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Tackling adversity
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Prize and paradox
Nobel boost to IAEA
efforts
Dream commercials
Document Unhealthy diet, no
exercise fuel diabetes Delhi
Durbar
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Beasts in khaki The Punjab Police’s record of human rights violations is second to none. Its gallant personnel have done everything from killing to maiming to tattooing “Jebkatri” on the forehead of women pickpockets. But even that sick performance pales into insignificance before what a few policemen did in Amritsar on October 6. They were on guard duty with two convicts serving a sentence in the high-security central jail. Instead of taking them to hospital for treatment as it was shown on paper, they connived with the convicts, took them to an abandoned house, where the convicts and their accomplices allegedly gangraped the estranged wife of one of them. While the victim, allegedly brought there by misleading her that her imprisoned husband was on deathbed, was being raped, the guards reportedly drank liquor provided by the rapists. The incident is too shocking for words and can shake the confidence of the public in the police force. Policemen are supposed to be protectors of innocent citizens. The worst that one can expect from them is dereliction of duty. But their joining hands with the criminals is the ultimate ignominy. By doing so, they have proved to be as bad criminals as the rapists. This is an extreme case but the police is already notorious for various such dark activities. They continue to defy the law mainly because many of them get away with minor or no punishment. One shudders to think what will happen if even the Amritsar beasts get away lightly. The police-criminal nexus has become an unbearable menace. For a price, policemen allow convicts all kinds of facilities which allow them to function freely even from jails. Shifting a criminal to a hospital is just an excuse for sending him on an unofficial parole. The police has arrested three policemen reportedly involved in the grisly incident, while another is still absconding. Justice demands that all of them must be brought to book at the earliest and given the harshest possible punishment.
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Prize and paradox It is a supreme irony that the world’s greatest prize for peace, founded by the inventor of dynamite and funded by his wealth, should finally go to an organisation dedicated to cap the proliferation of explosives. This year’s Nobel Prize for Peace being awarded to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its chief Mohamed ElBaradei triggers reflection on the inexplicable twists and turns of human history. Doubtless, the IAEA and Mr Elbardei are most deserving of the prize for their work in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. But the paradoxes are too delightful to be given a miss. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866, patented it in 1867 and built up a chain of companies and laboratories in more than 20 countries that were dedicated to the development of explosives technology. The origin of the paradoxes of where this “progress” would lead the world to was not altogether absent even in his lifetime. Nobel’s own secretary, Bertha von Suttner, quit his service and was one of the world’s pioneering peace activists. When Nobel left his money for the Prizes, history smiled on von Suttner, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905. The “atomic” years and the global “nuclear” parivar, despite the terrors of the prized deterrent, have spawned only more aspirants for weapons of mass destruction. Yet another paradox is that the aspiration spurred nuclear proliferation, and proliferation, in turn, created the need for IAEA, which is forever trapped between the devil and the deep sea. At the behest of the dominant nuclear powers the agency has to ensure that other countries do not follow their lead. It is all about balance of power, and in a complicated world worse confounded by complex rule-making, the IAEA and Mr ElBaradei have struck a fine balance, indeed.
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History ... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes,
follies, and misfortunes of mankind. — Edward Gibbon  |
Nobel boost to IAEA efforts
The
atom has again taken centre-stage in the world with consequences that remain to be determined. First, we observed the 60th anniversary of the dropping of American atom bombs over two Japanese cities, pretty nearly decimating their populations in the most horrific manner imaginable. (The Hiroshima museum says it all.) The world, meanwhile, was treated to the kabuki play of what to do with Iran’s nuclear plans, with the nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), firing its first salvo by threatening to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council. The nuclear issue again came to the fore, with India signing an accord with the United States on cooperation in civilian nuclear energy during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Washington visit after it had enhanced controls over exports on the condition that it would designate and separate civilian nuclear establishments and open them to IAEA inspections. The trade-off was that the US would try to free India of the restrictions of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to help it with sorely needed nuclear fuel, in addition to assistance in civilian reactors and updating security. The expectation, made explicit by US legislators in pithy language, was that India would support the planned Western penal move against Iran. And now the IAEA and its Egyptian director, Mr Mohamed ElBaradei, have been conferred the Nobel Peace Prize, which the latter immediately interpreted as a boost to his and his agency’s efforts. The Nobel committee was making a point although it suggested that the choice was not an anti-American move, knowing full well the Bush administration’s allergy to international norm-laying organisations and fruitless search for a more pliable director. The world has come a long way from the initial debates that ultimately led to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), and later the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), finessed over India’s objections. India, Pakistan and Israel did not sign the NPT, the first two reprimanded and sanctioned against for conducting the 1998 explicit nuclear weapons tests; nor did they sign the CTBT. But there was still sufficient confidence in the NPT’s efficacy for the West, led by the US, to get the treaty extended indefinitely. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme was winked at by US administrations for their own geopolitical reasons, as earlier Washington had tolerated and even helped the Israeli programme. Alarm bells started ringing with the emergence of the Arab-Afghan jehadis, trained with American and Saudi money and equipment, turning into freewheeling terrorists under the guidance of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. There were other ominous pointers - Western agents’ knowledge of the nuclear exploits of Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan and disturbing reports from North Korea. The Khan episode was buried by Washington and Islamabad because the US needed President Pervez Musharraf for coping with Afghanistan a second time, in the latter instance to fight the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. (One side-benefit of the Khan revelations was the discovery and dismantling of the Libyan nuclear programme.) The North Korean problem was resolved after a fashion by the Clinton administration. Then came the terrorist attacks on American soil on September 11, 2001. Psychologically, it was a new Pearl Harbour for America and one of the horrific images that kept appearing in the minds of US administrators and analysts was the prospect of a nuclear-armed terrorist. The nuclear issue, therefore, took an altogether more menacing aspect. A US administration that started off by taking a hard line on North Korea, much to the chagrin of South Korea, was now breathing fire. It demanded satisfaction from Pyongyang after the collapse of the Clinton administration-sponsored agreement. After the invasion and unhappy occupation of Iraq, President George W. Bush focused on Iran, one of the distinguished members of his axis of evil. Washington’s alarm increased after the election to the presidency of the reputed hardliner, Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, although it decided to wait for the three European powers, the EU-3, to complete their long negotiations. The price they demanded of Tehran was its agreement not to undertake the full nuclear cycle involving enrichment of uranium even for peaceful purposes. Inevitably, the bargain was rejected by Tehran. The NPT specifically gives the right that was now being denied to Iran with American encouragement. In order to make this denial sound plausible, the EU indulged in sophistry. True, Tehran had committed a technical breach by not disclosing all its nuclear programmes to the IAEA, as it was obliged to, for some 18 years. As punishment for this technical breach, it was suggested that Tehran had lost the right to the full nuclear cycle, despite the intrusive additional protocol it had signed. Further, it couldn’t be trusted to keep its nose clean in the future. The penalty imposed was to be referred to the UN Security Council at a time to be determined, with India supporting the resolution and Russia, China and Pakistan abstaining. On North Korea, there has been a breakthrough of sorts at the six-party talks led by China (the others being the US, Russia, South and North Korea and Japan) keeping in midair the question of when the North Koreans would dismantle their nuclear installations capable of weaponisation against the supply of a light water reactor less susceptible to be abused. All sides, including the US, seem to have welcomed this breather although the difficult questions have still to be resolved. India opposed the NPT because it was iniquitous, with the privileges of the nuclear haves not balanced by their obligations and the rights of the have-nots. The IAEA, among its other functions, was supposed to assist the nuclear have-nots with the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and member-nations were entitled to the full nuclear cycle as long as it was for peaceful purposes. Western nations led by the US did not take long to give the agency’s policing functions primacy. They did not talk of their own obligations to reduce their immense stockpiles towards the theoretical goal of full disarmament but imposed an additional protocol to “plug loopholes”, as they put it. Whether the US will now take Iran to the Security Council in the hope of seeking sanctions against it, despite the threat of the Russian veto, remains to be seen. After its immediate hard-line reaction, Tehran is taking a more rational line even as it insists on its rights under the NPT. Mr ElBaradei has acquired greater confidence after the Nobel Prize boost and could propose a compromise solution, e.g. allowing Tehran a laboratory-size full nuclear cycle operation. The atom is destined to stay at the centre of world events one way or the other as far as one can see.
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Dream commercials I
am a retired man, and as such my wife and I have nothing much to do the whole day. Just to remain occupied, we are keeping young girl students as paying guests, as I have a big house. That gives my wife something to do for part of the day, and gives us company. The girls eat with us whenever they are free and that keeps us in good humour. I keep watching TV for most part of the day. I had never watched much of TV during my service days, and as such have now realised how much of TV time is devoted to commercials. Moreover, the commercials are repeated so often during the day that you remember them sometimes even when you don’t want to. Moreover, these get so mixed up even with your dreams that at times it is difficult to tell where the dream ends and the commercial begins, or vice versa. I’ll give you an example. The girls were on vacations recently and we were alone. I was dreaming one night that they were all back, and we were sitting around the dining table laughing and chatting. Suddenly I looked up and saw “Big B” standing behind Pallavi. When I looked at him, he said: “Ladki sunder hai”. I said, “So? What are you doing here any way? She is in my dream after all, you know.” He said, “Oh! I just came to paint your walls”. I said I didn’t want them painted. He looked pained and said “But this is not in the script”. I said he should leave any way, so he left. The girls started laughing and teasing Pallavi. After some time one of the girls asked my wife if they could have some tea and snacks if possible. Before my wife could answer, there was a loud crash and Juhi Chawla burst through one of the walls shouting, “Masti bole to.....”. My wife said, “Oh no. I don’t want your snacks”, and then to me: “Why don’t you stop dreaming about these kids? Now look, what you have done to this wall”. I promptly picked up the remote, and switched off my dream. After a few days we decided to visit our daughter, who is studying in the US. We took a British Airways flight to London on way to Denver. We had about eight hours between flights at London, so went sightseeing. We were strolling along the riverfront when I saw a girl selling flowers. I said, “Oh! No”. My wife wanted to know what happened. I said, “You see that girl? Now in a short while you will see Virender Sehwag walk up in his new suit. Let’s go and eat some place”. She said, “Don’t be silly. That happens only in your dreams”. I said, “What else do you think is this? You think I have really brought you to London?”. My wife looked around and sure enough saw Sehwag walking up quite purposefully. She shouted, “Let’s Go!” and off we went looking for a Dhaba — in a bright yellow
Alto. |
Document The following are excerpts from “Joining the Dots”, the report of the Tiger Task Force. The programme, when initiated, had the highest political commitment. It was carefully crafted so that reserves for the tiger could be created and protected. Its architects also put into place a management system to organise the work that states had to do, including setting up specialised wildlife wings, and ensuring protection. But the problem was that the commitment to the project was never made inclusive. Over time, interest waned at the Centre and the institutions for management lost direction. Their control over activities in states declined with the loss in their own capacities. Management systems and scientific tools did not keep pace with the challenges to protect a species in increasingly complex situations. While state forest departments with limited resources did as much as they could, political leaderships in the states were not as committed or involved in the programme. In political circles, over time, interest gave way to anger against the differential treatment meted to tigers vis-à-vis what were perceived to be more important developmental objectives such as mining and hydroelectric projects. The contribution of state governments was rarely acknowledged. At the same time, local people, who lived in the territory of the tiger, were left out of the benefits of the programme. They were made illegal settlers in their own land and denied even their basic needs. These ignored people increasingly turned against the tiger. Their contribution in sharing the ecological space of the tiger was never recognised. They continued to lose their livestock, crops and lives to wild animals, but were rarely properly compensated. There was no real interest group supporting the tiger. On the contrary, interests that were against the tiger-from illegal mining and building dams in tiger habitats to poaching and crime-gained ground. Over this period, tiger conservation has become more and more ‘exclusive’. As threats to the tiger multiplied, the response of tiger lovers has been to band together into a select group that would control policy and programme formulation. Their attempt has been to centralise decisions, so that they can get the power and its instruments to protect the tiger. Everybody else, they increasingly believe, is against tigers. Over time, the interests of this small group of conservationists has also got embroiled in the tiger. The benefits they make from tourism, filming and conservation is not shared with the people or the parks. The problem is that this leads to even greater alienation of all against the tiger, which they believe is being protected for the sake of a few, against the interests of all. Simultaneously, all that should have been done for the development of forests and rural areas-increased productivity of grazing land, irrigation facilities, employment-has remained undone. The line-departments in charge of development, from rural development to tribal affairs, have also proved inadequate. People remain dependent on forest resources and desperately poor. They have no option but to ‘use’ the protected reserves. These are the remaining bastions of livelihood resources. The end result: the belief that the tiger can only be protected by building stronger and higher fences against ‘depredators’. In many case, the protectors (forest guards and officers) have put their lives at stake to save the tiger. In many cases, their efforts have paid off. But as more, powerful, interests converge against the tiger, the purpose of conservation is getting lost, bit by bit. It is, therefore, essential to seek out new directions in the future so that the tiger can be protected. The protection of tigers is happening in India against all odds. What we need to understand is that a Sariska-type crisis haunts every protected area in India - where islands of conservation are under attack from poachers, miners and every other exploitative activity. They are also under siege from their own inhabitants, the people, who live in those reserves and outside the islands of conservation, and who have not benefited from these protected areas but continue to lose livelihood options and face daily harassment. In these circumstances, if the defences are down, protection will fail. Like it did in Sariska. The challenge is to ensure that the siege can be lifted so that the tigers can survive. It isn’t as if solutions don’t exist. Increase the productivity of forests and pasturelands in the vicinity of reserve. The report looks at how tourism, that has great potential in providing locals a way to prosperity, is doing exactly the opposite: hotels and resorts operate without any building code of environmental standards. They guzzle groundwater and require waste disposal by the ton. Moreover, they do not contribute to the local economy at all. The moot point in looking at so many solutions is a simple one. Ease the pressure on people; people respond sustainably. Ease the pressure on the forest; the forest will regenerate. The pressure on the tiger is bound to ease. This paradigm of ‘inclusive conservation’ will safeguard the tiger. Nothing else will. The agenda is within our reach. |
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Unhealthy diet, no exercise fuel diabetes The epidemics of obesity and Type II, or late-onset diabetes, are rising in parallel, driven by modern lifestyles. A diet of fast foods, high in fats and calories, eaten by people who take the car rather than walk is to blame. One of the most alarming features is the growing number of children affected. Specialists report increasing numbers of overweight teenagers turning up in diabetes clinics with a disease that a generation ago was confined to people over 40. They face a lifetime of treatment, and can expect symptoms including eye damage, circulatory problems and kidney failure to worsen as they age. A study by the International Obesity Task Force in the British Medical Journal suggested 1,400 children in the UK have full-blown type II diabetes and up to 20,000 have impaired glucose tolerance, where the body loses its capacity to use sugar, which foreshadows diabetes. Diabetes causes blood-sugar levels to rise because of a lack of insulin. Raised sugar levels lead to high blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, blindness caused by retinopathy, kidney damage and ulceration of the feet, which can lead to amputation. Type II diabetes can be treated by diet and exercise and the effects are reversible if the damage has not gone too far. In more severe cases, drug treatment — tablets or insulin injection — is necessary. Men and women are equally likely to get the disease but women are more likely to die earlier. The affliction is directly linked to obesity, measured in body mass index, a combined measure of height and weight. A person with a BMI over 35 is up to 80 times more likely to develop diabetes over 10 years than someone with a BMI of less than 22. In its early stages, the condition may cause few symptoms and go unrecognised. Common signs are increased thirst combined with increased urination as the body tries to rid itself of excess sugar, weight loss and recurrent infections. One in 30 of the adult population has diabetes but experts estimate one in five has metabolic syndrome, a precursor of diabetes, which raises their risk of developing the full-blown condition up to five-fold. The main indicator of metabolic syndrome is a large belly. A waist measurement more than 94cm (37 inches) for men and over 80cm (31.5 inches) for women should be the trigger for tests of blood pressure, fat levels and glucose in the blood. Those affected can then be advised on action to take. “Eat less and walk more is the advice I give,” Professor Sir George Alberti said. BMI is calculated by dividing the patient’s weight in kilograms by the square of height in metres. A BMI showing normal weight is 18.5 to 24. People with a BMI of 25 to 29 are overweight and above 30, obese. A person of average height — 5ft 8in (173cm) — weighing less than 8st 10lbs (55.5kg) is underweight. Up to 11st 9lbs is normal. Overweight is between 11st 9lbs and 13st 11lbs. Above is obese. A BMI above 35 — 16st 5lbs — is “extremely obese”. The epidemics of obesity and Type II, or late-onset diabetes, are rising in parallel, driven by modern lifestyles. A diet of fast foods, high in fats and calories, eaten by people who take the car rather than walk is to
blame. — The Independent |
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Delhi Durbar Jaswant
Singh seems to be inching ahead comfortably as BJP President L.K. Advani’s successor. Come December, Advani will step down. Jaswant Singh appears to have the backing of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. When the Sangh Parivar was baying for Advani’s head, Jaswant Singh was laising with the RSS. Meanwhile the BJP is believed to have conducted its own survey to assess who would be best suited in terms of popularity for the party President’s job. Topping the chart was Sushma Swaraj. Pramod Mahajan and Rajnath Singh emerged poor second. Fernandes kept out of Bihar George Fernandes has been kept out of the JD (U) campaign in Bihar. Party sources say this is because Fernandes has no base in Bihar and his presence in the Lok Sabha from the state is because of Nitish Kumar. While Fernandes is getting closer to the BJP, Nitish Kumar continues to maintain a distance from the saffron brigade and highlights his socialist origins. The banter in JD (U) circles is that the BJP will have to invite Fernandes to Bihar and organise joint rallies. Karat faces protest An alumni of JNU, Prakash Karat delivered a lecture on “Left in India — Possibilities for Advance” the other day. The CPM leader was taken by surprise when a group of students expressed concern about factionalism in Kerala. Just as Karat was leaving, the agitated students shouted slogans in favour of Kerala CPM leader Achutanandan representing the old guard. Though the students owing allegiance to the SFI did their bit to embarrass Karat, one of them later said it was all a joke. RSP feels sidelined Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Abani Roy, feels his party is being sidelined. Last week, when the Left parties met to discuss the Iran issue, Abani Roy chose to be in the studio of a business channel to score a point in the debate rather than be at the meeting venue on time. Can it antagonise the allies when the assembly polls in West Bengal and Kerala are only months away? BJP leaders for non-veg food The days of vegetarianism in the BJP appear to be over. The BJP national executive met in Chennai recently. The executive members put up in a top hotel were all treated to several non-veg dishes like pepper chicken, prawn curry etc. Even mediapersons got a taste of this non-vegetarian extravaganza despite being put up in an all-vegetarian hotel. It must be said to Venkaiah Naidu’s credit that he changed the food culture of the BJP during his term as BJP
President. Contributed by S. Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood and R. Surymurthy. |
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From the pages of English preacher of Gita
Every Hindu interested in the teachings of ancient Sanskrit literature and scriptures ought to make it a point to attend the series of interesting and instructive lectures which Mr F.T. Brooks of the Theosophical Society is delivering in Lahore. Mr Brooks is a keen and erudite student of the Bhagvada Gita and has been so for the last 10 years. Mr Brooks can quote the original texts of the Gita and the Upanishadas with wonderful facility and correctness of pronunciation and his method of exposition brings home the spirit of the original to a remarkable degree. It is a treat to hear Mr Brooks on the truths of ancient Hindu scriptures and the sublime teachings of the great Rishis. The opportunity afforded by Mr Brooks’s presence in Lahore should be availed of to the fullest extent. He is living the life of a devotee, subsisting on simple vegetarian diet cooked by his
own hands. |
Love, an abundant love, is the expression of our Christian religion. — Mother Teresa Seekest thou God? Then seek Him in man! His divinity is manifestation of God. — Ramakrishna The reason some men do not succeed is because their wishbone is where their backbone ought to be. — Book of quotations on
success Happiness brings serenity. — The Upanishadas |
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