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Wednesday,
February 20, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Omar Sheikh’s bombshell Exit polls A good beginning |
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Emerging strategic challenges
Triumphal march or funeral procession?
Skirts can actually look great on men
Married men open up in old age AS married couples age, husbands appear to become more sentimental in talking about the relationship while wives grow more reticent, according to a US study of 20 long-term marriages. Fewer medical tests may be enough
2000, Literature: GAO XINGJIAN
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Omar Sheikh’s bombshell OMAR Sheikh, the widely believed mastermind of several sensational terrorist attacks, is spoiling the visit of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to Washington. He has reached a point where he can wreck the visit and make the President red-faced. He first confessed to organising and killing American reporter Daniel Pearl and now has admitted to attacking the US Information Center in Kolkata. There have also been daring suicide assaults on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly building and the Parliament complex in New Delhi on December 23. An attack on symbols of democratic institutions like Assembly and Parliament buildings is seen as extremely provocative and evokes a strong reaction and this is particularly true of the USA. Omar Sheikh has been living in Pakistan for more than two years and he is a British citizen and hence should have been under close police watch. His claims of daring action could be an exaggerated boast to entrench his leadership in the so-called jehadi groups, as the Pakistani authorities say. But it could also be a government defence of distancing itself from the terrorists and shielding its lack of action during all these years when this British citizen was in Pakistan plotting terrorists attacks in an important neighbouring country. Any country interested in democracy will know the dilemma of a military dictatorship trying to damage India. What is intriguing is not what Omar Shiekh has done but why a brilliant student of the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science had to take to raw violence. This is a modern phenomenon that needs to be researched. At the height of the Punjab problem several scholars settled in the West, in premier academic institutions, had supported the “cause”, and what is more, provided ideological and moral support. Obviously, distance from the scene of protest creates a stronger sense than from a local area. India, with its multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual pattern, has to be more careful and cautious. |
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Exit polls LIKE it or not, opinion polls enjoy tremendous popularity. Newspapers and TV channels used to be full of them till the Election Commission turned the screws. As a result, pre-poll surveys are rare. But exit polls continue to hog the headlines. But the margin of error in them is so large that they can at best be called an inexact science even when reputed psephologists are involved. At times, conclusions drawn by them on the basis of sample surveys are right, but most of the time, these are way off the mark. The reasons are not difficult to divine. Any representative survey in a country as big as India just cannot get the larger picture right. Secondly, the electorate is not a homogenous commodity to account for the whims and fancies of various groups and sub-groups. That is why results of exit polls conducted by various agencies are at sharp variance with each other. When prophesies can be so topsy turvy even when these are made by objective professionals, one can well imagine the dependability of those made by men who are not quite that upright. Recent media reports have exposed the tricks played by some such people. It has been found that an agency carried out exit polls for two different parties in a state and came out with totally different conclusions. One who pays the piper does call the tune, but doing so in the case of poll predictions is ethically and morally wrong, to say the least. Had opinion polls been harmless like astrology columns that appear in almost all newspapers regularly, not many eyebrows would have been raised about their contents. But they influence the voting pattern considerably. Since they can also be manipulated at the same time, there is need to regulate them accordingly. Most countries have already banned opinion polls. There are restrictions on their publication in India also. But exit polls have been given a free hand. However, since elections are held in several phases, the possibility of the predictions of one phase of polling influencing the voting pattern in another phase - may be in another state - are considerable. As such, it would be advisable to ensure that if exit poll results are to be published or telecast at all, these should be aired only after the completion of the final round. |
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A good beginning THE
University Grants Commission’s decision to introduce degree-level job-oriented courses such as B Sc in water harvesting, oceanography, clinical nutrition and dietetics, food processing and preservation, and BA in tea technology, language translation and interpretation should be examined in the light of the growing irrelevance of humanities and social science subjects in the present-day context. It is common knowledge that nowadays an ordinary BA or B.Sc degree holder hardly gets a call letter for a clerical post, leave alone getting the job. Colleges churning out thousands of graduates in common streams are not only doing a great disservice to the country but also exacerbating the unemployment problem. As things stand today, disciplines like history, political science, sociology, anthropology, botany, zoology and home science — either for graduation or postgraduation — will have relevance only if the student concerned shows extraordinary merit and scholarship, in which case he or she could either prepare for the civil services or do research. But then, no one can guarantee one’s success in the civil services examination in view of the very stiff competition, too many reserved categories and the various stages of elimination primarily aimed at weeding out lakhs of aspirants. A career in research too is full of uncertainties. While the UGC’s decision is a good beginning, policy-makers and educationists at the Centre and in the states should also look into the possibility of introducing more and more vocational courses at the postgraduate, undergraduate and higher secondary levels in tune with the changing needs of society. Whatever the claims and counter-claims of political bosses in this regard, the policies and methods being practised by some institutions at present are outdated and lacking in imagination, direction and a sense of purpose. Consider the classic example of Chandigarh’s Industrial Training Institute (ITI). UT Administrator and Punjab Governor Lieut-Gen JFR Jacob was surprised to find the other day during a visit that even in today’s age of modern printing technology, hand-composing continues to be taught as a one-year certificate course in the ITI. Clearly, there is need for comprehensive planning and a more realistic approach to the problem of unemployment so that our students’ time and energies are not wasted in obsolete disciplines and instead channellised in a constructive manner so as to help them become self-reliant in course of time and face the challenges ahead. Our planners should make a clear distinction between the educational needs of the privileged and the underprivileged. As formal examination-oriented learning is of little use to the students, especially the poor, the government should take suitable measures to provide the skills necessary for self-employment and entrepreneurship to all those entering the vocational education stream. |
Emerging strategic challenges IT is only a few days for the national Budget to be tabled in Parliament and the nation’s hopes and fears are palpably discernible. Hopes that the Budget will be a harbinger of all- round prosperity, deliver the final blow to the inspector raj and control regime, and usher in an era of unfettered private enterprise with all its dynamism. There are fears of added tax burden and the prospects of a “dream budget” once more turning into a nightmare. Those concerned with national security are pinning their hopes on the promises of the Finance Minister and assertions of the Defence Minister, for greater financial support for the defence forces. Defence services need less of lip service and more of financial support to enhance their capability to meet the challenges from the emerging geo-strategic scene. At times as these, when the economy is in recession and the fiscal deficit is becoming unmanageable, to seek a higher allocation for defence may appear a bit out of place and even unreasonable, if not unpatriotic. But it is also the moment when low levels of financial allocations for the last over 10 years have glaringly thrown up the deficiencies in the Indian military capabilities. Sustained low levels of financial allocations for defence (at an average of 2.3
per cent of the GDP) have resulted in deficiencies of equipment, essential stores and ammunition. Permanent assets such as roads, buildings and other infrastructure in the cantonments have deteriorated to a point of complete decay. Replacement of obsolete equipment has not been possible. No modernisation or upgradation of the existing equipment could be undertaken. All this has seriously impinged on the operational capabilities of the defence forces. Pakistan’s misadventure at Kargil and sustained proxy war must be seen as a result of a perception of
debilitation of operational capabilities of the Indian defence forces and consequent loss of its deterrence and coercive potential. Deterrence, coercive and dissuasive policies flow more glaringly from military capabilities, for the resolution of situations which otherwise may result in conflicts between countries. The cost of creating military capabilities which, when deployed, manifest in the form of deterrence enabling the achievement of aims without having to resort to actual fighting, eventually balance out with the expenditure that would result from a war. Taking the debate to an area related to defence allocations, it needs to be stated that defence and development are not mutually exclusive. But somehow in India development has always been pitched against military expenditure. In spite of many studies and much literature, we still do not know if there is any
correlation between economic growth and military spending, much less the existence of even a casual relationship. However, it stands more or less well established that among Third World countries, those who are producers of military equipment experience positive impact from military expenditure on growth, investment, savings and productivity while non-producers experience a decline in growth and investment. India falls in the latter category. Then there are spin-offs from defence technology for civil applications and a boost to industrialisation. On this score too India missed out. In India two developments have militated against the growth of indigenous defence industry. Firstly, the industrial policy framed in the early fifties debarred the entry of private enterprise in the field of defence industry (both production and R and D), making it the exclusive preserve of public sector units, (PSUs).) Related to this was the creation of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which was tasked to develop military weapons and equipment (of all categories) and pass on the technology and know-how to the defence PSUs for bulk production. This scheme of things completely failed to deliver. Further, the PSUs being in a situation of a single supplier with a captive customer, they determine the pricing pattern with a very nominal check on the quality of their product. Thus the defence services have been ill-served; paying more for less and for low-grade equipment and stores. While the DRDO absorbed nearly 5 per cent of the defence budget annually, it has failed in the development of indigenous weapons and equipment and consequently, India missed out on the arms industry, except for the transfer of technology (ToT) variety. Much of the DRDO funds get deployed in extensive and unnecessary civil works, furnishing and creating a five star culture, rather than in scientific work. We have been buying weapons and equipment for the last fifty years, along with the transfer of technology, but have completely failed to “take forward” the transferred technology. Over four decades of DRDO efforts have failed to develop any weapon system or equipment of consequence. The much touted Integrated Missile Development Programme is coming unstuck. After nearly 19 years of efforts the anti-tank missile (Cobra) and the air-defence missiles (Akash and Trishul) are nowhere near their full development. After two decades of efforts the multi-barrel rocket project (Pinaka) has fallen by the way side and we are now preparing to buy the Russian “Smirch” system. The list of projects of weapons development that had to be abandoned for want of progress is endless. The DRDO or, in fact, the scientific community in India has followed a “dog in the manger” technology. We lost two opportunities of far-reaching consequences in the field of science and technology. One, on the defeat of Germany in World War II many German scientists were attracted to the USA while many more were taken prisoners by the USSR where they later worked for its defence R and D. Some of them were keen to shift to India. Not only that we made no effort to draw them to India but refused entry to those who expressed their desire to work in this country. The second occasion was when the USSR disintegrated. The old Soviet technological elite, impoverished by the collapse of communism, was only too willing to sell their services for a pittance. Iran took many missile scientists while China is believed to have taken 2000 of them from various disciplines of defence technology. Once again we missed out on this great opportunity due to the attitude of the government and the smuggness of the defence scientists in the country. The great Indian dichotomy has been that while we have no qualms in importing even low-level military technologies and equipment at a great cost, we have been loath at getting the finest scientific brains from Germany and later the USSR working for us in the country. Consequently, we have been and will continue to be the largest importers of military equipment. The arrangements being worked out with Russia for joint development and production of military equipment will always leave us playing the second fiddle. India has been Russia’s principal buyer of military hardware and that country will be the last to kill the “goose which lays golden eggs”. I recall the disapproval the Russian delegation expressed on visiting the Arjun tank factory. The delegation felt that India was “wasting efforts” on producing its own tank when these could be easily obtained from Russia! So, whatever the arrangement for joint production, we will always be paying a heavy price for the technology component of the equipment which will have to come from Russia. The move to open the defence sector to private industry is half-baked or perhaps the intention is to kill it at birth. There are many restrictions and caveats. Therefore, we should not hope to get cutting- edge defence technologies coming through the private sector route. Thus the military expenditure in India will continue to bear a negative impact on growth, investment and savings. Coming back to the issue of defence allocations, the point of economic affordability is very relevant, though it can be argued that for military expenditure to be justified, there is no necessity to demonstrate that it has a positive impact on the economy. Further, security is a prime “public good” and “is an essential first charge on the nation’s resources”. At the same time, such arguments fly in the face of ground realities. It is grinding poverty, low literacy levels, poor health care standards, absence of worthwhile infrastructure, etc, that need heavy investment and tend to relegate the priority for defence requirements. Unfortunately very little of the funds deployed for development reach the target end. The filtration system of the Indian state absorbs a greater percentage of the developmental funds on the way to the target. The long-term fiscal policy (LTFP) of the Government of India had set a target for defence as a percentage of the GDP for 1985-1990 from 3.5 to 3.8 per cent. The Standing Committee for Defence (1996-97) had recommended a fixed percentage of say, 4 per cent. It is evident that subsequently these figures were considered unaffordable and scaled down to an average of 2.3 per cent of the GDP for the period 1988-2001. The national security tripod of economic strength, internal stability and military capability are interdependent economic strength remaining the pivot. The affordability and adequacy gap has been the “central dilemma” of defence planners in this country. It has frequently led to low funding, resulting in starving defence and debilitating its military capabilities. Defence allocations cannot be viewed in isolation of general geo-strategic and geo-political environments and the emerging economic realities of the region. India’s military expenditure is one sixtieth of China (its GDP growth has been 8 to 10 per cent for over a decade and the defence spending has been 4 per cent of the GDP). India’s GNP is 5.5 times higher than that of Pakistan while military expenditure is 2.5 times more (1994 figures). Pakistan has access to cheap imports and transfer of technology from China and has set up its own arms industry. Therefore, India has to deploy larger resources to maintain the essential edge over Pakistan’s military capabilities. Finally, as a rule of thumb for sustainable defence expenditure, (given a stable base of say 3 per cent of the GDP) the rate of growth of the GDP must not fall below that of the defence expenditure. Hopefully, as the Indian economy picks up enough momentum, it should be able “to haul along” the military sector more rapidly. As defence allocations improve, modernisation, force restructuring and manpower adjustment will follow. The writer, a retired Lieut-General, was a Deputy Chief of the Army. |
Triumphal march or funeral procession? LIFE is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experiment uncertain, and judgment difficult. Success in life does not depend on our circumstances, but on ourselves. More men have ruined themselves than have ever been destroyed by others. There are two sorts of ruin; one is the work of time, the other of men. Of all ruins, the ruin of man is the saddest, and a man’s worst enemy, as Seneca said, is the one in the breast. Providence does not create evil. It gives liberty, and if we misuse it we are sure to suffer, but have only ourselves to blame. Many men spend much of their time in making others miserable. We all know how to make ourselves miserable. That is simple enough. Be selfish, take offence easily, think too much of yourselves and too little for others, be extravagant, run into debt, take too much to eat and drink, too little fresh air and exercise, and you will be miserable enough. Life is not a bed of roses, but neither need it be a field of bitter battle. Some people waste their lives in wishing for what they know they cannot have, in regretting what they cannot avoid, and talking of what they do not understand. In many cases what we call evil is good misapplied, or carried to excess. A wheel, or even a cog, out of place throws the whole machinery out of gear, and if we place ourselves out of harmony with the universe, we must expect to suffer accordingly. Courage in excess becomes foolhardiness; affection, weakness; thrift, avarice. It is proverbial that what is one man’s meat is another man’s poison. No one has ever been able to show that any change in the laws of nature would be for the better. A man may fall and break his leg, but no change in the law of gravity would be an improvement. In reality we bring the troubles of life on ourselves by our own errors — errors in both senses, by doing what we know all the time to be wrong; but also, and perhaps almost as much, by our mistakes. So far as the first class of errors is concerned, we have implanted in us an infallible guide. Try to do what you ought, and you will have no doubt what you ought to do. If we do wrong it is with our eyes open; for if they are not open, unless indeed we have wilfully shut them, we may act unwisely, but it is not sin. As regards the second class of errors, we must trust to reason; to that of parents, of elders, of friends; to our education and to ourselves. Indeed our education is part of ourselves. What we teach ourselves becomes much more a part of our being than what we learn from others. Education does not end when we leave school; it has indeed scarcely begun. “Men is man, and master of his fate, or if he is not, the fault lies at his own door. He can make life as he chooses, a triumphal march or a funeral procession.” |
Skirts can actually look great on men IF women can wear trousers, slacks and jeans, they argue, why shouldn’t men have equal access to kilts, sarongs, and minis? Why should they be limited to a virtual uniform, while menswear designers have to repeat the same boring combinations season after season? Why shouldn’t men have the same rights to tights, and enjoy the same pleasures of a breeze on the knees? Wearing skirts, they claim, has nothing to do with sexual orientation: you don’t have be gay. Indeed, the skirt is a manly and historically sanctioned garment, which should be defended against the rule of Levi’s and Gap. At the press preview in London recently, several men in skirts (MIS), representing a range of personal fashion decisions, had turned out. There, sipping champagne, was a guy with dreads, in a brown suede studded kilt; a ponytailed man in a kilt and windbreaker. It’s a provocative look at the evolution of men’s fashion, including boys’ wear, from the loose to the bifurcated and fitted. Without emphasising the dandy, it makes the point that the gender of clothing is culturally and historically inflected, and that there is nothing inherently masculine in covering the lower parts of the body in fabric tubes. Many of the skirts, kilts, sarongs, dhotis and kaftans are strikingly beautiful in terms of fabric and design. After the bathrobe, the kaftan is the most comfortable garment ever invented and men living in hot climates have always adopted some version of it. But why men would want to wear such clothes of their own free will is hard to understand. They are confining, aesthetically uninteresting, and stiff - a woman’s imitation of male dress, as secondary as a sidesaddle.
The Observer If a child stutters, parents should take it easy MANY parents closely follow their children’s language development. The first word is a cause for celebration while the first sentences and other vocabulary are keenly anticipated. But then it happens: the child suddenly gets tongue-tied and needs several run-ups in order to pronounce words. Although the child has a stutter, experts advise worried parents to approach the problem in a relaxed manner. “Many children undergo a phase in their language development when their speech skills don’t allow them to adequately express their thoughts,” says Wolfram Strauss, a specialist in phoniatrics and paediatric audiology in Leipzig. This developmental stuttering occurs in around 80 per cent of all children and so is no cause for panic. “Children are liable to become conscious that something is wrong when parents are too hasty about visiting a doctor,’’ said Strauss.
DPA |
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Married men open up in old age AS married couples age, husbands appear to become more sentimental in talking about the relationship while wives grow more reticent, according to a US study of 20 long-term marriages. The study in the latest issue of Communication Quarterly said older husbands became more emotional — sometimes shedding tears — when discussing their relationships while their wives were generally evasive and sometimes even rude. The men in the study were more sentimental, polite and willing to share stories about their marriage than were their wives, the study by researchers at the University of Denver said. "The men were really excited about telling their stories... they were willing to show a wider range of emotions in terms of joy as well as sadness,’’ said Fran Dickson, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and co-author of the study. Dickson and colleague Kandi Walker interviewed 20 Denver-area couples aged 60 and older who had been married only once. The average length of the marriages was 42 years. The wives were typically the primary child caretakers while their husbands worked outside the home. The researchers found the men tended to agree with their wives when they told their stories and were more willing to discuss difficult subjects such as substance abuse and marital affairs. "They were showing remorse, they were showing sadness. Some husbands cried ... The women were just there,’’ Dickson said. In contrast to their husbands, wives who participated in the study were emotionally distant and at times less polite and more inclined to interrupt, Dickson said. Women who participated in the study were more inclined to interrupt and correct their husband’s version of a story. They were also less likely to try to validate their husband’s tales when they finished. The researchers found the women were more deliberate in what stories they told and were less willing to resurrect unpleasant memories. In one instance, when researchers asked a couple married for 41 years about tough times they had endured, the wife ‘’quickly shot her husband a glaring look’’ and said they could not think of any, the study said. "While these (situations) at the time may have been critical and emotional situations for them, they were somewhat removed from it. It was almost like ‘been there, done that, don’t need to do it again,’’ Dickson said of the wives. The study offered no reasons for older men opening up, but Dickson, who has devoted her research to aging and communication, said traditional gender roles were a likely factor. The women spent most of their younger years confronting emotions as the family’s primary caretaker while the men were at work and were less inclined to revisit painful episodes. "In their senior years, it seems the men are realising that they missed something. The women are saying ‘I’ve done it already,’’ Dickson said. "This study is just a little piece in the puzzle of explaining men,’’ she said. "Men and women both want intimacy in their relationships, men just go about it a little bit differently.’’
Reuters |
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Fewer medical tests may be enough IT
seems almost every week brings a new headline: get diabetes tests at younger ages. Seek annual thyroid exams. Get screened for prostate cancer. Oh, and don’t forget to check for kidney disease. Speciality medical groups and patient advocates are urging more and more seemingly healthy people to get screened for early signs of numerous diseases. After all, spot an illness early and often you can fight it better. But how much testing does the average symptom-free person really need? Not all that much, is the surprising answer from the expert panel that sets America’s primary care standards. Even that traditional checkup were not needed every year for many people, says Janet Allan, co-chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force. Several often-recommended tests, such as prostate cancer screening or bone-density tests, actually are controversial because of mixed studies about their benefit. In fact, studies by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cite only a handful of screenings - for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers, high blood pressure and high cholesterol - are considered essential. That means consumers must have a regular doctor who knows their health history intimately - a "medical home" - to ensure they get the right tests at the right time, says Dr Edward Hill, a family physician and chair-elect of the American Medical Association’s board. But is there a checklist to ensure consumers get the essential tests? Allan’s task force is an independent panel charged by the government to come up with such a master list. It now is
re-evaluating the latest research for a six-month rollout of up dated advice. Here’s the checklist so far for people at average risk of disease: Cholesterol testing: every five years starting at age 35 for men and age 45 for women, to check total cholesterol and the "good HDL type and "bad" LDL type, but not triglycerides. Anyone at high risk of heart disease — a smoker, a diabetic, someone whose parent died of heart disease before age 50 or who has high blood pressure - needs cholesterol testing starting at age 20, Allan cautions. Regular checks of blood pressure, whether by a doctor or more accessible spots like drugstores, and oral health. To detect colorectal cancer, an annual fecal occult blood test for men and women starting at age 50. Also, they need a more invasive exam — a sigmoidscopy or colonoscopy — once or twice a decade. For women, a Pap smear to check for cervical cancer every one to three years. Also, a mammogram every year or two starting at age 50. But mammography has suddenly become embroiled in debate — some scientists challenge its effectiveness while others urge earlier testing - so the panel is
re-examining it. AP |
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God is great! God is great! God is great! God is great! I bear witness that there is no god but God! I bear witness that there is no god but God! I bear the witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of God! I bear the witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of God! Come to prayers! Come to prayers! Come to salvation! Come to salvation! (The Shias add, “Come to good works!) There is no other god but God! In the early morning the following sentence is added: “Prayers are better than sleep”. The Muslim azan or “call to prayer” I extol the holiness of my Lord, the most High! I extol the holiness of my Lord, the most High! I extol the holiness of my Lord, the most High! — The Tasbih-e-Sijdah
*** Holiness to Thee, O God! And praise be to Thee! Great is Thy Name! Great is Thy greatness! There is no deity but Thee! — The Muslim Subban *** Praise be to God, Lord of all the worlds! The compassionate, the merciful! King of the day of reckoning! Thee only do we worship, and to Thee only do we cry for help. Guide Thou us in the straight path, The path of those to whom Thou hast been gracious: With Whom Thou art not angry, And who go not astray - Amen — The Fatihah *** Say, He is God alone: God is Eternal! He begetteth not, And is not begotten; And there is none like unto Him. — The Saratu ‘I-Ikhlas |
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