Monday, August 13, 2012

Can we have a quake?

Natural disasters interestingly have created huge political legacies (in some cases, destroyed them); an easy read on why some politicians perhaps desperately wait for a natural disaster to come back to power

If Moses had the plagues to help him reserve his following, if Noah played to the end of the world tune to deliver his Ark to fame, then modern day politicians have had various brilliantly timed natural disasters to catapult up their political fortunes; and in some cases, even destroy them due to their lack of tactical intent. The more intelligent ones have used disasters to not only cleanse their corrupt and tainted pasts but to decimate opposition too. Presenting a cross-continent easy read correlation review.

On December 23, 1972 an earthquake in central Managua, in Nicaragua, helped reveal the social rifts of the Somoza family dictatorship, who reportedly embezzled a huge pie of the foreign aid. This quake became the key excuse for people (underpinned by Sandinista revolution) to come together to topple down the Somoza dictatorship. Likewise in 1976, in China, Mao’s successor Hua Guofeng converted the earthquake to his benefit. He popularised the Tangshan earthquake as a symbolic event and used it as an image-building exercise to eventually destroy the opposition’s hold in the region. During the same period, in Guatemala, the military dictatorship overlooked the rehabilitation of rural areas (and only concentrated on the capital city) after a major quake, and this led to one of the biggest uprisings in the country’s history. Although in this case dictatorship was somehow able to crush the revolution using brute force, some years down the line, in 1985, the self help groups of Mexico ignited the independence movement post the infamous 1985 Mexico quake and succeeded in putting a full stop to the one party system of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.

While tectonic shifts on the surface have done a lot to make or mar political fortunes, similar tremors below the sea level have been equally omnipresent on making or marring political fortunes. The tsunami, which occurred a few days before the eve of 2005, killed over 220,000 people in 11 countries across the Indian Ocean; but the way it fired up the destiny of Thailand’s embattled Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra is mind-boggling to say the least. For the uninitiated, the disaster happened a few months before the scheduled national parliamentary elections in Thailand. Thaksin – facing ignominious corruption charges – grabbed this opportunity. He did everything possible to make his voters believe that he was capable of handling the calamity. In the course of that endeavour, he denied the need for any international aid and executed a near-effective recovery plan. This bold effort of Thaksin decoded itself into greatly improved rating points.


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Sunday, August 12, 2012

ICT --> ICT4D

They say ICT4D helps; we say too

The saga of the dot-com bust would have been enough to kill the initial frenzy of Information and Communication Technologies aka ICT, but for the fact that someone somewhere along the line most intelligently raised the concept of ICT to ICT4D (Information and Communications Technologies for Development). Supported even by profit seeking entities, ICT4D allowed a considerable part of Africa, parts of Asia, Latin America, and other developing & underdeveloped nations to leapfrog over many developed nations and their prevailing, slow and archaic infrastructure with a focus on social and economic development.

If Singapore was a developed nation revamping its administration using ICT4D to an extent where public participation in government touched new heights, India was a developing nation where a cigarette major initiated an iconic concept educating villagers how to retail their produce through the Internet; they call the forums e-Choupals.


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Friday, August 10, 2012

Populism can wait, the nation can’t

It’s every committee’s call – the only way for fuel subsidies in India is the way out; can the Indian government bite the bullet at the risk of losing voters and Parliamentary support?

In the Union Budget for 2010-11, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has shown some gumption in tackling the issue of subsidies. Much to the chagrin of oil companies, the minister has reiterated his government’s support for cash subsidy to these companies as opposed to use of oil bonds. Consequent to restoration of basic duty of 5% on crude petroleum; 7.5% on diesel and petrol and 10% on other refined products, prices of fuels are back on the upward path. Predictably, opposition members protested their hearts out.

Politicians logically want to keep telling people the version of the truth that they want to hear. Most of us perhaps know, but rarely appreciate the fact that fuel subsidy is a slow killer hurting the Indian economy internally. As they lead to gigantic losses, government shares it with state-run PSUs from its budget, which otherwise could have been utilized in developmental projects. And as the subsidies grow bigger, the government continues to commit more and more funds from developmental projects towards the subsidies. The Financial Times estimated the fuel subsidy touching a huge $57.8 billion in the 2008 fiscal year. The budget allocation for public infrastructure in the last year was merely $4.43 billion (Rs. 20,450 crore). Imagine if the same subsidy amount was invested in revamping the public transport, people would automatically switch towards alternative modes of transport like trains, buses, et al, which would invariably reduce traffic jams, pollutions and accidents. More importantly, India would have achieved world class public transport system.

Globally, while developing countries keep fuel prices low for consumers, developed countries primarily give markets the freedom to decide prices. Fuel subsidy costs Malaysia around $14.74 billion a year, a third of the government expenditure. Likewise, it costs Indonesia a whopping $4.89 billion a year.


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Cashing in on Cesarean?

Most women are hale and hearty and capable of an uncomplicated natural childbirth, yet surgical childbirths are increasing...

Any sort of experimentation with nature’s way always attracts attention and debate. Medicine in several ways has led to the triumph of human will over nature’s rules. But this time the world is divided over the delivery techniques of childbirth. Today, a mother can opt for a natural delivery or choose the surgical (Cesarean section) route, but a sharp increase in the latter method across the world has stirred widespread concern. While in the US, one in four children is born via Cesarean section (C-section), WHO has reported that one in five deliveries in India is by Cesarean too. Obstetrician David Campbell Walters in his book, Just Take it Out: The Ethics and Economics of Cesarean Section and Hysterectomy (1999) claims that in the US, ‘in 20 years, there will be no more vaginal births.’ If you look at Walters’ claim in light of the existing figures of C-section deliveries in metros like Mumbai and Delhi (20-25% C-section deliveries) and even in most provinces in China (where according to China Philanthropy Times, the average rate of Cesarean birth has reached 40 percent), his prophecy might actually become a reality in a large part of the world… But what is driving doctors and mothers-to-be to opt out of the natural vaginal delivery? Why do doctors like David Campbell Walters (though in minority) advocate that women be allowed to choose a pre-planned Cesarean?


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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Obama and the services of his lip

Rather, how his promises on human rights’ violations were lip service

2009 was been a busy year for all those who battled against human rights violations. Human rights activists were busy campaigning for a range of issues; from people harassed in places like Gaza and Sri Lanka to illegal prisons, genocides and bonded labour.

Amidst all these, there was a ‘ray of hope’ in the form of America’s new President. Obama’s promises like closing Guantanamo Bay’s prison, bringing peace in Central Asia, decreasing troops in Iraq, et al brought in some good news for the activists. But by the end of 2009, all this has turned out to be more or less a service of the lip. To worsen matters, many other human rights scandals like BlackWater (in Iraq), sexual harassments of Tamil women in refugee camps, debate over arrest warrant of Omar Bashir (the Sudanese president) and the recent news of resurfacing of ‘Blood Diamond’ activities have shamed the world. According to recent reports by various NGOs, blood diamonds are still trading freely and smuggling is quite rampant. Both Human Rights Watch and UN’s Kimberley Process want such countries to be suspended out of diamond trade; but unfortunately, no concrete action has been ordered so far.

While the beginning of 2009 gave some hope to human rights activists, they have found themselves back to square one in 2010 – rather, a few steps backward. Since no major breakthrough happened in 2009, the whole of 2010 will obviously be a busy season for both the activists and abusers. Issues regarding war crimes and illegal prisons will continue to be paramount. Even numerous pending and ignored cases at the International Court of Justice are expected to be closed due to huge media pressure.


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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

‘One best way to a perfect team?

Incentives, rewards are passé. The new way to boost performance, believes an ad agency, is providing employees with an ‘open’ environment!

While we figure out how our ancestors made the best of naturally available ‘accessories’ like leaves, stones and bones, it isn’t difficult to imagine that for our ape ancestors, the body hair was enough to protect them from the temperature differences. But would you believe us if it was said that perhaps people in the prehistoric era or the great apes could perform their tasks better as a result of being stark naked? Well, a new experiment certainly suggests so! When a design and marketing company, onebestway in UK, wasn’t performing too well and was on the lookout for a way to improve its employee performance, they were “approached by Virgin and asked to take part in an hour-long documentary, filmed over a one week period in June 2009. The objective of the film was not to be naked, but to explore the possibility that they became so bonded as a team that they would be comfortable working naked!”

But does working without a stitch actually boost morale of employees? “It doesn’t boost morale, but it does create a better team. We are closer and we work more quickly because we now feel we have nothing to hide from each other. We speak openly to each other whereas in the past we may have kept things inside, hidden. Additionally, we now have more fun! We have shared something unique and fun so, in a way, the morale is better because we are generally more upbeat and proud of who we are and of what we do,” says Michael Owen, Senior Account Manager and Managing Director, onebestway. If we were to imagine the same experiment being conducted closer home, surely there will be very few takers for this rather radical (to say the least) experiment. But weren’t the employees at onebestway apprehensive too? “Yes there were apprehensions but – to be crystal clear – there was absolutely no convincing and encouraging going on at all,” continues Michael. “The nakedness was never anything more than an exciting and rather scary option. A goal yes, but not one that anyone was encouraged to do beyond what they would naturally want to do for themselves, personally. On the last day of work (with clothes on), people were full of excitement.


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