Thursday, March 31, 2011
Dinesh Kamath's Editorials ("The past and present Hollywood' and other editorials) that appeared in Newsband
The past and present HollywoodThe world can never forget Elizabeth Taylor. She was the most glamorous person. She belonged to the topmost league of Hollywood actors. Between 1940 and 1970 Hollywood boasted of possessing extraordinary actresses and Elizabeth Taylor was one of those actresses. She could be loud. She could understate. She could be ironic, romantic or tragic. She looked great with sunglasses and pearls, parasols and cigarette holders. She had a style of her own. She was the favourite of all the film gossip columnists.
Elizabeth Taylor had terrific contemporaries. There was Katharine Hepburn whose cheekbones and intelligence became legend. There was Viven Leigh, famed for her pert beauty and a mouth that smiled sweetly while making tart remarks. Liz Taylor herself chose roles which were as gutsy as her looks. Then there was Audrey Hepburn whose charm was ethereal. There was Gracy Kelly who was another beauty. Marilyn Monroe was a blonde who broke the brunette hegemony.
All these ladies had looks as well as talents. Their careers took off with America's post-war boom. They had an extraordinary variety of roles, often based on novels, plays and legends. There was Leigh as Blanche DuBois in Tennessee William's disturbing work A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Taylor as Maggie in Williams's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Audrey Hepburn as the conflicted escort girl Holly Golightly in an adaptation of Truman Capote's novel Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Such scripts offered strong female parts, featuring heroines simultaneously calculating and charming, selfish and sweet, unsure and confident. Their style of acting endeared them to audiences. They were in demand. There were large studios making films which stoked their public personas and kept the box office buzzing.
Things changed in 1970s. Film business became like a corporate. The film makers couldn't tolerate eccentric stars and massive budgets. Scripts changed. America entered a phase of intensive warring, action movies exploded, placing the spotlight firmly on muscular male protagonists. The above divas were replaced by a bunch of fresh-faced younger actresses who played the roles of 'everyday' women you might pass in the street, not stop to stare at. The female protagonists were no more shown as calculating creatures, sizing up men over the rim of their cocktails, often ethically shaky. The heroines were now depicted as professionals or home-makers and they were pictures of goodness.
Thus there was a great difference between Hollywood during Liz Taylor's heydays and Hollywood as it is now.
English language is not the property of Indian Catholics
English language is the property of not all but few of the Catholics in the World. English language belongs to the British and Americans only. These two countries are the genuine owners of English language. But there are many Indian Catholics who pretend or rather fool the Indians into believing that English language is their property. In fact, there is hardly any Indian Catholic family whose mother tongue is English. Almost all the Catholic families in India have some Indian language other than English as their mother tongue. But English is certainly not their mother tongue. Probably only a negligible number of Anglo-Indian families existing in India can boast of possessing English language as their mother tongue.
English language was introduced to the Indians by the British when they had colonized India. There were many members of all the communities in India, whether they were Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsees, Sindhis or Catholics, who picked up the English language during the reign of British in India.
After the British left the shores of India, English continued to be taught to more and more Indians by not just the Indian Catholics but also by Anglicized Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Sindhis, Parsees, etc. There were foreign missionaries who established convent schools in many places in India. These missionaries employed in their schools both Catholics and non-Catholics English teachers to impart education in English to all the Indians whether they were Catholics or non-Catholics. These convent schools sprung up at places wherever there were churches. But in India, it was not just convent schools which were imparting English education. In fact, many non-Catholic anglicized Indians too built schools that imparted English education.
Today we find that side by side with convent schools there is a big number of non-convent English schools too flourishing in India. We find that English education is not just imparted by Catholics teachers but also by a huge number of non-Catholic teachers.
Hence this practice of associating English language with Indian Catholics should be stopped simply because it is not true that Indian Catholics are the owners of English language. They certainly are not. The anglicized people from all the Indian communities deserve the credit for borrowing English language from the British and spreading it to a huge number of Indians belonging to all the Indian communities.
It's tough to be a parent todayOne more child went through the macabre ritual of reaching up to attach a rope to a ceiling fan, tying a slip knot, putting her neck into it and kicking away the stool. How did the girl know the method of committing suicide and how did she gather the courage to do it?
Eleven year old Sayoni Chatterjee's suicide reminded many of Neha Sawant, also 11, and Sushant Patil, 12, who also had hanged themselves. The death of a young child is unbearable and you feel horrified when the death is by committing suicide. Then we get the news of a mother who gave the fatal push to her three year old daughter and six year old son. She pushed them out one by one from the 19th floor before taking the final leap herself. Horrible!
Shampa Chatterjee, the mother of Sayoni, had chanced upon her daughter's 'personal diary' heaving with her outpourings about a boy in her class, and did what many a similarly enraged parent would automatically do. She first confronted the child, and then marched off in high indignation to the school. A petrified Sayoni pleaded with her not to take the matter to the principal. But the mother was unmoved. She waited to see the headmistress, and when she returned home, she came upon the terrible sight.
You can't blame Sayoni's mother for this incident. She didn't overreact to the diary. It was natural for her to feel provoked. Any other parent too would have reacted in blind rage to a similar discovery. Mrs Chatterjee had displayed only the 'normal' paranoia you can sense in every mother of a young daughter today. She only meant to protect her daughter and prevent her from being treated in a similar manner again. Just her one protecting act turned out to be the cause of the death of her child.
Children today become mature at a very young age. It is high time all the parents became aware of this fact. Parents who take their children lightly might have to pay for it the way it happened with Shampa Chatterjee. This incident proves as to how tough it is to be a parent in today's world. It's not enough to just give birth to a child. You have to know the modern methods of childcare too.
Who cares for non-human deaths?We have a moral consensus on the essentially scandalous nature of death by accident or intent. We kill in order to defend country, community, even ideology. Suicide-bombers become breaking news and wars give birth to award-winning films. Evil makes man kill; the good in him makes prime time and high art out of it. Many of us are we voracious consumers of disaster stories, like the tragic one coming out of quake-hit Japan. Man's undoing at human hands or by nature's fury works as moral recompense for his own aggression. Of course, the victims of violence must necessarily be human to move us.
What about non-humans? Man however sheds non-human blood on a huge scale. In calamities, natural or manmade, non-human deaths are deemed a trifle unless at our economic cost. When tsunamis strike or cities are bombed, we assess depletion of 'livestock' or 'fish stocks'. Who cares that animals and birds also perish in floods and forest fires, zoo animals starve in war-ravaged towns, and marine life chokes in oil spills and fishing's overkill?
Violence against non-human species is global in scope, colossal in cruelty. Canada's seal hunts are brutal. Japan's slaughter of near-extinct whales, bluefin tuna and dolphins is horrible. Chinese bear bile, food and fur farms provoke outrage; so does "canned hunting" of captive lions and tigers from the US to South Africa. Dogfights are a blood sport in Mexico. Spain's conservative politicians want bullfighting declared world heritage. And everywhere, every year, billions of living beings perish in meat-producing plants, experimentation labs, aquaculture...The scandal sits easy on civilised consciences.
Hog factory sows are 'farmed' as breeding machines till they burn out. Mutilated lab chimps are caged entire lives. Salmon turn cannibals when bred in polluted, overcrowded ponds.
These slaughterhouses, labs, fur farms, etc, should be kept out of sight since civilized humans can't tolerate them. Thus silence reigns over the terrorization of non-human species everywhere on Earth.
We should learn from Japan Many are dead, injured or missing following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. But there is no information on damage to other life forms.
The pressure and force caused by tsunamis and earthquakes could destroy coral reefs, fish populations, mangroves and other aquatic life. Natural disasters could be devastating not just for people but also for non-humans. What happened in Japan ought to concern us. As human beings we are not divorced from the ecosystems in which we live. No human can survive without an ecosystem to cater to his needs.
One feels shocked to see the images of devastation and suffering streaming out of Japan. The damage in terms of human lives has been shocking. This was the worst earthquake in Japan's recorded history, followed by a tsunami originating close to Japanese shores that was even more devastating.
But the credit must go to successive Japanese administrations and to civil society itself for keeping the damage to a limit. The Japanese have drawn their lessons from the past disasters. They have the most sophisticated earthquake early warning systems to an extensive tsunami warning sensor network; from building codes that keep such exigencies in mind to thorough disaster management plans at every administrative level. Yet the scale of the tragedy is colossal and Japan badly needs the support of rest of the world. India too should help in whatever capacity it can.
India must also learn a lesson from Japan. The Indian subcontinent is prone to dangerous earthquakes with five having taken place in the past two decades. A survey indicates that a big part of the country is at some risk of experiencing an earthquake, and several major metropolitan centres fall in high-risk zones. The World Health Organisation has rated India's disaster preparedness fairly well, but there is a difference between adequate policies and effective implementation. For instance, very few institutions here offer any training in earthquake engineering or integrate it with civil engineering.
Development of better building codes, strict enforcement of existing ones, creation of disaster management plans and response bodies from the local level to the central, streamlining of the relevant administrative machinery with funding and jurisdiction clearly demarcated - these are all measures the government must take, and soon. A thorough safety audit must be conducted of Indian nuclear plants - to test whether they can withstand the severest possible earthquakes.
We have to take all these measures as a kind of precaution
Elizabeth Taylor had terrific contemporaries. There was Katharine Hepburn whose cheekbones and intelligence became legend. There was Viven Leigh, famed for her pert beauty and a mouth that smiled sweetly while making tart remarks. Liz Taylor herself chose roles which were as gutsy as her looks. Then there was Audrey Hepburn whose charm was ethereal. There was Gracy Kelly who was another beauty. Marilyn Monroe was a blonde who broke the brunette hegemony.
All these ladies had looks as well as talents. Their careers took off with America's post-war boom. They had an extraordinary variety of roles, often based on novels, plays and legends. There was Leigh as Blanche DuBois in Tennessee William's disturbing work A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Taylor as Maggie in Williams's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Audrey Hepburn as the conflicted escort girl Holly Golightly in an adaptation of Truman Capote's novel Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Such scripts offered strong female parts, featuring heroines simultaneously calculating and charming, selfish and sweet, unsure and confident. Their style of acting endeared them to audiences. They were in demand. There were large studios making films which stoked their public personas and kept the box office buzzing.
Things changed in 1970s. Film business became like a corporate. The film makers couldn't tolerate eccentric stars and massive budgets. Scripts changed. America entered a phase of intensive warring, action movies exploded, placing the spotlight firmly on muscular male protagonists. The above divas were replaced by a bunch of fresh-faced younger actresses who played the roles of 'everyday' women you might pass in the street, not stop to stare at. The female protagonists were no more shown as calculating creatures, sizing up men over the rim of their cocktails, often ethically shaky. The heroines were now depicted as professionals or home-makers and they were pictures of goodness.
Thus there was a great difference between Hollywood during Liz Taylor's heydays and Hollywood as it is now.
English language is not the property of Indian Catholics
English language is the property of not all but few of the Catholics in the World. English language belongs to the British and Americans only. These two countries are the genuine owners of English language. But there are many Indian Catholics who pretend or rather fool the Indians into believing that English language is their property. In fact, there is hardly any Indian Catholic family whose mother tongue is English. Almost all the Catholic families in India have some Indian language other than English as their mother tongue. But English is certainly not their mother tongue. Probably only a negligible number of Anglo-Indian families existing in India can boast of possessing English language as their mother tongue.
English language was introduced to the Indians by the British when they had colonized India. There were many members of all the communities in India, whether they were Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsees, Sindhis or Catholics, who picked up the English language during the reign of British in India.
After the British left the shores of India, English continued to be taught to more and more Indians by not just the Indian Catholics but also by Anglicized Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Sindhis, Parsees, etc. There were foreign missionaries who established convent schools in many places in India. These missionaries employed in their schools both Catholics and non-Catholics English teachers to impart education in English to all the Indians whether they were Catholics or non-Catholics. These convent schools sprung up at places wherever there were churches. But in India, it was not just convent schools which were imparting English education. In fact, many non-Catholic anglicized Indians too built schools that imparted English education.
Today we find that side by side with convent schools there is a big number of non-convent English schools too flourishing in India. We find that English education is not just imparted by Catholics teachers but also by a huge number of non-Catholic teachers.
Hence this practice of associating English language with Indian Catholics should be stopped simply because it is not true that Indian Catholics are the owners of English language. They certainly are not. The anglicized people from all the Indian communities deserve the credit for borrowing English language from the British and spreading it to a huge number of Indians belonging to all the Indian communities.
It's tough to be a parent todayOne more child went through the macabre ritual of reaching up to attach a rope to a ceiling fan, tying a slip knot, putting her neck into it and kicking away the stool. How did the girl know the method of committing suicide and how did she gather the courage to do it?
Eleven year old Sayoni Chatterjee's suicide reminded many of Neha Sawant, also 11, and Sushant Patil, 12, who also had hanged themselves. The death of a young child is unbearable and you feel horrified when the death is by committing suicide. Then we get the news of a mother who gave the fatal push to her three year old daughter and six year old son. She pushed them out one by one from the 19th floor before taking the final leap herself. Horrible!
Shampa Chatterjee, the mother of Sayoni, had chanced upon her daughter's 'personal diary' heaving with her outpourings about a boy in her class, and did what many a similarly enraged parent would automatically do. She first confronted the child, and then marched off in high indignation to the school. A petrified Sayoni pleaded with her not to take the matter to the principal. But the mother was unmoved. She waited to see the headmistress, and when she returned home, she came upon the terrible sight.
You can't blame Sayoni's mother for this incident. She didn't overreact to the diary. It was natural for her to feel provoked. Any other parent too would have reacted in blind rage to a similar discovery. Mrs Chatterjee had displayed only the 'normal' paranoia you can sense in every mother of a young daughter today. She only meant to protect her daughter and prevent her from being treated in a similar manner again. Just her one protecting act turned out to be the cause of the death of her child.
Children today become mature at a very young age. It is high time all the parents became aware of this fact. Parents who take their children lightly might have to pay for it the way it happened with Shampa Chatterjee. This incident proves as to how tough it is to be a parent in today's world. It's not enough to just give birth to a child. You have to know the modern methods of childcare too.
Who cares for non-human deaths?We have a moral consensus on the essentially scandalous nature of death by accident or intent. We kill in order to defend country, community, even ideology. Suicide-bombers become breaking news and wars give birth to award-winning films. Evil makes man kill; the good in him makes prime time and high art out of it. Many of us are we voracious consumers of disaster stories, like the tragic one coming out of quake-hit Japan. Man's undoing at human hands or by nature's fury works as moral recompense for his own aggression. Of course, the victims of violence must necessarily be human to move us.
What about non-humans? Man however sheds non-human blood on a huge scale. In calamities, natural or manmade, non-human deaths are deemed a trifle unless at our economic cost. When tsunamis strike or cities are bombed, we assess depletion of 'livestock' or 'fish stocks'. Who cares that animals and birds also perish in floods and forest fires, zoo animals starve in war-ravaged towns, and marine life chokes in oil spills and fishing's overkill?
Violence against non-human species is global in scope, colossal in cruelty. Canada's seal hunts are brutal. Japan's slaughter of near-extinct whales, bluefin tuna and dolphins is horrible. Chinese bear bile, food and fur farms provoke outrage; so does "canned hunting" of captive lions and tigers from the US to South Africa. Dogfights are a blood sport in Mexico. Spain's conservative politicians want bullfighting declared world heritage. And everywhere, every year, billions of living beings perish in meat-producing plants, experimentation labs, aquaculture...The scandal sits easy on civilised consciences.
Hog factory sows are 'farmed' as breeding machines till they burn out. Mutilated lab chimps are caged entire lives. Salmon turn cannibals when bred in polluted, overcrowded ponds.
These slaughterhouses, labs, fur farms, etc, should be kept out of sight since civilized humans can't tolerate them. Thus silence reigns over the terrorization of non-human species everywhere on Earth.
We should learn from Japan Many are dead, injured or missing following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. But there is no information on damage to other life forms.
The pressure and force caused by tsunamis and earthquakes could destroy coral reefs, fish populations, mangroves and other aquatic life. Natural disasters could be devastating not just for people but also for non-humans. What happened in Japan ought to concern us. As human beings we are not divorced from the ecosystems in which we live. No human can survive without an ecosystem to cater to his needs.
One feels shocked to see the images of devastation and suffering streaming out of Japan. The damage in terms of human lives has been shocking. This was the worst earthquake in Japan's recorded history, followed by a tsunami originating close to Japanese shores that was even more devastating.
But the credit must go to successive Japanese administrations and to civil society itself for keeping the damage to a limit. The Japanese have drawn their lessons from the past disasters. They have the most sophisticated earthquake early warning systems to an extensive tsunami warning sensor network; from building codes that keep such exigencies in mind to thorough disaster management plans at every administrative level. Yet the scale of the tragedy is colossal and Japan badly needs the support of rest of the world. India too should help in whatever capacity it can.
India must also learn a lesson from Japan. The Indian subcontinent is prone to dangerous earthquakes with five having taken place in the past two decades. A survey indicates that a big part of the country is at some risk of experiencing an earthquake, and several major metropolitan centres fall in high-risk zones. The World Health Organisation has rated India's disaster preparedness fairly well, but there is a difference between adequate policies and effective implementation. For instance, very few institutions here offer any training in earthquake engineering or integrate it with civil engineering.
Development of better building codes, strict enforcement of existing ones, creation of disaster management plans and response bodies from the local level to the central, streamlining of the relevant administrative machinery with funding and jurisdiction clearly demarcated - these are all measures the government must take, and soon. A thorough safety audit must be conducted of Indian nuclear plants - to test whether they can withstand the severest possible earthquakes.
We have to take all these measures as a kind of precaution
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Dinesh Kamath points out similarities between Bandra (West) and New Bombay
I find a lot of similarities between Navi Mumbai and Bandra (West), the place where I was born and grew up. Bandra (West) boasted of having a lot of convent schools. Navi Mumbai too has plenty of convent schools as well as non-convent English schools. Bandra (West) had plenty of beautiful females. Navi Mumbai too boasts of possessing a big number of beauties. That's the reason I feel at home in Navi Mumbai. Whenever I'm in Navi Mumbai I get the feeling that I'm in Bandra (West). Another similar thing about both Bandra(West) and Navi Mumbai is that at both the places sports like football, hockey etc. are given a lot of importance. Both the places have a big number of churches too which is the prime reason why there exists so many convent schools in these two places. So, you see, I find Bandra (West) and Navi Mumbai as if the two are one and the same. Both the places possess the same kind of glamour. It's great to see that Navi Mumbai encourages staging of fashion shows at many places from time to time. This will help in adding to the glamour of that place. But there is one thing that Bandra (West) has which Navi Mumbai doesn't possess. In Bandra (West) there are many film stars residing. Bandra (West) is a big part of Bollywood area which extends from Andheri to Bandra. I feel if a few film studios springs up in Navi Mumbai too, this city will attract many film personalities towards this place and they might even prefer to have their residences here. This move on the part of Navi Mumbai authorities will help convert Navi Mumbai into a totally glamorous place just like Bandra (West). Bye!
Friday, March 25, 2011
From Dinesh Kamath's stock of photographs
From Left to Right are Amit Kumar Srivastav, the Reporter of Newsband, Dinesh Kamath, Senior Sub Editor and currently Acting Editor of Newsband, Prakash Koshy (seated), Sub-Editor of Newsband, and standing behind is Ram Bhoir of Newsband, Aaple Nave Shahar and KD Construction Company Ltd. The photo was clicked by Chandrashekhar Hendve, Reporter of Newsband.
From Dinesh Kamath's stock of photographs
Seated is Dinesh Kamath, Senior Sub Editor and currently Acting Editor of Newsband. Standing behind him is Ram Bhoir, the employee of Newsband, Aaple Nave Shahar and KD Construction Company Ltd. The photo was clicked by Chandrashekhar Hendve, Reporter of Newsband.
From Dinesh Kamath's stock of photographs
Dinesh Kamath, Senior Sub-Editor and currently Acting Editor of Newsband, busy at work. The photo was clicked by Amit Kumar Srivastav, Reporter of Newsband.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Dinesh Kamath's editorials ('Indo-Pak peace will give boost to both our economies' and other editorials) that appeared in Newsband
Indo-Pak peace will give boost to both our economies
The first decade of the 21st century was a period that witnessed many ups and downs in the India-Pakistan relationship. The period between 1999 and 2002 witnessed a high level of tension between the two countries due to a number of developments Kargil in 1999, the inconclusive Agra Summit of 2001, and the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, resulting in the mobilisation of a million troops on the border. This ended in 2002, resulting in a thaw in the relationship, leading to former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee extending the "hand of friendship" to Pakistan. Pakistan responded by announcement of the ceasefire on the LoC which still holds.
Both countries had tried everything including wars and mobilisation of troops to force the other to accept its version of a Kashmir settlement. They failed in this. But the rising middle classes in both countries desired peace for continued growth.
This necessitated an alternative strategy for a solution of the Kashmir dispute which would satisfy the people of Kashmir, India and Pakistan.
The major features of the draft Kashmir agreement involved a gradual demilitarisation as the situation improved, self-governance and a joint mechanism involving Kashmiris from both sides as well as the presence of Pakistani and Indian representatives in some form or other. The purpose was to improve the comfort level of Kashmiris.
If you were to measure the level of progress made and the confidence generated between the two sides as a result of the peace process, you only had to look at the joint statement on the irreversibility of the peace process on 18 April, 2005 in New Delhi under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former President Pervez Musharraf.
. The concept of national security includes economic and political stability, and a settlement with India on honourable terms will strengthen Pakistan's national security.
While Musharraf may not be on the scene presently, national interest does not change radically over a period of two or three years.
Coming to the Mumbai terrorist attack, the best way to tackle this issue is to deny the terrorists the satisfaction of disrupting the peace process. Such types of attacks prove that there are extremist elements who do not wish India-Pakistan relations to be normalised.
India and Pakistan do wish to have friendly, cooperative and good neighbourly relations with one another. We are not destined to live as adversaries forever. The press and particularly the electronic media can play an important role in promoting peace The economic benefits that regional cooperation can bring to each other are tremendous. Hence, sooner we make peace with one another the better.
Libya badly needs the help of United Nations
United Nation's duty is to protect people against atrocity crimes. UN should today focus attention on Libya. The government here is failing in its sovereign duty and hence the people of this place need the help of international community.
At one stage Arab regimes were politically exhausted and morally bankrupt. It was the UN that provided the moral compass and intellectual leadership with the Arab Human Development Report, written mainly by Arabs themselves. Libya was also elected to the UN's main human rights watchdog.
A principle called Responsibility to Protect or R2P was formulated by UN under its secretary-general Kofi Annan. R2P was Annan's most precious achievements. UN applies R2P when the state itself is the perpetrator of atrocity crimes, when the security forces, meant to protect their people, are instead let loose in a killing spree by predatory ruler. This is the situation that Libya is facing. Not satisfied with 42 years of autocratic rule, the erratic Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is using deadly violence to crush and kill his people in open revolt against his brutal regime. He has vowed to fight to the last drop of his blood.
R2P provides the normative tool of choice and political cover to deal robustly, promptly and effectively with the threat that Gaddafi poses to his people. Doing so will also help both the UN and the West to cleanse their conscience of the stain of being passive spectators in some similar situations in the past.
R2P is narrow - it applies only to the four crimes of ethnic cleansing, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes - but deep: there are no limits to what can be done in responding to these atrocity crimes. Libya is the perfect opportunity to convert the noble sentiments and words of R2P into meaningful action through deeds.
The crisis in Libya has escalated to beyond the point of return. Calls for restraint are no longer enough. When Gaddafi says that the protesters deserve to die and his son - he who has cultivated an international image of moderation - warns of a river of blood, the world must meet the challenge, not duck it yet again. It is high time UN implemented R2P in Libya.
For Gaddafi's trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to be morally credible, it must be backed by criminal investigations of the foreign banks that have parked his ill-gotten gains in violation of global anti-corruption agreements, and public shaming of Africans who elected Libya to the Human Rights Council and westerners who armed his thugs.
Non-violent resistance can overcome dictatorship
The rebellion in Libya was a violent one and unlike the protesters in Tunisia or Egypt, those in Libya quickly gave up pursuing non-violent change and became an armed rebellion.
Which is more effective - violent or non-violent resistance? Research shows that non-violent resistance is much more likely to produce results, while violent resistance runs a greater risk of backfiring.
At Philippines, the regime of Ferdinand Marcos fell in 1986 owing to People Power movement, a non-violent pro-democracy campaign.
A surveyor found that between 1900 and 2006 over 50% of the non-violent movements succeeded, compared with about 25% of the violent insurgencies.
Why? Non-violent movements tend to draw a wider range of participants, which gives them more access to members of the regime, including security forces and economic elites, who often sympathise with or are even relatives of protesters.
Oppressive regimes need the loyalty of their personnel to carry out their orders. Violent resistance tends to reinforce that loyalty, while civil resistance undermines it. When security forces refuse orders to, say, fire on peaceful protesters, regimes must accommodate the opposition or give up power - precisely what happened in Egypt.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak tried hard to use armed thugs to try to provoke the Egyptian demonstrators into using violence, after which he could have rallied the military behind him. But he failed and that was the end of his regime.
But where Mubarak failed, Muammar Gaddafi succeeded. What began as a peaceful movement became, after a few days of brutal crackdown by his militiamen, an armed but disorganised rebel fighting force. These rebels are unlikely to succeed without direct foreign intervention.
If the other uprisings across the Middle East remain non-violent there are chances of democracy prevailing over there. That's because, with a few exceptions - most notably Iran - non-violent revolutions tend to lead to democracy.
According to a research, from 1900 to 2006, 35% to 40% of authoritarian regimes that faced major non-violent uprisings had become democracies. For the non-violent campaigns that succeeded, the figure increases to well over 50%.
The good guys don't always win, but their chances increase greatly when they play their cards well. It has been proved that non-violent resistance can overcome dictatorship.
We should learn from Japan Many are dead, injured or missing following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. But there is no information on damage to other life forms.
The pressure and force caused by tsunamis and earthquakes could destroy coral reefs, fish populations, mangroves and other aquatic life. Natural disasters could be devastating not just for people but also for non-humans. What happened in Japan ought to concern us. As human beings we are not divorced from the ecosystems in which we live. No human can survive without an ecosystem to cater to his needs.
One feels shocked to see the images of devastation and suffering streaming out of Japan. The damage in terms of human lives has been shocking. This was the worst earthquake in Japan's recorded history, followed by a tsunami originating close to Japanese shores that was even more devastating.
But the credit must go to successive Japanese administrations and to civil society itself for keeping the damage to a limit. The Japanese have drawn their lessons from the past disasters. They have the most sophisticated earthquake early warning systems to an extensive tsunami warning sensor network; from building codes that keep such exigencies in mind to thorough disaster management plans at every administrative level. Yet the scale of the tragedy is colossal and Japan badly needs the support of rest of the world. India too should help in whatever capacity it can.
India must also learn a lesson from Japan. The Indian subcontinent is prone to dangerous earthquakes with five having taken place in the past two decades. A survey indicates that a big part of the country is at some risk of experiencing an earthquake, and several major metropolitan centres fall in high-risk zones. The World Health Organisation has rated India's disaster preparedness fairly well, but there is a difference between adequate policies and effective implementation. For instance, very few institutions here offer any training in earthquake engineering or integrate it with civil engineering.
Development of better building codes, strict enforcement of existing ones, creation of disaster management plans and response bodies from the local level to the central, streamlining of the relevant administrative machinery with funding and jurisdiction clearly demarcated - these are all measures the government must take, and soon. A thorough safety audit must be conducted of Indian nuclear plants - to test whether they can withstand the severest possible earthquakes.
We have to take all these measures as a kind of precaution.
The first decade of the 21st century was a period that witnessed many ups and downs in the India-Pakistan relationship. The period between 1999 and 2002 witnessed a high level of tension between the two countries due to a number of developments Kargil in 1999, the inconclusive Agra Summit of 2001, and the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, resulting in the mobilisation of a million troops on the border. This ended in 2002, resulting in a thaw in the relationship, leading to former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee extending the "hand of friendship" to Pakistan. Pakistan responded by announcement of the ceasefire on the LoC which still holds.
Both countries had tried everything including wars and mobilisation of troops to force the other to accept its version of a Kashmir settlement. They failed in this. But the rising middle classes in both countries desired peace for continued growth.
This necessitated an alternative strategy for a solution of the Kashmir dispute which would satisfy the people of Kashmir, India and Pakistan.
The major features of the draft Kashmir agreement involved a gradual demilitarisation as the situation improved, self-governance and a joint mechanism involving Kashmiris from both sides as well as the presence of Pakistani and Indian representatives in some form or other. The purpose was to improve the comfort level of Kashmiris.
If you were to measure the level of progress made and the confidence generated between the two sides as a result of the peace process, you only had to look at the joint statement on the irreversibility of the peace process on 18 April, 2005 in New Delhi under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former President Pervez Musharraf.
. The concept of national security includes economic and political stability, and a settlement with India on honourable terms will strengthen Pakistan's national security.
While Musharraf may not be on the scene presently, national interest does not change radically over a period of two or three years.
Coming to the Mumbai terrorist attack, the best way to tackle this issue is to deny the terrorists the satisfaction of disrupting the peace process. Such types of attacks prove that there are extremist elements who do not wish India-Pakistan relations to be normalised.
India and Pakistan do wish to have friendly, cooperative and good neighbourly relations with one another. We are not destined to live as adversaries forever. The press and particularly the electronic media can play an important role in promoting peace The economic benefits that regional cooperation can bring to each other are tremendous. Hence, sooner we make peace with one another the better.
Libya badly needs the help of United Nations
United Nation's duty is to protect people against atrocity crimes. UN should today focus attention on Libya. The government here is failing in its sovereign duty and hence the people of this place need the help of international community.
At one stage Arab regimes were politically exhausted and morally bankrupt. It was the UN that provided the moral compass and intellectual leadership with the Arab Human Development Report, written mainly by Arabs themselves. Libya was also elected to the UN's main human rights watchdog.
A principle called Responsibility to Protect or R2P was formulated by UN under its secretary-general Kofi Annan. R2P was Annan's most precious achievements. UN applies R2P when the state itself is the perpetrator of atrocity crimes, when the security forces, meant to protect their people, are instead let loose in a killing spree by predatory ruler. This is the situation that Libya is facing. Not satisfied with 42 years of autocratic rule, the erratic Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is using deadly violence to crush and kill his people in open revolt against his brutal regime. He has vowed to fight to the last drop of his blood.
R2P provides the normative tool of choice and political cover to deal robustly, promptly and effectively with the threat that Gaddafi poses to his people. Doing so will also help both the UN and the West to cleanse their conscience of the stain of being passive spectators in some similar situations in the past.
R2P is narrow - it applies only to the four crimes of ethnic cleansing, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes - but deep: there are no limits to what can be done in responding to these atrocity crimes. Libya is the perfect opportunity to convert the noble sentiments and words of R2P into meaningful action through deeds.
The crisis in Libya has escalated to beyond the point of return. Calls for restraint are no longer enough. When Gaddafi says that the protesters deserve to die and his son - he who has cultivated an international image of moderation - warns of a river of blood, the world must meet the challenge, not duck it yet again. It is high time UN implemented R2P in Libya.
For Gaddafi's trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to be morally credible, it must be backed by criminal investigations of the foreign banks that have parked his ill-gotten gains in violation of global anti-corruption agreements, and public shaming of Africans who elected Libya to the Human Rights Council and westerners who armed his thugs.
Non-violent resistance can overcome dictatorship
The rebellion in Libya was a violent one and unlike the protesters in Tunisia or Egypt, those in Libya quickly gave up pursuing non-violent change and became an armed rebellion.
Which is more effective - violent or non-violent resistance? Research shows that non-violent resistance is much more likely to produce results, while violent resistance runs a greater risk of backfiring.
At Philippines, the regime of Ferdinand Marcos fell in 1986 owing to People Power movement, a non-violent pro-democracy campaign.
A surveyor found that between 1900 and 2006 over 50% of the non-violent movements succeeded, compared with about 25% of the violent insurgencies.
Why? Non-violent movements tend to draw a wider range of participants, which gives them more access to members of the regime, including security forces and economic elites, who often sympathise with or are even relatives of protesters.
Oppressive regimes need the loyalty of their personnel to carry out their orders. Violent resistance tends to reinforce that loyalty, while civil resistance undermines it. When security forces refuse orders to, say, fire on peaceful protesters, regimes must accommodate the opposition or give up power - precisely what happened in Egypt.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak tried hard to use armed thugs to try to provoke the Egyptian demonstrators into using violence, after which he could have rallied the military behind him. But he failed and that was the end of his regime.
But where Mubarak failed, Muammar Gaddafi succeeded. What began as a peaceful movement became, after a few days of brutal crackdown by his militiamen, an armed but disorganised rebel fighting force. These rebels are unlikely to succeed without direct foreign intervention.
If the other uprisings across the Middle East remain non-violent there are chances of democracy prevailing over there. That's because, with a few exceptions - most notably Iran - non-violent revolutions tend to lead to democracy.
According to a research, from 1900 to 2006, 35% to 40% of authoritarian regimes that faced major non-violent uprisings had become democracies. For the non-violent campaigns that succeeded, the figure increases to well over 50%.
The good guys don't always win, but their chances increase greatly when they play their cards well. It has been proved that non-violent resistance can overcome dictatorship.
We should learn from Japan Many are dead, injured or missing following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. But there is no information on damage to other life forms.
The pressure and force caused by tsunamis and earthquakes could destroy coral reefs, fish populations, mangroves and other aquatic life. Natural disasters could be devastating not just for people but also for non-humans. What happened in Japan ought to concern us. As human beings we are not divorced from the ecosystems in which we live. No human can survive without an ecosystem to cater to his needs.
One feels shocked to see the images of devastation and suffering streaming out of Japan. The damage in terms of human lives has been shocking. This was the worst earthquake in Japan's recorded history, followed by a tsunami originating close to Japanese shores that was even more devastating.
But the credit must go to successive Japanese administrations and to civil society itself for keeping the damage to a limit. The Japanese have drawn their lessons from the past disasters. They have the most sophisticated earthquake early warning systems to an extensive tsunami warning sensor network; from building codes that keep such exigencies in mind to thorough disaster management plans at every administrative level. Yet the scale of the tragedy is colossal and Japan badly needs the support of rest of the world. India too should help in whatever capacity it can.
India must also learn a lesson from Japan. The Indian subcontinent is prone to dangerous earthquakes with five having taken place in the past two decades. A survey indicates that a big part of the country is at some risk of experiencing an earthquake, and several major metropolitan centres fall in high-risk zones. The World Health Organisation has rated India's disaster preparedness fairly well, but there is a difference between adequate policies and effective implementation. For instance, very few institutions here offer any training in earthquake engineering or integrate it with civil engineering.
Development of better building codes, strict enforcement of existing ones, creation of disaster management plans and response bodies from the local level to the central, streamlining of the relevant administrative machinery with funding and jurisdiction clearly demarcated - these are all measures the government must take, and soon. A thorough safety audit must be conducted of Indian nuclear plants - to test whether they can withstand the severest possible earthquakes.
We have to take all these measures as a kind of precaution.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Dinesh Kamath's editorials (How liberal are we?) that appeared in Newsband
How liberal are we?
Pakistan's deepening troubles should make us think about the prospects of liberalism in our part of the world.
We in India can sit back and congratulate ourselves that we are not Pakistan, but the truth is that there are violent forces in India who are not above acting in the same way.
Events in the Arab world have fascinated us over the past several weeks, with Libya now taking centre stage. However, we cannot afford to lose sight of what is happening next door to us. It was the lawyers of Pakistan who had helped to bring down President Pervez Musharraf not so long ago and had been celebrated as liberal and progressive. Also there is considerable anger over the relationship with the United States. It is true that the US has not played its cards terribly well
Broadly speaking though, Pakistani liberalism, such as it is, is under enormous pressure. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, perhaps less so in Libya and the Gulf, indicate that there is a liberal-minded constituency powerful and able enough to come out into the streets in the service of freedom and moderation in social life. Can the same be expected in Pakistan? So far we have seen little or no sign that the Pakistani middle class and its liberal leadership will rally against extremism.
We in India have had our dark episodes like the anti-Sikh riots in 1984, the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation in the 1990s, the Staines killing in Orissa and the murderous attacks on Christians over the past decades. There are other reminders of how fragile things are: every so often, authors and filmmakers being berated by political parties and mobs because their works apparently 'offend' the sensibilities of one community or another. Inability of M F Husain to return to India with any guarantee of safety, the government's stand on the Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, attacks on Valentine's Day celebrations or on women who drink in Bangalore pubs prove that the record of Indian liberalism is an uneven one, and it is a brave person who would say that there will not be more outrages on individual and group freedoms in India in the years to come.
UDRS is better than human umpires
There are people both for and against the use of Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) in any cricket match.
Pakistan-Canada cricket match was a tense affair. It appeared as if Canada would win. But it was UDRS that brought about a fair result by overturning a number of wrong decisions made by the on field umpires.
UDRS has not gained acceptance as an integral part of the game although most of the countries are willing to use it. The board has given a chance to prove its worth by agreeing to use it in the World Cup. UDRS has made the best of this opportunity and proved its worth.
Those who are against the use of UDRS say that it is not perfect. But it's not logical to say that because a certain technology has a less than 100 percent success rate, it should not be employed at all. Although UDRS doesn't get it right every single time, it does cut down on the number of wrong decisions.
The other argument is that technology dilutes the purity of the game and that human errors are the part of cricket's charm. But it has been found that such systems reduce the scope for unfairness in the game. Ultimately, it is the players' skill and effort that will decide the final result.
It's true that the review system is not foolproof and this was evident in the India-England match. It was found that system is susceptible to controversies. It defies the principle of finality of umpires' decisions. The umpires feel that it is disastrous for them to abdicate their authority in favour of a machine. But umpires must display sportsman spirit and accept the superiority of the machine.
Another thing is technology can be erroneous. A lot depends on the proficiency of the person operating the review system. Umpiring decisions are not without human error either. Hence committing of minimum errors is part and parcel of cricket. The question is who commits less errors? It is definitely UDRS, and not human umpires, who commits less errors. Hence there is nothing wrong in using UDRS in a cricket match.
What's wrong with brain scan?
Two British criminologists have said brain scans can help reveal tendencies to be violent in children as young as four years. They feel youngsters could be treated to ensure violence doesn't become a character trait in adulthood.
But some people are against such brain scans. They believe that good parenting and caring social environments are key to human development. They say that the brain structures of psychopaths and criminals make them behave callously and unemotionally. They don't agree that character is biologically pre-determined. According to them to attribute everything to how we are made physically would render us no more than machines. Being human is much more, and personality is shaped through adolescence and beyond. Their questions are: Who's to guarantee interpreting brain scans won't be open to abuse? What is the criterion for 'abnormality'? There are badly behaved and aggressive children who turn out to be perfectly responsible members of society - and this, without the help of any special remedy. According to them science should be based on empirical fact.
.But there are people who support this idea of brain scanning and treating. According to them the British criminologists are right by saying that brain scans can help detect violent tendencies in children and treatment can arrest potential criminal conduct. That doesn't mean they disregard the role of care and conditioning in shaping individuals. It simply establishes an empirically verifiable link between brain make-up and anti-social behaviour. Studies over the last few decades have led researchers to conclude that there is a strong link between genetics and biological disorders. Behavioural genetics is a new field of study that maps genetic traits in connection with behavioural disorders. How is this any different from what the criminologists have suggested? Nobody is saying that certain individuals are born criminals. It is just that some people might carry biological traits that make them prone to violence. Since such traits can be detected early, the knowledge would surely help parents take precautionary measures such as counselling and redouble their efforts at creating the right kind of atmosphere for their wards.
Despite guidance, a child may grow up to be anti-social. Yet parents persevere in providing the best for their children. If a child's brain scan can help them do that, why should anyone object?
Pakistan's deepening troubles should make us think about the prospects of liberalism in our part of the world.
We in India can sit back and congratulate ourselves that we are not Pakistan, but the truth is that there are violent forces in India who are not above acting in the same way.
Events in the Arab world have fascinated us over the past several weeks, with Libya now taking centre stage. However, we cannot afford to lose sight of what is happening next door to us. It was the lawyers of Pakistan who had helped to bring down President Pervez Musharraf not so long ago and had been celebrated as liberal and progressive. Also there is considerable anger over the relationship with the United States. It is true that the US has not played its cards terribly well
Broadly speaking though, Pakistani liberalism, such as it is, is under enormous pressure. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, perhaps less so in Libya and the Gulf, indicate that there is a liberal-minded constituency powerful and able enough to come out into the streets in the service of freedom and moderation in social life. Can the same be expected in Pakistan? So far we have seen little or no sign that the Pakistani middle class and its liberal leadership will rally against extremism.
We in India have had our dark episodes like the anti-Sikh riots in 1984, the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation in the 1990s, the Staines killing in Orissa and the murderous attacks on Christians over the past decades. There are other reminders of how fragile things are: every so often, authors and filmmakers being berated by political parties and mobs because their works apparently 'offend' the sensibilities of one community or another. Inability of M F Husain to return to India with any guarantee of safety, the government's stand on the Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, attacks on Valentine's Day celebrations or on women who drink in Bangalore pubs prove that the record of Indian liberalism is an uneven one, and it is a brave person who would say that there will not be more outrages on individual and group freedoms in India in the years to come.
UDRS is better than human umpires
There are people both for and against the use of Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) in any cricket match.
Pakistan-Canada cricket match was a tense affair. It appeared as if Canada would win. But it was UDRS that brought about a fair result by overturning a number of wrong decisions made by the on field umpires.
UDRS has not gained acceptance as an integral part of the game although most of the countries are willing to use it. The board has given a chance to prove its worth by agreeing to use it in the World Cup. UDRS has made the best of this opportunity and proved its worth.
Those who are against the use of UDRS say that it is not perfect. But it's not logical to say that because a certain technology has a less than 100 percent success rate, it should not be employed at all. Although UDRS doesn't get it right every single time, it does cut down on the number of wrong decisions.
The other argument is that technology dilutes the purity of the game and that human errors are the part of cricket's charm. But it has been found that such systems reduce the scope for unfairness in the game. Ultimately, it is the players' skill and effort that will decide the final result.
It's true that the review system is not foolproof and this was evident in the India-England match. It was found that system is susceptible to controversies. It defies the principle of finality of umpires' decisions. The umpires feel that it is disastrous for them to abdicate their authority in favour of a machine. But umpires must display sportsman spirit and accept the superiority of the machine.
Another thing is technology can be erroneous. A lot depends on the proficiency of the person operating the review system. Umpiring decisions are not without human error either. Hence committing of minimum errors is part and parcel of cricket. The question is who commits less errors? It is definitely UDRS, and not human umpires, who commits less errors. Hence there is nothing wrong in using UDRS in a cricket match.
What's wrong with brain scan?
Two British criminologists have said brain scans can help reveal tendencies to be violent in children as young as four years. They feel youngsters could be treated to ensure violence doesn't become a character trait in adulthood.
But some people are against such brain scans. They believe that good parenting and caring social environments are key to human development. They say that the brain structures of psychopaths and criminals make them behave callously and unemotionally. They don't agree that character is biologically pre-determined. According to them to attribute everything to how we are made physically would render us no more than machines. Being human is much more, and personality is shaped through adolescence and beyond. Their questions are: Who's to guarantee interpreting brain scans won't be open to abuse? What is the criterion for 'abnormality'? There are badly behaved and aggressive children who turn out to be perfectly responsible members of society - and this, without the help of any special remedy. According to them science should be based on empirical fact.
.But there are people who support this idea of brain scanning and treating. According to them the British criminologists are right by saying that brain scans can help detect violent tendencies in children and treatment can arrest potential criminal conduct. That doesn't mean they disregard the role of care and conditioning in shaping individuals. It simply establishes an empirically verifiable link between brain make-up and anti-social behaviour. Studies over the last few decades have led researchers to conclude that there is a strong link between genetics and biological disorders. Behavioural genetics is a new field of study that maps genetic traits in connection with behavioural disorders. How is this any different from what the criminologists have suggested? Nobody is saying that certain individuals are born criminals. It is just that some people might carry biological traits that make them prone to violence. Since such traits can be detected early, the knowledge would surely help parents take precautionary measures such as counselling and redouble their efforts at creating the right kind of atmosphere for their wards.
Despite guidance, a child may grow up to be anti-social. Yet parents persevere in providing the best for their children. If a child's brain scan can help them do that, why should anyone object?
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Dinesh Kamath's editorial (Gandhian methods work in many places) that appeared in Newsband
Gandhian methods work in many placesWith almost the entire Arab world in turmoil and various non-Arab tyrants watching events in the Middle East warily, thoughtful people everywhere are trying to formulate answers to such questions. The debate is no longer so much between those who want violence and those who advocate a non-violent path. It revolves today around the idea of non-violent civil disobedience, its efficacy as a revolutionary tactic and whether it should have an expiry date. Inevitably, M K Gandhi's ideas figure prominently in the discussion.
The young revolutionaries of Egypt and Tunisia organised a tactically brilliant movement against a despot by using Twitter, Facebook and texting via mobile phones. They drew inspiration from many sources, including the tactics of Serbian youth who had mobilised against tyranny a decade ago by using the internet and the cell phone. Some reportedly drew ideas from an obscure, 83-year-old American academician, Gene Sharp, who has studied Gandhi closely and listed 198 methods of non-violence in his book, The Politics of Nonviolent Action.
It worked for them. But does non-violent civil disobedience work every time? Clearly not. It worked for Gandhi and the Indian nationalist movement even as it took decades to achieve its goal. It didn't work in Hungary in 1956, in Czechoslovakia in 1968, and in Tiananmen Square in 1989, where the authorities employed armed force to stifle the cry for democracy.
It worked in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s when, starting with Poland. Dictatorship after dictatorship collapsed after that
In short, there's no simple formula for revolutionary success through non-violent civil disobedience. What works in one society may not in another. But today it's increasingly apparent that non-violent resistance has acquired critical mass.
The young revolutionaries of Egypt and Tunisia organised a tactically brilliant movement against a despot by using Twitter, Facebook and texting via mobile phones. They drew inspiration from many sources, including the tactics of Serbian youth who had mobilised against tyranny a decade ago by using the internet and the cell phone. Some reportedly drew ideas from an obscure, 83-year-old American academician, Gene Sharp, who has studied Gandhi closely and listed 198 methods of non-violence in his book, The Politics of Nonviolent Action.
It worked for them. But does non-violent civil disobedience work every time? Clearly not. It worked for Gandhi and the Indian nationalist movement even as it took decades to achieve its goal. It didn't work in Hungary in 1956, in Czechoslovakia in 1968, and in Tiananmen Square in 1989, where the authorities employed armed force to stifle the cry for democracy.
It worked in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s when, starting with Poland. Dictatorship after dictatorship collapsed after that
In short, there's no simple formula for revolutionary success through non-violent civil disobedience. What works in one society may not in another. But today it's increasingly apparent that non-violent resistance has acquired critical mass.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Dinesh Kamath with Mayor of New Bombay Sagar Naik
Dinesh Kamath (extreme left), Acting Editor of Newsband, in the company of Sagar Naik, Mayor of New Bombay, and Navi Mumbai's Prabhakar Patil (extreme right) who won the NMMC Kshetra Shree title during the Navi Mumbai Mahapaur Shree Body Building Contest held at Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium at Vashi in Navi Mumbai. The photograph was clicked by Ashok Dhamija, Photo Journalist of Newsband.
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