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Tuesday,
May 29, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Bitter
palliatives Good news from
weatherman A strange verdict |
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Practice of democracy in India
And all is dross that is not
Helena!
Too many fronts to
guard
Lahorites say they live to eat How to tell if you are depressed How USA, Canada tackle immigration High ‘cost of loving’ angers editors
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Bitter palliatives Individuals concoct for themselves ambitious New Year resolutions and governments come up with new financial year fantasies. This year the Planning Commission has got into the act since it is in the midst of preparing the next (tenth) Plan. It is all so predictable if also utterly impractical. The lofty ideas are the same that the nation hears from every leader in power. Revenue collection will go up with streamlined machinery; growth rate will zoom to 8 per cent, representing a rise of 30 per cent; expenditure will be slashed; deficit will be brought down; and, the government will get out of all those activities in which it has no business to be. This is the public commitment but not a realistic agenda. All these prominently figure in the incomplete draft the Planning Commission has circulated among the state governments. It is a draft and needs the approval of the National Development Council, a body of Chief Ministers. And there it will be shot down without ceremony, for most of the anti-people belt-tightening has to be undertaken by the states. The Commission asks the states to sharply rise the consumer charges for electricity, water supply, irrigation, transport and healthcare. It says in power supply alone the states are losing collectively Rs 25,000 crore or more and if they insist on economic cost, they would a happy lot. Wrong. A big part of the losses is because of theft as the Delhi experience shows. State after state starting with Orissa has found that power theft and not subsidised tariff is the real villain of the piece. Also, old equipment, low generation and overstaffing contribute to the woes of electricity boards. There is no reference to these aspects. Statistics apart, politics militates against these ideas. No state government will like to add to the problems of the common man by pushing up his cost of living. As it is, there is a general feeling that life has become a bit more difficult during the past few years because of a variety of reasons. Prices have risen although the wholesale index hides it by clubbing manufactured goods with essential commodities. The interest rate has come down by one-third and the avenues of safe parking of savings have shrunk. House rent, education and health care have become costly. Many feel that they cannot afford what they intensely yearn for. This pervading sense of economic hardship is the main reason why the ruling parties in four states lost the recent Assembly poll and it is not wise to expect the other states to embrace the same path of electoral defeat. |
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Good news from weatherman The significance of the monsoon is all encompassing in India, so much so that a Prime Minister during whose tenure the country has a good monsoon is considered lucky. Well, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee can wear a large smile and sport an equally big “tilak”, if he so pleases, because what the weatherman has predicted should sound like music to him. If the meteorologists are to be believed, the country is set to have a good monsoon for the 14th consecutive year. Not only that, rains will be before time. Monsoon is defined to be normal if the overall rainfall is 10 per cent above or below the long-range average. Total mean rainfall in the country as a whole during June-September is expected to be about 98 per cent of the long-term average. That will spur agriculture growth, which in turn will push up demand for industrial leading to a higher growth rate. The rosy picture presupposes that the prediction will come true. These were off the mark in 1999 and 2000, leading to the current stagnation and even deceleration. Industrial growth has slipped to barely 1.3 per cent in March and infrastructure growth is lethargic as well. We are told that four of the 16 parameters have been changed and the current model will provide more reliable forecast. Their authenticity is vital for the country if the faltering economy is to revive. A lot will depend on the distribution of the rainfall. A crucial word in the scheme of things is “average”. Last year was a “normal monsoon year” according to statistics and yet, roughly 34 per cent of the country’s districts did not receive adequate rainfall. The result was that there was a flood and drought situation. States like Punjab and Haryana that have adequate irrigation arrangement can cushion the monsoon setbacks. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa cannot. The share of agriculture in the country’s GDP has shrunk to less than 30 per cent over the years, but so many people are employed in the profession and so many are dependant on it that it continues to be the kingpin of India’s economy. Ironically, while the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Industry Minister can do a bit of a jig on the good tidings on the monsoon front, the Ministry of Food may be watching the developments warily. It has bulging food stocks and does not know how to handle the situation if the country has another bumper crop. Such are the dilemmas that India faces because of its uneven growth and the neglect of basic infrastructure development. |
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A strange verdict A recent verdict of the Allahabad High Court giving legal sanctity to what in popular parlance is called live-in relationship is likely to throw up a host of disturbing questions which Indian society may find difficult to answer. Judicial pronouncements in sensitive issues like man-woman relationship usually take note of the social context for deciding its legal status. In purely legal terms the decision of an adult male and an adult female to live together as man and wife, and even have children, without undergoing any socially recognised ceremony for sanctifying the relationship cannot be questioned. But the present case is not just about a woman deciding to live with a man in total defiance of socially accepted norms. The petitioner, a 21-year-old woman is from a small town called Kannauj. Her father lodged a complaint with the police in October last year that a married man had kidnapped his daughter. The police arrested the man and the complainant's daughter from Agra. The woman was sent to nari niketan and the man was released on bail. The case came up before the High Court because the woman in her petition stated categorically that she as an adult was responsible for her action and that she had on her own accepted the out of wedlock relationship with the man. The court had no option but to allow the petition because there is indeed no law which can stop a man and a woman from living together without getting married. But it is not as simple as that. The sum and substance of the verdict is that the parents of the woman had no legal control over her socially unacceptable conduct. Even a committed liberal would feel uncomfortable in supporting the verdict. Tribal societies have their own quaint marriage customs which have been recognised as valid by the judiciary in disputes which have come up before it from time to time. However, the present verdict is about the conduct of a city-bred woman who ignored the entreaties of her father, and went against him to court, while proclaiming her right to live as she wished with the man of her choice. It would be instructive to find at least one voice willing to support the verdict. Unless, of course, the court knows more about the case than what has been reported. |
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Practice of democracy in India There have been two theme songs punctuating the practice of Indian democracy: the hankering after a Westminster style of parliamentary government and the urge to experiment with a presidential system. How often have we been told about the virtues of a two-party system, and when the going gets tough, there are any number of enthusiasts for the presidential model. As the results of recent state elections show, we are as far from either of these supposedly miracle cures for the simple reason that India is a subcontinent very different from the British isles. And the presidential system has not been introduced because a parliamentary system, despite its many ills, serves the country better in connecting the people to the rulers. What has changed since the days the Congress Party was king is that no political party has been able to replace the grand old organisation of the independence movement. For a time, those who ruled the country in shaky coalitions sang the virtues of the coalition era. The nearest a party has come to usurping Congress space is the Bharatiya Janata Party. But as its own and allies’ reverses in the state polls indicate, it is far from attaining its goal. There are elements of the presidential system in the Indian model. To begin with, the Congress reigned supreme in the first decades of independence and governing the country was thus an intra-party affair. Similarly, the building of a viable opposition presence in the Indian Parliament flowed from the commitment of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to a democratic polity. Despite the size and nature of the unique democratic experiment, the first generation of independent India’s rulers was elitist, many of them steeped in the mores of a liberal Western society. Successive elections and the passing of the first generation of leaders saw to it that members of Parliament and state assemblies were more representative of the people, more moored in Indian traditions, more responsive to caste, regional and linguistic pulls. This was inevitable and was, in a sense, a tribute to democracy. At the same time, the undesirable aspects of an Indian ethos that has been at the receiving end of foreign invasions and colonial rule came to the fore. Caste and sectional interests were emphasised as was the hankering after power and pelf. Political loyalties changed at the drop of a hat or turban, a process that has come into full play with the rise of the consumer society beginning with the era of economic reforms set in motion by the Narasimha Rao government. Against this backdrop, it is time to bury the periodic urges for a two-party system and the presidential form. India can never be a replica of the British isles. The Westminster model suited the Indian scenario because it helped keep a very diverse population together and had Jawaharlal Nehru to nurture an alien concept and give it new roots. But the practice of democracy in India has always contained elements of a presidential form of government in such areas as imposition of federal rule on a state, a provision often abused for partisan reasons. Besides, the needs of modern governance are such that prime ministers must assume something akin to presidential powers, in India as in the UK. As the sole dominant party lost its popularity and moorings, the advent of the caste — or linguistic-based regional parties became inevitable. And the clout of these parties grew in proportion to the decline of the dominant Congress. As the travails of the BJP-led coalition demonstrate, the tail often wags the dog. Governance on vital issues of domestic importance has thus become more consensual. Since foreign policy, apart from knee-jerk reactions to troublesome neighbours, interest so few of our legislators, the government has an almost free hand, aided by a trend in the media now in the habit of reducing the world to capsules, usually of the saucier kind. The need for a charismatic leader is even greater today that it was in the earlier decades of independence. A central BJP problem is that it has no substitute for Atal Behari Vajpayee and even as contradictions and frustrations grow in the Sangh Parivar over the slow pace of painting the country saffron, all that the radicals can do to speed up the process is to bring the house down. Having secured power in New Delhi on the basis of a shrill religious-oriented campaign, the BJP is discovering that governing a pluralistic country requires a different mind set and philosophy. Nehru had built up India on the three pillars of secularism, socialism and non-alignment. The new world order has demolished the last two, most dramatically revealed by the fall of communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and hence the end of the bi-polar world, making non-alignment irrelevant. The BJP’s goal of demolishing secularism holds the danger of the country’s disintegration. An extreme form of nationalism bordering on chauvinism is no substitute for secularism in a pluralistic society. It would appear that after the BJP’s reverses in the state elections, it is concentrating on winning the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh the next time around and is seeking as many alignments as it can. Once the party has seen its power base slipping away, its priority is to buttress its chances by any number of opportunistic alliances it can cobble together. The BJP does not seem to have learnt a lesson from the fate of its last-minute alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad. Despite its victories in Kerala and Assam, the Congress Party gives few signs of turning over a new page. Indira Gandhi had the distinction of starving the grand old party of its roots by replacing elected functionaries at various levels with wheeler-dealers. She had engineered the first split in the Congress to assert her power over the party bosses but her later efforts were directed more towards handing over the party to her son Sanjay, prematurely killed in an air crash. Rajiv Gandhi could not capitalise on the great initial mandate he received after his mother’s assassination After Rajiv’s own assassination. Narasimha Rao’s was essentially an innings of transition in which he introduced much-needed economic reforms. Sonia Gandhi is not in the league of her mother-in-law Indira. The prospect, therefore, is of more BJP-led governance — until the next general election is called or forced on the country. |
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And all is dross that is not
Helena! As if the shock of a flash from the organisers of the Miss World contest was not enough to be borne, news has come “quoting” a rumour about a “French Man” having had been selected as Miss France. My God! What are they going to make of the women’s world? —a ‘Mix World Contest’! Seeking to know “who is the fairest of them all” has been an age-old passion and unsatiable quest with women. There is no dearth of men who have showered lavish praises and sung encomiums describing the beauty of their women through ages, the accounts of which are available in literature. History too is replete with men either genuinely infatuated with or moon-struck by the beauty of certain women for whom they fought wars whether it was Helen of Troy, Cleopatra or nearer home, Padmini, who was known for her soft skin, transparent enough to allow a glimpse of water being gulped down the throat. While a John Keats would confirm “a thing of beauty is joy for ever” and at the same time add “flesh” to the romantic escapade with, “pillowed upon my fair love’s ripening breast; to feel for ever its rise and swell”. Our own Shakespeare — Kali Das — would dwell deep into the “subject” and pour ink unlimited, describing the journey of a droplet of rainwater on to the folds of the waistline of a comely beauty. Well, all this is a natural, heartfelt, soul stirring and a visibly spontaneous mode of appreciating feminine beauty unlike the fate of Eric Morley’s half a century old Miss World pageant having been commented upon after his death by his widowed wife Julia Morley as “stupid” and “awful”. With K.A. Abbas, the noted Indian writer, the most beautiful woman was altogether a different one. I remember in a story he, while travelling, looks out of the window at a woman splitting stones sitting on the side of the railway track. Lo and behold, for him she was the most beautiful woman on earth. But the next moment, he casts his glance at another woman in the compartment itself and discovers that she too is equally beautiful. Abbas then in his imagination juxtaposes the two females and finds that both were feeding their suckling kids. And for him, a woman in love is the most beautiful one. There are men who think their ladylove is prettier when she wears angry looks, and so on. To add to the miseries of a third world entity by deciding to drop the curtain on the Miss Word pageant, the organisers have raised many questions for us, the Indians in particular, being show-stealers for years in succession beating a shade less lucky Venezuela or Guatemala. The itsy-bitsy bikinis and bare-all swim suits have been after all found to be stupid and awful in comparison to the dinner jackets, for being interviewed in front of a camera while the entire world of men is eyeing you with lecherous looks and that of women with jealousy and admiration, combined. The discomfiture of the poor things in “turning, turning and turning” on the ramps has ultimately been admitted to be not natural and without “purpose” by Julia Morley. Coming back to the questions raised in the Indian context, how will the critics weep now to their hearts’ content who cried hoarse and blamed the multinational companies as being behind the selection of Indian girls to hit the top slot and stage manage the show for customers keeping in front of their eyes not the Indian beauties but the volatile and vulnerable Indian market for sale of cosmetics etc.? What will happen to those thousand and thousand of orphans who were at least for a day taken care of and were made to pose for a photograph with the world’s most (wanted? No, sought after? No...declared) beautiful woman? The Indian girls who had started considering the ramp — breaking the epochs old taboos and reservations — to be the corridor to making their grade in life as career women have been disappointed and their hopes dashed to the ground. In all humility I can say that after the US President, the bread and butter of an entire corporate body of fashion designers, plastic surgeons, denture correctors, smile setters, advertisers and sponsors has been jeopardised with one stroke of deciding against the Miss World contest. Didn’t they take good care of one and only one person who in a way guaranteed their jobs and services in exchange? Connoisseurs of beauty like Kali Das, Keats and K.A. Abbas should be in great demand in the years to come. |
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Too many fronts to
guard IT is sad that the warring factions of the UP BJP and the Kashmir troubles have robbed the Prime Minister of one day of his well deserved holiday in Manali. He deserved it because for the past few weeks he has been under extreme pressures from all sides. The tension is more intense this time than on the eve of his earlier holiday in Kerala hardly five months back. We don’t yet know whether this time too, Vajpayee will come out with more of his musings on his current problems. For, he has every need to do a really deep introspection about the inherent contradictions he has to tackle in the coming months. The electoral disaster soon after the Tehelka turmoil has brought them into sharper focus. Every one-the allies, partymen, parivar and everybody who is somebody is out to strike when the steel is red hot. Apparently, the political class and their hangers-on know he is in the most vulnerable phase of his tenure. The new challenges of Vajpayee have already brought about new situations some good and some bad. First the good news. The quick damage-control exercises undertaken by this astute political manager seem to have given a new dose of fresh air to the ruling party. This is what every supremo Prime Minister had done when he or she sniffed dangers. After her assembly poll debacle in the early 1980s, Indira Gandhi’s first move was to install the octogenarian Kamlapati as Working President. She thought she badly needed the respectability of the grumbling colleague to counter the charge of authoritarian functioning. This has been the message of Vajpayee’s each move beginning with his one-to-one luncheon meeting with L.K. Advani. Since then, Advani has become the centre of the entire decision-making process. He conducted party meetings, guided office-bearers’ meeting and is well back in Kashmir talks. This marks a departure from the hitherto PMO-centric political management. New party chief Jana Krishnamurthy through his post-poll actions gives the impression that he is no more a rubber stamp like a Lakshman or Kushabhau Thakre. “I am not aware of it,” he says when asked about Ajit Singh’s admission into NDA. “Such decisions cannot be taken without my knowledge,” he asserts in sharp contrast to the way Thakre was informed of the decision to make Rajnath Singh UP CM after a meeting at the PMO. Krishnamurthy advises the government about WTO and says, “I will reorganise the national setup of the BJP office-bearers.” Unlike a month back, visiting state leaders have begun meeting the party chief and Advani. Before Vajpayee’s departure for Manali, it was formally announced that a final decision on the BJP candidate for the UP Rajya Sabha seat would be left to Krishnamurthy-something unthinkable after the party’s decision-making powers were moved to the PMO since the Chennai meeting. Once again, the Ashoka Road headquarters of the BJP seems to be recapturing its pristine glory, however feeble and temporary it may turn out to be. In RSS circles, there is talk of a move to designate Advani as Deputy Prime Minister, a demand Vajpayee has been firmly rejecting from the very beginning. The latter perhaps fears that such a designation would dissipate the PMO’s authority and create a parallel centre of power. Since Vajpayee is now in deep trouble, the parivar has begun pressing the issue as part of a settlement with the former. But the PM side claims that Advani himself is using his clout with the RSS to fulfil his desire. Whatever may be the truth, Advani has now emerged Vajpayee’s bridge with the party organisation (he guided the Jhinjhouli and Dehra Doon meetings) and the parivar hierarchy. In the BJP, Advani is a symbol of authority. The RSS and all its innumerable outfits trust him. This is not the case with Vajpayee. By making Advani a party to each crucial decision, Vajpayee seeks to mollify the parivar to the extent possible. Whatever the PMO’s explanation, Advani did play a major role in the revocation of the Kashmir ceasefire, something highly sensitive to the parivar. For a long time, Advani has been kept off the Kashmir affairs. The Prime Minister now realises that Advani’s association gives him legitimacy. Now the bad news for the party and the Prime Minister. The allies are still solidly with the NDA and more may join. But the post-poll trend has been to use Delhi’s weakening authority to gain maximum leverage. George Fernandes, Mamata Banerjee, Ajit Singh - every one is setting terms for patch-up. Until recently, the Prime Minister with his golden touch could carry the Chief Ministers even on such controversial issues like power sector reform. At conferences they endorsed the proposals even if they had subsequently failed to follow them up. This no more works. Last week’s Chief Ministers’ conference, the first after the poll, marked a dramatic change in the process of decision making in our federal setup. On all major issues like procurement, WTO’s fallout on farm products and changes in the panchayat system, the states refused to buy Vajpayee’s decision. All his oratory fell on deaf ears when it came to giving protection to domestic products like cotton, coconut, tea, fish and spices. Chandrababu Naidu even charged the movement with not consulting the states when it made commitments to the WTO. Finally, the meeting ended after setting up a sub-committee to make recommendations. When the Chief Minister were told to endorse Vajpayee’s already announced decision to transfer the responsibility of procurement and distribution of foodgrains to the states, they all resisted. Among them were NDA’s staunch supporters like Parkash Singh Badal and Naidu. They made it clear that the Centre could not shun its responsibility and the states did not have that much funds. On amendments to the Panchayat Act too, the states rejected the Centre’s suggestions. The Prime Minister’s problem is that his party has only three Chief Ministers whereas the opposition Congress has as many as 11. The NDA Chief Ministers such as Naidu, Badal, Chautala and Navin Patnaik have their own local agenda to pursue much of which clashes with the Vajpayee’s globalisation programmes. Just prior to this rejection, the Prime Minister had faced similar retort from the trade union leaders at the Indian Labour Conference. The RSS trade union BMS has threatened to launch agitations against privatisation and the changes in trade union acts. Whether the new assertiveness on the part of states in national policies is a welcome trend may still be a debatable issue. But the erosion of central authority at the helm of a weak government which does not enjoy the support of even one-fifth of the Chief Ministers is the root cause of this sad spectacle. Now the NDA Chief Ministers are dictating even the appointments to crucial positions in the central government. Vajpayee can only plead with them but the assertive ones will finally have their way. The CBI chief, Cabinet Secretary, Deputy Chairman of the RBI-name anybody and the Chief Ministers have their nominees. The lobbyists know the best way get things done is through the CMs. If media reports are true, Delhi has assured to force the state BJP leaders to dump the Telengana demand. All this is enough for the Prime Minister for an introspection. |
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Lahorites say they live to eat LAHORE: Once it was a dirty congested little street that left residents embarrassed to give out their addresses. Today, Food Street in Gowalmandi (milkman’s colony) is the trendiest hangout in Lahore — the cultural capital of Pakistan — and a magnet for residents and visitors alike. It is the product of a rare partnership between the government and residents over, if the joke is to be believed, the favourite pastime of Lahorites — eating. “This idea is totally unique, this is typically Lahorite,” enthuses Sidra Bukhari, a former resident who now lives in Denmark. “We are known to be great eaters, we live to eat and this proves it.” Food Street’s more than 70 restaurants, which have mushroomed since last October, are Pakistan’s answer to street-side cafes in Europe — but without alcohol, banned in Islamic Pakistan. They serve sizzling spicy local cuisine to the likes of Pakistan’s military ruler, General Pervez Musharaf, Prince Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan and former cricket superstar Imran Khan. Other patrons include the ambassadors of the United States, Canada, France, Turkey, Iraq and Iran and even of rival India. “You get to see something like this in summers in Paris but even that is typically not about eating but just chilling out,” says Bukhari, a student in Copenhagen. The narrow alley used to be lined with partly defaced, multi-storey houses built in the first half of the 19th century but a private citizens committee, with donations and government help, has restored its pre-independence architecture. The government and civic authorities gave official backing for the project, taking care of sanitation and other facilities. They closed the street to vehicles, enabling restaurants to put out tables and chairs, and told police to ensure that no violence takes place here. The street has a dreamy atmosphere. Subtle multi-coloured lighting highlights intricate hand-carved wooden window panels on one side of the street and similar floral engravings in cement on the other side. Most residents are Muslim migrants from Amritsar, in India’s western Punjab province. They moved into the homes Hindus abandoned during the bloody partition of the sub-continent into India and Pakistan on Britain’s withdrawal in 1947. Some house entrances are still adorned with small statues of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god believed to vanquish all obstacles. The community — almost all Kashmiris and Arains, a sub-caste of Punjabis — had lived quietly since arriving a half century ago in their lower middle class neighbourhood. Last year, the partnership between the government and residents turned it into an alley where families can freely stroll — without being started at — and sit eating. The transformation was so rapid that the city’s rich, who used to express disdain for Gowalmandi, now throng there. They menu ranges from typical Pakistani barbecue, to Nihari (meat curry, a speciality brought from New Delhi) and Harisa (meat curry differently prepared with salt and black pepper) brought from Amritsar. “Every day we see people, who are elites, or ordinary people rubbing shoulders with each other,” says Kamran Lashari, a senior government official who overcame bureaucratic inertia to become the driving force behind the Food Street idea. “There is no distinction on the basis of sex, class, income — they all merge as one society,” he adds proudly. Lashari, once a senior city administrator, and a group of prominent citizens are so delighted by the success they want to create another such street. One location being considered is a street in the smart Gulberg are lined with expensive restaurants and foreign food chains such as Pizza Hut. It will have a tough act to follow. Sarah, another Lahore resident now living in Saudi Arabia, drove from one of Lahore’s smartest and most expensive localities to Gowalmandi to tuck into chicken tikka. “You find families here,” says Sarah. “Look at the buildings, they are looking so nice. This place is old, it has culture and that is something that attracts people from all over the world... it is simply amazing.” “For Lahorites, food is enough of a reason to go to a place but for somebody from outside, this place is something that one would like to return to. There is something about this place,” says Khalid, a visitor from Saudi Arabia, amid the cacophony of music blaring from the restaurants.
Reuters |
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How to tell if you are depressed 1 Understand that depression is completely different from its — far healthier — cousin, unhappiness. If depressed, you are ‘de-pressing’ or burying your troublesome emotions — usually some form of fear or anger. If unhappy, you are processing those feelings by consciously experiencing them. 2 Recognise the common symptoms: lack of interest, loss of motivation and apathy. Most people probably experience occasional periods of flatness but, if depression persists, you are likely to take less interest in yourself, your appearance, your workload and the external world. Low self-esteem is also associated with depression. 3 Look for possible causes. These can be physical. Ovarian cysts, suffered by many women who are unaware they have them, are linked by researchers to depression. Jenni Murray, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour has written about the depression which accompanied the onset of her menopause. Your attitude to work could also be depressing you, says British psychologist Dr Sandi Mann, author of Psychology goes to Work: `It could be that you have poor working conditions, a lack of job satisfaction or you feel you are not reaching your potential or going anywhere.’ 4 Realise that depression is a common response to dull and fruitless work — a connection understood by totalitarian regimes which set up labour camps in order to break the spirit of inmates. If you feel lacking in control over your working day or your future, you could be vulnerable to depression. Similarly, if you feel you cannot improve your lot, you may give up, suppress your anger and feel blue. Progressive thinkers are now very wary of `micro-managers’ who remove opportunities for choice and individual expression from their underlings. 5 Accept that work-induced depression can happen at any age. Mann says: ‘There are a lot of people aged 30 or so who are depressed by work because they want to be doing something creative and they feel trapped.’ 6 Appreciate that depression from one aspect of your life is more likely to spread to others if you have not built defences against it. Many a bored employee is ultimately saved from gloom by their partner, friends or their interest in rose-growing.
The Observer
How USA, Canada tackle immigration The US immigration service’s annual visa lottery — in which 50,000 green cards are allocated randomly each year to applicants from countries with low recent rates of immigration to America — remains one of the most powerful symbols of the vagaries and opportunities of the immigration process. Though the visas granted in this manner represent barely a tenth of the immigrant visas granted in a typical year, it is the opportunity on which the hopes of “unsponsored’’ migrants rest: during the most recent month-long application period, 10m people put their names forward, giving a one in 200 chance of success. The other green cards granted (375,684 in 1999) are allocated on the basis of a priority system which privileges the unmarried adult sons and daughters of US citizens and ``priority workers’’, including those with “extraordinary abilities’’ such as medical workers; “outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives and managers’’. After five years of full and well-behaved residence, a naturalisation application can be made, including the well-known “civics test’’ which requires putative citizens to answer question such as ``What colour are the stars on our flag?’’; ``Who becomes President of the United States if the President should die?’’; and “Who said, `Give me liberty or give me death?”
The nation consistently rated by the UN as the best in the world for quality of life figures in many immigrants’ ambitions, and the Canadian immigration department’s document “Why Choose Canada?” reads more like a tourist brochure than a set of bureaucratic guidelines, praising the “comfortable standard of living, good health care, social security (and) great natural beauty’’. But entry, far from being open to all comers, is strictly controlled in accordance with the criterion of economic benefit to Canada (as well as humanitarian commitments); most of the 225,000 immigrants admitted by the end of this year will have had to qualify on a point-scoring system which ranks applicants on the basis of job, skills, education, fluency in the country’s two languages and age — though, crucially, it does not necessarily require a guaranteed job from a Canadian employer. Thus a 26-year-old legal secretary with a university degree, fluent in English and French, with four years’ experience in the job would score 71 points; a 52-year-old hairstylist with two years’ experience, no post-school education and only a basic grasp of the languages might score as little as 18. A further 10 points are awarded as a result of an interview with a visa officer, based on the applicant’s “adaptibility, motivation, initiative and resourcefulness’’. A minimum of 70 points in total — along with assets of 10,000 Canadian dollars — is needed for success.
The Guardian
High ‘cost of loving’ angers editors EDITORS at a Sri Lankan newspaper were red-faced after a frontpage misprint said a presidential committee had been formed to look into the rising cost of loving. “As the cost of loving soars to dizzy heights, President Chandrika Kumaratunga has appointed a special task force of top Cabinet Ministers to provide relief to the people,” said the article. The second paragraph cleared up the issue when it said the Ministers would deliver a report on the cost of living within a
week. Reuters |
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Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a knowledge of their timelessness. **** A poet is a dethroned king sitting among the ashes of his palace trying to fashion an image out of the ashes. **** Though the wave of words is forever upon us, yet our depth is forever silent. **** Should you really open your eyes and see, you would behold your image in all images. And should you open your ears and listen, you would hear your own voice in all voices. **** The voice of life in me cannot reach the ear of life in you; But let us talk that we may not feel lonely. —
Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam. **** If sorrow and adversity visit us, let us turn our faces to the kingdom and heavenly consolation will be outpoured. If we are sick and in distress let us implore God’s healing, and He will answer our prayer. When our thoughts are filled with the bitterness of this world, let us turn our eyes to the sweetness of God’s compassion and He will send us heavenly calm. If we are imprisoned in the material world our spirits can soar into the Heavens and we shall be free indeed! When our days are drawing to a close let us think of the eternal worlds, and we shall be full of joy. —’Abdul Baha’, Paris Talks, November 22, 1911. **** Sing ‘Aum’. Chant ‘Aum’ and use your heart in it, use your entire energy in it, concentrate your mind in it and use your entire strength to be face to face with it. While chanting ‘Aum’ bring before your mind all your shortcomings and allurements. Then trample them under your feet. Rise above them and come away victoriously. Throw away all ordinary and extraordinary desires. Chant Aum, Aum. If you do so for some moments, from top to toe you will be illuminated. When you are light personified, why pray for light? You can be illuminated in a moment. —Impossibilities Challenged, 702-03, 737. **** Truth is a river that is always splitting up into arms that reunite. Islanded between the arms the inhabitants argue for a lifetime as to which is the main river. —Cyril Connolly, The Unquiet Grave, 3 **** |
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