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Numbers game Playing dirty in
Kabul |
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Biofuels
as culprits
Nuclear disarmament
Escaping
from spas
A choice of fuel Human health in a
pickle It’s time the G8
became the G10
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Numbers game THE four Left parties by withdrawing their support to the UPA government have tried to create political uncertainty at the Centre. From the government’s side, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has clarified that the government would not only prove its majority on the floor of the Lok Sabha but would also sew up an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency only after it has won the vote. To compensate for the Left support, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has given it in writing to the President that all its 39 MPs would support the government. Even if all the SP MPs vote for the government, there would still be need for more votes to reach the magic figure of 272 to keep the Manmohan Singh government going. As is natural to her, UP Chief Minister Mayawati, who is not happy with the SP coming closer to the UPA government, has been trying to create a wedge between the SP leadership and the Muslim MPs with her strange declaration that the Indo-US civil nuclear deal was against the interests of the Muslims. Opposition parties which would like the Manmohan Singh government to go at the earliest would be absurdly tempted to adopt such strategies to embarrass the ruling coalition and hasten its downfall. On the government’s side, too, there could be temptation to cause dissension within the Opposition parties and, if necessary, splits. Of course, the anti-defection Act would prevent most MPs from disobeying party whip, which every party is bound to issue before the voting. If the past is any guide, those MPs who really want to defy the whip and vote according to the “dictates of their conscience” can get away with their decision for quite some time because of the procedural delays inherent in the enforcement of various provisions of the anti-defection law. Since the Lok Sabha has already completed four years, the MPs may even be less fearful of the law. By the time they are dealt with, they would have caused some damage to the democratic system. Nothing ought to be done by any political party to vitiate the confidence vote in the Lok Sabha and mar the reputation of India’s political system.
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Playing dirty in Kabul Monday’s suicide bomb blast, killing 41 people, including four officials, outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul, most people in Afghanistan’s capital think, has the hallmark of Pakistan’s ISI. This has been stated by an Afghanistan Presidential spokesman, though without naming the notorious intelligence agency. He did not leave any doubt about the ISI’s involvement when he talked of the “sophistication of this attack and the kind of material that was used in it” as also the fact that this particular intelligence network “has conducted similar terrorist acts in Afghanistan” in the past also. Yet this is not surprising, as President Hamid Karzai has been openly accusing Pakistan of promoting Taliban-linked terrorism in Afghanistan. The Taliban has been successful in carrying on its destabilising activities mainly because the militant outfit gets logistical, training and other kinds of support from the Pakistani side of the Durand Line. New Delhi is apparently finding it is difficult to stomach the denial by Pakistan as well as the Taliban. The extremist movement, which has its umbilical chord in Pakistan, is known for not owning up the responsibility for any of its destructive activities if most of those dead are ordinary civilians. This tactical approach is aimed at ensuring that the Taliban does not lose its following among the poor gullible masses. Whatever Pakistan may say to explain its position, its interests are closely linked with those of the Taliban. It appears to be doing all it can to gain the strategic depth Pakistan had been trying to acquire after the establishment of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 1996. Pakistan’s calculations in Afghanistan have gone haywire with the increasing presence of India there during the last few years. India, which has invested over Rs 3,248 crore as aid in Afghanistan, is involved in a number of development projects in that strife-torn country. It is building highways, hydroelectric projects, hospitals, schools, telecommunication facilities, the new parliament complex in Kabul, etc. New Delhi’s friendly relations with Kabul are set to scale greater heights with India’s promise to do more for the reconstruction of Afghanistan irrespective of the adverse circumstances. Pakistan, obviously, must be jealous of this reality. But Islamabad will be damaging the cause of regional peace by taking recourse to terrorism in the neighbourhood. This adventurist approach of Islamabad can create roadblocks in the way of the Indo-Pak peace process.
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Biofuels as culprits A secret World Bank report has nailed the lie that the biofuels policy of the developed countries led by the US and the UK has not contributed to the international food crisis. Most of the world, including India, is convinced that the policy, which mandates that a percentage of all fuel used should be a biofuel like ethanol, has contributed to soaring food prices across the globe. India made out a strong case for regulation at the emergency UN meeting in May in Rome, but no consensus emerged, and US pressure ensured that only a watered-down resolution for “more studies” was all that was passed. The unpublished World Bank study, reported in The Guardian, a noted British newspaper, has found that biofuels were responsible for pushing up food prices by as much as 75 per cent, as against the paltry 3 per cent claimed by the US. Even biofuel critics were conservatively talking about a 15 per cent figure, which is bad enough. But at 75 per cent, it is amply clear that international restrictions on using prime agricultural land for growing biofuel crops must be placed urgently. Both the US and Europe must rethink their biofuels policy. After all, all nations have a stake in food prices, and unchecked, these can cause malnutrition and in some countries hunger. The economy of many countries can be put to great harm. The World Bank report also disputes the oft-repeated claim that the rising demand from India and China has contributed to the food crisis. This is a theory that US President George Bush touted as well, but the report is definitive in pointing out that the rising income levels in these countries have “not led to large increases in global grain consumption.” The biofuels policy has diverted food crops like corn towards fuel, encouraging farmers to grow biofuel crops, and by increased speculation in foodgrain markets. Experts also believe that they will do little to alleviate climate change, as their carbon footprint is by itself quite large. And it is doubtful that they can do much to help countries reduce their dependence on oil. Given this scenario, the movement against biofuels needs to be intensified to make the rich countries rethink their policy.
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My nature is subdued/ To what it works in, like the dyer’s hand. — William Shakespeare
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Nuclear disarmament Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh addressed a conference on disarmament in New Delhi on June 9 to mark the twentieth anniversary of Prime Minster Rajiv Gandhi's address to the UN Special Session on Disarmament on July 9 1998. Rajiv Gandhi had then presented an Action Plan calling on the international community to negotiate a binding agreement on general and complete disarmament leading to the elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2010. Twenty years later we have a situation where, according to the Bulletin of American Scientists, the US has a stockpile of 4075 active nuclear warheads. Russia, France and the UK have 5830, 200 and 350 warheads respectively. India, Pakistan and Israel are said to respectively possess 100-140, around 60 and between 100 and 200 active warheads each. North Korea reportedly possesses 4-10 nuclear warheads. When Rajiv Gandhi presented his Action Plan in 1988 Pakistan had, thanks to liberal Chinese assistance and American acquiescence, already acquired a nuclear arsenal, prompting to direct his scientists, Dr P.K. Iyengar and Dr V.S. Arunachalam, to proceed with assembling an Indian nuclear arsenal. Even as Rajiv Gandhi was calling for the establishment of a "nonviolent and nuclear weapons-free world order" duly backed by Mikhail Gorbachev, the nuclear weapons powers were moving to perpetuate their hegemony, by securing an indefinite extension of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which was concluded on July 1, 1968. With 189 countries now having acceded to the NPT and only four — India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — living outside its provisions, the NPT can be said, as western experts aver, to have prevented the emergence of around 20 nuclear weapons states as was feared in 1968. Thus, while India can legitimately claim that the treaty is unequal and discriminatory, it cannot ignore the fact that it will remain the target of signatories to the treaty, even from among its nonaligned partners like Iran and Egypt. These attitudes are partially motivated by a measure of envy, apart from concerns arising out of the possession of nuclear weapons by Israel. Countries like Iran demand a "complete prohibition" of nuclear cooperation with the countries which have not signed the NPT. The July 9 New Delhi conference was called in the wake of an appeal issued jointly by Senator Sam Nunn, former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger and former US Defence Secretary William Perry, calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons. The reality is, however, that the American establishment is nowhere near accepting these recommendations, with the authors themselves now becoming quiet. New Delhi should remember that none of these four new-found champions of disarmament, who were invited to the conference, chose to attend it. Even Mikhail Gorbachev, that one-time ardent champion of a "nonviolent and nuclear weapons-free world," chose not to attend the conference, though he was one of the invitees. The reality is that while world statesmen may pay lip service to disarmament, they are uneasy at associating themselves with India because it is a non-signatory to the NPT. The NPT was founded on the "three pillars" of nonproliferation, disarmament and cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy. While its proponents draw a measure of satisfaction from the fact that the number of countries possessing nuclear weapons today has not reached double digits, there is a powerful lobby, particularly in the US and in the European Union, which demands "universalisation" the NPT and measures to put pressure on non-signatories like India to accede to the NPT. China, which has a notorious record of violating the NPT by continuing transfers of nuclear weapon designs and technology to Pakistan, adopts a holier-than-thou attitude by demanding that India should give up its nuclear weapons and accede to the NPT. India, unfortunately, shows a lack of spine by refusing to allude publicly to these Chinese transgressions of the NPT. Similarly, India has been less than forthright in joining others to point out that NATO nuclear-sharing agreements which have led to Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey currently receiving nuclear weapons, which Canada continued to receive till 1984 and Greece until 2001, grossly violate the NPT obligations. Finally, the second "pillar" of the NPT, which requires the nuclear weapons states to pursue negotiations leading to a "treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control", has been rendered meaningless by the reluctance of nuclear weapon powers to either give up nuclear weapons or even agree to refrain from the use or threat of use of these weapons. India has now to prepare itself for the likelihood of the finalisation of two treaties — a Treaty on a Comprehensive Test Ban (CTBT) and a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) — in the not-too-distant future, especially if Barack Obama is elected as the next US President. As our former Ambassador to the UN Arundhati Ghosh recently noted, Prime Minister Vajpayee had already committed in the UN in 1998 that apart from observing its unilateral moratorium on testing, India would, in addition, bring its discussions with the US "to a successful conclusion" so that "the entry into force of the CTBT is not delayed". Thus, despite protestations to the contrary, both former Prime Minster Vajpayee and the then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh have committed India to acceding to the CTBT once countries like China and the US ratify it. The real challenge that India is going to face will arise when negotiations commence to conclude the FMCT, which will ultimately lead to an end to the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. (Conclusion of the FMCT will be a high priority during an Obama Presidency in the US.) It is here that India should stand firm, holding that it will accede to such a treaty only if it is non-discriminatory and internationally verifiable. Any loophole that permits China to either build up its arsenal while India is prohibited from doing so, or permits China to clandestinely transfer knowhow and fissile material to Pakistan should be categorically rejected. It would be worthwhile to convey this in unambiguous terms to key partners like the US, the UK, France and Russia, other members of the G-8 and to friendly countries like South Africa and Brazil. India should reaffirm that while it will never be the first to use nuclear weapons, it will also resist pressures to accept treaties that will undermine the efficacy of its nuclear deterrent. We will also have to recognise that while global nuclear disarmament is desirable, the prospects for nuclear disarmament in the foreseeable future are virtually
nonexistent.
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Escaping from spas Why
spas? Why are there so many of these things around the place? They scare me to death. There is something very sinister about being wrapped up in pristine white terry robes, cocooned in a secret room and bound in seaweed and some times Belgian chocolate mush. They tell you that it is the ultimate luxury. Do not believe them. When I am dragged to one of these places, twitching in every nerve and silently screaming it is not luxury or relaxation that I am thinking of. I am planning to flee. I am scheming on how to jump out of the window and escape the solicitous, smiling attendants. Of course, if they let you. Usually they do not let you. They catch you before you are halfway down the wall or tree or whatever route you have chosen… I love the sea but these spas are there too. Last month I was in Cha’am, a charming, quiet, seaside resort in Thailand. There were many dogs on the beach but I like dogs so I did not mind. They are large, vicious-looking and mean-eyed, pointed out the family, edging away to the safety of the hotel swimming pool. I did not mind at all. I paddled by the smiling sea, soft foam-flecked waves swishing by. And suddenly, “Would you like a massage in our spa”, whispered a gentle voice. I fled. The dogs guarded my retreat. There are these things now even in my beautiful, beloved Puri. Snuggled on the eastern coast of our country, Puri gleams like an emerald set in golden sand beaches. The waves, blue-black, rise as high as mountain peaks, and roar in suppressed fury. Sometimes this ever-changing sea becomes quiet, singing a murmured lullaby as the waves cradle you to sleep. That is relaxation. But, some years ago, to my horror, the manager of my favourite hotel sidled up in welcome, “We have opened the most wonderful spa for you”, he gushed. I reared back in outrage. Spoiling Paradise! I defiantly spent all my time on the beach and did not even go to have a look at the — spa. I finally had my revenge in Langkawi. Smiling Indonesian attendants hustled me into one of these torture chambers, pretending not to understand my protests. White-faced and trembling, I glared into one of the large mirrors, as they flocked around, caressing my hair and looking at their pots and pans suggestively. Suddenly, I found my voice. “Colour it”, I croaked, “Colour my hair - purple and red”. The smiling torturers fell back in shock. You do not ever use chemical treatments in spas - or so I gathered. Spas are healthy and natural! While they were stunned, I gathered my shoes and escaped in triumph — to the silver radiance of the Langkawi seashore. There is a new ice-cream pedicure, counsel my friends. Your feet will become soft and smell sweet, slathered in gooey, delicious ice-cream. Who wants sticky feet, I think gloomily. No one listens. Their eyes glitter in anticipation. There is nowhere to
run!
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A choice of fuel
Energy
independence simply means reducing the role of oil in world politics – turning it from a strategic commodity into merely another thing to sell. Is energy independence a pipe dream? Hardly. In the electricity sector in the United States, the mission has already been accomplished. Remember President Jimmy Carter in his cardigan during the oil crises of the 1970s, urging Americans to save electricity? It took the US just one decade to wean the electricity sector from oil. Today, only 2 percent of U.S. electricity comes from oil, according to the Energy Department. Could we do something similar with transportation, where American cars and trucks still gulp oil-based fuel greedily? At least four very different countries – dictatorships and democracies alike – are already making serious headway toward that goal. It's past time to pay attention to their example. The first country, surprisingly enough, is Iran. The Islamic republic has lots of crude but little capacity to refine it, leaving Tehran heavily dependent on gasoline imports. The country's blustery president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is fully aware that this is Iran's Achilles' heel and worries that a comprehensive gasoline embargo could cause enough social unrest to undermine his regime. So Ahmadinejad has launched an energy-independence program designed to shift Iran's transportation system from gasoline to natural gas, which Iran has plenty of. "If we can change our automobiles' fuel from gasoline to (natural) gas during the next three-four years," he said last July, "we won't need gasoline anymore." His plan includes a mandate for domestic automakers to make "dual-fuel" cars that can run on both gasoline and natural gas, a crash program to convert used vehicles to run on natural gas and a program to convert Iranian gas stations to serve both kinds of fuel. According to the International Association of Natural Gas Vehicles, more than 100 conversion centers have been built throughout the country: Iranians can drive in with their gasoline-only cars, pay a subsidised fee equivalent to $50 and collect their newly dual-fuelled cars several hours later. Ahmadinejad's plan, which has been largely ignored by the West, means that within five years or so, Iran could be virtually immune to international sanctions. While Iran is moving quickly toward energy independence, Brazil is already there. It's a striking turnaround; three decades ago, the country imported 80 percent of its oil supply. But since the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the Brazilians have invested massively in their sugar-based ethanol industry and created a fleet of vehicles that can run on the resulting fuel. According to the Sugar Cane Industry Union (Unica), 90 percent of the new cars sold this year in Brazil will be flexible-fuel vehicles that cost an extra $100 to make but can run on any combination of gasoline and ethanol. Lest anyone think that can't be done in the United States, many of those new cars are made by General Motors and Ford. All it really takes to turn a regular car into a flex-fuel one is a fuel sensor and a corrosion-resistant fuel line. Discovering how to make hydrocarbons and carbohydrates happily cohabit in the same fuel tank isn't all that Brazil has done; it has also increased domestic oil production. Its efforts have not only broken the yoke of Brazil's oil dependence but also insulated the country's economy from the pain of the current spike in global oil prices. Gasoline prices have nearly doubled elsewhere since 2005, but in Brazil, they have been almost frozen. This year, more ethanol will be sold in Brazil than gasoline. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Like Brazil, China has decided to replace gasoline with alternative fuels. But unlike the United States and Brazil, where the favorite substitute is ethanol, China has embraced a different alcohol: methanol. Several provinces in China already blend their gasoline with methanol, a clear, colorless liquid also known as wood alcohol, and scores of methanol plants are currently under construction there. The Chinese auto industry has already begun to produce flex-fuel models that can run on methanol. Shanxi, a province in central China that produces much of the country's coal, has even issued stickers granting cars that use pure methanol free passage on the province's toll roads. The distinction between methanol and ethanol is just one letter (but then, so is the difference between Iran and Iraq). Both biofuels should be in our basket of options. True, ethanol packs more energy per gallon and is less corrosive than methanol. But methanol is cheaper and far easier to produce in bulk. While ethanol can be made only from agricultural products such as corn and sugar cane, methanol can be made from natural gas, coal, industrial garbage and even recycled carbon dioxide captured from power stations' smokestacks - an elegant way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Israel offers a fourth testament to what leadership, ingenuity and audacity can achieve. Last year, it launched an electric-car venture designed to turn Israel – which obviously has some tensions with the region's big oil producers – into an oil-free economy. Israelis will soon be able to replace their gasoline-fueled cars with battery-operated ones, which they'll plug into the hundreds of thousands of recharging points planned to be erected throughout the country. Israeli motorists, the government hopes, will be able to swap their batteries in a matter of minutes at dedicated stations or recharge them at home or at work. "Oil is the greatest problem of all time – the great polluter and promoter of terror," said Israeli President Shimon Peres, the project's political patron. "We should get rid of it." For each of the four countries, knocking oil off its pedestal is no longer a theoretical proposition but a reality in the making. The writer is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and co-founder of the Set America Free Coalition, a bipartisan alliance of groups promoting U.S. energy independence By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Human health in a pickle The
foremost concern of the news media should be human health and human well-being. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Mere statements, even on a trivial issue made by a third rung politician having no significant standing in public life, are given more prominence than issues related to human health and elements playing havoc with human lives. Many examples can be cited; however, most glaring is the manner in which the media buried the significant news item regarding the spoiling of 400 quintals of pickle a few days ago. During a raid conducted on a factory in Patiala district, Health Department authorities had seized 400 quintals of pickle infected by fungus. Five samples drawn from the seized stuff were sent to a laboratory for testing, and it was found that the pickle was contaminated with fungus harmful for human health and declared the stuff un-consumable and unhygienic. On orders from the Punjab Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla, the stuff was dumped in pits and the print media dumped the story deep inside the pages of their publications. Had a similar development taken place in the US or in the UK, it certainly would have made the front pages. Pickles are amongst the most consumed stuff, especially by the middle class, lower middle class and poor sections of the society for whom it is good substitute for costly vegetables and pulses that they cannot afford. In fact, most of the poor people in the countryside take their rotis with pickles. Visit any dhaba in any part of the country and on the table will arrive a katori full of pickle. As the pickle is by and large prepared manually in most unhygienic conditions, it gets contaminated easily. It’s packaging in most of the cases is also questionable. Credit should go to Minister Chawla for running a relentless campaign against adulterated eatables and other stuff such as sweets prepared from synthetic ‘Khoya’ and preparation and sale of synthetic milk. A few months ago, Chawla, sweeping aside political pressure, got raided a factory in Rajpura that was involved in prepared thousands of litres of synthetic milk. She not only got the milk destroyed but ensured that a case is registered against those involved in playing with human health. Interestingly, some of the politicians tried their best to get the culprits off the hook but she refused to yield to their pressure. Before Last Diwali, several quintals of sweets prepared from synthetic ‘Khoya’ were seized and destroyed under her command. Politicians, whom people make the guardians of their destinies, have become a compromising and cunning species. In a way they have become protectors of all sorts of wrong doings in society. They only speak and act when their political interest is served. Otherwise, they maintain a stunning silence even on most important issues bothering people. They are not ready to take even a single step which they feel may make them lose even a few votes. Have you ever heard or seen politicians or ministers inaugurating a campaign at the government level against those cheating on weight at vegetable markets or at shops, against those selling adulterated petrol and diesel, raiding shops to seize harmful foodstuffs, against those involved in stealing power, or canal water, against those selling drugs and poppy husk, or for checking of absenteeism in government institutions? Chawla is perhaps the only politician with the unflinching commitment to the public who can launch such a sustained campaign. And she is able to motivate officers to act against those involved in playing with human lives. It has been heard that many leaders of her own party (BJP) have turned against her because they feel that she is working against the party’s vote bank. Interestingly, no social organisations or politician of any hue has appreciated the drive launched by Chawla against those selling adulterated stuff. The print and electronic media has by and large ignored her drive. The NGOs and various organisations in the business of “honouring”, social activists, journalists and so-called honest officers such as ‘thanedars’ and ‘tehsildars’ in the countryside have failed to take note of the good work done by her.
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It’s time the G8 became the G10 Why
should we care about the G8 and what they say about the future of the world economy, carbon emissions and all the other stuff that is emerging from their summit meeting in Hokkaido? So they are the world’s eight largest economies and that must matter? Well, no. There was a time when the Group of Seven as it then was, did indeed represent the world’s largest economies – Russia was later co-opted into the club as a reward for dumping Communism – but not any more. For the G8 represents the old economic powers, not the new ones. If you are worrying about the scale of the forthcoming global downturn, what China does is as important as what the United States or the European Union does, for China is adding more demand to the world than either the US and Europe. If you are worried about the price of oil, what matters is the capacity of the Middle East to produce more of it, and the additional demand from China and India. If you are worried about carbon emissions in 2050, well, what the present G8 pledges or does not pledge is only marginally relevant to what happens. In the world economy, the times they are a-changin’. To try and get a handle on this I have been looking at the latest numbers from Goldman Sachs. Jim O’Neill, the chief economist at Goldman, coined the acronym “BRICs” to describe the four largest emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – and he and his team built an econometric model to try to project how these countries might grow vis-a-vis the G7 over the next half-century. A model is only a model but so far at least the BRICs have been gaining ground on the G7 even faster than the model predicted, so if anything it understates the shift of power that is taking place. The pecking order last year in the size of the economies ran: US, Japan, Germany, China, UK, France, Italy and Spain. So Canada and Russia ought not to be in the club, and China most certainty and arguably Spain should. But Canada and Russia are huge energy producers so the really important missing member is China. But fast-forward to 2050, and the world order looks utterly different. According to the Goldman model the top eight will be: China, US, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico and the UK in that order. Yes, no Japan, no Germany, no France. The UK still would squeak into this new G8 club because we would have become the largest Western European economy, but obviously our relative position in the world would have slipped a lot. The US would still matter a great deal as the world’s second largest economy but also because of its technical and educational competence. It would tie with the UK as the world’s richest country in terms of GDP per head. But of course power would have shifted not only to the BRICs, but also to what Goldman has dubbed the “next 11”, a next tier of emerging economies led by Indonesia and Mexico, and with Turkey, the Gulf states and Nigeria cracking along too. I think the best way to grasp what is happening is to see a shift of power on two levels. On the one level there is the shift away from the political leaders of the G8 towards the leaders of the BRICs. To take a very simple but current issue, what the G8 said about carbon emissions in 2050 is pretty unimportant. Not completely unimportant – that would be to go too far. But much less important than what the BRICs do. But that is obvious. What is less obvious is the way the tastes and values of this new middle class will shape the way we old middle class live our lives. For example, it is in some measure because the new middle class want to drive around in cars that we are having to pay so much for our petrol. What I am suggesting will happen, however, is more subtle. It is that values of middle-class Asia, such as self-discipline, the thirst for higher education and the driving work ethic, will shape our own values. We will have to brace up a bit – and we will. Meanwhile there are a few obvious things we should do to embrace the shift of power that is taking place. One would be to co-opt China and Indian on to the new G10. That means more people, but it need not mean for fuss. We could make the whole shebang less formal, have fewer bods in each delegation, so that it went back to its origins as a simple way of getting heads of government together every now and again to talk about economic problems, rather than having a great PR fest. But more deeply I suggest we need to acknowledge that what we in the West think about the way the world economy should develop is much less important than we like to admit. A bit less arrogance, a bit more sensitivity, a bit more awareness and a bit more respect. By arrangement with
The Independent
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