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Tuesday,
September 17, 2002,
Chandigarh, India  
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Exporting basmati Bush isolated on Iraq Pak cricket in trouble |
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The priorities in Afghanistan
Gujarat: new trials in political lab
Boys ‘more stupidly competitive’
Search for key to eternal youth
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Exporting basmati AT a time when there is a glut of rice in the country’s godowns and markets, and there is almost a consensus on the need for crop diversification by weaning the farmer from the paddy-wheat rotation, the Punjab Government’s proposal to set up an “agri export zone” for basmati does not make much sense. The export zone covers the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and
Nawanshahr. These are paddy-growing areas which heavily exploit underground water. Given the alarming decline in the underground watertable in the recent times coupled with an increasing pollution of the irrigation and drinking water sources, one thought the government would now at least discourage the cultivation of water-intensive crops like paddy and basmati. The water-logged areas of the state perhaps need to be focussed on for promoting paddy and basmati cultivation, if at all these crops are to be encouraged. Secondly, it is not clear whether Markfed or any other Punjab Government agency had done any research work regarding the viability of basmati exports from the state. The cost of production in Punjab is on the high side and erratic, depending on the mood of the monsoon and the availability of inputs like electricity and high-yielding varieties of quality basmati. Has the government identified long-term markets for exports? Thirdly, the distance from the ports and lack of infrastructure, specially transport facilities, also weigh against exports from Punjab. Going by the past experience, India has not gained much from rice exports. Despite a rise in demand and slowdown in rice exports from countries like China, Vietnam and Pakistan, the international rice prices have not gone up because of the huge stocks that India has piled up over the years. The country is expected to export a record 5.5 million tonnes of rice during 2002, giving tough competition to major rice exporters like Thailand and Vietnam, but the price realised is not enough to offset the cost of production. The rice output is expected to fall this season by 10-12 million tonnes because of drought and crop loss. Delayed rains have caused an extensive damage to paddy already unloaded in mandis. There are reports of distress sale of paddy in Punjab even as the Union Government is yet to announce a revised minimum support price for paddy and official procurement
agencies are yet to enter the mandis. The FCI will start procurement on October 1. There are too many glitches in growing and marketing paddy, which need to be removed before new projects are undertaken. The concept of “agri export zone” is commendable, but there is need to
identify viable crops, make available quality seeds, ensure the availability of pesticides and expert guidance, identify the export markets and study the price trends to make exports remunerative. Growing fruits and vegetables can be a profitable thrust area. There is tremendous potential for food processing industries in Punjab which can lead to the growth of fruit and vegetable cultivation for the domestic as well as export markets. |
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Bush isolated on Iraq THE
meeting of the Foreign Ministers of India, the Russian Federation and China at the United Nations sends out a strong signal against any unilateral action against Iraq by the USA. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, the USA received support from all quarters in its self-declared war on terrorism, but a year later the ground situation has changed. Today it has to face a world which has increasingly expressed reservations against any adventurism on its part. It can only count on the support of the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair. Even Mr Blair has to contend with growing anti-war sentiment in the UK and is being pressured to consult the British Parliament before rushing into any decision. Perhaps, the Bush administration’s predicament has had a lot to do with its attitude. The “either you are with us or you are the enemy” kind of line does not work in the world of diplomacy, especially when it is conveyed with a degree of arrogance. The USA went with big guns and big bombs. It overthrew the Taliban regime but failed to get its prime target, Osama bin Laden. The focus should have shifted after this to healing the war-torn nation, but there is a serious lack of commitment from the rich nations in providing medicines, food and other essential supplies to the Afghans. President Hamid Karzai has been trying in vain to get the money to build the basic infrastructure needed to run the country. The USA can’t abrogate its responsibility of looking after the victims of terrorism in Afghanistan. The war on terrorism has to continue but the military option is just one of the several fronts it has to be fought on. The USA has shifted its focus now. When it failed to get Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, the target shifted to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. However, this time the lack of support from the international community has been marked. Mr Yashwant Sinha, Mr Igor Ivanov and Mr Tang Jiaxuan are quite right in emphasising that the USA should adhere to the resolutions of the United Nations on Iraq so that weapon inspectors could return to that country and the sanctions against it could be removed. By asking Iraq to implement, without any preconditions, all the UN Security Council resolutions, New Delhi, Beijing and Moscow asserted the superiority of the United Nations. As the world’s only superpower, the USA has the responsibility to behave in an enlightened manner so as to set an example for the rest of the world. As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, only the world body could authorise the use of force that went beyond straightforward self-defence. This is what the three Foreign Ministers have also asserted. |
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Pak cricket in trouble IT
is difficult to put a finger on it yet. However, whatever little circumstantial evidence is available suggests that Pakistan cricket is in serious trouble. And Yousuf Yohana, the talented right-hand batsman and the only non-Muslim in the present squad, is in some way responsible for the crisis. At least part of it. As far as getting the right balance is concerned, the Pakistan Cricket Board is facing the same problem that the Board of Control for Cricket in India is trying to solve. There is a slight difference though. Pakistan does not have the batsmen to support their bowlers, and India does not have the bowlers to support their batsmen. India and Pakistan together would without doubt be the top team in international cricket. So, why is the Pakistani cricket establishment gunning for one of its best batsmen? India can afford the luxury of discarding batsmen, but not Pakistan. [India has made Rahul Dravid double up as a wicketkeeper to retain his place in the team!] Why is Yohana being singled out for adverse notice? Last month he was sent away from Kenya for reasons that were never explained. He denied any differences with skipper Waqar Younis. This time he is in the eye of a fresh controversy. The name of the controversy is match-fixing, that not too long ago finished the careers of Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja in India and threatened to destroy international cricket itself. Reports from Sri Lanka, the venue of the 12-nation Champions Trophy, say that the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council may take a close look at the tournament’s opening tie between Sri Lanka and Pakistan that the host team won by a comfortable margin. The point of controversy is the manner in which Yohana got run out. The anti-corruption inspectors may also view the video footage that reportedly caught Pakistan’s flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi tampering with the ball. The match-fixing charges may well have been floated by “interested parties” who know a thing or two about the obvious schism within the team ever since Wasim Akram stepped down, under controversial circumstances, as skipper. The Pakistan cricket team is lucky to have a number of promising youngsters to replace the ageing warriors. But the fact of the matter is that the emergence of fresh talent is not the result of the efforts of the country’s cricketing establishment. Pakistan has produced outstanding players not because of a well-oiled system. Imran Khan was the last of the grand aristocrats of the game who had the charisma and stature to make the Pakistani players bury their differences and put their best foot forward for their country and their team. It was the “Imran magic” that saw the team do exceptionally well, in spite of obvious internal bickering, for nearly a decade. The magic is wearing off. The Pakistan cricket establishment simply does not have the administrators to stem the rot. The differences are coming out in the open. Akram, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Saeed Anwar have decided to skip next month’s tour of Australia. Their decision to give themselves a break from the hectic international calendar may turn out to be the beginning of the end of Pakistan as a cricket giant. |
The priorities in Afghanistan AFGHANISTAN is a society, a polity and an economy that has suffered the equivalent of a nuclear holocaust, although atomic bombs are the only kind of weapons that have not been used in the conflicts that Afghans have fought for the last quarter of a century. Events since IX/XI have, however, brightened Afghanistan’s future prospects. An extraordinary opportunity has been created by the Al-Qaeda-Taliban combine; their self-destructive attack on America led to an unexpected path to peace, prosperity, security and stability for the Afghan people. If the Afghans are able to seize this opportunity, their country can become part of the modern world. New hope for the future began with the arrival of the United Front and the departure of the Taliban from the centre of power in Kabul. Further developments such as the holding of the Bonn Conference and the establishment of the Afghan Interim Authority, the donor conferences in Tokyo, Berlin and Geneva, the return of former monarch Zahir Shah, the emergency Loya Jirga comprising of 1567 participants from 32 provinces and the formation of the transitional administration have transformed the situation. Political activity which was suppressed by the Taliban has recommenced with the emergency Loya Jirga and the election of Mr Hamid Karzai as the leader of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (1265 votes). The process of reconstruction and reconciliation is well begun. New political parties have been established (the 1964 constitution had proposed establishing a multi-party system, but the legislation was not passed), but the persistence of extremism is still a serious problem. The objective of the world community’s intervention in Afghanistan was to halt the export of terrorism, but the mindset that supports terrorism has not disappeared either in Afghanistan or in Pakistan. The security situation is fragile although not as bad as it was at the beginning of the year. A new police force is being created which will comprise of 25,000 officers from the 32 provinces. The new army would comprise of 80,000 soldiers (12,000 border guards, 60,000 infantry and 8,000 air force). However, the demobilisation of the Afghan militias and the establishment of new security forces are a long way off. The threat levels perceived by Afghans in a recent survey indicate that the threat of an attack by another state is low, the risk of a medium-scale internal crisis is significant, and in the case of opposition to the counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism activities and the establishment of the authority of a civilian government, Afghans believe that the threat from vested interests is high. The political challenges are immense. Internal peace requires, above all, self-abnegation by power brokers, warlords and other “spoilers”. The international community with its limited interest and attention span in the Afghan quagmire cannot be expected to do more politically and militarily for Afghanistan than Afghans are themselves prepared to do. For the time being, outside powers, particularly Afghanistan’s neighbours, and especially Pakistan, are abjuring from their traditional policy of interfering negatively in this war-ravaged country’s internal politics. While the USA and its coalition allies remain engaged militarily and politically and are prepared to menace forces which might be tempted to keep the Afghan pot boiling (the B-52s are likely to remain ever ready for active duty during the tenure of the Bush administration), the transitional government has the opportunity to stabilise the uncertain and factionalised politics which are its legacy. Political and military support for de-weaponisation and suppression of the heroin trade can be taken as a given, but will this extend to finding the resources for the de-mining of Afghanistan or deploying ground troops to dissuade those elements which are prepared to rock the still delicate Afghan boat? The USA wants to make certain that IX/XI type attacks do not ever again find support in Afghanistan (and for that matter in Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, et al.), but sooner rather than later the Americans will disengage. It is such insecurities about the future that keep Afghan refugees, now living in Pakistan and Iran, from returning, and prevent also the trained, educated and experienced Afghan professional diaspora from applying their full strength to rebuilding their country. The first priority, therefore, is the restoration of law and order and sustaining peaceful and stable conditions into the future. The Bonn Conference envisaged the establishment of a new judicial commission since the Taliban had completely wiped out all official documents of the Government of Afghanistan. The new judiciary would have to fulfil certain international obligations, which will have a direct bearing on its image and position abroad. (India, among other nations, has offered to actively participate in the drafting of new legislation and will support the judiciary by offering training). The 1964 constitution would be the basis for the future legislature and judiciary. The “liberals” control the economic portfolios, and liberal economic policies can be expected. Liberal ideas on economic management and in other areas are, however, likely to be fiercely contested by conservatives in Afghanistan. There has been a marked increase in the role of women in public life, but it is not clear whether the influence of religious conservatives will be as benign as the liberals want on gender issues in Afghanistan’s future policy. Ethnic tensions, which have a long history in this country, exacerbated by the civil wars of the last two and a half decades, require a long period of healing. Wise leadership from among all ethnic factions, tribes and regions is required to rebuild the Afghan nation. Similarly, radical Islamic tendencies have to be mediated since these are averse to the emergence of a modern nation and society. Regional economic opportunities are immense and can be viewed in the context of transforming the political economy of the entire region. The National Development Framework of the Afghan Interim Authority (drafted in April, 2002), which will be implemented by the Afghan Transitional Authority and its successors, has identified the priorities for the country. The Asian Development Bank in its formulation of an “Initial Country Strategy and Program” for 2002-2004 (circulated in May, 2002), identified “several important development challenges confronting the country. Some of the most critical are to (i) promote security; build trust among people; and create a social consensus on human rights, dignity and the value of life through establishing the rule of law; (ii) generate employment for millions of unemployed, internally displaced persons, refugees and demobilised combatants; (iii) rehabilitate basic infrastructure and social services; (iv) end discrimination against women and promote their return to the socio-economic mainstream; (v) employ a community-based decentralised approach to rehabilitation and reconstruction; and (vi) utilise the full potential of sub-regional cooperation with Iran, Pakistan and the Central Asian republics.” According to figures published by different UN agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, UNOCHA, WFP, UNHCR), the socio-economic situation of the people of Afghanistan is desperate — average life expectancy is around 40 years, 70 per cent of the population is malnourished and only 13 per cent have access to improved water supply. An estimated 15,000 women die every year from pregnancy related causes with the estimated maternal mortality rate at 1500-1700 per 100,000 live births; one of the highest in the world. About a quarter of all Afghan children die before the age of five. Half of all children are stunted in height (shorter than the average for their age) and diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections account for about 41 per cent of all child deaths; vaccine-preventable diseases are responsible for another 21 per cent. Less than one-third of Afghan children were enrolled in schools (including madarsas), but after the departure of the Taliban this proportion has increased in the towns and cities where a degree of stability exists. Internally displaced Afghans number in the region of 1-2 million and more than 6 million Afghans (over a quarter of the total) are in a highly vulnerable state in terms of access to basic food items, clean drinking water and availability of medical supplies. The number of Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan are estimated at upwards of 4 million of which up to a quarter (in Pakistan) do not want to ever return. At meetings in Tokyo and elsewhere the donor community pledged large sums to ensure that immediate humanitarian needs could be met in the short term, and the process of rebuilding the economy jumpstarted. Alas, disbursements have fallen far behind pledges and the transitional government is acutely strapped for resources. In this context, it is not surprising that for Afghanistan to realise the potential for trade and economic cooperation with its neighbours is a distant prospect. Afghanistan could earn immense revenues from allowing oil and gas pipelines to be constructed from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India, but this will only be available to its exchequer once Islamabad and New Delhi normalise relations. (The Asian Development Bank has already offered to fund the $ 3 billion gas pipeline project from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan). However, these revenues and the economic benefits from transportation links Afghanistan may offer its neighbours will only be enjoyed when the internal situation in Afghanistan is secure. In fact, China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and India all have a strong interest in making a success of the effort to rebuild the country. Once the process of reconstruction is on track, the energy development and transportation sectors will experience speedy growth. What implications does this have for the other great conflict of South Asia — the long-standing dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir? If one takes the long view of the Afghan predicament, perhaps the single most important political development for the South Asian region will be an end to the Indo-Pakistani conflict over Kashmir. This is because the most densely populated part of Afghanistan, east of the line between Kabul and Kandahar, is an extension of South Asia. The Pashtu-speaking people of Afghanistan and the Pathans of the NWFP and Balochistan have deep and ancient links with the rest of the Indian subcontinent. A close relationship existed between Zahir Shah’s Afghanistan and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s Pathans on the one side, and Indians of all shades and persuasions on the other. The distance which was created between Pashtuns and Indians in the last two decades was an aberration caused by extraodinary circumstances and malevolent purposes. Later, India had developed and maintained close relationships with the anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan, particularly the Panjshiri Tajiks of the Northern Alliance, led by the legendary Ahmad Shah Masood. India was to, however, make strenuous efforts to engage the Pathans. In this regard, Mr Yashwant Sinha’s recent visit to Afghanistan should be seen not only as an effort to maintain continuity in India’s high-level contacts with the present Afghan leaders but also as consolidating India’s attempt at reaching out to the Pashtun leadership, thereby basing its relationships by including all ethnic groups with the sole objective of encouraging the process of unity within the local power structure. The military dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan were the prime movers in the Afghanistan tragedy. Added to this were the consequences of the Pan-Islamic thrust of the Afghan Mujahideen’s resistance to foreign forces, the long running Afghan civil wars (especially those of the Najibullah and post-Najibullah period), the rise of the Taliban as a politicomilitary instrument of the Pakistan army and its Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) and the growth of the jehadi culture among South Asia’s unemployed youth. But these have either been defeated or are in retreat. Therefore, it is in everybody’s vital interest that an intra-Afghan reconciliation takes place and that the historic linkages between the Pathan tribes of undivided India’s North-West Frontier and the rest are restored. This, more than anything else, will sound the death-knell, at least in South Asia, for the forces of darkness that nurtured the Taliban and developed the jehadi culture, which has now spread across the globe. An economically vibrant South Asia, cooperating to make the entire region secure, must become the sole valid option for the disaffected youth who make up for a majority of the population of these countries. The jehadi mindset will only lose its allure in South Asia when all sides abandon the use of violence and the threat of violence as instruments of diplomacy. If Islamabad and New Delhi are able to negotiate a settlement on Kashmir in the context of the “composite dialogue” agenda already agreed upon, all the people of South Asia (including Afghanistan) can hope to lift themselves out of the conditions of severe deprivation in which they now live. If not, our recent history will add one more year of lost opportunities for development to the years we have lost before. The writer is Director, International Centre for Peace Initiatives, New Delhi.
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Gujarat: new trials in political lab GUJARAT has been a political laboratory for the RSS parivar for testing different winning formulas based on religious schisms. Even while the Vajpayee line of omnibus coalition was at its liberal best in 1998-2000, the parivar has been busy experimenting with a dubious dual game plan in Gujarat. The official BJP policy then was to toe the NDA’s secular agenda. But in Gujarat the VHP and the Bajrang Dal were simultaneously encouraged to run full hate campaigns. Before the elections, nondescript parivar groups were separately conducting such quasi-religious programmes with the full support of the RSS and the local BJP. Ritambharas and Dharmendras took care of the fanatic vote bank while the gentlemen politicians peddled the official BJP line. Thus unlike in other states, this two-channel strategy had enabled the BJP to both polarise the fanatic Hindutva vote bank and garner the support of those who had reposed faith in the programmes of the liberalised BJP. Narendra Modi’s game plan based on stimulated pre-poll riots — as against accidental ones elsewhere — has been part of this experiment. Modi is so confident of its success that he showers the worst kind of abuses on the Muslims which no other BJP Chief Minister has ever done publicly (E.g: “Italy ki beti”, “ham panch, hamaare pachis”, “relief camps are child producing factories”, etc). Thankfully, his high command has since put a break on him, apparently due to adverse reaction from outside Gujarat as well as allies like the Samata Party. While all this has been going on, Gujarat’s political laboratory is also witness to another experimentation. This time by the Congress under its PCC chief Shankersinh Vaghela. One of the builders of the RSS in Gujarat, Vaghela and sections of the traditional Congressmen argue that in a state where communal polarisation has taken its ugliest form, no breakthrough could be achieved without winning over the misinformed and misdirected majority. This could be achieved only by creating fissures in the highly polarised mass through saner religious, caste and social leaders. An exceptional situation prevails in Gujarat. A whole generation gripped in religious hatred has grown up since the first major communal riots in 1968. Modi’s two-channel strategy — on the surface Vajpayee’s liberal face and under it the Thogadias — has worked so well that a big chunk of the Hindus have rallied round him in frenzy. Under such conditions normal reasoning and sensitivities become casualty. Watch the way enthusiastic crowds cheered Modi whenever he uttered words like “ham panch, hamaare panch” during his recent “gaurav yatra”. Vaghela is the best bet for the Congress to take its fight right into the parivar’s communal monolith. He could do many things a traditional Congressman can’t. He is ruthless and knows the weak spots of the parivar. In the ongoing Congress experiments in killing poison with poison, Vaghela has made some strides. He wooed Adhokshanand, Shankaracharya of Puri, to spend his chaturmas in Vasana in Mehsana district. An RSS adversary, his appointment as Shankaracharya has been under legal challenge from the pro-VHP outfits. The Shankaracharya has now begun assailing the RSS parivar for twisting the Hindu concepts and misleading the devout. His outbursts against the Hindutva lobby laced with quotes from the scriptures seem to have disturbed the latter. He stresses the Hindu tolerance and its high sense of spiritual values as against the Hindutva’s cult of hatred. Vaghela now tries to rope in such religious leaders and institutions in his fight to cause wedges in the rival camp. Efforts are quietly made to win over the heads of institutions like temples and religious trusts. Many of them have problems with the local VHP leaders. Such schism could be effectively used to get their support. The idea is to burst the myth of equating the Hindutva style Hinduism with the real Hinduism. Even if some progress may have been made in some stray cases, as things stand today it is not going to be an easy task for the Congress because the RSS elements remain deeply entrenched in local religious institutions. This apart, the pro-Congress religious leaders talk the language of amity and faith. They liberally quote Swami Vivekananda who had said he was “proud to belong to a religion which had taught the world tolerance and universal acceptance.” At meetings in rural interior, Vaghela himself speaks the language of devout. “I am a true Hindu, not NaMo (Narendra Modi). Hindus should realise that their tolerant religion is being hijacked along with the names of Sardar Patel and Narsinh Mehta (tenth century religious poet),” he exhorts. The BJP government, which seeks votes in the name of cows, has decided to set up 60,000 abattoirs to slaughter cows and bulls, he says. “If we come to power, we won’t allow this.” This has spread so much confusion in the BJP ranks that state leaders pushed the Centre for an immediate statement withdrawing the proposal. Even some Congress intellectuals argue that in the exceptional situation in Gujarat, diamond will have to be used to cut diamond. Ideally, the plan is to project the true Hinduism which does not discriminate against those belonging to other religions. So far, the Vaghela experiments have the central leadership’s nod. Kamal Nath, who is in charge of Gujarat in the AICC, is acquainted with the programmes. The question is how far an essentially secular national party like the Congress could permit it. There have been many feeble attempts to challenge the parivar’s hold on the community. Chandraswami had tried a rival movement at Ayodhya. And so Swami Swaroopanand. There has also been an attempt organise a rival ‘dharmacharya’ meet at Haridwar. There is some truth in the Congress claim that the Gujarat experiment is far different from Narasimha Rao’s soft Hindutva which had badly damaged the party’s secular image. While Rao had compromised on the Congress secularism by indulging in competitive communalism, the Gujarat move is claimed to be to highlight difference between the Hindutva and the true Hinduism. The other facet of the Gujarat experiment — use of caste loyalty to counter Hindutva — stands a far better chance. “Shudrastra” has been successfully used by Laloo and Mulayam against the BJP’s “brahmastra” when the parivar strode to consolidate Hindus under it. The whole mandal-kamandal confrontation arose when the former refused to come under the exploitative “brahmanism”. The process of social splintering for political gains by asserting the rights of castes and sub-castes as a strategy has been tried many times since the Mandal days. Nitish Kumar used the Kurmi pride against Laloo Prasad Yadav and the MBCs were used against the OBCs in UP. In Tamil Nadu, PMK and Vanniars used the same device. True, Vaghela has made an impressive beginning at Phagvel by successfully gaining the support of his kshatriya kin. Efforts are also being made to woo sections of the Patels. In theory, the Congress dream of reviving Madhavsinh Solanki’s KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) can be an effective antidote against Modi’s hatred-driven Hindutva. But the Congress has too little time and mobilisation ability to do such social engineering. Moreover, the BJP has already penetrated deep into traditional Congress bastions like Adivasis and Dalits. Irrespective of this, the Vaghela moves will have to be closely watched by both his party and the other side. |
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Boys ‘more stupidly competitive’ WOMEN often complain that men are stupidly competitive — and researchers have found that they might be right. A study showed that boys will compete just for the sake of it, regardless of whether there is anything to be gained. Girls on the other hand will not waste their time on competition unless the prize is worth it. They also appeared more sensitive to the feelings of their competitors. A team of Canadian researchers led by Rosanne Roy, from McGill University in Montreal, recruited 40 groups of four boys or four girls to play a specially designed game with two sets of rules. The children, aged five to 10, had to thread beads on a stick until it was full, taking beads from either a common pot or another player. One set of rules meant everyone would eventually win, making competition pointless. Another allowed for only one winner, so competing made sense. The girls spent more time watching the reactions of their competitors and responding to them, New Scientist magazine reported. “They would watch the facial expression of their opponent as they decided whether or not to take the bead,” said Roy. “Sometimes they would decide not to. Older girls wasted no effort on competition, except when it paid off.” But boys were eager to take beads from their rivals even when there was no point. It was way too much fun to take from others, Roy said.
DPA |
Search for key to eternal youth JAPANESE
researchers are searching for clues to solving one of the world’s great scientific mysteries — how to slow the physical ageing process — as the nation with record life expectancy braces for a super gray society. “It’s not so far from now that we can benefit from technology to extend longevity,” said Youji Mitsui, principal research scientist of cell biology at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Mitsui is a leading Japanese researcher on studies of so-called “immortal cells” that theoretically can live endlessly through segmentation. A prime example is a cancer cell. His research group has successfully created “immortal cells” of human blood vessels by implanting longevity-controlling genes, including a “telomerase” gene. As a result, the “immortalised” blood vessel cells extended their maximum segmentation from an average of 65 times to more than 200 times. Mitsui hopes that such immortal cells will be, in the future, transplanted in to people to replace dying cells. “If people can replace the diseased part of their bodies, longevity will be dramatically extended,” Mitsui said at his laboratory in Tsukuba, 50 km northeast of Tokyo. “With the technology, people can live more comfortably and actively,” Mitsui said. “It is no longer just a dream for old people to be able to enjoy an active life in the future.” Japan is among the countries in the vanguard of the search for a mechanism that could deliver eternal youth as the nation is rapidly entering a graying society.
AFP |
When mind knows we call it knowledge. When heart knows, we call it love. And when being knows, we call it meditation. The authentic question is “who am I?” And the only way to know is to be silent, be alert, be aware... Just count how many thoughts are your own. All are from other sources, all are borrowed — either dumped by others on you, or foolishly dumped by yourself upon yourself. But nothing is yours. Remember one criterion; anything precious is only that which you know. And there is no way to lose that which you know. Anything that can be lost, and which you have to cling to, cannot be precious because it can be lost. That shows that it is not your experience. Start fresh: a clean slate with no belief, no dogma, with no faith. Then there is a possibility that you may find what is the truth. And the truth is neither Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Christian. And the truth is not in the Bible, nor in the Koran, nor in the Gita. The truth that you will find — you will be surprised — is nowhere written, cannot be written. It is impossible to write it. It has never been uttered by anybody and it is not going to be uttered by anybody. We can manage to live better; We can manage to live longer; We can manage to live more comfortably — but we cannot know what life is. That question will remain a question until the very end. Existence as such has no meaning. Neither is it meaningless. Meaning is simply irrelevant to existence. There is no goal existence is trying to achieve. There is no where it is going. It simply is. Respect life, revere life. There is nothing more holy than life, nothing more divine than life. —Shri Rajneesh (OSHO), Words from a man of no words. |
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