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Tuesday,
September 4, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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No
carrot, only stick Saffronised
education Sanctions on Pak,
China |
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Political
insensitivity towards military
When a stitch in
time saved nine
Of neo-rich, feasts
and media
Study justifies
sporadic spanking
Should older people
work longer?
|
No carrot, only stick WITH a deep bow in the general direction of the Supreme Court, the Centre made vigorous legal motions to revamp the public (fair price shop) distribution system (PDS). The apex court on Monday started hearing a public interest litigation which seeks to equate the right to live with a right to food. So far the court has had some harsh words on the intolerable paradox of bulging godowns and dying poor. The Centre, one of the respondents, on Sunday rigged up a shield to save itself. The new order vests a statutory status on fair price shops and a mandatory punitive action against all shirkers and cheats. With this new law, it has washed its hands off any responsibility for the obscene situation of rampant hunger and even starvation deaths in the midst of rotting grain mountains. It is tempting to think that maybe this is the first effective step by an awakened Centre to correct all the distortions which have crept into the PDS over the years. No hope though; for, everyone has forgotten its genesis, the creaky joints it developed all along the way and its present terminal sickness. Sunday’s fatwa, that is what it indeed is, negates the stand the Centre has taken until now. One, all along it has pleaded that it only stocks grain in a godown in all states and releases the allotment periodically. Carrying it to different districts and ensuring its distribution is the obligation of individual states. Now it has owned responsibility not for distribution but for punishing errant officials and traders. It is a safe bet that the Centre will not encounter even one errant individual for several years to come. The second incongruity is about invoking the Essential Commodities Act. This law is destined for the dungheap of history in the aftermath of liberalisation. Suddenly it has been rediscovered but also toughened; it will make a perfect paper tiger. Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shanta Kumar has forgotten or chosen not to remember a few vital issues. The APL (above poverty line) segment has fled the PDS after the prices were raised in a mindless move. The BPL (below poverty line) and the poorest of the poor do not have the purchasing power to take advantage of the highly subsidised price. So any attempt to help them has to go hand in hand with providing wage employment – giving them cash and then giving them cheap grains. The food-for-work programme has collapsed despite the Centre gifting over two million tonnes of free grain. Antyodya (for the very poor) is a nonstarter with many states yet to identify the beneficiaries. What is shocking is the status of the Annapurna scheme where destitutes and others are given free (repeat free) foodgrains. It is yet to take off. All this proves that India is miles away from being a kinder and gentler state. It is actually an insensitive feudal state. |
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Saffronised education THE non-Sangh Parivar Chief Ministers' effort to stop the saffronisation of school textbooks deserves a loud round of applause. The meeting in Delhi, called at the initiative of West Bengal Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharya, did not mince words in attacking the blatant attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party component of the National Democratic Alliance to introduce glaring and disturbing distortions in school textbooks. In Gujarat school children are being taught that Muslims, Christians and Parsis are foreigners. Reports of similar distortions with the specific objective of indoctrinating impressionable minds against the "foreigners in India" have come from other states. The fact that the Chief Ministers and Education Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir and Meghalaya too threw their weight behind the saffron-tinged education policy of the BJP-led alliance at the Centre is significant. Logically Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu too should have joined the movement for preventing the Sangh Parivar elements from having their divisive and dangerously communal educational agenda implemented, not because he needs the electoral support of the sizeable Muslim minority in the state, but because in the overall context the Sangh Parivar's educational policy is anti-national. Why the Chief Minister of the Congress-ruled state of Kerala did not attend the meeting is difficult to understand. Participation of Congress Chief Ministers was after all cleared by Ms Sonia Gandhi, who had herself spoken boldly against the saffronisation of education during the monsoon session of Parliament. In a manner of speaking the non-Sangh Parivar parties in the NDA are responsible for letting the BJP implement its agenda of introducing wholesale distortions in school textbooks. Mr Murli Manohar Joshi's strident advocacy of Hindutva is known to all. It is evident that he was given the Human Resource Development Ministry with the specific objective of saffronising the entire educational edifice of the country. He seems to have done a splendid job. Under his guidance textbooks have been changed not only for projecting the Hindutva point of view but also for mounting a personal attack on the Nehru-Gandhi family. That is not all. One textbook goes so far as to describe the Congress as an anti-secular outfit which had no role to play in the freedom movement. The meeting convened by the West Bengal Chief Minister for raising the issue of saffronisation of education may help expose the nefarious design of the Sangh Parivar. However, the apprehension among a large section of secular academics that serious damage has already been inflicted on the educational infrastructure of the country may not be entirely unfounded. |
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Sanctions on Pak, China ANY rubbing of hands in glee or the expressing of "serves them right" smugness over the US sanctions imposed on China and Pakistan will be misplaced because the move is no more than symbolic. The seemingly tough action against the China Metallurgical Equipment Company and Pakistan's National Development Council for the supply by the former of Chinese missile components to Islamabad's nuclear programme will hurt the American business interests as much as it hurts the Chinese weapons programme. American companies are not to be issued licences to launch satellites on Chinese rockets. It will be illegal for US firms to provide technical assistance to the Chinese satellite industry. As far as Pakistan is concerned, it already faces seven layers of sanctions. The new measures are going to be applicable to just one company and that is not going to make much difference to its clandestine nuclear programme which is almost exclusively built with Chinese and North Korean assistance. Islamabad has expectedly pleaded innocence and there is disquiet in that country that the measure has come only a few days before Gen Pervez Musharraf's visit to the USA. There is also apprehension in Pakistan that it might translate into the lifting of sanctions against India and not against Pakistan. China on its part seems convinced that the USA is not in a position to afford a frontal confrontation. The Bush administration did make the bold announcement, but the very next day appeared to have started doing a serious rethink. Perhaps it was concerned about the likely fallout of the sanctions on President Bush's first official visit to Beijing and Shanghai next month. It was given out by highly placed sources that the USA won't oppose China's plans to upgrade its fleet of nuclear missiles. Not only that, in a stunning policy reversal, it was revealed that the USA and China might discuss resuming underground nuclear tests if they were deemed necessary to ensure the safety and reliability of their arsenals. Democratic circles are livid, considering that it not only means that the moratorium on tests applicable since 1993 would go, but would also give indirect American blessing to Chinese underground tests. But the Bush administration seems determined to go to any length to win over China to its line of thinking on the missile defence shield programme. To that end, it does not seem to mind even sacrificing the CTBT. That vindicates India's stand, and even allows it a window of opportunity to strengthen its own nuclear programme. |
Political insensitivity towards military India presents a unique picture of its apolitical armed forces. This is in the midst of a highly politicised system run by power-hungry, opportunist, selfish and corrupt politicians with the bureaucracy not far behind, rather leading them. This position is unlike in other countries of South Asia. Of the seven countries in the region, three — Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh — have had the experience of military rule for a long period. While Bangladesh has turned democratic, Pakistan and Myanmar continue to be ruled by the military junta. The Indian Army has a chequered profile. Generally considered as the faithful custodian of the then British Empire, Indian leaders had developed strong hatred and prejudice for the military. This was notwithstanding the fact that senior Indian military officers during British rule had offered their services to Mahatma Gandhi and Motilal Nehru for a role in the national movement. But they were told to remain where they were because those legendary leaders felt that military support would be needed most after Independence for shaping the future of new India. However, the policy of non-violence, which became the main guiding force in free India’s foreign affairs and defence matters, gave a back seat to the military. It was no one’s favourite — neither of politicians nor civil servants. This was despite the fact that the operational deployment of the Army began immediately after Independence, and the defence of the country’s frontiers became a paramount consideration. Whether it was quelling the riots during and after Partition or fighting the raiders to save Kashmir, the Army’s role was excellent. On the contrary, no magnificent plan at the politico-civil level was drawn up to rehabilitate the injured and kin of those who died in various actions. This writer was witness to the pathetic condition of the war-widows at one of the centres in Tamil Nadu in 1995 where they were engaged in the manufacture of incense sticks at a daily wage of Rs 10 only. The British looked after the Indian troops very well. Ex-servicemen and war-widows too were treated in the same manner as they were considered conduits for those in service and the others who may join the force. It is said the British had a vested interest in keeping the Indian military personnel fully satisfied. But is it not in the interest of the Indian government to look after the welfare of its valiant soldiers in a deserving manner? The Indian Army consumes 17 per cent of the federal budget. It is considered both unproductive and a drain on the national exchequer. Statistics are generally provided for advocating increased spending in areas such as education and health but there is less emphasis on defence. In fact, people’s perception of the military keeps changing, depending upon its utility to society. True, but we must not forget that there cannot be assured development without a strong defence apparatus as there are no runners-up in a war. Either one loses or wins a war. But the moot point is: where does 87 per cent of the money go? If the political leadership had had its way, the Indian defence forces would have suffered immensely. The first development that came to the Army’s rescue was the 1962 war. The Chinese invasion of India and later a war with Pakistan highlighted the unavoidable need for having a strong military to defend the frontiers. The Chinese, in fact, performed a mid-wifery role. The Indian Army could not have acquired the strength it has, including its nuclear weapons, if China had not launched its 1962 military campaign. Yet there is a general tendency in the country to look down upon its military men unless they are engaged in regular wars, that too at short intervals. A long period of peace often brings reduced defence spending while the political apathy goes up. The Army today complains of a major shortfall of officers at the Captain level. After all, India has not fought a regular war for the past several years, and this has put a question mark on the significance of keeping more than a million troops. It was Kargil which restored the importance of the Indian Army. But what needs to be emphasised is that whatever peace the country had all these years was only because of the strong and efficient forces guarding the borders. While studying the future security scenario in the country, it is seen that the challenges before the Indian Army have multiplied tremendously. The defence forces are no longer required exclusively to ward off external threats. They are now needed more to defend the country from the disruptive forces within the national boundaries. This will not only take sheen out of their profession but also make their action recondite besides putting them directly subservient to local political interests. The idea of independent command to fight militancy in Punjab worked wonders. In contrast, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is yet to be normalised. In this context, introducing the human rights tactics by the government has made the Army incapacitated in fighting militancy in the valley. After all, the Army is not in Kashmir by choice but for fighting foreign-trained militants. Its men and officers are certainly not required to be treated the way they are done. The rulers are little bothered about what happens to the Armymen because no politician has his son possibly posted in the valley. Perhaps no ward of a politician is there in the defence forces and certainly not among the fighting columns. It may be mentioned here that some time back an Indian battalion on a United Nations peace-keeping mission happened to share postings with a Pakistani contingent. During their course of stay a Pakistani Brigadier came to know that Indian troops had not received their sustenance allowance. Owing to the comrade spirit he volunteered to offer monetary assistance to his Indian counterpart. The Government of India, instead of enquiring into the cause of the delay, which could have put the civilian masters in an awkward position, punished the commanding officer with disciplinary action. It may be interesting to the readers to know that earlier the United Nations used to pay to its blue beret personnel directly and in US dollars. But later the Government of India, in its greed of earning foreign exchange, asked the world body to pay to the government instead, which in turn would disburse the money in its own currency through the revenue officer attached to the battalion. On the other hand, civilian officers on posting with the troops would continue to enjoy the perks in foreign exchange. What an example of gross discrimination between the two sets of services reporting to the same government. Ever since Independence, the political leadership of the country has lived with the imaginary fear of military staging a coup and thereby casting a direct aspersion on the credentials of the most loyal, faithful, obedient and disciplined force. It is the same inbuilt fear which has put the Army in a state of constant alienation. It is worth remembering that the military rule in Pakistan did not come about on its own. Almost every time rampant corruption and political instability facilitated the military takeover there. Fortunately, the Army in India has been ruthlessly apolitical in nature. But this does not mean that the political and bureaucratic rulers should be insensitive to the armed forces’ avoidable
problems. The writer is Reader and Head, Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala. |
When a stitch in time saved
nine A
businessman friend of mine from Ludhiana always stayed with me whenever he visited Chandigarh. One day when he came I noticed that he was worked up. Asked what was the matter, he said he was worried for his youngest son, a final year medical student. The youngman had borrowed a new Ambassador car from a friend and was driving with his girlfriend sitting by his side on the Punjab Agricultural University campus, when the car met with an accident, in which another girl student of the university was injured. The irate students collected at the site of accident and set the car ablaze. Both the youngman and his girlfriend somehow escaped. Fortunately the car was comprehensively insured. The boy had no driver’s licence, however, it is a minor offence, which does not involve moral turpitude and entailed a fine at the most. The girl had minor injuries and the case under Section 337 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is compoundable. The father of the girl was agreeable to compound the case if he was paid a certain amount plus expenses he had to incur for her treatment. This my friend was ready to pay. The problem was that of rash and negligent driving on a public way, which is a cognisable and non-compoundable offence. The boy was sure to be convicted and even if he was sentenced to six months in prison, he would lose one precious year of his studies. His father had engaged a local lawyer but he was thinking of engaging a leading criminal lawyer practising in the High Court at Chandigarh. That was the purpose of his visit. Now I have not been to the Agricultural University at Ludhiana but I knew that Panjab University at Chandigarh and the Punjabi University, Patiala are provided with gates, which can be closed if need be. I asked my friend if the agricultural university also has gates. “Yes”, he replied. I had not been a law student but in the Prime Ministry, in which I had joined service and had served for several years, we had all the important law books, such as the IPC, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Civil Procedure Code, Law of Tauts, as also the Punjab Police Rules, Punjab Jail Manual etc which were introduced in the state mutatis mutandis. Police, Jails and Judicial departments were under the P.M. and we had to consult these law books to deal with cases of those departments. Besides, unlike what was called “angrezi illaqa” (British India) where the death sentence required confirmation by the High Court (this is the position even now), in major princely States, death sentence required confirmation by the ruler. These cases were submitted to the maharaja with the recommendation of the P.M. I had been dealing with death sentence cases for a number of years. From my knowledge of law, I thought that if the university had gates, the roads in the university campus cannot be called “public way”, rash and negligent driving on which is an offence under Section 279 of the IPC and is not compoundable. My friend seemed to be somewhat convinced when I gave my views. The Legal Remembrancer (LR) who also belonged to Ludhiana was a personal friend of his and often briefed him about the case. We at once went to the LR who after consulting some law books agreed that my contention was correct. He, however, wondered, why such a simple point did not strike either him or the defence counsel, a Bar-at-Law. The point was brought home to the police, which agreed to withdraw the case u/s 279 IPC. The case relating to injuries to the girl was compounded and the boy fined for driving without a licence. |
Of neo-rich, feasts and
media The ancient lawgiver, Manu, had prescribed different sets of punishment for the Brahmins and the commoners for the same offence. Now the neo-Brahmins of the post-liberalisation business aristocracy are being placed on a much higher pedestal. As creators of wealth and providers of plenty, they can do no wrong. Even if they do, they should be protected from bad publicity. Some even go to the extent of equating the legitimate legal proceedings against the new elite with an onslaught on the very essence of reform. If a small entrepreneur defaults, his unit is sealed. But the big fish have as much as Rs. 70,000 crore outstanding loans to the banks. When weavers, farmers and owners of small units and their staff commit suicide, the system has special rules even to conceal the identity of the high and mighty among the defaulters. Some may justify even this as making “business sense”. But what about the deliberate subversion of the law of the land by the rich and famous with impunity? If you move in a BMW, you can mow down any number of street walkers. Money can buy the witnesses and a whole case demolished. This is going to happen in all cases. Like the Jessica Lal murder at a midnight bash at a water hole run by one of Delhi’s high profile socialite. The accused is the son of a rich politician and the bar was being run in violation of the rules. As reform progressed, Delhi’s party circuit has also been expanding. A series of revelations in the past few months point to the ugly display of wealth and reckless habits of the emerging smart set. Perhaps, Delhi has become the most “happening” city. Or may be Mumbai still holds the title. But they say a big chunk of the party set is common in both cities. Often, many of them just fly to be present at both places according to the importance of the participants. The recent arrest of some high-profile drug peddlers sheds more light on the fads and foibles of the polity’s new Brahmin class. The Afghan cocaine supplier revealed that the use of coke was most common among rich revellers at such parties. With Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 4,000 per gram (for one dose), coke is a statement of class among the super rich party set. In the 60s and 70s, many well heeled youths took to smack and LSD as it was the in thing among the fair skinned Hippies. Well-to-do students of that generation were victims of that fashion until it spread to the rickshaw-pullers and rag pickers. Many rich boys and girls had to undergo rehabilitation. This is the fate of fashion which will invariably be devoured by its own popularity. These days, the party crowd goes on boasting about how much coke they use during their Wednesday through Saturday rave party. It has to be done in style. The tiny capsule is thinly lined on a clean surface and snorted through a capillary tube made of a hundred rupee note which is then thrown on the floor. For the glitterati, all this adds to its exclusivity. The sniff gives them the energy to stand up to the non-stop partying which they boast of. Apart from this, it is also an aphrodisiac. After the nocturnal sniff, they take an anti-depressant, Alprex, the next morning. Before its effect fades out, they have to take one more whiff of the jet-set drug. Thus goes on this harmful cycle. Very little is known about this rising class of diamond-dripping ladies and exotic crazy men. There seems to be a conspiracy of silence to protect the identity of the celebrity crowd, the way they live, dine and behave at parties. In Delhi, they say, their number is about 300. The lesser the attendance, the higher their worth in terms of money and ‘status’. Recent accounts tell us that the happy mix has scions of industrial houses and former princely families, film personalities, hotels owners and developers. They mix with fashion designers, highflying models, event managers, politician-cum-businessmen, scribes with high connections and, to add spice, a few models with middle class background. Where it is held is equally important. Five-star hotels and farm houses are the favourite spots. Any provocation is enough for a private bash. They are similar to the smart set on the page 3 colour pullouts of Delhi dailies. A steel magnate’s or hotelier’s charming daughter-in-law (with a home science degree) or a developer’s son with a model, an MP-journalist or a businessman-MP with a high class designer. In the media, you have to call them something for them to be picture worthy. If they can’t be artists, you can certainly call them “art lovers” or “art collectors”. That is how most of them are depicted in page 3s, TV channels and glossies. To facilitate this, they often hold exhibitions of their “collections” — not their own work — where they are clicked along with other celebrities. Such shows are never held in the rather “cheap middle class” Mandi House halls but at a polo lounge, a five-star hotel or a farm house. It is important not for the art — which will in any case be in the background — but where it is held and who is in the foreground. The dailies must project them amidst the colour pics of Bollywood stars and models. Aristocracy of all ages had its show of opulence, parties and feasts. But what we witness today is a carefully crafted convergence of crass consumerism, glorification of business as saviours of humanity and money-spinners as greatest achievers and trivialisation of the mass media. All this is sought to be achieved at one stroke. Bureaucrats and politicians would become “important” on page 3 only as part of the beautiful set. In the new economic strategy, it is important to project the business class as a clean and respectable community in contrast to the self-seeking politicians, bureaucrats, sportsmen and artists. This will induce more to join the gentleman’s club and thus encourage the new philosophy. Designers, models and marketeers all have their subordinate role in this venerated club. Since the globalised market survives on the strength of consumerism, this happy mix has to play the role of both providers and products of consumerism. The lifestyle and consumption pattern of the rich and neo-rich instantly become the role model for the upper middle class and middle classes. Rave parties in Delhi and Mumbai will soon spread to other cities — even to mofussil towns. Rural market is the ultimate hope of all major products in India. Beginning at the top, the market widens horizontally as it reaches the bottom. Herein lies the importance of elitist display of consumerism to the market. Therefore, there can be no surprise in the official kid-glove approach whether it is the high-profile coke sniffers or the high-flying call girls — as Tehelka has exposed — who entertain the new class. Investigators have a whole printout of the coke supplier’s cellphone which looks like a who’s who of the Delhi circuit. They privately reel out the names. But they will never be allowed to proceed against the new Brahmin class. |
Study justifies sporadic spanking The occasional spanking does no long term-damage to a child’s emotional or social development, undercutting theories which say any physical punishment of children is harmful, according to a study released on Friday. Psychologist Diana Baumrind surveyed more than 100 families and found that children who are spanked occasionally can still grow up to be happy, well-adjusted adults. “We found no evidence for unique detrimental effects of normative physical punishment,” Baumrind said in an address to the American Psychological Association annual meeting in San Francisco. “I am not an advocate of spanking,” said Baumrind, “but a blanket injunction against its use is not warranted by the evidence. It is reliance on physical punishment, not whether or not it is used at all, that is associated with harm to the child.” Baumrind, who co-wrote the study with fellow University of California-Berkeley psychologist Elizabeth Owens, separated out parents who use spanking frequently and severely from those who occasionally spank their children. The study, which focused on spanking in middle-class, white families was undertaken in response to anti-spanking advocates who have claimed that physical punishment, by itself, has harmful psychological effects on children and hurts society as a whole. Surveying extensive records on California families conducted by earlier studies at Berkeley’s Institute of Human Development, other archival material and independent observations and interviews, the psychologists compiled a “Parent Disciplinary Rating Scale” to assess various strategies of parental discipline and their effects on children. Only a small minority of parents, from 4-7 per cent depending on the time period, used physical punishment often and with some intensity. While not legally abusive, these parents appeared to be overly severe and impulsive when doling out physical punishment, according to Baumrind, adding that punishment styles often include using a paddle or other instrument to strike the child, or hit on the face or torso, or lifting, throwing, or shaking the child. Baumrind said that when this “red zone” group of parents was removed from the study sample, most of the correlation between spanking and long-term harm to children also disappeared.
Reuters
American workers put in more hours on the job last year than the labour force of any other industrial nation, outpacing employees in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, a study by a UN agency has concluded. The average American worked 1,978 hours in 2000, compared with 1,942 hours in 1990, according to Jeff Johnson, the economist who headed the study by the International Labour Organisation. That comes to almost an additional 40-hour work week. “The increase in the number of hours worked within the United States runs counter to the trend in other industrialised nations, where we see declining annual hours worked,” Johnson said. Japan held the title for the most hours worked until the mid-1990s, when the US surged ahead. Now, Americans work almost a month more than the Japanese and almost three months more than Germans. Economists have said Americans are working more because of the economic boom of the 1990s and an increase in young workers looking to make a good impression.
AP
Hyperactive babies due to anxiety Women who suffer from anxiety during pregnancy are twice as likely to have a hyperactive child, a new study in Britain has shown. The experts say one explanation could be that anxious mothers-to-be produce more of the stress hormone cortisol, which crosses the placenta and affects the unborn baby. Boys were more likely to suffer from hyperactivity and the incidence was about one in every 20 boys. But in women who became very anxious during pregnancy, this increased to one in 10, according to researchers at Imperial College in London. Prof Vivette Glover, who led the study, told BBC1 Breakfast News that cortisol production might be a significant factor. “It may well be part of the mechanism and we need lots more research to find out exactly what chemical changes there are that affect the development of the baby’s brain”, she said.
DPA |
Widespread revolts in Russia
London: Extraordinary persistent reports of widespread revolts in Russia, emanating principally from Kovno, Warsaw and Bakharrest, are emphatically denied at Moscow, where a semi-official rumours are spread by interests hostile to Russia acting on instructions from the States having special interest in diverting international attention and opinion from their own plans. |
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Should older people work longer? Should older people be made to work past the traditional retirement age in the future? With greying industrialised nations trying to grapple with potential pension crises, raising the retirement age was a topic of heated debate among politicians, academics and industrialists from around the world at a Tokyo conference. Keeping older people in the workforce would help relieve the burden of pension payments that, without reform, are set to swell to crippling levels as increasing numbers of babyboomers begin to retire. For Japan and much of Europe, beset with low fertility rates and facing declining populations over the next 50 years, more elderly people staying on at work would go some way to shoring up the dwindling labour force. “In Japan, four workers currently support one retiree but by 2025 there will only be two for one”, said Takeo Hiranuma, Japan’s Economy Minister. “More older people in the workforce along with more women will help ease the problem.” While Hiranuma did not specifically touch on the issue of raising the retirement age, others were less reticent.“In Germany, we have the perception that when you are 60 you are not old but you have the right to leisure time, and that perception has to change,” said Axel Borsch’-Supan, professor of economics at the University of Mannheim. But while many participants agreed it would be a good thing if elderly people worked longer, there was much less consensus on whether people would want to. “Do Europeans want longer work lives? The answer is no,” said Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, pointing to wide-scale demonstrations in France and Greece this year when Governments and employers dared raise the issue. Even if the many financial disincentives for working past the retirement age were removed, many people genuinely believe they should be making way for younger colleagues.“We really don’t understand the human tiredness factor,” she said. The will to work, however, appears to vary with national culture. Hiranuma quoted surveys showing that around two-thirds of Japanese wanted to work for as long as they could as long as they were healthy. “Maybe it’s a Japanese thing,” he said, noting the irony of the debate on the day Japan’s unemployment hit a record high of five per cent. Japan’s high-tech giants have been lining up in recent weeks to announce unprecedented job cuts, most recently Toshiba Corp, which said it would cut 17,000 jobs in Japan over the next 2-3 years. Fujio Cho, the President of Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s largest automaker where jobs have traditionally been guaranteed for life, said he favoured keeping the retirement age at 60. If age was not a factor in hiring and retiring, “young people would be more likely to be fired” and companies could lose their dynamism, he said. It was important to ensure individuals had the right educational opportunities so they could be active after retiring, and people who wanted to work after retirement should be offered the chance to renegotiate a deal with their company. The aging and the global economy conference organised by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies ended on Wednesday, with the release of a report aimed at influencing policymakers around the world.
Reuters |
Empty yourselves of all bad feelings And fill your hearts with love and selflessness. A heart soaked in love alone is a sacred heart.
***** If you become aware of God's presence within you and also the presence of the same God in all else, There is nothing to equal the peace and joy that you get.
***** If you do not love other human beings That means you do not love God.
***** If you incline towards God the passions that enslaves you will be rendered powerless.
***** If you see yourself in all and all in you, Then you have known the Reality.
***** Illness is the inevitable result of idleness.
***** It is a living death if one is obsessed by pride, ego and anger.
***** It is best to live with honour for just a day than with dishonour for many decades.
***** It is only by means of purity of mind can you come close to the Lord. — From the discourses of Sathya Sai Baba
***** The rule of that king endures who follows the democratic ideals
***** In the Iron Age (Kaliyuga) the king is like a lion and his officials like dogs.
***** The real and true king is the Lord himself, Whose rule is eternal.
***** Neither king nor beggars would remain They all come and go. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Maru M.1, page 992; Var Malar, M*I? page 1288; Vadhans M I, page 567; Ramkali M.I, Dakhni Oamkar, page 931. |
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