Change of guard in Bangladesh, hope for the region?
By Sanjeev Miglani
Sheikh Hasina, the leader of an avowedly secular party, is set to return to power in Bangladesh, the other end of South Asia’s arc of instability stretching from Afghanistan through Pakistan to India.
And because the teeming region, home to a fifth of the world’s population, is so closely intertwined.
Hasina’s election and the change that she has promised to bring to her country will almost certainly have a bearing across South Asia, but especially for India and Pakistan.
Bangladesh, as far as New Delhi is concerned, is the eastern launching pad for Islamist militants hostile to it, complementing Pakistan on the west. So even if the heat is turned on the militants in Pakistan as India is demanding following the attacks in Mumbai, they or their controllers can unleash groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) based in Bangladesh.
India’s new Home Minister P. Chidambaram told a parliament debate this month that Bangladesh had a responsibility to control the HuJI.
Hasina has said she wouldn’t allow her nation to be used to attack other countries, and her election has been welcomed in New Delhi. In particular the defeat of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party and an ally of Hasina’s bitter rival Khaleda Zia, is seen as a sign that the country wants to stick to a secular democratic path. In that, New Delhi is hoping Hasina would act against the hardline forces who have attacked her as well .
But how far can she really go? She has a huge parlimentary majority but no politician in Bangladesh can been seen as doing India’s bidding. India, which was instrumental in Bangladesh’s birth as an independent nation from what was then East Pakistan, has over time been seen as a big brother, a hegemonic power.
Tensions are rarely far from the surface, with New Delhi routinely accusing Bangladesh of allowing tens of thousands of people to cross into its territory and live as illegal immigrants. Dhaka, in turn, accuses border guards of killing innocent Bangladeshis on the frontier, in the name of curbing infiltration.
This month the nations were feuding over the maritime border in the Bay of Bengal.
What of Pakistan? It has, as has “all weather ally” China, cultivated close ties with all of India’s neighbours including Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. How will it, and especially the military-intelligence establishment view Hasina’s return to power and her promise to crack down on hardline groups? The links of some of these groups such as the Huji go all the way to Pakistan, the Indians say.
And New Delhi is on a diplomatic offensive at the moment, trying to convince governments worldwide of the threat posed by these Pakistan-based organisations.
India in 2008: The year that was
by Madhu Soman
Yet another year is coming to an end and independent India’s idea of being a republic is a year older. But is it any wiser?
On many counts, 2008 was both tumultuous and memorable for India, testing its men and the manner in which they confronted the challenges.
It was a year which saw the Manmohan Singh government face some of the toughest questions in its 4-year rule.
For that matter, some of the questions were directed at the people, the polity and the nation itself, which is still on edge after horrific images of a militant rampage on Mumbai made headlines around the world in late November.
It was a promising start to the year with the economy growing at well above 8 pct and the Sensex touching a staggering 21,000 points in late January.
Inflation was the only worry as global crude prices were near the 100-dollar mark.
For its part, the govt was confident about handling inflation and announced a 60,000-crore rupee debt relief package for farmers which became the highlight of the annual budget.
But global crude prices showed no signs of moderation and India’s inflation too crossed the double digit mark.
What added to the govt’s problems was pressure from its coalition allies. The Communist parties pulled out over India’s historic civilian nuclear deal with the United States and the govt’s survival was put to the ultimate test.
But parliamentary politics in India dipped to a new low when wads of cash were whipped out in the well of the house. Opposition MPs claimed money was used to buy support. The allegations did not stick and the Manmohan Singh govt survived the trust vote.
But the problems were mounting. The global subprime crisis took its toll and the stock markets started crashing as FIIs pulled out billions of dollars. The Sensex has lost more than 60 percent this year and is now hovering around the 10,000 mark, making it one of the worst performers in the Asian equity scene.
The economy too was no longer insulated and growth estimates for one of the world’s fastest growing economies have been revised downwards. Multi-billion dollar stimulus packages have been announced and an aggressive rate-cut campaign has been initiated by the Reserve Bank of India. But economists and analysts say more needs to be done to salvage India as the rest of the world sets off on a road to recession.
Corporate India too had its share of highs and lows. While Tata wowed everyone with the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, the company was forced to move its plant out of West Bengal thereby delaying the car’s roll-out.
Investor confidence was on a razor’s edge throughout the year. While India’s top private lender ICICI’s share price dipped more than 70 pct as concerns arose over the health of its books, IT major Satyam Computer Services faced some tough questions about corporate governance after a botched attempt to buy two of its sister firms for $1.6 billion.
Indian airlines struggled too amid soaring fuel costs and dwindling passenger numbers. Carriers like Jet Airways faced staff ire over efforts to downsize and survive.
More than anything else, it was the internal security situation that took a turn for the worse. Hundreds of lives were lost as a series of blasts shook various Indian cities.
If the bombs in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, New Delhi and Guwahati were blamed on Islamist militants, the needle of suspicion in the Malegaon blasts pointed to Hindu extremists. A serving officer of the Indian army is still being interrogated.
But all the violence seemed only a dress rehearsal for what turned out to be the most audacious terror strike in the history of independent India.
Armed assailants held India’s financial capital hostage for nearly three days. 179 people were killed as many of Mumbai’s iconic landmarks including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj Mahal hotel and the Oberoi-Trident came under fire.
The lone surviving attacker said he came from Pakistan and New Delhi has put Islamabad on notice. A worried world is watching and urging restraint as reports emerge of heightened military activity along the border separating the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The man on the street is anxious too. There’s been a clarion call for civilian activism. They want accountability, not just hollow assurances from the political leadership.
Heads did roll. Union home minister Shivraj Patil was asked to go. The Maharashtra CM and home minister were sacked too.
But did it placate the common man? Amid all the tension, five Indian states went to polls and the results showed that development was a bigger election issue than terror. It was a lesson that the main opposition party BJP learnt the hard away.
Its “Congress is soft on terror” campaign failed to win public approval as it tried to mount an assault on the Congress-led coalition ahead of the 2009 general elections.
So, does this mean that what had started off a memorable year will turn out to be one best forgotten?
Well, if you look at the sporting arena, it’s actually been a good year for India.
The Indian cricket team started off winning the tri-series in Australia. The success of the inaugural IPL 20/20 league reaffirmed India’s pre-eminence as one of most powerful forces in the world of cricket. India capped its season with home series wins over both World champions Australia and England and many Indians now hope India can actually become no.1 in world cricket.
2008 was also a year that saw Saurav Ganguly leave in a blaze of glory while others like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid did enough to let a demanding but adoring public know that they remain a force to reckon with.
New heroes like Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma emerged, and there was success for other Indian sportsmen too.
Abhinav Bindra made the nation proud winning India’s first individual Gold in shooting at the Beijing Olympics.
While boxers like Vijender Kumar packed a punch, Sushil Kumar grappled both inner fear and pressure to add a bronze from the wrestling mat and make it one of India’s most memorable campaigns in the world’s biggest sporting spectacle.
Jeev Milkha Singh winning the Asian Golf’s Order of Merit and shuttler Saina Nehwal’s meteoric rise in the badminton world brought India more cheer.
So, it has indeed been a rollercoaster year for the country.
But what about 2009? What’s in store for India and Indians?
The Strike to Strike the deal
By Jeri Rodrigs
Ottawa’s transit workers led by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 279 went on strike demanding a renewed labor contract on a cold December winter day causing maximum disruption to the very people who are paying their salaries. People were, in some cases, forced to walk 4 Kms braving -20 Degree centigrade and 35 Cms of snow on the ground to get to work. The timing of the strike couldn’t have been worse when the country and the whole world is going through a economic downturn, political impasse in the hill, World junior hockey tournament is being held in the capital region and when local retailers are hoping to make their livelihood from the Christmas shopping spree in a bad year of low consumer spending. Needless to say the elderly and sick people who solely depended on OC transpo for their medical appointments and getting their medication were also severely affected by this irresponsible action of the few on the top of the transit labor union.
The city has made a genuine offer which includes fair economic increases of seven percent over the next three years, significant improvements to sick leave, WSIB pay, benefit plans and $2000 sign up bonus. Union walked off the negotiation table laughing at it. Apparently the sticking point is dispute on full control of the shift booking by the employees themselves. The city alleges it is trying to stop scheduling practices that rack up unnecessary overtime costs. If the unions say we are not worried about the wage increase and the dispute is the shift booking, we also suspect something is not right there because they know that even if they get zero wage increase they can make up that lost income by booking the shift accordingly that it will be considered as wage and half or double. Which other industry gives this kind of liberty to employees..? I agree that employee’s convenience should be a consideration factor for deciding their shifts but not full control to the point that they misuse it for monetary benefits looting the tax payers. As a taxpayer where do my rights weigh in here..? Unions around the world stand to protect the employees from exploitation of the management. Isn’t it the union exploiting the tax payers in this case..? No other city in North America and in the world, a union has so much control over the day to day running and management of an institution.
Auditor General in his last year’s report has clearly mentioned, overtime by city workers as one of the tipping points to curb the wasteful spending of the city in order to sustain valuable programs and not to raise the property taxes of the already high taxing residents. Ottawa residents pay more taxes than any other cities in Ontario. Raising taxes are not a solution to our never ending problems. Controlling wasteful spending like streamlining city employees, cut programs which are not reaping rewards and stop giving away unnecessary overtimes are equally effective. This move by transit union is completely wrong when city is trying to find $$$ to keep their valuable programs running and cut back on essential services and reduce garbage collections to once in two weeks. While your garbage is rotting and smelling in the house, you know that, some of our tax dollars are looted by some sections of the privileged in the name of overtime.
All this is happening when many of the industry giants are on the edge of bankruptcy and many sectors are facing massive lay offs. I think there is universal agreement that there are more important things than what either side is debating. As a high tech employee I haven’t received a penny as a raise for more than five years because of the economic situation. I consider myself lucky if I have a job to go to let alone wage increase and overtime. If you compare the transit worker’s salary to a software designer’s salary in Canada you can see transit employees are already in the top bracket and being rewarded for their stressful job.
Another option of hiking the transit fares is already done couple of times in this year to meet the rising cost and keeping the wheels of OC traspo buses moving. Also believe me if you can, city’s managing staff in numbers are higher than the total employees who are managing New York City. I don’t know when city is going to take action on that kind of things.
This unpopular move by the union is at a time when many major essential services run by city are under threat because of funding issues (paramedics, old age care..Etc). So we have to stop the leak in our treasury and the dripping dollars to the few and worthless programs so that we can continue to enjoy Ottawa as we know it.
Many of the university students and high school students depend upon public transit and school buses were agreed to serve them in this crisis but OC transpo workers threatened to picket school buses that were willing to transport high school students who use OC transpo. The buck has to stop here and we need more civilized people around us.
The arrogant nature of the union leader is clearly visible when he had quoted in the mid night of the strike “ ..to cause maximum disruption”. He also addressed the picketing workers in the city hall yesterday saying “ Keep up the good work….”. I wish he had said that when the employees are at work, working long shifts and carrying people from place to place. I will see that as leadership. It is also understood that majority of the employees are opposed to this strike but the union doesn’t even want to put a vote on the city’s latest offer, fearing it will be voted in favor by the employees. May be our country is democratic but not some of the institutions like this union. They run under clear dictatorship. The union has walked off the negotiating table thinking people will solve their problems. Not this time..People in this city know what is at stake and even with some hardships they will unite and put an end to this.
When a political wing calls for a Bandh or Harthal in India without knowing the repercussions it is having on the people and economy, it is blamed as an incident in a third world country. Then, how can you justify the actions of the few top brasses in this union..? Do they understand how many millions are lost directly and indirectly every day because of the strike…? By the way India is no more a third world country.
Who wants to come to a stand-still city for World hockey championships..? Ottawa will be projected as a city of broken infrastructure if this continues for long and we will be never get awarded any major event if we don’t fix this quickly. Are we one of the top ten cities in the world from bottom..?
Our Mayor deserves salute in this hour of crisis for standing up firmly even though he knows lots of things are at stake. If we give in to this today, tomorrow some other unions in the city will do the same. When the technology bubble burst and many industries struggled for survival the management strictly controlled the spending and told the employees to tighten their belts. No one went on strike or complained because that is the order of the day. They all worked together to make things happen by putting companies interest first rather than their personal ones. Most of the employees never got raises for many years even in high tech industry.
War and strike should be explored as a last option in any dispute, not the first option. If mankind hasn’t learned it from our last example of Iraq, then we shouldn’t be calling ourselves twenty first century creatures. It is a shame if a single person loses their life directly or indirectly due to the OC transpo strike before they go back to work. Hope City can draw the union to the negotiating table and find a way to end this dispute in a fair manner. The earlier it is done, better for every one.
A few suggestions:
• In this situation mayor should look into options of hiring or using some buses from other cities and running the main transit routes like 95, 96 and 97 which will help unclog the traffic from down town core and will be a big relief for the commuters.
• City should declare OC transpo, Para transpo, Paramedics, health care workers, fire fighters and cops as central service so that they won’t be able call strike for any stupid reason.
• Boycott the OC transpo services one day to show public dissent over the issue. If they didn’t use the buses for a month what is there to reject it for one more day.
• Dissolve the union and run the OC transpo essential routes with retired and experienced drivers and workers during this period.
• Do not give any pay to employees for the striking period.
• Suspend the top union leaders from service for not letting the employees’ voice heard.
• Use ott.rides news group or ottawaridematch.com to arrange car pooling to get to your destinations.
• Announce a wage freeze across the board in the city as Federal government did last month.
Jeri Rodrigs is an information technology engineer and social activist who lives in Ottawa, Canada. You can provide feedback at feedback@southasiamail.com
Pakistan, India and the United Nations
Myra MacDonald
India has asked the United Nations Security Council to blacklist the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Pakistani charity which it says is a front for the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed by New Delhi for the attacks on Mumbai. But how far is India prepared to go in engaging the Security Council, given that it has resisted for decades UN invention over Kashmir?
Indian newspapers have suggested that India invoke UN Security Council Resolution 1373, passed after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, and requiring member countries to take steps to curb terrorism. The latest of these calls came from N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of Indian newspaper The Hindu, who said India must respond to the Mumbai attacks “in an intelligent and peaceful way”.
So is India preparing to break a long-standing taboo about United Nations intervention? It first turned to the United Nations in 1948, after India and Pakistan began their first war over Kashmir. The Security Council mandated a ceasefire and India’s then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru also promised a plebiscite in the former kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir (comprising land now held by India, Pakistan and China) to allow the people to decide whether they wanted to join India or Pakistan.
Since then the UN Resolutions have become one of the major bones of contention in the tortuous relationship between India and Pakistan. Until relatively recently, Pakistan insisted that India make good its pledge to hold a plebiscite, while India insisted this had been superseded by the Simla accord following the 1971 war, in which the two countries agreed to resolve all their disputes bilaterally.
Before anyone leaps to judgment on this, I’d recommend reading the exact wording of the UN Security Council Resolutions. Here is the PDF link to the April 1948 resolution, which makes clear that Pakistan must withdraw fighters first from its side of Jammu and Kashmir, followed by a progressive withdrawal of Indian troops, to allow a plebiscite to take place. It also says that the choice for the people of Jammu and Kashmir was whether to join India or Pakistan; independence — at least as far as the Resolution goes — was not an option.
For those who comment regularly on this blog, I’m aware this is a two-paragraph simplification and am happy to follow up in the comments section. But for the purposes of the present day, what are people saying?
“If you are scared to refer to it (the UN Security Council) because somebody else will raise Kashmir, then you have got into a defensive state of mind and have lost the battle even before you have started,” The Hindu quotes N. Ram as saying.
In her excellent (French-language) blog, le Figaro correspondent Marie-France Calle notes that while internationalising the Kashmir issue is taboo for India, the country is no longer what it was after the December 2001 attacks on the Indian parliament brought it close to war with Pakistan. The country has matured and India has acquired an international status that it did not have in 2001, she writes. “And because India has matured, there is talk of Delhi going to the United Nations Security Council to put pressure on Pakistan, rather than acting unilaterally.”
The problem for India, however, is that it is reluctant to see any development which reduces its relationship with Pakistan to the Kashmir problem. It argues that Kashmir is a pawn used to pin down Indian troops to prevent Pakistan from having to defend its long border against its much bigger neighbour.
And in that context, it is worth reading the comments made by the Pakistan’s United Nations envoy (given to me by Lou Charbonneau, my Reuters colleague at the United Nations). The envoy condemned the Mumbai attacks, quoting an op-ed for the New York Times written by Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari. The envoy also said:
”In Kashmir, Pakistan is exercising restraint in international forums, and this is how we would have liked to see the aftermath of the Mumbai incident as well. We are all aware that the Kashmir situation is the root cause of problems between India and Pakistan. Would it not be a good time to do away with the root cause by pledging to resolve not just with words but with deeds and action as we have done today in Pakistan and get this problem away from us all. How should we proceed?”
So can India, and will India, go to the United Nations, and run the risk of seeing the Kashmir problem internationalised? The Hindu says that “India’s diplomatic and political capabilities would be tested in the coming weeks”, a comment that could be equally applied to Pakistan’s diplomats.
Canada’s Choice: the Liberal-NDP Coalition or One Man Rule
As the debate continues about who should hold the reins of power in Ottawa, the urgency of the economic situation, the underlying cause of the debate, has become unmistakably evident.
Stephen Harper and his Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, have been portraying Canada as an island of economic stability in a turbulent world. Everyone with any sense, however, knew that the global storm was about to break on the shores of this country, as it now has with resounding fury.
In November, Canadians lost 71,000 jobs, with Ontario bearing the brunt with a loss of 66,000 jobs. Right at the centre of it was the shedding of 42,000 manufacturing jobs in the province.
Canada’s loss of jobs, the worst in a single month since the recession of 1982, was three times as high as economic forecasters had expected.
The Conference Board of Canada anticipates that in the crisis-ridden auto sector, another 15,000 jobs will be lost before the New Year.
Worse still, while Harper fiddles, Canada’s share of North American auto jobs could be dramatically reduced as a result of talks and potential bankruptcies south of the border. The federal government, the provinces, the auto makers and the CAW should be agreeing right now on a plan to save our auto industry.
In the forestry sector, tens of thousands of jobs have been shed in recent months. Two hundred mills have shut down over the past five years, over half of these shutdowns seen as permanent. In one-industry towns in the B.C. interior, what for others is a recession, has become a full-blown depression.
In Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, the AbitibiBowater paper mill is about to close. Four hundred and fifty workers will be out of a job. The economic future of the entire community is at stake.
Even the formerly high-flying petroleum sector is seeing plans for expansion being put on hold by Petro-Canada and Suncor.
Job loss, belt-tightening, severe dislocation in many communities is now the order of the day. The economic crisis the Harper government failed to anticipate is here.
Stephen Harper’s response to the economic crisis was an almost incomprehensible failure to act, and when this cost him the loss of the confidence of the majority of MPs, he turned to scapegoating the Quebecois, and he has now hijacked the federal government.
The response of all shades of Quebec opinion to Harper’s onslaught against the legitimacy of the province’s MPs makes clear that the Conservative leader is in the process of provoking a national unity crisis for which he alone will be responsible.
There is only one possible road ahead to restore political sanity and parliamentary rule to the country so that Ottawa can deal effectively with the economic malaise—the formation of a Liberal-NDP coalition government. The alternative is the one-man rule of Stephen Harper. In the absence of a move by moderate Conservatives to force Harper to resign as their party leader, there will be no middle ground.
Despite the bad video of the ever hapless Stephane Dion and the ranting of the ever witless Jim Karygiannis, the supporters of the coalition need to stay the course. Many temptations will be put in their path. The Globe and Mail, to take one example, will plead that even if Harper will not resign, he could be purged of his sins by walking barefoot to Canossa. I don’t buy it. This Holy Roman Emperor is not redeemable.
To emerge into the land of the sane, we will all have to do our part. That includes those who will attend rallies across the country tomorrow in support of the coalition. It needs, as well, to include the full-time support of Michael Ignatieff, who is very effective when he shows up.
Meanwhile in the spirit of the Season, I wish to bestow kudos on three individuals I’ve often criticized in the past.
First, Jack Layton. This week has been his finest. He has explained more clearly than anyone else why we need the coalition. In the midst of the taunts of Stephen Harper, Layton has kept the country on track by pointing out the ways Canadians are suffering as a result of the economic crisis.
Second, Bob Rae. He got it right yesterday when he said that there is no turning back from the course the coalition has set. The reasons Harper has to go cut to the very centre of the way we run our government. Rae’s cross-country tour to make the case for the coalition provides leadership we sorely need.
Third, CBC Television’s Don Newman. His interview with Transport Minister John Baird was an exercise in skillful surgery. With grace and wit, Newman (who knows more facts about Canadian politics than any other mortal) didn’t allow Baird to get away with the lies and half-truths on which the Conservatives have rested their case.
James Laxer is a Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto and his blogs can be viewed at http://www.jameslaxer.com/blog.html
Multiculturalism in Transition
In Canada, the encouragement of multiculturalism started when Pierre Elliot Trudeau became Prime minister in 1968. The Liberal Government discouraged imposition of Canadian values of the dominant majority on immigrants of non-European origin who are the new addition to the population after the abolition of the discriminatory policies in early nineteen sixties when Lester Pearson was the Prime Minister. The Government. gave the opportunity for language instruction in non-English languages to maintain their traditions. Gradually, places of religious worship like temples and mosques were built to maintain community solidarity.
Multiculturalism gave a sense of pluralism, diversity and a variety of cultural and social customs. South Asian youth who are socialized here are quite at ease with the dominant Canadian society. However, with the large influx of immigrants from non-European countries, some of the restrictive religious practices also crept in towards the end of the last century. One of the social scientists who was disturbed by these developments is Dr. Mahafooz Kanwar of the Mount Royal College, Calgary. He commented that “ I have been observing a clear lack of assimilation of new comers to our culture.— It is the responsibility of minority groups to functionally assimilate to the majority culture. This is missing in today’s Canada. The burka is just one example of the lack of assimilation. We need to remind our government it must pay serious attention to our policy of multiculturalism, and what it has done to our society. For one thing, official multiculturalism has created ethnic ghettos in our major cities, and that has caused a major obstacle to our unity and undivided loyalty to our great nation.”
Dr. Kanwar also expressed his opposition to the intolerance of the minority to established traditions of Canadian society. He especially pointed out the increasing tendency to replace “Christmas Greetings” with “Seasons Greetings” seemingly not to offend the minority who are not Christians. According to him, “I am one of those minority members. I am a Muslim and a first generation Canadian who believe political correctness has gone too far. —— It can be argued this policy creates nations within a nation and divides the loyalty of people.
Similar concern was expressed by Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, Toronto, a liberal advocacy group. ”Multiculturalism allows people to accentuate our differences, It is really forcing people not to be part of a cohesive society. ”Fatah would like to see Canadian authorities go even further than their Dutch counter parts, educating all would-be immigrants about not just what to expect in Canada, but the values of social progress, equality and democracy they will be required to embrace here. “I am talking about promoting this country with a passion.”
Religious fundamentalism with its accompanying intolerance to other religions as well as to moderates in their own society has become a world wide problem. For example, Christian fundamentalists in United States are the key supporters of George W. Bush’s Iraq war which continues to cause horrible suffering and death to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and waste of young lives of thousands of American soldiers. Another example is India world’s largest democracy with a secular constitution and a multicultural society. During the time of right wing B.J.P. government, Muslims and Christians were persecuted. During the second visit of the Indian High Commissioner Mr. Rajnikant Verma to Calgary, I enquired about the Commission headed by a Supreme court judge to investigate the complaint of religious intolerance, Mr. Verma was annoyed and dismissed the problems as just media propaganda. Fortunately now the intolerance is not evident after the change of Govt. with Dr. Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister and secularism is re-established. For example, Kerala State where I come from is a good example of centuries of religious tolerance where B.J.P. has yet to elect a single M.L.A.
Whereever in the world, tolerance of diverse religious and cultural groups exist, social and political stability is found. Malayasia is an example of such stability with control of the activities of religious fundamentalism. Now, most of the countries in the world are multicultural and some of them are only successful in providing social and political stability.
(Dr. George Kurian, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founder Editor, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, World’s leading Journal primarily devoted to publishing articles on Cross-cultural Family Studies since 1970.)
ONE APOLOGY IS NOT ENOUGH
Dr. John Samuel
In a series of apologies, Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has also apologized to IndoCanadians for the injustice done to some of their ancestors.
For the sake of those who are not familiar with what it is all about, some background information may needed. Early in the 20th century many Sikhs wanted to migrate to Canada, to another Commonwealth country. However, in 1910, an order-in-council was passed by the Canadian government requiring all immigrants to come by continuous journey from their homeland. Since there were no ships plying directly between India and Canada, it was assumed that immigration from India would be stopped by the order-in-council.
It did not. An enterprising Sikh, Gurudit Singh, chartered a Japanese ship, Komagata Maru, and went to Kolkata and took in 376 passengers in 1914 and sailed directly to Vancouver by continuous journey.
The government of the day would not allow the passengers to disembark. The ship sat at the harbour for over two months when court after court ashore sided with the government. Finally, the ship was turned back and it returned to Kolkata and twenty people were killed by the British-controlled police on disembarkation following disturbances. The British Columbia province apologized for the incident and now the federal government has done the same.
This apology comes in a string of apologies to the Japanese (by a former PM), Chinese, the aboriginals and who knows who else is in the queue to receive an apology? However, is an apology enough? Of course, not.
If there is an apology to South Asians, it should be for not treating them like equals. South Asians are the largest group of visible minorities (equivalent to people of colour in the U.S.) in Canada. In Canada, there is a policy of Employment Equity (not the same as affirmative action with its quotas) for visible minorities, women, aboriginals and persons with disabilities. The Conservative Party was opposed to it when its renewal came up. However, the policy, introduced by the Liberals, is still there. The Conservatives are trying to choke off and kill the policy by not allocating enough resources for its implementation. The minorities need an apology for that.
More importantly, the most politically active group in Canada among visible minorities is the South Asians with about a dozen or so MPs in the Parliament. There are a few members of the Conservative Party who are South Asian MPs. But recently when the Cabinet was formed, not even one South Asian was included. There should be an apology for that significant mistake.
The government of Stephen Harper has killed off initiatives related to anti-racism that affects all visible minorities. In 2005, a major study had recommended a number of policies and programs to counter racism. However, the current government has allowed those initiatives to die. There should be an apology for that as well.
With more than one million South Asians in Canada several of their relatives and well-qualified friends want to migrate to Canada, an under-populated country with immense potential. The immigration queue is more than a million long, since the Harper government is cutting immigration levels to make sure the visible minority increase is limited. An apology is needed for that too.
In short, honestly, what we need is not one apology, but a series of apologies. Stephen Harper, wake up to the realities of the modern world with the only super power (though a bit tipsy now) to be headed by a black person south of the border by early next year. The Conservative Party does not even have a single black person in the Parliament of 308 members!
HEALTHY AGING TO 100
Dr. John Samuel
You are responsible for your wellness, not your physician, who treats illness. In healthy aging, what your physician knows is crucial, but what you know is critical. The physicians as a group have no vested interest in your wellness as they have in your illness.
The medical profession has a strong tradition of caution. Dr. Thomas Chalmers of the Harvard School of Public Health says that clinical experts “sometimes… stubbornly repeated outdated medical advice that had been shown to do more harm than good.” Dr. Jeffrey Isner, a cardiologist at Tufts University School of Medicine comments on doctors, “as a group, they are relatively slow to accept new ideas.” In the medical school learning involves a lot of memorizing to deal with situations and if someone says that “‘we are going to do it a different way’, which means all your investment is worthless”.
At times the public is ahead of the physicians. For instance a 1983 study by the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, indicated that up to two-thirds of the U.S. population considered cholesterol is associated with coronaries while only two out of five physicians did. After three years 72% of the physicians had reached that awareness level. A 1989 random survey of Ottawa, Canada family physicians produced the “startling result” that a certain drug for cholesterol reduction but associated with high death rates as revealed in 1976 was used by one out of four physicians after 13 years.
You (and your dear ones) are responsible for your health. It is of utmost importance that you take decisions related to your health on an informed basis.
In health matters, as in everything else, humans have choices to make. This blog enlightens the path that leads to a healthy, hardy and happy future, should that be your destination. You, as in individual, living in a modern society have the perfect freedom not to take this path. There are many who follow unhealthy practices, live dangerously, suffer expensive and painful sicknesses and have a short life. Choice is the essence of a modern developed society.
Medical and health services consume billions of dollars in USA and Canada with a total population in excess of 210 million. With the rapid aging of the population taking place now, these expenditures will also rapidly mount. You as consumer and taxpayer will pay for it. The choices you make in your lifestyle can lighten or burden the load of expenditures required. On top of it, you can also increase or decrease the pain of sickness, disability and death. Obviously, there are some choices to make. This blog helps you to make them on an informed basis.
Three score and ten or at best four score years of “labour and sorrow” was the life span mentioned in the Bible. The last century has seen dramatic extension of longevity than the world has witnessed in more than 4,000 years. This century is bound to add many more years to human longevity.
The majority of Americans and Canadians born today can anticipate celebrating their 75th birthday and beyond. The Japanese live the longest. Then come the inhabitants of Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland, ahead of the U.S. and Canada. Women live longer than men, about seven years; whites live longer than Blacks, about three years. The clock of life is ticking away tirelessly.
As seen above, tremendous improvements have come in the mortality rates in the past few decades. Who deserves the credit? Primarily five groups:
• First, those organizations, governmental and private, that financed the most expensive research programs to look into the causes of the diseases and implemented the necessary measures.
• Second, the dedicated researchers who pushed back the frontiers of knowledge by hard and intelligent work.
• Third, the conscientious physicians who applied the knowledge.
• Fourth, the communicators who were not always medical doctors or medical associations that spread the knowledge created.
• Fifth, the public who were avid consumers of that knowledge.
One needs a cause to die. Two top killers in North America at the turn of the 20th century were: Tuberculosis and Pneumonia. By 1950, they were diseases of the heart and cancer. This has not changed.
Cardiovascular diseases kill more than a million people annually in the two countries. Cancer caused far in excess of half a million deaths a year. Accidents and suicides, most frequently young people, wipe out over 140,000 lives a year, often younger lives.
These causes of death affected the sexes, age groups and races differently. Heart and related deaths were more common for men, three times as many as for women in the 35-44 age group. On the cancer side, men had double the rate for women in the 75 plus age group, while in the 35-44 age group a lot more women were affected. The big killers for women were cancer of the breast and genitals. For males, it was the latter. Breast cancer was higher for older women, with a close relative who had such cancer, who had the first child late or had no children. Stroke mortality among Blacks (attributed to hypertension) was three times that of whites. In accidents and suicides, all age groups of men had three to four times higher death rates than for women. The Blacks had an elevated death rate, especially by firearms.
If one adopts healthy aging as one’s motto and works towards it, we are bound to have a few million healthy centenarians in our midst soon. You could be one of them.
Historic Result of the US Election
Dr. John Samuel
The election of Barack Obama is, by any standard, a historic development that could happen only in the U.S. The vitality and audacity of the American democracy was once again seen in those results. Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream have been realized on November 4th. The content of Obama’s character, not his skin colour, decided the outcome, no doubt.
In the lifetime of many African Americans living in the country, such a tremendous change from being refused the right to vote, to having been elected to the highest office in the country to become the most powerful person on the planet is nothing short of a miracle.
The entire world is celebrating this remarkable achievement and this is particularly so for South Asians who, though a small minority in the U.S., can boast that the technique used in the civil rights movement that enabled Obama to become ultimately the President elect was the result of the unique approach that Mahatma Gandhi used and Martin Luther King Jr refined.
The brilliance, eloquence, grace and poise of Barack Obama was the most significant factor along with a lot of luck in the form of the timing of cataclysmic economic developments that resulted in this outcome. The world now looks forward to the promise of Obama to change the nation and the world. It is not going to be easy or quick and would need a lot of patience for all.
This incredible achievement, we hope will be followed by equally incredible transformation of American society from a crudely selfish one to a caring and compassionate society over time – a beacon for all other nations. The torch of progress and prosperity is being passed on to a new generation.
While Canadians rejoice with their American neighbours in this most significant political transformation, it is a pity that Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, after the recent federal election, could not find even a single person of South Asian, Chinese or Black origin to be among the 38 Cabinet ministers who were appointed a few days ago. There are no Black MPs in his Conservative Party. The Prime Minister of Canada has completely ignored more than a million of South Asian ancestry (who are the most active politically) in forming a Cabinet. There were enough well-qualified and experienced MPs in his Party who were elected.
What a contrast! What a shame!
NO APOLOGY FOR ME
By Nand Tandan
Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada was booed by a crowd of IndoCanadians in Surrey a few weeks ago when he apologized for the ill-treatment of Indians aboard the ship Komagata Maru. Komagata Maru was a ship commissioned by Indians, mostly Sikhs, to thwart the Canadian rule of direct passage from the country of origin to land in Canada, a rule which was put in place to prevent Indians from coming to Canada. Indo-Canadians booed the Prime Minister because they were not satisfied with an apology to them in a public gathering and wanted him to do so formally in Canada’s parliament.
Komagata Maru is a shameful chapter in the Canadian history and an ugly manifestation of the racist Canadian society of a hundred years ago. The ship carried 397 Indian passengers who wanted to come to Canada, believing that it was their right to do so as citizens of the British Commonwealth. They were met with stiff resistance from Canadian officials who were determined to stop them from landing under an official policy to keep Canada for white people only. Rules were bent and twisted by racist officials to prevent the hapless passengers from landing in Vancouver. The few Indians in Vancouver at that time tried to help the stranded people on the ship but their valiant efforts were frustrated by determined immigration authorities. The ship was forced to turn back, resulting in the death of some of the passengers who never made it back safely to India.
I do not, however, believe that the current Prime Minister of Canada owes any apology for that shameful incident. Passengers of Komagata Maru were ill-treated by the ancestors of present-day Canadians, who had nothing to do with this racist behaviour. Indeed, the current and the previous generation of Canadians has gone to great lengths to produce an immigration system which is free of any racial bias even though some racial prejudices may still manifest themselves in the administration of the program. Most of the people who protested against the Prime Minister had come to Canada as a result of this non-racist immigration policy put in place over the last 40 or so years. Indeed, some of them have likely come by abusing that policy through fraudulent use of the immigration provisions relating to the family and refugee classes. So, they should be grateful to the current leadership of Canadians who have worked to remove racial bias from immigration instead of harassing them with demands for public apologies from the Parliament.
One must learn from the past but one must not live in it. We must be vigilant that Canada never reverts to its racist past. Komagata Maru, along with the pole tax on Chinese immigrant labourers and the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, remains a reminder of the ugly racist past of Canada. It should be remembered by finding an appropriate place for any material related to these events in our museums, documentaries and films. And let us divert our energies to fight for the issues that matter to present day IndoCanadians and ensure that new Canadians have their qualifications and job credentials respected so that they can contribute to the Canadian society to the best of their potential
keep looking »