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Saturday,
July 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Sukh
Ram’s conviction Handling
the economy |
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USA
in Afghan quagmire THE US-led anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan must have claimed the lives of more civilians than Taliban and Al-Qaeda activists, the real targets, though it is difficult to find the exact figures. No doubt, civilian casualties are unavoidable in an all-out war against a not-so-visible enemy. But it seems the American fighters have not been as careful as they should have been. They have been ruthlessly pursuing their target without realising the grave consequences of their mistakes. As a result, today they find themselves in a quagmire from where it seems impossible for them to come out without getting hurt seriously.
From
Wall Street to fraud street
Golden
globes 75
YEARS AGO ON
RECORD New PCC
chief in Punjab soon: Kidwai Abused
kids see angry faces all over TRENDS
& POINTERS Helping
lesbians become parents
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Sukh Ram’s conviction MR Sukh ram's conviction in the
multi-crore telecom scam is just an important first step in the rather slow process of justice in India. The case in which Mr Sukh Ram as Union Minister of State for Communications had allegedly amassed wealth by abusing his position dates back to the period when Mr P. V. Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister. Of course, Mr Rao himself was tried in a number of cases. However, he is a free man, because in most cases the judiciary found the evidence inadequate for securing conviction. Ms Runu Ghosh, former Director in the Department of Telecommunications, and Mr Rama Rao, Managing Director of Advance Radio Masts Ltd, were also found guilty by a Delhi court in what came to be known as the telecom scam. Conviction of an accused is in a manner of speaking the beginning of the process of dispensing justice. Mr Sukh Ram and others have been given time until August 5 to appeal against their conviction in the Delhi High Court. It must be remembered that in May, 1998, Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke had framed charges against the three. However, in January the Delhi High Court set aside the special court's order. The matter went up to the Supreme Court that ruled in favour of the special court's action and ordered the day-to-day trial of Mr Sukh Ram and others. Be that as it may, a point that should not be ignored in the light of Mr Sukh Ram's conviction is the political fallout that very nearly brought down the minority government of Mr Narasimha Rao. The Bharatiya Janata Party had stalled proceedings in both Houses. The evidence that the CBI was able to collect against the former Union minister and others plus public uproar forced Mr Rao to drop Mr Sukh Ram. Equally important is the fact, for those who insist that tainted politicians should have no role in the party or the government, that Mr Sukh Ram was, thereafter, expelled from the Congress. However, instead of taking sanyas from active public life Mr Sukh Ram floated a regional party in Himachal Pradesh. Ironically, in spite of the stigma of corruption, the same political party that had not allowed Parliament to discharge its duty found doing political business with Mr Sukh Ram in Himachal Pradesh very profitable. To be fair, the Congress in the hill state paid a heavy price for the action it took against a tainted politician. The fault with the judicial process is that it is slow. The fault with the political “process” is that it condemns corruption from public forums but willingly rewards corrupt politicians by directly and indirectly helping them sustain their wayward life. Most parties follow the doctrine of all being fair in politics if it helps them grab power. To the ordinary citizen, the arrest of senior leaders and
bureaucrats symbolises the promised attack on corruption in high places. But when the judicial process declares them not guilty, as happened in the hawala, JMM and St Kitts cases (and the cases
instituted against Ms Jayalalithaa), he loses faith in the system. There are evidently other factors, like sloppy investigation and presentation of cases before the court, that are responsible for the high rate of acquittal of the high and mighty of the land. There is no way to find out whether the infirmities in the case are deliberate or inadvertent. |
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Handling the economy THE initial pronouncements of Mr Jaswant Singh on taking charge as the country’s 29th Finance Minister on Thursday give him out as a more seasoned diplomat than an expert entrusted with the task of reviving the sagging economy. Using simple, jargon-free language, he said what the middle class wants to hear: “I have to ...ensure food for the poor (garib ke pet mein ann pahunche) and more spending power is provided to citizens. There should be more money in his (the citizen’s) pocket. There should be more money in the housewife’s purse.” The remarks apparently indicate that the new Finance Minister is going to lower taxes to leave more cash in the hands of the citizen and encourage him to spend more, which in turn should boost demand for consumer products. That may not be the case ultimately and the celebration, if any, may have to wait until he actually walks his talk. Because in the very next moment he puts a rider, which many may have missed. “But”, to quote from media reports, “tax cuts can come only if there is no fall in revenue.” To ensure that there is no revenue fall, he has to tighten up the loose ends, bolster up the agencies engaged in tax collections and plug innumerable loopholes of which corporate tax payers generally take abundant advantage. But Mr Jaswant Singh asserts that the Finance Ministry under him would be a “service-oriented ministry” and that “I do not wish to be a policeman”. A Finance Minister has to act, at times, like a policeman also because in this land there is no dearth of tax evaders, revenue grabbers and rogues of other variety. Coming to his claim of ensuring enough food for the poor, it is all very natural for politicians to speak of welfare of the downtrodden. But how is the Finance Minister going to feed the havenots when the public distribution system is flawed and does not reach all the needy, when the much talked about food-for-work programme has remained confined to limited areas and when the cost of procurement and storage of foodgrains is so high that these remain well beyond the purchasing power of the poor and, being outpriced in the international market, remain unviable for exports ? Some countries do buy the subsidised Indian wheat, but to feed their cattle only. The growing mountains of food stocks are a major source of worry which the Finance Minister should face head-on without delay. Mr Jaswant Singh has assumed his new charge in the backdrop of the BJP’s recent electoral setbacks, which many in the party blamed on his predecessor’s Budget. Therefore, his resort to populism is understandable. But populism is no substitute for a concrete action plan to lift the economy. A sharp reduction in wasteful government expenditure and a congenial environment for faster growth, and not just empty talk, can leave more cash in the housewife’s purse. |
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USA in Afghan quagmire THE US-led anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan must have claimed the lives of more civilians than Taliban and Al-Qaeda activists, the real targets, though it is difficult to find the exact figures. No doubt, civilian casualties are unavoidable in an all-out war against a not-so-visible enemy. But it seems the American fighters have not been as careful as they should have been. They have been ruthlessly pursuing their target without realising the grave consequences of their mistakes. As a result, today they find themselves in a quagmire from where it seems impossible for them to come out without getting hurt seriously. The latest deadly mistake made by the American bombers was reported on Tuesday when at least 40 members of a marriage party (women and children included) were done to death for being mistaken as Al-Qaeda and Taliban members. This is being viewed as the most serious of all such negative developments. The US Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, which looks after the war in Afghanistan, has been forced to order a thorough enquiry into the incident so that a proper damage control exercise can be initiated. Reports suggest that in rural Afghanistan there is a tradition of guests firing in the air on the occasion of a Pashtun marriage. This is what was going on in a village in the central province of Uruzgan when US forces resorted to bombing the area, believing it as enemy fire targeted at Americans. The Hamid Karzai government is doing all it can to cool down the tempers of the enraged Afghans, particularly the majority Pashtuns, but with little success. The government’s difficulties are getting multiplied by the US forces’ weakness of seeing a Taliban or Al-Qaeda activist in every Afghan. Afghanistan watchers believe that once the Afghan tribes, known for their martial characteristics, turn hostile to the USA, the whole purpose of the campaign that began after September 11 will be defeated. The birth of strong anti-American sentiments will not only jeopardise the survival of the Karzai government but will also help the remaining Taliban and Al-Qaeda men to regroup themselves clandestinely to pose fresh threats to world peace. It is practically impossible to eliminate every activist and sympathiser of these dangerous outfits. What, however, can be done and must be done along with the ongoing military drive is to educate Afghans and other vulnerable people elsewhere in the world to beware of the destructive forces misusing the fair name of their religion. |
From Wall Street to fraud street UNEASINESS and shame are emotions foreign to those who shell out more than $ 600 for a lunch for three, with champagne, at Balthazar’s, in the ever-darkening shadow of Wall Street. Indeed, the September 11 tragedy last year made those who lunch here feel righteous — after all, stockbrokers are people too. Scott Sullivan was the kind of person that diners like Irene Stubner of the ING investment bank really admired. “Young and quite cute,” she says, and a chief financial officer who had “gotten to the top using his brain to get rich and powerful and put his company on the map”. Sullivan used to eat here from time to time when he was in town, but he hasn’t been seen around for a while. Until he was fired last week, Sullivan was finance chief of the second biggest telecoms company in the USA, and one of the biggest global couriers on the internet - now better known as the biggest alleged fraud in corporate history: WorldCom. WorldCom’s name is still plastered over advertising billboards and shop windows of New York, the iconic symbol of the logged-on, plugged-in, palm-piloted, always-on-the-mobile-phone way of living. Except that way of life is suddenly discovering its limits, and WorldCom is a target of mockery at best, outrage at worst. Sullivan’s name and face are all over the tabloid newspaper stands: he has become an emblem of greed and the target for a new popular anger and contempt over the rot being exposed at the core of American commerce. Preceded by Enron and followed by Xerox, WorldCom is one in an apparently never-ending line of household corporate names sinking into a mire of sleaze and corruption, dragging the dollar and the global image of American business with it. The practice that brought this about is called “backing up”. It happens when executives like Sullivan do anything they can to avoid catching the eye of the analysts at securities firms who may see their company’s profits falling below a consensus estimate - with the consequent punishment of a plunge in stock value. For the diners at Balthazar’s and other such eateries for high flyers, the attraction of the nineties boom was that the higher the share value, the bigger the personal bonus. But sometimes, ensuring the “right” share value (hence having more money to spend at Balthazar’s and take home afterwards) means doing things the wrong way round: rather than working out your company’s sales and deducting the expenses to calculate the profit, you do the reverse. You start with what your shareholders - and the securities analysts - expect the profit to be, and change the figures to make sure that it comes out right. Within limits, this is general practice, known as “earnings management”. But if these limits are pushed too far, an enterprising executive with a “stock option” package built into his or her salary can pocket tens of millions of dollars within a couple of years of landing the right job with the right company. That is what Scott Sullivan is accused of doing. The authorities are belatedly realising that this practice — and others equally dubious — are not confined to one or two rogue companies like Enron, which built elaborate and allegedly criminal structures to accumulate hidden wealth - they are part of the “Enronomics” which drive the machinery of modern corporate greed in the US. “You could say,” admitted Irene Stubner, “that things aren’t quite normal right now.” Indeed, they are not, for the ramifications of the sleaze have punctured not only the atmosphere at lunch on Wall Street but the entire dream on which a mass shareholder class was fed. The language that now abounds is that of a popular uprising. Even the right-wing tabloid press - usually sympathetic to corporate interests - joined in this week, with Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post running a special “World Con” section stating: “Wall Street is looking more like Fraud Street”. Christopher Byron, the unauthorised biographer of domestic diva Martha Stewart - herself now under the shadow of another scandal - has set himself up as the people’s voice on sleaze. He says: “Is it any wonder that people are scared of the stock markets? Crooked accountants, lying analysts, tax-cheat CEOs. Every day brings more shocks and outrages from the corner of American businesses, and the people are getting the message: “The stock market - forget it”!’ Howard Schilt, author of the already best-selling book Financial Shenanigans, believes that white-collar crooks have gone unpunished too long. “There’s a lot of corruption,” he says, “and too many managers just lie to enrich themselves with our money. The typical white-collar criminals never get sent to jail - but now it’s time to start doing it.” The scandals have rocked Washington and redefined the political agenda. For the first time since September 11, a bitter domestic issue is at the fore. The Bush administration has been rocked back on its heels - joining in the chorus of condemnation, with a major presidential speech on corporate reforms planned. Mindful of the fact that nearly half of all voters are shareholders, Bush has reacted in language that echoes Teddy Roosevelt’s famous lines about the “malefactors of great wealth”. But many analysts see in his reaction a case of the jitters: given the Republicans traditionally close ties with corporate America his advisers are either worried that too strong a condemnation risks biting the hand that feeds them, or fear that the administration cannot avoid being further tarnished by scandals affecting their friends. And it remains to be seen whether the President supplements the rhetoric with a fresh Department of Justice criminal probe of WorldCom and the like, and makes good his promises to send the guilty to jail. “We are waiting,” says one “Bushwatch” website, “with bated breath”. No one has yet suggested that the WorldCom scandal could strike at the heart of the Bush administration quite as starkly as Enron, but there are embarrassing connections that could spiral into a political scandal. Details are emerging of an amicable and lucrative relationship between the shamed WorldCom conglomerate and Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, one of Bush’s closest confidants on Capitol Hill. The new Trent Lott Leadership Institute received a $ 1 million donation from WorldCom to underwrite a fundraising event as recently as May 23. While the regulations limit the amount a company like WorldCom and its telecoms subsidiary MCI can contribute to Lott’s campaign, there are no such restrictions on giving to certain types of charitable foundations. At the same time, Lott has named a senior representative at WorldCom to the commission studying internet commerce. WorldCom, until now one of the largest employers in Lott’s home state of Mississippi, has a significant interest in the shape of potential legislation on internet commerce. In fact, the company has recently lobbied for legislation to compete with rival telecoms company AT&T’s expanding service. Lott has denied that the appointment to the commission was related to MCI’s support of his Leadership Institute. WorldCom was seeking political influence at the core of the administration right up to the eleventh hour before admitting its fraud. Only last week, the company gave a $ 100,000 donation to a gala at which Bush was guest of honour. WorldCom’s gift was sufficient to have the firm feature as a vice-chair of the event on its programme. The Democratic opposition, sensing a political opportunity even though much of the alleged malfeasance dates back to the Clinton era, has set up a new strategy against such connections which it is calling “economic patriotism”. Needing to win only six seats next November to take over the House of Representatives and with state governors up for election nationwide, the party believes it can turn the vote into a referendum on sleaze. Even as the WorldCom scam was being announced, the Democratic Leader in the House, Richard Gephardt, had accused the Republicans of “creating an environment” in which corporations could break the law and avoid sanction. “It is,” said Gephardt, “telling that in 1995, when the Republican leadership (of the House) came in, both Newt Gingrich and [Congressman] Tom DeLay made statements that the main goal of their effort was to deregulate corporate America. Well, they did, and now we are seeing some of the results of that.” The leading independent pollster John Zogby — widely respected in Republican circles - recently found that voters no longer trust the Bush administration any more than they do the Democrats on economic and financial issues. A poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC television earlier this month showed widespread distrust of all businesses, from oil companies to brokerage firms and corporate leaders in general.
By arrangement with The Observer, London |
Golden globes FRUIT lovers have their own choices. To some, mango is dear — however dear it sells in the market. Some pine for the pineapple while guava holds the sway for others because of its aroma. For most, however, the red ball is the apple of their eye. Thanks to the famous proverb that promises the doctor away. Well. They are all entitled to their likes as well as to their dislikes. I had a friend at Government College, Ludhiana, who hated the mango. Once, a class-mate brought one mango to his room in the New Hostel. The “Offender” faced fire and was made to leave the room along with his precious cargo — the king of fruits. I fall for the orange, and half a stumble for its close kin — the kinnow, a mix of orange and malta. I concede that even the love-apple (tomato) does not provide the sensuous delight the orange does. Frankly, I am unable to decide which looks visually more appealing — the orange or the love-apple. These days when papaya, chikoo, banana, grapes, black and green, tray the table, orange still holds its own. It is my conviction that slices of bread, butter, cheese, jam, or eggs pale when the orange decorates the tray and the table. The reason is simple. None of the delicacies mentioned above makes the mouth water as does the orange. No other food lends the meal the exciting flavour the tingling, tangy orange does. If you distrust my word “Tang” proved it our Nagpuri is, however, the best. It may not be possible to list the numerous qualities of this golden globe in a “middle.” Some will find place in this one. It helps in curing influenza, and brightens the complexion. The vitamin C in it makes it fight disease, too. A well-know American editor says that he cured himself of a fell disease with massive doses of vitamin C. Zeenat Aman, the “Quarbani” fame girl from Hindi films, once revealed in a column the secret of her sparkling teeth. She used a dental powder made from dried orange peels of mixed with common salt. Two brushings a day gave her teeth the sheen she could show with pride. Eating orange slices needs finesse. Nobody with any aesthetic sense swallows its juicy bits fast one after another. One has go to slow, putting a piece in the mouth and giving it a gentle crush with the tongue. Slowly, the juice spreads on the tongue, giving a kick which is the envy of the divinity. My grand-daughter, Kriti, aged eight, sits with a full plate of sliced oranges and runs through the contents with relish. Not only that, she insists that the whole lot of oranges lying on the table should also be placed within her reach. You just cannot eat one. Why the orange? Why not melon which is equally juicy? The melon makes the mouth (and ears) sticky. The mango bursts at the wrong end and smears the face. But orange slices do not burst in the face. They do so in the mouth. Nor do they smear the fingers, or the face. Romantic poet, John Keats, derived immense pleasure by stuffing cloves in his mouth, and imbibing the aromatic flavour. I substitute orange slices and find the same sensuous delight. I am Kriti’s grand-father! This much speaks well for the orange. But I have found another attribute of my favourite fruit — honesty! The fruits. Not mine. If it is bad, it is bad outside — from looks. You can see the scar. In this respect, it is more honest than human beings who are rotten at the core but do not show on the outside. |
Two world tourists CAPT G. H. Malins and Charles Oliver, who are on a world motor-cycle tour, left Bombay this morning for Agra and other places in Central India. They expect to reach Delhi soon and Simla two days later, and after visiting Lucknow and Cawnpore to reach Calcutta about the end of the month. They will then proceed to Burma, the Straits Settlement Sumatra and travel to Australia, New Zealand and United States before returning to England which they left last December. The complete tour is expected to last about a year. |
New PCC chief in Punjab soon: Kidwai A veteran Congress leader and staunch loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Ms Mohsina Kidwai is in many ways the party’s link with the past. Congress General Secretary in charge of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Assam, Ms Kidwai meets workers not only from the states under
her charge but also those coming from other parts of the country. Belonging to a family of freedom fighters, 70-year old Ms Kidwai entered public life in 1960 when she became an MLC in Uttar Pradesh. A close associate of Ms Indira Gandhi, she won the Azamgarh Lok Sabha byelection in 1978 which paved the way for Ms Gandhi’s return to power in 1980. A senior minister in the cabinets of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Ms Kidwai was not in the limelight during the Rao and Kesri eras. A leading member of the Congress (Tiwari), she was, however, instrumental in its merger with the parent Congress after the Rao years. Having headed the party unit in UP in the 1970s and 1980s, Ms Kidwai is unhappy at the party’s present condition in the crucial state. She is also sore about the changes in the body politic of the country due to the rise of ``communal and casteist forces’’ and the growing influence of muscle and money power. The Congress workers in the past, she recalls, showed greater zest and the party functioned as a unit in elections. Excerpts from an interview: Q: How is the Congress preparing with 11 states going to the polls in the coming 16 months? The general secretaries of the states concerned are fully involved in the task and meet workers and leaders everyday. The party will send observers to the states going to the polls to get feedback about the issues and candidates. The Pradesh Congress Committees are taking up local issues and also identifying people who are committed to the party’s ideology. Q: How do you deal with the abysmal state of the party in Uttar Pradesh as well as in Bihar, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu? Uttar Pradesh has been polarised on caste and communal lines. It is unfortunate because secularism is the destiny of the country. The Congress has been out of power in Uttar Pradesh from 1989 and people still recall the work done by Mr N D Tiwari, who was the last Congress Chief Minister of the state. Farmers’ dues were not pending and the state was making progress in all fields during Congress rule. Unfortunately, after 1989 and particularly after the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992, the atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh became such that development issues took a back seat as a result of which the Congress suffered. It is true that the party’s organisational setup in UP is weak but the Congress has a mass support base and the party would regain its strength with honest and sincere work of its workers. The party would be strengthened in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal before the next elections. Q: Most Pradesh Congress committees are plagued by infighting. The problem is acute in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh as also Punjab. The high-command listens to all factions and tries its best to sort out problems but it is for the state leadership to see that differences are minimised and not aired publicly. Factionalism and internal differences exist in every party. The Congress leaders are responsible and they do nothing which could break the party. Q: How do you deal with slogan-shouting and heckling of senior party leaders at rallies as
evidenced at a recent rally organised by the Haryana Congress in Delhi? Such incidents are against the Congress culture. It was a big and successful rally. I have asked the Haryana PCC chief to identify people who had raised slogans. Q: When would the new PCC chief be appointed in Punjab? Are top-level changes also in the offing in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh? Consultations are being held for the appointment of the new PCC chief in Punjab and the announcement will be made soon. While changes are being contemplated in Haryana, no change will be made in the PCC leadership in Himachal Pradesh. Q: How is the Congress preparing for the coming poll in Himachal Pradesh? There are indications that the Dhumal government may prepone the elections and hold them simultaneously with elections in Gujarat. The Congress is prepared for the poll in Himachal Pradesh. The party would soon set up committees to prepare its manifesto and a charge-sheet against the Dhumal government. While the sitting MLAs will be repeated in most cases, the ticket on other seats will be given to winning candidates. An attempt will be made to give representation to all castes and communities and youth will be preferred in the allotment of the tickets. Central observers will be sent to the state to identify the right candidates. Q: What is the party’s strategy for the assembly poll in Jammu and Kashmir? Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, who now heads the PCC in the state, is a very experienced leader. The party will perform well in J and K. Q: There is a perception that Congress President Sonia Gandhi is
surrounded by a coterie, some of whose decisions have not been in the best interest of the party. This talk of a coterie has been going on since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru. There is no coterie
surrounding Mrs Sonia Gandhi. She meets a large number of people and consults the Congress Working Committee on all important issues. Q: How does the Congress view the recent Cabinet expansion and
organisational changes in BJP and is the Congress planning a similar revamp? The Bharatiya Janata Party has surrendered to the RSS lobby. The BJP has made the changes with an eye on the coming elections in various states. The swap and change of portfolios is an admission by the BJP of failure of previous incumbents to these posts. The Congress does not make changes as a reaction to those made by the BJP. The
organisational changes are a prerogative of the Congress president and these would be made when she feels the need. |
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Abused kids see angry faces all over CHILDREN who have been abused or mistreated see angry faces everywhere, which may explain why such children can become abusive and even criminals themselves in later life, researchers have said. They said their study also sheds doubt on the widely accepted theory that humans are hard-wired to read emotion in one another’s faces. Reading the expression on another person’s face may be strongly influenced by early experiences, they say. Psychologist Seth Pollak of the University of Wisconsin based his work on the key finding in 1972 by anthropologist Paul Ekman that people around the world recognise the same expressions for anger; sadness, fear, surprise and disgust. “I still find it fascinating, that around the world, even though people use different languages and have different social rules, everyone sees the angry face as angry,” Pollak said in a telephone interview. “This got people started thinking that human emotions are hard-wired.” But Pollak wondered whether it might instead be the case that most people treat babies pretty much the same, so babies around the world learn to respond in a similar way to expression. One way to check this was to look at babies who are not treated normally — babies who were abused. “These children have had things done to them that are really severe. They have been choked and burned and had broken bones,” Pollak said. “The problem is that we so take it for granted that child abuse is bad that we don’t know why. Why is it that something that happened when you were two, three or four continues to affect your ability to function throughout life?” Abuse is known to affect a child’s performance in school and in later life, can lead to depression, anxiety and even abusive and criminal
behaviour. Pollak’s group tested 40 children with an average age of 9 years. Of them, 23 had been abused. He had them play computer games based on Ekman’s famous chart of faces with various expressions. Most had a blend of emotions — for instance, 40 per cent fearful and 60 per cent angry. The children were asked to identify which emotion they felt dominated each face. The abused children, he wrote in last week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were much more likely to find anger in such a
face. Pollak, who hopes to use the research to help develop ways of helping such children, believes they may develop a hypersensitivity to anger as a survival mechanism. “They are growing up in these environments that are hostile and bizarre,” Pollak said. “But what happens when you are no longer living in that abusive environment? What happens when you are in school, you are with teachers, you are playing with friends?” he asked.
Reuters |
Helping lesbians become parents THE path to parenthood for lesbian couples has been made easier with the launching of the world’s first internet sperm donor service in the UK. John Gonzales, the brain behind the service emphatically named Man Not Included, however, said he expected some criticism from people who did not approve of the idea of helping lesbians become parents. “If a child is going to be loved and cared for, to me it doesn’t matter if it is two women or a man and a woman bringing it up. It takes a great deal of courage and thought for women to decide to do this and so the child will be very wanted,” he was quoted in an interview with BBC. Man Not Included will match up lesbian couples with sperm donors through the Internet. The team behind the service will meet both donors and recipients for vetting purposes, but the two parties will not meet. The site at www.mannotincluded.com went live last weekend and will begin working fully on July 9.
ANI
Lights benefit diabetics’ vision A new research by scientists in Wales confirms a long-standing hypothesis that the retinas of people with diabetes are deprived of oxygen at night, causing damage to the light-sensitive region. A solution would be sleeping with the lights on, they suggest. According to Neville Drasdo and colleagues at Cardiff University, this could prevent diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness. Oxygen deprivation seems to happen when the retinal cells become adapted to the dark, and increase their oxygen demand. A report in New Scientist says the team measured a small electric current from cells within the retina — an indicator of how healthy the cells are. This current was reduced in diabetics when their retinas were dark-adapted. Allowing the patients to breathe oxygen brought the activity back to a healthy level. A normal retina can just about cope with the extra oxygen demand, but it seems to be too much for diabetics, says Drasdo. It is not clear why, he adds, but diabetics do have circulatory problems, and even slightly damaged blood vessels might not be able to deliver sufficient oxygen to the retina at times of high demand. This stress could trigger further changes in the blood vessels. Whatever the precise reason, avoiding dark adaptation might prevent that retinal cell damage, they say. And they think normal room illumination, even with the eyes closed, would be sufficient to achieve that. “This should be investigated as a matter of urgency,” says Drasdo. “Diabetic retinopathy is an enormous problem.”
ANI |
Hail to Thee, O One who has no overlord. Hail to Thee, O One who is the Destroyer of all. Hail to the Indestructible One Hail to the Undestroyable One. Hail to the Immortal One Hail to the Self-dependent One. Hail to the All-pervading One Hail to the One who is in all garbs. — Guru Gobind Singh,
Jap, Bhuyang Prayat Chhand *** Visible or invisible, O Lord, Thou art the prop of every human heart, Thou foresaketh none in the hour of trial. Even the worst sinner has Thy protection. Thou art the Giver and Bestower, Thou art the citadel of strength, Thou art the anchor of hope, Thou art the fountainhead of mercy. Thou chaseth away man's fears and doubts, Thou art the beacon light of joy and cheer, Thou art the guiding star, Thou the shepherd of the soul. Thou art the Absolute Spirit... Thou art the seed and soul of every phenomenon, Thou art the fashioner and the builder, The Artist and the Architect... All is in God and All is God, Pray to God with the fire of your heart, He is your Refuge and the bastion of your Defence, His is the inner voice in every human being, His is the fragrance of joy and delight... — Yogi
M. K. Spencer, How I Found God *** The word "meditate" is often misused in the west. We liken it to "think". "Thinking" and "meditation" are as different as "dark" is to "light". We think about but we meditate on. — William Corlett and John Moore, The Hindu Sound |
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