Is your chocolate product of Fair trade?

You shouldn’t be surprised if your chocolate is a product of child labour. I happen to see this program on BBC the other day (they sometimes come out with some amazing programs). The cocoa that is majorily cultivated in West African region uses exploitative conditions. This program (Paul Kenayon-the reporter) traces how children are sold for labor and these cocoas finally end up as the raw material for huge conglomerates. ‘Fairtrade’ is the logo that was agreed upon to prevent these, after much reluctance from multi billion dollar companies. (A brief history: The controversy came to a head in 2001, when U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel and Sen. Tom Harkin introduced legislation mandating a labeling system for chocolate. The industry fought back, and a compromise was reached establishing a voluntary protocol by which chocolate companies would wean themselves from child labor, then certify that they had done so. The certification process would not involve labeling of products, but it would call for public reporting by African governments, third-party verification and poverty remediation by 2005). This situation still remains grim. So next time you have chocolate bar (these days shops are stacked with chocolate bars…looking at these is in itself amazing) check out for Fairtrade logo but also keep in mind that this logo in itself is no surety that the child labor is being used or not, as the program so effectively brings out. By the way any idea why region around the world that are rich in natural resources are inhabited by poorest people?. The MNCs tends to multiply their profit while the people go further down (you must see the deprivations in these regions, it is heartbreaking). This blogger is not into chocolate (I do buy one in case I am satisfied with a story I have written, which means it is rare!) but I guess one can live without chocolates. It doesn’t seem to worth it, definitely not over the tears of children.

Talking about child labour I think we Indians do have an unenviable record. Despite laws child labour is rampant. Child labour is used quite openly by garment industry (indeed right in the middle of Delhi in poshest of places-the fashion industry-children were being used in most exploitative conditions). I see child labour all the time while traveling, it need be added that the mid day meal scheme has been a brilliant conception and has attracted many children from poor families to schools.

Celebrating Tagore

This blogger was fortunate to be part of 150^th birth anniversary celebration at lawns of Ravindra Kalashetra the other day. It was morning well spent (I would have loved to see the complete program but due to demands of job I had to leave midway). You will get the amazing lyrics in tagore’s renditions if you hear it in Bengali, and yes one can feel the language if you know Hindi. This elderly lady’s song was absolutely mesmerizing, I also need to point out these kids here, their effort was brilliant. For more pictures visit photo blog…

Beloved Tagore

I cannot even explain how much I love Rabindranath Tagore. At one point I used to carry a thin copy of Gitanjali wherever I traveled. Those days I used to spent lots of time wandering the mountains of Himalayas. It is here I understood how tremendous this book is. It was enlightening. Much later I came across photos of some of the verses of Tagore in one of the libraries (I guess there is a copy in Sahitya Akademi Delhi, recently I saw it at Cubbon Park library too). It is a beautiful book and you can spend hours looking at . There are some amazing Black and white pictures. Read these enchanting lines of Tagore...with the pictures i took (i always wanted to do it!) 

  Let my doing nothing when I have nothing to do become untroubled in its depth of peace like the evening in seashore when the water is silent

I have scaled the peak and found no shelter in fame’s bleak and barren height. 

Lead me my guide, before the light fades, into the valley of quiet where life’s harvest mellows into golden wisdom

The tall grass sends waves of laughter to the sky in its flowers and I gaze upon the horizon

Earth, clamped into rock or flitting into the clouds; rapt in mediation in the silence of a ring of mountains or noisy with the roar of sleepless sea waves; you are beauty and abundance, terror and famine

Waves rise and fall The flowers blossom and fade 

And my heart yearns for its place At the feet of endless

Congratulation Mr Gill

people of this country are indebted to you...

Goldman Sachs: a case when the greed becomes too much for Capitalism!!

Imagine you go to bank and the “investment advisor” (I never dealt with them, since I don’t invest) gives you his valuable advice on how to go about investing the money that is lent to you, the bank in the meantime very much aware it will be difficult for you to repay and will eventually default. And on the other desk another part of the bank is putting money on you to fail. In the mortgage crisis that hit US millions lost all their savings and home but companies like Goldman Sachs earned huge profits (they bought securities from the firm, sold them to clients, and then bet against those same securities). Whatever euphemism they use this is gamble and the worst part is they are gambling on common people’s savings. An insider expert in BBC (as also many including one Mr Andrew Clark in Guardian) was quoted as saying this is a “normal practice in big organization”. Really!!. I thought ‘conflict of interest’ was another concept you come across in well written essays!!. Incidentally Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein calls his company ‘a machine” another euphemism for professionalism to obfuscate ethics, clearly. He argues that “there's no problem in selling clients a security that Goldman will then bet against, because that's the nature of the market”. Frankly the issue here is much more than Goldman Sach, it is whole nature of economy system as is being practiced and replicated all around the world.

Two references: one is a book by Michael Lewis “The Big Short” (read few things on the net) and second the documentary by Mike Moore “Capitalism: A love story” (finally I got the cd last week). Both these are apt in understanding the problems of corporates like Goldman Sachs and how societies end up paying for their greed. The shocking level they intrude into policy making (Goldman Sachs is well documented by Moore) and even have the clout to scuttle law making (if this could happen in US, just imagine how much vulnerable poorer societies around the world are). It is not a coincidence that powerful people always talk of removing regulations while poor queue up to elect government to regulate the country. Indeed many Corporates see democracy as a threat. The problem with capitalism is that it is a monster if it is not regulated. Capitalism arose from ethical context but when greed replaced ethical norms the system had already started to cannibalize. Therefore the paradox of unethical act but not illegal. It is becoming very much clear that only democracy can temper market greed. Incidentally Lewis (“The Big Short”) did point out that Goldman Sachs and other banks conspired to inflate the price of mortgage-backed securities well into 2007, even when they knew the true value was falling, only marking them down in value after their own hedging strategies were in place. And that top executives were largely clueless about the risks their organizations were taking.

It is not surprising that Church (et al Protestant ethics and Spirit of Capitalism-Max Weber) nor founders of market economy will find anything admirable about present nature of market functioning. One of the most neglected aspects of Adam Smith is the book “Moral Sentiment”. In the age of market hooliganism it is time to revisit his writings. Smith writes, "A great part of the capital of the country is kept out of the hands which were most likely to make a profitable and advantageous use of it, and thrown into those which were most likely to waste and destroy it". Smith saw the task of political economy as the pursuit of "two distinct objects": "first, to provide a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people, or more properly to enable them to provide such a revenue or subsistence for themselves; and second, to supply the state or commonwealth with revenue sufficient for the public services". He acknowledged the importance of interventions on behalf of the poor "When the regulation is in favor of the workmen, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in favor of the masters." Smith was both a proponent of a plural institutional structure and a champion of social values that transcend the profit motive, in principle as well as in actual reach (some quotes taken from Amartya Sen).

The tragedy of the times we live in is that the best brains are going into managing greed, the economics is reduced to gamble at stock exchange (stock exchange is no longer place to raise capital for business). Perceptions are created on daily basis, companies plan for short term take, employee bonuses and perks are based on year end results. What incentive is there not to invest in something that makes money today but will likely implode three years from now?

Michael Lewis (the author of “The Big Short”) who left Wall Street at a time when the big investment banks were turning from partnerships into publicly-traded companies (which placed the ultimate risk on a new and remote participant- the public shareholder) writes “There was a very clear sense that we were behaving in ways with this money that we would not behave if it was our money.”. He further points “People on the trading floors could be sitting two desks away from each other, and not have the first freaking clue what the other guy was doing. That the places had become so big and so balkanized that nobody had a really clear overview of their own firms.” He concludes “It took four years before any serious reform passed through Congress after the crash of 1929, I think the endgame here, and what's likely to happen, is that these big firms are going to become much less profitable businesses and much less interesting places to work. Saner, duller. The political winds are so clearly blowing in the direction of changing the way these places operate”

I guess last few decades were about Wall Street making billions of dollars at the expense of Main Street. Time for change the Americans voted for is now. What happens in America will significantly impact the world.

a poem

Sublime submissions

Flowers are god’s way of answering prayers
short prayers, long prayers
fervent prayers, disconsolate prayers
prayers said in happiness
prayers said in gratitude
all precisely arranged
and acknowledged with care

(Dedicated to everyone involved in protection of environment)

Over to Cancun, Mexico

'People's Agreement' adopted by the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth at Cochabamba

This part of agreement document agreed at the summit (for full transcript visit http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/peoples-agreement)

Today, our Mother Earth is wounded and the future of humanity is in danger.

If global warming increases by more than 2 degrees Celsius, a situation that the “Copenhagen Accord” could lead to, there is a 50% probability that the damages caused to our Mother Earth will be completely irreversible. Between 20% and 30% of species would be in danger of disappearing. Large extensions of forest would be affected, droughts and floods would affect different regions of the planet, deserts would expand, and the melting of the polar ice caps and the glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas would worsen. Many island states would disappear, and Africa would suffer an increase in temperature of more than 3 degrees Celsius. Likewise, the production of food would diminish in the world, causing catastrophic impact on the survival of inhabitants from vast regions in the planet, and the number of people in the world suffering from hunger would increase dramatically, a figure that already exceeds 1.02 billion people.

The corporations and governments of the so-called “developed” countries, in complicity with a segment of the scientific community, have led us to discuss climate change as a problem limited to the rise in temperature without questioning the cause, which is the capitalist system.

We confront the terminal crisis of a civilizing model that is patriarchal and based on the submission and destruction of human beings and nature that accelerated since the industrial revolution.

The capitalist system has imposed on us a logic of competition, progress and limitless growth. This regime of production and consumption seeks profit without limits, separating human beings from nature and imposing a logic of domination upon nature, transforming everything into commodities: water, earth, the human genome, ancestral cultures, biodiversity, justice, ethics, the rights of peoples, and life itself.

Under capitalism, Mother Earth is converted into a source of raw materials, and human beings into consumers and a means of production, into people that are seen as valuable only for what they own, and not for what they are.

Capitalism requires a powerful military industry for its processes of accumulation and imposition of control over territories and natural resources, suppressing the resistance of the peoples. It is an imperialist system of colonization of the planet.

Humanity confronts a great dilemma: to continue on the path of capitalism, depredation, and death, or to choose the path of harmony with nature and respect for life.

It is imperative that we forge a new system that restores harmony with nature and among human beings. And in order for there to be balance with nature, there must first be equity among human beings. We propose to the peoples of the world the recovery, revalorization, and strengthening of the knowledge, wisdom, and ancestral practices of Indigenous Peoples, which are affirmed in the thought and practices of “Living Well,” recognizing Mother Earth as a living being with which we have an indivisible, interdependent, complementary and spiritual relationship. To face climate change, we must recognize Mother Earth as the source of life and forge a new system based on the principles of:

• harmony and balance among all and with all things;
• complementarity, solidarity, and equality;
• collective well-being and the satisfaction of the basic necessities of all;
• people in harmony with nature;
• recognition of human beings for what they are, not what they own;
• elimination of all forms of colonialism, imperialism and interventionism;
• peace among the peoples and with Mother Earth;

The model we support is not a model of limitless and destructive development. All countries need to produce the goods and services necessary to satisfy the fundamental needs of their populations, but by no means can they continue to follow the path of development that has led the richest countries to have an ecological footprint five times bigger than what the planet is able to support. Currently, the regenerative capacity of the planet has been already exceeded by more than 30 percent. If this pace of over-exploitation of our Mother Earth continues, we will need two planets by the year 2030. In an interdependent system in which human beings are only one component, it is not possible to recognize rights only to the human part without provoking an imbalance in the system as a whole. To guarantee human rights and to restore harmony with nature, it is necessary to effectively recognize and apply the rights of Mother Earth. For this purpose, we propose the attached project for the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, in which it’s recorded that:

• The right to live and to exist;
• The right to be respected;
• The right to regenerate its bio-capacity and to continue it’s vital cycles and processes free of human alteration;
• The right to maintain their identity and integrity as differentiated beings, self-regulated and interrelated;
• The right to water as the source of life;
• The right to clean air;
• The right to comprehensive health;
• The right to be free of contamination and pollution, free of toxic and radioactive waste;
• The right to be free of alterations or modifications of it’s genetic structure in a manner that threatens it’s integrity or vital and healthy functioning;
• The right to prompt and full restoration for violations to the rights acknowledged in this Declaration caused by human activities.

A video by Greenpeace on Earth Day and a poem

Memories of trees

I have many memories of trees
the tree that spread its ecstatic branch
to greet me through me study window
after night of monsoon downpour.
The tree that refuse to speak
one summer afternoon
as I lay under its cool shade
contemplating my life.
Then there was this young tree
that sobbed in cemented pathway
despite the assurances from the city authorities.
I have so many memories of trees
that could fill into a book
and find its place in racks of books
that tell many more memories
of trees.
But my memories are always
about a tree
that decided to kill itself
to turn into
a monument one day.

(this poem will be removed to birds blog soon)

Voices heard at Cochabamba

"We are gathered here because the so-called developed countries didn't meet their obligation of establishing substantial commitments to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen," Morales said. "If those countries had respected the Kyoto Protocol and had agreed to substantially reduce the emissions inside their borders, this conference wouldn't be necessary."

"We are not part of the problem, we are part of the solution, we the indigenous peoples, the peasant communities, so let us offer you the solution because we are the ones suffering," said Justo Cruz, an Aymara indigenous leader. "Ordinary people are never allowed to talk, yet we are the ones paying the price for what the rich are doing to our planet, to our Mother Earth."

"It is not that it wasn't important what governments were discussing in Copenhagen but the problem is that it was discussed from a corporate perspective and here we are discussing it from an indigenous perspective we have a great deal of respect for Mother Earth, we have a direct accountability to her, something that developed nations seem not to have", says Vanessa Inarunekia, a Taino indigenous woman from Puerto Rico. "Human beings cannot survive without Mother Earth; Mother Earth can survive without us," she said.

Domingo Lechon, climate justice co-ordinator from Friends of the Earth Mexico, said: "Cochabamba represents a unique opportunity for popular demands to be adopted by governments. We will use this new people's agenda as a rallying call to mobilise movements of affected peoples, indigenous peoples, peasant farmers, trade unions and women to dismantle corporate power and force our governments into action."

All eyes on Cochabamba

World People's Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, the alternative climate change summit, will be starting in Cochabamba, Bolivia, from tomorrow. Evo Morales the president of Bolivia (incidentally the first indigenous head of state) has initiated this summit. The main focus of the summit would be “Structural Change for Environment”. It be recalled that last year the UN general assembly approved Morales initiative of launching the International Mother Earth Day every 22nd of April to protect the rights of the Andean divinity, Pachamama (Mother Earth), and of "all living beings". Also the symbolism of the city Cochabamba shouldn’t be lost. Almost a decade back people of this city fought attempts to privatize water. The organizers have attempted an inclusive forum and invited all 192 member states and indigenous communities, civil society (unlike Copenhagen). About 15,000 people are expected, including representatives from 100 governments and 10 heads of state.

The growing synergies between an increasingly powerful global grassroots movement for climate justice and small but increasingly vocal states seeking people inspired alternative proposals is sought to be consolidated. These movements for climate justice represent an important alternative path to face the climate crisis.

The summit is intended to give voice to the world's poorest people, those most affected by climate change, and to make governments more aware of their plight. The main goal is to present draft proposals to the UN climate meeting due to be held in Mexico later this year.

Morales will also use the meeting to announce what could be the world's largest referendum, with up to 2 billion people being asked to vote on ways out of the climate crisis. Bolivia wants to create a UN charter of rights and to draft an action plan to set up an International Climate Justice Tribunal (this blogger is extremely excited about this plan. It definitely is the time for ICJT)

Says Quispean, an Aymara indigenous leader, who is attending the summit "According to some analysis, about 80% of the world's pollution comes from developed nations and harms, mostly, developing nations. So we feel we have to do something, we must be heard, we must be compensated". This blogger would read 'developed nations' as consumption and wasteful culture of societies (and individuals) wherever located.

"Bolivia's positioning on environmental issues provides a beacon of hope which we encourage other governments and local authorities to follow. Despite being economically challenged, Bolivia has rightfully and bravely stood up to the divide-and-rule tactics that have been deployed by rich industrialized countries,” said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International.

For more on this summit please visit http://pwccc.wordpress.com/

Dealing with the Naxals (or the Maoists)

This blogger has been reading lots of reactions on the Net with regard to recent happening in Dantewada and so on. The problem with reactions in the net is that views are unedited (and so they can write such vicious things…it’s not about this issue it’s about anything around, nationally and internationally. There seems to be so much venom in the world that I have crossed the stage of nausea to amazement. Although majority of netizens do indulge in trash there are some amazing people and thought provoking views. The reason why reading these can be quite fulfilling), the views do get polarized most of the times. Forget netizens even in the parliament as also around the country there seem to be no single solution. BJP and CPM seem to be the only set of people who have no qualms about how to deal with Naxals. “Eliminate them” “sanitize the region” are some of the kind of words used. For a moment one would mistake it for punch line of some cockroach spray in the market.

The issue is no doubt complicated. I guess 60years on we have reached a tipping point, something radical has to be included and institutionalized in the understanding of development. Development may be about revenue generated for few and economic indicators for many but unless it is equitable and sustainable it will lead to these situations. Most importantly poor and marginalised cannot be taken for granted; the world has changed quite drastically in recent times. Medieval methods may not work. In recent times world seem to be evaluating other nations in terms of economic clout which in turn is being defined by “growth rate” like GDP, export, consumption pattern, industrial production and so on. This in turn leads to employment generation, comfort and consumption. Now that puts pressure on the governments, they are forced to maintain these “growth rate” and make the nation investment friendly. Impetus seems to be on short term measures and benefits.

There seems to be a vicious cycle that the world has got into. And unless an immediate effort not taken this blogger doesn’t really know where it will all lead to (I don’t want to sound pessimistic). Inequitable development finally ends with poor getting further marginalised and threatened (unsustainable development leads to environment paying the price). The government is forced to exploit the natural resources (India is one of the largest producers of mineral and ores and the revenue generated goes into billions) and thus the poor too get exploited. It is inbuilt in such systems. There can be pressure groups that protest for poor, for environment, but at the end of the day government will have to show the “growth rate” (indeed the policy makers were proud that India was able to maintain steady growth despite financial crisis effecting the world). Increasing chasms in the societies around the world is now turning to surrealism. The incredibly rich and incredibly poor looks as if are aliens and the world is getting polarized not only at material level but at the level of incredulity. So malls are so overstocked with food and children die of malnutrition. Since I travel a lot the sights/experiences in recent times have severely shaken my senses, it wasn’t so acute and rampant a decade back. This not to deny the fact that more people have benefited materially in recent times around the country than few decades back, the symbols of prosperity is widespread.

Sometime back the French set up a committee to replace these definitions of development (members included Stiglitz and Sen) they don’t seem to have succeeded. If the world has to exist for market then we are really in for something nasty, the affects are getting compounded at an exponential rate (to start with: the whole idea of some brilliant people working to create amazing products and then leaving it to cretins to sell it assuming that the buyers-that is society- consist of juveniles is in itself incredibly rotten). There is a fake world being created that live on exaggerations and perceptions. Seeing societies as potential customers, seeing the world as market…these are the worldview that seems to have started to dominate the understanding in recent times. They are the people who seem to be influencing policy makers. Frankly I find it difficult to blame the politicians…they too are victims of this vicious cycle. This blogger requests the world community to come out with a system, or indicators that balances this vicious nature of market onslaught. It is having a devastating affect in poorer societies.

Indian government (and this true for most developing societies) will have to put high premium on natural resources and products arising from these. The socio-cultural cost is heavy and should be included. Steve jobs and Bill gates (to take some popular examples) are billionaires because of their ideas, skills and talents. But when you look at rich people in developing societies most seem to be rich because of natural resources (that also includes “property developers” -they were the ones who were behind SEZs), they are necessarily the product of corruption and nepotism, it’s about manipulations. Not denying that it does require talent!. The companies that make money exploiting natural resources will have to pay back to society. It is criminal lack on the part of successive governments that these have been kept as lucrative ventures, it is about rampant corruption. This the main reason why big industrialists over the decades have shifted to these easy opportunities instead of keeping themselves competitive by pumping money into R&D and so on (compare this with countries like Japan, Germany or Korea). Many of these millionaires have become like mafia and with this easy money have developed enormous political clout -take the case of Karnataka the place this blogger is based. It is an extension of feudalism that is being supported and perpetrated by economy driven corrupt system. So Bill Gates will spend his millions on philanthropy while Bellary brothers will make obscene display to temples and even have the audacity to threaten the elected government. This is the difference. The problem is some get huge money without going through the process thus are still primitive. Market seems to encourage these atavisms, the caveman’s primitive instinct to acquire. Latest technologies are used as aids to perpetuate these. Bellary brothers (they are only a small example, there are hundreds and thousands of them) know how lucky they are. Luck here is not providential. It’s about exploiting nature, corrupting people. Now you multiple this situations few thousand times and you will understand why there are Naxals and Maoists in places rich in natural resources, and why poor people live in mineral rich land get poorer. Add to this consumption oriented middle class and their hypocrisies. And then the free media to serve them.

To solve the issue of naxalism needs compassion. Compassion doesn’t come in short term packages they come from understanding livelihood needs and challenges people face. Tribals wouldn’t have deviated to Maoists if they had choices. This blogger expects government to deal with the violent element in the region severely (not to expect criminal elements in the groups is a mistake) but in the meantime open a channel for dialogue without any preconditions. There could be peace groups created through intellectuals/tribal activists/respected people from the region (like for instance ULFA issue was sought to be mitigated with help of likes of Indira Goswami and so on). This will have to be dealt innovatively.

What’s happening in Dantewada?

So many CRPF personnel killed with impunity by Naxals, we all keep hearing about landmine explosions on regular basis for last many years but the number of deaths this time is shocking. This blogger like most Indians expects the government to take stringent action to deal with this menace. There cannot be any question of tolerating violence whatever the grievance. This kind of massacre shouldn’t happen again. This is a terrible loss.

This blogger had been to Bastar few times (they have unique way of celebrating dushera festival…how I loved being part of it), that was many years back. Those days this menace was not very apparent. South part of Chattisgarh is quite a backward place that does lack basic amenities and tribals are exploited though I found them amazingly talented (they make quaint pieces of metal work). I had some wonderful time here.

Government will have to decide whether they are going to play CEO or represent the voice of the people. As we all agree investment opportunities for business to function and therefore society to prosper is important part of development. But whether it should lead to exploitation of people and short term gains for few? Elected representatives shouldn’t become tools in the hands of cunning exploiters.

This blogger when he covered the exploitative nature of carbonated colored water companies and how they are becoming threat to local community was expecting immediate laws to prevent these (and yes I spent substantial amount of money, time and effort) . But the power that be took it lightly (crude woman turd whom I sent these--well at that point blogs were not created otherwise why would I be bothered about this woman-- got busy in her PR to work out her small little life. Amazing!). If this is how they deal with situation wherein people protest and the government turns blind eye what do you expect? What kind of development is this?. How can exploitative companies use natural resources like this and make huge profit at the expense of common people. Extrapolate few hundred times this you know what is happening in backward places in India.

This blogger also need to repeat that Union Ministers are supposed to represent the nation and not TV channels (that is not only nepotism but criminal waste of money spent on them). India is not USA, even in US they have government spokesperson who speaks to media. India is not about Delhi or Mumbai it is about more than billion people but when you have all the officials hoarding in state capitals then it is clear they may not have much understanding of reality. You take the statistics of Union Ministers of last few decades (that includes Congress, BJP and so on) you will find a substantial numbers are based in Delhi!!

That however doesn't deny the fact that Mr.Chidambaram is quite a competent and astute minister.

Making Education a Fundamental Right

Wonder why it took so long? I recall during a Jan Sunwayi on education a Supreme Court lawyer on a question as to why education is not a fundamental right mentioned that it already is by the interpretation of ruling by the Supreme Court and went on to quote the ruling. But that really doesn’t answer the question, I thought, it need be done by the legislature and should be enshrined in the Constitution. Denying education is denying basic human right therefore formally declaring it as a fundamental right puts onus on all the citizens (doesn’t necessarily mean state is abdicating, it indeed is consolidation of intent). The blogger is quite excited about enforcing inclusive education (or community education as Kothari commission put it), this is something long overdue, and it was mischievous and serious irresponsibility on the part of successive governments not to implement these.

Learn it from Kendriya Vidyalayas: This blogger is proud to be alumni of Kendriya Vidyalaya (or central schools), except the first few years I have done all my schooling in KVs across the country. It was an amazing experience. The best part was the class consisted children from all strata of society so you have a boy whose father is a lance naik to a girl whose father is a brigadier and the class teacher could be wife of a General!! (incidentally I always found myself in the middle of things!). Not only that you have people from different region of the country right from Tamilians to Assamese to Himachalis!. So lunch time it was not rare to taste food that you haven’t tasted before. Though the socio-regional milieu was incredible the teaching was patchy (but overwhelmingly better compared to other schools), I even recall an English teacher who taught my class for almost three years without actually speaking any English, she taught English in Hindi!!. There were schools where teachers who gave children ‘games period’ or prefer dozing in class wherein they were supposed to teach (but nobody was complaining and we really had some great fun).

There were some incredible teachers too, I distinctly remember the physics teacher when I was in 8^th or 9^th standard whose husband was part of Antarctica mission, she really taught well with lots illustrations and pictures. Then there were teachers who preferred taking class under the tree than inside the classroom or under sun during winters (the best part of cantonments are there is always lots of open space, big playground and trees -must say Bangalore is being saved by cantonments) which really was great. In one school we even had personal garden for each class and we were supposed to maintain it (as part of SUPW classes), isn’t that incredible. Infact I came to know about the tools used for gardening (extend that to agriculture) like kurfi, fawda…names of plants in hindi as also words like kyari and so on. KVs are also known for instilling sense of discipline and they really took these very seriously, even checking whether the shoes are polished and asking to show the socks!!. Studying in KVs was incredible. There was this song we were taught about the greatness of KVs: bharat ka swarnim gaurav kendriya vidyalaya layega. takshashila nalanda ka itihaas lot kar ayega (KVs will bring back the golden age of India it will bring in the history of takshashila and nalanda)

Post script: in the last blog I wrote about the Bengali editor who lived in my neighborhood, there were many interesting characters. I recall an elderly man who lived below my floor in another part of Karol bagh, now this man was staying alone and had some property dispute with his family or something like that, he was also cheated by the bank he had worked and so every time I visited him he kept repeating the same case with file number and so on. He was amazingly sharp man. Incidentally he was a malayali and so would treat me with tea and some south Indian savories. Why am I writing about him here is that he wrote a book in Sanskrit shlokas that was on Narasimha Rao’s corruption. A copy of this book of shlokas on corruption can be found in Sahitya Akademi library (Delhi)under the name Mukundan. It is an unique piece of work!

Oye Nazrul kaha ja raha hai?

This was how my neighbor in one of the congested places in Karol Bagh (delhi), I used to stay many years back, addressed me everytime I crossed his path. He was a middle aged Bengali who was an editor of some small magazine- that really didn’t sell much, though it contained heavy porn stuff. He invited me many times to his one room flat finally one evening I dropped into his shack, smell of mustard oil wafted through the room. The man loved poetry and had grand plans for himself but somehow things didn’t work out for him so ended up editing seedy magazines. His wife children were in Bengal and he was insistent on not bringing them to Delhi “they shouldn’t know what I do”. Now this man said I looked like Nazrul Islam he showed excitement and was quite astonished when i told him i was not a bengali!!. He read Nazrul’s poems loudly, there was fervency and passion in his voice when he read those lines that seem so poignant to his surrounding. He liked me a lot though I avoided him and when he knew that I too scribble few lines here and there he tried to encourage “poetry is life long”. In retrospect I think I reminded him of his youth or something on that line…nothing could explain his genuine excitement every time he saw me. So even if I was across the street he would shout in his thick Bengali accent “oye Nazroool kaha ja raha hai thooo?” to my utmost embarrassment. Now when I am thinking about him as I write these I feel quite sad, I hope he is fine.

I had heard about Kazi Nazrul Islam as part of General Knowledge questions but hadn’t really read so went to the library and sat down and yes try to locate his pictures I had shade of him alright- atleast the way I looked in 1997-98. Nazrul Islam was an exciting discovery….

more about it in bird’s blog (go to the link)

Getting into the heart of the matter

So how was the world as we know created? How did matter get its mass?...the question we always asked.

The moments after the big bang is being recreated at CERN…opening up some real exciting possibilities. Experiments, verifying the results, studying, understanding …all these take years (it took 20years to construct this largest collider) but I hope I get to know more amazing aspect about the universe in my life time. This is incredible. Lots of things that we know maybe changed or some new spectacular understandings are distinct possibility. We are living in such exciting times.

It's Dubai world cup !!

What a spectacular opening ceremony, one of the best things I have seen for a long time (I did like last year’s opening ceremony too!); I liked that robotic flying falcon. And what a wonderful racecourse (though anticlockwise racing sand track needs bit watching acclimatization for people not used to), not to forget the cameras that covered the race, the top view was nothing short of spectacular, I really haven’t seen that one before. It was wholesome, now that’s the way things should be conducted. When you do something do it well, do it really well (or atleast make an attempt, the turf clubs in India haven’t really innovated much except maybe to increase the prize money). The main race too was exciting, the longer odds nicking it for millions dollar. What amazing sight of some the best horses and jockeys from around the world, it is a symphony. Meydan Dubai is the place to be in.

How about 2020 Olympics in Dubai?

Condoling Kanu Sanyal

Probably one of the greatest leaders India has ever seen. When the bourgeoisie state failed to protect the peasants, he showed what it means to fight back. If only Naxalism had spread all across India in 1950s and 1970s India would have been much egalitarian society. They would have thrown the ‘trickle down’ from Delhi out of window and demanded parity. Even after 60 years of independence the policies are elitist (now they have excuse of market which I am told means development. If you somebody could explain what is development?). Sanyal correctly denounced what has been practiced by Naxals in recent times. There is no place for violence, and I think we all like Sanyal condemn the acts of violence by Naxals. Naxal violence like any forms of violence should be dealt severely.

Sanyal was an amazing man. What is shocking is not Kanu Sanyal died as a broken man what is shocking is people like Pinrayi Vijayan and Budhadeb Bhattacharya are happy people. What is much shocking is Parliament is full of happy people like them. Happy millionaires who have taken up the business of serving people, meaning trickling down their gain. Meaning my family and friends lick more and you lick less. Meaning we stand for freedom so what’s your problem?!!

Coca cola should pay

Coca cola Pepsi (and other exploitative companies) should pay for each drop of water (that is common resource of society) sucked for profit. The exploitative products will have to pay for depleting natural resources and severely impacting the environment. In Plachimada and Pudushery (exploitative plants of Coca cola and Pepsi respectively in kerala) they have severely degraded the ecology of the region. There is a need for legal framework and exemplary punishment given for putting the basic need of society at threat. Coca Pepsi Cola should pay for each penny earned by sucking into what is common resource for ye pyaas hai badi morons in cities. This blogger believes even the bottled water shouldn’t be so cheap, though not really a luxury product but I should pay three to four times for half litre of water. It should be heavily taxed. In the same way products like Coca cola and Pepsi should be much costly, it is a product that is at the expense of misery of common people and serious ecological damage. Take for instance only for the period of 1999 to 2004 the damage is significant says the report “agricultural loss is pegged at Rs 84.16 crore, pollution of water resources is at Rs 62 crore, the cost of providing water is at Rs 20 crore, the damage to health at Rs 30 crore while wage loss and opportunity cost is at Rs 20 crore”. Imagine how much damage they have done over the decades.

Corrupt and feudal nature of society has been exploited by this billion dollar company. This blogger is quite acutely aware of these and has put in the blog visits to many of the sites around the country and reactions of people in the region. These exploitative products have caused nothing but misery. Governments should take serious notes of these at the earliest before the damage is irreversible. This blogger sincerely hopes enlightened leaders of Kerala provide (as always…Jai ho to that!!) an example and path to the entire country on these matters. Either Coca Cola Pepsi and other exploitative products pay or move out.

In the meantime Coca-Cola has continued to operate its bottling plant in Kala Dera (in Jaipur) even as the area has been declared a drought area last summer and the groundwater levels are falling sharply, leaving the largely agrarian community with severely restricted access to water. Data obtained by the India Resource Center from the Central Groundwater Board, a government agency, confirm that groundwater levels in Kala Dera fell precipitously again – a drop of 4.29 meters (14 feet) in just one year between August 2008 and August 2009, from 30.83 meters below ground level to 35.12 meters respectively. In the nine years prior to Coca-Cola’s bottling operations in Kala Dera, groundwater levels fell just 3 meters. In the nine years since Coca-Cola has been operating in Kala Dera, the groundwater levels have dropped 22.36 meters.

There are protests around the country but the “rare unanimity” among the leaders in the Parliament on these matters cannot be expected. Any guesses?!!.

Black presidents and women MPs do not alone mean equality and justice

This excerpts from an article by Garry Young in Guardian newspaper (http://www.guardian.co.uk) titled "Black presidents and women MPs do not alone mean equality and justice" (emphasis mine)

“I think that case could be made, but it is not the argument I'm making here. The fact that the first black president is presiding over deepening racial disparities is just one of the more potent illustrations of how the relationship between identity and electoral representation has become untethered from broader social, political or economic advances and rendered purely symbolic. The corporate model of diversity, which seeks to look different and act the same, has firmly stamped its imprimatur on a kind of politics that owes more to Benetton ads than black advancement. Where we used to seek equal opportunities, we have now become satisfied with photo opportunities – a fact that satisfies some liberals, annoys most conservatives and does little, if anything, for the lives of those whose interests are ostensibly being championed”.

He writes later “This is not just true for race. India's upper house last week passed a bill to reserve a third of all legislative seats for women. Given that India ranks 99th in the world for female representation, this would make a significant difference to the Indian parliament if it becomes law. The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, described the vote as a "historic step forward toward emancipation of Indian womanhood".

Not necessarily. There is no absolute causal link between gender representation and gender equality. Six of the countries that rank in the top 20 for women's representation are also in the top 20 for per capita rapes. Meanwhile, a global gender gap index, compiled by the World Economic Forum, which assesses how countries distribute resources and opportunities between the sexes, reveals glaring discrepancies. Angola and Nepal, which stand 10th and 17th respectively in terms of representation, are 106th and 110th in terms of equality. Ireland and Sri Lanka, which rank eighth and 16th respectively for equality are 87th and 125th for representation. In 2008, two female party leaders locked horns in elections in Bangladesh, producing the second female prime minster for the country in a decade. According to the WEF, gender inequality in Bangladesh is bad (it is 94th) and getting relatively worse (in 2008 it was 90th)”.

To read the entire article readers may visit the Guardian Newspaper website

Great verdict by Delhi HC

Permanent commission of women in the army is a great step forward. Wonder what took it so long?!!. I recall this issue being raised by women Army officers i happen to interview for a magazine (incidentally on the occasion of women's day) many years back. Extremely glad about this positive step.

Also happy to know that elitist Women's bill is facing tremendous opposition in the Parliament and outside it.

Why this belligerence?

They have been trying to push the Women’s bill for 14 years now and despite protest seem to come back with same document. Why this belligerence? Why can’t it be changed to suit the reality of this nation? This blogger strongly prefers the bottom- top model. Women who have done exceptional work at the panchayats and municipalities should have their voice protected and represented at the national level. The present bill doesn’t serve the purpose of majority of people in this country nor does it reflect their reality. Only women with proven credential of grass root political involvement can represent the gender reality and therefore their input is significant. The bill must safeguard/represent this section. Common people mustn’t be forced to choose what is not their reality. Lack of electoral reforms has seen to that the reality of nation is not being reflected, women’s bill in present form is going to perpetuate this inequality.

The UNDP Report released yesterday paints a bleak picture for this region in terms of gender discrimination. Incidentally south Asia does have no dearth of women at the top of political leadership. Please understand elitist representation is not going to change discrimination. This blogger had raised the issue of gender reservation in bureaucracy as these have direct impact on functioning, as also these go through a process and therefore cannot be misused for family and friends. These safeguards are important.

Note: despite high level of human development index, socio-political awareness, higher sex ratio, has not seen any significant political representation of women in Kerala (there is also sham of matriarchy which was nothing but control of patriarchal property through multipartner woman -squatter exploitation essentially prostitution-pimp relation). The Congress and Communists have consistently scuttled any gender political parity.