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Tuesday,
June 11, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Getting
tough with separatists Farmers on
warpath |
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Polls, police and
violence THE Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections in Punjab have witnessed widespread violence. It seems that some things never change. If it were the Akalis who were browbeating their opponents till recently, it is now the turn of Congressmen to emulate them. For the common voter, the change in government has hardly brought about any improvement in the situation. High-handedness is a game that two can play.
Waiting for demise of
cross-border terrorism
An SOS
from hell
Politics of PSU
privatisation
Einstein’s theory
may not hold water
Global warming
affecting plants, animals
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Getting tough with separatists THE arrest of All-Party Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Sunday under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) was long overdue. Of all the key functionaries of the separatist conglomerate, Mr Geelani has been most blatantly pro-Pakistan. His strong links with the ISI are not surprising. Hence nothing astonishing about the discovery of his huge assets, including currency notes worth over Rs 10 lakh plus $ 10,000 from his residence. He has been openly promoting Pakistan's interests in the valley and beyond by using his position in the Hurriyat as also his parent organisation, the Jamaat-e-Islami of Jammu and Kashmir. Nothing would have been unknown to the police. The same is true about Ms Asiya Indrabi, heading militant outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of Muslims). The two extremists did not use firearms themselves, but they functioned as the soul of the terrorists sponsored by Pakistan as part of its Kashmir policy. They should have been brought to justice a long time ago in the interest of peace in Kashmir. It was wrongly believed that their arrests might lead to large-scale protests throughout Jammu and Kashmir. The same argument was given in the case of Hurriyat leader Yaseen Malik, arrested under POTA some time ago. Initially, there were some protests here and there. But now his so-called followers have kept quiet, leading a normal life. There may be protests against the imprisonment of Mr Geelani too, but everything will be normal after some time.
People of Kashmir have been yearning for peace all these years. They have been sick of militancy. But they could not say openly what was there in their hearts because of the fear of terrorists, whose actions were justified by Mr Geelani and his colleagues in the Hurriyat. The ordinary Kashmiris have been waiting for the government to take a decisive step. One hopes they will welcome the government's resolve to come down heavily on the agents of Pakistan. The different separatist outfits had, in fact, turned into business establishments over the years with their leaders minting money by selling the interests of the nation and the people of Kashmir. The money came in large quantities from Kashmiri organisations with dubious credentials through the hawala channel. But the primary source of funding of the separatist industry was Pakistan's ISI. The industry was prospering mainly because of the wrong belief in Islamabad that it could implement its dirty designs with the help of terrorism. The absence of a coherent Kashmir policy of the Union Government was also exploited. New Delhi depended only on pampering all sorts of Kashmir leaders, rarely taking seriously the anti-India activities of those who had tactically grouped themselves into the Hurriyat. Who was preventing the government from getting tough with the separatists like Mr Geelani and smashing the channels of funding terrorism? There has been nothing secret about their destructive activities. Of course, now is the ideal opportunity to put all the Geelanis behind bars and teach them a lesson or two when their primary source of sustenance, Pakistan, has been forced by the international community to end its patronage of terrorism forever. But New Delhi could have done what it is doing today immediately after September 11 when terrorists, separatists and their mentors and guides found themselves in the dock. The nation has a valid reason to ask: why this delay?
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Farmers on warpath THE stand-off between the Haryana unit of the Bharatiya Kisan Union and the state government has turned into a double or quits game between BKU supremo Ghasiram Nain and Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. The avoidable confrontation has neither enhanced the image of Mr Chautala as a friend of the farmers nor of the BKU as the organised voice of the kisans. The decision of the Haryana government to withdraw criminal cases against those involved in the abduction of a number of policemen is unfortunate. No one is above the law. By withdrawing the cases the state government has sent out a rather disturbing signal to the farmers whose actions in their present form suggest a disturbing trend of mixing crime with protest. It may not be fair to blame Mr Chautala alone for the unhappy turn of events that has reduced the farmers of Haryana into what they are today. Politicians of all hues are responsible in equal measure for doing unto the kisans what no one should do unto one’s worst enemy. No political party, after the globalisation of the Indian economy, has bothered to put into place a policy that would prepare the farming community for benefiting from the WTO regime rather than wilt under its weight, if and when it becomes applicable. Instead, most political parties have encouraged them to raise all sorts of demands like free power and water and concession in the collection of land revenue.
In any case, the withdrawal of cases has only emboldened Mr Nain to harden his posture. Now he wants compensation for the families of the kisans killed in police firing and waiver of dues, that are as a matter of routine never paid by most farmers on the prompting of the party in the opposition. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that Congress President B. S. Hooda is doing what Mr Chautala had done when he was not in power. The Congress by backing the unruly agitation has ensured that Mr Nain would continue to hold the state government to ransom. His threat to stop water supply to Delhi is part of the hardening of attitude of the BKU towards the present government. Mr Chautala has been given 48 hours to accept the BKU’s demand. If the politicians really care for the social welfare and economic uplift of the members of the farming community, they should stop using the simple farmers as political tools for settling scores with the party in power. Mr Chautala would earn the gratitude of all right-thinking people if he were to call an all-party meeting for drawing up a collective agenda for the farmers. It should include land reforms, introduction of modern techniques and inputs for optimising production and a viable crop insurance scheme. Their present approach is an open invitation to the kisans to become criminals and suffer and make the state suffer the consequences of the faulty policies of the political class. |
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Polls, police and violence THE Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections in Punjab have witnessed widespread violence. It seems that some things never change. If it were the Akalis who were browbeating their opponents till recently, it is now the turn of Congressmen to emulate them. For the common voter, the change in government has hardly brought about any improvement in the situation. High-handedness is a game that two can play. The constant skirmishes can be eliminated only if at least one party shows exemplary adherence to civilised values. One expects the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, to send a clear message to his partymen that if violence was wrong when perpetrated by the Akalis, it is equally wrong if it is taken recourse to by them. In all this undesirable display of frayed tempers and muscle power, the role of the police has been a lot less than exemplary. In fact, there are allegations that the policemen were blatantly partisan, which is just another way of saying that they sided with the candidates of the ruling party. This type of partiality is not expected from the force, but it has always been a harsh reality. Somebody must have the courage to call a halt to this pernicious practice. Politicians will always be politicians and will try to take advantage of the policemen, whenever they happen to be in power. But senior police officers need to ensure that their men are not cajoled or browbeaten to act as handmaidens of the ruling party.
Incidentally, Zila Parishads and Panchayat Samitis were never meant to be political in character. Like panchayats, these were supposed to be above the influence of this divisive factor. The virus of politics has vitiated the atmosphere, nevertheless. Elections are fought on political lines, although this fact is not widely publicised. This bitter rivalry generated during the elections does not vanish even when the voting is over. These bodies get divided into two or more factions, with daggers drawn. Ironically, state-level political leaders interfere in the functioning on a day-to-day basis, with the result that even constructive proposals of one group are shot down by another group. The sum total is that these organisations, which were supposed to transfer the power to the village level, have become mini-assemblies with all the faults of the state-level bodies. A course correction is very much in order, although that will be possible only if all political parties put their heads together and take a pledge not to pursue for their party agendas. |
Waiting for demise of cross-border terrorism THE visit of Mr Richard
Armitage, US Deputy Secretary of State, has brought about a significant change in the diplomatic atmosphere in Delhi. A no-non-sense diplomat, who looks more like a heavyweight wrestler, is rated high in diplomatic circles. Soon after his arrival from Islamabad after meeting Gen Pervez Musharraf, he met Prime Minister Vajpayee and certain senior ministers. Addressing the Press, he declared that General Musharraf had committed himself to ending cross-border terrorism permanently and that the USA would be monitoring it closely. At last the 13-year-long proxy war through cross-border terrorism by Pakistan seems to be coming to an end. To recapitulate the course of events during the past 10 months, the ghastly September 11 attack on the USA unveiled the international face of Islamic terrorism. It was taking its toll for a long time in Central and West Asia, with India being a specially targeted area. But these events were not apparent to the US Administration all these years. Terrorism as state policy was an established fact in Pakistan with the ISI as its executive arm. The existence of terrorist camps and the incursions of terrorists, equipped and guided by Pakistan’s ISI and Army, were all known to the USA. Over the years India had provided all the details to the US Administration. US satellites and NASA would have filled up the gaps if any in this scenario. Nevertheless the USA showed no inclination to take note, much less correct them. The dominant terrorist jehadi groups based in Pakistan such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad were declared terrorist organisations by the USA only after September 11. The USA took a serious view of the cross-border terrorism phenomenon after the attack on the J&K Assembly in Srinagar on October 1 and the attempt to storm the Indian Parliament on December 13 last year by Islamic terrorists whose names and addresses were traced to Pakistan and duly communicated to General Musharraf. After the attack on the Parliament building the Indian leadership decided to mobilise the armed forces with the avowed objective of destroying the terrorist camps across the LoC. India felt that it was a minimal step in self-defence. However, India was told that General Musharraf was going to make an important announcement on January 12 and New Delhi should exercise restraint. General Musharraf’s speech made all the right noises for the national and international audiences. He promised to stop cross-border terrorism and immobilise Islamic militants, discontinuing their collection of funds for jehad, etc, in Pakistan. Regrettably General Musharraf did not live up to his promise of ending cross-border terrorism or ending Islamic militancy within Pakistan. Then came the Kaluchak massacre in Jammu on May 14, resulting in the death of 35 persons, mostly wives and children of India’s soldiers who were away on field duty. Indian security authorities promptly traced the origin of the three militants who carried out the attack to Pakistan but it was promptly denied by Islamabad. However, a member of the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba has since confirmed that a suicide squad from the Lashkar’s splinter organisation called Al-Mansoureen carried out the attack and this fact was highlighted by Mahir Ali, a commentator of Dawn, a leading daily of Pakistan, on May 29. He added, “You cannot be a jehadi without having links with the ISI”. Understandably, tension was running high, with India poised for a strike across the LoC to eliminate the terrorist camps. The US think tanks and commentators started taking notice of the basic facts and the mounting tension. Jim Hoagland wrote in The
Washington Post on June 2 that an Indian military strike into Pakistani-held Kashmir was being planned in New Delhi in the spirit of “the new global ethos of hot preemption. It was meant to target terrorists and the training camps that housed them. The concept of hot preemption was first outlined by a former Secretary of State, Mr George Shultz, while addressing the US Foreign Service Officers in Washington a few days earlier. Mr Shultz said that after Osama bin Laden’s attacks and the Al-Qaeda terror, the US forces were “not just of hot pursuit but of hot preemption”. Jim Hoagland wrote that “Pakistan’s continuing support to cross-border terrorism had provided India with a golden opportunity to join the club of hot preemptors”. The USA allowed Pakistan to become a nuclear power with the transfer of nuclear technology from China over the years. In recent years missile technology as well as missiles in crates were transhipped from North Korea and China. The US Administration was fully aware of all these developments. Geo-political considerations apparently warranted a nuclear counterpoise to a nuclear India. The nuclear threat by Pakistan, however, added a new dimension to the issue. This is particularly so in respect of Pakistan which is being ruled by a military dictator, drawing his support from his Army commanders and powerful fundamentalist elements. Moreover, there is a distinct possibility of Al-Qaeda elements, hiding in Pakistan, joining hands with the jehadi elements getting hold of the nuclear weapons with unimaginable possibilities of threat to world peace. The US Administration, therefore, went on an overdrive with all possible pressures being brought on General Musharraf. It is even speculated that he was given a clear message that he should publicly declare his commitment not to speak of a nuclear threat from Pakistan. General Musharraf made this declaration accordingly while speaking to CNN on June 1. And next day UN Secretary of State Colin Powell declared in an interview to the BBC that General Musharraf had given a firm commitment that he would end cross-border terrorism across India once and for all. Mr Powell added that the USA would verify if this commitment was being fulfilled and once satisfied the US would request India to consider pulling back its troops from the LoC. This commitment by President Musharraf was also referred to by Mr Richard
Armitage in New Delhi on June 7. The first summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia on June 3-4 attended by 16 countries, including Russia, China, India and Pakistan, at Almaty came as a refreshing change at this juncture. It delivered a firm message on eliminating terrorism. The Almaty Declaration said that terrorism was a transnational threat and had to be eradicated completely with united efforts by all the participating nations. It condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and any support or acceptance of it and the failure to criticise it directly. The declaration also identified separatism as one of the main threats to security and stability in Asia. “No consideration whatsoever can be invoked to justify terrorism”, concluded the Declaration. General Musharraf was a signatory on behalf of Pakistan and he apparently understood the meaning and significance of this Declaration. However, Pakistan is likely to witness some important developments within the country. The well-known Editor of The Friday Times of Pakistan, Najam Sethi, has commented that Pakistan had so far always set the pre-condition that the Kashmir dispute should figure prominently in any dialogue. “Pakistan had never accepted the charge of cross-border terrorism, let alone commit itself to ending it swiftly. Indeed, the Agra dialogue was jettisoned by General Musharraf when the Indians countered with the demand to stop cross-border terrorism. Now Pakistan has conceded both Indian points unilaterally.” The reaction of the Pakistani jehadis, who had enjoyed governmental patronage all these years, remains to be seen. India has signalled that it is prepared to ease the tension by restoring over-flights and full functioning of the respective diplomatic missions, to begin with. Even though there are some significant indicators that Pakistan has closed down a few training camps across the LoC and that the jehadi elements in Pakistan are disgruntled, firm indications that cross-border terrorism has ended permanently will emerge only after a few weeks. Till such time the Indian armed forces may have to be in position, even if not in full strength. However, the danger of war is receding and this itself is a big gain for India, Pakistan and indeed the whole world. |
An SOS from hell BEING an outgoing sort of person, I have friends everywhere, this world as well as other worlds. My acquaintance in heaven is rather limited but I can boast of a large number of contacts in hell. One of them happens to be a big shot up there. We have been out of touch for long and I was startled when he came down the chimney last midnight. “Hi buddy, looking as devilish as ever,” I greeted him warmly but he was downcast. “Chandel Sahib, I am in distress and have come to seek your help,” he beseeched. “Why, what happened? Everything fine at home?” “No, it isn’t. Things are hellish in hell these days and if remedial measures are not taken immediately, consequences could be disastrous,” he sobbed. “There, there, cool down”, I said and offered him a glass of tap water, which he politely refused saying that his digestive system wasn’t strong enough to take it. I asked him to tell me the entire story. “I do not know where to begin. Hell is no longer what it used to be. There is unbelievable overcrowding. Nobody wants to go to heaven and its sedate life. Hell is the happening place to be in, they say.” “Surely, you can deny them entry.” “We do, but people bribe their way in. You see, we had too many idle policemen in hell who were making a nuisance of themselves. In order to keep them gainfully employed, we made the mistake of putting them on guard duty. See what they have done. Labour laws being what they are, we can’t even evict them. Now things are beyond our control. Illegal liquor dens and red-light areas have mushroomed. Smelling an opportunity, businessmen have also chipped in. They not only smuggle them in but also give them employment secretly. Why, some of them have even sub-let the quarters allotted to them to illegal immigrants.” “Surely, you have the means to punish them, what with the fire and brimstone that you have at your command.” “You are badly out of touch, it seems. You see, some years ago, IAS inmates of hell formed as association and demanded a role in day-to-day administration. Being a responsive government, we reserved a few seats for them in good faith. They have made a mess of my beautiful hell. The coal allotted for keeping its fires going has been sold off in the black market and I am told the brimstone is being smuggled out to some firm in Delhi.” “Can’t your government declare an emergency?” “My boss toyed with the idea. But ever since politicians have invaded hell, things have become very complex. They have sown the seeds of disaffection in the administration. They have already purchased the loyalty of about 49 per cent officers. The moment they get a majority, it would be curtains for me and my boss. So he is very reticent about taking any unpopular measure.” “The situation is that serious?” I said incredulously. “You bet! The external situation is even worse. A large chunk of the heaven territory has been encroached upon and trouble is brewing at the border. Residents of heaven want to slug it out with their formidable weapons. Fortunately for us, they are hopelessly outnumbered.” “In that case, God Himself should intervene.” “I wish He could. But the encroachers have taken a stay and the matter is sub judice. The tragedy is that heaven has very few lawyers to take up their case properly. Even otherwise, as you must have heard,
God ke ghar mein andher to nahin hai par der zaroor hai. Unfortunately, the matter cannot be allowed to simmer for that long. “Our relations with heaven have worsened on another count. It is alleged that liquor and women are being ferried across the border clandestinely with the help of the Customs authorities. If these allegations are true, there is going to be trouble in our neighbourhood also, which would be calamitous for the entire region.” “Oh I see. Tell me how I can help,” I said. “Our Inner Cabinet knows that India has been face to face with similar problems for long. I want you to identify some people who can help us in dealing with the crisis.” Readers, I do know some tough administrators, but when I asked them to go up there on humanitarian grounds, they demanded astronomical sums by way of deputation allowance. Their wives teaching in government colleges of beautiful cities for many years have also firmly vetoed the idea of dislocation. I am in a quandary. If you can think of some way out, do let me know. |
Politics of PSU privatisation LAST week has been celebration time for all those who believe that privatisation is the panacea for all our economic ills. The Maruti Udyog has gone into the Japanese hands with all its vast expanse of land gifted to Sanjay Gandhi by the Bansi Lal government. Ambanis finally got the blue chip IPCL for which the final cheque was presented with great fanfare. The same week, the Union Cabinet cleared the sale of four government hotels at vantage tourist spots for a total price of Rs 85 crore. In Delhi, the Vidyut Board was bifurcated and handed over to the BSES and the Tata Power. The water board and the DTC will face the same fate any day, providing a water mark for other state and civic bodies to emulate. The Disinvestment Ministry proudly displays a long list of similar sellouts of profit making
PSUs. However, the happy week also was mired by equally loud public protests and bitter controversies, including charges of kickbacks and massive losses to the exchequer. The Delhi BJP has alleged a Rs 5,000-crore scam in the DVB privatisation. The opposition is also waiting for more evidence against certain deals by the Centre. The Disinvestment Minister, who has emerged as the new corporate hero, will soon have many things to explain to the nation. The brisk clearance sale of PSUs seems to have recoiled in different directions. Within the ruling party, even the senior ministers smell rat in the breakneck speed at which the Disinvestment Minister is going ahead with the sales. The idea is to give himself an image as a man of deeds. To the corporates, he no more hides his next promotion as Finance Minister. The clearance sale will enable him get the former's support. As mentioned in these columns, his alleged role in leaking out the damaging CBI findings on Yashwant Sinha's links with Flex Industries seems to have exposed this race for power. With his style of functioning and the perceived arrogance, many senior cabinet colleagues fear that control of finance will enable him meddle in their work. This is the background under which Pramod Mahajan publicly challenged the VSNL's decision to invest Rs 1,200 crore in a Tata firm. The Tata had invested only Rs 1,145 crore in the VSNL to take control of it but soon diverted more than this amount to their another firm. L.K. Advani may have cried a halt to the mudslinging that followed but the minister's continuing smear campaign against Mahajan and others should shed much light on the corporate proxy war as well as the growing fears on the consequences of this great reduction sale of the
PSUs. The BJP's Goa resolution which blames the government's economic decisions for the party's pathetic show in a string of assembly elections, also has direct relevance to privatisation, especially those of public services. Even those BJP leaders who have been ardent believers in private efficiency began to feel disturbed at the widespread public ire over the privatisation of utilities. Mahajan himself has threatened action against Tata Teleservices for not providing rural telephones. For private players, profit lay in elite services. After full privatisation what will happen to the facilities for the underprivileged sections? Unfortunately, during the elections the BJP leaders found it hard to reply to allegations. In the case of public utilities and services the common man's — and so the voters' — experience has been worse. Here disinvestment and privatisation simply meant replacement of the state monopoly by the monopoly of a private profiteer. True, in areas where there are more players, completion leads to better and cheap services. In the case of a government body, the people at least can use their voting power to change decisions. They find the private monopoly hardly responsive. Contrary to our own lofty ideals of private miracles, the first effect of privatisation has been an immediate rise in cost of services. This has happened in almost every case. There is a wide gap between the rosy picture we see at the business seminars and the reality on the ground. Those who move in lower class colonies and rural areas can feel the subterranean sentiments like
"sarkar allows the banias (private players) to loot the poor." During the elections this is being made a big issue by the rival political parties. This is why the governments delay such crucial announcements until after the elections. In this regard, political parties adopt an utterly opportunistic stance. While in power, they are under compulsions to privatise the power distribution and raise the tariff. But when out of power, the same parties would join public protests against the same decisions. Few governments have been able to withstand the public ire on such decisions. Om Prakash Chautala has been the latest case. He had come to power on the plank of farmers' right to electricity at a fair rate. Now the ongoing massive farmers' movement against this power policy has shaken Chautala's Jat base. In Delhi, the BJP has wrested the movement against the Congress government's power privatisation plan. The state government is only implementing the policies dropped down by the Vajpayee government. Interestingly, the same Congress had led mass protests against the similar reforms by the TDP government in Andhra Pradesh. With the privatisation process gathering speed, some of its inherent defects have disillusioned even its former admirers. Take the power distribution. The governments give guarantee to provide uninterrupted supply to the private distributors at a low rate. In the case of Delhi, the average rate is 1.48 per unit, and the distributor can charge an average tariff of Rs 4.16. Then there are provisions for liberal financial assistance. Even with such lucrative terms for assured profits, experience of privatisation has been not very happy elsewhere. This has been especially so in states like Orissa. A few days back a UN document had highlighted the perils of unplanned disinvestment and cited the fate of Argentina. Productivity and finances of the privatised units increased in the first couple of years but due to 'micro economic factors', disinvestment did not make any stride since then. This burden had added to the economic crisis in Argentina, it admitted. Something similar seems to be happening in India too. One argument for disinvestment in India has been that it helped government's finances. However, the total proceeds of 14 blue chip firms in India in the ongoing sales drive has been Rs 10,900 crores. As against this, the revenue collection shortfalls during 2001-2 alone has been Rs 10,000 crores — enough to offset the entire blue chip sales proceeds. The latest in the marketisation controversy relates to the freedom to the oil firms to charge 'market' prices. After a steep raise last week, oil firms have promised to revise the rates every fortnight. No one really knows how the users like public transport and taxies will cope with such fluctuations. The government has already agreed to forego huge excise revenue to bale out the firms. The VSNL controversy, Chautala's farmer backlash and the prospects of perpetual price hikes in petro products have all brought fresh snags in the privatisation process. |
Einstein’s theory may not hold water IT may well turn out that Einstein may have been wrong, experiments are being carried on in space by physicists to find out if the theory holds water, reported BBC. Ultra-precise clocks are being shipped to the International Space Station to see whether they start ticking at different rates. Among one of the greatest theories ever, more importantly in the 20th century, Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity states that if something is moving at a uniform speed, no matter how fast or in what direction, the laws of physics and the speed of light are always the same. Never proved conclusively, the theory is now being challenged by recent theories which try to combine gravity and particle physics. The newer theories say that changes in space and time that we are unable to measure on Earth might be difficult for the relativity theory to hold ground against. Researchers say that if Einstein’s theory is correct, then it will not matter whether the clocks are on their sides or upright, the ticking will always remain constant. However, if Einstein was wrong, they will notice some minute differences in the ticking rates. They also warn that it is likely to take several years before they finally come up with the answer.
ANI Video-crazy monkeys to ‘phone-y’ seals Seals are going hi-tech in the line of animals after monkeys coveting for game consoles. To be given their own “mobile phones”, Seals are supposed to help study their environment and protect their numbers in the future, reports BBC. Grey seals will, from now on, wear special tags which use mobile phone technology to trigger “text messages” to researchers when the mammals return to land after feeding trips. First of its kind in the UK, the study hopes to give a greater insight into the seals’ movements, feeding and behaviour. The system is designed to explore the feeding, ecology and longevity of the 38,000 grey seals born in the UK each year, many of which die for unknown reasons. Baby seals are left to fend for themselves after being suckled by their mothers for 18 days. Often travelling hundreds of kilometers, the next couple of months are crucial as they explore the seas. The study, split into two phases, will initially see phone tags send text messages from grey seal pups to computers at St Andrews. This will allow scientists to examine which factors affect their survival through their first year. After this, detailed track and dive behaviour will be sent ashore. Bernie McConnell, senior research scientist at SMRU, said, “Over the last 10 years, we have developed satellite telemetry techniques to track marine mammals at sea, on species from the Arctic to the Antarctic. So we now plan to exploit the global GSM infrastructure and use mobile phone technology to communicate information — initially in the form of text messages — from seals back to land.
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Global warming affecting plants, animals London A father-and-son team has uncovered some of the most dramatic evidence after analysing 47 years of data on the flowering times of more than 350 British plants. They found that flowers bloomed in the spring significantly earlier in the 1990s than they had during the previous four decades. First flowering had advanced by four-and-a-half days on average over the past 10 years compared with the previous 40, according to Alastair Fitter, from the University of York, and his father, Cambridge naturalist and author,
R. S. R. Fitter. In 16 per cent of species, between 150 and 200 types of plant, flowering time had shifted by 15 days in the 1990s. The greatest change was for the white dead nettle, the researchers reported. From 1954 to 1990, its average first flowering date was March 18. But from 1991 to 2000, the plant bloomed at around January 23, an advance of 55 days. Another wild flower, sun spurge, shifted its first flowering date by about 32 days. The Fitters wrote, “These data reveal the strongest biological signal yet of climatic change. Flowering is especially sensitive to the temperature in the previous month, and spring-flowering species are most responsive.’’ A British and French study has found evidence of large scale changes in the ranges of tiny shrimp-like plankton creatures called copepods. Survey data showed that warm-water copepod species had shifted northward by more than 10 degrees latitude. Meanwhile, northerly cold-water species had decreased in diversity. The researchers, led by Gregory Beugrand from the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science in Plymouth, wrote: “The observed bio-geographical shifts may have serious consequences for exploited resources in the North Sea.’’ The third study, from a team of the USA, German, French and Swedish scientists, compared satellite measurements with a climate model. It linked the increasing length of the growing season in northern high-altitude forests with climate change.
DPA |
I hold that where the rules of personal, domestic and public sanitation are strictly observed and due care is taken in the matter of diet and exercise, there should be no occasion for illness or disease. —
Harijan The principle behind japa or constant repetition of a mantra or the God's Name are: a) A man becomes what he constantly reflects upon. b) Mind alone is the cause of bondage or liberation, happiness or misery. c) There is power in the Mantra or Name, which becomes more and more potent by repetition..... The name has the capacity to reveal the Deity which it represents. It also in the long run, makes the mind subtler and subtler, and takes it to an indefinitely minute point when it ceases to be mind and merges in the Transcendental... The constant and uninterrupted dwelling on the Divine Name soon passes from the lips to the heart and then down to the centre of one's
consciousness. — C. S. Ramaswami, "God Realisation: What and How?" *** The Tao is like a vase that vase never fills. It is like a gulf, the origin of everything in the world. It takes the edge off every blade, It unties all skeins, It blends all lights, It unites all particles. It seems very profound, It seems to last forever. Son of I do not know whom It has to be the ancestor of the Gods. —
Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching. *** The meditation room is the secret place where the body and mind must establish themselves in tranquility. —
Daniel Odier, Nirvana Tao, The Secret, Meditation Techniques of the Taoist and Buddhist Masters, Part II.8 *** There are those people who ignore good and evil and utilise speculations and discussions on the teaching, making sentence by sentence commentaries on them. It is as if they were putting pieces of shit into their mouths and spitting them out again in order to transmit them to others. —
Lin Chi |
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