The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

A progressive mining Bill
But fears of miners need to be addressed

The long-awaited mining Bill, pending for the past several years because of opposition by mining companies and industry, received the Union Cabinet’s nod on Friday. While the Bill seeks to simplify regulations, empower the states and create a more conducive framework to attract foreign investment, it is likely to face much resistance both inside and outside Parliament. That is because the Bill provides Coal India to pay 26 per cent of its net profit and other miners to pay the equivalent of the royalty to District Mining Foundations, to be set up by state governments and headed by district collectors, which will then spend the money for the welfare and development of local people. If the Bill becomes law, it is estimated that 60 mineral-rich districts in the country would receive at least Rs 10,000 crore every year from miners. Protests from mining lobbies have been strident on the plea that this would push up costs, make mining unviable and put off foreign investment.

Judging by the revenue and profit generated by mining companies, it is no doubt a lucrative and thriving business. But while mining has generated wealth for the miners, most of the local people remain poor and impoverished. A Supreme Court judgment in 1997 had sought to lay down the principle of miners sharing benefits with people. But strong opposition from the mining lobby came in the way of its implementation. Even Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) like SAIL (Steel Authority of India Ltd) professed to be uncomfortable with the idea and pointed to practical problems. The major power, steel and aluminum companies have captive coal and bauxite mines and cannot strictly be said to be in the business of mining, it argued while claiming exemption.

The Union government’s bid to speed up mining reforms, curb illegal mining, cut down red tape in granting mining leases and to free state governments from mandatorily seeking the approval of the Centre, is certainly welcome. It is certainly time to improve upon outdated regulations. It is to be hoped, therefore, that differences over benefit-sharing will not delay the enactment of the path-breaking legislation and lead to the baby getting thrown out with the bath water.

Drive against Al-Qaida
Killing of terrorist masterminds not enough

The US-led drive against terrorism continues to achieve one success after another. Al-Qaida suffered a major loss when US forces killed Anwar Al-Awlaki, its second top surviving leader after Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in Yemen on Friday. Awlaki’s death is the third crippling blow to Al-Qaida after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, near Islamabad, in May and the death of Illiyas Kashmiri, considered a replacement for Osama, in a US drone attack in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Born to Yemeni parents in New Mexico, USA, Awlaki had a large following in the Arabian peninsula as well as in the West. His command over the English language enabled him to communicate with Muslim youngsters in the West in the accent and the idiom they could easily understand. He was a tech-savvy terrorist mastermind and used the Internet to spread the ideology of terror to great effect.

Besides Awlaki, Al-Qaida lost another key figure, a Pakistani-origin US technocrat and the Editor of its magazine, Inspire, in Friday’s aerial attack. Though Al-Zawahiri is still there as the new head of Al-Qaida to inspire confidence among its cadres, the continuing campaign against it might have caused a demoralising effect on the terrorist outfit’s support base. This is, definitely, no small gain for those carrying on the fight against terrorism.

But does this show that Al-Qaida is gradually losing its capacity to strike terror? It is difficult to answer the question in straight “yes” or “no”. The terrorist multinational has been functioning like an amoeba, which refuses to die if attacked from any one side. Al-Qaida may be losing its top guns, but there is need to study if its ideology is also declining in its appeal. So long as the terrorist ideology continues to attract people in any part of the world, the fight against the menace must continue. And it should be a multi-pronged campaign, including an ideological warfare. The factors sustaining the ideology must also be eliminated so that Al-Qaida fails to find fresh recruits in any part of the world.

Thought for the Day

To live remains an art which everyone must learn, and which no one can teach. — Havelock Ellis

ARTICLE

Complicating food crisis
Time for devising long-term policy
by Manjit S. Kang

A world where every person has access to sufficient food to sustain a healthy and productive life, where malnutrition is absent, and where food originates from efficient, effective, and low-cost food systems that are compatible with sustainable use of natural resources”. This is what “Vision 2020” of the International Food Policy Research Institute says. The world food problem is a complex and challenging issue. Some believe the problem is not food production but access to and distribution of food. Redistribution alone, however, cannot solve the problem because the necessary policies may not be politically feasible. Increased production must be a part of any solution to the food problem.

Human population has been increasing exponentially whereas food production has been going up only linearly. Projections are that world population will increase from the current 6.96 billion to around 10 billion by 2050 — 80% of it is expected to be in developing countries. An estimated one billion people, or 14% of the world population, are still chronically malnourished, most of them in developing nations.

Food production will need to be doubled in the next 30 years and tripled in the next 50 years to feed people. Cereal yields, like population, doubled during 1960-2000, but the average yields of root and tuber crops increased by only 36% and of pulses by only 29% during the same period. So, the Green Revolution era was good for cereals but not for tuber and pulse crops.

Differences in crop yields among nations and between average and master farmers are indicative of the fact that productivity can be raised further even with current technology. The average period between consecutive US record maize yields was 2.1 years since the US cornbelt first used 99% hybrid maize in 1950 through 1994. The average record yield in 1994 (pre-genetically modified, GM, maize) was 138.6 bushels per acre (8.70 tonnes/hectare). It took eight years to have a record yield of 142 bushels per acre (8.92 tonnes/hectare) in 2003 in the post-GM era. This might have been because of the fact that resources had been diverted away from traditional crop improvement to transgenic research, but the full potential of the transgenic research had not yet been realised. Global area for transgenic crops was 58.7 million hectares in 2003. That area increased to 148 million hectares in 2010, which is about 9.4% of the total arable area of the world. In the future, more activity in the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) arena is likely.

Some significant achievements of genetic engineering are: Genetically engineered plants have been developed that require less herbicides and pesticides and also allow for significant reductions in irrigation water use. Such crop plants are, therefore, environment-friendly and humanity-friendly. At the same time, these new plants can be nutritionally enhanced with extra protein and vitamins to help combat malnutrition worldwide. Three genes — two from daffodil and one from a bacterium, Erwinia uredovora — have been introduced into rice through genetic engineering to produce beta-carotene/vitamin A in rice (‘golden rice’).

Maize seeds have been engineered with Bt genes to produce a protein that kills maize corn borer and rootworm larvae. A Japanese company has inserted a carrot gene into eucalyptuses so that they can flourish in acid soils. We may also, in time, benefit from crops that gather and remove air and soil pollutants — or see farms that “grow” plastics and petroleum.

Notwithstanding the achievements of transgenic technology, a balance between traditional plant breeding and genetic engineering will need to be struck to achieve maximum progress. Pros and cons of GMOs and other issues that impact crop production/improvement need to be ascertained.

India has progressed in many areas by leaps and bounds, including population. In 1950, India’s population was mere 370 million. It is now around 1189 million and is expected to increase to 1657 million by 2050. This represents an increase of about 40% over the current population. In comparison, China’s current population is 1,337 million and it is expected to decrease to 1,304 million by 2050, representing a decrease of 2.5%. The only good news is that India’s rate of population growth, which is now about 1.2%, has been projected to decrease to 0.4% by 2050.

India’s arable land has been shrinking for a long time. For example, in 1979, arable land was 163.4 million hectares, but it decreased to 158 million hectares in 2009 — a decrease of 5.4 million hectares. India’s investment in agricultural research and development has been decreasing for the past several decades. India invests about $6 per capita in overall R&D effort in the country. This investment is quite small compared with that of China ($12 per capita) and the US ($710 per capita).

India’s current annual foodgrain production is about 235 million tonnes, but it would require around 280 million tonnes by 2021 and about 450 million tonnes by 2050. India has depleted its water resources in the Indo-Gangetic plains, where most of the rice and wheat are produced.

To achieve these targets, India will need to increase its outlay for agricultural research and development. It needs to place a moratorium on conversion of farm land for buildings and other non-agricultural purposes; buildings can be built in vertical space, as in Japan, but food can only be grown on land. It is a sin to acquire farm land for non-agricultural purposes.

India needs to have a comprehensive national policy on development and use of natural resources. “More crop per drop” will need to be emphasised. According to Dr Alexander Mueller, ADG for Natural Resources with the FAO, only about 50% of the food produced is actually consumed; the rest is lost in storage, distribution and at the level of end users. That means 50% of the resources are wasted. So, if food wastage can be reduced, the efficiency of water use for agriculture can be enhanced.

India will need to be competitive and innovative in developing new technology, but technology is linked to research and development. So, India will need to invest more in agricultural R&D and innovate. n

The writer is a former Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and a Professor-Emeritus, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.

MIDDLE

Between the lines
by Maj-Gen G G Dwivedi (retd)

The Military Attaché Corps in Beijing was the most active group in the diplomatic community. Besides the numbers, around 150 or so, it was the preferential protocol which this fraternity enjoyed; courtesy the PLA (People’s Liberation Army), a vital component of the Chinese Communist Party in running the country. Hence, at every important function, alongside the Ambassadors, Military Attachés were always invited. Besides social interaction; these were the occasions for sharing the breaking news.

During one such banquet, the hot topic making the rounds was ‘Varyag’, a de-commissioned aircraft carrier, reportedly purchased by China from Ukraine. Initially, both Ukrainian Military Attaché and PLA Foreign Affairs Bureau officers pretended to be ignorant, neither confirming nor denying the news. Soon it emerged that the ship in question was the Soviet-era aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznet”, launched in 1988 and named Varyag subsequently. In 1992, as a sequel to the breakup of the Soviet Union, it was transferred to Ukraine, minus the electronics systems. In Ukraine, the ship was laid up, unmaintained, stripped and put up for auction in 1998.

The ship was purchased at auction for $ 20 million by Chong Lot Travel Agency, a company widely believed to be the front face of the PLA Navy. Interestingly, Chong Lot claimed that the ship would be turned into a floating entertainment centre-cum-casino and berthed in Macau. Given the Chinese unorthodox and innovative ways, the story did not appear totally incredible at that time. Nonetheless, it was an enigma which could not be wished away lightly.

Varyag made to the Chinese waters in February 2002, after an adventurous journey of over 15200 km, going around the Cape Of Good Hope, as it was denied passage through Suez Canal on legal grounds. En route, it was reported to have drifted wild and brought back on course by the international crew. Although I left Beijing well before the mystery ship made it to the Chinese port of Dalian, curiosity remained alive. Off and on, Varyag did make headlines in the international media, but the Chinese maintained a stoic silence on the issue.

Finally, after nine years of extensive renovation work and makeover, on 10 August 2011, amidst a veil of secrecy, Varyag, rechristened Shi Lang (after Admiral Shi) set sails to commence year-long sea trials, without fanfare. A brief press release from the PLA General Staff Office was all that marked the event.

With the launching of this dream boat, the PLA Navy joined the league of carrier-operating Navies. The ship is expected to be fully operational and commissioned on 1st October,2012, China’s National Founding Day. Beijing regards aircraft carriers as a symbol of its power projection capabilities. It is well on the cards that Shi Lang will have the company of a few siblings in the near future.

Our home culture is characterised by giving a blow-by-blow account of every development. Security experts and media often tend to go ballistic while debating even the most sensitive issues. On the contrary, the Chinese take pains to keep their rapid defence buildup under wraps, making the whole exercise benign and a low-key affair. While the ‘bamboo curtain’ has vanished, the silken veil remains intact. To be adept at the Chinese Chequers, the acme lies in having an ‘ear for the unsaid’ and ability to read ‘between the lines’.

OPED WORLD

Was it the Tunisian street trader’s self-immolation that changed the course of history, or is it an example of a Western instinct to personalise and, in the process, trivialise the Tunisian revolution?
How revolution turned sour in the birthplace of Arab Spring
Kim Sengupta

Not a day goes by for Manoubia Bouazizi when she does not think about her son with sorrow. “He was a dutiful boy, he had a long life ahead of him, he martyred himself for justice, for Tunisia, for his community,” she declared. “People cannot forget that.”

The self-immolation of Mohamed Bouaziz sparked off a revolution in Tunisia, and later, in many parts of the Arab world.

Her 26-year-old, street-trader son has been lodged in the world’s memory, too, after his unhappy life and terrible death by self-immolation became the tragic symbol of a nation’s suffering in the hands of a dictator’s brutal and unforgiving regime. It was this act of despair, goes the narrative, which triggered the uprising in Tunisia and heralded the seismic regional shift that has become known as the Arab Spring.

When I visited Sidi Bouzid in the aftermath of the dictator Zine Al Abedine Ben Ali’s flight from Tunis, I found residents exulting in their home’s status as the cradle of the revolution. They chanted the name of Mohammed Bouazizi; the family home had become a place of homage with a steady stream of visitors. A female municipal official accused of slapping him — a final act of humiliation which led to him setting himself on fire — was vilified, her relations facing daily abuse.

Recognition by Nobel Peace Prize committee

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize may recognise activists who helped unleash the revolutionary wave that swept through North Africa and the Middle East during the Arab Spring.
Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian Internet activist and Google executive, Egypt’s April 6 Youth Movement, one of its founders Israa Abdel Fattah, and Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni could therefore be among those in line for the award when it is announced on Oct. 7.
“My strong sense is that this (Nobel) committee and its leader want to reflect the biggest international issues as defined by a wide definition of peace,” said Jan Egeland, a former Norwegian deputy foreign minister.
“Following that logic, it will be the Arab Spring this year. Nothing comes close to that one as a defining moment of our time,” he told Reuters.
A record 241 candidates, of which 53 are organisations, have been nominated for this year’s award, worth 10 million crowns ($1.5 million). The five-strong prize committee will meet for the last time on Sept. 30.
Demonstrations and protests in 2011 involving hundreds of thousands of people have challenged the grip on power of autocratic rulers across the Arab world.
Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya have been removed from power while opposition movements in Syria and Yemen, among several other countries, are attempting to bring about political change.
Egeland’s view was shared by Kristian Berg Harpviken, head of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. “The Arab Spring will be very high on the agenda of the committee’s internal deliberations,” he said. “What has been very clear from the current committee ... is that they really want to speak to current affairs. There is an eagerness to not only award a prize that has had an impact in the present but also to use the prize to impact the present.”
The committee’s secretary said there were “a few” candidates linked to the Arab Spring among this year’s nominees, but he declined to name them. Among the known nominees this year are WikiLeaks and its leader Julian Assange, Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim, Afghan human rights advocate Sima Samar, the European Union and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has yet to make its final decision about this year’s award, its secretary said. “We have one more meeting ... We have a few candidates on the table,” Geir Lundestad said. —Reuters

Doubts about the revolution

Eight months on there are now deep doubts among many about the course of the Jasmine Revolution and the story of Mohammed Bouazizi, its iconic sacrificial hero, is enmeshed in accusations and recriminations. His family has left Sidi Bouzid amid the animosity of neighbours; a plaque put up in his name in the town has disappeared and graffiti praising him painted over. The municipal official allegedly responsible for “the slap which rang around the world”, Fedya Hamdi, has claimed that the slap never happened and that she was made a scapegoat. She has since been freed from prison, with all charges dropped, to cheers from a crowd gathered outside the courtroom.

As the elections in Tunisia, the first among the newly democratic states of North Africa and the Middle East, approach next month, Bouazizi is increasingly seen as a footnote rather than the catalyst of the uprising. And Sidi Bouzid, for its part, now has new martyrs — a 14-year-old boy shot dead during a demonstration, a man killed at a police station after threatening to expose official corruption.

Things as bad as ever

Mohammed Bouazizi, however, continues to garner plaudits abroad. The EU Parliament has selected him as a nominee for this year’s Sakharov Prize, awarded to those who had played a pivotal role in bringing freedom to their country. In Paris Mohammed Bouazizi Square was named in the 14th Arrondissement by the city’s mayor, with his mother, Manoubia, and one of his sisters as guests of honour

But for many people in Sidi Bouzid and elsewhere in Tunisia this is seen as an example of a Western instinct to personalise and, in the process, trivialise the Tunisian revolution — only to ignore it as the focus moved on to later rebellions in countries deemed more important.

“We started the revolution which led to all the others. But all we got in return were a few pats on the head from Europe and America,” said Ziad Ali Karimi, an activist during the uprising in Sidi Bouzid. “Look at all the money they spent on Libya. Why? Because of oil contracts.”

“Now they are offering all kinds of help to Libya, which is already a rich country. Here, we get nothing. The economic situation just gets worse, and we wonder why we risked so much in rising up against Ben Ali and his gangsters.”

Manoubia Bouazizi and her family are also in the firing line after leaving town. “Who paid for them to go? Who put them up in expensive hotels?” asked Fatima Um Mourad, whose brother, Adnan Mohammed, was arrested during a protest march. “Shouldn’t the money have been spent here? The people here have got nothing. But his family, well they made a lot of money out of all this, now they live in luxury, in a big villa.”

Another former neighbour, 18 year old Seif Amri, maintained: “They made their fortune and they left. But none of us have benefited, things here are as bad as ever.”

Grief and bewilderment

It is true that Ms Bouazizi and her six remaining children have moved to the seaside at La Marsa, a suburb of the capital, Tunis. They now live in a medium-sized apartment, by no means lavish, for which they pay a rent of $200 a month. There is a small vegetable patch in the front and one room and the siblings share rooms and a study. “I know some people are telling lies about us,” Manoubia said. She shook her head. “When he died, people came to me and said it was not just me who had lost a son, the whole village has lost a son. Now they say this. It is really bad.”

“That woman [Fedya Hamdi] is free because I agreed to the prosecution ending. I wanted things to settle down. Now her family is even saying that there was no slap. Was my son lying? What about people who saw her hit him?”

Samia, 20, one of Mohammed’s sisters, wanted to stress: “We have not made a fortune, that is just untrue. We had to move because the other house was too small and this is a nice area.”

“I heard we were given a lot of money by Ben Ali, $15,000 some people said. They also said we sold Mohammed’s vegetable cart to a movie producer. That is not true. People are angry because things are not improving fast. That is not our fault.”

That anger led to fresh outbreaks of violence in Sidi Bouzid in August, during which protesters pelted soldiers with rocks and they replied with live rounds. A 14-year-old boy, Thabit Hajlaoui, was shot dead. His father, Bilghassim Hajlaoui, spoke of his grief and bewilderment. “He was not throwing anything, but why did they have to fire guns just because there were some stones thrown. They said they were sorry my son has been killed, but no one has been arrested. They are now behaving like the way they behaved in Ben Ali’s time.”

Corruption in RCD

The feeling that the security forces continue to be a threat to ordinary people was reinforced by what happened to 36-year-old Adel Hammami, a computer technician, who died after saying he had evidence of corruption in the RCD, the former regime’s party, many of whose members will contest the coming election. Mr Hammami died seven months ago after going to a police station to answer questions. But it is only recently that questions began to be asked about the killings and four policemen were eventually arrested. The charge they faced, however, was downgraded from the equivalent of manslaughter to a public order offence.

His sister Mongia was furious. “They had plotted to kill him as soon as he started talking about corruption,” she said. “He was beaten up and very badly injured by a group of people who walked into his office.

“The police told my brother that they were worried about other attacks, that his daughter, my niece would be kidnapped. He went to the police station and that is where he died. We want justice, we don’t want things going back to the way they were.”

But many Tunisians seem to think that is exactly the way things are going.

High unemployment

A poll carried out by the Applied Social Sciences Forum, a think tank, carried out last month found that the percentage of the population optimistic about the future has fallen to 24 per cent. Sidi Bouzid recorded the highest level of distrust in the progress of the revolution at 62.1 per cent. Nationally youth unemployment stands at 30 per cent; in the Sidi Bouzid region it is 42 per cent.

Faith in the electoral process leading to a better future has also dissipated, with less than half of those eligible to vote in the coming polls having so far registered to do so. While Western observers wonder about the emergence of Islamists as a dominant force in parliament, the crucial issue in places such as Sidi Bouzid is stark. “It is about jobs so we can at least feed our family,” said Ziad Ali Karimi.

Need to stand together

For her part, Fedya Hamdi, the municipal employee accused of hitting Mr Bouazizi, considers herself yet another victim of the system. She had spent three months in jail before being found not guilty at her trial. The prosecution produced only one witness who supposedly saw the infamous slap and he was discredited under cross-examination.

“It was bad in prison, but at the time no one would listen to me,” she said. “I was not responsible for what happened to him but I am very sorry that he killed himself. I am very sorry about all the others who had died. We just need to stand together now and not just keep blaming each other. Otherwise we’ll never move forward, we will all suffer.” —The Independent