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Saturday,
October 12, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Poll noose for Pervez EU wears US glasses Don’t let the dogs out |
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Damage that politicians have done
Donation to nation
Subsidies can’t be removed: Ajit Singh
Amita Malik
Nobel boost for east Europe: Kertesz
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Poll noose for Pervez Pakistani voters went through the exercise of electing a new National Assembly and indicating their preference of candidates for the four provincial assemblies on Thursday. The low turnout was an apt comment on what they thought about President Pervez Musharraf's pretense of "restoring" democracy in the country three years after over-throwing the elected government of Mr Nawaz Sharif. The General had introduced person-specific laws to keep Mr Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto from participating in the elections that were ordered to lighten the feeling of guilt among his western interlocutors over supporting a dictatorship while singing the praise of democracy. The timing of the elections and the response of the electorate in Jammu and Kashmir and neighbouring Pakistan has, if anything, given enough material to the global community to understand the true nature of democracy. Both the exercises were a study in contrast. In Jammu ands Kashmir the voters, particularly women, defied the threat of violence by the militants and turned up in large numbers to express their faith in the democratic process. In Pakistan the voters ignored President Musharraf's call to participate on what was essentially a sham exercise. However, the response of those who took part in the process has actually created more problems for General Musharraf and his western allies. It remains to be seen how President George W. Bush responds to the skewed verdict. He will have to measure his words, a virtue he has seldom shown glimpeses of possessing, if he wants to be seen as a just and fair leader whose only concern is to protect the globe from terrorist and undemocratic regimes like the one that is headed by Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Of course, the military establishment will find a way out of the predicament the election has created for President Musharraf. In the North West Frontier Province the six-party hardline Islamic alliance has won a majority. Contrary to pre-poll predictions the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, consisting of pro-Taliban and anti-American religious parties will form the government in the province touching Afghanistan. The MMA has also done reasonably in the National Assembly and may play an important part in the formation of the next government. Will President Musharraf accept the verdict and respect the mandate of the people that is pro-terrorists and anti-US or find some clause in the electoral rules framed by him for cancelling the verdict? The news from other provinces is not cheerful either for the military dictator. More than the General the outcome will give sleepless nights to President Bush. The moral of the electoral exercise in Pakistan is simple. There is no substitute for true democracy as is practised in India. Democracy and more democracy is the the only weapon that can defeat terrorism anywhere in the world. The response of the White House is, therefore, both flawed and unfortunate. Pakistan did not take an "important" step towards restoration of democracy. It was by no stretch of imagination a significant milestone in "Pakistan's ongoing transition to democracy". The verdict, if anything has given a thumbs up to the Al Qaida and Taliban. Are these the elements that President Bush wants to succeed in his fight against global terrorism? |
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EU wears US glasses The sheer size of the European Union and the affluent market that it controls have made the EU a force to reckon with, so much so that in some matters it is ready to take on even the mighty USA. But as far as foreign policy is concerned, the 15-member group is yet to emerge out of the shadow of the super power across the Atlantic. It still takes its cues from Washington in most cases, no small thanks to the fact that England is ever ready to do so. This fact has been underlined yet again during its negotiations with India. On the one hand, it asked India to look beyond Pakistan and on the other, went out of its way to endorse the US line that India must open a direct dialogue with Pakistan, despite the fact that the homily did not form part of the officially agreed text. Obviously, the old mind-set is yet to change and the EU continues to see the world through the Pakistani prism provided by the USA. That is unfortunate because it provides encouragement to a country openly advocating and promoting terrorism. The hyphenated approach rewards Islamabad for the services rendered during the Osama hunt, but in the process provides it a licence to emulate him in the neighbourhood. As the Disinvestment Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, accompanying the Prime Minister put it aptly, the Union has sought to equate the arsonist with the firefighter. The only explanation for this inexplicably blinkered view is that it was prompted by the USA. What is even more surprising is that it was spelt out in an unusually sharp tenor. Even the contentious behind-the-scene discussions on the Kashmir issue were leaked out. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee rightly pointed out that dialogue and terrorism could not go hand in hand. But it is obvious that his reasoned approach did not cut much ice. This development is bound to cloud the ongoing political, trade and economic dialogue. There is no denying the fact that restraint and discussions can solve many issues, but since all these options have already been exhausted many times over, it is meaningless to keep on asking India to produce yet another ounce of patience from thin air. It is one thing to advice India - or for that matter any country - to do so. But someone has to set a precedent first. For instance, will the USA be willing to open a dialogue with Osama bin Laden (presuming he is alive) and invite him to spell out his grievances? The tendency to bracket the victim and the aggressor has dangerous portends, which can frustrate the former and embolden the latter. At the same time, it would negate the growing relationship between India and the
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Don’t let the dogs out It is heartening to note that the Punjab and Haryana High Court has found time from its busy schedule to take notice of the growing menace of stray dogs in Chandigarh and the surrounding areas. Of late there has been several cases of dog bite from the City Beautiful and Mohali. These were highlighted in the media and perhaps that has prompted the high court to direct the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh to launch a campaign, in cooperation with the authorities concerned, against the growing population of stray dogs. The court has also barred the dog-owners from taking their pets out for a walk to the Sukhna lake or any park in the city. The dirtying of public places by stray and even pet animals is an avoidable nuisance and the court order would hopefully make the offending dog-owners to look beyond their own houses. It is a strange Indian habit to keep one’s house as clean as possible, but litter a public place without any feeling of remorse or shame. The threat to one’s life and limbs is no less alarming. Newspapers recently reported that the Chandigarh-based anti-rabies clinic received more than 50 cases of dog bite in a month from Mohali alone. There could be victims going to other clinics and hospitals. No one has bothered to compile figures of road accidents caused by stray dogs and cattle, but their number too would not be less shocking. The problem is not confined to this city or region; it is a national phenomenon. More people perhaps die in accidents caused by stray animals in the country than at the hands of terrorists. Yet this issue has never been given a serious thought. Perhaps it would take the Supreme Court to wake up the sleeping executive to realise its responsibility for ensuring the safety of the travelling public. That brings one to the indifference of the executive to such public issues, usually dismissed as trivial. If a disturbing development can move a high court into action, why don’t the civil authorities do on their own what they are paid for without some other authority telling them to act. Second, after passing a judgement, the judiciary should also ensure that it is implemented within a specific time-frame. Like the Supreme Court judgement banning smoking at public places continues to be flouted. The high court should pull up the
administration, if found lethargic or negligent. Third, the order should extend to the entire region wherever the court’s writ runs. All over a campaign is required to dispose of or at least render unproductive and harmful animals impotent and keep them in proper sheds under the care of such animal enthusiasts as publicly profess love for them and champion their rights. |
Damage that politicians have done I
wonder whether politicians realise how unpopular they have become in the land. What a fall, my countrymen, from the days of the independence movement when they were worshipped, through the early years of independence when they were held in high regard all over the world, and worked tirelessly to repair the damage of partition, and set up a good working democracy. Since then, the push has been downwards. Today a person looks at a politician only with the expectation that he will help him in a case with the police, get a plot of land for a fictitious trust, or a loan from a bank for a false cause. Venality and trickery is the only attribute that people notice. Even values have all gone wrong. Employment is not considered important in a poverty-stricken nation. The sale of PSUs is like the selling of the family jewels because they have got a bit tarnished. Unity is no longer the prime requisite of good governance. The economy can go to blazes, but it hardly matters. The manner in which Muslims were brutalised in Gujarat has brought us down not only in our own eyes, but in the eyes of the world. In several other states we are expecting a breakdown because all the factors make it clear that law and order will be a casualty. Some analysts woke up suddenly and said: “Arre, we have forgotten the poor”. The truth is we have not even noticed them. In 1947, our faith in democracy was unbounded. In 2002 we have begun to doubt whether democracy will be a success in India, and a few even think we will be overwhelmed by disorder and lose democracy altogether in just a few years. Can we take the warning in time? All the factors of the economy are going against us. Recession, oil prices, and the confrontation with Pakistan may be far more expensive than we think. Just look at the stock market if you want to speculate about the future. It dips by 70,500 crores. Investors scurry away. Population continues to increase at a multiple rate. The judicial system ceases to have any fear for criminals in the land. Politicians fail to inspire confidence in their ability to hold the nation together and they have given no signs of being able to give honest administration or even the right action against frauds and corruption everywhere. A public service commission in tatters; UTI, and banks floundering; and international agencies downgrading our currency debt to junk status. Unemployment is increasing, drought has given us some jolts, the unity of the Central Government is now suspect. What can we expect save large-scale disorder which will damage the edifice of democracy from which we had hoped so much? I wonder whether politicians realise that the whole democratic process is under threat. There is still time to save democracy, but time is running out fast. Unless politicians see the danger that looms ahead, we will not be able to take the steps required to save democracy. It is true that military rule can never hold the country together, except for a brief period. The country is too vast, too poor, too diverse, too over-populated and it has powerful unions which can destabilise any government. But, if military rule fails, what is the alternative — chaos — a large nation in the hands of freebooters? Democracy is our only saviour. Is it only some analysts from the civil and military sides who can see the dangers that loom ahead, or is it possible that each political party has seen the danger in a different way but even then political parties cannot unite to stave off the danger to democracy? A lack of unity has been the traditional failing of India. There are times when even to say the truth appears to be an exaggeration. When I say that the future of Indian democracy depends on judicial and police reforms, there are catcalls, shouts of nonsense and shame, and even guffaws of laughter. But, the fact is that it is the police assisted by the paramilitary and military that have pulled the ship of state out of many storms, and it is the judiciary that has kept that ship on an even keel. The balance of administration is secured in all democracies with the police taking direction but not merging with political ideology. The police must be totally impartial if you want to preserve democracy. Their prime loyalty is to the law and the Constitution; not to any orders issued by political authorities which contradict it. The judiciary is the final word. It must be respected even in the Cauvery dispute. There must be no defiance, and in turn, the judiciary must act firmly and correctly and with the highest integrity. It is the final arbiter in a democracy — the agency that maintains public discipline. As long as biased politicians have the power to transfer, demote and humiliate the executive or police officer, as a punishment, there can be no reliable administration. The manner in which IAS and IPS officers have been treated in Gujarat has produced a drop in the standard of administration which politicians refuse even to see. The way we have gone about it in the last 50 years to damage police discipline is unbelievably simple. Just strip the D.G. of his powers. Make the forces totally dependent on politicians and bureaucrats, allow the police to make money as much as they like, and strip them of all accountability. You have a police force that becomes undependable in no time: and a positive danger to democracy. If you want to know what the next step to damnation would be, strip the chiefs of the armed forces of disciplinary control. Twenty years ago, the National Police Commission foresaw that democracy will be in serious danger from whimsical politicians if police discipline falls into their hands. All these years we have temporised, asked one committee after another to ratify the recommendations of the NPC that discipline in the police should be in the hands of an impartial State Security Commission to ensure proper police performance. Now with a shock we have seen what happened in Gujarat and before that in Delhi when the Sikhs were targeted, and is about to happen in many other states. We will soon find that police failure and judicial silence are applauded as a triumph of politics. When that day comes, we will wake up to see that democracy has disintegrated. The day the Constitution is burnt by ardent fanatics, and fanaticism becomes doctrine, we will once again have to begin our fight for freedom and independence. |
Donation to nation It was in November, 1962, when China attacked India and the whole country supported the government in its war efforts. Pandit Nehru, the then Prime Minister, sent his senior Cabinet Ministers to seek donation and help from people of different states. The then Union Finance Minister, Mr Morarji Desai, came to Punjab. He visited Fazilka in Ferozepur district. Mr Bhim Singh Ahlawat, IAS, was Deputy Commissioner at that time. One day in the morning Mr Desai addressed a big public meeting at Fazilka and asked the people to help and donate liberally for the government so that a befitting reply could be given to China. People donated cash, clothes, gold and silver ornaments. When donation and collection business was going on suddenly a person who identified himself as Santoo from village Chak Pakhi stood up and shouted loudly that all his one hundred and ten acres of land may be taken as donation for the government in its war efforts against the Chinese. He also said that this must be done immediately and land transfer should not be delayed. The D.C. was flabbergasted by the donation made by Santoo. He said in a low voice as to why he is donating the whole land and he should rather keep something for himself also. But Santoo was adamant as he had been hit by patriotic fervour. He said the land must be transferred in the name of the government immediately. Mr Desai who was sitting besides the D.C. did not hear their discussion properly but still got angry and warned the D.C. that in case he does not transfer the land and makes any hanky-panky or mischief he would be severely punished and strict action would be taken against him. Mr Desai told him tshat he would come back the next day in the evening again to check whether 110 acres land of Mr Santoo has been transferred in the name of the government or not. Mr Bhim Singh Ahlawat felt depressed and spent a difficult night at the rest house and told the then SDM, Fazilka, Mr R.D. Joshi, and Tehsildar Fazilka and Patwari of Chak Pakhi village to accompany him to the village early in the morning. When the D.C. and the team of officers reached the village and started checking the Jamabandi they did not find the name of Santoo after meticulous efforts. They checked and rechecked and ultimately asked the villagers to locate Mr Santoo. Soon Mr Santoo was produced before them. When D.C. Ferozepur asked him as to where his 110 acres land was located he said: “Sir excuse me I am a landless worker and I come from Banda in U.P. and do not own any land. Mujhe apki speechain sunkar josh aa gaya tha (I got excited after hearing your speeches) and thus made the offer of 110 acres”. |
Subsidies can’t be removed: Ajit Singh Mr Ajit Singh joined the Vajpayee government only a few months back and was given the agriculture portfolio. Representing the parliamentary constituency of Baghpat, Mr Ajit Singh is the son of former Prime Minister Charan Singh. While his father dealt with agriculture in an era of scarcity Ajit Singh has to grapple with the problem of plenty. In a wide-ranging interview, he speaks candidly about sensitive issues like the role of subsidies in agriculture. Q: The Minimum Support Price (MSP) policy has acquired strong political overtones. Is this a healthy trend? The MSP policy has always been a political issue. The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) gives the recommendations and then the Union Cabinet decides what to do. In fact, this time the terms of trade were very much against farmers. And that is why the MSP was being increased. Another thing is that now we have entered an era of plenty. So we have to diversify, shift to new cropping patterns. This year because of the drought, wherever the crop has been saved, the input costs have gone up. A lot of diesel has been used. Bigger pumps have been installed in many cases and electricity consumption has increased. That is why the government decided to give another Rs 20 per quintal through the MSP as one-time relief. The CACP recommendations were made in May. And these were based on predictions of a normal monsoon. After the monsoon failed, we asked the CACP to recommend how we can help the farmers because input costs had gone up. They came up with a series of recommendations and an increase in the MSP was one of them. The government is considering the other recommendations. But since the procurement had started the decision on one-time drought relief for paddy and other crops had to be taken right away. Q: How focused is the government approach on crop diversification? Horticulture is one area where we can diversify. Oilseeds is another. For horticulture, we have a separate horticulture board and a technology mission for North-East also because the climate there is very suitable for horticulture. Some of the states such as Maharashtra have done very well on their own. As far as oilseeds are concerned, things have changed considerably over the last 10 years. Earlier, we used to import about 25 to 30 per cent of our oilseeds requirements. Now our import is about 45 per cent. Imports of oilseeds have grown tremendously. Last year we imported edible oils worth Rs 8,000 crore. Therefore, we increased the prices of mustard by over Rs 100 per quintal and procured about five lakh tonnes of mustard seeds which is the highest ever. Increased production of paddy and wheat is basically in three or four states with Punjab being the major one. The government is preparing a scheme to shift to oilseeds production. The issue is that unless there is a remunerative price in the alternative crop and unless we assure farmers that their economic interests would be taken care of how can one ask the farmer to shift? Q: But are oilseed prices not already at a very high level? No. The prices of oilseeds are at the same level they were 10 years ago. Mustard was selling at Rs 1,800 per qunital in 1991, now it is Rs 1300 per quintal. There is a lot of import also. If we think of oilseeds, we also have to think of giving higher procurement prices, adequate level of Customs duty and processing capacity. We have to have in place a three-pronged strategy. Q: Despite having more than adequate stocks of foodgrains, there are reports of starvation deaths in the country. Your comments. That is a distribution problem. Every time reports of this kind come up a team goes and submits that deaths are not due to starvation but due to something else. But the fact remains that a lot of people go hungry. That nobody can deny. I would say about 20 to 25 per cent of people are not getting full nutritional meals and therefore poverty exists. We are aware of it and for that we have the food-for-work programme and the public distribution system. This year we have become the highest exporter of foodgrain in South-East Asia surpassing Thailand. Everyone is now recognising that we have become a world force in agriculture now. At the same time, however, the farmer here is suffering. The reason is plain and simple. Despite the all-round increase in agricultural production, the percentage of people dependent on agriculture has hardly declined. While in the USA only about 3 per cent people are dependent on agriculture, here it is more than 66 per cent. The land holdings have become smaller, which has increased the pressure on the farmer to increase productivity and yield. One crop failure leads to a lot of distress. Q: Why is it that after more than 50 years of independence, farmers continue to depend on the vagaries of nature? At present 38 per cent of our total agricultural land is irrigated and a lot of conservation measures are being taken in the rain-fed areas also. When you talk about having a drought-proof situation - Australia has had a drought this year. The USA has had droughts this year and Europe has floods this year. One can have programmes and policies so that distress is not there. Whatever one might say, irrigation cannot replace monsoon. It can only supplement. In India the monsoon season basically lasts three months. We have to conserve that water and therefore we have to make dams. Small dams, big dams, all kinds of dams. At the same time we have to go back to the traditional methods. People have occupied all wells, ponds and lakes to build houses. We have to ensure that the water that flows through our rivers is made use of throughout the year. Q: There is talk of reducing subsidies on fertilisers. Will this not increase input costs further? There is no way subsidies can be removed. On the one hand you say that farmers should get ready to compete with the USA and Europe. Look at the subsidies they are giving. How can you remove subsidies? Those experts who are far removed from the ground reality air these views. It is not going to happen. Let me be very categorical. Moreover, fertiliser subsidy is for keeping alive our fertiliser industry. For the farmer the import price is at par with the domestic price. Q: What is the kind of value addition that is taking place in the farming sector? We have to diversify to supplement the income of the farmers. Agriculture alone is not enough. We need to go into poultry, animal husbandry and horticulture. There is a lot of scope in animal husbandry and it can be used to supplement the farm income. A system similar to Anand Dairy has to be used for poultry also. The problem with poultry and animal husbandry is that it is a very dispersed area. There are so many small holdings that it is difficult for any government programme to reach them. Only a cooperative movement can solve the problem. Three issues are important in this regard. First you have to increase productivity and also the quality. Second, new techniques of irrigation have to be adopted. Third, in fertilisers only urea and potash will not give us the desired results now. Earlier we had the crop rotation system, which made sure that soil had all the nutrients. Now the farmer cannot afford that. Therefore new kinds of micro-nutrients are needed in fertiliser also. Q: The Inter-ministerial task force has submitted its report on agri-marketing. What is the status of implementation of the report? A: The report has been submitted. But the problem is how do you expect a two-hectare farmer to do all these things? Consider floriculture for instance. The market is good. But it is controlled from Holland. It is extremely difficult for individual farmers to compete in the world market. Therefore, cooperatives have to come in. Corporates also have to come in a big way. We have to consider the social background of our country. There are millions of farmers who have holdings of one or two bighas. They have roots and they have pride of ownership of land. If you uproot them, there will be tremendous social upheaval adversely affecting productivity. Q: There have also been discussions on putting in place a decentralised procurement system. Your views. Many states have not agreed to the proposal. Some of the states who had opted for it are not very happy because of the way our bureaucracy works. The money is still given by the FCI. Instead of the FCI arranging the money from the RBI and getting the files moving from the Finance Ministry in the decentralised system, the states have to perform these roles. Another problem is that if each state is allowed to procure directly, then the fair average quality (FAQ) will be dictated by the states giving rise to a number of political pressures. The only answer is diversification. Q: Are you in favour of giving free power to farmers? Subsidies to farmers have to be given. In what form you give is up to the states. Electricity usage is a very elastic thing. If you get free electricity, you will never turn off the lights. This is human nature. Subsidy has to be given if our farmers have to compete in the world. |
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Of elections here and there The past week has been the media columnist’s dream or nightmare, depending on the way you look at it. Consider just Thursday, the day I am writing this .The Kashmir election results are coming in, the cricket test in Mumbai has Dravid and Lakshmanan batting, India is to play Pakistan in the hockey semi-finals in the Asian Games and across the border General Musharraf is holding his so-called democratic elections. There’s celebration of Amitabh Bachchan’s
birthday. And the floundering International Film Festival is doddering to a halt with the results of the rather emaciated Asian competition results to be announced. I am personally playing the old columnist’s game, channel hopping ,in a most unsatisfactory and frustrating manner. There are only two points for consolation. Ruby Bhatia and Co. are mercifully not commenting on cricket and making inane remarks to the players during this match, although Charu Sharma, the poor man’s Harsha Bhogale, is still running at super-sonic speed in between plugging in endless ads which rob us of some of the golden moments of the game. Such as DD, in its usual mindless manner, cutting off the standing ovation given to Sehwag as he returned to the pavilion after his
brilliant knock and the subsequent standing ovation given to Tendulkar as he went out to bat. Instead we were shown an ad for a girl with lice in her hair. So insensitive and indeed mindless is DD, that it thinks that ads not only come before cricket ,but even have the right to barge into the actual game, such as after the first serve in tennis or after the first ball of an over. In any other country, DD would have been gheraoed by irate viewers. But in India, we have got inured to DD’s insensitivity, largely because there is no response even when there are protests. However, it is in some ways interesting to watch Pakistan TV in its new avatar. No longer do its women newscasters cover their heads demurely and read with downcast eyes. They are now getting into not-so-designer Western style suits and looking straight at the camera. Then in Question Time Pakistan we have had a very nifty woman chairperson, a barrister with a terrific NRP accept. Undoubtedly intelligent, articulate and on the ball. But her methods are extremely arbitrary and rude when cutting off people in the audience or even on the panel. In the beginning this applied to inconvenient questions or answers, but has now extended to all and sundry. Even
General Musharraf, who appeared as a solo panelist on the programme, was asked some pretty tough questions by members of the opposition and young men and women in the audience. He coped smilingly and with his usual panache with the most awkward questions and it shows a certain welcome liberalisation in Pakistani TV which could be either genuine or a show for foreign audiences, as we only get their external channel. Do their home channels have women in skirts and coats, for instance? Because the cream of the joke is that while Pakistan has banned all Indian channels and Indian journalists were denied visas to cover the Pakistan elections, Pak TV is making free use of footage from Indian channels and illustrating the old saying: The devil can quote the scriptures for his own purpose. For instance, during the third and fourth phases of the Kashmir elections, they showed Barkha Dutt and her colleagues covering the voting. But they only showed sequences where there had been very sparse voting, I think once it was five votes, to tell Pakistan viewers that the Kashmiris had boycotted the elections. They just left out the very next sequence where Barkha, Ajai Shukla and Sanjay Ahirwal were showing enthusiastic voters jostling each other in long queues, women to the fore and, minutes after a shooting, covering up the blood spots on the ground and getting right on with the voting. This sort of selective use of Indian footage to suit their own purpose is not only unprofessional but unethical as well and not acceptable as far as international media organisations are concerned and should be brought to the notice of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Organisation to which both Indian and Pakistan belong. To end on the usual cheerful note, the only imaginative touch to IFFI in Delhi was the showing of all seven versions of “Devdas” beginning with Barua and ending with Bhansali. And touching to see interviews by Aaj Tak and Star News with octogenarian Jamuna Debi ,the immortal Paro of the New Theatres vertsion of the 30’s, but confessing sadly that she was too old to eatch the long latest Bhansali version. |
Nobel boost for east Europe: Kertesz Hungarian novelist and Auschwitz survivor Imre Kertesz said on Thursday he was surprised and happy to have won the 2002 Nobel Literature Prize and that it should be help writers from eastern Europe. "It was a mixture of surprise and joy," Kertesz told reporters at the Ernst Reuter Scientific Institute in Berlin, where he is doing research and writing a new book. "This should bring something to the countries in eastern Europe," he said. Kertesz said he had just talked to Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy on the phone and added he celebrated the evening with a dinner with close friends. The Swedish Academy said in its citation that Kertesz won the prize "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". Kertesz' work has been marked by his experience as a teenage prisoner in Nazi concentration camps. The Hungarian, who is Jewish, was deported to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland in 1944 and from there to the concentration camp of Buchenwald, from which he was liberated in 1945. His works have been widely translated into German and Kertesz himself is a translator of some of the greatest thinkers in the German language -- Wittgenstein, Freud and Nietzche. His first novel, Fateless (1975) -- about a man taken to a concentration camp who conforms and survives -- and Kaddish for a Child not Born (1990), have also been translated into
English. Reuters Wannabe dads boost hormone levels Men who want to become fathers subconsciously boost levels of the sex hormone testosterone in order to make conception likelier, according to a study reported in next Saturday’s New Scientist. Researchers from the Institute of Applied Psychology in Lison recruited 27 male volunteers, who measured testosterone in their saliva every morning for three months and, during the same period, recorded their sex lives in intimate detail. All the men had different patterns of testosterone during the 90 days, with peaks and troughs. But in men trying for a baby, the peaks coincided remarkably with periods of intense sexual activity. A rise in the testosterone levels also opens a gate to increased sperm production.
AFP Toilet paper novels hit stalls Germans who like to read on the toilet no longer need to take newspapers in with them, but can instead turn to novels and poems printed onto toilet paper, a German publisher has said. “We want our books to be used. That’s our philosophy,” said Georges Hemmerstoffer, head of the Klo-Verlag which publishes the toilet paper literature. About half of all people liked to read on the toilet, he said.
Reuters Hyperactive kids’ brains less mature Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder often have slightly smaller and less mature brains than their peers, which may dampen the signals between the brain’s regions, a study has said. The smaller brains found in children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder was not a new finding, but the study, sponsored by the US National Institute of Mental Health, concluded that the stimulant Ritalin commonly prescribed to treat the problem was not to blame for any brain shrinkage.
Reuters |
Mind can have peace only when it merges in the Absolute Consciousness, Primal Cause and the Unchanging Existence. Mind has no physical form and so it does not perish with the body; only the body perishes. Mind is a wonder. It has no distinct form or shape. Mind prompts man to seek happiness and avoid misery. Mind is but a bundle of thoughts, a complex of wants and wishes. Purification of the mind is attained through humility, integrity and a sense of justice. Mind is like a clear mirror but it is made impure by our desires. Mind is the overall instrument which controls and directs the senses. It is the mind that builds up the body strong and shiny or wastes it to skin and bone. Mind has to be developed to savour the good and the godly, not for money and material gains. — From the discourses of Sathya Sai Baba
*** Clarity of mind will act as a torchlight of knowledge and will lead us nicely through the dark corrdors of ignorance to the realms of a blissful and happy life where self-knowledge springs up with its own flow and makes us complete in life. The clearminded persons are always straightforward and candid. They never keep anything in their mind. Misunderstandings about anyone can never touch them since they are self-dependent ... and expect nothing from anyone. — V.L. Pramod Churamani, Way to Mental Freedom
*** Where will my yearning eyes Behold you, beloved Lord? Without seeing you My entire being ails with the agony of separation. — Sant Kabir, Kabir
Granthavali |
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