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Tainted
officer Change
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Save St
Bede’s
Needed
varsities for women
Ageing
blues
World
heading towards cheaper money Tight economy
squeezes arts organisations Deepa Mehta to make
‘Midnight’s Children’
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Change in Bhutan
The
coronation of a new King in Bhutan when history has cast aside the monarchy in neighbouring Nepal is instructive, and not only in the South Asian context. If the crowning of Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was an ‘international’ occasion attended by President Pratibha Patil and ambassadors from the ideological extremes of the US and China, that is because Bhutan, unlike Nepal, is blessed with an enlightened monarchy in grace with history. King Wangchuck, who was crowned as Bhutan’s Fifth Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King), succeeds his father to the throne as the fifth in a line that has ruled the kingdom for over 100 years. Educated in India and Oxford, the 28-year-old is the world’s youngest monarch. Bhutan’s monarchy is hugely popular with the people in the kingdom and highly revered. So much so, that the first steps towards a democracy had to be initiated by the present monarch’s father two years ago though the people appeared unwilling for the historic transition. Instead of taking advantage of the people’s reluctance to move towards democracy, the monarchy took the responsibility to educate and ease the people into the process. As a result Bhutan is almost a ‘constitutional’ monarchy where, as Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley observed, the King is also the “guarantor of democracy” precisely by being free of the responsibilities of government. Although Bhutan has embraced modernity and is opening up gradually to the outside world, the kingdom is still rooted firmly in tradition. As a result, the monarchy endures as a healthy symbol of national unity and stability. The presence of Mrs Patil, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee at the crowning ceremony underscores Bhutan’s importance to India as a trusted and valued neighbour. A monarchy that recognises the aspirations of its people and is in tune with the popular mood can be assured of being upheld even in this democratic age, appears to be the message from Thimphu.
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Save St Bede’s
It
is heartening to hear from the Principal of Shimla’s prestigious St Bede’s College that every effort will be made to avoid closure of this great institution. Now it is for the government to show similar resolve and farsightedness. At a time when there is need for opening more and more educational institutions of excellence, it will be a shame if one of the oldest women’s colleges in the country goes down because of financial restraints. These have arisen mainly because the government has cut its grant-in-aid from 95 per cent to 50 per cent. It is true that such reduction has been brought about in keeping with a court order and applies to all private institutions of the state but still, the government has to bail out this 104-year-old institution. If necessary, the government has to pare down its own expenditure to allocate more funds to centres which have been rendering valuable service in the field of education. It should not be forgotten that despite its elitist image, the college has 90 per cent girls from Himachal Pradesh. More than 50 students from the economically weaker sections are being provided free education there. So, it is not just a college for the privileged. At the same time, the college also has to move with the times. Like other renowned schools located in Sanawar, Dalhousie and Dagshai, it will also have to rationalise its fee structure. Besides, it also needs to start more self-financing courses to reduce dependence on government grants. The college has a galaxy of alumni, many of whom are in top positions. Among them are former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh, former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur, film actress Preity Zinta and many others who have passed out of its portals. They too should chip in to revive this grand maiden which they have loved and benefited from. To its credit, the college does not get any foreign or outside aid; hence the need for a collective and indigenous effort.
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Do not say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders, so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Needed varsities for women The
Maxim goes that educating a boy would mean educating an individual, yet educating a girl would amount to educating a family. Inter alia, this is the main reason that, due to low level of women education, not to speak of education, even the literacy rate in the country has remained dismally low. The illiteracy and lack of adequate women education, is not letting the country achieve the education level in the Indian society to an optimal level. There are several economic, social and cultural road blocks that stand in the way of women education in India. In the rural areas and tradition-bound segments of society, the education of the girl does not get the priority it deserves. Financially constrained families, which are a large majority in India, give precedence to the education of boys, both in terms of level as well quality of education. Even in the families that can very well afford, boys always get preference and precedence over girls in the matter of education. When it comes to professional education like medical, engineering and other high- end technical courses, the girls face utter discrimination. Such worthwhile courses have gone out of the reach of even the middle class families. In order to alleviate this financial constraint, bank loans have been made available for higher education, yet it is an admitted fact that there is hardly a family that would borrow to educate a girl child. Reason is that in the social order of the country, the girl after marriage goes to her in-laws and the parents are left to repay the debt they had incurred on educating their girl. There are, therefore, very rare cases where the parents might have borrowed to educate even the highly merited girls. This results in an irreparable loss to the society at large in terms of valuable human resources. One wonders, if the in-laws of the so educated girl would ever pick up the liabilities of repaying the education loan of the bride after marriage! Unless a solution to this problem is found, the educational loans being offered at low or even no interest rates would carry no meaning for worthwhile education of the girl students. On the socio-cultural front, in the majority of the families in rural areas, there is a sort of inhibition to let the girls go to schools and colleges with an open mind. If the school happens to be at a distance, this adds to the reluctance of the majority of the families to send their girls to school. Shortage of schools meant for girls only further adds to the problem. The parents in the villages and traditional societies have hesitation, that ranges from mild to absolute inhibition, in sending the girls to co-education schools. The percentage of the families that dare to break this barrier is very low. Unfortunately, the co-education schools also, specially at the level of senior classes, have played with the cultural values of society and in the name of modernisation have allowed the western culture to invade in a free hand manner. The rural and tradition oriented families do not look at this scenario favourably. Wherever there are girls schools, these are full to the brim with students. Same is the case of women colleges. There seldom remains a seat vacant in the schools and colleges that are meant for girls/women only. Thus whatever and howsoever we may claim of developing modern outlook in society, a large majority of the families in India remain inhibited in putting their girls in the co-education schools and colleges, specially from the rural areas of the country. Although there are convincing arguments in favour of co-education schools and colleges in developing all-round personality of the students through opposite gender interactions, yet the Indian society, specially the large majority of rural and poorer families, have not been able to change their mindset that would allow mixing of the girls with boys. They prefer schools and colleges meant for girls only. Therefore, in the interest of women education, there is a need for opening of large number of girls schools and women colleges in the country. Yet, with whatever the level of openness that has crept into society, the girls have proved to be noticeably more serious students and have achieved distinctly better results than the boys have done. In any academic function, more than 80 per cent of the top positions and merit goes to the girl students. Often, it comes as a pleasant surprise when a boy walks forth to receive an academic award. If this is the position when a large proportion of society is inhibited in sending their girl students to the extent education institutions, one can well imagine the astounding results that would be shown by the female students, when such inhibitions are removed through setting up of an adequate number of schools and colleges, specially the professional colleges and institutions of higher learning, that are meant for women only. By not doing so, the Indian society is allowing a vast reservoir of intellect remain unexploited. In order to provide a vertical linkup, it would be quite logical to establish women’s universities also. A women’s university will provide unrestricted opportunity and uninhibited environment to the female students and scholars to achieve new heights, particularly in the subjects of basic sciences as well as professional and technical courses. The nation must not, therefore, lose these valuable human resources and provide them with an ambience through women universities to tap the women talent of the country. India already has some women universities like Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackerey Women’s University (Maharashtra), Sri Padmavati University for Women (Andhra Pradesh), Karnataka State Women’s University (Karnataka), Mother Teresa Women’s University (Tamil Nadu). The dire need of the time, however, is that at least one central women university be set up in every state of the country. Through establishment of such universities, India will not be alone in providing for these gender specific institutions. World over such universities have been created by thoughtful nations. To cite a few examples, there are universities like Fatima Jinnah Women’s University, Rawalpindi (Pakistan), Lahore College For Women University (Pakistan), Mississippi University for Women (USA), Texas Women’s University (USA), Asian University for Women (Bangladesh), The Royal University for Women (Bahrain), BAIKA Women’s University (Japan), Seoul Women’s University (Korea), Sookmyung Women’s University (Korea), Ewha Women’s University (Korea), Bunka Women’s University (Japan), Showa Women’s University (Japan). These universities and many others are meant for making a focused effort for empowerment of women in the areas where they are located. Needless to emphasise, that in states like Punjab and Haryana, where the ratio of females to males is very low, such universities can play a decisive role in empowering the women and as a consequence in improving the sex ratio in such states. Women in the conservative rural areas of interiors, and also along the international border of the country, certainly need a focused higher educational impetus to shape themselves as aggressive stakeholders of our economy, polity and society. The question, however, is whether the nation and the states, especially the low- sex ratio states like Punjab and Haryana would wake up to the realities of the
situation.
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Ageing blues Middle
age starts at three and five 35”, this innocent prefix announced with the tambola number came as a bolt from the blue. At a time when I was crossing over to the other side of 30, the knowledge of the fact that I was not young any longer sent shivers down my spine. I cannot forget the day when I got the rude shock that I was not young any more but a middle-aged woman. It was a birthday party thrown by my friend to celebrate her son’s birthday. We were playing tambola and my friend’s ‘young’ niece was announcing the tambola numbers. Her casual remark while announcing the number 35 gave me a big jolt. Till the time I was enlightened of the milestone 35, I had never been aware of the ageing blues. They say ignorance is bliss and indeed I remained in the blissful state unaware of the fact that I had already entered into the middle zone. Prior to this revelation, age nay aging had never bothered me. From the fun filled childhood to heady teens and then breezy adulthood of 20s, life had been an exciting journey where birthdays had been landmarks for celebrations. Adding degrees, landing up with a cozy job in a prestigious college, marriage and then kids — it had been an action packed life. Though the realisation of the middle age status struck me like a thunder bolt, the transition from youth to middle age was rather slow. Then there was yet another tambola tag line to awaken me, “Men get naughty at four zero 40”. I cannot say how naughty my husband’s forty was, but I clearly remember the onset of my 40s. Even before I realised that I needed spectacles for my near vision, one of my colleagues discovered the telltale sign of 40s when I started holding the papers at a distance to read. I avoided using spectacles till the time it became impossible to do without the aid. As I inched towards the other side of the 40, I became conscious of my ageing when I saw grey strands on my crowning glory. Auntie, I had been to the children ever since the time I got married but lately, to my annoyance, I found that even the married men and women started addressing me as auntie. Recently I got yet another blow to my youthful pride when I was mistaken to be the mother of a friend of mine who is just 10 years younger than I am. Birthdays no longer bring any excitement; rather they remind me of the countdown. I dread to hear, “Old age starts at five zero 50”. But as I approach half a century mark, the news of the amazingly fit singing sensation Madonna turning 50 sounds like music to my ears. She becomes my source of inspiration driving all my ageing blues
away.
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World heading towards cheaper money
They
have hit the panic button. The Bank of England has gone on to red alert. But there is, I am afraid, no quick fix. It has become increasingly evident that something big and bad has been happening to the UK economy over the past three or four weeks: that there has been a vicious fall in both confidence and demand. It always takes a bit of time before what is happening in the shops and factories to show through in the figures, but this time things are coming through fast. This is happening here, but it is also happening throughout the world. The US economy, which had been holding up pretty well, has come off suddenly too. German demand, heavily dependent on exports, has slid down. Even China is coping with a post-Olympic flop. It is small comfort that we are paid-up members of the global downturn club. There is, however, no easy way to easier money. Lower interest rates are part of the policies that will be needed to shepherd this country and others through the downturn, but the fuss over the size of the interest rate cut yesterday misses the big point. That is that if people cannot borrow the money, or don’t want to, the level of interest rates is a bit of an irrelevance. Add in the effect of the wonky transmission mechanism between official rates and market rates and any cut in the former is merely a small element of the much bigger process of rebuilding the world’s banking system. Of course it matters, and of course it is welcome, but we should not kid ourselves that it is more than one helpful policy move out of many. Slashing rates to 3 per cent is dramatic, but there will be more drama to come. The really big question is whether the world is heading into deflation. At the moment, we have asset deflation, pretty savage in the equity markets worldwide and in house prices in many economies including the UK. But we don’t have current deflation, for the retail price index is 5 per cent up year-on-year. This is the reverse of the situation of a couple of years ago when asset prices were surging and current prices were restrained. The central banks then made an error in that they were lulled into complacency by the low official inflation numbers and failed to lean hard enough against the asset boom. Now they have been in danger of making the same mistake in reverse n fearful of the soaring inflation numbers and not leaning hard enough to try to reflate the economy. The US Federal Reserve has got the message and driven rates down to 1 per cent, but as recently as this summer the European Central Bank was increasing rates and you could until yesterday have argued that the Bank of England was in danger of making a similar mistake. That is history now. Around the world, central banks are or will be driving rates downwards, haltingly still in India and China but with increasing determination everywhere including Europe, which of course made a start yesterday. We are moving into a period of low rates everywhere and it is quite plausible that the UK, like the US, will have rates at or close to 1 per cent before next summer is out. The obvious cloud hanging over the world is Japan. That country has some of the greatest companies in the world, and is still the second largest economy. But it had a gigantic property bubble in the late 1980s and last week shares were the lowest they had been for 26 years. Japan has, despite its commercial and industrial excellence, experienced nearly two decades of stagnation. This does not hit the visitor. I happened to be in Tokyo last week and can report that the city seems as shining and stylish as ever. But my friends told me that below the surface there was real hardship, particularly among the elderly and among young people who did not have good educational qualifications. For people in secure jobs stagnation may not be too bad, but it does hit those least able to bear a squeeze on their living standards. So will the world go Japanese? I think there are a number of reasons why this is unlikely, one of which is that the authorities have moved swiftly to make sure the banks declare their losses and recapitalise themselves. Realistically we should not expect much recovery, at least in the UK, until 2010. Meanwhile there will be some testy, ill-tempered months ahead. The data will get worse. Government revenues will plunge and I am afraid some people will lose their jobs. The bad news that compelled the Bank to act will continue to pile up. And because nearly half the UK workforce has never experienced recession, it will be all the more frightening. But at least we have the policy levers to pull. Unlike in the early 1990s, we have the freedom to cut interest rates and permit sterling to drop on the exchanges and become more competitive. The interest rate lever was yanked hard yesterday; expect it to be pulled again soon. — By arrangement with
The Independent
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Tight economy squeezes arts organisations LOS ANGELES: When it comes to his future arts giving in today’s economy, even Eli Broad, perhaps Los Angeles’ most generous arts supporter, is looking at the bottom line. “The value of the Broad Foundation is down 18 per cent,” says Broad, who can count among his latest contributions $56 million for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Broad Contemporary Art Museum, $10 million to the new Broad Stage at Santa Monica College and $6 million for Los Angeles Opera’s coming production of Wagner’s epic “Ring” cycle. “Let me say this: It can’t be business as usual for the next several years.” Arts organisations throughout Southern California are scrambling in the face of declining ticket sales and donor contributions. This week brought news of layoffs and concert cancellations by the Pasadena Symphony and of the possible collapse of Opera Pacific, Orange County’s only professional opera company. Jason Alexander, artistic director of Reprise Theatre Company, said that his organisation, which presents Broadway musical revivals, has seen a 15 per cent to 25 per cent decline in its subscriber base over the last several years. “Everything is on the table,” Alexander said. “We are radically rethinking not only the kinds of productions that
we want to do next but the very structure of our organisation. “We’re all going after the same pool of major individual donors, corporate donors and grants. When the pool really gets dry and everybody’s trying to jump in, somebody’s going to land in the shallow end.” At Southern California’s art museums, the most drastic steps have been taken by the Museum of Contemporary Art-a privately supported institution that runs on about $21 million a year. MOCA will shutter the Geffen Contemporary, a warehouse-like annex in Little Tokyo, for six months beginning January 6. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which operates on an annual budget of about $60 million from public and private sources, enacted a hiring freeze about three weeks ago. Attendance is up, thanks in part to a popular exhibition of photographic portraits from Vanity Fair magazine. But revenue from membership fees has fallen about $500,000 short of the $8.6 million goal for the current fiscal year. And with donations down more than 10 per cent, the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach has cut its budget from
$4.5 million to $4 million, partly by reducing staff. Also gone is “Orange Crush,” a monthly indie-rock concert program at
the museum. Broad, a founding trustee of MOCA and a board member at LACMA, said that, in order to survive the recession, museums will have to continue to reduce their work forces and overheads as well as acquisitions. In addition, he said, the museum world must “become more populist” in what it presents to the public and markets to cultural tourists. He pointed to the economic boost LACMA received from its popular Van Gogh and King Tut shows. As is the case for many ballet companies, its annual “Nutcracker” is the “bread and butter” of Los Angeles Ballet, said co-artistic director Thordal Christensen, that will help fund other productions throughout the year. What will it mean to the company that this year the economy has gone south for the holidays? Christensen said “Nutcracker” ticket sales are up 15 per cent from last year. Still, he said, the 30-member company is exploring various kinds of family and group packages and promotional partnerships with other organisations. For example, company members presented a pas de deux as part of the Geffen Playhouse’s Family Fun Day this fall. “We have to work together to help each other,” he said. — By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Deepa Mehta to make ‘Midnight’s Children’ Acclaimed
Indian-Canadian film director Deepa Mehta will make a film based on “Midnight’s Children”, the Booker of Bookers Prize winning novel of India-born British author Salman Rushdie. The writer himself will appear in the film, which is expected to be completed by 2010, Rushdie and Mehta announced at a press conference in New York on Thursday. Actress and social activist Shabana Azmi has agreed to act in the proposed film, so has Seema Biswas of the “Bandit Queen” fame. Actress Nandita Das will also be in the cast. Making the announcement on the sidelines of the ongoing MIAAC Film Festival, Rushdie and Mehta said they will be co-writing the screenplay on the novel, which is spread over 600 pages. Published in 1981, “Midnight’s Children” is the fictional memoir of Saleem Sinai, one of 1,001 children born at the stroke of midnight on Aug 15, 1947. “I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Saleem, his journey, and the incredible world he inhabits to the screen. To collaborate with Salman on the script, to have access to his humour and his sensibility is a process I am immensely looking forward to,” Mehta said. The two celebrities of Indian origin have been working on the project for quite some time now, they said, adding that they would soon sit down to start writing the script. Delighted that Mehta has agreed to make a film on “Midnight’s Children”, Rushdie said: “Her passion for the book, combined with her immense talent as a filmmaker, means that my novel has been placed in the best possible hands.” Mehta, who has read the book twice so far, said: “In literature there are only a handful of characters that remain indelible in my mind. On top of my list is Saleem, the protagonist of Salman’s brilliant novel ‘Midnight’s Children’.” Mehta, Rushdie and Azmi are in New York to participate in the MIAAC Film Festival. The five-day festival had a glittering opening Wednesday with the New York premier of Mehta’s latest film “Heaven on Earth” starring Preity Zinta.
— IANS
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