 |
| Tuesday,
May 15, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Now the
after-shocks Death of a
literary genius Fixing the
cricket fixers |
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Reversing
slowdown of development
Welcome,
astrology
Ugly
males “are better partners”
P. Raman
Child
slave trade thrives in West Africa
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Now the after-shocks IT takes time for the after-shock of state-level developments to travel to New Delhi. Particularly from distant places like Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Combine it with the stunning effect of the Assembly election results, the delay in shaping a reasoned response is understandable. The BJP, the leader of the ruling alliance, has lamely said that the verdict is along expected lines. And that the party did not have much stake in any of the four states and the union territory; anyway, its spokesman added, that out of the more than 825 constituencies it put up serious fight only in about 50 and has won in less than 20. The facts are correct but the inference is questionable. In Assam the BJP rushed into an alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad with high hopes in its heart. Now to claim that its primary aim was to check a Congress landslide is unconvincing. In West Bengal, by putting up 200 candidates it split the anti-Left Front vote, ensuring the defeat of the Trinamool Congress-Congress combination in some southwestern districts. The success of the Left Front in Greater Kolkata is entirely due to this negative tactics. In Tamil Nadu it fought in 22 seats but won in four. Kerala is still a no-entry state. Both here and in Assam it found itself tied to a badly losing electoral arrangement. To have the BJP on its side is no more a guarantee of electoral success for any party, or so the impression will be. In Assam it seems to have tripped. Five years ago it secured 30 per cent of the votes on its own and the support came from Bengali-speaking migrants who are wary of the designs of other citizens. By embracing the once militant AGP, it has damaged its own interests. In West Bengal the BJP stands alone and if the Trinamool Congress-Congress tie-up continues, it will find it impossible to re-enter the Assembly. However, the party’s major worry comes from UP which will elect an Assembly in a few months time. It is slipping in popularity as is evident from the byelection outcome from the Shahjahanpur Lok Sabha constituency. It came fourth and the Samajwadi Party wrested the seat from the Congress. What must be worrying to the party is that not only it slipped to the lowly place but its arch rival, the Samajwadi Party, is maintaining its winning streak. In the months to come it has to guard its flanks, brace itself for attacks from a rejuvenated Congress and do something effective to streamline its party organisation in UP. The proposed Mussourie meeting of top leaders should set the agenda. |
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Death of a literary genius MOST
of the condolence messages carried in the newspapers on the death of literary wizard R. K. Narayan have a common point: India has lost one of the finest authors it has produced. The contented genius in Narayan must be laughing at this at his final resting place. He walked on this land for 95
years—only five years short of a century—and contributed immensely to its literary growth with the unusual power of his pen. So much so that any description of literary India will be incomplete without a prominent mention of the creator of "Malgudi Days". Of course, he is no longer in our midst in his physical form, one can always see him through his masterpieces like "The Guide", "The Man-eater of Malgudi", "The World of Swami" and "The English Teacher". He had become a legend within a few years of his literary journey by bringing Indian fiction writing in English on to the world's literary map when he had still many years left to do the job of story-telling in his own inimitable style peppered with modest humour. He was a class by himself as he preferred to weave his wordy fabric the way it could reflect the Indian ethos, the reality in this part of the world, and not how the West wanted it. Yet today he has as many admirers in the developed world as there are in the land of his birth. He was a man of conviction and did not bother about rewards. Two incidents can be given in support of this argument. One, he could not score enough marks in the college admission test in his favourite subject, English. Yet he did not lose heart and secured entry into the portals of the college of his choice in Mysore, from where he did hid graduation. Two, he shifted from journalism to fiction writing at a time when no one could think of making one's ends meet in the difficult sea of words. Only the really talented could think of surviving its tidal wave. Narayan charted that sea effortlessly like a great navigator. Nothing could frighten him, not even the initial rejection of the manuscript of some his admired works. One of the honours that came his way was the membership of the Rajya Sabha. He used it for a cause so dear to him: to reduce the burden on the back of schoolchildren. He continued his fight against heavy schoolbags, which, he was convinced, could never excite the minds or imaginations of little ones. He died without achieving success in this area. Obviously, the schoolchildren will miss him more than the millions of his admirers the world over. |
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Fixing the cricket fixers THE International Cricket Council could not have picked a better person than Sir Paul Condon, former head of Scotland Yard, for getting at the bottom of the match-fixing controversy. Of course, it all began with the Delhi Police intercepting a conversation between disgraced former cricketer Hansie Cronje and an Indian bookie last year. The Delhi Police's expose served the purpose of shaking international cricket by its roots. Those who believed that cricket was still a gentlemen's game were forced to revise their views. Sir Paul has indeed done with quiet efficiency the job assigned to him. He literally went from one cricket playing country to the other with a whip in his hand for making the cheats confess to their crimes. In the process he collected evidence of involvement in cricket-related dirty deals against 20 cricketers, umpires, and administrators. To some extent his report may undo the damage done to the reputation of the game in which only the players were being projected as fixing matches for money. However, because of "legal complications" the names of the crooks may not be made public. It is a strange argument. There was no legal hitch in tearing the reputations of internationally respected cricketers to smithereens. But now that Sir Paul has collected evidence against umpires and administrators as well, a clumsy attempt is being made to protect them under the garb of "legal complications". The double standards being adopted by the ICC somehow do not square up with its stated objective of identifying and punishing the guilty. That is not all. The recommendation for the obliteration of the cricket records of tainted cricketer, including Mohammad Azharuddin, Cronje and Salim Malik is based on unsound logic and gives the impression that Sir Paul understands crime but not cricket. It is a unique team game in which one player's record cannot be removed without affecting the performance of other players as also the outcome of the game. What is possible is the deletion from the record books the Test matches and the one-day internationals in which the tainted cricketers took part. But that would result in 23 other players being penalised for the sin of one player. The fact that they no longer enjoy the respect they once commanded should be seen as the punishment of tainted cricketers. To have their names from the record books is an impractical suggestion. |
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Reversing
slowdown of development PUNJAB
and Haryana had remained star performers for many years following the Green Revolution ushered in the mid-sixties. This was reflected through the growth of their net state domestic product which remained considerably higher than the all-India average. Though agriculture led the growth, it was also evident from the still better performance of secondary and tertiary sectors. The decade of the 1980s began to show the signs of fatigue in the development dynamism. Many observers attributed this to the exhausted potential of the Green Revolution technology in agriculture with adverse consequences for other sectors too. The post-liberalisation decade of the 1990s can be described as the worst period for the economy of the region. The growth performance of Punjab has gone down compared to the disturbed decade of the 1980s. The growth rate of the state domestic product was 5.5 per cent during the 1980s which declined to 4.7 per cent in the 1990s (1991-92 to 1996-97). The rate of growth, which had come down to the level of the all-India average in the 1980s, has become considerably less than that during the 1990s. The growth rate of the Indian economy during the 1990s has been 6.7 per cent per annum. Punjab and Haryana have shown a performance level below the all-India average whereas certain other states (Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Kerala and Rajasthan) have recorded remarkable growth rates, equal to or more than the all-India average. During the 1990s the star performers turned out to be Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan with their respective per annum growth rates of 9.5 per cent, 8 per cent and 7.2 per cent between 1991-92 and 1996-97. As a consequence, Maharashtra’s per capita income has crossed both Punjab and Haryana (the stars of yesterday). In 1996-97 Maharashtra’s per capita income was more than 10 per cent higher than that of Punjab. The slowdown in the Punjab economy is not only observed in the declining growth performance of agriculture but also in the falling growth rates of the state’s secondary and tertiary sectors. In fact, it is all-round slowdown compared to the state’s own past decades as well as in comparison to the all-India average. It is expected that if the present trend continues, Gujarat, like Maharashtra, will also leave Punjab and Haryana behind within a few years. The consequences are severely felt in the fast deteriorating employment situation. Agriculture has shown a negative labour absorption trend between 1983-84 and 1996-97 by 13.45 per cent. There is negative growth in employment both in the organised public and private sectors between 1996 and 2000 with nearly one lakh posts lying vacant in the public sector of the state. In fact, the Planning Commission estimated that between 1997 and 2002 (the Ninth Plan period) employment would grow in Punjab at the rate of 0.73 per cent per annum while labour would grow at 2.27 per cent contributing further to the deterioration in the employment situation. The virtual stagnation of employment opportunities in the state with fast growth in labour supply has almost stopped the process of progressive transition of the economy by shifting the workforce from a low per person income area of agriculture to other sectors. This has added to the process of fragmentation of landholdings, converting a large number of them into tiny non-viable farms. The state and a large number of its people are heading for a shock of impending misery. There are reports of heavy indebtedness among farmers, and several of them resorting to suicides in the wake of economic hardships and a weakening social fabric undergoing capitalist transformation. The traditional (community and joint family) support base for individual peasants has disappeared, making them highly vulnerable in an event of crop failure, prolonged illness or any other unforeseen calamity. The full blown resort to globalisation after complete elimination of the quantitative restrictions on all kinds of imports (from April 1, 2001) has further exposed the economy of the region to global competition and market fluctuations. Since the economy here is based on agriculture along with small and medium industry, it is faced with the situation for which it is not prepared. The surplus of foodgrains in the region has already made Punjab (and Haryana) as a hostage state. The commodities being bulky have to be stored and transported at far off places before being disposed of, involving high handling and transport charges. They become less competitive to imported grains when they reach the coastal states. The decision of the Union Government to transfer the procurement to the states has made a more precarious situation for the state administration. Though the Punjab government has declared that it would meet the situation through state procurement agencies like Markfed, Punsup and PAIC, there is a question mark on the sustainability of these agencies. This is particularly so in the wake of the reported sale of 1.5 million tonnes of wheat by Markfed to Saudi Arabia at Rs 415 per quintal when the procurement price is Rs 610 and Rs 61 (10 per cent as marketing charges at purchase centres are added to on the day purchase by the procurement agencies). With nearly Rs 100 or more as transport charges to port towns (even if the storage charges are ignored), the free on board (FOB) price for export at ports turns out to be Rs 771. The question, which remains to be unanswered, is how the Punjab’s procurement agencies would survive in the absence of subsidies for which no budgetary provisions have been made? Captain Kanwaljit Singh, Finance Minister of Punjab, who has been leading a campaign against the WTO on behalf of the Akali Dal, knows it well that without taking bold initiatives, the economy of the region cannot be saved. Recognising this challenge, the Punjab and Haryana governments jointly set up a committee to study the impact of the WTO. The interim recommendations of the committee were placed in the budget session of the Punjab Assembly. The measures suggested by the Finance Minister included a decision to set up an institute for international marketing and information, strengthening research for agriculture and programme of restructuring agricultural production away from wheat paddy rotation and compensation for the rehabilitation of the families of peasants committing suicides. These measures indicate recognition of the problems. But they are not sufficient to solve the problems. One would expect much more in the form of bold initiatives from the state. This is particularly necessary in view of the fact that earlier proposals of diversification of agriculture (1986) could not be implemented because there was no provision of a minimum support price (MSP) system for the new (proposed) crops for diversification. Nor was there any system of regulated markets, procurement of new crops and any concrete measure for the processing of new crops for value addition purposes. These issues remain relevant much more today than ever before. The system of information gathering about the global economy would help rich farmers, traders, etc. and also enable the state government to suggest to the Union Government to undertake concrete steps in the Exim policy, but would not help a vast majority of the poor. For them, the steps on MSP, marketing and procurement remain of paramount importance. In the same way the compensation for rehabilitation to suicide victims (peasant families) would provide some relief (if implemented properly) to the needy families. This deals with the symptom, and not with the causes. The causes lie in non-viable farming, lack of a social security system, backwardness in human resource development (education) of the rural poor (both peasants and labourers), widespread drug menace and breakdown of the rural health care machinery. The victim families are poor, lack proper resource endowment, have no capability to manage within agriculture and are unable to shift out of agriculture on their own. Without shifting more than half of them away from agriculture and allied activities, the woes of the poor peasants and agriculture labourers cannot be removed. In this task, along with massive investment programmes, capability building among rural people through rural quality education and activating health programmes through the involvement of the local people can be the critical factors. Illiterate and unhealthy people are never capable of meeting global challenges. Where is such a proposal or plan? In fact, there is no planning mechanism in the state. People in Punjab need and expect serious policy initiatives rather than false promises and slogans. It is necessary to reflect on the reasons for not taking bold initiatives. Leaving the case of a few individuals, the leadership in the state does not seem to be capable as well as serious about these issues. Somehow it is being believed that political mobilisation and manipulations are more rewarding than concrete measures for social and economic transformation. This is the reason why not only the issues of economic development but also rural education, health and employment generation are all outside the agenda. There is no serious attempt at improving the fiscal health of the state. There are indications of massive tax evasion and pilferage of the government’s resources. The Finance Minister has hinted at it several times. It is the scarcity of the revenue which has paralysed the administration and would lead to the dismantling of several institutions which are greatly needed at this juncture. However, the resource crunch is artificial. It can be overcome merely by better tax compliance. The economic base is large, and taxable capability is much more than that of the 1960s when the state enacted the Green Revolution. The isolated measures would not work. A package of measures in a sustained way involving the government, the people and the institutions would hold the key to a better future. The slowdown in economic development is reversible, and other economic problems can be solved if the leadership has the will to do so. The writer is Professor of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala. |
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Welcome, astrology MY Webster hurts me when it defines astrology as “a pseudo-science claiming to foretell the future by studying the supposed influence of the relative positions of the moon, sun, and stars on human affairs”. Surfing the Internet equally baffles me when I find astrology and “gossip” figuring in the same columns of some newspapers. Mercifully not Vedic astrology which, after gentle persuasion by the HRD and the UGC, no less than 35 universities have decided to offer as a legitimate course of study. I don’t understand why some astrophysicists in Pune are so much upset at the prospect of teaching and studying astrology. I shudder to visualise their plight if one day some universities in the country resolve to set up chairs in the name of Aryabhatt and Maharshi Bhrigu. Einstein once lamented that some of the scientists lacked imagination so as to have a holistic view of the universe. He suggested that only a truce between logic and vision could unravel the mystery of life. The scientific temper, unfortunately, tends to imperil this salutary truce. Shakespeare was no astrologer but he had the creative insight to gauge the impact of stars and the moon on the human destiny. How to make the stars bless and accelerate the human endeavour, or how to mitigate their baneful role, is the goal of astrology. If physics, geo-physics and geology add to our knowledge of this planet, then surely astrology can supplement it. Astrology is not anti-knowledge, nor science alone pro-knowledge. We must realise, with open minds, that no boundary wall runs around knowledge. One point that I hold against some literary critics is that they tend to be knowledge-splitters, or separatists — by fomenting a sort of jehad between knowledge and power. I have in mind the blistering debate between the two camps, one for literature of knowledge and the other for literature of power. How does this hair-splitting help us? Knowledge without power is as sterile as power without knowledge. The “philosopher-king” Plato, perhaps for the first time in human history, tells us about this symbiosis. And we must remember that Plato took no opium, unlike De Quincey, the “user”, who noticed the knowledge-power polarities. Imagine what addiction can do to vision. In my serene sixties when I no longer worry about theoretical nit-picking, I do notice an enchanting link of life with astrology. Fifty years ago I used to pity a childhood friend who flunked his fourth class and took to astrology. In a matter of months he mastered the art after learning the basics from our village purohit. Proficiency came to him like leaves to a tree when he would calmly open his jantari, draw lines on the paper, do a little quiet calculation, and then make a prediction. Whenever a young couple asked him about the sex of their upcoming child, he would look up his almanac, do some doodling and then say “surely a son”. And a son it always was. I’m praying that our university soon sets up a department of astrology. I hope there is no age bar to sign up for this course which essentially believes in harmony between youth and age. I do have one handicap, though, I know no Sanskrit, the hitherto language of communication between man and moon. I’m, however, optimistic that, keeping in view my faith in and admiration for the sublime subject, the department would find me raring to decipher astral configurations. |
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Ugly males “are better partners” SCIENTISTS say ugly males make better partners for females. The less attractive make much better fathers because they don’t go around chasing attractive females. They are more likely to stay at home, hunting for food and rearing healthy offspring. The research was carried out by Spanish scientists studying the insect-eating bird the pied flycatcher. Males of the species have a white “love” patch on its head and the bigger the patch the more attractive they are to females. But Juan Jose Sanz of Spain’s National Museum of Natural Sciences found males with bigger white patches were more unfaithful and fathered chicks in other nests. He clipped the patches of some males and found they began feeding their young more often and more regularly than “sexier” unclipped males. They then reared a heavier, healthier brood. Dr Sanz believes the “uglier” males with smaller white patches have fewer opportunities to “mess around” with other females. They are seen as unattractive and spend less time looking for and trying to woo other females. The Daily Express Karma Chameleon Bem Le Hunte was born in India, grew up in England and is now living in Sydney with her Australian husband. A “cultural schozophrenic”, in her own words. Her debut book, “Seduction of silence”, slated for an India release, has been compared to Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”. An autobiographical novel, it traces the life of an Indian family through five generations in different continents. “While in India, we were treated like little princesses indulged and pampered; in the UK, we were a struggling middle-class family. My mother found it difficult to adjust to the English lifestyle. She took us to Christmas choir and celebrated Divali.
WFS Soccer stars act like monkeys Footballers celebrate goals by kissing and slapping each other as part of a special ape-like male bonding ritual. Scientists studied how and when footballers touch each other and believe their celebrations are part of a ritual previously seen only in primates. Doctor Linda Kneidinger of Temple University in Philadelphia said the contact between men on the pitch would normally be deemed unacceptable. She said: “Men find touching uncomfortable except in war and sport.” The work published in the Journal of Non-Verbal Behaviour said sportsmen were 20 times more likely than women to slap each other on the bottom when playing sports. It also found women have physical contact at home and when losing out of sympathy for each other. But men touched each other when they were winning and playing away to encourage each other and celebrate victory,
The Daily Record reports. |
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Jaswant's
pax Americana doctrine THE rather ironical part of Jaswant Singh's hasty endorsement of US President George Bush's NMD system has been that it comes in the wake of the third anniversary of the Pokhran blast. While the blast was made to look like a symbol of India's national pride, Jaswant Singh's faux pas is being widely viewed as a virtual palace coup amounting to a surrender of the nation's minimum security interests. The contradiction is too sharp and its implications too obvious. Already, there are quiet moves to assuage the ruffled feelings and make the whole move more palatable. But Vajpayee cannot brush aside two aspects of Jaswant Singh's brinkmanship that came when every one was busy with the Assembly elections. First, Jaswant Singh's utter disrespect of the established institutions and his contempt for procedures and practices while making such a crucial policy departure. Apparently, he was so overjoyed at a telephone call from the White House that he himself was caught in a hallucination of delegated authority to himself. He was in such a tearing hurry that he did not even consult the Union Cabinet before committing the nation to such a policy shift. Even the Prime Minister came to know about the implications of the move much later. National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, who was very much in Delhi, was kept in the dark. Very few in Jaswant Singh's Foreign Office knew what was really happening. The Committee on National Security was ignored. The coalition partners were never taken into confidence. All this has prompted a section in the Vajpayee establishment to believe that Jaswant Singh's has been a pure political coup d'etat aimed at creating a fiat accompli. In either case, it is a sad commentary on the style of functioning of the Vajpayee Government. Brajesh Mishra, now reeling under pressure from the Vajpayee baiters, may quietly relent. Vajpayee himself has ignored the faux pas as it would only lead to further embarrassment to him. And so the Cabinet colleagues and the coalition partners. But at least until this was written, the RSS parivar has maintained a frightening silence. The RSS considers Jaswant Singh a reckless anti-Swadeshi man. They have not yet pardoned him for mishandling the hijack episode and surrendering the culprits to the Taliban. Incidentally, it has been the irrepressible resentment within the RSS that has led to a debate among the Vajpayee's colleagues about the manner in which Jaswant Singh had handled the issue. The dominant view is that there was no need for India assigning itself the role of the Bush Administration's lone drumbeater. Jaswant Singh's secret negotiations with the Clinton Administration had only led to unilateral concessions like advance removal of quantitative restrictions on imports and allegedly secret assurances on nuclearisation. Parivar hawks allege that Jaswant Singh has on his own jettisoned India's right to follow its independent security paradigm. Like economic and cultural nationalism (read Hinduism), pride in national security domination is also an important component of the RSS nationalism. It was for this that the RSS had patted the Vajpayee Government for the Pokhran blast in 1998. The hawks fear that tagging India's security sovereignty with the USA would mark an anti-climax to the Pokhran pride. The second aspect of the episode relates to Jaswant Singh's flawed theory of ‘‘inevitability’’. He argues that since there is no real challenge to the US security domination, it is futile to protest against the Bush decision. Hence it is wiser to accept the global reality and happily go along with the US wishes. This is the central theme of his laboriously prepared statement and his subsequent explanation to the unconvinced colleagues and the media. True, there is an element of truth in the first part of the Jaswant doctrine. Though the cold war allies of the USA have expressed reservations about the Bush move, there is little doubt that they will finally relent. They have always done so. Even the Europeans will do so — in spite of all the fretting and fuming. A weakened Russia is not in a position to challenge the USA. The ‘‘rogues’’ against whom the missiles system is professedly aimed at, will naturally resist. The USA concedes that the main target of the US missile system is China which of late has been running a tactical cold war with the USA. The Chinese, conscious of their own growing economic and military clout, are bound to make shrill noises. They are already engaged in a running battle with the USA on the issue of the latter's spy plane flights. However, they are also a notoriously pragmatic people when it comes to a deadly confrontation with a clearly superior adversary. In this case, at stake for them is a $100 billion annual trade with USA. But while arriving at a compromise with the USA, the Chinese will strike a fierce bargain and may score some gains in the process. This they have been successfully doing in all their trade and investment negotiations with the USA for two decades. It is here that the Jaswant Singh doctrine of pax Americana has floundered. His biggest folly has been that he responded to a situation under a unipolar world with a cold war mindset. His entire ‘‘inevitability’’ theory is based on the dire need to park India safely with the US camp. According to him, the end of the cold war makes India the ‘‘natural’’ US choice for the region. By rushing to back Bush's NMD, he has only ensured this happy entry. But Jaswant Singh in the course of his smart moves miserably missed the point that when there are no rival cold war blocs, there can be no camp follower or ally either. If in the post-cold war era the USA does not need Pakistan as a bulwark in the region, it has no need for assigning a similar role for India either. As the sole super power, the USA is constantly reminding its trusted allies of the need to prove their loyalty on an issue-to-issue basis. Being a camp follower will not entail any special concession or protection to any country. The deciding factor is going to be hard trade, diplomacy and politics. The wholehearted support on a particular issue is not going to ensure perpetual future support or concession. Like globalised foreign trade and investment, diplomacy and politics will also be guided by the ability to strike the best bargain and the quality of the support. The moment the Taliban regime hands over Ben Laden to the USA, Afghanistan will be cleared of the ‘‘rogue’’ status. Under the pax Americana, declaration of a country as ‘‘terrorist’’ or ‘‘rogue’’ will depend on that country's attitude to the USA, not to India or others. How many countries dared to protest against the recent spy plane incident in China? The USA could non-challantly boycott the Kyoto convention and none could do anything about it. There are demands in the USA for ‘‘retaliation’’ for the ‘‘humiliation’’ of losing membership in UNHCR and the International Narcotic Control Board. This is what The Guardian describes ‘‘establishing a domineering, deeply threatening, global military posture.’’ The Bush Administration has only quickened the pace of this trend. |
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Child slave trade thrives in West Africa WHILE the complicated adoption law is leading to child trafficking in Andhra Pradesh, which is indeed shocking, the recent reports of child slave trade in West and Central Africa are hurting the conscience of mankind. According to BBC, which has been covering this ghastly issue in details, there are at present 250,000 such child slaves, working mainly on cocoa farms, some as domestic servants. The countries that are supplying child slaves are poor countries like Burkina Faso and Benin and richer countries that are buying slaves are Ivory Coast, Gabon and Nigeria. In a frantic effort to check and stop child slave trade, the police in both child-selling and child-buying countries is detaining the captains and members of the crew of the child slaves carrying ships sailing along the coast of western Africa. Despite international efforts to curb the trade, child slavery persists in West and Central Africa from where European slave traders shipped millions of blacks to the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries. The Benin police said on April 16 that an international arrest warrant had been issued for a businessman from Benin, Mr Stanislas Abadtan, suspected of trading hundreds of child slaves thought to be on a ship roaming the West African coast. Some children on board were said to be sick. Neighbouring countries were alerted in the hunt for the ship, which aid workers fear might have disembarked on a small Nigerian port with a human cargo of 180 children sold into slavery by poor families to work for nothing. UNICEF and the Benin Government as also other relief groups are hunting for ships carrying unaccompanied small children from ages 10 to 12. A serious hunt was made for a Nigerian-registered ship MV Etireno. It is speculated that its captain, a Nigerian with a criminal past, could have thrown his human cargo overboard. Sick children on the slave-carrying ships have definitely been thrown into the sea. Britain’s Cadburys, world’s largest chocolate manufacturing firm, says that a century ago it freed the slaves from cocoa plantations. “If it could be done for slaves a century ago, it can be done for child labour today. It is quite possible for these issues to be investigated and the abuses removed.” The reports of child slave labour in Ivory Coast and Nigeria have shocked the British chocolate market, which was worth £ 3.7 billion in 1998. Ivory Coast, a prosperous French-speaking country of 15 million, is the biggest producer of cocoa beans, producing 42 per cent of the world crop and nearly 15 per cent of British cocoa imports. Britain’s chocolate manufacturers may face “fair trade” labelling laws unless they set up a foolproof scheme to ensure their cocoa is not farmed by child labour. Despite their denial, all British chocolate manufacturers have known for years that slave children are engaged in harvesting the cocoa crop. The British public also knows it well that chocolate manufacturers are happy to receive cocoa produced by child labour at a cheaper price that would enhance their profits. The British Foreign Office is upset with the reports of British chocolate manufacturers buying cocoa produced by child slaves and with the reports that 15,000 slave children in Ivory Coast are working for cocoa producers. The British Ministry of Trade and Industry sources are going to ask the manufacturers to certify that their products have been produced fairly. British, French, German, Swiss and American chocolate industry is now putting pressure on cocoa producers, especially in Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana to free the child labour with warnings that import of cocoa will otherwise be stopped. As it is there are strong anti-foreigner sentiments in Ivory Coast, as the locals remain unemployed. The child labour may have to be freed and migrant workers from neighbouring countries — backbone of the labour force that harvests cocoa beans — are leaving. This may cause cocoa production to decline drastically and world chocolate prices to rise and the profits of Cadburys and others to decline. |
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Goldsmith as Magistrate LETTERS of resignation are sometimes interesting reading; but it is hard to think of a more cogent or convincing reason for resigning an appointment than the one given by Mr T. Raman Thattan, B.A, a Sub-Magistrate in Malabar, whose hereditary occupation was that of a goldsmith. "I have sprung from my father's anvil and hammar," he says, "and to them I must ultimately return........ If I continue to taste more and more will be my sin and misery which must visit my progeny for many generations. With one effort have I held back and no serpent is going to tempt me again to it." We hope this true and worthy son of a goldsmith will be an ornament to his hereditary profession to which he has now wisely reverted. |
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SPIRITUAL NUGGETS Know that the Prophet built an external Kaba Of clay and water, And an inner Kaba in life and heart. The outer Kaba was built by Abraham, The Holy; The inner is sanctified by the glory of God Himself. — Ansari, Mystic of Herat. From S.J. Singh, The Persian Mystics ***** Spiritual life does not consist of loud prayers and frenzied dancing they only upset the peace and quiet of early morning. Walking on water is not spirituality nor is praying on mats suspended in mid air. They alone may be called mystics, O Bahu, who have enshrined the Friend in their hearts. ***** God does not live in the highest heaven, nor can be found in the holy shrine of Ka'ba. No one ever ever found him through learning or by knowing the scriptures... ***** Formal prayer and prostration are feeble pursuits. Fasting has little merit, other than to save food. Only they go on pilgrimages to Mecca who are not wanted at home. Only they pray loudly, professing their devotion, who are deceptive of intent. But those who have found God's name in their hearts care not to fast nor prostrate themselves in formal prayer. — Abyaat-e-Baahoo, 177,178,183. From J.S. Puri and K.S. Khak, Sultan Bahu ***** Your mind is Mathura, Dwarka is your heart, Your body is Kashi; The true temple Is at the tenth door, Therein realise the Light of God. — Kabir Granthavali, p.35:10 |
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