Re: A Question for the Moderator
Michael Perelman wrote: > I don't have any simple answers. Please unsubscribe me from your list. Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
A Question for the Moderator
Michael Perelman, Some posters on this list have expressed their support for the breakup of Russia, India, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. I would like know what is your personal opinion in this matter. Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Communalising Kerala
The Hindu Tuesday, May 13, 2003 Communalising Kerala By K.N. Panikkar A transition from the communitarian to the communal has been taking place, slowly but steadily. ANOTHER BASTION is falling. Kerala known for its relatively harmonious communal relations has lately witnessed quite a few clashes between members of different communities. In Nadapuram, Panur, Taikal and Pathanamthitta. The latest is in Marad, a coastal village near Kozhikode, in which nine persons were brutally killed and several injured on May 3. It was not a communal riot in the generally accepted sense, in which the members of two communities violently engage with each other, in most cases spontaneously, due to some immediate provocation. In Marad, it was a sudden attack by a group of people well armed and well organized who, if the police are to be believed, carried out the operation in one sweep in less than 15 minutes. Marad has fallen victim to communal fury for a second time. In January last year the members of two communities had clashed, the reason for which is not entirely known. It is believed that inter-communal tension grew out of a New Year day function. Five persons were killed, about 100 houses were destroyed and several boats on fire. Many in the predominantly fishing community in the village lost their means of livelihood. It aroused considerable indignation and concern, especially among social activists and the intelligentsia, who took several initiatives to bring about communal harmony. The Government also intervened, particularly in the field of rehabilitation. Yet, they did not have the desired effect, as evident from the repetition of the brutality, which many believe has its roots in the first incident. This is because the efforts to bring about communal harmony did not address the basic issue, namely, the communalisation of Kerala society, particularly after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, an important marker in the social consciousness of both the Muslim minority and the Hindu majority. During the last couple of decades, the activity and influence of communal formations have considerably increased in Kerala. According to the data published by the Organiser in its issue of March 25, 2001, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh runs 4300 `shakas' and `upasakhas' in Kerala. The increase in numbers thereafter is not known. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has now established its organisational set up in almost all parts of the state. Recently, it undertook the distribution of tridents, as a part of the effort to use religious symbols for mobilisation and to create self-confidence rooted in religious identity. There are a couple of newspapers and quite a few periodicals which generally serve the Hindu communal cause. Saraswati Shishu Mandirs and such other schools serve as recruiting grounds of unsuspecting young children. There are innumerable cultural organisations, promoting and disseminating communal ideas in the guise of patronising literature, theatre, traditional arts and science or the renovation of village temples. Their activities have led to the emergence of a cultural right in Kerala, which receives legitimacy from intellectuals who claim to be independent. The intervention of these institutions has made a qualitative change in the consciousness and outlook of a fairly large number of Hindus. A fundamentalist shift has taken place. A similar tendency has developed among the Muslims as well. After the demolition of the Babri Masjid, a section of the Muslim youth felt rather restive and dissatisfied with the pacifist stand taken by the existing political and social formations. They rallied around more militant outfits such as the Islamic Service Society and the National Development Front. There are also several other fundamentalist groups, active in different fields of social life. The following of the fundamentalist- militant organisations has been steadily on the increase for quite some time. The reformist forces among the Muslims have not been able check this. The incident in Marad indicates that communalism has arrived in Kerala. It is a proof that the stage of proto-communalism, which had a long period of incubation, is over. During this phase, a sense of religious division had slowly emerged, socially articulated through organised religiosity. The organisations of different religions vie with each other to bring the faith of the believer to the streets. The religious practices have now spilled over from the domestic and sacred spaces to the public space, eliminating in the process the distinction between religious beliefs and religiosity. Religious processions in which women and children participate carrying religious symbols is a familiar sight in almost all parts of Kerala. The street processions have become common for festivals of all religious denominations. This was unknown about 20 years back, but now conducted with the support of social organisations and the blessings of public figures. Like
KERALA: Orange Letter Day
OutLookIndia.com Magazine | Jun 14, 2004 KERALA Orange Letter Day A pro-NDA verdict opens the account at last in the south state. One-off, or is the parivar consolidating? JOHN MARY When Archbishop Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil, on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections, said on TV that the BJP was "not untouchable", he was only underscoring an attitudinal shift in the Syrian Christian mindset. From being totally anti-BJP, the community has begun to show tolerance towards the saffron party. The proof of this came the day the results were declared. For the first time, the BJP-led NDA alliance opened its account in Kerala. It returned a Syrian Christian (former Union minister P.C. Thomas) to the Lok Sabha from the Catholic heartland of Muvattupuzha in central Kerala. His Indian Federal Democratic Party is part of the NDA. The total voteshare of the BJP alliance in Kerala also crossed the single-digit threshold, posting a never-before 12.1 per cent. Of this, the BJP alone notched 10.4 per cent of the votes polled. To top it all, the BJP came first in five assembly segments and second in another five. This, in a state where it does not have a single representative in the assembly. Obviously, the state BJP is upbeat since it is seen to be making a slow but steady electoral breach in a state where minorities make up 45 per cent of the population and the remaining 55 per cent Hindus are strongly polarised, either with the Left or the Congress. Besides, Hindu social organisations like the forward caste Nair Service Society and the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam of the backward Ezhava community have kept a safe distance for fear of being overrun by the BJP. "We are looking forward to the local government elections due a year from now and the assembly elections thereafter. Our strategy will be to position ourselves as a credible alternative to the Congress and the Left, which are too close to be seen separately," says NDA state convenor B.K. Shekhar. According to him, the BJP's Muvattupuzha experiment is a signpost. The party could ride piggy-back to the legislature provided it props up the likes of Thomas. The Left parties, especially the CPI(M), sense the danger too. Says state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan: "It is of concern that the decline in the Congress-led alliance's vote has benefited the BJP." While the Congress-led UDF's voteshare dipped by 8.57 per cent, the LDF has gained only 2.48 percentage points. So the net gainer has been the NDA, which added 5.5 per cent to its voteshare at the expense of the UDF. There are still doubters like Professor Ninan Koshy, ex-director of the World Council of Churches, who believes the BJP will find it difficult to overcome conventional socio-political impediments. He cites two reasons for the BJP not being able to enlarge the space between the strong bipolar Left and not-so-left coalitions in Kerala. One, the overriding anti-government sentiment is likely to benefit the well-entrenched Left much more than the BJP in the next assembly elections. Secondly, the BJP's appeal has reduced for the electorate since it has no chance of dislodging the Congress-led government in Delhi in the short-term. Sangh parivar ideologue P. Parameswaran, though, has a different take. He feels the shrinking Hindu population in the state has spawned a greater "awareness" among the community that minorities would soon overtake them. The Hindu population has declined from 57 per cent to 55 per cent over the decade even as Muslims and Christians climbed to 23.34 per cent and 19.32 per cent respectively. This, according to Parameswaran, is sure to encourage a wary Hindu population to gravitate towards a nationalist pro-Hindu party. Countering Koshy, Parameswaran points out that the BJP is still very much the party-in-waiting at the Centre. So the BJP-minded sections would only be happy to rally behind the most credible alternative to the Congress-CPI(M) axis in Delhi The alarm bells have certainly begun to ring in the Left and the Congress. Over the years, the rss presence has become increasingly visible throughout the state.There are about 5,000 shakhas in operation now. The Sangh has identified nearly 10,000 locations for active work. In 1,330 places, active discussions and drills take place everyday. Slowly but surely, the Hindutva brigade is spreading its roots in a state where it has hitherto always drawn a blank. Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
BMW team concludes Kerala assessment visit
Business Standard Thursday, July 29, 2004 BMW team concludes Kerala assessment visit Our Correspondent / Kochi July 29,2004 A high level delegation from German car major BMW concluded a 3-day visit to the state to check out the possibility of starting a vehicles manufacturing unit. According to Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) and Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) officials, the team visited many sites and also held discussions with higher officials of the state industries department. BMW is expected to take a decision on the facility in the next three months. The delegation evaluated facilities in and around Kochi, including major hospitals and schools and held discussions with the trade union leaders too. The team also visited a site at Kalamassery near Kochi and another at Nedumbassery near the Kochi international air port. Kinfra will provide 25 acres of land adjacent to Kochi Indira Gandhi Co-operative Medical College for the first phase and another 50 acre for further expansion in due course. The team had discussions with the industries secretary K Mohankumar, Kinfra managing director G C Gopalapillai, KSIDC managing director P H Kurian and Development Commissioner of Kochi Special Economic Zone Paul Antony on various issues relating to the proposed unit. The Kochi Port Trust chairman Jacob Thomas also held discussion with the BMW team and he said that the proposed Vallarpadam container port was an added attraction to the German car major. Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: HDI\PPP Michael,Ulhas and Michael
Paul wrote: > [See what happens with some encouragement - soon > I'll be overposting! Is there a limit on posting? > For India, from 1992 to 2001, the GNI increased by > 64% when calculated by > the World Bank "Atlas" method (non-PPP). I presume this comment is about India's GDP as a whole and not the GDP for the bottom 20% of the population. Is this figure ok? >But for > the same period GNI > increased by 91% using PPP! So what is your objection? > It is > not just that India is made to look less poor via > developed countries Perhaps India should always look worse that what it really is? > Furthermore, the discrepancy between the two methods > grows - by as much as > 4 or 5 times - during the neo-liberal period (tell > me off-line if you want > the chart for India, the change is dramatic). What do you mean by the term "neo-liberal" in the context of Indian economy? > there is a "bias in the > bias" which shows neo-liberalism as a great success. It could be your bias which is dismissive of the "Third World" and its achievements. > Then the > statistics are used to prove > correct the assumptions from the free market model. > [BTW there are various > flavors of PPP-type models. The Bank has chosen the > most extreme version > that has the most free-market assumptions. The > other versions of PPP, > logically, produce lower numbers. See below for > examples.] You can use other sources. Indian resources, e.g. Indian's Central Bank publishes data. Perhaps that source is also tainted one? Btw, infant mortality in India has declined from 250 to 70 per thousand in 50 years. How is it that India's population has gone up from about 400 million to 1 bn in 50 years? Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Maoist abduct 50 school children in Nepal
HindustanTimes.com Monday, July 19, 2004 Maoist rebels abduct 50 school children in Nepal Reuters kathmandu, July 19 Maoist guerrillas have abducted at least 50 students and a dozen teachers from a school on the outskirts of the Nepali capital in a bid to force them into their fold, a police officer said on Monday. The rebels dragged the children, aged between 13 and 16, and teachers at gunpoint from the school in Chaimale village on Sunday afternoon, police officer Deepak Ranjit said. The Maoists, who are fighting to overthrow Nepal's constitutional monarchy, have in the past kidnapped school and university students to boost their numbers. Ranjit said soldiers have been deployed to secure the release of the hostages. Most of the kidnapped students were girls. © HT Media Ltd. 2004. Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
China has 600 million telephone users
People's Daily Online Life UPDATED: 18:16, July 22, 2004 China has 600 million telephone users China had close to 600 million fixed and mobile phone users by the end of June this year. Statistics released from the Ministry of Information Industry show 30 million new telephone users signed up for services in the first six months of the year. Experts point out, however, that access to telephones remains very low in rural areas, which has encouraged the ministry to ensure most villages have telephones by 2005. It also aims to make every household in China have a phone by 2020. Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state? -
ravi wrote: Kashmir: > > a US protectorate in reality. > then our duty is not to deny the > former, but to fight the > latter, isn't it? How do you fight the latter? Btw, do CPI and CPM share your positions? Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state? -
ravi wrote: > > This is equally true of terrorists in Kashmir. > About > > 70% of terrorists killed in Kashmir in the recent > > years have been non-Kashmiris. They are usually > > Punjabis trained by the ISI and smuggled into > Kashmir. > what are the sources for these numbers? I suggest you visit cemetaries in Kashmir where "freedom fighters" have been buried. Their names may give you some clues. > imho, the more important debate is regarding cause > and effect: did local > popular unrest and uprising lead to the influx of > foreign terrorists? or > did foreign terrorists bring about the image of > local unrest? The terrorist upsurge in Kashmir must be seen in the context of US led Jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan with Saudi funding and Pakistani support. > if the former is true, the discussion regarding the > current composition > and nature of activists/terrorists may prove to be a > distraction. The former, even if it is true, irrelevant today. The so-called self determination for Kashmiris will create a US protectorate in reality. Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
UN food programme facing funding shortfall
HindustanTimes.com Thursday, July 29, 2004 UN food programme facing severe shortfall of funding Press Trust of India United Nations, July 29 Severe shortfall in funding has forced the United Nations to cut its deliveries of vital rations to millions of hungry people in North Korea. The North Korean humanitarian programme is one of the most under-funded with the world body having received only 23 per cent of 221 million dollars it requested. The world body said that its World Food Programme (WFP) has received only 28.5 million dollars out of 171 million it requires for its emergency feeding programme this year. It needs about 40,000 tons of food, valued at around 14.2 million dollars, per month till December. But over the past two months, more than two million people in the west benefiting from WFP aid, including young children and pregnant and nursing women, did not receive any cereal rations, while the average caloric intake among pregnant and nursing women was only 70 per cent of the recommended amount. A spokesman for WFP said the agency had hoped to feed 6.5 million people this year but because of the funding shortfall has had to cut back on its operations dramatically, reaching only 1.8 million of the most vulnerable women, children and the elderly. "A huge segment of the most vulnerable has had to make do with the meagre distributions from the public distribution system, which accounts for only 50 per cent or less of their daily caloric intake," he said. © HT Media Ltd. 2004. Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state? -
Chris Doss wrote: > Reactionary is an understatement. This is equally true of terrorists in Kashmir. About 70% of terrorists killed in Kashmir in the recent years have been non-Kashmiris. They are usually Punjabis trained by the ISI and smuggled into Kashmir. But other nationalities are also involved. e.g. Uighurs. How they can be regarded as "freedom fighters and anti-imperialists" is hard to understand. Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Russia plays energy card
The Hindu Tuesday, Jul 06, 2004 Russia plays energy card By Vladimir Radyuhin As global energy demand soars, President Vladimir Putin wants to use oil and gas exports as instruments to speed up Russia's economic revival and enhance its geopolitical weight. RUSSIA HAS embarked on a new geopolitical game, playing its energy card to reclaim global clout. Its vast energy reserves and control over the markets in the former Soviet Union are to be leveraged to turn Russia into a superpower. As global energy demand soars, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, wants to position Russia as a key broker in the international market and use oil and gas exports as instruments to speed up the country's economic revival and enhance its geopolitical weight. After dropping nearly 50 per cent from the Soviet era peak, Russia's oil output has soared again to exceed 450 million tonnes (together with gas condensates) by the end of the current year making it the world's second largest producer, behind only Saudi Arabia. Total oil reserves are a state secret in Russia, but the former Energy Minister, Yuri Shafranik, estimates that Russia may have 44 billion tonnes of oil, more than Saudi Arabia does. Russia currently exports over 6.5 million barrels a day, taking crude oil and product together, and plans to boost exports to about 9 million barrels a day by the end of the decade - roughly equal to Saudi Arabia's current exports. Russia is also the number one producer of natural gas in the world and has the biggest share - 32 per cent - of global reserves. Taken together, oil and gas make Russia the biggest energy producer in the world, and moreover, one of the few countries whose reserves are not shrinking yet. With the situation in West Asia destabilised in the wake of the Iraq war, the United States and other top oil-consuming nations have turned their eyes to Russia and energy-rich ex-Soviet republics. The U.S. made big inroads into what Moscow considers its legitimate backyard during the chaotic rule of Russia's first post-Soviet President, Boris Yeltsin. Mounting an aggressive drive for control over Central Asia and Caspian oil and gas flows, Washington has pushed through the construction of a $3.6 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline from Azerbaijan's coast on the Caspian Sea via neighbouring Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan and is canvassing for building a gas pipeline to run parallel. These pipes should bring oil and gas from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states to Western markets bypassing Russia. American and other Western energy giants control 60 per cent of oil extraction in Azerbaijan and 40 per cent in Kazakhstan. Washington also came close to gaining a foothold in Russia's energy sector, privatised during the biggest selloff in world history in the 1990s. Following the purchase by British Petroleum of a 50 per cent stake in the Russian oil major, TNK, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco came vying for a controlling 44 per cent share in Russia's biggest private oil company, Yukos. If the deal had come through, the West would have won control over one-third of Russia's total oil output and could have gained access to Russian export pipelines, which are currently controlled by the state. The idea was to mould Russia into an alternative supplier of oil free from OPEC-like state controls. Mr. Putin wrecked these plans. The arrest of the Yukos head, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, last October on charges of fraud and tax evasion disrupted the company's sale to the U.S. oil majors and sent a clear message to Washington: the Kremlin is reasserting control over the strategic heights of the Russian economy. In a further display of new tough rules, Moscow in January annulled the results of a 1993 tender for a Sakhalin-3 oil field in the Far East won by the U.S. giants, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, citing the companies' failure to develop the field. Mr. Putin's proactive policy in ex-Soviet Central Asia helped Moscow consolidate its hold over oil and gas flows from the energy-rich region. Last year, Russia's natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, sealed a mega deal with Turkmenistan to buy up to 50 billion cubic metres - practically all of Turkmenistan's gas exports - in the next 25 years. Earlier this month, Russia's LUKOil major signed a $930-million contract to develop a 250-billion-cubic-metre gas field in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, while the Gazprom natural gas giant is finalising a $1.5-billion 45-year deal to exploit fields on the Ustyurt plateau, western Uzbekistan. A fierce struggle is unfolding for oil and gas exports from Kazakhstan, a land-locked Central Asian nation, which sits on the second biggest hydrocarbon reserves among the former Soviet states. Despite U.S. pressure, Kazakhstan may not give enough oil to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to make it commercially viable, as BTC transit tariffs are going to be twice as high as Russia's. Earlier this year, Kazakhstan's President, Nursu
North Korea: Open For Business -- A Bit
BusinessWeek Online JULY 26, 2004 . ASIAN BUSINESS North Korea: Open For Business -- A Bit North Korea remains poor, but Kim's reforms are bringing growth http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_30/b3893074.htm Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
Diane Monaco wrote: >That being said and I agree again with you, the >Kurds are an oppressed nationality. Period. Does it mean that the Left should support the breakup of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey? Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Cuba: Dealing with the dollar
Diane Monaco wrote: > >How far Cuba can be regarded as an independent and > >socialist nation-state, if there is extensive > >dollarisation of Cuban economy? > I'm not sure what "independent" really means, True, the Left no longer seems know what "independence" really means ! :) > Cuba is > communist/socialist in the mechanisms it uses to > attempt to ensure that the > means of producing goods and services are owned by > the community as a > whole, and that all citizens enjoy social/economic > equality. Cuba invites and accepts foreign investment, encourages tourism and receives remittances from Cubans settled abroad. Cuba also trades with other countries. (I don't know what is Cuba's external indebtedness.) These things would erode Cuba's autonomy. Is Cuba's relationship with the World Economy any different from that of other developing countries? > Dollarization > is a mechanism that Cuba is forced to use to > circumvent the US embargo > against Cuba on all trade Cuba was forced to do it, but wouldn't that imply loss of control over monetary policy? >including basic > necessities to facilitate the > acquisition the goods and services in sufficient > amounts for all its citizens. It's my impression that Cuba wasn't able to reduce it's dependence on sugar between 1960-1990. I wonder why. Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Ukraine drops bid to join E.U., NATO
The Hindu Wednesday, Jul 28, 2004 Ukraine drops bid to join E.U., NATO By Vladimir Radyuhin MOSCOW, JULY 27. Ukraine has formally abandoned its goal of joining NATO in a sign of its growing tilt towards Russia. The Ukrainian President, Leonid Kuchma, signed a decree ordering changes in the country's defence doctrine to remove reference to membership in the European Union and NATO as the ultimate goal of Ukraine's foreign policy. Henceforth, Ukraine will only strive to "deepen relations" with the two organisations. Victory for Putin The decree, made public a day before the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, flew to Ukraine for an informal bilateral summit with Mr. Kuchma, is seen as a victory for Moscow in its tug-of-war with the West for influence in Ukraine. New doctrine The Ukrainian leader had just signed the new defence doctrine in June that stated the aim of joining NATO and the E.U. However, Mr. Kuchma badly needs Russia's crucial support for his bid to have his chosen heir, the Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovich, win a presidential election in October against the more popular pro-Western Opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko. Mr. Putin has taken full advantage of his position as a king-maker to encourage a U-turn in Ukraine's foreign policy towards closer integration with Russia. Last September, Ukraine after repeated refusals, finally signed up to a Single Economic Zone pact with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The accord provides for a customs union, free movement of goods, capital and labour, and a common tax, monetary and foreign trade policy. After his meeting with the Ukrainian leader on Monday, Mr. Putin issued a stern warning to the West not to get in the way of Russia and Ukraine forging closer ties. "Their (Western nations') agents, both inside our countries and outside, are trying everything possible to compromise the integration between Russia and Ukraine," Mr. Putin said, speaking to businessmen from both countries. Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
Devine, James wrote: > I don't know much about this subject, but isn't a > lot of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan? Yes, about a third of Kashmir is controlled by Pakistan. > wouldn't it be best if both India and > Pakistan gave up their claims to the areas that the > other controls? Yes. India willing to accept the Line of Control (LOC) as the international border, but Pakistan isn't. > why does India want the Pakistan-controlled area of > Kashmir? The Simla Agreement of 1972 between India and Pakistan was meant to convert the LOC into the international boundary. >why does Pakistan want the India-controlled > area? For Pakistan, it's a logical extension of the Two Nation Theory,i.e. that Hindus and Muslims are separate nations. India and the Indian Left don't accept the Two Nation Theory. Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
raviwrote: > i think if i understand you correctly, you are > commenting on the > hypocrisy of cuban support for kashmiris. that may > be valid. can i infer > further that you do not disagree with the content of > their call: i.e., > the kashmiri people deserve the right of > self-determination? No, I don't agree. Kashmir is a part of India.India has been partitioned once with disastrous consequences. Do you want more partitions? Is anybody on the Left demanding right of self-determination for Tibet or Xinjiang? Why should it be different for Kashmir? Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
100 million Chinese suffer iodine deficiency
People's Daily Online Life UPDATED: 14:01, July 27, 2004 Some 100 million Chinese continue to suffer iodine deficiency China's plan to eradicate iodine deficiency disorders by 2000 has been frustrated by chronic shortages of the indispensable element in some areas, health authorities said at a recent meeting. The Chinese government launched a program in 1993 to eliminate iodine deficiency throughout the country by 2000. It has not yet been successful, as four provinces, two autonomous regions and one municipality failed to reach the goal, said Liu Jiayi, an official of disease control with the Ministry of Health. Liu characterized the seven areas which have yet to stamp out the problem -- Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Gansu, Hainan and Chongqing -- as being located in remote sections of the country. China has reset its goal, planning to provide enough of the element to everyone in the iodine-deficient areas within five years. Around 100 million people in China, or some eight percent of the population, suffer from a deficiency of iodine. About two million newly born infants in the country face the threat of iodine deficiency every year. It is generally believed that iodized salt provides the most economic and effective way of distributing iodine. But high shipping costs have hindered the promotion of iodized salt in remote areas, said Lin Jiahua, deputy general manager of the China National Salt Industry Corporation. Lin said that iodized salt distribution networks still cannot cover some key iodine-deficient areas. Health education is also necessary to promote the use of iodized salt, Lin said, as people in some iodine-lack areas are accustomed to crude salt and might not choose iodized salt even ifthe product is available. Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
China frees whistle-blower
The Hindu Thursday, Jul 22, 2004 China frees whistle-blower Beijing: The Chinese military surgeon who exposed the Government's cover-up of the SARS crisis was released on Tuesday after seven weeks of "political re-education'', his family said. Jiang Yanyong (72), a semi-retired general in the People's Liberation Army, had been detained at a secret location where he was forced to undergo daily study sessions aimed to make him renounce a critical letter he had written about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. It was unclear whether he had signed a letter of contrition to secure his freedom. Dr. Jiang's family said he was in good health, but forbidden to talk to the media without the prior approval of his superiors at the No. 301 military hospital in Beijing. Dr. Jiang and his wife, Hua Zhongwei, were detained on June 1 while going to the U.S. embassy, where they were applying for visas to visit their California-based daughter. They were among dozens of dissenters who were removed from public view or held under house arrest in the run-up to the politically sensitive 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4. Mrs. Hua and most of the others were released within two weeks, but Dr. Jiang was held for what sympathisers called `brainwashing,' which would have required authorisation by Jiang Zemin, the head of the military. - Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
The Sarajevo Of Iraq
OutlookIndia.com Web | Jul 23, 2004 OPINION The Sarajevo Of Iraq In the ongoing crisis in Iraq, one factor has remained unchanged: the loyalty of the Kurds to Washington. And the worsening Kurdish-Arab friction. DILIP HIRO http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040723&fname=hiro&sid=1 Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
sartesian wrote: >The > issue is the material determinants of the struggle, > the history of the > conflict in the area and what the resolution > requires. 1. "Independent" Kashmir would be a US protectorate in reality. 2. Jammu & Kashmir is not a homogenous entity. 3. A part of the territory of Kashmir (5000 sq. km.) was given by Pakistan to China in 1963. How Kashmiris will that back? Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
ravi wrote: >> Let there be self-determination everywhere, from Bejing to > > Havana. > > > > in a general sense, why not? Surely, Cuban leadership (and this is only an example)should offer self-determination to Cubans before it demands demands self-determination for Kashmiris? Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
ravi wrote: > tariq ali writes: > TA> The real question is what to do about Kashmir, > and the simple answer > is to ask the Kashmiris. Let us then ask Tibetan and Uighurs what they want. Let us ask Sindhis and Baluchis in Pakistan, Tamils in Sri Lanka, Arakan people in Mynamar, muslims in South Thailand and Philippines what they want. Let Cuban freely decide what kind of rule they want. Let there be self-determination everywhere, from Bejing to Havana. Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
Chris Doss wrote: > Ha. Do you know Cuba supports "self-determination" by Kashmiris? Ulhas > --- Ulhas Joglekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > The Hindu > > > > Monday, Jul 26, 2004 > > > > Israel pushing for Kurdish state? > > > > By Atul Aneja Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Subject: Re: Suicides, Military and Economic
Anthony D'Costa wrote: >But what he said was > that Chandra Babu Naidu > the laptop toting chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, > who was recently > ousted in the elections, transferred massive water > to the urban, high tech > driven city, at the expense of the rural folks. This story hasn't been reported in the media AFAIK. It's possible I missed it. But how exactly he did this? > The > water table is > drastically falling in the southern region and > virtually all major > southern cities (Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai) are > all facing massive > water supply problems. For all the headlines over (unfortunate) suicides in Andhra Pradesh, the state with a very high level of suicides rate is Kerala. Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
The Hindu Monday, Jul 26, 2004 Israel pushing for Kurdish state? By Atul Aneja MANAMA, JULY 25. Relations between Turkey and Israel appear to be souring rapidly amid reports that Israeli commandos are training Kurds in northern Iraq to encourage the emergence of an independent Kurdish state. Israel has vociferously denied these reports, which acquired prominence in a recent article written by the American investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh, in The New Yorker magazine. In a damage control exercise, the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, rushed to the Turkish capital, Ankara, last week where he addressed this issue. At a press conference, Mr. Olmert said, "I conveyed at every opportunity that we are not in northern Iraq and that we have never been active in that region. It is a lie that Israel is cooperating with Kurds." Israel and Turkey have been known as "strategic partners" and have had a strong military relationship. Israel has also viewed Turkey as its strategic anchor in West Asia a region that has been intensely hostile towards it. Turkey, however, has a huge stake in seeing that northern Iraq does not become independent. Fears of secession Turkey fears that an independent state at its doorstep Iraq could become the nucleus for a larger Kurdish nation, which could incorporate parts of its territory where Kurds reside in large numbers. Iran and Syria, which also have large Kurdish populations on their soil also share these apprehensions and have stood opposed to Kurdish secession in northern Iraq. Notwithstanding Israel's denial, the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, signalled his unhappiness by declining to meet Mr. Olmert. He met Naci Otri, Prime Minister of Syria Israel's arch foe, who was also visiting Turkey at the same time. Differences between Turkey and Israel have also come out in the open over the Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Mr. Erdogan has not given much credence to reports of Israeli presence in northern Iraq, indicating that the dissonance could also be driven by other factors. Analysts point out that Ankara has begun to perceive that Israel opposes Turkey's attempt to enter the European Union its core foreign policy objective. Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: HDI, GNP and the PPP factor
Paul wrote: > It is "buried" in the statistics they (the > neo-liberal proponents) > use. I was making a simple point that the debate on economic policy in India has little to do the utility of PPP numbers. Paul was trying to show how PPP numbers overstate the economic growth in the developing countries. I am not sure I understand how he has reached that conclusion. Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: HDI, GNP and the PPP factor
Paul wrote: >The PPP numbers ARE used to show that > neo-liberal policies > in India would be better for India. I don't know what you mean "neo-liberal", but nobody is using _PPP numbers_ in India to support neo-liberal policies. Nor anybody in India is opposing _PPP numbers_ to justify Marxists or fascist policies. Btw, the Human Development Report for India is prepared by India's Planning Commission. What WB has to do with it? Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Nepal: The decline of the Monarchy
The Hindu Sunday, Jul 25, 2004 The decline of the palace [King Gyanendra faces dwindling support. -- Photo: AP ] TWO INCIDENTS earlier this month, the details of which were reported in the Nepali press, confirmed for many their fears about Crown Prince Paras. Last Saturday, the Prince stormed out of his father's birthday celebrations and headed to a nightclub with his cousins. When his wife followed him there to take him home, he fired shots from his gun. Hours later, he jumped into a vehicle with friends, but without his personal security guards, and sped to Pokhara, 200 km away. There, security forces stopped the vehicle and reportedly almost gunned the prince down thinking he was a Maoist guerrilla. They recognised him in the nick of time. Image problems Crown Prince Paras is only one of the many image problems that have surrounded King Gyanendra since he took over as Nepal's constitutional monarch after the 2001 massacre at the Narayanhiti Palace. If the killings of King Birendra and his family diminished the status of the monarchy by exposing the indiscipline behind the Palace walls, his successor has the added problem that Nepalis do not accept the official version of the massacre. King Gyanendra also had big shoes to fill. In the last years of his life, his brother kept a low profile but his aura grew as the politicians of the new multi-party democracy squabbled among themselves. The new King's overt political ambitions, his dissolution of an elected Parliament in 2002, followed by his sacking of the Prime Minister, have led to a steep erosion of his personal image and that of the monarchy. He is widely perceived as playing one political party against another in order to strengthen his own position. "We are hearing slogans on the streets against the King that we did not hear even during the People's Movement in 1990," says political analyst Deepak Thapa. For the first time too, there is open talk about a republic. The Maoists, who are waging an insurgent war against the state, were the first to bring up the issue, one of their stated aims being the abolition of the constitutional monarchy. But sections of the Nepali intelligentsia, students and politicians have all joined the debate. "This is not a constitutional monarchy, it is a real monarchy, and the king is the biggest obstruction to democracy," says Lok Raj Baral, professor of political science at the Tribhuvan Universty. Recently, the students at the university voted overwhelmingly in favour of a republic in a mock referendum. One of the points of contention about the King's powers is his continuing hold over the Royal Nepal Army, a force originally raised for his protection but which is now deployed in battling the Maoists. "When the King is so often encroaching upon the Constitution, why not go for a Constituent Assembly and put the monarchy on its agenda, as the Maoists are demanding," asks Dagan Nath Dhungana, a senior member of the Girija Prasad Koirala-led Nepali Congress (NC) and former Speaker. Mr. Dhungana, who was in the team that framed the 1990 Constitution that gave the monarch a constitutional role in a multi-party democracy, says the experiment failed because "the King is not prepared to remain under the Constitution." Role as unifier But there are also large sections of Nepalis who still see a role for the King, provided he plays it by the book. "In a country with no common language, or religion, or ethnicity, there is a clear role for him as a unifier. But he must do this strictly within the confines of the Constitution," says Kunda Dixit, editor of the weekly, Nepali Times. Nepal has 60 caste and ethnic groups and Nepali, the official language, is the mother tongue of only 50 per cent of its people. Although commonly described as a Hindu kingdom, its people practise varied religions. "But if he goes around saying, as he has done, that he is the King of the world's Hindus, it works against the unifying theory," Mr. Dixit says. Many people still cherish the tradition of kingship, but at the same time, in the last dozen years, people have also got used to thinking freely, he adds. "No king can take the country back to an absolute monarchy ... His first order of business should be to restore the respect for the monarchy by leaving politics to politicians." Prabhakar Shamsher Rana, a friend of the King and chairman emeritus of the Soaltee Group, in which the royal family has a sizeable interest, says if Nepal turns into a Republic, the country will descend into anarchy as its democratic institutions are not mature enough to take the monarchy's place. "The presence of the monarch gives faith to the people that if other things go wrong, this institution is still there to protect them, to keep the country together," Mr. Rana says. But the institution also needs to keep pace with the times and assist in the evolution of the country's multi-party democracy, he says. "The King can't go bicycling as royals do in
Re: HDI, GNP and the PPP factor
Paul wrote: > BUT, using the PPP technique I described in earlier > posts, the World Bank > also calculates an imputed (imaginary) GNI. For the > same group of > countries this calculation boosts their Gross > National Income from $6.1 to > $20.5 trillion! This is a 320% increase - but just > on paper Relative prices in different parts of the world would have to be considered to obtain a fair picture of relative incomes. I can buy a banana for 3 cents in my city (Pop. 15 million). How much a banana costs in New York? Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Cuba: Dealing with the dollar
Diane Monaco wrote: > There are three -- actually four if you include the > euro that is now > accepted at a few tourist locations in Havana -- > currencies used in Cuba: > the Cuban peso, the convertible peso (equivalent to > the dollar), and > dollars. All three of these currencies circulate > freely in Cuba. How far Cuba can be regarded as an independent and socialist nation-state, if there is extensive dollarisation of Cuban economy? Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Subject: Re: Suicides, Military and Economic
Michael Perelman wrote: > Yes, but why are they localized in only 1 state? > Aren't these problems more widespread? I have not studied the pattern of rainfall region by region. Distribution of monsoon varies from region to region and within each region its timing during June-September monsoon period. Some regions also get rains in winter, others have irrigation based on snow fed rivers. Without that sort of study (which I have not done), it's hard to explain why, e.g. we don't hear about suicides by Karnataka farmers _on the same scale_ as those in Andhra Pradesh? Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Subject: Re: Suicides, Military and Economic
Perelman, Michael wrote: Farmers' suicides: > Why are they localized? Failure of monsoons, farmers' indebtness, shift to the cash crops etc. are among the principal factors. See interview of CPIM Secretary, B.V. Raghavalu for Andhra Pradesh (Pop. about 80 million)for details in Fronline, 19 June-2 July 2004: (i)Interview: CPIM Secretary for Andhra Pradesh, B.V.Raghavalu http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2113/stories/20040702006201900.htm (ii)Other Frontline articles on farmers' suicides in Andhra Pradesh http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2113/fl211300.htm Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Subject: Re: Suicides, Military and Economic
Seth Sandronsky wrote: > Peasant Suicides in India is a chapter in Contours > of Descent: U.S. > Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global > Austerity by Robert Pollin > that details the ruinous outcomes of IMF policies on > Indian farmers. India doesn't owe any money to the IMF. How IMF policies are ruining Indian farmers? As for farmers' suicides, they are largely in Andhra Pradesh, not elsewhere in India. Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Iran will have nuke capacity by '07: Israel
The Times of India THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2004 Iran will have nuke capacity by '07: Israel AFP JERUSALEM: Israeli intelligence chiefs told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet in a joint assessment on Wednesday that Iran will have a nuclear weapons capacity by 2007, public radio reported. The warning came in a report delivered by the heads of the Mossad overseas spy agency, domestic Shin Beth intelligence service and representatives from army. Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Stiglitz on Trade Talks
The Economic Times Thursday, July 22, 2004 Let the pleasant trade winds blow JOSEPH E STIGLITZ In the year since the breakdown of the trade talks in Cancun, sentiment has increasingly grown in the developing world that no agreement is better than a bad agreement. But what would a good agreement look like? The British Commonwealth recently posed this question to me and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, an international network of economists committed to helping developing countries. Our first message was that the current round of trade negotiations, especially as it has evolved, does not deserve even to be called a development round. Well before the riots that marked the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle in 1999, I called for a true "development round" of trade talks to redress the inequities of previous rounds. The advanced countries, with their dominant corporate and financial interests, had set the agenda for those negotiations. Whether or not developing countries benefited was of little concern. Indeed, in the last round of trade negotiations, the Uruguay Round, the world's poorest region, sub-Saharan Africa, was actually made worse off. Our second message was optimistic: if the agenda of the current round is reoriented towards development, and if assistance is provided to manage implementation and adjustment costs, developing countries can gain much. We analysed which reforms in the international trade regime would most benefit those in the developing world, and we presented an alternative agenda based on our findings. The results were perhaps obvious: more people live from agriculture in the developing world than from manufacturing, so agricultural liberalisation must be high on the agenda. But genuinely beneficial agricultural reform would need to go further than merely transforming export subsidies into other types of subsidies, because many supposedly non-distorting subsidies lead to more output, which hurts producers in developing countries by lowering prices. Trade reforms must be sensitive to the effects on developing countries, many of which are net importers of subsidised agricultural commodities. But some subsidies, like cotton subsidies in the United States, are rightly emblematic of America's bad faith. Eliminating this subsidy would help 10 million poor cotton farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. American taxpayers would also benefit. The only losers would be the 25,000 rich farmers who currently divvy up $3-4 billion in government hand-outs each year. Developing countries also need access for the unskilled labour-intensive services in which they have a comparative advantage. These were off the agenda in earlier trade rounds, as the US pushed for liberalisation of financial services - thus serving its own comparative advantage. Today, unskilled services remain off the agenda. Developing countries' gains from capital market liberalisation have been widely noted (although recent studies raise some doubts about these benefits). Nevertheless, the global gains from allowing freer flows of unskilled labour (even temporarily), let alone the benefits to developing countries, far outweigh the benefits from capital market liberalisation. But, as I said, this issue is not on the agenda. The trade talks in Cancun raised new subjects - the so-called Singapore issues. But even a cursory look at these items reveals that they primarily reflect the interests of developed countries. Indeed, poor countries' development would arguably have been set back if they had acquiesced in some of the demands. Consider the issue of government procurement. The single largest area of US government procurement is defence, a sector in which even the European Union has found it difficult to make inroads. Are developing countries really targeting this area in the next few years? Clearly, this issue is not high on their agenda. Competition is another example. Without competition, lowering tariffs may merely be reflected in higher profit margins for a monopoly importer. The most important competition issue for developing countries, however, is reform of dumping duties. The US and EU keep out products from developing countries, alleging that they charge less than the cost of production. But why would anyone knowingly sell at a loss? This could only be rational if the seller can hope to establish a monopoly position and extract large profits in the future. But few developing countries are in a position to establish such monopoly positions, so the dumping charges are mostly bogus. As tariff barriers have come down, the unfair "fair trade" laws are increasingly being used as America's favoured protectionist tool. Treating foreign and domestic firms the same with respect to competitive practices would stop these abuses. This, too, should be a high priority of a true development round. The breakdown of the Cancun talks may yet provide an opportunity for deeper reflection. Now that rich countries no longer ne
Kurdish warlords delay unity
The Hindu Saturday, Jul 24, 2004 Kurdish warlords delay unity By Jonathan Steele Kurdistan's two big party leaders may end up producing a deal with Baghdad that their own people denounce. SHORT OF leaving Iraq altogether, the only chance of escaping Baghdad's overwhelming heat and the constant risk of suicide bombs is to drive to Kurdistan. Little more than three hours from the capital is a land of lakes and mountains where you can venture outdoors in the afternoon without having to dash to the nearest spot of shade. Groves of slender date-palm, now starting to brim with clumps of fruit, give a certain dignity to the flatlands of Mesopotamia, but there comes a time when you long for some undulation in the landscape, a grassy knoll perhaps, or even a respectable hill. Go east, south, or west and there is no chance of finding it. Travel north and you will. So it is no surprise that increasing numbers of better-off Iraqis who can afford a short holiday plump for the Kurdish area. For 12 years, it was effectively separate from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and Baghdadis had little idea what was going on behind the curtain. Many are stunned to discover a region that is not just different scenically but has a thriving economy, minimal unemployment, and no serious security problems. The word has gone out that cities such as Sulaimaniya are enjoying a boom in house-building. As a result, workers from the Arab south are also coming up in droves to take up construction jobs. Nothing is quite what it seems, and beyond the attractive landscape and the security calm, the Kurdish region has serious unsolved problems. Its leaders try to project a united front in Baghdad and abroad, but few Kurds in the north or Arabs in the south have forgotten that the region's two dynasties spent four of their Saddam Hussein-free years fighting a civil war. Indeed one of them, Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish Democratic party (KDP), based in Irbil, even committed the ultimate sin of inviting Mr. Hussein's tanks to come up and help him push back the forces of Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The United States' mediation produced a truce in 1998, and last year the armies - known as peshmerga (those who face death) - helped their U.S. protectors bring down Mr. Hussein. They reject the label militias and see themselves as liberators. Many Kurds hoped victory would produce unity. They looked to a plan agreed with the U.S. occupation authorities in June, under which all Iraqi militias were supposed to disband and become part of Iraq's national army. Mr. Barzani and Mr. Talabani accepted the deal but, as Iraq gradually becomes sovereign, they show no sign of implementing the so-called "peshmerger." Kurdistan is due to hold elections for its regional assembly in January, at the same time as Iraq's national elections. They will be the first parliamentary vote for 12 years. But as long as the two big parties rule their areas like fiefdoms, Kurds fear that the peshmerga will act as intimidators during the coming campaign. The parties' nepotism and lack of internal democracy also cause anger. Some feel that Mr. Barzani and Mr. Talabani failed to exploit their wartime alliance with the U.S. to extract more concessions on autonomy. If the elections are free, they may show a surge for radical nationalist and pro-independence candidates. The U.S. plan for disbanding the peshmerga is based on a twin formula of cash and restructuring. Instead of the peshmerga being financed by the KDP and the PUK, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence will pay them, thereby cutting the party link. They are to be cut by at least two-thirds from their current estimated number of 75,000, with some pensioned off or retrained for police or other civilian jobs. The rest will be divided between border troops, the national guard and a counter-terrorism force based in Kurdistan. With Mr. Hussein gone, Kurdistan's leaders have decided to give Arab politicians another chance. They have five Ministers in the un-elected, U.S.-approved government in Baghdad. Compromising with the Arab majority is an understandable strategy but the ground needs to be better prepared. Unless they depoliticise their militias, accept open debate and cease to behave like warlords, the two big party leaders may end up producing a deal with Baghdad which their own people denounce. Yesterday's heroes can become tomorrow's traitors if they fail to change with the times. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
India: Human Development Report 2001
The Planning Commission Government of India National Human Development Report 2001 http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/reportsf.htm Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Cuba: Dealing with the dollar
Frontline Volume 16 - Issue 8, Apr. 10 - 23, 1999 CUBA Cuba: Dealing with the dollar C.P. CHANDRASEKHAR recently in Havana How Cuba copes with the long-term effects of the U.S. blockade against it by making the pursuit of dollar earning a virtual movement. http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1608/16081090.htm Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Human Development Index 2004
Daniel Davies wrote: > nor is Malaysia >> Behalf Of Chris Doss > Russia is not a 3rd world country. "Third World" is not a useful category. Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: phones and human welfare
Devine, James" wrote: > In any event, there's no way one could reduce human > welfare to either cell phones or all phones. 300 million Indians watch CTVs today, but I know there is no way one could reduce human welfare to CTVs. Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Slave labour in Brazil
The Hindu Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004 Slave labour in Brazil By Paul Brown An unpublished report for the ILO says that despite the best efforts of the Brazilian Government, slave labour continues in the country's interior. AN ESTIMATED 25,000 people are working as slave labourers in Brazil clearing the Amazon jungle for ranchers, or producing pig iron in the forest using charcoal smelters, according to a new study. An unpublished report for the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation concludes that despite the best efforts of the Government of President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva to free slaves and prosecute offenders, the level of lawlessness in the country's interior means that the practice continues. The report also uncovers a new area of labour "analogous to slavery," where men, women and children who are illegal immigrants from Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay are working in sweatshops in Sao Paulo. Workshop owners are part of a flourishing cheap clothes industry that uses the fear of deportation to enforce harsh conditions under which people are sometimes locked up where they work and sleep. The London-based Guardian newspaper was passed a copy of the report because anti-slavery campaigners feared that the ILO was suppressing it. They believe that officials are nervous of criticism of the organisation's failure to make an impact on the situation. The report is also sensitive because it shows that the United States is directly benefiting from the proceeds of slavery. But Roger Plant, head of the ILO's forced labour programme in Geneva, denied the report was being withheld. He said it had been held back to include more statistics and it would be updated and published next year. Mr. Plant said the report made clear that the Brazilian Government was making efforts to attack slavery, and it was unfair to single out a state when Peru and Bolivia also had slaves, probably in similar numbers. New figures show that since the Lula Government took office in January 2002 with a promise to end slave labour, 5,400 slave workers have been released and £ 1.4 million paid to them in compensation. The author of the report, Jan Rocha, said on Sunday: "After a good start cracking down, the Government has given in to the landowners' lobby's pressure in Congress to delay a bill that would confiscate their estates when slave labour has been found, in exchange for their votes on other bills. "As the report pointed out, the scandalous fact is that many federal Congressmen and regional politicos have been found using slave labour on their cattle ranches - so some of the men who got the law postponed are those who personally benefit from the delay." Attempts to tackle slave labour have been hindered by the lawlessness of the territories involved and the puny punishments that have been handed out. Ms. Rocha describes how slave workers live in hovels under plastic sheets without sanitation, with the job of clearing the forest for soya bean plantations and cattle. In the charcoal smelters they work without protective clothing in extreme heat. The report concludes that the only way slavery will disappear is that if everyone regards it as "a national outrage" and ranches and businesses are confiscated as a punishment. - Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: Cuba: siempre con combate
Diane Monaco wrote: > Cuba IS a remarkable country Hi Diane ! Mexico is not far behind Cuba in HDI, AFAIK. Btw, 75% Singaporeans, 50% Malaysians & 33% of Thais have cell phones. How many cell phones Cuba has? Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
41 million Chinese believed to have hepatitis C virus: report
People's Daily Online Life UPDATED: 17:34, June 26, 2004 41 million Chinese believed to have hepatitis C virus: report An estimated 41 million people in China have contracted the hepatitis C virus, which could become a fatal "quiet epidemic," according to Professor Xu Daozheng, a liver disease expert with Ditan Hospital in Beijing. The Chinese Ministry of Health said in a report, issued in February, the number of hepatitis C patient was growing. A national epidemicological survey covering the 1992-1995 period found 3.2 percent of the country's population, or 38 million people, had hepatitis C virus. Prof. Xu said his estimate is quite conservative, and suggested the disease should be included in normal medical checks, like hepatitis B, because it has become a serious public health issue in China. At present, a patient with hepatitis C may look normal and feeljust as good as a healthy person, and the disease will not be detected until it is too late, the professor warned. Unlike other types of hepatitis B, 75 percent of people with hepatitis C show no signs of symptoms in the early stage, said Xu. About 15 percent of the people with hepatitis C will develop hepatocirrhosis and 5 percent would develop cancer if the disease is detected in a later stage, the expert explained. There is still no vaccine against hepatitis C in China, and theChina Medical Association has called for screening the disease in normal blood tests, especially among high-risk groups. China has about 20 million people with chronic viral liver diseases out of its 1.3 billion population, and half of the 280,000 patients of liver disease died of liver cancer. Source:Xinhua Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
Re: India's HDI Improves, Ranking Doesn't
Anthony D'Costa wrote: >The Hindu-Muslim divide is India's least problematic >cultural divide. Hindu-Muslim divide has the potential to threaten India's unity and democratic structure. Caste divide does not have that potential. >The Indian government has generally handled demands >for autonomy reasonably well, if keeping the states >within the Indian union is a criterion for managing >splits well. Yes, we could compare India with the fSU, Yugoslavia and Pakistan. Ulhas Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/
India's HDI Improves, Ranking Doesn't
The Financial ExpressFriday, July 16, 2004HDI Improves, Ranking Doesn'tOUR POLICY BUREAUPosted online: Friday, July 16, 2004 at 0103 hours ISTNEW DELHI, JULY 15: India's human development index (HDI) has shown asteady improvement in the last couple of years. India's ranking, however, at127 out of 177 countries remains the same as in the previous year. The challenge before India, according to the UNDP's Human Development Index2004, is to manage cultural diversity. This assumes significance as thecountry, despite its long secular tradition, has experienced considerablecommunal violence in the last one decade.According to the report, which was released by Union minister forinformation, broadcasting and culture S Jaipal Reddy on Thursday, Malaysia,China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam rank above India. The countrieswhich are ranked below India are Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal andPakistan.India's HDI has consistently gone up from 0.411 in 1975 to 0.595 in 2002.The HDI was 0.579 in 2000. The HDI, it may be mentioned, is an index whichfocuses on three measurable dimensions of human development - living a longand healthy life, being educated and having a decent standard of living. Theindex combines measures of life expectancy, school enrollment, literacy andincome to allow a broader view of a country's development.The 2002 report, which focuses on "Cultural liberty in today's world",recognises India's vibrant multi-cultural ethos based on a strong andcomposite policy framework that promotes democracy and diversity. The report, UNDP resident representative Maxine Olson said, "salutes India forits multi-cultural facet." In India there is space for state identity whilemaintaining a strong Central focus simultaneously, she added.Terming the HDI 2004 a monumental contribution, Mr Reddy said that culturalliberty was important not only for peace and progress but also for thesurvival of mankind. "We must all learn to live together, and celebrate diversity," the minister added.© 2004: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reservedthroughout the world. Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online.
India's HDI Improves, Ranking Doesn't
The Financial ExpressFriday, July 16, 2004HDI Improves, Ranking Doesn'tOUR POLICY BUREAUPosted online: Friday, July 16, 2004 at 0103 hours ISTNEW DELHI, JULY 15: India's human development index (HDI) has shown asteady improvement in the last couple of years. India's ranking, however, at127 out of 177 countries remains the same as in the previous year. The challenge before India, according to the UNDP's Human Development Index2004, is to manage cultural diversity. This assumes significance as thecountry, despite its long secular tradition, has experienced considerablecommunal violence in the last one decade.According to the report, which was released by Union minister forinformation, broadcasting and culture S Jaipal Reddy on Thursday, Malaysia,China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam rank above India. The countrieswhich are ranked below India are Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal andPakistan.India's HDI has consistently gone up from 0.411 in 1975 to 0.595 in 2002.The HDI was 0.579 in 2000. The HDI, it may be mentioned, is an index whichfocuses on three measurable dimensions of human development - living a longand healthy life, being educated and having a decent standard of living. Theindex combines measures of life expectancy, school enrollment, literacy andincome to allow a broader view of a country's development.The 2002 report, which focuses on "Cultural liberty in today's world",recognises India's vibrant multi-cultural ethos based on a strong andcomposite policy framework that promotes democracy and diversity. The report, UNDP resident representative Maxine Olson said, "salutes India forits multi-cultural facet." In India there is space for state identity whilemaintaining a strong Central focus simultaneously, she added.Terming the HDI 2004 a monumental contribution, Mr Reddy said that culturalliberty was important not only for peace and progress but also for thesurvival of mankind. "We must all learn to live together, and celebrate diversity," the minister added.© 2004: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reservedthroughout the world. Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online.
Church minister killed in Indonesia
The HinduTuesday, Jul 20, 2004Indonesian church minister killedJAKARTA: Unidentified gunmen burst into a church in central Indonesia andopened fire, killing the woman minister and wounding four worshippers,police said on Monday. The killing on Sunday evening took place in Palu,central Sulawesi province, which has been hit by sporadic violence betweenMuslims and Christians since 2001. At least 1,000 people have been killed.Two men armed with automatic weapons overpowered the security guard atPalu's Effata Church before opening fire, the national police spokesman Gen.Paiman said. The preacher Susianti Tinulele was killed instantly, and fourothers were injured, he said."We are trying to determine the motive,'' said Gen. Paiman, who goes by asingle name. "It is very disturbing that attacks like this continue tohappen in churches in Palu.''In May, gunmen killed a prominent Christian prosecutor in Palu as he leftchurch. The town, 600 km northeast of Jakarta, was a major battleground infighting between Christians and Muslims three years ago. Large-scale clashesbetween the two sides have now subsided, but occasional shootings and bombblasts still take place in the region.APCopyright © 2004, The Hindu. Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online.
Re: To Ulhas re definitions
Jim wrote: >My impression is that the old USSR subsidized Cuba big time, by buying >sugar at a >(usually) above-market rate and selling oil to them at a >(usually) below-market rate. >Thus, when the USSR went south, Cuba's economy >went into severe crisis (which >they have adapted to very well, >considering). Cuba, and the USSR's support for it, >made the USSR look good. Cuban ambassador to India recently invited Indian business to invest in Cuba. Cuba seems to be inviting FDI. Cuba is a member of the WTO. Not much different from other "Third World" nations in that aspect. Ulhas
Re: Re: Re:To Ulhas re definitions_Cuba
Hari Kumar wrote: >1) You ask essentially, whether I think Cuba was a neo-colony of the fUSSR? >Answer: I do. Our views on Cuban Revisionism; & Castro, & to a limited >extent on >Guevera are at this site address: Cuban Revisionism >In synopsis: a national bourgeoisie who rapidly appreciated that there was >liitle/no >base to build a viable state structure, who went to USA >imperialism to ask for >collaborationist support; & who being rejected by >them, had nowhere else to go but >to the USSR for such support. Castro >"re-discovered" a pseudo-Marxism at that >point. What has happened to Cuba since the USSR's demise? Is Cuba a neo-colony of some other nation? Ulhas
Vietnam's army gears up for telecoms offensive
HindustanTimes.com Wednesday, August 21, 2002 Vietnam's army gears up for telecoms offensive AFP Hanoi, August 21 Vietnam's military will kick off its major offensive on the domestic telecommunications market on September 2, becoming the communist state's fifth Internet service provider (ISP). The army-run Electronic and Telecommunications Co. or Vietel, which was granted a licence to provide online access in 1998, will only serve Hanoi and the southern commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh City, a company spokesman said. It will be in direct competition with rival state-owned ISPs, Vietnam Data and Communication Co., FPT, Saigon Net and Net Nam. The military's move into the online world comes on the back of it receiving the green light earlier this month to enter the fixed line telephone market to complement its march into the lucrative mobile sector. The start up date for Vietel's Internet operations coincides with Vietnam's National Day celebrations commemorating the proclamation of independence from French colonial rule in 1945 by communist party founding father Ho Chi Minh. For an initial period Vietel will offer discounted rates to attract customers but it will then adopt a similar pricing policy to its competitors, charging between 100 and 200 dong a minute (around one US cent), the spokesman said. He refused to reveal the amount of investment or its subscriber targets. A further six other companies have been granted ISP licences but they have yet to start operations. As of June this year there were only 175,000 registered Internet users across the predominantly agricultural country, a 30 percent increase on 2001. However the number of people with online access, mainly via the country's 4,000-plus Internet cafes, is estimated to be as many as 1,000,000 from a population of 79 million. Low telephone ownership is one of the main barriers to Internet access since it was first introduced to Vietnam in 1997 -- last year there were just 5.4 telephones per 100 people, according to the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corp. (VNPT). Personal computer ownership is lower still in the Southeast Asian country, where gross domestic product per capita last year was around 400 dollars. The army, which has its fingers in nearly 200 businesses ranging from transportation to construction and textiles, is also preparing for its entry into the fixed line domestic phone market at the beginning of 2003. For the past two years it has operated a cheap-rate international call service, renting technology from VNPT. However Vietel says recent investment in technology will enable it to go head-to-head with its former state-owned partner in its own backyard. The military's GSM (general system for mobile communications) network is also scheduled to be operational during the first quarter of 2003, but will initially only cover the capital, the central city of Danang and Ho Chi Minh City. Vietel says that by mid-2003, 40 of Vietnam's 61 provinces and cities should be hooked up, breaking VNPT's lucrative stranglehold on the cellular market through its VinaPhone network and from its MobiFone joint venture with Sweden's Comvik. Vietnam has around 1.6 million mobile phone subscribers but the figure is predicted to reach more than seven million by the end of 2005, according to VNPT. The government has targeted telecoms development as one the keys to economic growth and has marked it as high priority. Industry experts say Vietnam is the second most rapidly expanding telecoms market in the world after China. © Hindustan Times Ltd. 2002. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission To send your feedback via web click here or email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re:To Ulhas re definitions
Hari Kumar wrote: >3) a neo-colony, a former colony which has become a semi- colony, >continuing to be dominated by a greater power for the benefit of >the latter's ruling class, e.g., Tunisia, Jamaica. I don't know much about Cuba, but how would you describe Cuba's relationship to the fSU? Fraternal ties? Ulhas
Soviet ships in the Indian Navy
rediff.com: April 6, 2001 Admiral J G Nadkarni (retd) Who cares if Soviet ships were new or old? Obviously the three services and the ministry of defence are on a major image mending exercise. Aided and advised by the media's elder statesman B G Verghese, the army and navy recently held public confessionals, justifying purchases and trying belatedly to inject a bit of transparency to the business of arms imports. The Indian Navy held a press conference in which two senior naval officers defended the purchase of the Barak missiles from Israel. Unfortunately, the headlines next day talked more of Russian arms and spares than those from Israel. In probably an unguarded moment, the naval spokesman let out that the Soviet Union has been possibly flogging us secondhand ships in the past. How true are these charges and what effect has this had on the state of the Indian fleet? India's arms purchases from the Soviet Union began in the mid-sixties. As a result of India's refusal to join any of the military alliances, Western powers, especially the US and the UK, refused to supply us with our requirements in weapons and other military hardware, leaving defence minister Yashwant Chavan with no alternative except to seek them from the Soviet Union. Beginning in 1965, the Soviets supplied India's armed forces with nearly 70 per cent of its weapons, tanks, ships and aircraft. The Indian Navy received Petya class patrol vessels, Foxtrot class submarines, mine sweepers, landing craft, a submarine tender and a submarine rescue vessel. The switch over from west to east required a great deal of sacrifice and adjustment from the navy and its personnel. Up to that time India's principal supplier had been the United Kingdom. There was a close association between the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy. Most of the senior officers had been trained in the UK and on board British ships. Indeed, for nearly 15 years after independence the navy was headed by a Royal Navy officer on loan. Each country builds its warships according to its own peculiar philosophy. The ships are designed around equipment which that country produces. The Royal Navy gave a lot of importance to habitability, sea keeping qualities, neatness and good looks. The Soviets on the other hand believed in stuffing their ships with weapons and equipment resulting in crammed accommodation and poor habitability. Indian officers and sailors, brought up on western propaganda, believed the Soviet ships to be badly designed, with inferior equipment and poor sea keeping qualities. Only after the first lot of crews had got used to the Soviet ships did they realise that not only were the ships not in any way worse than their British counterparts but in many ways superior to them. The Soviet Petyas, for example, which we acquired in the mid-sixties were fitted with gas turbines which the west only began to fit on their ships in the seventies. In the latter acquisitions, such as the Kashins and the Kilo class submarines, which we acquired in the early eighties, there was a vast improvement in accommodation and habitability. The Soviets, who had little clue in the early years about operating ships in the tropics, began to accede to our requirements. Air conditioning capacity was enhanced and ships made a little more comfortable. Did the Soviets palm off secondhand ships to India? There is strong circumstantial evidence to indicate that this might have been true. Prior to the Soviet purchases, India had acquired eight new frigates from the UK. In every case of building a new ship the process starts at the builder's yard. Right from the start, technical representatives of the buyer are present and oversee the construction. They have even the right to reject a part of the construction, as indeed did happen at the yard of HDW in Germany when a major assembly of the submarine was rejected by Indian overseers. The keel laying and the launching of a ship are ceremonies which are undertaken with a degree of pomp and publicity. The ship is named during launching by a VVIP. None of this happened with the Soviet purchases. From the start the Soviets had a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. They refused permission for Indian officers to be stationed at the building yards, even as observers, leave alone as overseers. Indeed, no one knew where the ships were being built and launched. The crew would be asked to come to a particular port where the ship would be handed over for commissioning. In the initial purchases the Soviets even refused to admit Indian personnel to be present during sea trials. It took nearly twenty years of haggling and persistence for the Soviets to agree to Indian presence during sea trials. The recent launch of the Krivak class frigate Talwar was the first occasion that Indians have performed a launching ceremony at a Russian yard. All this led to a deep suspicion among India sailors that the Soviets were not building ships anew for the Indian Navy but pulling out
Re::Stiglitz interview_Character of PRC
Hari Kumar wrote: > I suggest that the term is still meaningful. [Even despite the > increasingly 'narrow' stage on which national capitalists can play in > today's even more inter-penetrated world]. It describes for instance > the opponents of Chavez in the recent tussles in Venezuela. ie. Those > whose vested interests (you use the term accumulation) reside in > external imperial connections. The original term according to Oxford > dictionary was coined regarding the agents for imperial shipping firms > in China. I think that this still describes a grouping whose primary > economic function is as the funnel of imperialism into various > semi-colonies or neo-colonial states. This is largely different from the > role of political sycophancy that for instance, Mr.Blair - leading > representatives of rival imperialism may indulges in. I don't know anything about Venezuela. My question was about the concept of comprador capital, if there is one. Similarly we need the concepts of other terms you use, viz. semi-colony, neo-colony etc., if loose talk about x or y nation being a colony/semi-colony/neocolony is to be avoided. Perhaps you could offer a set of definitions which can be applied consistently and rigorously to various social formations. Ulhas
Re::Stiglitz interview_Character of PRC
Hari Kumar: > (1) IT si true that the COMPRADOR capital was expropriated: What is comprador capital in contemporary capitalism? We know productive capital, industrial capital etc. from their place in the accumulation process. What do compradors do in the accumulation process today? Is the term relevant any longer? Ulhas
Vietnam may fortify Internet firewall
HindustanTimes.com Friday, August 16, 2002 Communist Vietnam may fortify Internet firewall Reuters Hanoi, August 16 Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has been policing Internet use more closely, may further fortify its Internet firewall to block out subversive material and pornography, a government official said. The Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper quoted Phan An Sa, deputy chief inspector of the Culture and Information Ministry, as urging Vietnam's Internet access providers to tighten firewalls to block subversive material. Cyberspace usage in the southeast Asian country is already controlled, and some sites, such as those run by overseas dissident groups, are hard to access. Rights groups accused the government earlier this year of detaining three dissidents for publishing on the Internet pro-democracy texts and criticism of Vietnam's border agreements with China, a charge Hanoi has denied. Last month the government also suspended the operations of a local website, saying it had not registered with the authorities. Sa told the newspaper that Internet service providers "need to stop immediately (inbound subversive information) at the national gateway". Vietnam has three state-run Internet access firms of which the largest is Vietnam Data Communication Co. About one million of Vietnam's 80 million population surf the Net. Sa, who headed a two-week nationwide inspection of Internet usage that ended on Wednesday, said Internet service providers must be responsible for restricting users' access to "degenerating information" or pornographic material. Sa could not be reached for further comment. In the interview, he said five types of information "which affect national security" had been discovered on the Internet, including outbound and inbound transfers of anti-government materials and the use of cyberspace for fraud. Sa said 70 percent of Internet users in Vietnam log in for chatting, 10 percent for games, 10 percent for e-mails and 10 percent for access to websites, of which five percent mainly surfed "harmful sites containing reactionary and sexual content". No punishment has yet been set for the offences uncovered during the crackdown but Sa said authorities should impose fines and increase education on Internet use for young people since most of those who surfed the net were between 14 and 24. The Culture and Information Ministry is in charge of monitoring Internet content in Vietnam, which is seeking to push an aggressive economic agenda and promote foreign investment while maintaining control over its population. © Hindustan Times Ltd. 2002. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission To send your feedback via web click here or email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: RE: Re: production & realization
Jim wrote: >an accounting quibble: it's not a balance of payments deficit, but a >current-account >deficit balanced by a capital-account surplus, where the >latter implies that the US >national net worth is falling. Thanks for replying. One more question, if you don't mind. How the US can have a capital-account surplus despite low interest rates? Ulhas
UN cuts rations in Afghanistan
HindustanTimes.com Sunday, August 18, 2002 UN cuts rations as Afghan food aid runs out Simon Denyer (Reuters) Mazar-i-Sharif, August 18 The UN's World Food Programme is being forced to cut rations for millions of hungry and vulnerable Afghans because international donors have failed to stump up promised cash, officials say. Just seven months after Western nations pledged billions of dollars in aid to help rebuild Afghanistan, money is already running out for the most basic requirement - feeding people who continue to live on the borderline of survival. "The level of resources we are going to get will not be enough," said Guy Gauvreau, the WFP's representative for northern Afghanistan. "We're extremely worried about it. It's understandable - there's a drought in southern Africa - but we cannot forget Afghanistan," he said. Some six million Afghans still need food aid over the next year, according to UN figures. The WFP has appealed for $285 million this year but is still short of more than $90 million - or 200,000 tonnes of food - and the lack of cash is beginning to hurt. Afghanistan is only slowly getting back on its feet after 23 years of war and the worst drought in living memory. The south remains bone dry for a fourth year, and while there has been decent rainfall in the north, many people are still struggling. UNPRECEDENTED DESTITUTION Shortages of seeds or oxen combined with locust infestations and a lack of security in many areas all limited the harvest, which Gauvreau says was "good, but not enough to feed people". Afghanistan already has one of the highest levels of infant and maternal mortality in the world and life expectancy is among the lowest. The drought has brought people to a unprecedented levels of destitution, aid workers say. More than half the country's livestock has been lost in the last four years, with massive deaths and distress selling last year. Rebuilding of herds is only happening slowly this year. "People have sold livestock, mortgaged their land, some have gone into debt, even sold the beams of their houses," said Andrew Pinney of Irish aid agency GOAL. "And they have sold in a terrible market, that's how desperate they have become." Pinney says some parents in the north have even been forced to sell their daughters as child brides, girls as young as eight fetching between $150 and $800. "The practice seems to have stopped in the last six months as food aid has produced some sort of buffer," Pinney said, adding continued support was essential to help communities recover. But support is running out. Only a fraction of the $4.5 billion in aid pledged to Afghanistan in January has so far come through. Donors have cited security concerns and Afghanistan's still limited capacity to absorb aid, but critics blame bureaucracy and many Afghans feel the outside world has simply failed to live up to its promises. RATIONS CUT AS BRUSSELS, WASHINGTON SQUABBLE Humanitarian sources say Washington, which has so far provided the lion's share of WFP's funding for Afghanistan this year, is demanding Brussels meet more of the shortfall. As the two capitals squabble over who should pay the bill, Gauvreau is being forced to cut back on aid for vulnerable Afghans in the north. Former refugees returning from abroad used to receive a one- time handout from WFP of 250 kg of wheat to help them get back on their feet. That ration has been cut this month to just 100 kg, and Gauvreau says he fears a further cut to 50 kg within two weeks if aid does not arrive fast. Crucial food-for-work programmes -- where communities receive aid in return for digging wells or canals or improving their land -- also face the axe throughout the north. Gauvreau needs to find 18,000 tonnes of wheat from somewhere to truck into the mountains before the roads close around the end of October, to help two million people get through the harsh winter. "What we are afraid of is that if the winterisation plan does not have enough resources to implement, there's going to be a major nutritional crisis in the mountain areas," he said. © Hindustan Times Ltd. 2002. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission To send your feedback via web click here or email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Pakistan reject UN inspection of nuclear plants
ken hanly wrote: > So how come Pakistan isnt part of the axis of evil and attacked for > developing weapons of mass destruction and ignoring the UN? Pakistan acquired nuclear weapons capability in 80s. The decision to develop nuclear weapon capability was probably made immediately after the loss of Bangladesh in 1971. During 80s Pakistan was a frontline state in the US campaign (supported by China) against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. US could not do without Pakistan, since Iran was a anti-US after Iranian revolution. US, therefore, ignored Pakistan's acquisition of nuclear weapons. Much of Pakistani missile capability to deliver nuclear weapons, comes from China and North Korea. There is no question of Pakistan ignoring the UN, since the UN doesn't have resolutions about nukes. Pakistan is not required to accept UN inspection. P-5 monopoly over nuclear weapons is codified by Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. India and Pakistan are not signatories to this treaty. Ulhas
Re: RE: Re: production & realization
Jim wrote: >In fact, under the right conditions, such as those of the 1950s and 1960s >in the U.S., >it can pull up wages (relative to labor productivity) and thus >consumer demand, >preventing underconsumption problems (without it being >necessary for consumers >to get into severe debt). Would this correspond to capital accumulation largely founded on the relative surplus value? >But under historically-specific conditions such as those of the 1920s or >the 1990s, >where accumulation doesn't pull wages up much relative to labor >productivity and >there's a world-wide "race" (or creep) to the bottom, >there's an underconsumption >undertow. The one-sided class struggle against >labor -- combined with competitive >austerity and export-promotion -- keeps >consumer demand growing very slowly. Is this the strategy of accumulation grounded in the absolute surplus value? >But that doesn't mean we can't have economic booms like that of the late >1990s >(again in the U.S.) Accumulation can speed ahead. In fact, it did so, >but it had to speed >up more than in the 1950s or 1960s, to make up for the >baleful pull of the >undertow. And consumption boomed, but almost completely >based on a truly >dramatic increase in indebtedness. Both of these booms >corresponded to a rapid >increase in U.S. external indebtedness. So the >"solution" to the undertow created >new problems, new imbalances, with which >we are still living. I don't know much about the US economy, but the popular perception about the US economy is the US lives beyond its means. US savings rate is low. US economy has a massive balance of payments deficit combined with a huge fiscal deficit (except perhaps for Clinton years) Thus, the US would seem to be characterised by overconsumption, rather than an underconsumption undertow. How do we reconcile the hypothesis of undertow with the appearance of profligacy? Ulhas
Re: production & realization
Jim D. wrote: >Laissez-faire_ (blatantly pro-business) capitalism of the sort that >prevailed in >the .1920s and the 1980s-90s eventually causes an >underconsumption undertow that >increasingly drags the system into crisis. >Counteracting influences -- such as >increasing extension of credit -- >eventually fail, so the economy falls, as happened in >1929-33 and seems to >be happening now. (However, we can't say yet that the >magnitude of the >current problem is as big as that of the 1930s.) Could you explain what you mean by "an underconsumption undertow"? Is this different from usual underconsumptionist arguments? Ulhas
Taiwan Bank Mergers
The Financial Express Thursday, August 15, 2002 Taiwan Banks To Expedite Merger Efforts As Competition Hots Up Taipei, Aug 14: Two large bank mergers in Taiwan, worth nearly $ six billion, will force smaller rivals to speed up their search for partners in a crowded financial sector that has been slow to reform and is dogged by bad debts and weak profits. Taiwan's 52 banks, striving to widen services to the island's 23 million people, are also being spurred to merge by the lure of China as the world's largest potential market gradually opens up. With thousands of Taiwan manufacturers based in China, Taiwan banks have a huge customer base just waiting to be served. The long-delayed bank consolidation was set in motion with the $2.4 billion merger between Fubon Financial Holding Co and government-backed Taipei Bank, forming Taiwan's fourth largest financial group. Cathay Financial Holdings Co Ltd, Taiwan's largest listed financial group, followed with a plan to pay $3.4 billion in stock for United World Chinese Commercial Bank, in the island's largest corporate takeover. The deals created two new entrants into Asia's 10 largest financial groups outside of Japan and Australia. "Yes, definitely. Perhaps this will be a catalyst to speed up decision making at these institutions," said a financial sector analyst at Goldman Sachs based in Hong Kong. She was referring to strong private banking firms such as SinoPac Holdings Co, which could become a target for the three failed suitors for Taipei Bank. They are Chinatrust Financial Holding, China Development Financial and Yuanta-Core Pacific Securities. Chinatrust Financial, which includes Taiwan's largest private bank, raised $400 million in June for a takeover of a local bank. A month earlier, China Development, the island's biggest venture capital firm, raised $575 million for the same purpose. "Even if you are a successful, healthy independent institution, times are changing quickly and you have to consider joining forces with other institutions that can bring more product to your customers," said Mr Andrew Brown, the global banking team leader at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in Hong Kong. Taiwan's move to force consolidation has come later than regional peers such as South Korea, which has some 20 banks serving a population more than twice that of the island. As overdue loans continued to rise, reaching a record 8.04 per cent in the first quarter this year - private analysts say the true level is double that - the government became serious about consolidation as WTO entry loomed. - Reuters © 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world.
Hong Kong’s super rich still have a ball
The Economic Times Saturday, August 10, 2002 Forget slump, Hong Kongs super rich still have a ball REUTERS HONG KONG: Abbie Chan drives a Porsche and says she owns about half a dozen luxury apartments in Hong Kong. A regular on the high-society circuit, the businesswoman attends 3-4 balls a month, spending around HK$10,000 ($1,300) on new clothes and accessories each time. Trim and fashionable, she is one of Hong Kongs ultra rich, boasting a lifestyle the overwhelming majority of residents can only read about in the society pages of newspapers. While most people fret about unemployment and how to make ends meet as the city struggles to shake off its second recession in five years, such woes are remote to the super-rich. Chan says she made $25m selling insurance when she was 23 before going on to make more by distributing health products in the last eight years. While the halving of Hong Kong real estate prices since 97 has hit the value of her properties, Ms Chan continues her skiing trips and shopping sprees in Europe. Asked how she felt about the hardship most people in the territory face, Chan said, Im lucky and I treasure what I have. Showing off a wine cellar in her sprawling duplex flat, the 30-something says her career success and wealth have very little to do with her privileged background. The wine cellar cost HK$500,000 to build and the wine is worth up to HK$2m, she said. Her architect father owns a string of properties in Hong Kong and went into retirement in his 40s. Ms Chan and her older sister clinched exclusive rights to distribute the Maruha brand of shark liver pills outside Japan in 94 and the business has since grown. Popular belief credits shark liver pills with being a sovereign remedy for illness ranging from arthritis to diabetes. Apart from Hong Kong, the sisters also distribute the products in Switzerland, Singapore and Australia. When you are rich, you will be beautiful. Money can buy beauty, says the golfer, who swims and undergoes regular slimming treatments and beauty care. While the less fortunate tighten their belts, the slump has meant little to Ms Chan and her ilk. Sales of foreign branded items have remained strong and luxury car dealers recently said their top-end customers are still bringing in the much-needed revenues. There are the exceptions, however. The downturn has claimed many casualties in Hong Kong, and amongst them are a few well-known names. Veteran Cantopop singer Kenny Bee, once the heart-throb of thousands of teenage girls, filed for bankruptcy in July. Mr Bee and his former wife Teresa Cheung borrowed heavily to invest in Hong Kongs real estate in the 90s, but found themselves stuck with huge debts when the property market crashed in 97. Newspapers put the sum at HK$250m. The number of personal bankruptcies hit a record 10,173 in the first half of 02, almost triple those in the same period last year and surpassing the total for all of 01. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Re: From Hyperbolic Comparisons to Haughty Patronisation
Hari Kumar wrote: >Dear Louis, don't patronise. Indian CPs have 1 million party members, but on Left-wing mailing lists I have been subjected to lectures on party building, stagism, Marx's letter to Zasulikh, Marx on India, Vasco de gama etc etc. ! :-) Ulhas
Re: Re: Re: American anti-terrorist drive targets Filipino Communists
Scott Harrison wrote: > There are still Marxist revolutionaries in this world, and in fact growing > numbers of them in some areas--especially south Asia Growing number in South Asia as a whole? You mean Nepal, I presume. Ulhas
Malaysian courts order illegal immigrants to be whipped
The Times of India SUNDAY, AUGUST 11, 2002 Malaysian courts order illegal immigrants to be whipped AP KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian courts for the first time ordered seven foreigners to be whipped and imprisoned for entering the country without valid papers under tough new laws against illegal immigrants, court officials said on Saturday. Four Indonesians were sentenced to be lashed twice with a rattan cane. Another Indonesian and two Bangladesh nationals were ordered to be whipped once. The seven, aged between 22 to 38, who pleaded guilty to entering the country illegally, were also sentenced to jail terms between six months and two years. The sentences were handed out by lower courts in the central state of Selangor and the northern island state of Penang on Friday, court officials in the two states said on condition of anonymity. The seven are the first to be charged under new laws that were enforced this month which provide for fines of up to 10,000 ringgit ($2,600), mandatory prison terms of six months to five years and up to six strokes of the cane. Previously offenders were fined and in some cases given jail sentences of less then three months before they were deported. The new laws came into force after a four-month grace period that allowed illegal immigrants to leave the country lapsed. Government officials say about 290,000 illegal immigrants, mainly from Indonesia and Bangladesh, left the country during that time. Officials estimated that before the crackdown up to 600,000 illegal workers formed a labor black market in Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia's wealthiest countries and a magnet for migrants fleeing poverty and violence in the region. The government says about 450,000 of them are Indonesians who mostly work in menial plantation, construction or housekeeping jobs. The plight of thousands of illegal Indonesian workers still in Malaysia - who face caning and imprisonment if caught by authorities - topped the agenda during talks between Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohamad and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in Bali, Indonesia earlier this week. Indonesia is asking Malaysia to allow the remaining illegal workers to stay while their travel documents and work visas are processed in the Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru. The Malaysian government says it will give extra time to people who can prove they plan to leave the country. Officials from the two countries insist ties between their governments remain strong despite the eviction of thousands of Indonesian workers from Malaysia. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
FDI in China continues to show robust growth
The Economic Times Tuesday, August 13, 2002 FDI in China continues to show robust growth AFP BEIJING: Foreign direct investment in China surged 22 per cent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2002, well up on the 18.7 per cent recorded in the first half of the year, official figures showed on Monday. A total of $29.5 billion of overseas investment was pumped into the country's economy to the end of July, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation said. The swift growth follows China's World Trade Organization membership, achieved late last year. Foreign investment has shot up as China begins dismantling many of its arcane regulations that excluded foreign competition, now outlawed under WTO regulations. Investment commitment in the first seven months to July also showed strong gains, up 34.9 per cent, although this year-on-year increase slowed from the stellar 45.7 mark of the comparable seven-month period in 2001. China's Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng forecast earlier this month that China's total direct foreign investment could reach $50 billion this year, up from $46.8 billion in 2001. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Moon within our reach Isro
The Times of India TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2002 Moon within our reach: Isro SRINIVAS LAXMAN TIMES NEWS NETWORK MUMBAI: The report of the lunar mission task force, which was constituted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) last year, states that the moon is within Indias reach. The report, which was submitted to Isro chairperson K. Kasturirangan in July, emphasises that this country has the technical capability to launch an unmanned flight to the moon in five years. The task force was headed by George Joseph, former director of the Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre. Its other members included space scientists P C Agarwal of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai and N Bhandari of the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad. Its membersecretary was K. Thyagarajan of the Isro satellite centre in Bangalore. Speaking to TNN from Ahmedabad on Monday, Joseph said, Ours is the official report on Indias mission to the moon. Our studies clearly indicate that this country has the technical capability to launch this mission and place a satellite in the lunar orbit for carrying out scientific studies. He said it took quite some time to prepare the report because the task force members had to do a lot of research by carrying out computer simulations. Outlining some of the salient points in the recently- submitted report, he said: The rocket to be used for the mission will be the highly-proven Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. After launch, the satellite will be initially placed in a particular orbit (the geo-synchronous transfer orbit). At this point, it will fire its thruster motors,which will raise the satellite to the lunar orbit. The flight from launch to the lunar orbit is expected to last for five days. A deep space network for communication purposes has to be set up prior to embarking on the lunar mission. One such unit can be set up at the tracking centre at Bangalore. The project will cost less than Rs 400 crore, which includes setting up the deep space network. Joseph said the Indian moon project arose out of Kasturirangans vision to embark on such an exciting and challenging mission. According to Joseph, it has the backing of prestigious bodies like the Astronautical Society of India. Once the Indian lunar mission is given the formal go-ahead by Kasturirangan, it will have be to be cleared at different levels in the government. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Re: Reform-ism
Jurriaan Bendien wrote: > Michael is quite right. I just don't see any real evidence of Marx arguing > for stage-ism, in the sense of a necessary sequence of stages of > development. He just says that the more developed capitalist country shows > the less developed capitalist country an image of its own future. That is a > developmental trajectory, not a stage (although it could be interpreted in > a stagist way, I suppose). But Trotsky argues no different, he makes the > same argument but then in terms of unequal and combined development. There is also a tendency to bend the stick excessively in the other (anti-stagist) direction. Anti-stagism frequently becomes a unversally formula, just like stagism. Ulhas
Japanese firms cutting pension benefits report
The Economic Times Sunday, August 11, 2002 Japanese firms cutting pension benefits: report REUTERS TOKYO: Declining investment returns are forcing a growing number of Japanese companies to cut pension benefits, according to a government survey reported in the financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun. As of the end of March 2002, 366 companies, or more than 20 per cent of those surveyed by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, had cut pension benefits, the newspaper said. Some had cut payments by almost a quarter. Most were targeting future pension payments promised to employees, but seven firms had cut benefits for people who had already retired. Another 100 or so companies are expected to cut pension benefits in the current financial year, the paper quoted the government report as saying. Japanese employee pension funds are divided into two portions, one of which is managed by the public pension system, under which benefits are fixed. The other portion is the responsibility of the firms, which had calculated pension levels on the assumption that their investments would return between three and five per cent annually. But with interest rates hovering near all-time lows and Japan's Nikkei stock average at little more than a quarter of its peak levels, many companies have found it impossible to squeeze returns from pension capital. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Mekong: A river of opportunity
Business Standard Friday, August 9, 2002 ASIA FILE A river of opportunity It is classic regional cooperation, although environmentalists will have different views, says Barun Roy It is classic regional cooperation, although environmentalists will have different views. Thailand is helping China build a 1,500 MW hydroelectric power station on the Mekong in Yunnan province and will buy back its entire output. The $1 billion plant, fourth in a series of eight that Beijing has planned to build to turn Yunnan into an energy base, will be located at Jinghong, about 105 km from the Laotian border. GMS Power, one of Thailands leading private power developers, is the projects principal shareholder, with a 70 per cent financial stake. Chinese Power Corporation, Yunnan Electricity Generating Authority, and the government of Yunnan province are the other partners. Work is scheduled to start in 2006. A transmission line through Laos will deliver the power to Chiangmai, 400 kilometres away, where the Thai grid will take over. China sees the Mekong as a gigantic water machine to generate enough electricity to transform its southern regions and also leave some for its neighbours. Its part of the river, known locally as the Lancang, is a turbulent course with steep drops all along its 1,240 km stretch, making it an ideal turner of turbines. The eight plants will have a combined capacity of 15,550 MW, equal to almost 80 per cent of the proposed capacity of the massive Three Gorges project on the Yangtze. On its own, Thailand cannot produce all the electricity it needs and Yunnan, with its grandiose plans, is a convenient source. This convergence of demand and supply has made Thailand sign up for 3,000 MW of Yunnan power. The remaining 1,500 MW of the Chinese supply is to come from the 4,500 MW fifth Lancang power station to be built at Nuozhadu, upriver from Jinghong, and the power will be available by 2014. Thailand has signed similar energy contracts with Laos, and three Laotian power plants the Theun Hinboun, Houay Ho, and Nam Leuk are more or less dedicated to supplying its needs. By 2008, Thailand will be buying a total of 3,263 MW from at least six Laotian plants, including the $600 million Nam Ngum-3. When completed by December 2006, Nam Ngum-3, also sponsored by GMS Power, will feature a 220-metre-high concrete-face rock-fill dam across the Nam Ngum River (a Mekong tributary), a 440 MW underground power station, and a 133 km, 230 kV transmission line to the border of Thailand. The 4,200 km Mekong, thus, has truly emerged as a river of opportunity. While energy is an obvious field of cooperation, there are other areas of opportunity. River transport, and tourism based on it, is one of them. Since the 1960s, China has been dredging the Lancang to enable it to accommodate ships between 100 DWT and 300 DWT (deadweight tonnage). In June 2001, an 886 km section from Simao Port in Yunnan to Luang Prabang in Laos was opened to commercial navigation. With further improvements, almost the entire stretch of the Mekong from the delta to Yunnan will be passable by large ships carrying cargo and tourists. Before 1990, the Mekong wasnt a viable export route for China. Today, at least 250,000 tons of Chinese exports pass through the river every year. And over 100 passenger ships sail it on regular cruises, offering tourists an unforgettable adventure through some of Asias most exotic landscapes and cultures. As economic cooperation builds up along the Mekong, environmentalists are worried that the mighty river and its ecosystem could be at grave risk from human activity. They are particularly disturbed by Chinas dam projects, which, they argue, will interrupt the rivers natural flow, destroy its many islands, swallow vast agricultural areas, swamp villages, and ruin fishing grounds in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. China doesnt think so and believes its dams will, on the contrary, increase the Mekongs dry-season runoff in its lower reaches by at least threefold, from 689 cubic metres per second at present to 1,869 cubic metres per second. The first Lancang dam, supporting a 1,250 MW power station, was commissioned at Manwan, about 500 km from Kunming, in 1996. The second, 111 metres high, with a total storage capacity of 940 million cubic metres, is located at Dachaoshan, 131 km further downstream, where the first generating unit started rolling last year, three units will be in operation this year, and two more will be completed in 2003. Last January, China started building its third project on the Lancang, at Xiaowan, whose 292-metre-high (100 storey) dam wall will make it the worlds tallest. It will be a $4 billion behemoth, with a reservoir that will hold 15 billion cubic metres of water, the combined volume of all reservoirs in Yunnan. It is this project that has angered the worlds environmentalists, but its crucial in Chinas energy calculations. The 4,200 MW plant, whose first unit will be rea
Jordan won't be a launchpad for Iraq strikes
HindustanTimes.com Saturday, August 10, 2002 Jordan won't be a launchpad for Iraq strikes Agence France-Presse Kuwait City, August 10 Jordan's foreign minister stressed Saturday his country would not serve as a launchpad for any US military action against Iraq and saw time enough for Baghdad to implement UN resolutions to avert a strike. "No one has asked us to use our territory. We cannot accept such requests anyway," Marwan Moasher told Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Al-Aam in an interview. "No one has asked us for things which are above our capacity," he added. "It's clear that if Iraq doesn't implement UN Security Council resolutions the strike will definitely take place, 100 percent," Moasher warned. "However, if Iraq implements UN resolutions, there will be at least a chance, even a very slim one, to avoid the strike." Moasher said he believed there was still ample time "to try and avoid such a strike, and we have to exploit any opportunity to avoid the strike." The Jordanian official also warned that "the region has enough problems as it is, especially the political and security crisis in the Palestinian territories. We can not withstand two fires at one time." Moasher said his country had not discussed with the United States details of a military strike against Iraq, "for the simple reason that we're essentially against a strike." Washington "didn't inform us of any military plans in this regard. And naturally, we strongly refuse to participate in such a strike or permit the use of our territory." The United States has threatened to take military action against Iraq in a bid to unseat President Saddam Hussein whom it accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction. Jordan, a key Western ally in the region, has repeatedly insisted that it will play no part in any US-led attack and last month took journalists on a rare tour of an air base near the Iraqi border in a bid to prove there were no US forces there. © Hindustan Times Ltd. 2002. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission To send your feedback via web click here or email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Dismal rumination
Rob Schaap wrote: > 'Globalisation' may not have looked too synchronised while the hegemon > seemed to be going well, but it sure looks synchronised when it's not. > >Global: A Global Double Dip? > > >Stephen Roach (New York) > > >With globalization comes a world business cycle with increasingly > >synchronous fluctuations. What's the future of Left nationalism in Asia and elsewhere, if the US economy is the most important source of capital accumulation globally? Ulhas
China's Three Gorges' project
Economist.com China's Three Gorges' project Dam shame Jul 4th 2002 | FENGJIE COUNTY >From The Economist print edition What happens to the villagers who dare to protest IN THE village of Yaowan on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, some residents are dreading the imminent arrival of the demolition teams that will flatten their settlement and force its occupants to move elsewhere. Yaowan is one of hundreds of villages and dozens of towns that will be flooded after the world's biggest hydroelectric dam blocks the Yangtze at the bottom of the scenic Three Gorges in June next year. Many in the reservoir area, 600km (375 miles) long, complain that the government's resettlement programme is unfair and plagued by corruption. Yaowan's citizens are particularly angry. In late May, hundreds of Yaowan's inhabitants gathered to protest against what they say is the government's failure to compensate them adequately for the loss of their land and houses. They blocked traffic attempting to pass through the village, which lies on a main road running through Fengjie County at the entrance to the gorges. Elderly villagers sat on rocks placed in the middle of the road, until the authorities lost patience. The government is fearful of unrest that could cast more doubt over the controversial project and complicate the task of relocating more than 1.2m people, or perhaps as many as 2m according to some Chinese experts. Criticism of the project is rarely allowed to appear in China's state-controlled media. But in 1999 a Chinese academic wrote in a leading journal that the resettlement of reservoir-area inhabitants could become "an explosive social problem, a source of constant social instability in our country for the first half of the next century." It already is a huge social problem. A scarcity of arable land means many of those resettled will have to move far from their homes. The finance ministry has recommended relocating them to sparsely populated areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang, which will fuel anti-Chinese sentiment among ethnic minorities in those areas. Compensation payments are woefully inadequate and much of the little that is available is drained away by corruption. The government admitted two years ago that some $58m of resettlement money, out of $2.1 billion then allocated, had been misappropriated. But the government does not want evacuees airing their grievances in public. Early last year, the authorities arrested four farmers in Yunyang, in the next county upriver from Fengjie, who had complained to foreign journalists about corruption among officials in charge of resettlement. The farmers were accused of leaking state secrets. In Yaowan village, hundreds of police and paramilitary troops were deployed to stop the protests. Participants say the protests were peaceful. Officials say some villagers violently resisted attempts to disperse them. The police detained more than a dozen people, of whom villagers say nine remain in custody. They say the police are still looking for organisers. "We don't dare to speak out," says one villager. "If we do, we'll be arrested." Protests such as those in Yaowan could become more frequent in the coming months as the resettlement process moves into high gear. Between the start of the Three Gorges dam construction in 1993 and the end of last year, 458,000 people were moved. This year alone, another 148,000 will have to relocate. The aim is to complete the process by the end of the year, including the demolition of buildings beneath the reservoir's initial water level. But even though demolition teams have already reduced much of the riparian settlement between the dam site and Chongqing, at the head of the reservoir-to-be, there is much work to be done. The government tried to create a sense of urgency in January by organising television coverage of the dynamiting of Fengjie County's government headquarters in Yongan and a disused power station. But much of Yongan is still standing. Its narrow streets, known as a haunt of some the nation's most famous classical poets, still teem with life. Its decades-old rubbish tips have yet to be moved, if they ever will be. A Chinese newspaper said in a forthright report in February that the reservoir, filled with refuse, could breed disease. Much of the new county seat, high above the river, is still a building site, though government and Communist Party organs have already occupied their lavish new offices and a few senior officials have moved into luxury five-bedroom apartments overlooking the river-suspiciously comfortable given that Fengjie is relatively poor. Most of Fengjie's urban residents will end up with better housing. But the compensation scheme provides free housing only up to the same size as residents' cramped homes. Since most of the new accommodation is bigger, residents have to pay premium prices for the additional floor space. "Ordinary people have to spend a lifetime's savings for a new place," says the manag
Re: RE: Re: models and theory
Jim D. wrote: >I didn't say that India was pursuing the export-led growth model. My >understanding -- >based on incomplete info, BTW -- is that after >independence the "model" was import->substitution and that in the last 10 >years or so, India was in the process of switching >over to export-led >growth (without going all the way, since India has such a large >internal >market). My point was that the economy must have substitutable imports in sufficient magnitude to make import substitution model possible. Further, the debate about the export led and import substitution models focuses on the role of markets in capital accumulation. My question is this: Is it capital accumulation that creates markets or markets that stimulate capital accumulation? I am assuming that the problem is posed from the standpoint, not of individual capital, but of the total capital. Ulhas
Re: Re: models and theory
Anthony D'Costa wrote: > Both import substitution industrialization and export oriented > industrialization can be seen as national strategies, which are not quite > the same thing as models. On hindsight strategies may become models, > when theorised and abstracted. Yes, the word strategy would cover a wide range of policies on trade and tariff, monetary and fiscal policy, pubilc sector investments, regulatory framework etc. These are ultimately grounded in relations of production etc. in a given social formation. Ulhas
Russia holds massive military exercises in Caspian
HindustanTimes.com Thursday, August 01, 2002 Russia holds biggest post-Soviet military exercises in Caspian Agence France-Presse Moscow, August 01 Russia on Thursday launched large-scale military exercises in the Caspian Sea which will involve more than 60 warships and 10,000 men, the biggest presence in the area since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The two-week exercises, seen as an attempt by Russia to flex its muscles in the disputed oil-rich region, are divided into two stages: purely theoretical until August 7 and then war games until August 15 involving air, sea and land forces. Some 30 planes and helicopters will also take part in the exercises, which will involve all branches of the Russian military, including 4,000 sailors from the Caspian Fleet. Russian navy commander Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov denied that Russia was demonstrating its military strength but he signalled that Moscow wanted to show it can protect its interests. "By planning exercises of the Caspian Fleet we are not trying to demonstrate our strength. But Russia has a strong military potential for tackling its tasks in the Caspian Sea should peaceful means fail," he told the Interfax news agency. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the war games in April a day after a summit of heads of state from the five Caspian states in Turkmenistan aimed at resolving the partition of the Caspian Sea's oil wealth ended in failure. The Caspian Sea is thought to hold the world's third biggest oil and gas reserves after Russia and the Gulf but exploration is being held up by the dispute over boundaries. Iran, with backing from Turkmenistan, wants the sea to be split five ways, with each country apportioned 20 percent of the Caspian. However, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia favour splitting the sea according to the length of the nations' shorelines, which would leave the Islamic republic with the smallest share, about 13 percent. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan will be participating in the exercises, with Baku sending two ships including a minesweeper and Astana four Su-27 fighter planes, according to Russian defence military sources cited by Interfax. Representatives from Iran and Turkmenistan have been invited as observers. The state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Iran had asked to take part in the exercises but Russia had refused, citing a 1924 treaty between Tehran and the USSR barring all ships other than Soviet from the Caspian. Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko denied that the military exercises were aimed at any another country and insisted that Moscow's aim was to safeguard regional stability. "This is not a threat to foreign states," Yakovenko told RIA Novosti, adding that Russia's military presence in the Caspian was "an important factor in maintaining regional security and stability." The official pointed to the need to protect the strategic and economically important zone against the global terrorist threat. The highlight of the war games, which are taking place in the northern sector of the Caspian as well as on land in Astrakhan and Dagestan, will be a blockade of some remote isles to flush out suspected terrorists and arms and drugs smugglers. The exercises will also simulate an operation to free an oil platform seized by terrorists, foil an explosion on a railroad bridge over the Volga as well as clean up after an oil spill. © Hindustan Times Ltd. 2002. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission To send your feedback via web click here or email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Foreign Cash for Chinese Airline Revamp
The Financial Express Friday, August 02, 2002 Foreign Cash To Propel Chinese Airline Revamp Shanghai, August 1: China's easing of caps on foreign investment in the aviation sector on Thursday will propel its airlines into the global jet set and give foreign carriers a bigger share of the coveted domestic market, analysts said. The relaxation would draw more foreign capital andexpertise to the sector, beefing up China's top three airlines - Air China, China Eastern and China Southern - and accelerating an industry-wide consolidation, they said. China now allows foreign investors larger stakes in its airlines and airports - formerly capped at 35 and 49 per cent - by merely requiring that domestic shareholders have a controlling stake. The move was announced in early July and aimed at deepening reforms of the tightly controlled aviation sector after China joined the World Trade Organisation last December. "We believe the potential introduction of foreign strategic shareholders could be the first step toward Chinese airline membership into one of the three principal global airline alliances," Goldman Sachs said in a research report last month. Chinese state-owned airlines now trail foreign counterparts due to low prices and poor management of the oil-price and currency risks that all carriers have to face. Air fares and fuel costs are under government control and bloated pay rolls and heavy financial costs eat into bottom lines. China's massive market potential is a huge drawing card for foreign investors. But the country guards its aviation market fiercely and has no plans to grant domestic flight rights to foreign airlines, analysts said. Most countries forbid foreign-controlled airlines from flying their domestic routes. "Foreign airlines can't own flights within China, so buying a stake in our airlines seems to be the only way to share the market growth," said analyst Luo Wen of Guotai Junan Securities. Foreign capital and technology are essential to fuel the global ambitions of China's Big Three airlines, analysts said. China Eastern Airlines Co Ltd was the top pick because of its attractive base in Shanghai, they said. The thriving commercial hub is China's largest gateway for international flights and is well connected to other Chinese cities. Analysts said Eastern was also hungry for cash as its low return on equity of about two percent prevents it from issuing more shares domestically under exchange rules. Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines Co Ltd is another attractive target as it has the biggest fleet in China, although the carrier is weaker on international routes than Eastern or flag carrier Air China. The flag carrier will benefit from the investment relaxations as it is planning an overseas listing and can now float more than 35 per cent of its share capital, analysts said. Although foreign firms cannot take a controlling stake in a Chinese airline, having a large shareholding can give them enough influence on operations, especially since foreigners can now head management at a domestic airline. "To take a fairly large stake would have a more profound effect in penetrating the Chinese market compared with other types of cooperation, like code sharing," said analyst Deng Hongmei of China Everbright Securities. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Singapore Airlines Ltd, Air France SA and AMR Corp's American Airlines have appeared keen to buy stakes in Chinese airlines and to help them promote their brands abroad, analysts said.China's air passenger market is expected to grow by an annual eight per cent and cargo by more than 10 per cent, a bright spot when global airlines are still struggling to recover from the fallout of the September 11 attacks. - Reuters © 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world.
Re: the D of P
Devine, James: >Stalinism (which prevailed from the 1920s to the 1980s in the USSR, with a >political >party holding a monopoly of the state power and the state >dominating society) does >not seem a good case of "armed workers in control >of their own state" at all. If >anything, a new stratum (or class) had taken >power. Maybe they had a welfare state, >but that's been seen under >capitalism, too. Malaysia's (Pop. 20 mn) rank (59) in global HDI data for 2002 is not far behind that of Cuba (55). Malaysia became independent in 1955 or 1956. In terms of per capita income in PPP terms, Malaysia is far ahead of Cuba. Ulhas
Iran may find it hard to spurn Russian offer
The Hindu Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 Iran may find it hard to spurn Russian offer By Atul Aneja MANAMA (BAHRAIN) JULY 31. Though Iran has got a commitment from Russia on the supply of civilian nuclear reactors, in return it may have to go along with Moscow's controversial plans to share the Caspian Sea oil and gas resources. Russia last week announced that it was considering supplying more nuclear power reactors to Iran at its facility in Bushehr. The U.S. is opposed to the supply of the reactors as it fears Iran may use them to develop nuclear weapons. Russia and Iran differ on the formulation that will define the sharing of the Caspian seabed resources. Iran believes that the five countries Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan that straddle the Caspian Sea should share these resources equally. The Caspian Sea deposits, when combined with the estimated mainland reserves in the countries that surround it, are huge and could be nearly one-third the size of the Persian Gulf reserves. Other states, especially Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and chiefly Russia, disagree with Iran, pointing to the variations in the length of their coastlines as the basis for an alternative arrangement. Impatient with the delay in arriving at a consensus, Russia has worked out reserve-sharing bilateral agreements with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Under this arrangement, the seabed, with crucial modifications, is carved along a median line drawn between the countries that face each other. Iran feels that it will lose out greatly in case this arrangement is applied. From the 20 per cent that it claims, its share would drop to 12 to 13 per cent of the seabed. Encouraged by Russia which has already worked out a deal with Kazakhstan for a stake in developing its off-shore Kurmangazy field, Astana, on its part, is working out a sea bed sharing arrangement with Azerbaijan. Incidentally, India is also getting embroiled in Caspian Sea politics for the Kazakhs during the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's June visit to Almaty, offered New Delhi participation in developing the Kurmangazy field. Russia, which is already present in Kurmangazy, and India have already worked together in developing the Sakhalin area along with Exxon Corporation of the United States. Iran, in the light of the joint progress made by Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, is feeling left out. Last year, Iran expressed its resentment by sending its gunboats after an Azerbaijani survey ship which was allegedly in its territorial waters. The near clash between Azerbaijan and Iran, was a wake up call, especially for Russia that is looking for stability in the Caspian. Significantly, in what appeared to be an ultimatum to Iran to make up its mind, the Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, has announced that Russia, along with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, will be shortly undertaking military exercises in the Caspian. But keen to avoid a confrontation with Iran, provided its strategic interests in the Caspian are not undermined, Russia has subsequently invited Iran to participate in these manoeuvres. By going ahead with flexing its muscles, Russia, according to analysts, has signalled to the Iranians that it will protect its core interests in the Caspian, even if it has to pay a high cost. But, on the other hand, if the Iranians respect Russian stakes in this zone, Moscow is ready to promote Iranian interests in other fields, even if this meant confronting Washington. Not surprisingly, Russia has dangled the carrot of supplying more nuclear power reactors to Iran, soon after the U.S. Senate introduced a resolution that advocated that Washington should give up on the Iranian leaders, including the moderate President, Mohammad Khatami. With Iran facing pressure from all-around, it might find it difficult to spurn Moscow's comforting hand. Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu
Strike on Iraq would redraw regional economic map
The Economic Times Saturday, August 03, 2002 Strike on Iraq would redraw regional economic map REUTERS CAIRO: Success for Washington's stated goal of "regime change" in Iraq would redraw the economic map of west Asia as well as its political map. A possible return of Iraq as a full trading partner and unfettered oil producer would also upset a range of regional economic interests in the longer term, pouring oil from the world's second largest crude reserves back into world markets, analysts said. Opec members, and especially oil giant Saudi Arabia, where oil revenues provide 90-95 per cent of total export earnings and around two-thirds of state revenues, have most to lose. US oil companies eager to exploit Iraq's reserves have most to gain. In a potential radical revision of now politically-driven trade ties, Egyptian and Syrian exports to Iraq might plummet. Iraq on Thursday hinted it might let in UN arms inspectors for the first time since 1998, as Washington reaffirmed its aim of toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Oil companies are already making contingency plans to handle any oil supply disruptions from a threatened US strike to unseat Saddam, but some experts are looking farther ahead. "One has to be mindful of the real possibility that sanctions get lifted against Iraq and it returns to its former oil production status," said Brad Bourland, chief economist for Saudi American Bank. Baghdad has said it aims to reach an oil production capacity target of six million barrels per day when and if UN sanctions imposed following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 are lifted. The result could be a substantial amount of additional Iraqi oil competing for customers now supplied by the Saudis, Kuwaitis and other Opec members. Iraq's current exports are running at 1.2 million bpd, one million bpd below its capacity. "The view in Iraq is that Saudi Arabia took its market share in 1990 when it went out of the market and Saudi Arabia should give up that share back to Iraq when it returns," Bourland said. De-facto Opec leader Saudi Arabia, which stepped in to replace Iraqi and Kuwaiti supplies lost during the first Gulf crisis in 1990, is already under pressure to contain Opec members seeking to release output curbed by quota agreed last year to support oil prices near $25 a barrel. Unless world demand exceeds forecasts in years to come, a big rise in Iraqi exports would have to be countered by even tighter Opec restrictions, or prices could fall heavily. But the assumption that Saudi Arabia and other Opec members would make way for Iraqi exports is far from assured, raising the risk of a tussle for market share, and lower oil prices as the market reacts to loss of Opec cohesion. "I look at that as a scenario which concerns me about the Saudi economy in terms of lower oil revenues," Bourland said. Lower oil prices would hurt Saudi Arabia's plans to boost growth to cope with its own soaring population. The average age of the country's 22 million people is 16 and rising unemployment has become a key issue. New partnerships Former US policy maker Gary Sick, now at Columbia University in New York, said another long-term consequence to the end of UN Iraq sanctions would be competition by international oil firms for access to Iraq's huge oil reserves for global oil companies. "If the oil majors went into Iraq in a big way and began to develop the oilfields, say within 10 years, they could emerge as the great rival to Saudi dominance of the oil markets," he said. A post-Saddam government would not necessarily honour the commitments made under the current strongman, who has handed out oil export contracts and negotiated oilfield development projects with oil companies from countries deemed politically sympathetic, such as Russia, France and China. Senior Iraq analyst Raad Alkaadiri of Petroleum Finance Co. (PFC) consultancy has described the Iraqi oil sector as the potential "Klondike" of the early 21st century, referring to the exploration frenzy inspired by the discovery of gold in a Canadian riverbed in the 1890s. Access to Iraqi acreage could be particularly enticing to US companies barred from investment in Iran, where European and other majors have found investment terms in the oil and gas sector unpacceptable. International oil firms are finding talks to gain access to Saudi Arabia's upstream gas for the first time in 25 years tough, with both sides at loggerheads over commercial terms. Alkadiri warned any post-Saddam government would not necessarily give international oil companies easier terms to access its own vast resources. "But at the end of the day Iraq's return will mean the investment environment could be radically different for everyone," he said. Tangled web of trade Changes in the economic environment would also follow if Iraq gets the chance to reweave a web of trade ties - legal and illegal - that has bound Baghdad to its neighbours and the wider world during nearly 12 y
Review of Indian Agriculture
Economic and Political Weekly July 27, 202 REVIEW OF AGRICULTURE Reforms in Agricultural Extension --Rita Sharma Crisis in Agrarian Economy in Punjab --H S Sidhu Rice Production in Punjab --Karam Singh --Sajla Kalra Agriculture in India and Pakistan, 1900-95 --Takashi Kurosaki Sagging Agricultural Commodity Exchanges --K G Sahadevan Indian Agricultural Commodity Futures Markets --Gopal Naik http://www.epw.org.in/showFileCurrent.php#CURR
China modernising Pak infrastructure
The Times of India THURSDAY, AUGUST 01, 2002 China modernising Pak infrastructure PTI BEIJING: As part of Beijing's efforts to supplement its strong political and military ties with Islamabad, China is actively helping develop Pakistan's key infrastructure sectors like roads, ports and railways. The leadership of the two countries during their recent meetings has decided to establish a "comprehensive partnership" in all fields of mutual interest, particularly in the economic field, official sources said. Under China's plans to rehabilitate and modernise Pakistan Railways, the first-batch of China-made 14 air-conditioned passenger coaches were exported to Pakistan recently. These coaches, which have arrived in Karachi, would be formally inducted in the country's railways at an independence day ceremony on August 14, when they would be used to run a "Pak-China" train service between Lahore and the port city, sources said here. A Chinese government delegation is expected to attend the function. The second batch of 26 coaches will be sent to Pakistan by the first quarter of next year as part of an agreement under which China will provide 175 coaches and 69 locomotives to Pakistan railways within three years costing nearly $200 million. According to the agreement, 40 coaches and 15 locomotives would be manufactured in China while the rest would be developed and assembled at the railway locomotive factory in Risalpur in Pakistan. EXIM Bank of China will meet 87.5 per cent of the total financial requirements on supplier credit basis. Sources said the Chinese companies have also shown keen interest in helping Pakistan in updating its worn out rail tracks as well as improving the overall railways signal system. Pakistan has also signed a contract worth $22 million with China for purchase of 52,000 metric tonnes of railways tracks. China has committed over $1.5 billion in economic assistance, credits and investments to Pakistan over the last two years, sources said. The cost of projects currently underway is estimated to be more than $700 million while those in pipeline are worth $800 million. China has also provided $500 million to Pakistan as temporary balance of payment support through a recently rolled over cash deposit with the National Bank of Pakistan for three years ending 2005. It has helped Pakistan in constructing the Karakoram highway and is now involved in developing the strategically important Gwadar deep-sea port. The work on the deep-sea port was started in March this year with a total cost estimation at $248 million. The project is scheduled to be completed in three years. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Re: Re: Jim Blaut on world systems analysis
joanna bujes : >Yeah, I read the Wallerstein piece that was posted earlier today and I was > profoundly underwhelmed. It made me think that one cure for neo-marxism > would be some kind of grunt job for at least a year (in lieu of a > sabbatical). Beyond that, Hardt/Negri/Wallerstein/etc interest me only as > flavors of social/intellectual/ pathology; and right now, there are more > urgent tasks.like organizing against any and all forms of US aggression. That's right. The best way of helping other nations is to change one's own by understanding it. What the Left in Chile (for example) thinks about Mongolia (for example) is of no consequence. If a Chilean Marxist wants to specialise in the history and culture of Mongolia, he is welcome to do. But endless conjectures about distant nations by dilettantes don't help anyone. Ulhas
Jordan opposes action against Iraq
The Hindu Tuesday, Jul 30, 2002 Jordan opposes action against Iraq By Hasan Suroor LONDON JULY 29. King Abdullah of Jordan, who met the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, here on Monday, rejected speculation that his country would back any U.S. military action in Iraq and accused the hardliners in Pentagon of being "fixated on Iraq''. His meeting with Mr. Blair took place amid growing opposition among Labour MPs, including some Cabinet ministers, to any British backing for an attack on Baghdad despite the Prime Minister's assertion last week that it was "not imminent''. But the Foreign Office Minister, Ben Bradshaw, fuelled speculation when he suggested that the `threat' from Iraq would not go away by simply ignoring it and brushed aside an opinion poll which showed that 51 per cent of Britons were opposed to a military option. King Abdullah said that in his talks with the U.S. President, George W. Bush, later this week he would warn that any attack on Iraq would open up a "Pandora's box'' in West Asia. He distanced himself from the U.S.-backed Iraqi dissidents who recently met in London to discuss the overthrow of the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein. The presence of his estranged uncle, Prince Hassan, at the meeting had prompted speculation that it signalled Jordanian Government's support for anti-Iraq moves. It was regarded as significant in the context of reports, which were later denied, that Jordan was willing to offer bases to U.S. to launch an attack on Iraq. ``Prince Hassan blundered into something he did not realise he was getting into, and we're all picking up the pieces,'' he told The Times. He warned that the hawks in the Bush administration, pressing for an attack on Iraq, posed a threat to American "strategic interests'' in West Asia. The international community, he said, was `united' in its opposition to any such action, and so was Jordan. "Ask our friends in China, in Moscow, in England, in Paris everybody will tell you that we have concerns about military actions against Iraq,'' he said. The situation in West Asia dominated his discussions with Mr. Blair with the two sides stressing the need to get Israel and the Palestinians back on the negotiating table. Their talks, however, were overshadowed by a fresh controversy over Iraq following reports that Government lawyers had advised against British participation in a military attack on Baghdad without a United Nations mandate. This seemed to contradict the Government's position that the 23 U.N. resolutions were sufficient justification for intervention. A former Defence Minister in the Blair Government, Peter Kilfoyle, meanwhile, warned of a major split in the Labour party if the Prime Minister backed an invasion of Iraq without proper authorisation. Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu
Jean Dreze: Ending destitution
The Hindu Monday, Jul 29, 2002 Ending destitution By Jean Dreze Food transfers to the destitute are a good way of using the surplus grain stocks. SAMRI DEVI is a 70-year-old widow who lives in Kusumatand, an impoverished hamlet in Palamau district, Jharkhand. Her son, Bhageshwar Bhuiya, suffers from TB and is unable to work. Her daughter-in-law has taken leave of this world. So the burden of looking after Bhageshwar and his seven children rests on Samri Devi's frail shoulders. She feeds the family, somehow, by gleaning leftover rice from a local rice mill, collecting wild foods and begging from time to time. The children are severely undernourished and none of them goes to school. Except for one cooking pot and a few rags, Samri Devi's family owns absolutely nothing not even a blanket or a pair of chappals. Samri Devi's is one among millions of households in rural India that might be described as "destitute". These households typically have no able-bodied adult member and no regular source of income. They survive by doing a variety of informal activities such as gathering food from the village commons, making baskets, selling minor forest produce and keeping the odd goat. We met Samri Devi during a recent survey of destitution in five States (Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh), conducted by researchers from the Centre for Development Economics and the Centre for Equity Studies. We were shocked to find that even in prosperous villages some households lived in conditions of extreme poverty and hunger. A casual visitor is unlikely to notice them, as destitute households keep a low profile and are often socially invisible. But if you look for them, you will find them, quietly struggling to earn their next meal or patiently starving in a dark mud hut. From this, one point is clear: destitute households cannot rely on spontaneous community support. Social security arrangements are needed. As things stand, however, destitute households are beyond the pale of most development programmes and welfare schemes. They are unable to participate in rural employment programmes, if available. Getting a bank loan is for most of them beyond the realm of possibility. Even "self-help groups" tend to shun them. Some destitute households are able to take advantage of pension schemes such as those meant for widows and the aged, but the coverage of these schemes is very limited and the formalities involved often end up excluding the poorest of the poor. In this sea of neglect, an island of hope has recently emerged the Antyodaya Anna Yojana. This programme, introduced in early 2001 (despite predictable objections from the Finance Ministry), is addressed to the poorest of the poor, as identified by gram panchayats and gram sabhas. Antyodaya households have special ration cards and are entitled to 35 kg of grain a month at highly subsidised prices (Rs. 2 a kg for wheat and Rs. 3 a kg for rice). The survey mentioned earlier indicates that the programme is doing well, in sharp contrast with other components of the public distribution system (PDS). First and foremost, the selection of Antyodaya households appears to be quite fair: among the 450 Antyodaya households living in the sample villages, a large majority turned out to be very poor. Nearly two thirds of these households are constrained to skip meals from time to time. More than half do not own a single blanket or quilt. Only two per cent of the sample households lived in economic conditions described by the field investigators as "better than average", compared with other households in the village. In other words, the community-based selection procedure is working. Antyodaya also seems to be reasonably successful in terms of the timely and effective distribution of food rations. This is particularly so in Andhra Pradesh, where most of the sample households had received their full quota every month since the programme was initiated. Taking the five sample States together, we estimated that the average Antyodaya household obtained close to 75 per cent of its full entitlement since the programme began. Regarding the quality of grain received, 85 per cent of the respondents described it as "average" or "good". And while the prices charged to the Antyodaya households were occasionally higher than the official issue prices, the extent of overcharging is not very large about 13 per cent on average. This is not to say that the programme is flawless. In some areas (particularly in Jharkhand), we found that many Antyodaya households had been deprived of their entitlements, as ration-shop dealers took advantage of their powerlessness. Yet, the experience so far strongly suggests that these failures can be addressed and that the basic approach underlying the Antyodaya programme is quite sound. The main limitation of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, seen as a social security programme, is its restricted coverage (less than 5 per cent of the rural popul
Pak court awards death sentence for blasphemy
The Times of India SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2002 Pak court awards death sentence for blasphemy PTI ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani man, who once worked for the husband of noted human rights activist Asma Jahangir, has been sentenced to death by a court in Lahore for making derogatory remarks about Islam. Besides the death penalty, Additional District and Sessions Court judge Sardar Ahmed Naeem imposed a fine of Rs 2.70 lakh on Wajih-ul-Hassan, 26, on Saturday after upholding charges against him that he made derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammad. "In Islam, there are clear rules and regulations to check every kind of mischief and the Shariah (law) shows no leniency to those whose evil and malicious conduct tarnishes the dignity and honour of the Ummah," the judge said. Hassan, who was arrested on May 25, 2001, in Iqbal Town, was convicted even though he denied the charges levelled against him by the complainant Ismail Qureshi, a lawyer. He also denied that he was a converted Christian saying he "is a Muslim and all the allegations levelled against him are false". Hassan claimed that Qureshi nursed a grudge against Jahangir and her associate Hina Jilani after they registered a police complaint against him. Hassan said since he and his father previously worked in the office of Jahangir's husband he has been framed up in the case. Hassan was convicted on the grounds that he made an extra-judicial confessional statement before prosecution winesses Waseem and his friend Naveed, that he had been converted to Christianity. He also confessed before them that he wrote letters to Qureshi in which derogatory language was used against the Prophet, The News daily reported today. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Re: RE: Re: Re: Kerala
Devine, James: >To say that models aren't useful is basically saying that theory and >abstraction have no >role. But people can't think without abstraction. A >mere list of "facts" doesn't help at >all. >The key is to combine abstract knowledge (theories, model) with concrete >knowledge >of the real world. We can often learn from the contrast between >the model and the >world. I agree with almost everything Jim D. says, except for the term 'model'. I recognise the importance of theory and abstractions. My remarks were about 'models', not about theory and abstraction. I would like to distinguish between the two. I value a work like Capital, though it is abstract. But I don't find theories of imperialism now currently available, very convincing. My scepticism about "Global Theory" wasn't meant to include work like Capital or Grundrisse. It was used to indicate theories like theory of imperialism. I am not a theoretician and I don't claim to be an India expert. Ulhas
Re: Re: Kerala
Michael Pollak wrote: > I guess in one sentence what I'm looking for is a book that describes the > actually-existing Indian model and compares it to those others. Does such > a thing exist? I see what you mean and will keep my eyes open for a thing of that sort ! I am not sure models are useful. I don't want to sound trite, but I think each society is a unique combination of economic, political and ideological elements. That's why I am sceptical of claims of global theories. I believe in competence and expertise (without being technocratic) ! Ulhas
Re: Re: Vandana Shiva
Michael Pollak wrote: > > Maybe not. It's perfectly possible that some crops are better > industrialized and some not. Or it's possible that all are better > industrialized. I'd just like to see some reliable figures and causal > explanations of why this is so. > > But just to take your first example of cotton, are we sure cotton really > is an exception? Our man Roger Thurow at the Wall Street Journal (who > seems to be working Mali beat) wrote an article that was posted to Pen-l a > month ago that seems to suggest the opposite: You could be right about cotton production in Mali. My point is not about cotton production for exports. My point was about textile industry: yarn, cloth, garments etc. For countries like China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka etc., textiles are an important item in exports. China's textile exports are about $50 bn (I don't have precise number), India's exports of textlies are about $10 bn etc. Indian exports will not be able to compete with other nations' textile exports, if Indian textile industry is globally not competitive. The same is true of other nations as well. One important component of cost structure of textile industry is cotton cost. One method of cutting cost is by improving yields on cotton farms. The quality of cotton also influences sales price and profitabiity. This factor is putting presssure on textile exporting nations to make changes in cotton farming. e.g. introduction of GM cotton. If Indian cotton farms are only half as productive as Chinese farms, Indian textile exports would not competitive. This pressure will grow, since textile trade is going to free from 2005. Ulhas
Re: Re: Vandana Shiva
Michael Pollak : > On Sun, 28 Jul 2002, Ulhas Joglekar wrote: > > > > > Yes, but there is a viewpoint which attributes the relative backwardness > > of French industry to the presence of French peasant economy. > > I'm not sure I follow. By 1970 France had certainly reached the point > every developing country would like to develop to, no? Namely a rich > welfare state. Its alternative agricultural path didn't stop it. Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant relative backwardness of French industry in the 19th century. Compared with German industry and agriculture. Even the picture of capitalism in the 1950s that Sartre paints in his book Comminist and Peace and elsewhere is not pretty, though not due in this case due to French agriculture. Ulhas
UNDP urges political reform in China
The Times of India SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2002 UNDP urges political reform in China AFP BEIJING: A scathing UN-sponsored report published Friday urged the Chinese government to implement political reforms if it is to head off a mounting environment catastrophe as well as growing social unrest. The China Human Development Report 2002, unveiled in Beijing, was produced by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program. It spells out a dismal environmental situation in China, exacerbated by huge population pressures, land and resource scarcities, worsening pollution, increased urbanization and uncertain food and water supplies. "Environmental degradation has now become so acute that it is one of the main factors forcing future multi-faceted change," the report warned. "Indeed, environmental factors are likely to constrain, or even reverse, social and economic progress." The report calls on China's government to use its centralized political system to adopt "green" development strategies that are both economically and environmentally sustainable. "The situation in terms of the environment will continue to get worse for a while, before it could turn better," said the SEI's Karl Hallding, lead author of the report. "The next five years will be a critical juncture for China to make choices for a yet more reform-oriented path... and towards good governance," he said. "The critical issue is to bend the curve to go up to a better future." China must abandon its 20-year developmental strategy of "getting rich fast and cleaning up later," and an over-reliance on planned economic methods that breed inefficiencies by setting production quotas and price levels, the report said. The minority elite that has benefited most from 20 years of market-driven reforms should also not be allowed to use their "strong influence" with the central government to thwart sustainable environmental strategies. China must additionally make a further shift "towards stronger market-based governance", in order to introduce sustainable development, the authors said. Good governance would come mainly through broader participation in the political decision-making process, increased press freedom and the right to organize non-governmental organizations (NGOs), it said. "It is safe to assert that the heavy top-down governance structure that prevailed through the first half-century of the People's Republic by and large has proven counterproductive to sustainable development." Although attempts had been made to establish the rule of law and decentralize powers, China in the 21st century continued to be ruled by a millennium-old "deeply stratified form of bureaucratic governance," it said. Failure to deepen reform would lead to a scenario where "the political climate remains unresponsive to public debate, and there are no alternative channels for people to express their concerns," it said. Under such a "perilous" scenario, "signs of political and social instability increase to near crisis conditions by 2050," the authors warned. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Re: Re: Kerala
Michael Pollak wrote: > Ulhas, could recommend a good book that describes India's distinctive, and > recently fairly successful, non-export-led development path? And perhaps > as well an intelligent (rather than cookie-cutter ideological) critique of > the limits of same? Michael, I am not sure what period you have in mind. But you could try a) A Decade of Neoliberal Economic Reforms by C.P.Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh, LeftWord Books, 2002. : Left Nationalist critique of 1990s policies, b) Crisis as Conquest: Learning from East Asia by Jayati Ghosh and C.P. Chandrasekhar, Orient Longman, 2001 : Discussion of Asian crisis (primarily) and its implications for India I assume you have seen two long articles, links to which I posted to pen-l from the recent issues of EPW: 1.India's Medium Term Growth Prospects by Shankar Acharya, pen-l 28427 dated 24 July, 2002. Broad survey of Indian economy in the last 50 years and brief discussion of the medium term propsects from liberal perspective 2. India: Well-Being in the 1990s, Towards a Balance Sheet by R.H. Cassen, pen-l 28003 dated 14 July, 2002 Discussion of HDI related issues. For colonial period: The Economic History of India, 1857-1947 by Tirthankar Roy, Oxford University Press, 2000. Ulhas
Russia's move to expand ties with Iran may anger U.S.
The Hindu Sunday, Jul 28, 2002 Russia's move to expand ties with Iran may anger U.S. By Vladimir Radyuhin MOSCOW JULY 27. Ignoring American protests Russia has unveiled plans to expand trade and economic ties with Iran. The Russian Government has approved a 10-year programme of wide-ranging economic cooperation with Iran, which covers nuclear power, aviation and hydrocarbons, the AK&M news agency reported. The plan cannot but be seen as a challenge to the U. S., with the Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, signing it on the same day the U. S. Congress called for replacing the political regime in Iran. Under the plan Russia will build 10 nuclear reactors in Iran, a sour issue with Washington, and several thermal power stations. Russia will also help Iran manufacture Russian airliners and aircraft engines, build two steel plants and several petrochemical projects, as well as develop oil, gas and coal fields. The plan also calls for Russian participation in "the financing and exploitation of a gas pipeline between Iran and India,'' and cooperation with Iran in developing the North-South transport corridor, including the construction of a railway line linking two Iranian ports Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf and Anzali in the Caspian sea. Simultaneously a senior Russian military official reaffirmed Moscow's intention to sell Iran conventional weapons, which is fiercely opposed by Washington. The Deputy Defence Minister in charge of arms exports, Mikhail Dmitriyev, said Russia could sell some defensive weapons to Iran and help it modernise its Soviet-built military hardware. Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu
Re: Re: Kerala
Michael Pollak wrote: > On Sun, 28 Jul 2002, Ulhas Joglekar wrote: > > > The share of agriculture in India's GDP has declined from 55% in 1950 to > > 26% in 2000. > > Out of curiousity, Ulhas, what's its share in terms of percentage of > population? Urban population is 27% of the total population. The rest is rural. Population directly involved in agriculture is about 66%. So one could say that 66% of population produces and earns only 26% of the national income. But that would be a very crude comparison. I don't have a precise estimate of urban /rural share of GDP right now, but I will try to find it. You would need to make adjustments for taxes, subsidies, differential interest rates etc. e.g. There is no income tax on income from agriculture, while the corporate tax rate is 35%. Indian industry has considerable interest in development of rural incomes, since exports are only 10% of the annual corporate sales. India has not pursued the strategy of export lead growth. The growth involves widening and deepening of internal market. (I don't mean by that import substitution.) This includes agriculture. It would not be ppropriate to imagine that the interests of industrial capital and agrarian interests are completely antithetical. The Home page of Indian Census Bureau at http://www.censusindia.net/ can provide useful statistics. Ulhas
Re: Re: Kerala (was Re: Vandana Shiva)
Ben Day wrote: > Well, Kerala was also the only Indian state, to a great extent, to > successfully implement land reform. Land reforms have taken place in West Bengal (Pop. 75 million), where the CPs are in power for last 25 years without a break. Land reforms have taken in other parts of India, though they have not been as thorough as Kerala (Pop. 35 million) and Bengal. >This seems to me a basic prerequisite > of industrialization of any sort, but almost impossible elsewhere in India > since the Congress Party - like the parties that drove independence and > dominate the political landscape in so many developing countries - is > inextricably bound up with landed elites. The share of agriculture in India's GDP has declined from 55% in 1950 to 26% in 2000. The growth of industry and particularly services is reducing the importance of agriculture in relative terms. The Congress Party's programme was a programme of Indian industrial capital, though the mass base of Congress Party was to be found in all classes and strata of Indian society. Though services have grown at a faster rate, it is not correct to say that industrialisation has not taken place. >Kerala was able to carry out land > reform due to the strength of its two Communist Parties (but particularly > the Communist Party--Marxist, which split from the CP during independence > when Stalin backed Nehru, and the rest of the CP followed the Moscow line > by taking an accomodationist tack with the Congress Party), The Indian CP split in 1964 long after Stalin's death. >So, although we usually single out > Kerala's welfare policies, and the debate over the "Kerala model" in > developmental economics hinges on whether a welfare state is a viable (or > more importantly, a sustainable) road to development - I think we tend to > miss Kerala's real accomplishments, which involve the successful > commodification of land and labor. Kerala's achievements are admirable, but other states moving in the same direction with some time lag. But then uneven and combined development is the norm everywhere. You take all India data, literacy has gone up from 18% to 65% (against 90% in Kerala) in 50 years. Male literacy is 75% on all India basis. It's due to lower female literacy (55%) that the average comes down. The lower female literacy is due to gender inequality. > There is also the issue of time, suggested by Ulhas What was the population of say, Germany, when Germany began to develop industrially in later half 19 the Century? Compare that with the population of China, India and Indonesia at the corresponding stage economic development. Elimination of poverty of 2.5 billion people and of 25 million people are not comparable challenges. Ulhas
Mao with soya sauce
Business Standard Tuesday, November 28, 2000 WATCHWORD Mao Zedong with soya sauce Manas Chakravarty discovers that Mao has been forgotten in Shanghai "Mao is passe", said the Singapore businessman sitting next to me on the China Eastern Airlines' Shanghai flight. He had just learned that I was on a trip to pay my respects to the late Chairman. "Nobody gives a damn about him", continued my fellow-traveller, "you'll know soon enough in Shanghai." I wasn't giving up so easily. Shanghai was, after all, the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party, the scene of the uprising against the Kuomintang in 1927, the city where the workers took control of the factories after the Cultural Revolution. And isn 't China communist? Yes, it is. It's communist in the sense that a minister can speak about how the 32 per cent annual growth rate in the Shenzhen special economic zone, that paradise of raw, unadulterated capitalism, red in tooth and claw, is a reflection of the superiority of the socialist system. The newspapers report this bilge without irony, without even a Ha! Ha! in brackets. Apart from that, there's precious little of the old doctrine. There aren't any people waving the Red Book, there are no red flags, the hammer and sickle symbols have been exported en masse to Calcutta, and the big character posters have been replaced by huge billboards advertising Coke and e-commerce. In Shanghai, the 30-minute bus ride from Hongqiao airport to Pudong goes over flyovers for about 20 minutes and through a tunnel under the Huangpu river for the next ten. The 87-storey JinMao tower, a monstrosity in aluminium, and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower with a revolving restaurant on top, which looks like something out of science fiction, symbolise the new Shanghai. The lift at the TV station had an attendant who recited, in sing-song English, how symbolic the tower was to Shanghai's upwardly mobile spirit. No slums, wide roads, everything sleek and shiny and mint-new. With about $40 billion in foreign direct investment pouring into the country every year, they can afford it. When I heard that Shanghai has, at the last count, over 110,000 private enterprises, I realised that Mao was certainly not in Shanghai. Sure, you do have a big statue of the great helmsman in the middle of the Bund, Shanghai' s European quarter. There's also Mao's embalmed body in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. But Mao these days lives on mainly in restaurants. To view the centre of Maoism in contemporary China, you'll have to visit the Mao Family Restaurant in Yonghegong Street, Beijing, well-known for the great leader's native Hunan cuisine. For the Mao fan, this is where the action is. Right from the bust of Mao at the entrance to the photographs and posters of Mao as a student, Mao on the Long March, Mao as chairman, Mao exhorting the masses, this is the place where the great teacher is really honoured. In the background, as you sample the chef's special Mao Family black bean tofu, revolutionary songs soothe nerves frayed by the ubiquitous capitalist BMWs, Mercs, mobile phones, karaoke bars and discos. Here in the soothing ambience of pictures taken from the great liberator's life, you can calm a stomach upset by the sight of McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken with Mao's favourite pork rind in soya sauce. For those of us who still hold fast to the chairman's quotation that a revolution is not a dinner party, there is one other way to see Maoism in action. To do that, you'll have to go to Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, which used to be known as the city nearest to Mao's birthplace at Shaoshan, but is now better recognised as the home of Hunan Television & Broadcast Industry Co, the first media company to secure a stock-market listing in China. A 90-mile drive will take you to Shaoshan where you can see Mao's house (13 rooms, thatched roof, pond - a disappointingly kulak affair). After buying the Mao busts and the Mao keychains, visit the Museum of Comrade Mao in Shaoshan, where you can get a computer-generated picture of yourself with the Chairman, maybe with your arm around him. He could do with the support these days. For die-hards searching for the communist Utopia, there's also a little haven leaning against the capitalist storm. About 500 miles south of Beijing, in central Henan nestles Nanjie village, a backslider from the capitalist road. It's a commune where everything is still owned in common. Housing, health care, education are all free, as are meat, fish, poultry and eggs. The commune is highly profitable, with its top product Yingsong instant noodles being exported as far as Russia and Korea. What's more, the commune has attracted investment from Germany as well as Japan. But then, Nanjie is a throwback, a freak in modern-day China. As for Mao, his place in China today has been brilliantly evoked by avant-garde artist Wang Guangyi. His painting "Mao Zedong no. 1" shows the chairman in grey, imprisoned behind a grid of criss-crossing
The Vietnamese farm offensive
Business Standard Friday, December 15, 2000 ASIA FILE The Vietnamese farm offensive Diversification paves the way for a success story of the nation's farm sector, says Barun Roy Beginning next year, Vietnam will abolish all export quotas for rice, end the public sector monopoly in rice trade and give private companies equal authority to sell Vietnam's rice abroad. No permission from the Ministry of Trade will be necessary. This, the government believes, will help find more niche markets for the commodity and give exports a bigger boost. Since Hanoi began reforming agriculture in 1981, the farm sector has grown steadily and rice has emerged as the most profitable of crops. Vietnam used to import around 1 million tonne of rice a year. It no longer does. In 1999, it became the second largest exporter of rice after Thailand, with a volume of 4.5 million tonne. This turnaround has convinced the government that agriculture holds the key to higher export earnings and the more the sector is diversified, the better would be its chances. Coffee is the other success story that has driven the government's diversification offensive. Four years ago, Vietnam ousted Indonesia as the world's third biggest coffee producer after Brazil and Colombia, and has maintained the position since. In the 1999-2000 growing season, 5,40,000 metric tonne were produced and almost entirely exported, mainly to Europe and the US. In 2000-2001, a harvest of 6,60,000 metric tonne is expected and, hopefully, Americans will be drinking more Vietnamese coffee when tariffs go down under the new trade pact with the US. Much of this dynamism on the farm is the result of Vietnam's new land laws, which recognize the farm household as the principal unit of production, allow farmers to own the land they tend and make individual land-use rights transferable and usable as collateral for credit applications. Farming was never more attractive to the Vietnamese and diversification never appeared more important. There is now in Vietnam a virtual rush into plantations, and among the new favourites, in addition to rubber and sugarcane, are tea and fruit. The government is convinced tea can equal coffee as an export crop and is planning a substantial development of the industry to lift Vietnam's ranking (currently eighth) among the major tea producing countries. Tea export has been rising since 1997 and reached from 30,000 metric tonne in that year to 42,145 metric tonne in 1999. The plan now is to raise production level from 60,000 metric tonne at present to 2,14,000 metric tonne by 2010 and push export to 1,10,000 metric tonne. Vietnam is in a good position to expand tea. It has large tracts of deforested land that have been found suitable for the crop. The unit cost of production is lower than all its major competitors, including India. And, domestic consumption being green tea-oriented, almost all black tea is available for export. Quality has been a problem, as well as productivity, but that's being addressed with a loan from the Asian Development Bank. New processing facilities will be established, better clones will be developed and introduced, credit will be made available to replant and rehabilitate old gardens and another 30,000 hectares are to be added to the existing acreage of some 75,000 hectares. The goal for fruit is even more ambitious. By 2010, the fruit area is to be expanded from 4,50,000 hectares at present to 1 million hectares, mainly using deforested land, while production will, hopefully, increase from 4.5 million tonne to 12 million tonne. Vietnam produces a wide range of tropical and sub-tropical fruit, such as pineapple, banana, pomelo, mango, litchi, longan, dragon's eye and rambutan, and as interest in Vietnamese fruit grows in such markets as China, Japan, the Netherlands and Sweden, foreign investors are getting involved. Foreigners, including Taiwanese, Japanese and Koreans, have already poured a total of $70 million into 40 fruit and vegetable projects across the country. The combined turnover of these projects is said to have reached more than $30 million and over 90 per cent of it comes from exports. Business Standard Ltd. 5, Pratap Bhavan, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi - 110002. INDIA Ph: +91-11-3720202, 3739840. Fax: 011 - 3720201 Disclaimer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
