Copenhagen Talks End With Agreement, But No Binding Deal - AlterNet

Environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben of 350.org voiced his disapproval. (and) summarized what Obama accomplished:

He formed a league of super-polluters, and would-be super-polluters. China, the U.S., and India don't want anyone controlling their use of coal in any meaningful way.

(via Copenhagen Talks End With Agreement, But No Binding Deal: So, How Screwed Are We? | Environment | AlterNet).

QED

On Aug 14, 2009, a Quicktake post wondered if this entire climate change and global warming had something to do with coal-fired power plants.

Bill McKibben's peeve does prove that this is indeed the case.

Now, coal is the cheapest way to generate electricity. Looking at the shortfall in electricity, and Indian consumers' ability to pay, coal is the answer.

To low costs, add the fact that India has coal reserves that will last for the next 100 years - at least. But, coal-generated electricity, will also makes India industrially competitive.

And we don't want that, do we? Right, Billy Boy!

Inside Indian bedrooms

60years ago, an assault was made by foreign ‘observers’ into Indian bedrooms. Foreign ‘observers’

1. Tied ‘development aid’ to India’s population control.


2. Trained Indian ‘health workers’ to control India’s human reproductive behaviour.


3. Paid for by Western Governments, soon after that, we had ‘health workers’ fanning out across the Indian country-side, conducting vasectomies /tubectomies on India’s (especially poor) population.

It did not matter then, who the ‘observers’ were – foreign or Indian. Neither does it matter now. What matters is someone’s monitoring. And I don’t like that at all.

Even if the monitors have brown skins (my liking for brown skin notwithstanding). Even if it comes with a recommendation from Nobel prize winner, Amartya Sen. How Indian power producers generate electricity is our business.

Getting a handle on the Indian economy is the second and related part of the agenda.

An agenda, I don't like.

All that nice, fresh, white newsprint ...

Wasted!

Just the amount of newsprint that has been devoted to climate change and global warming must have raised temperatures (going by the 'warmers' calculations and estimates) enough to make this debate of questionable value. To that add, the amount of gimmickry and media overdrive (through slick PR) that raises many doubts and questions.

Hush, boy! Do not even mention 'scientific manipulation'.

Just look at the record.

The most prominent and vocal votary of Climate Change was Al Gore - who was promptly awarded the Nobel Prize. The recruitment of Maldives and the positioning of President Mohammed Nasheed was again a very slick operation. The underwater Maldives cabinet meeting had a interesting story.

Maldivian officials said the idea to hold the attention-grabbing underwater cabinet meeting came from President Mohamed Nasheed when he was asked by an activist group to support its “environmental day” action on October 24.

“The 350.org group asked if the Maldives can hold an underwater banner supporting environmental day,” an official from the president’s office said.

“The president thought for a while and then came up with the idea to have an underwater cabinet meeting.” (via Maldives cabinet rehearses underwater meeting).

Propping up Maldives as ‘fifth’ column was done over the last more than 20 years. Based on excellent PR and media management skills, the Maldives was the trojan horse loosed on the G77+Basic grouping.

350.org is rather well armed on the PR front – with a specific agency for South Asia itself. The PR agency for the Maldives Travel and Tourism Authority McCluskey International does seem to either bask in reflected glory – or is hinting at the authorship of this stunt. The Maldives climate change campaign seems to be headquarted in Britain also.

Been there and done that

The hallmark of the Maldives’ climate change campaign has been it slick PR. Dramatic statements, intriguing sound bites, the Maldives’ campaign was beyond the common bureaucratic ‘creature’ – much less a Maldives’ bureaucrat. This is consistent and in line with Al Gore’s media and public relations management – which won the PR agency, the campaign of the year award. And Al Gore the Nobel Prize.

All this is much like, how from the early 1950’s to the late eighties, the Western world created hysteria regarding ‘population explosion’ in India and China. Enormous pressures were brought onto the Chinese and Indian Governments to ‘control’ their populations.

Same game, different name! Doesn't wash. Just like last time.

Related Posts

• Climate change – How India is falling for propaganda


• Climate Change at Copenhagen – Britain mounts a Trojan operation


• Indian cows were blamed for global warming!


• US Euro Clubs hobble Third Wold


• Climate head steps down over e-mail leak


• NASSCOM wakes after 15 months


• PR Stunts – The Maldives underwater meeting

Will China go the Japan way …

During Obama’s visit, China secured everything it wanted – the political dividends of funding $800 billion debt to an ailing US economy. Having locked the US into economic inter-dependence, it also used American vulnerability to legitimise a much larger role for itself. Hitherto China was the greatest champion of “national sovereignty” which it deftly contrasted to the West's intrusiveness. The seemingly innocuous reference to India and Pakistan marks a new willingness to step into an emerging void. China is not going to flex its muscles in a hurry. It has set the markers for a new, global architecture of power that will follow its inevitable emergence as the world’s biggest economy. India has reason to worry. (via China has tamed India with help from Obama – The Times Of India).

The US strategy

Most ‘future-of-China’ debates are incomplete as they miss a very important element - the American template for co-opting client states. Let us call this as US-Client-Acquisition Programme (USCAP). The outcome and China’s economic future is tied to access to US markets, capital, technology, businesses – very closely.

The US has successfully executed US-Client-Acquisition-Programme (USCAP) a most out-sized ‘conquest’ in history. By using these economic levers, it has successfully created client states across Europe, SE Asia, Japan, etc. Some economies have taken the bait, used US incentives and become ‘successful’ client states.

Some prospective clients states have fallen by the wayside. South American failures, the Middle East, Pakistan, post-Gorbachev Russian reluctance have been signal failures of American recruitment.

The strategy has 5 five corner-stones: -

1. High dollar value – vis-a-vis the client state currency.
2. Export led growth
3. US multinational corporate investments
4. US soft-power is allowed unimpeded run (Hollywood, Rock & Roll, Coca Cola, McDonalds, etc.)
5. US enemies are the enemies of the client states

The most ambitious target and the biggest challenge in the execution of this strategy is China. But before we examine China, we need to see the US pattern of recruitment and involvement.

In the aftermath of the WW2

After nearly 6 years of WW2, Europe was prostate, more than 25 million killed (including the Holocaust). European economies were shattered. 10 years after WW2, Europe lost most of its colonies. In the midst of this, the US stepped in with the Marshall Plan and IBRD. Most European currencies were set on at a low exchange rate, exports to the USA were boosted, and Europe made a comeback.

In return for US aid, Europe agreed to be a junior partner in the NATO alliance. Unlike most overlords and masters of the past, under the USCAP allowed significant leeway to their European client states in matters of culture, language, political, economic and religious freedom. The US yoke around the European necks was never too heavy or irksome. Mostly.

Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands made a brilliant recovery. The only laggard was Britain – living on past glory and trying to unwind the past, at the same time. As European economies stabilized, the US ‘allowed’ European currencies to appreciate against the dollar, triggering 25 years of economic stagnation in Europe.

The end of the Japanese miracle

As European success stabilized, US turned its attention to Japan. The Japanese star started ascending in the 70s. From the 80s, right upto the 90’s, the business and economic world were agog with the coming of the Japanese. The ‘Japan-MITI-keiretsu-Quality management system’ combination seemed unstoppable. The world waited with bated breath for the Japan to rail-road everyone else. Every businessman, first tried to learn Japanese etiquette.

Hollywood made films showcasing Japanese business and economic systems – like Black Rain (Michael Douglas teaches a few things to the Japanese Yakuza and the Tokyo Police); Die Hard (Bruce Willis fights terrorists in Nakatomi Plaza), Rising Sun (Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes investigate murder in an American subsidiary of a Japanese company).

1973-1985. The Japanese were strutting on the world stage. In their hubris, one Japanese businessman declared that the only world class product made in USA was maple syrup.

From ‘The myths of Japanese quality; By Ray E. Eberts, Cindelyn G. Eberts’, Page 141

In business schools, Japanese management was the first lesson and the last word. Companies like Xerox, Fedex, Motorola adopted various ‘QIP’ systems – quality improvement processes. The miracle of European Reconstruction and EU was not even in the consideration set any more. The USSR was still a power to reckon with. Berlin Wall looked like a permanent fixture across the heart of the Western world. And the Japanese manufacturing juggernaut seemed unstoppable.

Falling cherry blossoms

Finally, the Americans decided to bell the cat – and the yen-dollar exchange rate was rejigged. The American government put pressure on Japan’s politicians and central banking officials to raise the value of the yen against the dollar. Some U.S. industries, anxious about their eroding share of world markets, put political pressure on American politicians. With some support from academic economists, American producers argued that a higher-valued yen would help their products sell better in competition with Japanese products and therefore reduce the American trade deficit.

In 1985, the US worked out a deal, whereby the US dollar was devalued, without a formal devaluation. The dollar was allowed to sink against the Japanese Yen – only it was not called a devaluation, but was called the Plaza Accord. Whereby the dollar would be allowed to depreciate against other currencies – especially the Japanese Yen. Intense negotiations spread over nearly a decade followed. During crucial and intense negotiation with Japan, in 1992, George Bush Sr., vomitted and fainted.

Endaka – and the end of the Japanese run

After the Plaza Accord, the Japanese team went back home and prepared their industry for endaka – high yen prices. From August 1971 through April 1995, the yen’s value ratcheted up from 360 to the dollar to 80 to the dollar. In 1993, for the first time, a non LDP Government was formed in Japan – The Shinseito (Japan Renewal Party) came to power.

And the Japanese goose was truly cooked.

Net outcome, by the mid 1990s, the Japanese juggernaut was halted. Japan had to remain contented with being the world’s second largest economy. George Soros thought,

the prospect of Japan’s emerging as the dominant financial power in the world is very disturbing, not only from the point of view of the United States but also from that of the entire Western civilization

For the next 10 years, the Japanese economy stagnated, investments stagnated. Their dream of supplanting the US as the world’s largest economy were over – for now at least.

Stuffed Tigers

After Japan, the 90s was decade of the Asian Tigers – Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore were all set to replace Japan as the ‘new axis’ of world economy. India especially came out as a clumsy plodder against these countries. Lee Kuan Yew, held forth on the Indian character as faulty – and could not compete with the Chinese-Confucian value-set. Commentators tripped over themselves, predicting an Asian century.

Then followed the Asian Crisis. Mahathir Mohammed claimed that the 1997 Asian Crisis was a foreign conspiracy. Specifically, he named George Soros as the master mind behind the Asian Crisis. 9 years later, Mahathir made up with George Soros – and retracted his charge.

The ostensible reason for the Asian crisis was that investors in the Asian Tigers were funding long term investments from short term borrowings – a classic mismatch. The rapid withdrawal of foreign funds impacted development of these economies to the extent of a decade.

The real reason possibly was in the scheme of USCAP things, the US had turned its attention to the Chinese recruitment.

The 2 trillion trap

Similar to the success of the Europeans, the Japanese, Koreans and the Asian Tigers, China too has embraced the US-client state model. Booming exports to the US, massive FDI by the US in the Chinese economy, has put China in the earlier position of Japan and Korea – prime sub-contractors to the US economy. Where the Chinese economy seems to ‘partially different’ is the military side. On foreign policy and ‘American’ culture, the Chinese have been ’superficially’ resistant and nominally ‘assertive’.

The Chinese miracle, much like the ASEAN, Japanese and European miracles before, is using exports to the USA as a stepping stone. Chinese growth and expansion depends on access to the US markets and a devalued currency. For how long will the US allow the Chinese to do that? Another 5 years – or is it 10 years. Was Obama’s China visit, the first round – in a 50 round bout, spread over the next 7 years?

What is China's future ...

The US dollar-renminbi tango will continue over the next 5-7 years. US pressures will be steadily increasing pressure on the Chinese. After the Asian crisis, China was in a much better position to resist American pressure for renminbi revaluation. That resistance to renminbi revaluation, in turn, caught China, in another trap. China has US$ 2 trillion worth of rapidly depreciating foreign reserves.

Which brings us to India!

What will it be

What are the threats to the Indian economy! Will it be a ‘sudden’ collapse in software and outsourcing? Or will it be a severe contraction in gems and jewellery exports? Can it be a a 3 year drought due to global warming? Many in India are panting for the day, when the US will deign to look India-wards and make India also into a client state.

Most recently, we had the privilege of Shashi Tharoor, our Honourable Minister, who sees India replacing Israel in the US camp!

Indian born Sikh to become BNP’s first non-white member

Rajinder Singh, 78, who emigrated from the Punjab region of India in 1967, said yesterday that he would be honoured to become a member of the BNP because it is the “only party who has the guts to say the word Muslim” ... a Sikh who claims that Islam is based on “deception, fraud and surprise attack” is set to become the first non-white member of the British National Party.

“It’s a natural process in the Muslim psyche, to take over. The fear of Islam is well founded, well justified,” he told The Times. “I don’t hate Muslims. By definition a Sikh is supposed to love all — even the enemy.” (via Sikh Rajinder Singh set to become BNP’s first non-white member - Times Online).

Senility ... Alzheimer's ... or just poor grades in history

Which of the three is it? Mr.Singh, I don't know what to make out of you!

The demonisation of the Jews (from the time Shakespeare joined in with his anti-Semitic Merchant Of Venice) has now been replaced by demonisation of Islam. Since, the “Jewish Problem” was solved by Hitler (there are hardly 1 million Jews left in Europe and 5 million in USA), the West and USA has no problems, anymore with the Jews.

Minimal diversity ... maximum talk

The West today has the lowest levels of ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity – and persecutes whatever little is left, like the Roma Gypsies for example. The West has the lowest levels of religious diversity – and the way they have dealt with it is simple. Genocide. Native Americans in Canada, USA, Native Aborigines in Australia are excellent examples. No one quite talks about what happened to the millions of African slaves imported into Europe.

After the genocide, Australia, Canada and France have tendered their ritualistic apologies – and start demonizing someone else. The forgotten lot is that that of the Romani Gypsies. This one segment based in Europe and USA continues to remain on the fringes and discriminated. The Romani Gypsies, Sinti have been a favored European target for the last 500 years – by the Vatican, by the Protestant Church, by monarchies and by Republican Governments. In war and and in peace.

Their crime. They civilized (?) Europe. No less.

Why does Europe continue to demonize and persecute the Roma

Despite the immense contribution by the Roma Gypsies to European culture and life. Is it because: -

1. They have a different lifestyle – which is migratory and frugal. They do not wish to have permanent homes, too many possessions or jobs. They prefer living in wagons, with skills and trade that they possess.


2. They have not ‘integrated’ into the White, Christian, European social system. They wish to remain ‘different’.


3. They stick out like sore thumbs – in a Europe where the Jews have been annihilated, where the descendants of Black slave populations have been exterminated and the Islamic population (past and present) is not tolerated. In such a situation, the Gypsies have not only survived, but have regrown (after Hitler’s concentration camps killed them by millions).

Since when, are these qualities a crime.

The root of it all

For centuries, the settled principle in the Desert Bloc was ‘Cuius regio, eius religio’ (meaning whose land, his religion; CRER) – the ruler decided his people’s religion.

After the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204), Vatican invoked the CRER principle (‘Cuius regio, eius religio’) during its brief rule over the Byzantine Empire to reject religious objections by the Byzantine subjects. Post Hussite Wars and the ‘Reformation’, establishing the CRER principle to settle Germany, giving rise to the logic of ‘ubi unus dominus, ibi una sit religio’ (One ruler, one religion). Just in case someone had religious disagreement, the logic was they could well emigrate – (ius emigrandi).

Haiti – and after

The CRER policy guideline was finally abandoned in post-bellum America and Europe after The Haiti Fright. With Haiti breaking loose, when slaves defeated all the major Euro-colonial powers, in battle after battle, slavery was doomed. More than 200 slave rebellions, revolts and conspiracies made slavery in the West impractical. Cuban slaves were the last to win their freedom – which sounded the slavery’s death knell.

Western propaganda has made slavery, an invisible factor in their ‘success.’ And they are on the half way mark, on the erasure in popular memory, about the use of colonies for Western enrichment.

The “enlightened” West, has made “nationalism” as a varied form of “religion”, where “assimilation” is expected! Historically, around the world, emigrant Indians have maintained a healthy balance of “assimilation” and an Indian “identity.” However, as a large group, Indians are relatively new immigrants to the US. So far, Indians have been left reasonably alone – the question is if the economic situation in the US gets worse – will the Indians be left alone even then?

Native Americans in Canada, USA, Native Aborigines in Australia are excellent examples.

Hitler … Aryan .. Pagan …

Some few years ago, the Vatican came out with a much awaited ‘apology’ for its involvement in the Holocaust. Since Hitler, though technically a Catholic, was a staunch believer in his Aryan lineage. This the Vatican uses as an escape hatch to pin the blame on ‘neo-pagan’ beliefs. Combine Hitler’s Aryan supremacy theory, India as the citadel of ‘pagans’ and non-believers, makes Vatican’s language a short hand for Hinduism and India.

Just how did the Church think, it could palm off Hitler’s genocide onto Hinduism – and India which is the citadel of ‘paganism’. Are they forgetting the Abbott of Citeaux.

Another red-wash

“Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius” (Kill them all, God will know his own) instructed the Abbot of Citeaux to followers at the start of the Albigensian Crusade.

Did the Church look at its own history? The Ustashe killings, the Albigensian Crusades, at the Hussite Wars, at its blood soaked history, at the numerous humans who were burnt at the stake, torn apart – all in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Blame the victims

And after 1500 years of bloodshed, blame pagans for it. Pagans, if the popery forgets, were the victims of the Church’s expansionary zeal – and Hitler’s. Maybe the ghosts of the Native Americans will whisper the truth in Vatican’s ears – who were also annihilated by brave Christian soldiers!

Hitler was never alone

Hitler’s biggest mistake – he lost the war.

The genocide with which Hitler's regime was charged with was also carried out against the Native Americans in the USA, the Australian aborigines, in Congo by the Belgians. Post colonial Governments in Malaysia, Kenya and India have ignored the cover-up of the millions killed by the colonial rulers – in the Malayan operations, Mau Mau War in Kenya or the 1857 War in India.

Religious freedom in the West

When Acharya Rajneesh ‘converted’ a few thousand Christians to his brand of beliefs (in Oregon, USA), he was picked up, packed out and sent back to India – on charges of ‘chemical warfare.’

India has 2.5 crore Christians – out of 110 crores. I would like to see how the EU would react if Indian missionaries went about converting 12.5 million Christians to Hinduism – or 7.5 million Christians to Hindus in the US! Russia has long persecuted the Hare Krishna devotees (spontaneous White Hindus converting White Christians).

The West can speak from both sides of the mouth. Nicholas Sarkozy can tell Indians (i.e.Manmohan Singh) to respect foreign missionaries, who want to convert Indians to their religion – while the West can continue with this demonization of Islam. Would Sarkozy like to mention any other country where such a large minority Muslim population, has greater freedom and opportunity, than in India? Would you like to suggest France instead?

This is freedom – from both sides. For the West.

The sight of the West, strutting as a protector of freedom on the global stage is a hoax. How can the West have a problem with Native American tribes (aka Red Indians) and the Aborigines – if there are none left. The West which has the highest levels of prison populations in the world – raucously reminds the world of lessons in freedom.

Bush helped us forget …

Bill Clinton, arguably, would have become the US President for the 3rd time – but for the bar by the US Constitution. And he is the one who facilitated the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia – and the Islamic demonization, which George Bush so successfully carried forward.

After the Iraq War and the Afghanistan quagmire, George Bush has become a favorite whipping boy – and people have forgotten Bill Clinton’s legacy – Monica Lewinsky apart.

Western pre-occupation

The belief in One God, One Book, One Holy Day, One Prophet (Messiah), One Race, One People, One Country, One Authority, One Law, One Currency, One Set of Festival is the root of most problems in the world.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all a part of the monotheistic 'One' Desert Bloc – and their infighting is the fighting for spoils and loot. One section just does not want to share the loot with the other. That is all. There is no moral, philosophical or ethical difference or disagreement between them. If you imagine that there is a DIFFERENCE, you have become a victim of their propaganda.

The West calls itself as West – but not as Christian West!

Why? Why do they refer to the Middle East /West Asia as Islamic? It is a subtle propaganda war – where they are playing on the fears of people. Islam is as much deliverance or a threat as Christianity is! Roll da dice and make your choice. The Right Wing parties (like the BNP) in the West are never called Christian Fundamentalists – but the BJP is called an ‘extremist, Hindu Fundamentalist’ party!

Islam in India

Now this one place where the West plays on our fears. Factually speaking, Islam was not quite as successful in India as the West would like to make out!

Sample this – When Babur succeeds against Lodis, he is a foreign invader – and India has ‘once more’ fallen to invaders. Before that when the Tughlaks fell to the Lodis, ‘India had once again fallen’. After Bahadur Shah Zafar fell to the British, India was once more defeated. In victory the Tughlaks, Lodis and Mughals were successful invaders – in defeat they were Indian losers!

A study of the three ancient battles that changed history reveals that the so-called Islamic Conquest of India is red herring and India's military paradigm successfully ensured that India could protects its culture and structures for more than 5000 years now. Over the centuries, the Desert Bloc has succeeded in making India lower its guard.

The West treads on the path of Islamic demonization today, without any hindrance. Without taking responsibility for the destabilisation of the Islamic World by the liquidation of the Ottoman Empire after WW1 – perpetrated by Anglo Saxon countries and the French.

'IT players failed us in financial inclusion drive'- says the RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has accused IT giants of being indifferent towards the cause of financial inclusion in India. “The scale of business in financial inclusion is so big that we need participation from big IT companies,” said KC Chakrabarty, deputy governor, RBI, speaking on the sidelines of a financial inclusion seminar organised by Skoch, a consultancy firm. He added lack of interest and involvement by big IT companies was making banks’ endeavour of financial inclusion unsuccessful.

According to Mr Chakrabarty, involvement of big IT companies was important to bring down the transaction cost. (via 'IT players failed us in financial inclusion drive' - The Economic Times).

How India missed out …

Due to our well-cultivated tunnel vision about English language (amongst many other things), India missed out on Japanese investments, technology and business. Indian loyalty to English language exceeds the loyalty of the British themselves to their language – and we refuse to see how this affects us.

Reforming Indian education

India urgently needs to put more languages in lingual-education basket – instead of putting all our eggs in the English language basket. We can't do business with the French or Germans, Spanish or the Arabic speaking world. The Chinese and Japanese are out of bounds to us – as are the Swahili and the Bantu.

The Indian language basket also calls for diversification. India needs to learn more foreign languages. But with our bankruptcy of ideas on restructuring Indian education system or the vested interest banging begging bowls in front of the Indian tax payer!

The Indian software 'success'

The great ‘software' success story is actually two countries – US and UK who give between 70%-80% of Indian software business! This is coolie labour! We are missing out on the massive Japanese, French and the Spanish markets because we have not invested in those foreign languages. Same story in Europe also – major opportunities overlooked and ignored. And we have missed out on computing in Indian languages, because we have not invested there either. So, RBI's peeve is right - but the solution is somewhere else.

Is it due to the apparent Indian decision to tie its future to the sinking ship of the Anglo Saxon Bloc?

Global warming's got me thinking

a call has been given by Al Gore that there should be an immediate moratorium on coal fired power plants. Look at how this will impact India. More than half of the 8,00,000 mega watts of power India plans to produce by 2030 are to come from coal fired plants. Simply because India has abundant coal resources.

What most western analysts don't realise is nearly 600 million Indians do not have regular and formal access to any source of electricity. If comparison is to be drawn, it is a bit like the entire US population and half of the European Union going without any electricity.

Can you estimate the enormity of this problem? This is what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told George Bush at the G-8 summit in Japan last year when America tried to force India to commit carbon emission cuts. India merely said it will keep its per capita emmissions at below the world average. (via Carbon emmisions and Democracy!:Wisdom by Hindsight:MK Venu's blog-The Times Of India).

What if

The entire global warming debate is just a facade to keep up demand for oil from India and China. The opposition to coal fired power plants is to stop India and China from reducing the growth in oil consumption.

After all practically all of British GDP today is declining North Sea oil and British Petroleum. Apart from Chinese money, the other source of liquidity which keeps the US afloat is petro dollars.And the US future is so closely linked to Arctic oil.

If India and China were to reduce their reliance on oil, leading to a price collapse, the biggest losers will be the Anglo Saxon bloc.

Makes one think!

I married Iranian girls before their execution - Jerusalem Post

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband."

"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.

Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"

"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.

"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her." (via I married Iranian girls before their execution | Iran news | Jerusalem Post).

The Law of the Land

The law of the land is supreme. All are equal in the eyes of the law of the land.

Whether is is the US, which is a leader in 'research' to kill in a 'humane' manner - kill people deemed to be prisoners of the State. Or in Iran where people (young girls) are raped to meet the requirements of the law of the land.

These legal systems trace their lineage to the Hammurabic Code. Draco's Laws in Greece, or the lex talionis in Rome, right upto and leading to the world's largest prison population in the US, or the Shariat in Islamic societies. Israeli propaganda apart, the real reason for this state of affairs is the legal philosophy inherited from Hammurabi.

The alternative

The other is the Indic model which traces its lineage to Lipit Ishtar, the Hitties till the advent of the Desert Bloc in India - with the brief Islamic rule from 1200-1400 (the Slave Dynasty, the Khiljis and Tuglaks) to the muddled Indo-Saracenic Moghuls to the downright asuric colonial rule. In spite of this, the Indian system has managed a low crime, low prisoner, low capital sentence, low police regime - which is unique in the world.

G8 refuses to cut export subsidies

Leaders of five developing countries — India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa — who also met for summit level talks here had separately, called for expediting a global trade agreement that would stimulate the world economy.

But for this to happen, they wanted developed nations to end trade-distorting subsidies and export sops. The G-8 declaration, however, promised only to refrain from taking decisions to increase tariffs above today’s levels.

“We will refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new exports restrictions or implementing World Trade Organisation’s inconsistent measures to stimulate exports.”

Leaders of the world’s eight most rich countries, in the same breath, vowed to keep markets open and free and to reject protectionism of any kind. “In difficult times we must avoid past mistakes of protectionist policies, especially given the strong decline in world trade following the economic crisis,” the declaration said. (via G8 refuses to cut export subsidies).

US of A - the most efficient agricultural system in the world?

Today, an ‘efficient’ and ‘hi-tech’ agricultural farm sector in the US needs more than US$ 7.5 billion (conservative estimates, assuredly) of subsidies to survive. The US-EPA says, “By 1997, a mere 46,000 of the two million farms in this country (America), accounted for 50% of sales of agricultural products (USDA, 1997 Census of Agriculture data)” - and gobble up most of this huge subsidy that lowers Third World agricultural prices.

Giant food corporations, killed buying competition with high prices (to farmers), direct buying from farmers (at higher prices), monoclonal seeds that destroy bio-diversity. And the US consumers are not getting the lower food prices that are being promised in India.

Devastation in the Third World

These subsidies lower agricultural prices, devastate agriculture in Third World countries, creating man-made famines. These man-made famines, of course, gives the West a false sense of superiority. The Indian farmer working without subsidies, with low technology, lower productivity has a cost edge over his European an American counterparts.

The 'backward' Indian farmer

The Indian farmer working without subsidies, with low technology, lower productivity has a cost edge over his European an American counterparts. With the declining power and use of the dollar, the US is fighting a losing battle against agricultural subsidies. The US depends on less than 50,000 corporate ‘farmers’ for 50% of ts production. These corporate ‘farmers’ will abandon agriculture at the first sign of reduced subsidies.

Over the next 20-30 years, this leaves India (and Russia) to cater to global food shortfalls. The Western industrial model is in its sunset phase. The Indian agricultural model can be the big winner in the next few decades – under the right stewardship.

Indian agriculture has a great future – and don’t you ignore it! On the other hand, industrial over-production, debt-financed over-consumption, American economic model, funded in the past by Bretton Woods /Petro-dollars /Sino-dollars, is about to end.

And that is the reason why the West (America and Europe) will not lower barriers or subsidies.

Giant food corporations, killed buying competition with high prices (to farmers), direct buying from farmers (at higher prices), monoclonal seeds that destroy bio-diversity. And the US consumers are not getting the lower food prices that are being promised in India.

And then the propaganda overdrive

Of course, then out came the spin-meisters. The PR machines.

"There is an urgent need for decisive action to free humankind from hunger and poverty," G8 leaders said in a statement issued on the last day of their summit in Italy, at which they were joined by African heads of state. (via G8 announces $15 bn food security package- International Business-News-The Economic Times).

First the protection ... then the subsidies ... then the distortions ... then the aid.

"The sums just aren't adding up. Is this all really new money or are they fishing some of it out of the recycling bin?" asked spokesman Otive Igbuzor.

BRIC demands more clout, steers clear of dollar talk - Yahoo! Philippines News

"The summit of the so-called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China ended with a short statement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and a communique that demanded more power for developing nations in international financial institutions and the United Nations.

'We are committed to advance the reform of international financial institutions, so as to reflect changes in the world economy,' the BRIC countries said in a joint communique.

'The emerging and developing economies must have a greater voice and representation in international financial institutions,' it said. 'We also believe that there is a strong need for a stable, predictable and more diversified international monetary system.'

"We will not do without additional reserve currencies," he said, adding that a new supranational reserve currency was also an option as the IMF's SDRs gained a bigger role.

The initial response from the developed world to Russia's initiative came from Japan, where Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano reiterated his view that the dollar will remain the world's key reserve currency. (via BRIC demands more clout, steers clear of dollar talk - Yahoo! Philippines News).

This was predictable

The 2ndlook posts and the Quicktakes on the events in the unfolding global financial crisis have been pre-casting these developments. This meeting was good news. This meeting could not have happened earlier – with elections in India being the delaying proposition.

The meeting has happened. Some old and tired cliches have been shopped out for waiting media. Greater role for BRIC in UN and IMF … is not even old wine (turned vinegar) in a old cracked bottle.

What’s gonna happen

The Chinese and Russian decision to increase holdings of their each others currencies was good development. The greater role for ‘IMF-SDR’ is eye wash. The BRIC leaders know well enough that the West will not let go of the IMF and the UN. But the charade is possibly required – and they are going through it.

The real developments will happen more quietly. After all, the final outcome is something that they, The BRIC nations would like to reveal with fanfare and celeberation.

We live in exciting time ... or is this a dangerous time?

Gypsies face Northern Ireland ethnic violence

Police said the racist attacks started last week, with gangs smashing house windows and attacking cars. The violence flared again on Monday when youths hurling bottles and Nazi salutes attacked an anti-racism rally called to support the migrants.

Belfast City Council press officer Mark Ashby said the majority of the victims were Roma, or Gypsies, from Romania.

Marian Mandache, from the Romanian Gypsy NGO Romani Criss, said the Northern Ireland violence was the latest in a disturbing trend of attacks across Europe.

"Starting with Italy in 2007, there have been waves of ... racist attacks against Roma," said Mandache. "Afterwards, there were attacks in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania." (via Gypsies face Northern Ireland ethnic violence).

Hitler was never alone

Hitler's biggest mistake - he lost the war.

The genocide with which his regime was charged with was also carried out against the Native Americans in the USA, the Australian aborigines, in Congo by the Belgians. Post colonial Governments in Kenya and India have ignored the cover-up of the millions killed by the colonial rulers - in the Mau Mau operations in Kenya or the 1857 War in India.

The Romani Gypsies Sinti have been a favored European target for the last 500 years - by the Vatican, by the Protestant Church, by monarchies and by Republican Governments. In war and and in peace.

Their crime. They civilized (?) Europe. No less.

Why does Europe continue to demonize and persecute the Roma

Despite the immense contribution by the Roma Gypsies to European culture and life. Is it because: -

1. They have a different lifestyle – which is migratory and frugal. They do not wish to have permanent homes, too many possessions or jobs. They prefer living in wagons, with skills and trade that they possess.


2. They have not ‘integrated’ into the White, Christian, European social system. They wish to remain ‘different’.


3. They stick out like sore thumbs – in a Europe where the Jews have been annihilated, where descendants of the African slave populations have been exterminated and the Islamic population (past and present) is not tolerated. In such a situation, the Roma Gypsies have not only survived, but have regrown (after Hitler’s concentration camps killed them by millions).

Since when, are these qualities a crime.

Recent history

A few months ago, the Italian police started a campaign of racial profiling and persecution of the Roma – based on an isolated murder of an Italian.

This disproportionate response against a community, to a crime (I am making an assumption of guilt) by a Roma individual, smacks of persecution, racism and pogroms. After all, this is how Hitler and Mussolini too started their campaigns.

In Northern Ireland, the Roma Gypsy number less than 1000. What threat, what problem could they be to the nearly 2 million people of Northern Ireland?

Italian capitalism … French Capitalism .. German Capitalism …

The Agnellis were more than Fiat’s controlling shareholders. They have been the de facto royal family of Italian capitalism. Gianni Agnelli, the patriarch who died in 2003, was at the centre of a web the cross-shareholdings that gave a small group of entrepreneurs and bankers disproportionate power over Italian industry. The group was called the “salotto buono” (literally “the fine drawing room”).

The downturn has been tough on some of the old powerbrokers. Mediobanca, the investment bank disproportionately powerful because of its shareholdings, reported a plunge in profits after taking E281m of writedowns on strategic stakes in Telecom Italia and RCS Mediagroup.

But the old network might be replaced by something worse: “Berlusconism”. Silvio Berlusconi is prime minister, the richest man in Italy and master of most of the country’s media ... Berlusconi has already meddled directly in the national airline, Alitalia and the national telephone operator, Telecom Italia. His indirect influence is even being felt in old bastions of financial power such as Mediobanca where his daughter recently won a board seat.

Italy did not do too badly with the “mixed” state-private economic model it followed postwar. But Berlusconi’s version seems to have a special twist. His record shows he likes talking about reform, but his actions reveal an unhealthy interest in furthering his personal empire. With Italian GDP predicted to shrink 4% this year, that approach is the last thing Italian business needs. (via Fiat's dealing will change Italian capitalism).

Public sector economies of Europe

The economies of France, Germany and Italy are practically run by public sector monopolies - or subsidized behemoths, who make survival of competitors difficult by their ability to sustain losses - based on Government largesse.

Spain and Britain have all but collapsed! Which way will the US jump - will it also go the public sector way - go the Spanish way? By the way, the national industry in Spain these days is prostitution!

Which bring me to another question!

The lure of 'capitalism' ...

Why is the West so keen on calling these publc sector, subsidy driven regimes as Capitalism? Capitalism dpended on looted capital and slave labour to prosper - resulting in the famous 'laissez faire' quip. Capitalists wanted and got ‘laissez faire’ capitalism – which was a ‘coda’ for unlimited slavery. The restrictions on laissez faire were actually restrictions on slaves.

Now under socialism, they get unlimited protection from 'destructive' competition. Which is being papered over by names like crony capitalism, free market capitalism. etc., etc.

Look at Spain and Britain

Spain's national industry today is prostitution. Britain is floating on the sewage of the Bretton Woods bilge! After the multi-trillion dollar bailout, which has just begun, and with more than US$4 trillion with China, Japan, Russia and India, neither is the outcome certain nor is the outlook bright.

Last but not the least, we must remember the power wielded by the Chartered Companies of Europe - another word for public sector. East India Company was a public sector company!

The Rest of the World needs to be careful of these public sector monsters!

Public sector or oblivion

During the Great Depression, more than 19 auto companies (similar to the number of banks today) were folded into the Big 3. The Big 3 lived to fight for another 70 years. In their death throes, the US Big Auto is likely to go the way European auto sector has gone - public sector or oblivion.

Saddam lives (through his words)

The way it looks, it will mean the Mother Of All Mergers. At which point, there is no team of accountants in the world who can figure out what is where, or what condition what is in? And then the evasions, the lies the obfuscation can continue for some more decades?

Which model will US follow - public sector or closure? Subsidies or welfare?

Real low ... real truth (seen an oxymoron like that?)

The real question - who will pay for it?

Not the Americans! No siree. Definitely not.

Neither the American super-rich or the American welfare-poor? Not the American tax payers or the American tax evaders? Not the American Whites or the American Blacks?

It is the Chinese, the Russians, Indians, Brazilians and above all the Africans will pay for this! They have done, what bankers call non-recourse lending! The Chinese, Russians, Indians, Brazilians and the Africans, have no recourse. Who will the Chinese go to, for redeeming their US$2 trillion?

The bankrupt US of A? Welcome to the real world.

The China Syndrome – The Times of India

post-reform the US will retain its de facto veto power with a 17 per cent share and the US, EU and Japan will together still control 53 per cent of IMF shares. Individually, the shares of US, Japan, UK and France will still be larger than China's share of under 4 per cent. Impatient with these little handouts, China has launched a multi-pronged campaign to claim a seat at the head of the table.

Shortly before the G20 summit, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the Chinese central bank, suggested that the dollar should be replaced by SDRs as the new reserve currency. The huge dollar reserves held by central banks and other global investors would be severely eroded if the dollar were to suddenly depreciate. Yet, these investors cannot easily diversify away from the dollar since this itself would trigger dollar depreciation. The Chinese are particularly concerned: an estimated $1 trillion out of their total reserves of around $2 trillion are held in dollar assets. The SDR exchange rate is a weighted average of exchange rates of the major convertible currencies. Accordingly, under Zhou's proposal, China and other countries could convert their reserves from dollars to SDRs at current exchange rates without any erosion in their value. via TOP ARTICLE | The China Syndrome - Editorial - Opinion - The Times of India).

Rather a good summary of the flux in global currency system - for someone who wants to understand the situation today. The last paragraph will be of interest to everyone - especially Indians.

The relative roles of different Asian currencies in this fund are yet to be determined, but clearly the Chinese yuan has arrived and the meltdown of the dollar as a reserve currency has begun. The US-led western alliance has two options before it. It can give China a leading role in the G7-dominated financial architecture or face an alternative architecture led by China. Heads i win, tails you lose. Meanwhile, India is yet to find a role for itself in this new great game.

The Future of English Language in India - ET Debate-The Economic Times

Angrezi Hatao is in effect the same slogan as Garibi Hatao. It will inevitably lead to a more just distribution of resources, opportunities and wealth. And that is precisely why all Angrezi-wallahs are hysterically against such a move.

It is often argued that India has developed and come up in the world so spectacularly because we have English. But then, how did the rest of the G-20 get there?

Fifteen of those top countries have made it by functioning almost entirely in their own mother tongue and national language. For the remaining four — the US, UK, Canada and Australia — there was no choice, for English is again their mother tongue. In a second language, the moral seems to be, one can only remain second rate.

Finally, man does not live by economics alone. Sa’adat Hasan Manto once said, “When I hear a Punjabi speaking English, I know he’s speaking a lie.” (from Yes, the have-nots will feel more equal- by Harish Trivedi, ET Debate-The Economic Times).

The Prof makes sense

So, here was this professor in English who made great sense. There are clearly three things that are important: -

One - English is the language of exclusion. And it deprives 80% of India of opportunities. It is above all, a it is "one more marker of the have-nots."

Two - It allows the English media and system to control the future of India.

Three - India needs to learn more foreign languages. The great 'software success story is actually two countries - US and UK who give between 70%-80% of Indian software business? This is coolie labour! We are missing out on the massive Japanese, French and the Spanish markets because we have not invested in those foreign languages. And we have missed out on computing in Indian languages, because we have not invested there either.

The Hindi 'un-thinker'

The 2nd part of the debate was from a Hindi writer.

English, then, would have logically been perceived as the language of colonial rulers. But now, the situation has entirely changed. Hindi is now the language of sarkar, bazar and sanchar (government, market and media) and it has been monopolised by the dominant caste and religious group.

Official Hindi has become a vehicle of obscurantism, communalism, blind nationalism and, to top it all, casteism. English, in post-colonial India, has become a language of modernity and empowerment.

Poor and low caste people and minorities know that Hindi will make them naukar and English will escort them to the seat of the master. If you ask me to give a slogan now, it would be angrezi laao, desh bachao. (from No. It's now the language of liberation by Uday Prakash).

Two things.

One - To Mr.Uday Prakash the entire debate was about Hindi vs English. Did someone remind him, that this debate is dead.

India will be multilingual. We have centuries of literature, culture, wisdom, knowledge, learning in Indian languages that we just cannot give up. The people of India, each individual will choose their language. No bureaucrat, politician, 'intellectual' will decide that. Finito. Completo. Terminato. Endlich. Eindig. ändlig.

That discussion is over. What is on the plate and up for discussion is how to support Indian languages get back on their feet, reduce the role of the State and how create skills in multiple foreign languages. And not subsidize the West.

Two - Of course, we should not expect Uday Prakash to talk about nearly 800 years of violence against Indian education system must be reversed – and the Oriya student needs help more than the elitist English speaking student.

But Uday Prakash is in cuckoo land (and he is not alone).

Great start

The third part of the discussion was the most disappointing. The post starts off with a smart paragraph,

For far too long, English and other Indian languages have been squeezed into the binary slots of an artificial, mutually exclusive choice. This is grossly mistaken. We need English and other Indian languages. And there is no contradiction whatsoever in this proposition—it has the backing of logic, international experience and pedagogy. (from When a billion Indians prosper, so will their dictionby TK Arun, ET Bureau).

Data ... data ... data ...

Which is just right. He demolished the language of progress argument with some simple data.

The world is full of countries that have populations smaller than that of a suburb of Delhi and yet not only hang on to their distinctive languages but also prosper. In Sweden or Finland, with a population of a few million, children learn in their mother tongue. They also learn a couple of foreign languages, mostly English and German. South Korea, with a population smaller than Tamil Nadu’s, teaches its children in Korean, and has seen a spectacular rise in living standards over the last five decades.

Japan is smaller than Uttar Pradesh, in population. The Japanese have built the world’s second largest economy without too many people being fluent in English. Relatively few Chinese speak English, but China is the world’s fastest growing economy. Such examples can be multiplied.

He continues with a some smart logic on how

In this land, human sounds have resonated with meaning for the last five millennia. Yet, lots of us are only too eager to dump the resultant cultural richness coded into the Indian languages that survive. Why? Colonial baggage is the short answer.

The only misstep till here was the need for Indians to learn other foreign languages. Where did that go? How did he miss that?

After clinching a sale .. shut up!

Then the unpreparedness shows through.

From five millenia (5000 years) he zooms to just 500 years ago, how "Indian languages came into their own with the Bhakti movement." Did Indian use foreign languages before the Bhakti movement? Was there no Indian language literary activity before the Bhakti movement?

He cant resist giving credit to the West, and continues how Indian languages "got new vigour with exposure to western literary trends and the social churning that accompanied the freedom struggle." What great compositions happened during the colonial era which cannot be compared to previous eras? In fact the opposite is true!

And then jumps to how in the last 15 years, Indian languages "had to wait for the economic reforms to get a further shot in the arm— the base of prosperity expanded, and industry’s need to tap into this prosperity channelled advertising to regional newspapers, leading to a surge in Indian language publishing."

Did nothing happen between the freedom movement and the 1991 liberalization? What great literary achievements have we seen after economic liberalization? In fact after the 1991, economic liberalization, Indians won more English language prizes (Bookers and Man prizes).

Then came the bathos

He concludes with a fantastic leap of unreason, with a statement that "Indian languages require, thus, better teaching of English as a foreign language and social transformation that will allow all Indians, and not just a tiny elite, to globalise."

Where did that come from?