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No winners in pilots’ strike
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WHO lists mental disorders
Friendless Gaddafi
NATO attacks on Libya
Summer gifts
China surges ahead on nuclear power
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No winners in pilots’ strike
Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi, who had declared a few days ago that the agitating Air India pilots would not be allowed to dictate terms to the government, was forced to eat his words when he was driven to the negotiating table by the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday. A flexible approach and some tact are always helpful. The pilots who had brought 90 per cent of the Air India flights to a halt to demand pay parity with pilots who flew on international routes have returned to work with nothing more than assurances. Of course, their sacked colleagues will be reinstated and their association re-recognised. When a committee was already seized of the issue of wages, where was the need to go on strike? z
In the 10-day confrontation between the management and the pilots it is the taxpayer who has been left with a bloody nose. He will pay for the Rs 15-crore-a-day hit the government-owned Air India has got during the strike period. Besides, there is a loss of Rs 13,300 crore, accumulated since the Air India-Indian Airlines merger in 2007. The Rs 40,000-crore loan is already bleeding the airline. No one may now ask the uncomfozrtable questions raised during the face-off: Why was such a large fleet of aircraft bought in one go with borrowed money? Why were some of the profit-making routes passed on to private airlines? What made the airline fall from the number one position to number four? The return to business-as-usual may bury an important issue that cropped up during the strike: Should Air India be privatised? The airline has been plundered over the years by the political class. Secondly, it is none of the government’s business to be in the business of running airlines, hotels etc. However, politicians and bureaucrats, who regularly milk public sector units, will not easily let go control over their personal fiefdoms. Thirdly, political interference does not let a professional management – even if hired under pressure – manage the affairs. A PSU working under such constraints cannot hope to compete with professionally managed
organisations.
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WHO lists mental disorders
Those suffering from mental health disorders are often treated like pariahs. In this light, its heartening to note that India, which fought to get non-communicable disease (NCD) status for mental disorders, has been able to get it included in the WHO list which traditionally includes diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases. Of course, this does not mean that the plight of mentally ill patients is going to change overnight. But it is a significant step that could not only lead to de-stigmatisation but also pave the way for better healthcare.
Mental healthcare has always been a matter of concern in India. Studies have pointed out serious treatment gaps. The dismal psychiatrist-patient ratio coupled with societal apathy has only led to abject neglect of mentally ill patients. The country’s health plans seemed more obsessed with the burden of communicable diseases and the challenge of mental illness has not been met. In recent times however, steps have been initiated to take a fresh look at the National Mental Health Programme, increase the number of mental health professionals as well as to make their services available at primary level. Now a new mental health policy is being envisaged that will take into account internationally accepted guidelines as well as the draft Mental Health Care Bill 2010 which among other things bans the chaining of mentally ill people, a practice prevalent among the ignorant and uneducated. No doubt the acceptance of mental disorders as NCD will push the issue on the global agenda and help chalk out strategies to deal with the mentally ill. However, considering the fact that only a minuscule percentage of those suffering from mental problems require to be housed in psychiatric facilities, community and family can play an important role. It’s about time society that nurses many ill-conceived notions about mental sickness considered such illnesses just as a disease which can be treated. The government and health machinery on its part has to ensure that the right treatment is made available and accessible, especially to vulnerable and underprivileged sections of society.
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Friendless Gaddafi
ALTHOUGH there is a virtual military stalemate between the forces of Muammar Gaddafi and the rebels in Libya, the diplomatic ground seems to be slipping from under the feet of the former. On Friday, France ordered 14 Libyan diplomats loyal to him to leave the country within two days. Only a day earlier, Britain had ordered two Libyan diplomats to leave the country before May 11 for what it termed as “unacceptable behaviour”. Four days before that, London had expelled the Libyan ambassador over a mob attack on the British embassy in Tripoli, which was triggered by the death of one of Gaddafi’s sons in a NATO strike. Germany had decided last month itself to expel five Libyan diplomats for exercising pressure on Libyan opponents of Gaddafi living in exile in Germany.
All that underlines the growing isolation of the dictator. Although Russia and China have voiced concerns about civilian casualties and excessive use of force since the NATO mission began, even they have not come out openly in favour of Gaddafi. Last week, the Libya Contact Group, comprising 22 countries and six international organisations, had agreed to make available a temporary fund of $250 million immediately for providing non-military assistance to the rebels, who are demanding $ 3 billion in the coming months for military salaries, food, medicine and other basic supplies. The US is moving to free up at least some of the more than $30 billion it has frozen in Libyan assets. France was the first to formally recognise the interim Transitional National Council (TNC), the Benghazi-based leadership of opposition forces fighting Gaddafi’s rule. Many more countries may do so in the near future. Qatar and Kuwait are pledging big amounts for the rebels. Gaddafi should be aware that a countdown is on for him, military gains made by inflicting inhuman atrocities on his citizens notwithstanding.
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An artist must be a reactionary. — Andre Maurois
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NATO attacks on Libya
The US-blessed NATO strikes against Libya have continued for more than a month now. They killed Col Gaddafi’s youngest son, Saif al-Arab, and three grand children in a residential villa in Bab al Azizya complex in Tripoli on April 30. It shows how a debt-ridden, waning Super Power and a group of European nations, particularly France and the UK, can blatantly pursue their regime change agenda in Libya using the fig leaf of the UN Resolution 1973 to protect the civilians against their own government!
But they are nervous and insecure knowing not what will follow if the incumbent governments fall as in some cases, no visible alternative leadership has emerged so far. And even if it has, the main players thrown up are individuals with suspect credentials. The US and NATO countries want to ensure that the new rulers are pro-US and pro-West. But they forget that democracy can’t be imposed from outside. And the way they are going about it is no way to introduce democracy. American columnist Steve Chapman has speculated that President Obama might have been stampeded into the Libyan conflict by an exaggerated estimate of blood bath and massacre of up to 1,00,000 civilians if the US hadn’t intervened in Benghazi. These projections are seriously challenged by neutral observers; they liken them to the exaggerated claims by the White House cabals about an imminent attack by Saddam Hussein at American interests and piles of WMDs in Iraq before the second Gulf war. Both these claims turned out to be deliberate lies. The rest is history. Gaddafi is no democrat. Since 1969 when he grabbed power in a bloodless coup, he has been heading a repressive totalitarian regime which brooks no opposition and silences all forms of dissidence. A free press doesn’t exist nor an independent judiciary. Notwithstanding his claims of not holding any formal post to resign from, he has been Libya’s supreme authority for four decades; nothing moves without his nod. Simply put, it is one-man rule for all practical purposes. Gaddafi’s mercurial and eccentric behaviour is the stuff of folklore. But the fact remains he gave millions of dollars to the anti-colonial leaders in Mozambique, the ANC in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and Uganda and trained and armed their fighters for decades. No wonder Mandela, Mugabe, Museveni and several other African leaders felt indebted to him. Over the years, he gave several billion dollars to the PLO under Arafat to continue their struggle against Israel. His long-reign rests on four legs: Ruthless intelligence and security apparatus which watches citizens’ lives like the Big Brother; support of the army, he keeps on shuffling senior officers and promoting the younger lot who feel more obliged to him; support from ordinary Libyans whose daily necessities like wheat/maize flour, cooking oil, sugar, rice etc are made available at highly subsidised rates — none goes hungry; and creation of infrastructure — roads, ports, hospitals, universities, sports stadia, underground water supply systems, industrial plants which generate employment and huge revenue from oil which gave him funds for mega projects — millions have been siphoning off is a different story. He is megalomaniac and suffers from delusion of messianic role; calls himself the Leader of the Revolution and feels his Green Book provides guidelines for good governance and political and social stability. His attempts to merge Libya with Egypt, Algeria and Syria at different times failed but he has espoused the idea of the African Union for decades. While so many Arab Countries have fallen prey to Islamic extremism, he has kept a tight lid on Islamic extremism in Libya. Al-Qaida is not welcome; till the late 90s none of the Jihadis captured by the Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir was a Libyan national. Unlike in Saudi Arabia and Iran, Indians are allowed to celebrate Holi, Diwali, Dussehara, Baisakhi and other festivals openly. While elderly women cover their head, the Hizab is not compulsory in Libya. Libya of Gaddafi is one of liberal Muslim countries in the Middle East. Certainly it’s time that Gaddafi’s four-decade long totalitarian rule ends. But not by NATO with Uncle Sam giving an approving nod. Just a day before the attack at his residence, Gaddafi had pleaded for a ceasefire and expressed willingness to negotiate with the rebels on all issues, including a road map for future, transitional period, elections/referendum. He should be tested on his promises. Is the killing of inconvenient leaders sanctioned by the UN? Is it democratic? Should the world just keep watching while a handful of countries try to bring down governments? BRICS must go beyond mere condemnations voiced at Sanya in China recently. The US and NATO shouldn’t be allowed to expand the mandate of the UN Resolution to fulfil their regime change agenda. The G-20 should take up from where BRICS left. This is a golden opportunity for introducing participatory democracy, at its nascent stage, in Libya. A weakened and chastened Gaddafi will be more amenable to making concessions. So, instead of continuing bombing and destroying all infrastructure as they did in Iraq, the US and NATO should hold their fire and encourage face-to-face negotiations between the rebels and Gaddafi loyalists.n The writer was India’s Ambassador to Libya from November 1994 to
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Summer gifts
AS a child I often travelled to visit my elder sister married in Shamli (Uttar Pradesh). Though Punjabi food is a global phenomenon these days, the style and statement with which the UP-walas showcase their delicacies is no less interesting and mouth-watering, be it Mathura Ke Pede or Agre Ka Petha.
But having crossed the Yamuna Bridge, what I usually saw lined up in summers in the sleepy town of Kairana were hundreds of vending stalls—mobile and static. They were all selling nicely cut and washed “Laila ki ungliyan aur Majnu ki pasliyan!”— which were nothing but Kakri or cucumber. Salted masala added taste to the cool and refreshing product on sale, besides the Laila-Majnu sobriquets. In Shamli, they had watermelons cut into appropriate and attractive sizes, with that blood-red foamy pulp. And you had no choice but to order a big plate full beyond the brim. I equally relished the sight of easy-going Mullas donning skull-caps eating watermelons while sitting on Yamuna Bridge sideberms, breaking the big ball into two halves and partaking of the sweet, pithy, viscous stuff, with beards dipping in the green bowl. Compared to this, I pity the white woman, who ate the watermelon with fork in a South England county, when I saw her treating herself with a not-so-ripe pinkish likeness of pulp. In Punjab-Haryana too we witness such sights and summer months have Pudina-pani sellers. They hang green pudina leaves around a huge pitcher. Then they also put a lemon-rosary around the pitcher, for enhanced effect. Lo and behold! The elixir sells like it should! The most awaited vendor some years ago used to be the Malai-Baraf-wala who had a pitcher of icecream, wrapped in a woollen muffler. He carried a small scale with him and enough hard but green leaves of probably Dhaak trees, on which he served his product. People invariably had a sample of this malai-baraf on the back of their palm. Once while returning from Hyderabad, our train passed through Gujarat and Rajasthan, and the cut-tomatoes straight from the dried-up seasonal streams, sprinkled with water and served in huge plates had their own unique and organic taste. Besides, nariyal pani, thandaee made of crushed almonds and black pepper in sweetened milk, lassi; chuskee (ice-crush candy with attractive colours of viscous sweet liquid appropriately sprinkled all over), kanji-pani, aam-panna, gond-kateera and falooda; Bhyu-Patra juice also added up to the summers’ menu card. In summers, Indians just love products having ‘thandee-taseer’—cool characteristic (apologies for bad translation). No, I am not forgetting something special which not only acts as nourishment to the taste buds but also as laxative to constipated mortals. I cannot think of an Indian summer when I was not loyal to the king of fruits —
mango.
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China surges ahead on nuclear power
The congenial Professor Duan Xuru doesn’t look like a stereotypical mad scientist as he shows guests into a cluttered laboratory filled with canisters, vacuum pumps and patched-up pipes tied together with spirals of blue wire and rubber tubing.
But Duan, based in the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu, is working on an audacious project described as a “man-made sun”. He hopes it will eventually create almost unlimited supplies of cheap and clean energy. Duan is no maverick either, but a pioneer in one of the many expeditions that China has launched to map out its nuclear energy options in the future. Old-fashioned atom splitting has been in the spotlight after Japan’s biggest earthquake and tsunami left an aging nuclear reactor complex on the northeast coast on the verge of catastrophic meltdown. While Germany and Italy have turned their backs on nuclear power, China is pressing ahead with an ambitious plan to raise capacity from 10.8 gigawatts at the end of 2010 to as much as 70 or 80 GW in 2020.
Fusion instead of fission
Many of the nuclear research institutes across the country are working on advanced solutions to some of the problems facing traditional reactors, from the recycling and storage of spent fuel to terrorist attacks. But Duan and his state-funded team of scientists are on a quest for the Holy Grail of nuclear physics: a fusion reactor that can generate power by forcing nuclei together instead of smashing them apart—mimicking the stellar activity that brought heavy elements into existence and made the universe fit for life. Duan said fusion could be the ultimate way forward: it is far safer than traditional fission, requires barely 600 grams of hydrogen fuel a year for each 10-gigawatt plant, and creates virtually no radioactive waste. “Due to the problems in Japan, the government hopes nuclear fusion can be realised in the near future,” said Duan, the director of fusion science at the Southwestern Institute of Physics, founded in 1965 and funded by the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). Fusion might be the ultimate goal, but in the near future, all China’s practical efforts will continue to focus on a new model of conventional fission reactors.
Pushing ahead
While China’s nuclear industry awaits the results of a government review in the wake of the Fukushima crisis, all signs point to China pushing ahead with its long-term strategy. The National Development and Reform Commission said last week China would continue to support the construction and development of advanced nuclear reactors and related nuclear technologies. “Suddenly, China has become even more important to the world—as other people ask whether they still want to go ahead, China still seems intent on going ahead at full speed,” said Steve Kidd, deputy secretary general with the World Nuclear Association, a London-based lobby group. If traditional nuclear power represents the civil application of the atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, fusion is an extension of the hydrogen bomb, first tested by the United States in 1952.
Exotic options
As Japan’s stricken Fukushima plant lurched from crisis to crisis in March and April, the safety of nuclear power was called into question—including in China. Five days after the quake and tsunami knocked out the 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi complex, China said it was suspending approvals for nuclear power plants pending safety checks of plants in operation or under construction. China by most calculations is already the world’s biggest energy consumer, and demand for power is set to soar in the next decade. But its dependence on fossil fuels have also turned it into the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gas. Duan’s fusion reactor could be the answer to China’s energy conundrum. It does not require acres of space or tones of scarce fuel or water resources. It produces no CO2 emissions or waste, and is completely safe, even if struck by an earthquake. “(China) has investments in the more exotic reactor designs and they also have got cooperation on fast reactors with the Russians,” said Kidd of the World Nuclear Association. “They are keeping their options open, and Fukushima will encourage that tendency toward next-generation reactors.” The allure of the next generation reactors is they can eliminate, or at least defer, the problem of fuel shortages by reprocessing spent uranium into plutonium and other actinides and boost the amount of usable fuel by a factor of 50.
China can gain upper hand
Despite the uncertainties, optimism continues to prevail—and some insiders suggested Fukushima could actually cement China’s future dominance of the sector. “The Japan accident could be good for China,” said one industry official who didn’t want to be identified in order to speak more candidly. “It will force China to move forward technologically and pay even more attention to safety. But it will also lead to a bigger slowdown in nuclear development in other countries. China can really gain the upper hand.” China has already committed itself to investing $1.5 trillion in seven strategic industries, including nuclear and high-speed rail. Its plans to push into high-tech sectors prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to call for a “Sputnik moment” aimed at ensuring that the United States doesn’t fall behind. Even the lower target of 70 GW is still a huge leap from 10.8 today, and China could very quickly return to “business as usual,” Kidd said.
Fukushima nightmare
Parts of China are prone to earthquakes, such as the 8.0-magnitude quake that flattened several towns in Sichuan in 2008, killing 80,000 people. The quake did no harm to nuclear power plants, sparing China a Fukushima-style nightmare. But it damaged beyond repair a turbine manufacturing unit belonging to one of China’s biggest nuclear equipment makers, Dongfang Electric, at a loss of 1.6 billion yuan. Since then, the company has recovered, building and expanding facilities in quake-damaged Deyang and elsewhere. Despite misgivings among the general public, the quake didn’t stop nearby cities—including the megapolis of Chongqing—from pushing ahead with their own reactor plans.
Many natural disaster threats
Critics of nuclear power suggest all the “inland” nuclear plans should be torn up in light of the Japan crisis, and not just because of the potential earthquake risks. “China has a huge variety of natural disasters—this is a country vulnerable to extreme weather and the government needs to take into consideration all the worst-case scenarios,” said Li Yan, China campaign manager with Greenpeace. Nuclear supporters see a massive overreaction to Fukushima.
Generation gap
Li of CGNPC caused a stir at the Chengdu conference when he said China could halt approvals for new second-generation plants—similar to the Fukushima Daiichi plant—after Japan’s disaster. He also wondered whether China was ready to make the big leap into third-generation technology. The company later denied Li had made those statements. But even if China does go ahead with some second-generation plants among the many projects pending approval, the Japan crisis is likely to strengthen its prior commitment to third-generation reactors.
Nuclear seen as fundamental
For the industry’s inveterate opponents, benefits will always be outweighed by costs. But as China scours the planet for the scarce resources needed to meet the energy demand of more than 1.3 billion people, nuclear is seen as fundamental. Whether China can eventually do the same for fusion remains to be seen, and until it is finally commercialized, China and the rest of the world have little choice but to endure all the costs and risks that arise from splitting the atom. Duan has dedicated his adult life to fusion research, and he still isn’t sure if he will see a commercially viable reactor in his lifetime. “It is difficult to say,” he said
ruefully. “I believe we will have a fusion power plant within fifty years, but I don’t know if I will still be here to see it.” —Reuters
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The US, in spite of disastrous consequences of its intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan and its NATO allies seem to have learnt no lessons. Apparently, they had no idea how fast and how uncontrollably the fragrance of Jamine Revolution will spread in the entire Arab world. Having supported the totalitarian regimes for decades, sensing the current mood of the masses in the Arab countries, they wish to take the moral high ground, claiming to be with the people in their aspirations for a participative government, if not full blown Western democracies.