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Tuesday,
August
28,
2001, Chandigarh, India  
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UP in
election mode Short-term
anger |
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| Avoidable
communal incident IT is not clear why the Intelligence Bureau has been asked to investigate the incident of communal violence in the walled city area of Ahmedabad. There is no confusion over the source of the act of provocation that resulted in Hindu-Muslim clashes. The incidents of violence spread over several days mostly by Bajrang Dal activists forced the authorities to clamp an indefinite curfew in the Dariapur locality. The IB has evidently been brought into the picture because the Muslim population does not trust the local police.
A close
look at modern growth strategy
Loneliness
can kill
More
heart attacks on weekends
NDA:
rumblings over waning stock
|
UP in election mode UTTAR
Pradesh has been brought on the election mode. It is all on expected lines since the electoral verdict will have a direct and serious bearing on the BJP, the leader of the ruling alliance at the Centre. A hastily arranged understanding with the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal is the very first step. The more serious is to once again project the Ayodhya issue as the main plank. The VHP has already set a deadline by March 12 next year for a court-determined settlement or a politically determined one; in the absence of it will go ahead with the construction of a magnificent temple. It is not a bravado posturing by the ultra conservative outfit out of tune with the general thinking of the Sangh Parivar. This is clear from the optimistic statement of Prime Minister Vajpayee that there would be a mutually agreed solution to the vexed issue by March. And to give credence to this view he held talks with Sunni and Shia Muslim leaders in Lucknow on Sunday. It is very difficult to believe that a vexed issue could be sorted out in one meeting or within six months or so. Obviously, the Prime Minister is helping the VHP and indirectly the BJP to propel the temple dispute as a key election issue. A charitable interpretation is that the Hindutva forces have re-discovered the innate faith of the majority community in the magical attraction of a Ram temple. The coarse assumption is that the party feels desperate and is reverting to a tested issue as a fall-back option. Other parties too are getting ready to fight the coming Assembly elections. The BSP, now fully under the control of the mercurial Mayawati madam, has drawn a list of nominees from all castes, including Brahmins and Banias, to emerge as a multi-caste party and not as a dalit-only outfit. This way it wants to win the votes of all those who are opposed to the BJP and the Congress. Ms Mayawati yearns to establish a two-party system in UP, her own BSP and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP). The SP’s counter is simple even if it betrays a degree of nervousness. It is gingerly approaching the Congress for an electoral alliance. In about 150 constituencies the Congress support will be crucial. If the alliance materialises, the BJP can be pushed to the third position with the BSP securing the second spot. Election time brings out the latent yearnings of political parties and so it is in UP. |
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Short-term anger ANGRY
outbursts are nothing new from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah. The latest eruption was on Sunday, full 11 days after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Independence Day speech. He threatened to pull out of the NDA alleging that Mr Vajpayee and his senior colleagues like Mr L.K. Advani had insinuated that he had come to power through rigged elections. That very night he apparently spoke to Mr Vajpayee. The presence of son Omar Abdullah at the NDA meeting the next day was indication enough that the potential confrontation was a non-starter. Dr Abdullah might also have attended the meeting but for the death of senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Kitchloo. One interpretation is that Dr Abdullah blew his top off in the heat of the moment. The cool manner in which the Central Government responded to his anger confirmed this line of thinking. Mr Vajpayee is in an unenviable position because of the prevailing electoral arithmetic but responded in a matter-of-fact tone. However, it is equally plausible that it was a well-thought-out tantrum, which can pay rich dividends in the days to come. It might be a warning to the Centre to clear the financial package meant for J and K, or else! At the same time, it is very much possible that Dr Abdullah is gearing himself to go into the election mode sooner than expected, although he has said that “we will complete our full term” and “elections will be held only when I wish” (and not when the Centre wants them). Striking such a tough anti-Centre posture can stand him in good stead whenever the state goes to the polls. The elections are due in October next year but there has been a buzz that these might be held this year itself. The induction of three ministers from unrepresented areas has fuelled the speculation. Party cadres have also galvanised themselves into action. A strident posture vis-ŕ-vis New Delhi is advisable to calm down the voters who are none too enamoured of his performance. He rode to power in 1996 vowing to get autonomy. That demand stands firmly rejected. Nor has the common man got any respite from the daily dose of violence as promised. He is feeling suffocated in the crossfire between the militants and the security forces. The promulgation of the Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces (J and K) Special Powers Act has increased his worries. An astute politician that Dr Abdullah is, it is unlikely that he will sever ties with the ruling alliance. But to stand defiant as one’s own man is highly prudent. |
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Avoidable communal incident IT is not clear why the Intelligence Bureau has been asked to investigate the incident of communal violence in the walled city area of Ahmedabad. There is no confusion over the source of the act of provocation that resulted in Hindu-Muslim clashes. The incidents of violence spread over several days mostly by Bajrang Dal activists forced the authorities to clamp an indefinite curfew in the Dariapur locality. The IB has evidently been brought into the picture because the Muslim population does not trust the local police. The loss of faith of the people in the fairness of the police in investigating incidents of communal violence can be linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party being in power in Gujarat. The IB investigation is a damage-control exercise with an eye on the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh where Muslim votes will play a crucial role in deciding the winner. But the fact of the matter is that the spark for the Dariapur violence, which mercifully claimed just one life, was provided by a bunch of hoodlums claiming to be activists of the Bajrang Dal. There is little difference in the tactics of the Bajrang Dal and Hitler's infamous stormtroopers for implementing the agenda of the Sangh Parivar. It is said that local Muslim shopkeepers had lodged a complaint with the police that Bajrang Dal activists were forcing them to donate money for the Ganesh Puja. Instead of acting on the complaint, the police ignored reports of extortion of money from shopkeepers by activists of the same outfit whose member committed the gory crime of torching alive Graham Staines and his two sons in Manoharpur in Orissa. Its credentials as a socio-religious organisation are as suspect as that of the Students Islamic Movement of India. Mr L.K. Advani, who has been made in charge of the BJP poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh, during a visit to Lucknow said that evidence was being collected for slapping a ban on the activities of SIMI. Why similar action should not be taken against the Bajrang Dal and other hardline Sangh Parivar organisations is a question which the Union Home Minister prefers not to discuss. It may not be wrong to say that the IB enquiry into the latest round of communal violence is meant to buy time, for tempers to cool down both among the Hindus and the Muslims, rather than collect evidence for prosecuting the guilty. Newspapers have carried photographs of Bajrang Dal activists carrying swords through the streets of Ahmedabad as an act of defiance of the law, which prohibits the use of weapons without a valid licence from the district authorities. No one was reportedly arrested for the violation of the law. |
A close look at modern growth strategy THE story is well known. Yet, it is worth repeating. Once a person went through a rigorous process of penance to please Lord Shiva. He succeeded. Lord Shiva appeared and said, “What is your wish, my dear son?” The person prayed, “My Lord! Kindly promise that you would grant whenever I wish for any thing!” The Lord agreed, “All right, you will always get whatever you wish for, but your neighbour will get just the double.” And the person went home, happy. Next morning, he wished for a palatial house. He got one, and his neighbour got two! Then, he wished for a big car. He got that also. Again, the neighbour got two big cars! Desires are self-feeding. So, they multiplied manifold in his case too. He wished for more and more. The gracious Lord granted all his wishes. He became very prosperous. But the neighbour become twice as prosperous! Now, the person was worried. What to do! He found a clever solution. He prayed Lord Shiva to take one of his eyes. The wish was granted. He lost one eye and his neighbour lost both eyes. He further asked the Lord to take one of his hands and then one of his legs. In this way, he lost one eye, one hand, and one leg. And the neighbour lost both eyes, both hands, and both legs. Now, the person felt contented and said, “It is wonderful, indeed. Thanks a lot, the great Lord!” This story dramatises today’s reality. Man is caught in the bear hug of envy and pride. Business strategies and designed on the assumptions, inter alia, of these two as social values. And, sadly, such strategies succeed in gaining market shares and profits. A typical example is the success of the advertisement captioned, “Neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride.” But the overall effect of such strategies is traumatic. Individuals, families, social groups, political parties, business organisations, all fight, and often to the finish. Nations acquire deadly weapons, even if there isn’t enough to feed and clothe their people. What Peter Drucker said about communism is true for all system of modern society: “... it brought out all the worst in the ‘Old Adam’: corruption, greed, lust for power, envy and mutual distrust, petty jealousy and secretiveness: lying, stealing, and denunciation and, above all, cynicism.”
(Span, May, 1993). If envy is depicted on the x-axis and pride on the y-axis, almost everybody is found in the first quadrant of the envy-pride (x, y) space. And higher the position of a person in business, industry, government, or politics, higher he is on the envy-pride space. If the top is afflicted, imagine the situation of the remaining society. Comparison with others is the most common feature of a society that considers competition not only natural but also desirable. Comparison is the cause as well as the consequence of envy and pride. One gets into the habit of comparing quite early, in fact during early childhood. Here is an interesting example. Once a two-year old girl met a boy of the same age. The girl walked up to the boy, held and end of her frock in her little fingers, took it near the boy’s shirt for a comparison. She appeared satisfied with the comparison, as her frock was better than the boy’s shirt. Then, she placed her shoes by the side of the boy’s shoes and compared. She did not utter a word. But her gestures expressed what she meant. One could see the pride on her face. Indeed, she was slanting her superior clothes and shoes! The intensity of the habit of comparison and the position thereby in the envy-pride space may vary from person to person. So long as one’s circumstances are such that one’s pride is sustained, it is okay, perhaps. But everybody reaches the limit of his pride. And time shatters the pride of every individual. Every camel, it is said, finds a hill! Every individual finds someone better placed, and thereby in an enviable position. It is a common experience that many executives, politicians, businessmen, government officers, professors and others who have been successful on most of the modern criteria of performance and growth (efficiency, promotions, income, etc) are not happy. Driven by pride and envy, they try hard to find a “competitive edge” for themselves and for the organisations they work for. But in the modern era of globalisation, the accelerated pace of change and uncertainly has made this “competitive edge” quite elusive. Like Alice in Wonderland, they run faster in order to remain standstill! It is evident enough that envy and pride are endemic to today’s competitive world. The question, however, is: should human behaviour and action be based on pride and envy as the accepted value system? Or, should attempts be made to shift man from the envy-pride value space to some superior value space? The spiritual wisdom of most of the religions of the world teem with principles directed towards man’s development, to the extent of attaining divinity. These illumine man’s path and guide him as to how to avoid the trap of envy, pride, comparison, and competition, which impede his way to ultimate happiness and peace. The ancient Indian scriptures, Shrimadbhagavadgita, the Ramayana, Vivekachudamani, Yogashastra, Panchatantra, etc, and niti shlokas scattered all around in several other scriptures cogently argue that envy and pride couldn’t be acceptable values for human society. Modern scientific researchers in the West have started giving credence to the spiritual wisdom, particularly eastern and
ancient. Of particular interest are the researchers on “emotional intelligence”. An excellent summary of the main findings of the extensive literature on emotional intelligence is found in Daniel Goleman’s “What makes a leader?” published in Harvard Business Review (Nov-Dec, 1998). He observes that intelligence (IQ) and technical skills matters only as threshold capabilities, while emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of effective leadership. Furthermore, the need for emotional intelligence increase with the level of performance required of an individual. Goleman lists five components of emotional intelligence. (I) Self-awareness — the ability to recognise one’s moods, emotions and drives, as well as their effects on others. (2) Self-regulation — the ability to control and redirect disruptive impulses and moods. (3) Motivation — a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money and status. (4) Empathy — the ability to understand the emotional makeup of others; skill in treating people according to their emotional reactions. (5) Social skill — proficiency in managing relationship and building networks; an ability to find common grounds and build rapport. An insight into the empirical realities of the contemporary society makes it quite clear that values based on envy and pride are not consistent with any of the above components of emotional intelligence. Thus, a person high on the envy-pride space lacks self-awareness. He may not be able to understand the effects of his mood, emotions and drives on others. Or, even when he understands, he may simply ignore such effects. Pride and envy enhance disruptive impulses and moods. A person high on the envy-pride space may find it well nigh impossible to self-regulate himself. It would be difficult for him to “work for reasons beyond money and status”. A person trying to find common grounds and build rapport with others (to improves his social skill) has to shun envy and pride. Indeed, the position of an emotionally intelligent person in the envy-pride space would lie very near the origin (0, 0). It would be ideal if he could move to the third quadrant, sub-space with negative envy (that is, love) and negative pride (that is, humility). The obvious flouts, environmental and psychological, of every-pride-based strategies have also led to the questioning of the approach and to the search for an alternative paradigm. Even the much-lauded goads of economic growth today appears to be in jeopardy. The economy growth in Japan has become negative. It is less than 1 per cent in the USA. The industrial output in Indha has grown at one and a half than 1 per cent in the USA. The industrial output in India has grown at 1.5 per cent in June, 2001! Asian Tigers do not roar any more. The character of people in every walk of life — politics, bureaucracy, business and finance, and industry — has taken a deep dip. So many areas in developing as well as developed countries have become “disturbed areas”, to say the least. The heart of humanity is bleeding. The quest of modern behavioural scientists working in the area of intelligence and performance has taken them from intelligence to emotional intelligence and recently to spiritual intelligence (Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, “Connecting with our Spiritual Intelligence”, Blomsbury, January 2000) as determinants of effective leadership. Hopefully men will learn from the lessons to become better leaders. And as social scientists perfect their research methodologies, they will approach the concepts of “sthitapragya” of Lord Krishna, “servant-leadership” of Swami Vivekananda, “trusteeship” of Mahatma Gandhi, and “Not my will, Lord, but thine” of Jesus Christ as more relevant determinants of effective leadership. The writer is Professor, University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh. |
Loneliness can kill LONELINESS is a frightful fiend. It stalks you night and day, and pounces on you without warning. You are most vulnerable when either you are very old or very young. I remember how after my mother’s death, my father looked lonely and lost. He started to have bouts of forgetfulness and epileptic fits. It is not as if they doted on each other, or were anywhere near a “made for each other” couple. In fact, they quarrelled occasionally, and there were days when they were not on speaking terms, and used me as a conduit for conversation. “Tell your Bhabhu (which is how I addressed her) I am going to the lake”, father would say within her earshot, whereafter they would go out for a walk in Indian file, keeping a distance of about 10 ft between them. Or my mother would say on my father’s face: “Tell your Dada (which is what I called father) I am going to the market to get my chappal mended”, and they would leave for a leisurely sauntering in the sector market. Often, however, they were cooing to each other like pigeons, sitting in the front verandah, chewing the cud of their childhood memories, discussing persons and events from other times, other climes. With mother’s passing away, an unbridgeable void was created in father’s life. He looked unhinged, lacking focus. His loneliness was palpable. My parents being unlettered, the pleasures of reading or even the “timepass” of newspapers was denied to them. Not having seen many films, they did not relate to the radio; and TV was yet to happen. In the modern age, the multi-channel TV has emerged as the greatest entertainer. There is something for every taste at all times. One can roam around the globe and beyond: among the penguins in the Antarctica or fashion models in Paris, the stars in Hollywood or the senators in Washington: and all it takes from you is fiddling with some buttons on the remote. It is an effective antidote against retirement blues or creeping loneliness. However, there are moments when nothing avails against loneliness. My octogenarian friend, B.D. Bhai, whose wife died some years ago, seems lately to be driven by this demon. His two devoted sons “keep” him alternately for three months. He is a lover of Urdu poetry, a regular reader of newspapers and he watches TV. He had brought a new TV and installed it in the drawing room, but his grandchildren monopolise it. A certain vacancy stares him in the face, and he seeks the company of old friends who are delighted to see him, yet he can sense that they have their own preoccupations. And there’s the rub. But it is during the long nights that the real problem arises. Sleep has deserted him; he has breathlessness and a parched throat and tosses restlessly in his bed. I figured his problem is more psychological than physical, for he is able to sleep after breakfast in the day. I advised him to buy another TV from his accumulating pension, which would be of no use to him, and install it in his bedroom for his exclusive pleasure; and after dinner have a go at Discovery or BBC World or Star movies, whatever his fancy chooses. Or see even the much-maligned Fashion channel. I find it diverting, nay, gripping. The Western world knows how to celebrate the female body! Loneliness in the young can be even more unmanageable. Lady Chatterley was possessed by this demon. Luckily for her, she found happiness in the understanding, rather earthy and elemental, embrace of Mellors, the gamekeeper. For others it can be shattering and devastating. It hunted Princess Diana, and she was momentarily driven to the fitful embrace of her horse trainer, and later, to the fatal rendezvous with Dodi Fayyad. It also seemed to stalk Deependra, Prince of Nepal, who talked thrice with his ladylove in a distant land, had a whiff of hashish, and then went berserk, committing the ghastly and ghoulish deed: brandishing his monstrous weapon like a phallic-bolt, and killing his sire, his mother, his siblings and the rest, and when it was all over, himself. As Coleridge sang: ...this soul hath been Alone on a wide wide sea: So lonely ‘twas, that God himself, Scare seemed there to be. |
More heart attacks on weekends WEEKENDS are the worst times for young and middle-aged men to suffer heart attacks, new research has revealed. The authors of the study, which looked at heart attack data from France, concluded there was no obvious reason why weekends should be more dangerous. “It could be that young men engage in strenuous activity at the weekends, so increasing the risk of a heart attack in those who are susceptible,” the study said. Professor Jean Ferrieres of Toulouse’s Inserm Research Institute and his colleagues studied existing French data on heart attacks and causes of death between 1987 and 1997. The research, published in the journal, Heart, challenged earlier general assumptions that Monday was the critical day for heart attacks, with the impending stress of the working week sometimes suggested as the reason. The study found that deaths from heart disease in men aged between 25 and 44 peaked on Saturdays and Sundays. In men aged between 45 and 54, deaths from heart disease peaked on Sundays, while only for older men did Monday seem to be the critical day.
Reuters.
Bullies hang out with bullies Bullies tend to pal around with their fellow bullies and learn some of their tactics, from their peers, according to research presented at a meeting of the American Psychological Association. “Kids that are bullies hang out with kids that tease other kids,” said lead author Dorothy L. Espelage, a psychologist at the University of Illinois. “There is a social process going on — ‘over time, I will learn to bully’.” Bullying has been an increased focus of research in the US, especially since bullying has been implicated as a possible factor in several high-profile school shootings including Columbine.
Reuters.
Tired of ’em, she married 6 times An Egyptian woman has been charged with polygamy after she married six times and walked out on five husbands over a 15-year period without bothering to get a divorce from any of them. The Egyptian Mail said the woman, now 32, first got married at 18. After bearing three children she left one day to go shopping — and never came home. She repeated her vanishing act with five subsequent husbands. Her past caught up with her when two of the men happened to stop by the coffee house where hubby number six works and
spotted her on the premises.
Reuters. |
NDA: rumblings over waning stock CALL
it rumblings or the onset of a protracted cold war in the BJP establishment. Either way, the message is loud and clear. Suddenly everyone in the BJP is beginning to feel upset over the falling health of the ruling coalition. Few seem to nurse illusions about the leadership’s ability to steer the government to safety. Talk to BJP leaders, and they will pour out the voters’ anger back home against the Vajpayee government. This monsoon session marks a watershed in the relationship within the three-year-old coalition. New forces are emerging well beneath the deceptive calm on the surface. With the biggest stake in the NDA, the fallout of the gathering disaster has been most visible in the BJP. As things go wrong, sceptics and well-wishers alike have launched hushed criticisms of the leadership. These are at two levels — ideological-strategic as well as personal-factional levels. The traditionalists and the SJM-VHP groups have again begun pushing strong views for a return to the original puritanical parivar line Mr Vajpayee may have stumped such clamours by winning back the RSS bosses. But as things go wayward and the government gets more unpopular, such views seem to be getting wider acceptance. Three years of coalescing, they argue, has cost the BJP and the parivar their very soul. This may be the last chance to check the “Lakshmanisation” of the BJP cadre, eliminate the power brokers and to recapture the eroded work culture. These sections argue that the BJP’s path ahead has reached a dead-end. After 1998, the party has not been able to improve its presence horizontally or vertically. This is a serious matter. It has been losing in all its traditional strongholds. Things are bad even in Gujarat. UP is set to lose badly. Outside the Gangetic valley, the NDA allies would not allow any expansion in their territory. Moreover, coalition constraints have imposed restrictions on both the BJP and the parivar on resorting to aggressive Hindutva programmes. The hard politicians, however, dismiss this as moonshine. They do concede that the Vajpayee government has lost its earlier dynamism, initiative and aggressiveness and a sense of helplessness has crept in. But they all have their own long, laboured explanation for the failures. According to them, once on the coalition track, any change of line midway would only push it into total disaster. Thus the only way out was to make more readjustments and compromises. Apparently, there is no question of the old puritans making any immediate impact. At the personal-factional level, the cold war in the BJP is more pronounced and bitter. Every one tries to use the failures to settle scores with others. As things begin to crumble and the government faces more flak, faction leaders at different levels use them as ammunition against the rivals. Even UP leaders have their own ‘I-told-you’ to put the blame on Vajpayee for the present satyanash. He is blamed for removing Kalyan Singh and imposing an inefficient Chief Minister in his place. His role in alienating the middle classes from the BJP through the economic mismanagement and scams is being freely talked about. He had sheltered the power brokers — saffron scribes, lobbyists and party ‘friend’ who used the PMO phones to provide more legitimacy and authority — who facilitated swindling of public funds by manipulating the very institutions that should have strengthened ‘economic democracy’. He is also blamed for inaction on crucial issues and for often messing up things. Had the Prime Minister used his legitimate prerogatives, much of the misgivings over the mixup on things like the Arjuna awards, whimsical handling of the Afro-Asian games and mismanagement of Maran’s ministry could have been cleared. While the main players in this internal cold war may not be aware of much of the happenings, the sycophants do have their vested interests. Mr L.K. Advani has emerged as the favourite target of the rival camp. It has been the BJP factionalists, rather than the opposition, who get elated at every floundering move at North Block. On the autonomy move in Kashmir, the VHP was prodded to oppose it. Mr Advani’s main sin has been that he takes ‘casual’ decisions without taking the senior colleagues into confidence on such crucial issues as the Naga ceasefire, autonomy, amnesty to the cops and the proposal for deployment of central forces in states. This, it is pointed out, had complicated the relationship with some of the NDA allies. All such recriminations have highlighted three crucial aspects of the present coalition. First, for the first time, Vajpayee finds himself in a weak and vulnerable position. True, every one in the NDA had pleaded with him to take back his resignation and continue to lead them. But their responses had also indicated a marked downsizing of the Prime Minister within the coalition. This has been due to their perception that his middle class constituency has turned against him. He is no more their hero. Even in UP, sections of the BJP take him as a liability. Recent reports say that Advani is now being made the party’s campaign mascot. Even during the resignation episode, there have been indications that had Mr Vajpayee persisted on his decision, the partners might have readily opted for a new incumbent. Unlike a year back, he is not considered that indispensable. Apart from the Prime Minister’s waning halo, further proved by the friendly media’s opinion polls, the entire coalition was coming round to the view that the government should survive, with or without Mr Vajpayee. Every NDA constituent has a stake in the continuation of the government because it was crucial for their fight against adversaries in their respective states. Mr Vajpayee’s own behavioural changes stand testimony to this. He has stopped making himself the centre of decision making in both the government and the party. Now he heavily depends on Advani, Jaswant Singh, etc. His sudden gravitation towards the RSS illustrates his losing grip and diminishing self-confidence. The person who had barely a few months back humbled the parivar stalwarts, has attended two Sudarshan functions in quick succession, including the one for
gurudakshina. At the first meeting, this widely perceived ‘liberal’ leader even equated the freedom fighters of the INA with the killers of Mahatma Gandhi. Second, the NDA parties may not shun Mr L.K. Advani as an ‘untouchable’ in case such a situation arises. This was evident from the interaction among NDA leaders during the first few hours of the resignation crisis. Vajpayee’s own tilt towards the Hindutva fold has further reduced the secular gap between the two. Exigencies of power seem to be forcing them not to shun Advani in case they have to choose between Vajpayee and a dismissal of the Lok Sabha. Third, as the government’s stock continues to wane and it gets into more trouble, it is the position of the poll-wary NDA allies, not that of the BJP that has become weak. In the past few weeks, the BJP had casually snubbed such dominant ones as George Fernandes, Mamata Banerjee and the DMK. All of them had meekly submitted themselves on issues like reinstatement in the Cabinet, readmission in the NDA and spiting Jayalalitha. Apparently, they are fast losing their bargaining advantage. However, for the time being, recurring crises and fresh scams seem to be overtaking all such internal conflicts. |
THE
Internet age is increasingly changing the way students learn, say
experts. “Children are getting more excited about experiments
involving the Internet and are learning on their own,” explains Mr
Werner Sacher, an education researcher at Germany’s University of
Erlangen-Nuremberg. At the same time, there is an increased need for edutainment-learning materials that are entertaining. Such materials are needed, researchers say, to fight a growing trend; children show less interest and ability in tackling more complex projects. The Internet has already become firmly entrenched in the everyday life of students. Schools use the abundance of information for reports and homework, Mr Sacher says. A few students are also able to hone their knowledge continually via virtual schools that have been created online. “Creating
intelligent learners is a goal all educators have to aim for,” says
Mr Sacher. Online learning has been proven to help eliminate school and performance anxiety. The study shows that with the rise of Internet-based education, such personal identifiers as appearance and clothing are becoming less significant. “The
focus in online-enabled education is very task-oriented,” Mr Sachar
explains. On the other hand, the researchers have found a lack of
monitoring of online assignments. Teachers tend not to know whether the students understand everything or whether the students have actually completed their assignments on their own. Another problem with Internet-enabled education is a lack of depth. The Internet is often good only for a survey of a subject. Use of the world wide web in education should not be seen as a replacement for tutoring, the researchers say. Students
in need of tutoring often face not only gaps in their knowledge but
also self-image problems as well. The latter cannot be adequately
addressed by Internet-based curricula. DPA |
I will tell you a story of five blind men. There was a procession in a village in India, and all the people turned out to see the procession and specially the gaily caparisoned elephant... As the five blind men could not see, they determined to touch the elephant that they might acquaint themselves with its form... After the procession had passed they began to talk about the elephant. “It was just like a wall”, said one. “No it was not”, said another, “It was like a piece of rope”. “You are mistaken”, said a third, “I felt him and it was just like a serpent.” The discussion grew excited and the fourth declared the elephant was like a pillow. The argument soon broke into more angry expressions... Along came a man with two eyes... and he said, “Men, you are all right; the trouble is you touched the elephant at different points. The wall was the side, the rope was the tail, the serpent was the trunk and the toes were the pillow. Religion has become involved in such a quarrel. — Swami Vivekananda’s address at Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Journal, November 27, 1893 * * * O prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination. — The Holy Quran, Chapt. IX. section 9:67-68, Section 10:73 * * * Be always positive even if circumstances turn out for the worst. * * * The one who is truly cooperative would be instrumental in the task of world transformation. — From Purity,
February 1988 |
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