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March 21, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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A reform budget Shades of Malta Rule of law as the victim |
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Mass media comes into sharp focus Post-Budget stock market scams
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A reform budget UNLIKE the Centre, the Punjab Government does not incessantly talk of the next generation of economic reforms and tough decisions. Finance Minister Kanwaljit Singh, whose style is always understated, lets his budget speak. And the speaking is loud and clear. He has shifted the financial position from one of crisis to one of growth. Revenue from both sale tax and excise duty has jumped not because of any fortuitous development but because of reworking the system itself. Hence the Finance Minister’s hope that this trend will persist and the government will be able to spread cheer all round is fully justified. He has also succeeded in squeezing non-Plan expenditure and has plans to step up this drive in the coming year with a voluntary retirement scheme, the first in any state, and a novel five-year leave without pay so the employee can either become self-employed or even join the private sector. When this idea was mooted at the Centre, politicians and advisers shot it down by pointing out that a senior officer will easily find a berth in a company his Ministry is dealing with, thus encouraging inbreeding. How Punjab gets over this problem will be interesting to see. This is a pre-election year and Capt Kanwaljit Singh was presenting his fifth straight budget. The temptation to turn it into a vote-getting document must have been there. But to his credit, he has resisted it perhaps because of two factors. The economic turnaround is an appealing plus point and, two, the three successive Akali victories in Assembly byelections is a powerful springboard not to fritter away the reform momentum. Agriculture faces a crisis but a solution falls in the domain of the Centre. His blast at the Union Ministry of Food and Public Distribution is both pointed and well taken. On his part he has initiated steps to set up a mechanism to collect information and improve marketing techniques. There is a veiled understanding that there is a limit to what the state can do in offering a fair price to the kisan and also an assured market. But the Y.K.Alagh committee should offer interesting alternatives. The allocation in favour of the dalits has provoked some to see a populist angle. But the fact is that the recent national sample survey (NSS) has found the percentage of those below the poverty line to be 5.2 per cent of the population and it entirely consists of the dalits. The budget figures do not speak as powerfully as the overall thrust. Public finance has been lifted to a rising spiral and the past woes are nearly cured. This is no mean success. The budget is commended to the people of Punjab and other state Finance Ministers. |
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Shades of Malta ON December 25, 1996, while the world was celebrating Christmas 170 families in Punjab were mourning the death of the young victims of what came to be known as the Malta boat tragedy. Yet no lessons seem to have been learnt from the avoidable tragedy by those seeking a life of luxury and comfort outside India. And no effort has been made by the state government for streamlining the travel and tourism trade. The fly-by-night operators were responsible for the horrible death of the youths off the shores of Malta. The latest account of two youths who managed to return home from Prague makes it clear that the Malta tragedy has not made any difference to the style of functioning of unscrupulous travel agents. Why call them travel agents and give a bad name to the trade? They are cold-blooded killers who extract as much money as they can from gullible young men and then allow them to die in some distant land. Those who show spunk and put pressure on the agents to get them the jobs promised by them are killed. Most of those responsible for the Malta tragedy are now facing trial, but the pace at which the case is moving is excruciatingly slow for healing the wounds of the families of the victims. The narrative of the two youths, Sunil Kumar from Ludhiana and Rashpal Singh from Hoshiarpur, should at least now wake up the state government to the need to crack down on the slave drivers who pose as travel agents. According to what they told Press reporters in Ludhiana on Monday, the dimension of the latest episode is equally disturbing. At least one illegal immigrant was killed, three mysteriously disappeared and 100 others were tortured by the agents at some undisclosed destination near Prague for demanding to be sent back to India. Apart from ruthlessly cracking down on unscrupulous travel agents of placement firms, the government should give a serious thought to setting up an official agency for monitoring the requests of those wanting to work abroad. The other option is to regulate the travel trade by laying down strict guidelines. Keeping in mind the “khanabadosh” temperament of most Punjabis, there can be no two opinions about the culpability of the government in not protecting them from being exploited by unscrupulous elements. |
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Rule of law as the victim BIHAR continues to remain in the limelight, of course, for all the wrong reasons despite the murky goings-on in New Delhi dominating the scene. Though what is happening in Bihar has been noticed in many other states too, it provides the best example of how few people are bothered about upholding the rule of law in the country today. The case of controversial MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, having a criminal background, has brought to the fore the disturbing fact that some political leaders, the district-level administration, including the police, and the people in general can go to any extent to protect their interests. The villagers of Siwan district, mostly Muslims, dalits and backward class people, consider Shahabuddin as the Robinhood of the area because the police has failed to do its primary duty, that of establishing the rule of law, in a society plagued by casteism and communalism. In fact, the police had been ignoring the MP's criminal activities, which included many murders, till it came to know that he no longer had the sympathy of the ruling politicians. And he has had the blessings of not only Mr Laloo Yadav but also of the BJP, which bailed him out in the 1995 Chandrasekhar (JNU student leader) murder case. The police swooped down on his village the other day following the issuance of an arrest warrant, thinking that Shahabuddin was no longer in the good books of Mr Laloo Yadav. Or may be the RJD supremo had given a hint at some point of time that he was interested in the elimination of the dreaded MP, as Shahabuddin was eroding his political base by killing Yadav gangsters. But today Mr Laloo Yadav perhaps realises that this may be more harmful to the Muslim-Yadav (MY) winning combination he has created over the years. An on-the-spot enquiry by Excise Minister Shivanand Tiwari may have helped him change his mind. According to the enquiry report, the police raid at Pratappur (the MP's village) was aimed at killing Shahabuddin, instead of taking him in custody. The police has, no doubt, many scores to settle, including the latest ones — the killing of two police personnel by the MP's aides and the ill-treatment of a constable at an examination centre. It has shown signs of staging a revolt against the state government, which has in the meantime transferred the Superintendent of Police and the District Magistrate of Siwan and called in the Army to assist the administration. In an effort to protect his political interests, Mr Laloo Yadav has jumped on to the side of his party dissidents, who want to ensure that no harm is caused to Shahabuddin. The police is dazed. In such a situation, can it be accused of not performing its lawful tasks honestly? One can easily imagine what will happen when the government and its law-enforcing arm begin to work at cross-purposes. |
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Mass media
comes into sharp focus WE
are living in stirring times, as far as media are concerned. From the days of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whose speeches were lead stories in newspapers whatever their news value, to the staid All India Radio and Doordarshan formats to private news channels and web sites, it has been a long journey. Independent print media — the air waves were traditionally government-controlled before the advent of satellite television — were by and large grey but substantial broadsheets whose usually high standards of editorials and comments were marred by the disinclination to go in for first-hand reporting and investigative journalism. The coming of the Indian version of news magazines was a breath of fresh air because their editors saw merit in getting reporters to go to the field to investigate events, instead of relying on the telephone and official hand-outs. At least some of the broadsheets were sufficiently enthused by the new phenomenon to emulate the news magazines. But they were often bowled over by their new love and it seemed that investigative journalism became a vogue genre, with the accent on proving a point, however, sketchy and partisan the investigation process. By the nature of things, vogues do not last; they are supplanted by others. And suddenly the mainstream Press was seduced by the technological developments to go all colour and was drunk on the limitless possibilities computers offered in playing around with attractive lay-outs. If the strength of the Indian mainstream Press had been in the field of substantive and well-written commentaries, the new vogue was an emphasis of form over substance. At the same time, another transformation was taking place. Journalism as a patriotic endeavour did not last long after Independence, but the mainstream Press remained conscious of its role as responsible educators and guides to their readers while not neglecting the bottom line. A newspaper, it was assumed, was different from selling a cake of soap. Together with economic liberalisation and India’s plunge into a consumer society — both inevitable — a large section of the mainstream Press threw the old concept of journalism to the winds. The attempt now was to pander to the lowest common denominator. The areas the Western tabloid Press has feasted on — bare feminine form, the kinky stories and a breathless juvenile style of writing— became the new norms. The incongruity of wrapping the new formula in the broadsheet format did not seem to bother the innovators who were delighted because the cash registers kept ringing. The well-heeled mainstream Press saw their profits go higher as they cut costs by largely banishing the tribe of foreign correspondents who were either axed or retained on a pittance. Since the emphasis was on making money to the exclusion of an educational role, it was an easy decision to make. In any event, the world was for most print media little more than snippets unless it related to film stars or other celebrities, the Indian diaspora or involved scandals of one kind or another. If the mainstream Press did not cover itself with glory, honourable exceptions apart, exciting things were happening in the field of television and the newest form of communication, the internet. For the first time in India, the advantage of television as a news medium began to be exploited. For a people used to a staple diet of ministerial speeches and ribbon-cutting ceremonies, it was an entirely new experience to hear and watch news being relayed, to see politicians being questioned and to participate in
discussions on the contentious issues of the day. To be sure, there are rough edges that need to be rounded. Indian presenters are better and more legible in Hindi and other Indian languages than in English. There seems to be no regulation on the time commercials consume in interrupting news and other programmes. Sometimes, a dramatic occasion like a hijacking is reported in such cliche “as anytime soon” and “right now” and “out there”, with CNN, the first dedicated international news channel which won its spurs in the second Gulf war, exercising an inordinate influence. But the reporters were “out there” where the action was or as near it as they could get. This was in stark contrast to the majority of broadsheet newspapers who relied on news agencies and borrowed reports from foreign newspapers to fill the tiny amount of space allotted to the world. Television journalism in India has now come of age. Inevitably, there has been a shakeout in the mushroom growth of new channels that could not sustain themselves, leading to many print journalists lured to television finding themselves out on a limb. But the continuing expansion of television channels staying afloat would imply new employment opportunities. The advent of a 24-hour news channel was a logical development. After television came the web portals, and here again their phenomenal growth led to many journalists being attracted to the new pot of honey. The dot com euphoria did not last long as it proved to be an even more predatory world than television. Those portals have done best which catered to the millions of Indians settled abroad for shorter or longer periods because ethnic Indians were naturally interested in catching up on home news. Although a web portal is easier to set up than a new television channel, it is more difficult to maintain because it requires constant feeding and nurturing. Tehelka.com had set out to be different in seeking new frontiers in how it gathered news and in its catholic outlook on life and literature. It came into prominence by its extensive revelations of the phenomenon of match-fixing in cricket, leading to investigations by official agencies and institutions which have reverberated on many continents. Yet few were quite prepared for Tehelka.com’s bombshell: its exposure of the web of corruption surrounding defence contracts involving the guardians of India’s political and security establishments. The political crisis created by these revelations is there for all to see, but it is worth examining what is probably the biggest scoop in Indian journalism from a professional point of view. Affected politicians and parties are raising the question of ethics, whether it was proper for the web portal’s journalists posing as representatives of a fictitious London arms manufacturer to secretly tape and photograph their victims. The key question is whether this deception was employed for the public good to nail down corruption or was used to settle scores and other personal ends. It is being suggested by the victims that it was a conspiracy by the opposition Congress or even some elements in the Bharatiya Janata Party family. For the impartial, the verdict is unequivocal. It was a matter of urgent public importance and since corruption is very difficult for the media to nail down, its documentation on camera had an electrifying effect. Even more than television, the Internet has a wider reach and the ability to send across the world masses of text and photographs instantly is unmatched by any other media. Tehelka.com richly deserves the kudos it has won and one hopes it will remain solvent. The writer is a former Editor of The Statesman. |
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Post-Budget stock market scams THE
post-budget stock market scams have become a familiar phenomenon. The rise in the prices of stocks and shares after the presentation of the Union Government’s budget this year did not hold more than a day. The fall in the prices which followed has been devastating. It has been the biggest in the last 10 years. The euphoria of the big corporate business, Indian and foreign, over the market-friendly budget has given way to despondency. The negative response of the stock market to the budget has visibly dismayed the Union Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha. It has mocked at his claim of giving a big push forward to market-friendly economic growth. The measures being taken by the Finance Ministry — penal, regulatory of promotional — ostensibly to cushion the stock market crash add up actually to playing into the hands of the speculators, Indian and foreign, and the corporate business associated with them. To direct public financial institutions and the commercial banks directly to intervene in stock market trading and selectively to purchase stocks and shares to stem the fall in their prices is a scam in itself. Its implication, which will unfold in due course, can make matters worse for the financial health of the economy. The talk of thousands of crores of wealth in the economy simply disappearing because of the fall in the prices of stocks and shares traded on the stock markets is, of course, balderdash. So is the idea that the rise in the prices and the boom in trading of the existing stocks and shares creates additional wealth. The cornering of the existing stocks and shares can result in the redistribution of claims on existing wealth. The brokers who operate in the stock market trade earn cuts of themselves from speculative trade in the secondary market. In the primary market, they act as agents of entrepreneurs who seek to mobilise private savings for investment in their business ventures, old or new. The trade in stocks and shares in India has, moreover, been opened for direct investment by international portfolio investors. Foreign financial institutions are now playing a leading role in this activity. They are in a position to mastermind the fluctuations in the prices of stocks and shares. They can drain away large profits with small investments. The domestic financiers are now playing a subsidiary role in stock market trading. The management of the inflow and outflow of hot money across national boundaries is the specialisation of Flls. This helps them to prepare the ground in the developing countries for the acquisition of domestic companies, private and public, by multinational corporations. It is significant in this context to note the rapid increase in India of trading in stocks and shares during the last 10 years. India is still an under-developed country where capitalism is in the early stages of development. This increase of trade in stocks and shares in volume terms in not warranted by the development of the depth and scale of its market economy in India. The ratio of trading volumes on stock exchanges to market-capitalisation in India, it is said, is three times that in the USA. Further, price fluctuations in the prices of stocks and shares are very quick and sharp. They are out of step with their value in real terms. This is said to have vitiated trade in stocks and shares. What is normal, indeed legitimate business in developed capitalist economies, has, therefore, degenerated in India into manipulations of the prices of stocks and shares by groups or cartels of brokers. The question too is whether trade in stocks and shares in the given conditions and the present stage of economic development in India can be properly and effectively regulated. The talk by the Union Finance Ministry of strengthening the regulatory mechanism to protect the small savers who are lured into trading in stocks and shares does not, indeed cannot, carry conviction and credibility in the prevailing economic and social conditions. It is not surprising either that only 1 per cent of the household savings in the country are invested in the stocks and shares of private business corporations. This is so in spite of many fiscal concessions in favour of such investment and disincentives against the flow of household savings into public savings instruments. The reluctance of the people to entrust their savings to brokers operating in the stock market and private business corporations is likely to grow after the latest post-budget stock market scam. The official penchant is to treat stock market scams as mere aberrations. But even legal action against selected individuals found to be involved in these scams is not likely to impress the public opinion either. The truth about the stock market scams, which erupt year after year after the presentation of the budget, must not be obfuscated. It is disconcerting, however, that the votaries of liberalisation and globalisation of the economy inside and outside the government in India are still trying to induce and even pressurise the general public to put their savings into stocks and shares to achieve their objective of market-friendly economic growth. The stock market is, therefore, treated as the newly discovered potent instrument for the mobilisation of resources from the public for investment to pick up in the economy. The tax instrument has been blunted. The small savings schemes are being dismantled. What is important and reasonable, however, is to introspect and review the policy prescription handed down by experts of the developed countries, which seem to be mindlessly and even recklessly implemented. But what is euphemistically called market-friendly growth of the Indian economy and its integration with the global economy for neo-colonial exploitation of a handful of the developed countries led by the USA is not pro-people and is meeting with stubborn public resistance. There are good and valid reasons for the people to question the efficiency and performance record of the economic reforms launched in 1991. Involvement of only the affluent in society cannot be the basis for sustainable economic growth. The mass of the people cannot be left out, for growth
objectives are to be realised. What is being done under the banner of privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation of the economic growth process in India is that while public enterprise is being strangled, private business has tended to get away from productive enterprise into ventures which yield large returns on small investment quickly, including trading in stocks and shares. The foundation on which market-oriented liberalisation-globalisation of the Indian economy is sought to be developed by the cosmopolitan elite in India is not strong and stable. The rent receivers and speculators are enriching themselves and accumulating black money. But the very concept of developing socially broad-based activity aimed at economic development and social cohesion is denied and derided by them. They can only turn India into a speculators paradise, and not a developed country in the authentic sense. |
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FOLLOW-UP Surely there are umpteen very important contemporary issues on which follow-ups can be presented before you dear readers. But today let us walk together to follow into the life of a hero, who had sacrificed his life literally and willingly for our sake. An enigma, obsessed with passion for his country's freedom, he had achieved rare clarity of thought, sharpened his intelligence and conquered the fear of death in his teens. And that death was inflicted upon him at the age of 23, for he was fighting for you and me, to enable us to live with dignity in a free homeland. This
unparalleled hero was Bhagat Singh whose death anniversary falls on March 23. He was born on September 26, 1907, in the family of freedom fighters. His uncle, Ajit Singh, and father, Kishan Singh, were known as radicals and had successfully mobilised masses to oppose the British at every step under an organisation called ‘‘Bharat Mata Society’’. Today 70 years later we ought to pause and review how Bhagat Singh was different from Mahatma Gandhi? Though both had fought for the freedom of India yet both vehemently adopted routes totally different in nature. While Bhagat Singh was merely 20 years old in 1928, Mahatma Gandhi was already a mature person of 59 years. Yet both were into the movement in full swing with matching intensity, dedication, conviction and above all passion. What was it between the two that presents a very uneasy historical record ? Before we delve into that aspect let us have a brief life sketch of Bhagat Singh as his life actually was. Bhagat Singh studied at D.A.V. High School and later at National College, Lahore. He acted in plays and became fluent in Urdu, Hindi, Gurmukhi, English and even Sanskrit. By the age of 16, Bhagat Singh had of his own choice dedicated his life to achieve freedom for his country. How firm and full of conviction he was about this goal can be gauged from the fact that a year later, in 1924, when his family pressurised him to get married, he categorically refused. Immediately after this Bhagat Singh left for Kanpur and worked for Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi in his weekly called Pratap. In the same year he became a member of the Hindustan Republican Association. Merely 17 and his life got molded into a revolutionary from here onwards. By 1925 he had founded ‘‘Naujawan Bharat Sabha’’ in Lahore. Soon he worked for Sohan Singh Josh in his monthly called Kirti. Bhagat Singh's first direct encounter with the British came in 1927, when he was arrested on charges of having links with the accused in the Kakori case for an article written under the pseudonym ‘‘Vidrohi’’ which meant ‘‘rebel’’. However, he was let off on grounds of good behaviour but on a heavy security bond of Rs 60,000. Bhagat Singh came under the influence of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Bakumin besides thoroughly studying the history of the revolutionary movement in India, which included the Bahhar Akali Movement too. Amongst his contemporary living legends the person who succeeded in occupying the seat of ‘‘mentor, friend and brother’’ in Bhagat Singh's own words was Kartar Singh Sarabha, who fought racial discrimination in San Francisco, USA. Bhagat wrote many articles in a very short span of his life. These writings speak volumes about his astonishingly clear and focused thinking despite his rather young age. All the brilliantly written articles reveal his own depth, seriousness of purpose, truthful accounts and of course a targeted mission. There were a series of barbarous authoritarian, dictatorial and atrocious actions of the British Government besides daily display of injustice and discrimination towards Indians that outraged the impressionable but extraordinary intelligent mind of young Bhagat Singh. Saunders' cruel assault on the forehead of Lala Lajpat Rai with a baton during the anti-Simon Commission demonstration which took his life, the Nankana Sahib massacre (six Sikhs were executed by the British), Kartar Singh Sarabha's execution when Bhagat Singh was just a child, Jatin Das's death in jail during a hunger strike and endless atrocities on freedom fighters led Bhagat Singh to give a befitting reply to the British. Soon followed the murder of Saunders in Lahore in December, 1928, and bombs were thrown in the Legislative Assembly on April 8, 1929. It is important to note the self-confession that the bombs were carefully thrown behind the chairs so as no innocent was physically hurt. ‘‘Revolution to me is not the cult of bomb and pistol but a total change of society culminating in the overthrow of both foreign and Indian capitalism and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.’’ Bhagat Singh himself expressed these profound views during his own trial. It may also be mentioned here that it was Bhagat Singh and all his contemporary radicals alone who insisted that freedom fighters should continue their struggle for ‘‘Puran Swaraj’’. It is a historical fact that Mahatma Gandhi and his associates in the face of British cunning were willing to adopt the middle path. The bombs were clearly meant to be purely demonstrative. It is noteworthy that the occasion was the anti-Labour Trades Disputes Bill. The year 1928-29 had witnessed a massive labour upsurge in India. Finally, awaiting his own execution for the murder of Saunders, Bhagat Singh at the young age of 23 studied Marxism thoroughly and wrote a profound article, ‘‘Why I am an atheist’’. It was at this juncture that many organisations of the times fervently appealed to Mahatma Gandhi to save the life of Bhagat Singh. The Yuva Vahini of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Aruna Asaf Ali, all the known radical revolutionaries, pleaded with Mahatma Gandhi to save Bhagat Singh and his associates Sukhdev and Rajguru. The Gandhi-Irwin talks were on and political observers were confident that a word from Gandhi will certainly commute hanging to life imprisonment. The historical records of the dialogue between Gandhi and Irwin in the series of crucial meetings that took place pretty close to the hanging of Bhagat Singh reveal a dismal picture. Mahatma Gandhi spoke for everyone and every issue but did not utter a single word to bargain for Bhagat Singh's life. Hence his statement after the hanging of martyr Bhagat Singh, ‘‘the Congress made many attempts to save the lives of Bhagat Singh and his two associates’’, is not a substantiated fact. Historian Dr Rajiv Lochan whose major research work revolves around Mahatma Gandhi puts this whole historical perspective in the following observations:‘‘From all events and records available it is quite obvious that Gandhiji perceived both Subhas Chander Bose and Bhagat Singh as potential threats to his own highly acclaimed position’’. At Hussainiwala in Ferozepore the place where Bhagat Singh's samadhi has been built to keep his memories alive, the scene fills you with tears flowing from your heart. B.K.Dutt's samadhi as per his last wish has also been made in the lap of Bhagat Singh's own samadhi. Amidst silence, flowers and water flows a question which will never get answered :‘‘What if Bhagat Singh had lived ?’’. |
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75 YEARS AGO The 15th March being ladies day, crowds of the fair sex visited the Amritdhara Pharmacy, to see the Exhibition and attended various lectures on health. The crowd was almost uncontrollable and presented a spectacle of ladies’ fair and although scouts were managing, many children had to be searched from dense crowds for parents. More than one thousand Amritdhara lozenges packets were consumed, although they are given free only one for each suckling child. Lectures on health were continued at night by Pandit Thakar Dutta. These health lectures which are based on 23 years’ experience of Panditji have been printed in Hindi, Urdu and English in response to public request and have been made available for nominal price. Public functions finished on the 15th. |
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“CARTO BIOSENSE” TO BE INTRODUCED A new procedure to detect abnormal regions in the heart responsible for heart beat rhythm disorders is being introduce for the first time in the country in Hyderabad. Chairman of Hyderabad based Care Hospital and Heart Institute, Dr B. Somaraju says the new procedure called “Carto Biosense” can accurately pinpoint areas of abnormality in the heart. This would enable doctors to treat the area with more accuracy and rectify the rhythm problem. “Detecting the problematic spot in the heart is very vital”, Dr Raju said. Conventional mapping system can only broadly point out to the site of abnormality in the heart. But this was not enought in certain cases like recurrent a trial flutter and ventricular tachycardia. For such cases, it is vital to have a three dimensional electro anatomy mapping (Carto Biosense). This would pinpoint the area from where the abnormalities arise. More than half-a-million people die each year due to heart beat rhythm disorder. Patients with heart beat rhythm abnormality faint without knowing why. Many more feel palpitations and all these could be the classical symptoms of a heart rhythm problem. Many drugs were available for this problem but new evidence showed that these drugs were either not useful or were detrimental due to their side effects, Raju said. PTI MEDICAL RESEARCH AND
HUMAN GUINEA PIGS Medical research needs human guinea pigs. But the news last week of patients irreversibly damaged by a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease has highlighted the risks. Just how ill would you need to be before agreeing to take an experimental treatment, the risks of which were unknown? You might consider, if you were suffering from a terminal illness, that the possibility of a miracle cure — however slim — would make the chance one worth taking. But what if you had a disease that was painful or debilitating, but unlikely to kill you? How do you assess potential risks when the whole point of the treatment is that you are the guinea pig? Last week it was announced that a trial of a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease had, for some patients, gone horribly wrong. A group of volunteers in the USA had foetal cells transplanted directly into their brains, in the hope that they would survive and produce dopamine, the “chemical messenger’’ missing in patients suffering from Parkinson’s. But the researchers were horrified to discover that instead of being helped by the experiment, a small number of the patients got much worse. The cells appear to have gone into overdrive, producing too much dopamine and causing the patients to writhe and jerk their heads uncontrollably. Unlike many experimental procedures, scientists have no way of reversing this particular treatment. The experiment has been stopped completely, prompting despair in many sufferers who hoped it offered a possibility for a cure. It is a sobering moment for those involved in trials at the cutting edge of medical research. But the results should not affect the will of the medical profession to continue experimenting on new procedures, says Sir Iain Chalmers, director of the UK Cochrane Centre, an international organisation that collects evidence on experimental treatments, and a leading expert on clinical trials. Chalmers agrees that all trials are risky but stresses that the public need to know they are important. He sees the climate of fear which surrounds them as extremely unhelpful. “Trials have to go through enormous scrutiny procedures before they’re launched. But the whole enterprise is tarnished because people so often don’t understand how they work,’’ he said. “There’s a perceived need to protect people who are inside trials, yet it’s the 99 out of a 100 who aren’t in them who are at risk.’’
Guardian
WOMEN JOURNALISTS UNDER FIRE The 500 women journalists in the 3,500-strong Kenya Union of Journalists face a range of obstacles — from gender discrimination to near-fatal assaults. Reinforcing the discrimination that women journalists face in the country is the fact that ownership of the media industry is exclusively in male hands. Of the five electronic media houses none is owned by a woman and of the four daily newspapers none has a woman in any influential position. “The police exclusively targeted me for beating. As they kicked me and jabbed me with rifle butts I heard them comment that women journalists were the wrong people to be assigned to cover political issues,” said one journalist.
WFS |
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'Strong as a leopard' means that one should not be ashamed of those who mock him when engaged in the service of God. 'Light as an eagle' refers to the vision of the eye; that is, be quick in shutting your eyes not to look at evil, 'Fleet as a deer' — let your feet always run swiftly to do good. 'Powerful as a lion' refers to the heart. The seat of strength to do the service of God is in the heart. 'It is the duty of man to strengthen his heart to do God's Will and to prevail over his evil inclination, even as the hero makes every effort to prevail over his enemy, subdues him, and throws him to the ground. If one is eager to be pure, he will be assisted.' —Rabbi Asher Block, Spiritual Practices in Judaism. **** If you desire the Lord your God, ye shall surely find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. —The Holy Bible: Deutronomy, 2:29 **** When men in prayer declare the Unity of the Holy Name in love and reverence, the walls of earth's darkness are cleft in twain, and the face of the Heavenly King is revealed, lighting up the Universe. —Zohar. Dr J.H. Hertz (ed.), The Pentateuch and Haftorahs **** The light of truth I saw in my citadel, When I had renounced all, I was bathed in it. If thou too aspirest for it, give up thy lower self Then ye shall find thyself bathed in Truth's sunshine. —Sarmad, the martyr poet-saint. |
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