring anywhere. So all I want is restructuring that puts the UNP first, so that we come into government and we are able to create power.

Q: Do you think that at this moment in time that Ranil Wickremesinghe is an effective leader?

What I basically say is that we need a leadership council, because we are a fragmented party to the extent that the unity does not exist and factionalism will only serve to further divide the party. So my intention is to ensure that a leadership council comes into high command with three or four members take collective decisions and that is what will take the party forwards.

Q: So what do you think is fragmenting the party?

I would say that there has been no united approach, in the divide and rule policy that is there. Everyone should be held responsible for that, from the leader downwards- one for brining it in and the other for perpetuating it and permitting it to take place.

Q:But what exactly is dividing the party, is it this struggle for power or is the party divided along ideology and policies?

It is the policy, ideology and the approach. Remember that we are against a very dominant and forceful party that is trying to ruin democracy, with that in mind we have to think of the party. But that does not mean that we should be brawling- we have to be one step ahead of that. That is why we should have a team that is aggressive and hungry and able to meet the challenges that had been put forward by the government.

The government is united because we are disunited, no sooner we unite ourselves that is the time that the government becomes disunited. They are different factions; because they are in power they are holding themselves together.

This is an internal matter, there should have been a lot of arguments internally and this should have been sorted out together- but what has happened is that an internal affair has become an external factor and that is basically dividing it. It is not that there has been a subservient attitude by many, but it is because two or three have been fighting for power the situation has come to this.

Q: There are others who are vying for the leadership of the party, what do you think of them, are there any natural successors to the leadership of the UNP. Is there anyone that the party will come to a consensus about and agree should be the next leader?

No, I don't think there is a natural successor. That has been one of the weak points of the party and I blame the leadership and the senior command for not ensuring a second generation of leadership. There is a leader and a deputy leader but beyond that there is no one and this is what is causing the present situation and dividing a party that is already fragmented.

This situation needs to be rectified because otherwise the little that is left over will split like in 1989. The UNP was a very strong party, in 1946 D.S. Senanayake obtained power and ran it very successfully and till 1960 with Dudley Senanayake taking over. Then in '65 we are in opposition to SWRD Bandaranaike, and then you have Dudley taking it and running till '70. Then they have two measures of rice falling from the sky and Sirimavo Bandaranaike comes into power. Then in '77 J.R Jayewardene comes into power and Premadasa stays on till 1994. But the power balance changed in 1988-89 where the monolithic UNP within two years becomes a weak party.

Today the UNP has come down in the elections- we have lost the floating vote and the educated-professionals vote because in 1988/89 professionals were shunned and due to that we went into opposition in 1994 and we are still trying to get out of that. We came into government in 2001 but we could not stay because certain ingredients were missing and we were playing diplomatic politics.

Finally we got outwitted by those that saw that if we continued in this way, the UNP would never be able to come into power or stay in power. We were playing a very progressive role and yet were not able to continue.

There might be aspiration in some, but there is no natural succession- seniority, vision, ability and those that can get the message across to the people need to be considered. You can be a sort of a leader in an electorate or a region, but you have to be nationally oriented as well. So my belief is that the leadership council should work as a team.

Q: Do you see yourself as a possible successor to the party leadership? How do you think you stand up to the others that are vying for leadership?

I would love to see the UNP coming into government and I think that I can certainly contribute towards getting to power. Your question is something that I would like to answer but I leave it to the people to answer. At this moment, I still think that we need to take a united approach. And certainly politicians love to aspire to positions and if I say no you will think I am a half baked politician. But at this time I would say that for the sake of the party and the country we need to take a united approach.

Q: The leadership council, how will it be formulated and what will be its exact role what is your specific vision for that?

I think that uniting is the most important thing. If Y comes in X will oppose it but if X and Y both come in, then you are able to say the party first. Because I believe the country first, the party second, the leadership third and me fourth, so on that score unity is of absolute essentiality. If the leadership council says, you have no choice but to work together then that will bring in a sense of unity to the party- this unity will be the disunity of the government.

Q:What is your personal opinion on Ranil Wickremesinghe, what are his positives and what are his negatives?

His positives are his knowledge, his ability to stay alive in crisis and his experience are certainly plus factors. His minuses would be his lack of team spirit and united approach and his failure to groom a second level of leadership and sometimes greasing only the squeaky wheels- he should be able to sort out the trees that have fruit.

Q:What would you say are some of the President's positives and negatives?

My belief is that he is a strong leader, he has his feet to the ground and he is basically able to tell sunshine stories and sell a fridge to an Eskimo and thereby survive the moment. But on the other hand he has no vision, no knowledge on economy- so I would say he is lucky to survive. He is a lucky President.

PIC BY Pradeep Pathirana

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

AFGHAN WAR: THE SINISTER PLAN BEHIND THE POPPYCOCK

Russia apparently believes that the longer the US presence in Afghanistan the greater the harm Russia will suffer. It even wonders whether the US is on a mission to destabilize it. Its worries may have increased last Sunday when the New York Times reported that minerals worth one trillion dollars had been discovered in Afghanistan. The report said:

"The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe."

It quoted an internal Pentagon memo as saying that Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium," a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

If only the New York Times reporter had done his homework, he would have surely found that this was stale news. It was actually the Soviets who had surveyed the country and identified the mineral deposits during their ten-year occupation of Afghanistan. It was no secret to the Afghans either.

The timing of the news story suggests that the Americans are trying to pull a rabbit out of an old dusty hat, which the Soviets had dumped in the store room when they withdrew from Afghanistan.

The underlying message in the New York Times story is that the Americans are set to stay on in Afghanistan. Defeating the Taliban is not their sole objective. On the pretext of helping the Afghans to exploit their "new-found" mineral deposits, the Americans will stay on in Afghanistan to achieve three strategic objectives — to check China's growing influence in the region, to weaken Russia and to keep a close tab on developments in nuclear Pakistan.

The US knows it has lost the "Great Game" in Central Asia. Both Russia and China have virtually brought Central Asian countries into their sphere of influence. The only hold the US has in the region is in Afghanistan, a withdrawal from which will allow both China and Russia to establish a geographically contiguous zone of influence that may extend all the way to West Asia via Iran and Iraq.

This is why the US probably feels that checking Russia and China is strategically important. With China being the tougher target, the US focus is largely on Russia, which is not unaware of the US moves.

Russia was angry last week. Reports circulating in Moscow said that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had told Russian troops that they should be prepared to confront American forces in Afghanistan. The remarks followed Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov's warning that Afghanistan's thriving drug trade supported by the US and NATO had become the "greatest threat to international peace and security".

Russia, the world's largest per capita heroin consumer, with an estimated 30,000 people dying of abuse annually, last week hosted an international conference aimed at combating the flow of drugs from Afghanistan. Seventy metric tons of Afghan heroin worth $13 billion is consumed in Russia every year, according to U.N. estimates. UN figures also show that $352 billion of drug profits were absorbed into the international banking system to prevent the crash of the banks during the recent financial crisis.

The conference was told that Afghanistan accounted for more than 90 percent of the global heroin production which had seen a marked increase after the US invasion in October 2001.

But Russia' global initiative to combat the drug menace received only a lukewarm response from the United States. The Americans' argument is that if they cracked down on the poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, it would push disgruntled Afghan farmers into the hands of the Taliban.

In March, NATO rejected Russian calls for it to eradicate opium poppy fields in Afghanistan, saying it cannot be in a situation where it removes "the only source of income of people who live in the second poorest country of the world".

It looks like the Americans apparently see a strategic value in the drug trade. The drug business is not strange to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Its history shows how it made use of the drug money to help Chiang Kai-Shek's war against Mao Zedong's forces and how it worked jointly with Central American drug cartels to promote rightwing rebels.

Is it a coincidence that Afghanistan's biggest drug lord is President Hamid Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai? He gets all the protection needed to produce, process, transport and sell heroin.

In May, Russia's Drug Control Chief Victor Ivanov in a report to the Russian parliament equated the Afghan drug menace in his country as the second edition of the opium war — a reference to the 19th century conflict that arose when China tried to stop British efforts at smuggling in opium.

Andrei Klimov, the deputy head of the foreign affairs committee in parliament was quoted in the Russian media as saying, "I can name you a lot of politicians in Russia who said that the Americans specially arranged the situation in Afghanistan so that we would receive a lot of drugs, and this is the real aim of their occupation."

Last year, in an interview with Russia Today (http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-08-20/afghanistan-us-drug-trafficking.html), a former Russian military Commander, Mahmut Gareev, said the US was not going to stop the production of drugs in Afghanistan as it covered the costs of their military presence there.

"Actually, they (the US and NATO troops) themselves admit that if drugs were smuggled past them, they wouldn't interfere. Why? …. Americans themselves admit that drugs are often transported out of Afghanistan on American planes. Drug trafficking in Afghanistan brings them about 50 billion dollars a year — which fully covers the expenses tied to keeping their troops there."

The allegations that drug money was being used for political purposes are not new. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the CIA is said to have helped Afghan drug lords such as Hezb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatiyar to raise funds for the resistance through the sale of heroin.

In the 1980s, a US Senate report compiled by a committee headed by Senator John Kerry, concluded that US State Department officials got involved in drug trafficking to help Nicaragua's right wing Contra rebels who were fighting the socialist Sandinista regime.

Investigative journalist Gary Webb in a series of articles to the San Jose Mercury News wrote that the CIA facilitated Nicaraguans linked to the Contra rebels to raise funds for the movement by smuggling into and selling cocaine in Los Angeles.

The CIA's link with Panamanian strongman, Gen. Manuel Noriega, a well-known drug baron in Central America, was another black mark in the organization's record.

Noriega, as the head of the government of Panama, had been assisting the Contra rebels at the request of the US. In return the CIA allowed him to continue his drug business. When the US Drug Enforcement Authority tried to indict Noriega in 1971, the CIA which was then headed by George H. Bush, who later became the US president, prevented it.

When a US aircraft was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinistas in 1986, the documents the pilot was carrying exposed the CIA's connection with Noriega. It finally led to the arrest and the imprisonment of Noriega.

Coming back to Russia's drug problem, much of Afghanistan's heroin, incidentally, reaches Russia through Kyrgyzstan's Osh district, which this week saw bloody ethnic clashes in which hundreds were killed. Was it a coincidence that the clashes were started by rival drug mafias and allowed to assume ethnic proportions? Kyrgyzstan is the only Central Asian country that houses a US base and a Russian base. The pro-Moscow Kyrgyz interim government called on Russia to send in troops to restore order. But Russia declined, though it offered some logistical help. Tension in the region is good news for Afghan drug lords and also the Taliban who also depend on drug money.

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

AFGHAN WAR: THE SINISTER PLAN BEHIND THE POPPYCOCK

It quoted an internal Pentagon memo as saying that Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium," a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The timing of the news story suggests that the Americans are trying to pull a rabbit out of an old dusty hat, which the Soviets had dumped in the store room when they withdrew from Afghanistan.

The conference was told that Afghanistan accounted for more than 90 percent of the global heroin production which had seen a marked increase after the US invasion in October 2001.

Is it a coincidence that Afghanistan's biggest drug lord is President Hamid Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai? He gets all the protection needed to produce, process, transport and sell heroin.

ndrei Klimov, the deputy head of the foreign affairs committee in parliament was quoted in the Russian media as saying, "I can name you a lot of politicians in Russia who said that the Americans specially arranged the situation in Afghanistan so that we would receive a lot of drugs, and this is the real aim of their occupation."

The CIA's link with Panamanian strongman, Gen. Manuel Noriega, a well-known drug baron in Central America, was another black mark in the organization's record.

***************************************

EDITORIAL from The Pioneer, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, The Financial Express, The Hindu, The Statesman's, The Tribune, Deccan Chronicle, Deccan Herald, Economic Times, The Telegraph, The Assam Tribune, Pakistan Observer, The Asian Age, The News, The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, The New York Times, China Daily, Japan Times, The Gazette, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Guardian, Jakarta Post, The Moscow Times, The Bottom Line and more only on EDITORIAL.

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