Corruption in India
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By Shashi Tharoor
One of the questions people keep asking me since my entry into politics is what we can do about corruption. What would I do, one citizen recently asked in an on-line chat, if I became the “concerned authority”? No such prospect — the Vigilance Commissioner isn’t a Member of Parliament! — but in fact corruption is a national malaise and a social ill, not just one that a “concerned authority” can solve. We are all complicit — those who demand bribes and those who give them.
But one of the things that intrigues me is the extent to which corruption is a middle-class preoccupation, when in fact the biggest victims of corruption in our country are in fact the poor. For the affluent, corruption is at worst a nuisance; for the salaried middle-class, it can be an indignity and a burden; but for the poor, it is often a tragedy.
The saddest corruption stories I have heard are those where corruption literally transforms lives for the worse. There are stories about the pregnant woman turned away from a government hospital because she couldn’t bribe her way to a bed; the labourer denied an allotment of land that was his due because someone else bribed the patwari to change the land records; the pensioner denied the rightful fruits of decades of toil because he couldn’t or wouldn’t bribe the petty clerk to process his paperwork; the wretchedly poor unable to procure the BPL ["Below Poverty Line"] cards that certify their entitlement to various government schemes and subsidies because they couldn’t afford to bribe the issuing officer; the poor widow cheated of an insurance settlement because she couldn’t grease the right palms … the examples are endless. Each of these represents not just an injustice, but a crime, and yet the officials responsible get away with their exactions all the time. And all their victims are people living at or near a poverty line that’s been drawn just this side of the funeral pyre.
One of the reasons that I was an early supporter of economic liberalization in India was that I hoped it would reduce corruption by denying officialdom the opportunity (afforded routinely by our license-quota-permit raj) to profit from the power to permit. That has happened to some degree, especially at the big-business level. But I underestimated the creativity of petty corruption in India that leeches blood from the veins of the poorest and most downtrodden in our society. No one seems to be able to do anything about it, but I’d like to try. I’d welcome any ideas readers might have to set me on my way.
A Catalyst for Development
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Dr. Thomas Abraham
People of Indian origin (PIO) constitute a global community of over 22 million people. It is bigger than many countries of Europe. It has been estimated that, PIOs living outside India has a combined yearly economic output of about $250 billion, about one third of the GDP of India. Whether they come from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australia, the Caribbean or Europe, they are Indians in body and spirit. Almost all of them maintain their Indian cultural traditions and values. They seem to have meaningfully integrated in their countries without losing their ethnic identity.
Looking at the numbers of the NRI/PIO communities, we see the following:
North America (Mostly USA & Canada) 3.2 Million
South America (Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Surinam, Jamaica, etc.) 1.6 million
Europe (U.K., Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc.) 2.5 million
Africa (South Africa, Mauritius, East African countries, etc.) 2.5 million
Middle East (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.) 3.5 million
Far East & South East Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Mayanmar, etc.) 3.5 million
Pacific Island (Fiji, Australia, New Zealand) 0.7 million
Srilanka and Nepal 4.5 million
Total 22.0 million
Note: Since hard numbers have not been available, these are approximate estimates and obtained from individual country statistics and from the report of the High Level India Diaspora Committee appointed by Govt. of India
With over 22 million people of Indian origin living outside India, a new global community of Indian origin has been developed. Most people of Indian origin have become highly successful in business and professions. If their professional expertise and financial resources are to be pooled together, it will benefit not only people of Indian origin but also their countries and India. In addition, people of Indian origin could assume a new role in providing help in case of crisis to their communities around the world.
Of the 22 million, about 50% constitute the first generation immigrants from India and their immediate families, generally termed as non-resident Indians (NRIs). This is the group one should reach out for investments and for business and technology collaborations in India. This group also has taken great interest in India’s developments. Where are these communities? They are spread across the Middle East, USA, Canada, U.K. and other European countries, Australia and Southeast and Far Eastern countries.
Need for Mobilizing the Community
As a first step toward bringing our communities together, the Indian American community, under the leadership of the National Federation of Indian American Associations, took the initiative to organize the First Global Convention of People of Indian Origin in New York in 1989. The triggering point for the global Indian community to come together was, when an elected Indian dominated government in Fiji was thrown out by a military dictator in 1987. At the First Global Convention, the major issue of concern to everyone was human rights violations, be in Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad, South Africa, Sri Lanka, U.K. and even in the U.S.A. with “Dot Buster” issue. The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) was formed at this convention to help in networking our communities and take up issues such as human rights violations of Indians around the world. GOPIO filed petitions at the UN and a concerted effort was made to fight these issues.
Changing Objectives
In the last one decade, the whole world has changed, so are the people of Indian origin (PIO) communities. Since our first global convention of people of Indian origin, Indian dominated parties were elected to power in Fiji, Guyana and Trinidad. South Africa has several Indians as ministers in the government. The late Dr. Chheddi Jagan, former President of Guyana, Mr. Basdeo Panday of Trinidad and Mr. Mahendra Chaudhry of Fiji were present at GOPIO’s first convention who went on to become the President and Prime Ministers of their respective countries. For a while, in the 1990s, we in the GOPIO felt that human rights violations or being in political sideline are not major issues for global Indian communities. After several brain-storming sessions and conferences, GOPIO concluded that creating economic opportunities by pooling our professional and financial resources is a platform to bring our communities together. Economic progress of countries with large PIO population and India should be one of the priorities of PIOs as global citizens. Our ultimate goal should be to make our movement working toward on issues of poverty, education and social justice of our people. As we network globally, it should not only help our communities to achieve economic progress, but also help the larger communities we live in.
As global citizens, we PIOs have a stake in the new globalization scenario where the closed net economic boundaries of countries are already broken. In the new economic scenario, GOPIO Business Council has been formed to cater the needs of small and medium businessmen from our PIO community to network and promote collaborations. GOPIO has also set up GOPIO.Connect to help and promote NGOs who are involved in India developmental activities.
The last decade also saw PIOs becoming enormously rich, thanks to the information technology revolution. Although many of them left India with a meager amount of dollars or pounds in their pocket, with their dedication and hard work they became successful in the West and in particular the USA, Canada, U.K. and other European countries. Now our community is growing in large number in Australia and New Zealand. The PIO populations in all these countries are expected to increase in this decade. Therefore, PIO communities will have important roles to play in all these countries.
Development Initiatives by NRIs/PIOs
With large number of NRIs/PIOs taking active interest in developments in India, several new non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been launched in the US, Canada, Europe and countries in the Middle and Far East to promote education, health care and developments including water management, rural development and self help programs. NRIs and PIOs are also increasingly supporting several NGOs in India in a range of developmental, educational and social programs. With the net worth of the NRI/PIO baby boomer generation increasing, tremendous opportunities are provided for the govt. agencies and NGOs in India to reach out more NRIs/PIOs to interest them to help in India developmental activities.
Role for Govt. of India
Till the middle of 1970s, the Government of India did not take any interest in non-Resident Indians (NRIs), a definition which was given by the Reserve Bank of India when they wanted the Indian banks to attract NRI deposits. In the 1980s, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi invited a few NRIs to come back to India to help in development of some core sectors including telecommunications. In the 1990s, with economic liberalization by Narasimha Rao/Dr. Manmohan Singh team, an impetus was provided for NRIs/PIOs to become more active in the Indian scene.
Also, in the year 2000, a High Level Indian Diaspora Committee chaired by Dr. L.M. Singhvi, was set up by the government of India to look into the issues of NRIs and PIOs and to explore avenues of opportunities for NRIs/PIOs to help India. The committee after visiting several countries submitted a report with several recommendations. The best news to NRIs/PIOs was provided by the Vajpayee administration in January 2002, i.e. to accept the some of the recommendations of the committee. Later, the Govt. of India organized the first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) in New Delhi in January 2003 followed by three more such meetings in the month of January in New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad in 2004, ’05 and ’06 respectively.
India government also decided to provide dual nationality to NRIs/PIOs. The Indian Parliament passed a legislation to grant dual citizenship to NRIs/PIOs in December 2003 and again in 2005. The dual citizenship card was issued officially at the PRB-2006 in Hyderabad. This will help to bring 22 million people of Indian origin living outside India closer to India. It will help to mobilize professional and financial resources of NRIs/PIOs for India’s development. Also, it is of great sentimental values to PIOs/NRIs living outside India to feel that they are now part of Mother India
India Govt. is now going a step further to grant voting rights for Indian citizens living outside India in the Assembly and Parliamentary elections, provided they are in the constituency at the time of elections. This will make NRIs feel full participants for India’s developmental activities. GOPIO had passed resolution on this at its convention in Zurich in 2000 and has been campaigning on this issue since then.
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA)
GOPIO had campaigned for this new ministry similar to the Ministry for Overseas Chinese in China. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh fulfilled this demand in 2004. The new ministry has been organizing the annual PBD. However, we see a bigger role for MOIA in reaching out all those NRIs/PIOs who could contribute to India’s development. The ministry also should work with groups such as GOPIO and other organizations to motivate more NRIs/PIOs to take active interest in India in all areas of investment, business, technology transfer, development and charitable activities. There should be separate cells in MOIA to promote each of these activities.
GOPIO.Connect
Initiated in 2002, GOPIO.Connect acts more as a catalyst to help NGOs in India and outside to promote their activities as well as to provide exposure to more NRIs and PIOs. The objectives are as follows:
• Capture and understand key developmental need areas in India where NRI/PIO community can help
• Organize interactive sessions with NRI/PIO run civil service organizations on India development issues to widen awareness
• Research on key development-related laws and highlight their enforcement issues for NRI/PIOs
• Provide help to execute development projects in India
• Encourage NRI/PIOs to research key development-related trends in India at academic institutions to facilitate new policy recommendations in various government ministries
NRI/PIO’s Role for the Motherland/Adopted Countries
There are enormous opportunities for NRIs/PIOs to get actively involved in India’s development as well as support various social service activities. Many NRIs and organizations have taken major initiatives in supporting their former schools and colleges, some have set up schools and colleges in their villages and towns, while others have been supporting social and environmental causes. The same level of activities can be initiated by Indo-Caribbeans, Indo-Fijians and other such communities who live in the developed countries. In the next level of activities, different nationality segments of our PIO communities such as Indo-Caribbeans or Indo-South Africans should form partnerships with other PIO and NRI communities for the development of their former adopted countries.
Looking to the Future
A former American Ambassador to India, Frank Wisner was quoted at a speech in 2002 “Linkages between our two societies need to be developed.” This is where, GOPIO and PIO communities around the world can play a major role, i.e. to develop linkages between societies, i.e. Indians with Dutch, Indians with Americans, Indians with Australians, etc. Diplomats to countries come and go, business delegations between countries come and go. However, the lasting bond between countries will take place when we as global citizens develop linkages. When an issue comes, we as global PIOs should focus upon them and try to influence the opinion makers in whatever countries we live in to take right decision and action. We need to build coalitions with like-minded communities to make our voice heard. Whether it is India related issues or human rights violations or violations of civil and political rights in countries such as Fiji, Trinidad, Zimbabwe, Africa or the Middle East, we have an important role to play.
NRI/PIOs as global citizens have done a great job in building good image for their Motherland in their respective countries. NRI/PIOs have worked behind the scene to create interest among companies to take interest in India. If right opportunities are created, NRI/PIOs could become solid and life long partners of India’s development as well as those countries with large PIO population. And in turn, we are making our contributions to the world’s development and peace, as it is said, “Vasudeva Kudumbakam”, “World is one Family.”
***
Dr. Abraham has been serving the NRI/PIO community for the last 33 years. He served as the first president of the Federation of Indian Associations of New York in 1976 and the National Federation of Indian American Associations in 1980. Dr. Abraham currently serves as the Chairman of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) which he founded in 1989 and as a Founder Board of Director of Indian American Kerala Center in New York. Dr. Abraham is Vice President of Business Communications Co., a leading industry and market research firm based in Norwalk, CT, USA.
Climate Change Discord
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By Chandru Arni
Without doubt, the conference on Climate change and Global warming was a fiasco, failure and a retrograde step. It even went back on the Kyoto Protocol, held in 1997 in Japan where 37 industrialized countries committed themselves to a reduction of 6 greenhouse gases to as much as 5% of the 1990 level.
The reasons:
1. It was a wrong place and a wrong time for the meet. Copenhagen, a chilly city made even more icy in December. The delegates shivered and probably wished the temperature to be a few degrees warmer and some sunlight! How could these delegates (90 % of who did not know enough of the subject believe that the Earth getting warmer by a few degrees can destroy itself?)
2. The conference had too many countries in participation. It was a merry mix-up with hundreds of politicians and delegates confusing the issue. This is one of the reasons that United Nations General Assembly cannot take any meaningful decisions. Most of them are skeptics, and do not accept anything based on scientific predictions and demand physical evidence.
3. Every politician had been warned to put the country before the Earth. Patriotism towards the country was more important than saving the Earth.
However he was told that he must show concern for the Earth.
4. Every politician was told NOT to commit to a figure or, if he is pushed to commit to some small figure he should ensure it could not be verified. If he is accused of not showing concern he should indulge in a blame game. Without these “protections” he could not face the Parliament (or a Senate) on his return.
5. Most of the Politicians and delegates not having a technical background should have undergone a small scientific instruction course before attending the conference lest they talk without the desired seriousness.
6. Lastly, all the countries recognized in advance that nothing substantial will be achieved and waited for a political agreement to mess around in platitudes and show a consensus. The Heads of the big countries could spare just a day or two to get a final agreement – shows their seriousness and commitment.
COMMENT
The setting of goals for achieving stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and carbon emissions at a level that would prevent dangerous interference with the climate system and temperatures not to go higher than 3
degrees WILL NOT be achievable for the next 20 years unless the above state of affairs stop and someone who knows takes charge
Why is our Earth warming up?
The concentration of carbon in living matter is almost 100 times greater than its concentration in the earth. So living things extract carbon from their nonliving environment. For life to continue, this carbon must be recycled.
The carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere is gradually and steadily increasing. The, CO2 in the atmosphere retards the radiation of heat from the earth back into space which and is referred to as the “greenhouse effect”. With this effect the Earth gets warmer; in other words these gases regulate our climate by trapping heat and holding it in a kind of warm-air blanket that surrounds the earth and warm the earth. If we don’t have any such blanket the Earth will on the other side become far too cold for our existence. We must have this balance
But we have gone the other side and this increase is surely caused by human activities:
Examples of malpractices and disregard
1. Burning natural gas, coal and oil - including gasoline for automobile engine
2. Deforestation
3. Some farming practices and land-use changes
These are caused by Greenhouse Gases than Carbon Dioxide like methane ( caused by burning forests, flatulence of cattle produces methane that is expelled, etc).Growing rice has an adverse environmental impact because of the large quantities of methane and this can be reduced by better agricultural practices like draining paddy fields.
4. Luxury of man: Chlorofluorocarbons, a totally human luxury (used in refrigerators and aerosol cans,)
5. Rise in Human and Cattle population.
6. Increase in Environmental pollution
What are the effects of global warming and the greenhouse effect?
1. Weather changes. Even a small increase in the global temperature would lead to significant climate and weather changes, affecting cloud cover, precipitation, wind patterns, the frequency and severity of storms, and the duration of seasons.
2. Temperature. Rising temperatures would raise sea levels as well, reducing supplies of fresh water as flooding occurs along coastlines worldwide
3. Sea levels rising: and global warming is at least part of the cause.
If the sea level were to rise in excess of 4 meters almost every coastal city in the world would be severely affected, Long-term changes are mainly caused by temperature (because the volume of water depends on temperature). The rise is also due to melting glaciers (irreversible phenomena) caused by global warming.
4. Land. Millions of people also would be affected, especially poor people who live in precarious locations or depend on the land for a subsistence living.
Solutions
1. Saving energy and Life style changes and “throw away” practices. Be frugal. Use Carpools.
2. Using Government and Media to highlight the problems and offer solutions. Pour more money into research activities for clean energy.
3. Plant trees and support Organic farming (In simplest terms, organic farming is a form of agriculture that avoids any use of synthetic chemicals or Genetically Modified Organisms.)
4. Use Alternative energy rather than coal and petroleum
a. Using Solar power: solar cells capture the heat from the sun and store it.
b. Using wind power: Wind turbines capture the energy of moving air and convert to electric y
c. Biofuels: Converting organic matter into fuel (ethanol, marine algae
d. Nuclear energy: It is a source of clean energy but is only a temporary solution. It has the drawbacks of disastrous consequences of accident and getting rid of nuclear waste.
e. Use of CFL (compact fluorescent light bulbs) for lighting. If a building’s indoor incandescent lamps are replaced by CFLs, the heat produced due to lighting will be reduced. Its environmental advantages are big because of its lower energy requirement. For a given light output, CFLs use 20 to 33 percent of the power of equivalent incandescent lamps. If a building’s indoor incandescent lamps are replaced by CFLs, the heat produced due to lighting will also be reduced.
f. Use of hydrogen
A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power. The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy (torque). With further research and development, this fuel could also serve as an alternative source of energy for heating and lighting homes, generating electricity, and fueling motor vehicles.
Challenge for Haiti
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By Todd Moss
As the international response to Haiti’s earthquake shifts from emergency rescue to longer term reconstruction, things are inevitably going to get harder. There are some very good ideas floating out there, not least Michael Clemens’ golden door visa proposal and Jeff Sachs’ urging for a recovery trust fund (It’s too bad he couldn’t resist swathing the idea in jabs at the donors and the United States). But as the donor community starts making that shift and planning projects, Joshua Nadel, a professor of Caribbean history, has this very good reminder:
A top-down, donor-driven reconstruction that excludes Haitians will be seen as paternalistic and will likely join the litany of failed development projects in the country; in order to get it right, Haitians need to sit at the table.
This seems obvious: “participation” and “ownership” are standard buzzwords of the development planning set. But making this dynamic work in practice is challenging in the best of situations. In Haiti, this is even trickier since many of the institutions of the Haitian state have been destroyed and many officials, police, and other leaders have died. Yet if the donors take the shortcut of just doing their own thing, I suspect Nadel’s prediction will, sadly, turn out to be right.
National shame or national scandal?
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By Jeffrey Simpson
Somewhere between a national shame and a national scandal lies Canada’s export of asbestos.
The federal government promotes asbestos exports – they have risen sharply in the past year – despite the fact that the use of asbestos has all but disappeared in this country. Why? Because scientists, governments, industries and unions have concluded that the product can lead to a variety of health-related problems and, in some cases, to death.
Indeed, while the federal government promotes exports, a multiyear construction project is refitting the Parliament Buildings, among other reasons to remove asbestos. What our parliamentarians won’t have in their buildings apparently will be in buildings in the developing world.
The reason the federal government will not stop defending asbestos is politics – Quebec politics, in fact. The asbestos produced in Canada comes from Quebec, from the Jeffrey and LAB Chrysotile mines that employ about 700 people. A large town in Quebec is even called Asbestos.
No federal government has had the courage to say: Enough is enough! We’re not exporting to developing countries any product we won’t use at home for health reasons. Fear of offending Quebec has put a sock in the mouth of federal governments, and fear of losing a few votes has forced Quebec governments into acrobatic flights of hypocrisy to defend the indefensible.
This week, Quebec Premier Jean Charest has been making headlines outside Quebec, attacking Ottawa for questioning his government’s intention to impose strict vehicle-emission standards. It’s all a lot of blah-blah because Quebec’s rules are going to be superseded by new national regulations in the U.S. and Canada.
Beating up on Ottawa is good politics, regrettably, in Quebec, but it so happened that these attacks came from far away – from India, in fact, where Mr. Charest was leading a Quebec trade delegation promoting his province’s exports, including asbestos.
It was reported in the Quebec media that asbestos represents 11 per cent of Quebec’s exports to India, a tidy sum of $427-million. Half of India’s asbestos comes from Quebec, of the chrysotile variety with fibres so fine they can penetrate some filtration masks and so enter lungs, where they can create a variety of health problems, including lethal ones.
On the eve of Mr. Charest’s visit, scientists from 28 countries urged him to stop exporting all forms of asbestos. A hundred scientists said the province won’t use asbestos at home because it can cause death, while promoting it “where protections are few and awareness of the hazards of asbestos almost non-existent.” Even some brave scientists in Quebec, where criticism of asbestos exports has been often regarded as “anti-Quebec,” urged the Premier to act.
But Mr. Charest said it was up to India to act if it felt asbestos led to health problems. He was accompanied by a representative of an asbestos lobby group that receives money from both the federal and provincial governments; his group, he said, gives information to asbestos users about its possible risks. In other words, caveat emptor! Meantime, it’s business as usual for Quebec’s asbestos exports.
Happily, some elements of the Quebec media have been all over this story, slamming the Premier’s evident hypocrisy and noting how it tarnishes Quebec’s precious international image. But, by extension, the export also tarnishes Canada’s image because, Quebec pretensions notwithstanding, most people abroad don’t even know where Quebec is, whereas they do know about Canada.
Ottawa is intimately involved in this dirty game, too. It even sends diplomats to international meetings to frustrate any worldwide action against asbestos. And Canadian taxpayers are soiled by this export of a dangerous product that is scarcely, if ever, used in this country.
Face up to it: Canadians, in their moral superiority, might think our country has an unsullied international image, especially in environmental matters. The reality is that those in the fisheries business know how poorly we have managed some of our stocks. Europe and the rest of the world are utterly repelled by the slaughter of seals, and no amount of public-relations campaigning and political posturing will alter that reality.
The tar sands are a growing PR nightmare, as is Canada’s weak greenhouse-gas emissions record. To these are added the ongoing export of asbestos from Quebec, exposing the province’s hypocrisy and tarnishing Canada’s reputation abroad. (The Globe and Mail)
(See related article under Weekender)
Jeffrey Simpson is a columnist for the Globe and Mail.
Pakistan “Going To The Dogs”?
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By Virginia Moncrieff
Burnt and bombed schools, harsh religious edicts, strict rules of dress, the total subjugation of women is now a way of life for most citizens of the beautiful Swat Valley in northern Pakistan.
Swat is a stunning area of the world. It’s often called the Switzerland of Asia, though for my money, it has a landscape that is far more awe-inspiring than anything Europe can offer. Now it is almost entirely over run by Taliban who are ruthless in their demands on the citizens.
Cruelty is a feature of Taliban rule, under the guise of proper Islamic practice, and Swat is receiving bucket loads of cruelty, daily. “Un-Islamic” activities like dancing and singing, listening to CDs and watching DVDs or being clean-shaven are now outlawed. Buses playing music for their passengers are bombed for promoting “vulgarity and obscenity” that “gravely offends pious people.” Girls are banned from attending school under threat of violence and death.
The Taliban advance into Swat is only now being reported. While the lawless badlands of the Afghan border areas have attracted much hand wringing, the Talib have crept into sophisticated, cultural Swat - nowhere near Afghanistan - and are now ruling the place with an iron fist.
Pakistani political analyst Farrukh Khan Pitafi told the Huffington Post from Islamabad that the free-for-all enjoyed by the Taliban stems from bloody-minded opportunism dating back to the Pervez Musharraf government.
“It is evident that the Musharraf’s strategy of allowing the Taliban to grow in order to exploit western fear(s) of them (taking) over to garner support for his rule is either beyond the control of the government now or then. Some segment(s) of the power elite has not given up that ploy.
“It has never been possible for any radical group (to flourish) without the tacit support of at least some elements in the establishment. It is my belief that Musharraf consciously allowed these elements to thrive,” says Mr. Khan Pitafi. “At that time it seemed convenient but now this movement is spinning out of control. There is a chance also that some pro-Musharraf elements within the civil military bureaucracy are still in touch with the Taliban in order to destabilize the democratic government.”
“Ruthless murderers” is how Asif Ali Zardari, the new Pakistan president described the Taliban in Swat, as he started making the right noises about taking them on. He has sent in 12,000 army troops to do battle with the estimated 4,000 Taliban who are running the Valley. Reports from Swat suggest that not terribly much “doing battle” is taking place; troops stay within their barracks, and failing to protect those that the Taliban publicly threaten to kill (and usually do).
Farrukh Khan Pitafi is is convinced that solutions must be found from within and not through the advice or intervention of the United States, which will create further difficulties for the national administration’s fight against the insurgents.
“The speed with which the Taliban movement is destroying peace and progress of the country is heartrending and baffling,” he says. “The government right now is so unstable that it can hardly confront the demon of Talibanization. Is there any solution? Well it certainly is not more US across the border attacks for they inflict pain and give the Taliban an excuse to further expand. The only solution then is to strengthen the democratic government, do away with the remnants of Pervez Musharraf and the retrogressive religious politicians and help the federal and provincial governments improve coordination. This seems an arduous process but unless these things are done the country essentially is going to the dogs.”
India Sees Terrorism Threats
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By VIBHUTI AGARWAL
NEW DELHI—India put its security apparatus on high alert following intelligence reports of two possible assaults in the air— one from a plane hijacking, the other from paragliders, officials said.
Also Friday, the U.K. raised its terrorist-threat level to severe from substantial, but declined to say why it was doing so.
Indian Officials said the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind both threats. The group was responsible for the November 2008 terrorist siege in Mumbai.
On Friday, the home ministry, which is in charge of internal security, issued a security alert to all airports and airlines following an intelligence notification of a plot to hijack a plane.
“We have reliable information of a planned plane hijack by terrorists. We have advised the civil aviation ministry to take necessary steps,” said Omkar Kedia, a home ministry spokesman.
Airport security was tightened following the warning. Sky marshals were deployed on certain flights and passengers were being subject to more intense security screening, he said.
Later Friday, U.K. Bansal, an official at the home ministry, said: “We have intelligence reports that LeT has purchased 50 paragliding kits from Europe with an intention to launch attacks on India.” No other details were available.
India celebrates one of its biggest holidays of the year, Republic Day, on Tuesday.
Indian interior ministry recommends extra security measures for India’s flagship airlines. Video courtesy of Reuters.
The alerts came two days after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, traveling in the region, warned of efforts by al Qaeda and its affiliates to destabilize South Asia and trigger a war between India and Pakistan.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since they became independent nations in 1947. In December 1999, Islamic militants hijacked an Air India flight from Nepal’s capital, Katmandu, to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. It ended when New Delhi released three Islamic terrorists in exchange for 167 passengers and crew.
The U.K.’s move Friday reversed a lowering of the threat level in July. The U.K. reduced the threat level from critical to severe in July 2007. A spokesman for the home office referred questions to a statement from the home secretary.
The United Kingdom’s security experts says they fear an attack from female suicide bombers. Video courtesy of Fox News.
“The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has today raised the threat to the U.K. from international terrorism from substanital to severe. This means that a terrorist attack is highly likely, but I should stress that there is no intelligence to suggest than an attack is imminent,” said Home Secretary Alan Johnson.
Mr. Johnson said the terror-threat level is under constant review and is based on a wide range of factors.
US leads global relief effort for Haiti
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By Paul Woodward
As the survivors of Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake struggle in worsening conditions, three US presidents came together on Saturday to launch a fundraising effort across America. With his two predecessors at his side, the US president appealed for national unity in support of the people of Haiti.
“Flanked by two of his immediate predecessors – George W Bush and Bill Clinton – President Barack Obama announced yesterday the launch of a new fund-raising effort for Haiti and vowed a sustained US commitment to rebuilding the island nation in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake,” The National reported.
” ‘By coming together in this way, these two leaders send an unmistakable message to the people of Haiti and to the people of the world,’ Mr Obama said, speaking in the White House Rose Garden. ‘In these difficult hours, America stands united. We stand united with the people of Haiti, who have shown such incredible resilience, and we will help them to recover and to rebuild.’”
The BBC noted: “When US President Barack Obama announced that one of the biggest relief efforts in US history would be heading for Haiti, he highlighted the close ties between the two nations.
” ‘With just a few hundred miles of ocean between us and a long history that binds us together, Haitians are our neighbours in the Americas and here at home,’ he said.
“Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have indeed become neighbours of Americans.
“Some 420,000 live in the US legally, according to census figures. Estimates of the number of Haitians in the country illegally vary wildly, from some 30,000 to 125,000.
“It is a sizeable diaspora which wants to see quick and decisive action from its adopted homeland.
“Desperate to see aid getting through to friends and relatives, many expatriate Haitians have welcomed President Obama’s decision to send up to 10,000 troops to help rescue efforts.”
On his blog at The New York Times, Nicholas D Kristof noted a concern expressed by some Americans: that American generosity towards Haiti has done little to alleviate the country’s troubles in the past. He pointed out, however, that US aid to its impoverished neighbour falls short of the contributions coming from many other more distant nations.
“The United States contributed $2.32 per American to Haiti over the last three years for which we have data (about 80 cents a year). That’s much less than other countries do, even though Haiti is in our hemisphere and has historic close ties to the US. For example, Canada contributed $12.13 per person to Haiti over three years, and Norway sent $8.44. … Other countries that contribute more, per capita, to Haiti than the US are Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium. True, there are more Americans, so collectively our aid amounts to more than one-quarter of the pot in Haiti, but that’s only because we’re such a big country. Given the per capita sums, we have no right to be bragging about our generosity in Haiti.”
Meanwhile, The Guardian reported: “The Haiti earthquake death toll is predicted to reach 200,000 as relief workers struggle against looting and logistical nightmares that have delayed vital supplies of food, water and medical help.
“International aid has begun to reach the capital, Port-au-Prince, four days after the quake destroyed much of the Haiti’s infrastructure, from hospitals and prisons to the presidential palace itself.
“The Red Cross said a convoy of trucks carrying a ‘huge amount’ of aid from the Dominican Republic was due to arrive in the capital this afternoon, bringing a 50-bed field hospital, surgical teams and an emergency telecommunications unit.
“The supplies and medical teams had to be sent in by land because ‘it’s not possible to fly anything into Port-au-Prince right now’, said Paul Conneally, the charity’s spokesman in Dominica. ‘The airport is completely congested.’
“Mark Pearson of the charity ShelterBox said: ‘It’s utter chaos at the airport. Buildings have been completely destroyed, the hospital has been destroyed. It’s a full scale emergency, there’s so much destruction.
” ‘The priority at the moment is search and rescue and then after that emergency shelter provision, so obviously there’s frustration. There’s no fuel and people are hunting for water. It’s difficult to put the scale of destruction into words.’”
The New York Times said: “Countries around the world have responded to Haiti’s call for help as never before. And they are flooding the country with supplies and relief workers that its collapsed infrastructure and nonfunctioning government are in no position to handle.
“Haitian officials instead are relying on the United States and the United Nations, but coordination is posing a critical challenge, aid workers said. An airport hobbled by only one runway, a ruined port whose main pier splintered into the ocean, roads blocked by rubble, widespread fuel shortages and a lack of drivers to move the aid into the city are compounding the problems.
“Across Port-au-Prince, hunger was on the rise. About 1,700 people camped on the grass in front of the prime minister’s office compound in the Pétionville neighborhood, pleading for biscuits and water-purification tablets distributed by aid groups. Haitian officials said tens of thousands of victims had already been buried.”
Time magazine said: “An armada of US warships is steaming toward Haiti, to be joined by at least one Coast Guard cutter en route from the Pacific via the Panama Canal - and manned and unmanned aircraft. Within two hours of the quake, one of the globe’s biggest warships, the carrier USS Carl Vinson, was ordered from off the Virginia coast toward Haiti, swapping its jet fighters for heavy-lift helicopters as it steamed south at top speed. Three ships, including the Vinson and the hospital ship USNS Comfort, boast state-of-the-art medical facilities that will care for injured Haitians. Thousands of troops are on their way to Haiti or already there, running the airport and clearing ports for many more to follow. Up to 10,000 troops will be in Haiti or floating just offshore by Monday.
“It fell to State Department spokesman PJ Crowley to clarify a delicate point: ‘We’re not,’ he insisted, ‘taking over Haiti.’ Strictly speaking, that’s true: Haiti remains a sovereign country, and there are 9,000 UN peacekeepers already there, charged with maintaining security. But as death stalks those smothered beneath the rubble of pancaked buildings, and poor sanitation triggers outbreaks of dysentery and other diseases, one nation in the world has the muscle to quickly make a difference. That’s why the US is racing aid to the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. If things get worse, the US - fairly or unfairly - will be blamed by many for not doing enough.”
India’s growth prospects raised to 9%
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by Sunil Kashyap
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself an economist of international repute, hoped double digit GDP growth rate for the economy in next couple of years given to potential and enormous opportunities present in India.
Urging NRIs at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, Dr. Singh expressed government’s commitment to provide investment friendly environment in the country by reducing all hurdles for setting up project in India. His assurance came a day after steel tycoon LN Mittal counted challenges for executing mega projects in the country.
Addressing a gathering of the Indian diaspora, the PM said, “I recognize the frustration well-wishers feel when they lament why things don’t work faster or why well-formulated plans and policies don’t get implemented as well as they should be.”
The PM’s projections can make economists and analyst to revise their forecasts besides strengthening the common belief of India achieving the past glories of economic growth leaving behinds the worst of global slowdown.
Government has been expediting investment in road and infrastructure projects through increased public spending besides taking a slew of measures for cutting red tape, resolving legal issues and making land acquisition simplified for setting up industries.
America’s long way to social development
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By Dr. John Samuel
United States of America, the most economically and militarily advanced country, has a long way to go if it wants to be a socially-developed country as well. It is hoped with his rhetorical elegance and intelligence, Barack Obama would be able to help the country to make significant progress in this direction.
With America’s economic leadership being challenged by China, the U.S. needs to make the advance called for in social development to remain ahead of other nations as a progressive and productive one on earth. Its democracy is nothing unique considering that there are several countries that can claim to be even more democratic since, unlike in the U.S., it is not money alone that determines the successes or failure of politicians in other democracies.
Among the social development factors, one of the most important is the ability of a nation to provide essential services such as health care for its people. It is a basic human need to get health care without becoming bankrupt in the process. Several million American are becoming increasingly unable to meet its horrendous costs in an economy with more than one in ten unemployed. It is not certain even the watered-down health care bill would have a smooth voyage in terms of passage. It is unfortunate that many of the developing nations of the world are blinded by the past economic success of the U.S. and even in health care matters they follow the awful American example.
A second indictor of social underdevelopment in the U.S. is the predominance and prevalence of the notion that the individual is responsible for his/her safety and security. In most other countries, the state takes over this function entirely and a police force is responsible for the protection of individuals. It is unfortunate that Americans live as if they are in a society that existed 200 or more years ago when wild animals roamed and lack of law and order was the norm and the individual needed protection from hostile forces using one’s own devices such as guns. When the gun lobby bribes politicians to support their cause of selling even more weapons of mass murder, as seen in the numerous incidents of shootings by deranged individuals, it would not be easy to change course despite the fact that there were more gun death per 1000 population the U.S. than in any other country in the world. Only an amendment of the Constitution of the country can help. The Constitution is for the people, not the other way around. This is not easy unless in the second term of his office, President Obama turns his attention to this waxing issue.
A third indicator of social underdevelopment is the rising power of fundamentalism among religious groups. Here the reference is not to Islamic fundamentalism alone, but Christian fundamentalism as well. Religious fundamentalism – Islamic, Christian or Hindu – is a danger to smooth functioning of any society. “Live and let live” should be the way of the future if unnecessary conflicts and deaths are to be avoided. The state may not be able to play a direct role here.
Finally, it is the fundamentalism that leads to state executions as a means of those who have supposedly committed a serious crime, at times of innocent people. The state has to business to take away anyone’s life though for the protection of society, it can take away the freedom of dangerous individuals. European countries and Canada have succeeded in abolishing capital punishment. In some U.S. states also capital punishment is not allowed.
There could be other instances of lack of social development that needs mention. We invite our readers to come up with suggestions.
Happy New Year to all.
Dr. John Samuel is the President and Managing Editor of South Asia Mail.
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