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Will Pak polls be fair?
Songs of vulgarity
Testing ethics |
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How growth is hit by health
Face to face with Sobha Singh
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Will Pak polls be fair? Pakistan Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin Ibrahim has come out with a startling revelation that the coming general election will be held under the supervision of the army.
The army is going to play this role ostensibly with a view to ensuring that the polls are free and fair. Ibrahim is of the view that the law and order situation in different parts of Pakistan is so terrifying that only the army can make the holding of the elections possible. Hence the programme to deploy armed soldiers at all the polling stations till the votes are counted and results declared. How impartial will be the role of the army can be understood from the fact that the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, has assured the Election Commission of all kinds of help so that “the polls are a free and fair exercise”. Such assurances by the Pakistan army are not given without any purpose. The army must have decided to play the supervisory role with a specific political objective. The army chief is known for his political favourites. If he has soft corners for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif heading the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and cricketer-turned-politician and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party chief Imran Khan, he has strong dislikes for President Asif Zardari, whose son Bilawal has taken over as the PPP chief. The PPP appears to be a clear loser under the circumstances. The elections, which will be held in April or May, may also see the emergence of the extremist forces as king-makers. Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif already have the reputation of being close to the extremists like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. If any of the two succeeds in capturing power, the extremists would be the happiest people in Pakistan. But such a scenario may pose a new threat to peace and security in the region and beyond. How the world reacts to it will be interesting to watch.
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Songs of vulgarity
When
an artist paints a nude picture, it is art; the same body contours can be used to create pornographic content. It is a thin line that divides adult entertainment from vulgarity and obscenity. Cultural values change with the passage of time. What was once unacceptable has become a norm within decades. Celebrating sexuality is not alien to an ancient culture like ours in different art forms. While folk arts have celebrated the same content in their bawdiness, classical forms have veiled them with subtlety. Singers like Honey Singh and Jazzy B, accused of polluting the cultural space, are the products of a new entertainment industry which finds no reference in the past. They are not bound by the contracts of a studio system which used to be managed by certain guidelines leading to the selection of lyricists and music producers with care. These musicians are the products of the free download era, where what defines success is the number of hits, and not the quality of music produced. Absurd dances and songs like PSY’s “Gangnam” or “Kolaveri D” created new parameters of success in the entertainment industry when they went viral, despite their total disregard for what is known as art. This may annoy the purists, but this is a reality today. The demand for a legal framework to prevent vulgar content from finding mention in the songs and videos in Punjab has its own logical ground. Cultural pollution is a matter of concern for all, but censors and bans have only complicated cultural issues in the past. Once the culture of censorship sets in, then it will become a never-ending road for a democracy like ours. Someone will always get hurt by something or the other. Cultural issues are not mathematics. Where would one draw the departure point, from where one could be sure of the starting point of vulgarity? Self- censorship is the only way to meet contemporary social needs as well as ensuring a longer stint on the cultural space.
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Testing ethics What one would expect to be a highly monitored activity — trial of new pharmaceutical drugs — actually has nearly no supervision. Ever since India eased norms governing such trials in 2005, the country has become a major laboratory for the world’s drug companies looking for experiments on the cheap.
The Supreme Court has now directed the
Union Health Ministry to directly monitor the trials, and not let the
Directorate-General of Health Services do it independently. In its
ruling the court also observed multinational drug companies were using
unsuspecting patients as ‘guinea pigs’. The scathing remark may not be out of place, for most of the patients subjected to experimental drugs are poor and illiterate. Already distressed from the disease, they are often misled into believing that they are being given expensive drugs. As they do not have comprehension of what an experiment is, consent taken from them has little meaning. What is worse, the laws provide no definite direction on compensation to be provided for any harm a patient may come to. Autopsies are rarely conducted to establish whether a trial drug caused a death, so in most cases no compensation is paid. Availability of a vast base of poor patients and possibility of convenient closure of cases of death makes it cheap for drug companies to conduct their trials in India, which they often outsource to local agencies. This arrangement also makes it difficult to establish liability in cases of cheating or compensation. The
defence for allowing drug trials is that there would be no development
in medicine without these. That is a valid argument, but it cannot be
reason to allow unsupervised trials to be conducted by agencies that
have no reputation to keep up. Even the reliability of the conclusions
of such trials would be suspect. There have to be proper records and
medical progress data on all patients participating in trials, which
should be monitored by independent agencies. At present, the
government does not even have the infrastructure required to bear this
responsibility. The balance in the medical knowledge versus
informed-right-to-life debate has to be in favour of the latter.
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Every noble work is at first impossible.—Thomas Carlyle
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How growth is hit by health The
health of the nation is best indicated by the health of the people. India is well known for its distressing record on health promises despite the fact that it is among the largest producers of doctors, nurses and technicians in the world. Though life expectancy has increased, other indicators of a healthy population have not improved substantially like infant and child mortality, maternal morbidity and malnourishment. It’s a dismal picture. According to the State of World's Mother, 2012, India's performance in maternal and child health care remains the worst among the less developed countries and even lower than Bangladesh and Nepal. The supply of health care services falls short of demand, and the existing health care mechanisms are inefficient and insufficient to meet the growing needs of the people. If we look at the physician density for every 10,000 Indians, there are only six doctors in India compared to 20 in China, 249 in Australia, 166 in the UK and 548 in the US. Why are our basic health indicators worse than those in the poorer nations? Our civil administration is organised in a way that it is not performance-based but is more seniority-based. Also, the issue of IPL catches the public imagination more fervently than health issues. In this globalised environment it must be recognised that health indicators are integral to economic growth. The impact of poor health on productivity can be seen in the age group of 35-64 years. It is a matter of major concern. Also, illness and health constitute an important reason for debt that translates into poverty. A study of three states highlighted what happens when illness strikes. It leads to health care expenses going up. This usually means a higher level of care that becomes less and less affordable, leading to debt. It is assumed that death causes change in the economic base of the family and has an inter-generational impact only when it is of an able and earning male member of the household. There is anecdotal evidence that this is not necessarily so. The death of one’s wife or daughter involves a whole range of change in the household activity; the death of a child too has secondary repercussions on household behaviour. According to the National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, illness and lack of health care facilities are major contributors to the impoverishment of around 5 per cent of the country's population every year. The government allocated for the NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) scheme around Rs 20, 822 crore in the 2011-12 budget. Also, various schemes such as the Integrated Child Development Scheme have delivered only on paper. As quoted by a former US President, Ronald Reagan, “Government is like a baby, an alimentary canal with a big appetite at the one hand and no sense of responsibility on the other.” Thus, spending on health care does not translate into the delivery of health services to the people because the political system is incapable of holding defaulting service providers to account. Moreover, spending more money is not the answer; low-cost solutions that involve local governments, and focus on basic sanitation, access to potable water and basic health care combined with strong monitoring and evaluation systems are important. These achieve larger gains when they address the causes rather than the treatment of diseases. Focusing on health care is a game changer. The main reason why organisations fail to invest in health is that it is often difficult to quantify the return. Given that employees spend about a quarter of their time in the organisations where they work, investment in health could help them stay healthy and cut their own costs in the process. There is a need to provide healthy nutritious options in cafeterias and canteens of offices. Make the workforce smoke-free. Encourage them to do exercise by offering employees free use of a fitness centre. Offer on-site health education and screening for conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Share with the employees who take care of themselves some of the savings they generate. Design health care programmes with a component that reaches the employees’ immediate families. When employees are healthy, business organisations have decreasing health care costs. In India, health care delivery is a mammoth task. Health for all has not been achieved so far. A more innovative plan would be to ask leading corporate houses to adopt a certain region, say a few villages, in each state and take care of health and other needs of the population there. The corporate houses can be given adequate tax incentives to set up health centres there. An SEZ (special economic zone) for medical care facilities would certainly be a worthwhile proposition, liberated from outdated rules, with an easy import of the equipment, high quality support infrastructure and appropriate fiscal incentives. Advances in IT are now making tele-medicines increasingly feasible. It is a low-cost solution to health care problems in a village to collect and transmit details about a number of vital parameters so that a doctor or a specialist in a distant urban centre can diagnose the problem and advise treatment. This cannot only transform into a high quality medical care in rural areas at a low cost, but also can be used in any situation where remote diagnosis and advice are required. The government should realise that the concentration on a few isolated health centres of excellence no longer makes sense. They worked in a newly independent India when resources were scarce and had to be rationed. But the way the economy has been growing over the past few years has rendered that model both vulnerable and undemocratic. The point here is not only to build new institutions but also reform the existing ones. The government has to increase its resources for improving the public health care system for meeting the needs of the people. With the government planning a series of ambitious health care programmes, there is no denying the fact that resource availability may not be a big constraint if resources are freed from unproductive
avenues. The writer is a senior professor at the University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh. |
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Face to face with Sobha Singh Witnessing in Chandigarh a recent exhibition, showcasing the original paintings of the icon of the art world, Sardar Sobha Singh, aka Darji, was like a trip to his Art Gallery in Himachal Pradesh. On the screen, vividly exposed to my inward eye, came alive what conspired between Darji and me at our first meeting. I, a college student during the mid-seventies, happened to meet this great artist and versatile genius at Andretta in Kangra district. As soon as I was ushered in his Art Gallery, awe and strong vibrations overwhelmed me. In fact, before this, while entering the gallery premises I was simply carried away with the sanctity and serenity of the environment. Darji’s residence gave the impression of an ‘ashram’. I was offered the privilege of sitting with the legendary figure, who was a good host as well. He responded to my naive questions on his art, inspiration, life, etc, in a very gentle and straightforward manner. I was impressed so much that an idea of circumambulating the sage artist kept on lurking in my mind till the end of our one-to-one meeting. Still in my psyche, well enshrined, is a piece of advice Darji, out of sheer generosity of heart, gave at that time. During my subsequent short sojourn at the Andretta gallery, it came to me that Sobha Singh would appear from some corner of his residence and start a conversation. Despite this not happening, he will be ever present in the cherished memories of art lovers. By organising the exhibition of original paintings and photographs (by Harbhajan Bajwa) of the legendary artist, the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi won accolades from both the artists and art lovers. The exhibits, the paintings and the photographs were brought all the way from Andretta by Gurcharan Kaur and Hirdya Pal Singh, S. Sobha Singh’s daughter and grandson, respectively. A conversation with some of the visiting artists revealed their appreciation for Akademi honchos for paying a befitting tribute to S. Sobha Singh by rechristening the art gallery after this great painter. Sobha Singh’s art is definitely an inspiration to the artist fraternity, but his deeds and actions might guide the non-artists as well. Having born in the Gurdaspur area of Punjab and served in the Army, Darji moved to Andretta, rightly called the Kala Gram, to continue his artistic pursuit. The village abounds in natural beauty, which finds a divine touch in Darji’s arts. He is also credited with creating an aura of spiritual excellence by portraying Sikh Gurus, saints and lovers alike. Not only in his works but in his life too, he did radiate human mystic and a divine magic. The much respected artist was blessed with great spiritual sense and love for beauty. Sobha Singh undertook a deep and strenuous study of Gurus’ life before creating their portraits. By virtue of this, he was able to present and set a standard of Gurus’ appearance. He, along with the theatre matriarch, Norah Richards, lent a new identity to Andretta as the Mecca of artists and art connoisseurs alike. As inquisitive as I was, Darji opened up to my queries with utmost sincerity during our first chit-chat. He averred, “A few moments or hours are not enough to correctly judge an individual. You spare some more time, come and stay with my family and watch each and every action and moment of my life. Only then will you be able to really know Sobha Singh well.” I could not accept his invitation but was able to extract from him a valuable piece of advice that could serve as a practical mantra to scan anybody’s real
self.
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CINEMA: NEW Releases
It’s impossible to miss
Not
to be confused with Mission : Impossible, a man-made disaster with Tom Cruise calling the shots. The Impossible is all about nature’s fury, the tsunami of 2004 to be precise. And the efforts of a family of five to combat its unimaginable fury with Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona of The Orphanage fame, getting the viewer to live every moment of this absorbing drama. Henry (Ewan McGregor) and Maria (Naomi Watts) and their three boys leave for Thailand on Christmas Eve as part of their initiation with the Orient. Being American they want to see how the other half of the world lives. It is all new for them, the lazy pace, a swimming pool to freak in and land to discover. Cut to medical camps set up to deal with the disaster. The holidayers are looking for their missing family members and here Lucas, as the instance of Maria, helps in tracing family members. After a while Henry appears on the scene looking for Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pandergast) as survivours are being taken to the mountains. While helping to trace missing family members Lucas loses sight of his mother who has been taken in for surgery. Meanwhile, director Bayona catches little incidents like how fellow sufferers go out of their away to lend their mobiles whereas others show their selfish selves. The elderly woman shows a child the stars while another is forced to reveal her 70ish age in contrast to a seven-year-old. Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of Charlie Chaplin, has a wee cameo that can be missed in the blink of an eye. If one can fault the action it is a tad melodramatic but then in a tragedy of such a magnitude it is forgivable. Less should be more but that’s more easily said than done. But the disaster handling is ably shot by cinematographer Osam Faura who often resorts to aerial shots. Naomi Watts does well in the little she has to do but most of the time she is a patient. Ewan McGregor is very credible while underplaying his role.
Tom Holland is excellent as the eldest boy who goes through a whole gamut of emotions
while the younger two are just about academic. Depressing it is no doubt, but it is a candid depiction of nature’s devastation and surely craves for attention. Don’t miss it.
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Train with no pace
Here, he played solo, no doubles or mixed-doubles. The game finished in about two hours and forty-five minutes. The serves were okay though not commendable, no advantage set; good try with the backhand…for the first few minutes, you have to remind yourself a number of times that this isn’t the Davis Cup that you are watching! And this isn’t the Leander Paes that you have seen on the court, this is the Leander Peas who makes his Bollywood debut with the movie Rajdhani Express. You heard it right, a tennis player and yes not Mahesh Bhupati makes his Bollywood debut. Rajdhani Express, directed by Ashok Kohli, was ideally made to run on a supersonic track; it just took another ‘Paes’. Now begins the action, unzipping mystery, a twist here a turn there...all without any purpose; all without ‘pace’. Some people are born to some things in life and some people are not—Paes you are a brilliant tennis player and you will remain one. A good try with some off-hand expressions, but as we said you are a brilliant tennis player. As for the rest of them sharing his compartment, they have all the right to work in movies but if they are prepared for the match. Exaggerated, over-the-top dialogues, and useless over-stretched scenes delay Rajdhani’s arrival on time. Meanwhile, there are others who hop on to this ‘hardly-going-anywhere’ train. Sayali Bhagat, Jimmy Sheirgill, Gulshan Grover, the chaste Hindi speaking ticket collector come and go, leaving us with the desire to pull the chain mid-way! Had it not been for Jimmy Sheirgill you wouldn’t want to complete the rest of the journey. The movie gets slightly interesting towards the end, a similar feeling that you get when something arduous is ending. Let’s say it would have been a brilliant game had Ashok Kohli taken all his players for a walk on the court—some warming up exercises could have done the needful.
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One for the record
So, karate-kung-fu champ Jackie Chan in his mid-60s is still at it and in CZ12, spelt out as Chinese Zodiac 12 is believed to have entered Guinness for two reasons, most stunts by an artiste and most credits 15, overtaking Robert De Niro’s 11 in Raging Bull. As far as the story goes it is set in the Old Summer Palace of the 1700s and the British have stolen the bronze heads of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Hence JC along with Actually CZ12 is supposed to be a pseudo reboot of the two earlier Armour of God films (one can even deign to call it a trilogy). They say he is slowing down but there is little evidence of that. And he has a big following still. So who are we to beg to differ? |
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Star movies 1:35PM The Karate Kid is a 2010 American martial arts drama film and remake of the 1984 film of the same name. Directed by Harald Zwart, produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, the film stars Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. The plot concerns a 12-year-old boy from Detroit who moves to Beijing, China with his mother and runs afoul of the neighborhood bully. ZEE CINEMA 07:15 Ilaaka 10:05 Viewers Choice 13:35 Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani 17:00 Hindustani Yodha 20:00 Sholay STAR GOLD 08:15 Sapoot 11:15 Chup Chup Ke 14:55 Yamraj Ek Faulad 17:50 Taqdeerwala 21:00 Ek Tha Soldier SET MAX 07:15 Kaalia 11:00 Lok Parlok 14:10 Khudgarz 17:45 Mission to Finish Terror 21:00 Meri Jung: One Man Army STAR MOVIES 06:51 Gulliver's Travels 08:35 The Front Row with Anupama Chopra 9:05 Men in Black 11:21 Limitless 13:35 The Karate Kid 16:06 Jaws 18:44 Fast & Furious 21:00 The Darkest Hour 23:00 Spider Man 2 SONY PIX 07:10 Redline 08:48 The Nutcracker 10:42 John Rambo 12:25 Hancock 14:10 American Pie 15:35 The Fan 17:23 Mr. Deeds 19:09 Sniper: Reloaded 20:59 Spider-Man 23:27 A Few Good Men HBO 09:30 Spy Kids 11:30 Daylight 13:50 Kung Fu Panda 2 15:35 The Last Airbender 17:30 Disaster Movie 19:00 The Change-Up 21:00 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 23:40 Thor MOVIE NOW 09:15 Body of Lies 11:45 Son of the Mask 13:45 Batman 16:30 Austin Powers in Goldmember 18:30 Speed 21:00 Snakes on a Plane 23:15 Jurassic Park
Set max 2:00PM Veer-Zaara is a 2004 Indian romantic drama musical film directed by Yash Chopra under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film stars Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji in the leading roles, with Manoj Bajpai, Kirron Kher, Divya Dutta and Anupam Kher in supporting roles. Veteran actors Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini make special appearances in the film. ZEE CINEMA 7:15AM Nagin Ka Inteqam 10:10AM Jungle: The Battleground 1:40PM Mard 5:30PM Hum Saath Saath Hain 9:00PM Nayak STAR GOLD 9:30AM Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi! 12:15PM Yeh Hai Jalwa 2:45PM The Hero: Love Story of a Spy 6:45PM Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi 9:00PM Vidhwanshak: The Destroyer SET MAX 7:00AM Namak Halal 11:00AM Partner 2:00PM Veer-Zaara 5:00PM Munnabhai M.B.B.S. 9:00PM Koi... Mil Gaya STAR MOVIES 7:30AM Jaws 2 10:05AM The Kingdom 12:35PM The Darkest Hour 2:06PM Project A 4:26PM The X-Men 6:37PM The Fast and the Furious 9:00PM King Kong HBO 8:10AM Speedy Singhs 10:10AM Yogi Bear 11:40AM Sahara 2:00PM Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 4:15PM Thor 6:30PM The Twilight Saga: New Moon 9:00PM The Twilight Saga: Eclipse 11:45PM Ong Bak 2
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But as they are lapping up the vacation and a day after Christmas, disaster of immense magnitude, the tsunami strikes, trees crash like matchwood, tidal waves engulf the shore for miles and miles, animals are killed and humans washed away. Maria and the eldest boy Lucas (Tom Holland) are somehow together, with the mother badly injured, a deep gash which needs immediate attention. The whereabouts of the rest of the family are unknown.
We will return to the court later, for now it is the plot, which if executed properly could have made for an interesting watch. A man on the run boards the train (It has to be Rajdhani. We thank the director for not putting us through the hell of guessing the name of the train). He meets an assortment of characters in a compartment - Priyanshu Chatterjee, a Bengali script-writer, Bollywood fashion designer, Sudhanshu Pandey (C’mon you know him. He was last seen in…. last seen in…), and a Bollywood item girl Puja Bose. 
his henchmen Simon (Kwon Seng-woo) and David (Leao Fan)
embark on their mission “Quite Possible” and our stuntman par excellence Jackie Chan goes about like a Chinese version of Speedy Gonzales doing what he does best, beginning with jetting on the highway on wheels beneath speeding vehicles et al ably captured at dizzy heights. 
The Karate Kid 
Veer-zaara