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Monday,
March 3, 2003, Chandigarh, India   |
Sachin stamps his class New trends in North-East |
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Bangladesh and Pakistan
Socialising in Iraq
George W. Bush and the
irrelevance of jurisprudence
Away with cricket
Sing, talk, go out and be merry
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Sachin stamps his class THE
cricket World Cup 2003 is over. What remains is the formality of two teams playing in the final on March 23. The best game of the tournament was played on Saturday between India and Pakistan. The stadium was overflowing with hysterical supporters of the two teams. In terms of crowd support even the match between the traditional Ashes rivals Australia and England on Sunday was a damp squib. What a match it was! On a hot and humid day Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar played the innings of his illustrious career in what had all the trappings of a gladiatorial combat. The India-Pakistan match was billed as the showpiece of the tournament. It turned out to be much more than that. There were eleven Pakistanis, with fire in their eyes, wanting his scalp in exchange for a place in heaven. The Little Master turned his bat into a bazooka and instead sent them to what can be called cricketing hell. The names of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar are taken with respect by those who treat the game of cricket not as a national passion but as a recreation of the mind. Playing against India brings out the best in them. However, on Saturday they were made to look ordinary. Only Saeed Anwar did justice to his reputation of being an "India-basher". His record-setting score of 194 was made against India. And the century from him on Saturday was the only high point of Pakistani innings. But a target of 274 even on a batsman-friendly wicket was not going to be easy considering the fire power of the Pakistanis. Tendulkar had different ideas. The outcome of the match was decided in the first 15 overs that saw India score 120 runs at breath-taking pace. The Viv Richards style of attacking batsmanship by the world's best cricketer was meant to be enjoyed. And that is what the lovers of the game did as Tendulkar went about decimating the Pakistani attack with clinical precision. However, the cricket-crazy nation and a section of the media owe an apology to the Indian team. After the humiliating defeat against defending champions Australia ugly scenes were witnessed in Allahabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and elsewhere. Mohd Kaif's house was blackened by a bunch of hoodlums who follow the game of cricket for all the wrong reasons. Skipper Saurav Ganguly's effigies were set on fire by irate fans across the country. A Shiv Sena hothead issued the threat that the team would not be allowed to land in Mumbai if it did not beat Pakistan. Special prayers were offered by supporters of both teams. Was it healthy? Was it cricket? Had India lost to Pakistan, would Tendulkar have had to move out of Mumbai because of the threat to his life from the Shiv Sena? For this reason alone the performance of Mohd Kaif and Zaheer Khan deserves special mention. They were playing against Pakistan for the first time in their promising career. So were most other young players. But imagine the irrational reaction of the rabble rousers in the country had Zaheer Khan and not Ashish Nehra — the hero of the earlier game against England — gone for runs. Kaif was under multiple pressure to perform because of his name and the new position he was given in the batting order. He showed remarkable temperament and helped Tendulkar notch up the only century-partnership of the Indian innings. Rooting for your team is not the same thing as building up hysteria against the players if they failed to perform against Pakistan. India has clearly emerged as the next best team after Australia, and if it is spared mindless pressure from motivated mobs, masquerading as supporters, it may even lift the Cup on March 23. But the ultimate objective of the fans, the players and the organisers should be to see the game of cricket crush misplaced jingoism wherever and in whatever form it raises its ugly head. |
New trends in North-East NOTWITHSTANDING its spectacular success in the Himachal Pradesh elections, the Congress failed to perform well in the three North-Eastern states of Tripura, Nagaland and
Meghalaya. While the Congress failed to dislodge the 10-year-old Left Front ministry headed by Mr Manik Sarkar in Tripura, it lost power in
Nagaland. And, as expected, the results in Meghalaya suggest a hung Assembly. An interesting feature in Tripura is the stupendous achievement of the Left Front. The Congress, led by Mrs Sonia Gandhi, organised a high-voltage campaign against the government. Obviously, the electorate was not carried away by its charge that the ruling coalition’s dominant partner, the
CPM, had “failed” to deliver the goods. Significantly, the CPM has done well in tribal areas. Poll surveys during the campaigning indicated otherwise. What seemed to have helped the Left Front is the well-oiled party machinery and its dedicated cadres in the villages. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and his colleagues in the government too had contributed their lot to its success. Clearly, the people of Tripura were determined to give one more chance to the Left Front government to pursue its various socio-economic programmes to their logical conclusion. As insurgency has been haunting the state for years, people seem to have felt that an experienced coalition government would be in a better position to resolve the issue effectively than a Congress ministry. The Congress may look at the situation from some different angle when it analyses the reasons for its debacle in
Nagaland. After two terms in office, it lost power, mainly due to the role played by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland
(Isak-Muviah). The NSCN (I-M) has been persistently treating the outgoing Chief Minister, Mr
S.C.Jamir, as a “road block” in the ongoing peace process. It had, in fact, urged people to vote against the Congress. The Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have derived benefit in the new political equations emerging in
Nagaland. The multi-party alliance comprising the Democratic Alliance of
Nagaland, the Nagaland People’s Front, the Samata Party, the Janata Dal (United) and the BJP is looking forward to elect a consensus candidate to lead the government. There seems to be no threat to the ongoing peace process as the NSCN (I-M) is said to have associated itself with the multi-party alliance that had ousted the Jamir ministry. The results in Meghalaya are disturbing. Having bagged 22 seats in the 60-member House, the Congress could not secure the magic figure of 31. Mrs Sonia Gandhi has indicated the other day that it would try to form a coalition with like-minded parties, including Mr P.A.Sangma’s Nationalist Congress Party
(NCP). On his part, Mr Sangma is bound to be disappointed with his party’s performance. The NCP secured only 14 seats, while the United Democratic Party
(UDP), which had 21 members in the outgoing House, won only nine seats. Will Mrs Gandhi be able to continue a
Congress-NCP coalition government in the state? And, considering his antipathy to Mrs Gandhi, will Mr Sangma agree to join such a coalition? Experience in Meghalaya so far, as in Maharashtra, has been frustrating for both political formations. Unfortunately, though Meghalaya has seen six governments in the past five years, elections this time may not resolve the main problem of political instability. Unstable governance is one reason for the continued neglect of the state. |
Bangladesh and Pakistan
THE partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and the subsequent birth of Bangladesh in 1971 have bequeathed India with two neighbours, Bangladesh and Pakistan, that are still in search of a viable national identity. Jinnah’s speech on August 11, 1947, indicated that he would like Pakistan to be governed by secular principles. He soon beat a hasty retreat on this assertion. Unable to give itself a constitution that respected pluralism and diversity and ruled by a Punjab-dominated army, Pakistan fell apart under the weight of its own internal contradictions in 1971. The belief that religion alone constituted the basis of nationhood lay shattered. The new State of Bangladesh adopted a constitution that specifically embodied the principles of secularism. It soon found itself under pressure to change course, because of internal compulsions and the external blackmail of self-proclaimed guardians of Islamic theology, espousing Wahabi fundamentalism. Those who opposed his secular beliefs and his struggle against Pakistani Punjab-domination enthusiastically welcomed the assassination of Sheikh
Mujib. Gen Zia-ur-Rahman, who succeeded Sheikh Mujib, discarded all mention of secularism. He, however, sought to build his country’s nationalist identity around a mix of distinctly Bengali traditions, laced with a moderate Islamic flavour. Not surprisingly, the political party he founded was named the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The tussle around whether Bangladesh should emphasise its Bengali or Islamic identity persists. Those who emphasise the values of the freedom struggle against the Pakistan army focus more on their Bengali identity, while those opposed to them are more focused on fomenting anti-Indian sentiments and espousing pan-Islamic causes. The late Girilal Jain once remarked to me in Moscow in 1971 that the birth of Bangladesh symbolised the triumph of the culture of Bengali poet Nazrul Islam over the philosophy of Allama
Iqbal. The contradictions between the ethos of Nazrul and Iqbal still haunt the quest of Bangladesh for an abiding national identity. While Gen Zia-ur-Rahman and his successor General Ershad sought to placate the Islamic lobbies in their country, they were careful in avoiding resort to predominantly anti-Indian sentiments. There were, in fact, many Indian diplomats like me who believed we did not show adequate consideration and flexibility in dealing with these two military rulers and that some of the allegations levelled against us of interference in the internal affairs of Bangladesh were not without basis. But things changed drastically when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was voted to power in 1991, under the leadership of Gen Zia-ur-Rahman’s widow, Begum Khaleda
Zia. Even the normally patient Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao became disgusted when gestures to resolve long-standing problems like the vexed “Tin
Bigha” issue were reciprocated by strong anti-India rhetoric and blatant collusion with the ISI to destabilise India’s North-East. The Narasimha Rao government obtained the cooperation of Myanmar in dealing with the BNP government’s involvement with armed insurgents in India’s northeastern states like
Manipur, Assam and Nagaland. Weapons for these insurgents were obtained by the ISI-Bangladesh combine clandestinely from Thailand and transported to Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh. Following visits to Myanmar by Foreign Secretary
J.N. Dixit, Home Secretary N.N. Vohra and Army Chief General Joshi, mechanisms were put in place to halt the infiltration of insurgents of groups like the
PLA, the NSCN and ULFA into India through Myanmar territory. The Indian Army launched operations in May, 1995, against infiltrators belonging to these groups with substantive cooperation from Myanmar, inflicting heavy casualties on them. With the return of Begum Khaleda Zia to power, the BNP government is back to playing its old games with Indian insurgent groups. There are now nearly a hundred camps for such groups in Bangladesh territory. Cox’s Bazaar continues to be the centre for arms trafficking and the BNP government refuses to repatriate insurgent leaders like Anup Chetia and Sanjiv Deb Burman of ULFA who are known to reside in its territory. While New Delhi has rightly taken a firm line about the Khaleda Zia government’s involvement in promoting separatist violence in India’s North-East, some thought needs to be given to whether shrill rhetoric and symbolic measures like the forced repatriation of a few trainloads of Bangladeshi nationals will really resolve the problems posed by the large-scale immigration of Bangladeshi nationals into India. Begum Khaleda herself acknowledged the existence of this problem when she visited India in 1992. Assertions by her ministers that there is no such problem, or that Indians emigrate to Bangladesh in equal numbers are absurd. The Bangladesh Foreign Minister would do well not to resort to such inanities. But it is not India alone that faces such a problem with a neighbour whose nationals seek greener pastures abroad. There are an estimated 16 lakh illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Karachi. The USA confronts the same problem on its Mexican border. Political parties in states like West Bengal and Assam have sought to build vote banks and glossed over the implications of such illegal immigration. It is imperative to build a national political consensus in dealing with this issue. It should not be exploited for partisan political considerations. Our internal security mechanisms will have to be geared up to meet the challenges posed by the illegal immigration of Bangladeshi nationals and the ISI-Bangladesh nexus promoting violence in India’s Northeast. India could realistically work towards a mutually agreed system of limited duration work permits for Bangladesh nationals. The Indo-Bangladesh border, particularly in West Bengal, should be expeditiously fenced. In the meantime, the Bangladesh government should be engaged in a sustained dialogue to address all issues of border management, including the long-pending demarcation of the land border. Both Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and Chief Minister Jyoti Basu did well to resolve the long-pending issue of sharing of river waters. But Begum Khaleda would do well to remember that the Farakka Agreement of 1996 concluded with her Awami League predecessor gave a far better deal to Bangladesh than the Interim Farakka Accord signed by her late husband in 1977. Bangladesh was also given 50 per cent tariff concessions on over two thousand tariff lines during the SAPTA negotiations. But Indian generosity cannot perpetually be a one-way street. Joining the ISI to destabilise India’s Northeast, refusal to rationally consider Indian proposals to work out arrangements for the transit of our goods to the northeastern states, combined with none-too-friendly assertions about an interest in separating the Northeast from the rest of India, are not the best way to promote good neighbourly relations, or obtain further trade concessions. Bangladesh, perhaps, presumes that because of the current strains in India’s relations with Pakistan, New Delhi will not be in a position to take strong measures to deal with issues like Dhaka’s involvement in India’s North-East. This may be a dangerous presumption. At the same time, New Delhi would be well advised to cool its rhetoric and commence a comprehensive process of negotiations on all outstanding issues with Bangladesh. We should make it clear that Bangladesh can expect no further unilateral concessions, till it mends its ways on issues affecting our security and stability. This has to be coupled with measures that affect day-to-day life in Bangladesh like ending the huge illegal export of cattle (amounting to several hundred million dollars annually) that constitutes the daily diet of beef across the border. The end of illegal exports of cattle across the Indo-Bangladesh border will send a strong signal that India means business, in a clearer way than all the rhetoric that we are currently resorting to. |
Socialising in Iraq IT was early 1947 when my ship flying flag of senior officer Persian Gulf steamed into Basra harbour. It was picturesque site on both banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers while the new oil refinery at Abadan was just taking shape. Ours was an official visit and we were given warm welcome during our 10 days in harbour. Chief administrator of northern region invited some of ship members to visit Mosul close to Kurdish ethnic region. We stayed there for four days. On very first day we visited a royal fruit garden said to be of days of Mosopotamian civilisation with heavy bunches of pink grapes and apricots touching ground. On our way back through market we noticed a glass of plain drinking water was being sold for Rs 20 each (equivalent). During dinner in the evening we sat around a very large dish full of rice pulao, roasted lamb and boiled potatoes. We were expected to eat with our fingers but on our insistence were given table spoons. Post-dinner entertainment included Arabic songs from album of famous songstress Ummkulsum. During conversation our host mentioned that had served in the consulate of Iraq in Delhi some years ago and his daughter would like to improve her Hindi. Next day I was allocated the job of teaching Hindi for two hours to a 15-year girl in the host’s large study room. Breakfast was over by 9 a.m. and I waited alone for the next programme from our host Mahmud Ashrafi. Soon a burqa-clad elderly lady entered wheeling a large portable screen. This was curious enough. However, more followed when a teenager girl student, in burqa with books and notebook in hand, entered the scene. She respectfully said “Salaam-e-Alaikum” and I reciprocated the salutation with customary regards due to a daughter. Smartly she sat on a cushioned stool with her burqa on. The portable large screen divided us. Without waiting for further formality she started reading from Panchtantra tales in her faltering pronunciation. She wanted me to correct her while she read aloud. On completion she again repeated her salutation and withdrew to her privacy. She appeared to be a bright and well mannered girl full of regard for India. I continued to brood over this unseen student for a number of days. My mind debated as to why a double burqa was required between a teacher and a student. Next two days we travelled amongst Kurdish settlements close to the Turkish border savouring green tea and saltish cheese made out of camel milk. During bus journey from Mosul to Kirkuk near eastern border we noticed that no one was standing in the overcrowded bus. The standing lot were allowed comfortable sitting on the laps of passengers already seated! Our group halted at Baghdad on our return journey to Basra. We wanted to buy a wall carpet from Karbla market. Indian currency ruled high. General public was poor and ill clad. Shopkeepers were ready to trade their carpets in return for old and used items of personal clothing from our junior sailors. A common man in Iraq was as crazy for Indian clothing and Indian currency as much as we are for American dollars today! From Basra we moved to Kuwait where oil prosperity had not yet arrived. People were equally poor, humble and crazy for Indian goods. Compare the situation today after the oil boom. An average person in West Asia is better clad and shops full of quality cloth and household goods from all over the world. Today Dubai, Kuwait and Bahrain have better showrooms than what we have in India. |
George W. Bush and the irrelevance of
jurisprudence “GEORGE
W. Bush lives at the intersection of faith and inexperience,” Joe
Klein wrote acidly in Time magazine last fortnight, reflecting on the
US President’s qualities of head and heart and placing him in the
context of the American tradition of wartime leadership. The most memorable images, he said, are gaunt and painful: the haunted Lincoln (during the Civil War); the dark circles under Franklin Roosevelt’s eyes (during World War II); and Kennedy standing alone, in the shadows, during the Cuban missile crisis (of 1962). President Bush, however, does not come from the most introspective of families, wrote Klein. And he has recently found an intellectual home in the secular evangelism of the neoconservatives, who posit a stark world of American good and authoritarian evil. “This is a moment far more ambiguous” than any America has faced in the past, and the world “might have more confidence in the judgement of this President if he weren’t always bathed in the blinding glare of his own certainty.” It would be difficult to find a more telling character-analysis of President Bush’s messianic policy against Iraq, a policy which has left international law gasping for principle and precedent. Ever since the Pact of Paris (or the Kellogg-Briand pact) of 1928, ruled the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946, passing judgement on the Nazi war criminals and laying the foundation of the modern law of peace, “the solemn renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy necessarily involves the proposition that such a war is illegal in international law...” War for the “solution of international controversies”, it said, quoting the Kellogg-Briand pact’s most famous and pregnant phrase, and undertaken as an instrument of national policy, is clearly outlawed by the pact. It must be remembered, the tribunal ruled further, citing the Caroline case of 1837, that preventive action in foreign territory is justified only in case of an “instant and overwhelming necessity for self-defence, leaving no choice of means and no moment of deliberation.” Contained in US Secretary of State Daniel Webster’s note of July 27, 1842, to the British Ambassador, Lord Ashburton, concerning the attack on the steamer Caroline, the words cited constitute “the locus classicus of self-defence” — as Prof D.W. Bowett puts it — in international law. President Bush’s informal declaration of war against Iraq, a declaration made repeatedly at different fora with the swagger that is his forte — the formal declaration awaiting a nod from the UN Security Council — is nothing but a naked resort, or attempt to resort, to war as a solution of international controversies, with not even the fig leaf of self-defence to justify it. Even the concept of “anticipatory self-defence” — a concept assumed sometimes to be a part of customary international law but critically dissected by scholars of the eminence of Prof Ian Brownlie (“International Law and the Use of Force by States”) and Prof Louis Henkin (“How Nations Behave”) in the context of the UN Charter — would not justify an American attack on Iraq in the complete absence of any Iraqi threat to the USA. “Nothing in the present Charter,” reads Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, drawn up at San Francisco in 1945, “shall impair the right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations...” Since the Charter was drafted, observes Professor Henkin, one of the leading American scholars of international law, the world for which it was written has changed. The United Nations has changed. The quality of force has changed. “But neither the failure of the Security Council (he writes), nor the Cold War, nor the birth of new nations, nor the development of terrible weapons suggests that the Charter should now be read to authorise unilateral force when an armed attack has not occurred.” While the requirement of armed attack in Article 51 is clear, unambiguous, subject to proof and not easily open to misinterpretation or fabrication, he adds, “anticipatory self-defence” as a general extension of that Article would replace it with a standard that is ambiguous, deceptive and dangerously flexible. Three and a half decades after Professor Henkin wrote these words, it would, in all fairness, be necessary to extend the meaning of “armed attack” to acts so blatant, organised and wilful as the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre and the December 13 attack on the Indian Parliament. But by no stretch of the imagination can it be extended so far as to cover an omission rather than an act — a failure to disarm (President Bush’s repeated charge against Iraq) — especially when the omission is more alleged than proved, as I wrote last time, and is not preceded, accompanied or followed by any act by way of an armed attack properly so called. What is most disturbing, however, about President Bush’s demonisation of Saddam Hussein and his unremitting, unrelenting pressure on the United Nations to declare war on Iraq is that he is simply unconcerned about the legality, or illegality, of his actions. “Find me an argument based on international law and I will find you a professor to answer it,” Bismarck is reported to have said. Left to himself, George W. Bush Jr would dump all professors of international law in the same dustbin of history to which he would consign Saddam Hussein. |
Away with cricket I have a confession to make I do like watching interesting cricket matches, notably those featuring India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and now Kenya. What a wonderful story that is, about two of the top tribes of Kenya, who must have warrior ancestors, beating formidable Sri Lanka and then doing a jubilant warriors’ victory run round the stadium. I must also confess, rather shame-facedly, that I like to watch the goras being beaten by
non-goras. And although I would naturally like India to beat Pakistan, although I admire Wasim Akram and some other fine players, if it came to Pakistan playing New
Zeland, I would like Pakistan to win. Sounds horribly confused and even racist (on the right side, I hope) but I hope you see what I mean. At the same time, I cannot let down listeners and viewers who are not interested in cricket. So I decided to break away and watch something besides cricket this last week and something totally different. So I started with Animal Planet. I find it the most soothing channel to watch, animal and bird behaviour being far more disciplined and ethical than human behaviour and the human beings who love animals are also amongst the most compassionate humans. So if you are ever depressed, sick of politics or plain bored just latch on to Animal Planet. Just two programmes among many I watched last week when I wanted to forget mundane worries. There is Animal Vet, where dogs, horses, cats, birds and all sorts of strange pets are brought for attention. It is chastening to watch them in terrible pain, quietly submitting to physical examination by strangers whom they instinctively trust because they are spoken to and patted lovingly. Then the treatment, as modern and scientific as for humans by highly trained vets takes one’s breath away. Everything from chemotherapy for cancer to the most delicate setting of broken bones. A racehorse, which would normally have been given mercy killing, is treated over months for a broken leg until it can race again. But what I enjoyed the most last week was the air journey by two pandas, from their natural habitat in North China to the Washington Zoo. They flew 24 hours with one break in a specially chartered jet plane, naturally named PANDA ONE. They were given large helpings of their favourite bamboo leaves and being voracious eaters the plane’s storage space was filled with bamboo. The pandas were given the favoured front portion of the place reserved for VIPs and were waited upon by their keepers from China and their new curators from Washington and no air hostesses could have been more attentive. The pandas were least bothered by flying or the noise of the plane and steadily chomped their way through mountains of bamboo leaves or slept. There was an anxious moment when they arrived at Washington zoo about whether they would eat the American grown bamboo. There was a sigh of relief as they did. Such programmes are not only wonderfully educative and entertaining for children (as against Mumbai song and dance routines) but bring out the child in us. It certainly did in me and I cannot recommend Animal Planet too highly for family watching. Much better than Bush and Blair. Then I did a belated catching up on
Astitva, since Zee had been off our screens for over a week. Dr Simran’s arrogant
ex-IAS father had shacked in with a dancer, Dr Simran had become pregnant and was going to have an abortion to please her young husband but pulling back in the nick of time. (one hopes) and the whole of Simran’s family is ganging up on wicked papa, while her husbands father has sent a gold chain to bless his bahu’s pregnancy, defying his impossibly domineering wife. All good fun. Astitva has often pulled back from the brink and is now on course again. Not in the same class as
Saans, but still mature and sophisticated and well-acted enough to make the saas-bahu syndrome and the Kittie Parties and Lipsticks look as cliched and populist as they are, hang the ratings. Meanwhile, Public Hai is going hilariously strong, the spoof on the water dispute, with Sushmita Mukherji in a black cloak doing a wonderful take-off on Amma sending one into splits. The only bold and credible satire on the strange ways of Indian politics, cricket and social behaviour generally. NEWS OF THE WEEK: Mandira of Extra Innings fame or notoriety, depending on the way you look at it has actually started putting on clothes. On Tuesday, believe it or not, she was in a polo neck sweater, full sleeves too. But let us not jump to conclusions. This is being written on the morning of the India-England clash, and she usually wears no blouse and is very off-the-shoulder in a wedding-style sari and imitation diamonds for Indian matches. Let’s see. As one young man in Delhi aptly said, when told that Sony Max says she is there to attract women viewers, he said” No, she is there to titillate the old men.” Amen. |
Sing, talk, go out and be merry IN order to be happy in life, one should be bold or extrovert. Researchers say that this can also help uplift one's mood, according to an unusual series of studies being carried out by American psychologists. The study, published in Personality and Social Psychology, stress that irrespective of whether one is shy or outgoing, almost any extroverted behaviour has a positive impact on mood and can actually bring happiness. "I don't think it's the only way to find happiness, but I do think it's a neglected way," said Associate Professor Will Fleeson, a psychologist at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, USA, who led the study, according to a report in News in Science. The report details three related studies, in each of which about 50 randomly selected university students carried palmtop computers for up to 10 weeks at a time. They used the devices to regularly record their answers to set questions about their mood and their activities. It was found that the subjects invariably felt happier when they were involved in outgoing activities, ranging from simply singing aloud with a song on the radio to walking over and talking to someone attractive. "Every single participant in the study was happier when he or she acted extroverted than when he or she acted introverted," Fleeson said. "Even introverts can act extroverted and become happier by changing their behaviour." The studies found that people can make themselves happy either in the company of others or alone, Fleeson told ABC Science Online. Being more talkative or assertive, voicing an opinion during a discussion in social settings or asking a question in class will also have positive effects, the researcher said. "But you can do things by yourself that work just as well, especially bold activities. I'm thinking of things like going hiking, climbing a mountain, whitewater rafting or anything adventurous like that," he added. If people want to be happier and choose to act more outgoing, adventurous or assertive, then they have the power to directly improve their own well-being, Fleeson believed.
ANI Fruit at the start, no cancer later Consuming lots of fruits during childhood could lessen the likelihood of getting cancer later in life, a new study has said. For the study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, nearly 5 000 English and Scottish people gave details of their diet between 1937 and 1939. The researchers then followed nearly 90 percent of them ever since. It was found that the youngsters who ate plenty of fresh fruit had the lowest risk of dying of cancer in the decades that followed, according to a report in News24.com However, no similar association was found for vegetables in the diet, researchers at the University of Bristol and the British Medical Research Council said. One possibility could be because of cooking vegetables for a longer time, which researchers say, removed healthy micronutrients. Today's cookbooks say most vegetables should be cooked for no more than 20 minutes, with five to 10 minutes in the pot advised for most. However, the researchers note that one previous British study found vegetable intake was not as closely associated with reduced cancer risk as fruit intake.
ANI |
The Lord is the Mother of all mothers, the Father of all fathers, the one Friend behind all friends. If you always think of Him as the nearest of the near, you will witness many wonder in your life. “He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own.” And God will talk with you, also, if by meditation you make definite inroads “with unperturbed pace” into the Divine realm. —Paramahansa Yogananda, How to Talk with god |
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