source:Mint
Saturday, February 12, 2011
DAY 4 OF HIGHWAY BANDH: 92-vehicle convoy leaves for Siliguri
GANGTOK, 12 Feb: With the indefinite bandh underway in the Darjeeling hills showing no signs of letting up, and no clear indication arriving on Sikkim traffic along National Highway 31A [in portions which pass through Darjeeling district] being exempted, the size of convoys moving out of Rangpo for Siliguri under police escort is increasing. At 10:30 a.m. this morning, a 92-vehicle convoy left Rangpo, the largest convoy yet in the latest phase of Darjeeling bandhs.
P.I., Rangpo, Sonam Wangdi, while speaking to NOW! over the phone, confirmed that this convoy was seen off from Rangpo under a West Bengal Police escort. The convoy included 32 SNT buses, 7 SNT trucks, two tankers and 53 light vehicles [private and jeep services].
At the time of the filing of this report, no vehicles had come in from Siliguri but a convoy is expected to reach Rangpo [from Siliguri] by 3:30 p.m. This convoy is expected to have at least 50 vehicles, although this remains unconfirmed.
While only SNT vehicles were being allowed through, yesterday, a group of private vehicles also joined the convoy and having made it through without incident, more vehicles attempted the journey today.
Meanwhile, when asked about incidents of stone-pelting reported by some commuters, the PI informed that the only such incident was reported the day before [10 Feb], when two private vehicles were targeted with stone-pelting in the stretch between Melli to Rangpo. The vehicles suffered minor damage like cracked windshields and dented body-work and no one was injured, the police official informs.
[ANAND OBEROI]source;Sikkim Now
GANGTOK, 12 Feb: With the indefinite bandh underway in the Darjeeling hills showing no signs of letting up, and no clear indication arriving on Sikkim traffic along National Highway 31A [in portions which pass through Darjeeling district] being exempted, the size of convoys moving out of Rangpo for Siliguri under police escort is increasing. At 10:30 a.m. this morning, a 92-vehicle convoy left Rangpo, the largest convoy yet in the latest phase of Darjeeling bandhs.
P.I., Rangpo, Sonam Wangdi, while speaking to NOW! over the phone, confirmed that this convoy was seen off from Rangpo under a West Bengal Police escort. The convoy included 32 SNT buses, 7 SNT trucks, two tankers and 53 light vehicles [private and jeep services].
At the time of the filing of this report, no vehicles had come in from Siliguri but a convoy is expected to reach Rangpo [from Siliguri] by 3:30 p.m. This convoy is expected to have at least 50 vehicles, although this remains unconfirmed.
While only SNT vehicles were being allowed through, yesterday, a group of private vehicles also joined the convoy and having made it through without incident, more vehicles attempted the journey today.
Meanwhile, when asked about incidents of stone-pelting reported by some commuters, the PI informed that the only such incident was reported the day before [10 Feb], when two private vehicles were targeted with stone-pelting in the stretch between Melli to Rangpo. The vehicles suffered minor damage like cracked windshields and dented body-work and no one was injured, the police official informs.
[ANAND OBEROI]source;Sikkim Now
The state of the world's forests
THE Food & Agriculture Organisation, a UN body, estimates that the world's forests covered 4.03 billion hectares in 2010. Although the world as a whole continues to lose forests, the annual rate of deforestation in the past decade has fallen to 5.2m hectares, compared with 8.3m hectares a year between 1990 and 2000. Some large countries, including China and India, increased their forest cover between 2000 and 2010. China’s increased at an average annual rate of 1.6%, while India’s went up by 0.5% a year. Norway and Sweden have also added forests over the past decade. With forests covering nearly 70% of its area in 2010, Sweden is one of the world’s most sylvan countries. Nigeria, by contrast, has been chopping its forests down at a rate of 3.7% a year. By last year only one-tenth of its land remained forested.surce:the Economist
THE Food & Agriculture Organisation, a UN body, estimates that the world's forests covered 4.03 billion hectares in 2010. Although the world as a whole continues to lose forests, the annual rate of deforestation in the past decade has fallen to 5.2m hectares, compared with 8.3m hectares a year between 1990 and 2000. Some large countries, including China and India, increased their forest cover between 2000 and 2010. China’s increased at an average annual rate of 1.6%, while India’s went up by 0.5% a year. Norway and Sweden have also added forests over the past decade. With forests covering nearly 70% of its area in 2010, Sweden is one of the world’s most sylvan countries. Nigeria, by contrast, has been chopping its forests down at a rate of 3.7% a year. By last year only one-tenth of its land remained forested.surce:the Economist
MUBARAK STEPS DOWN, EGYPT REJOICES
Egyptians celebrate at Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday after President Hosni Mubarak resigned and handed power to the military. The country exploded with joy, tears and relief after pro-democracy protesters brought down President Mubarak with a momentous march on his palaces and state TV.
Soon after evening prayers had been said, a grim-faced Vice-President Omar Suleiman, announced on state television that the President had resigned. He read out a statement which said that, “Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of President of the republic and has charged the high council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country’
Friday, February 11, 2011
Himachal Pradesh govt. gives clean chit to Karmapa
The Himachal Pradesh government on Friday gave a clean chit to Karmapa Ugyen Trinely Dorji in a foreign currency haul case, saying he has no links with the money seized from his transit home near Dharamsala.
“The huge foreign currency recovered during raids from the Gyuto Monastery, the transit home of the Karmapa, are donations and offerings from devotees and the Karmapa has no links with it as the affairs of the trust are managed by trustees,” Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu told reporters in Shimla.
source:The Hindu
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His Holiness the Karmapa Cleared by Himachal Pradesh Government, February 11, 2011
source:The Hindu
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His Holiness the Karmapa Cleared by Himachal Pradesh Government, February 11, 2011
This afternoon, the Himachal Pradesh chief secretary Rajwant Sandhu told reporters that, “there is no involvement of the Karmapa. We have reasons to believe that some donations came for the monastery and the Karmapa has nothing to do with that. Monastery functionaries were managing the affairs.”
The chief secretary was also quoted as saying; “The Karmapa is a religious head and has followers across the world. We respect their religious activities. We don't interfere in any religious affairs. We have full respect for their religious activities and are in no way intending curbing them in any form or manner as also we are aware of the fact that the Karmapa is not involved in any monetary activities or shady benami land deals.”
The Karmapa Office of Administration is grateful to the Indian authorities for investigating the case thoroughly and bringing the truth to the forefront. This fully confirms the confidence His Holiness the Karmapa has himself expressed from the very beginning in the Indian judicial system. We are glad the investigation has put to rest the unfounded rumors that had been circulating. We are very thankful for all the support that has come pouring in from all over India, across the Himalayas and all corners of the world.
Spokespersons
Karma Topden
Former Indian Ambassador to Mongolia,
Former Member of Parliament
Adviser to Karmapa Office of Administration
Deki Chungyalpa
Adviser to Karmapa Office of Administration
koapress@gmail.com
(91) 8894 502 910
The chief secretary was also quoted as saying; “The Karmapa is a religious head and has followers across the world. We respect their religious activities. We don't interfere in any religious affairs. We have full respect for their religious activities and are in no way intending curbing them in any form or manner as also we are aware of the fact that the Karmapa is not involved in any monetary activities or shady benami land deals.”
The Karmapa Office of Administration is grateful to the Indian authorities for investigating the case thoroughly and bringing the truth to the forefront. This fully confirms the confidence His Holiness the Karmapa has himself expressed from the very beginning in the Indian judicial system. We are glad the investigation has put to rest the unfounded rumors that had been circulating. We are very thankful for all the support that has come pouring in from all over India, across the Himalayas and all corners of the world.
Spokespersons
Karma Topden
Former Indian Ambassador to Mongolia,
Former Member of Parliament
Adviser to Karmapa Office of Administration
Deki Chungyalpa
Adviser to Karmapa Office of Administration
koapress@gmail.com
(91) 8894 502 910
China needs political liberalisation: Dalai Lama
February 10th 2011
Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, 10 February 2011 (By) - Terming China as a communist nation without communist ideology, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said that China urgently needs political liberalisation.
Reiterating his demand for autonomy for Tibet, he, however, expressed concern that the Tibetan culture, values, lifestyle, language, traditions and customs are fast being suppressed by China, which is imposing its own culture in the region.
The Dalai Lama was speaking at a lecture on Nalanda Thought: India's Ancient Treasure' hosted by Aravali Institute of Management here on Wednesday. He also replied to questions of the students ranging from education to politics.
Reiterating his demand for autonomy for Tibet, he, however, expressed concern that the Tibetan culture, values, lifestyle, language, traditions and customs are fast being suppressed by China, which is imposing its own culture in the region.
The Dalai Lama was speaking at a lecture on Nalanda Thought: India's Ancient Treasure' hosted by Aravali Institute of Management here on Wednesday. He also replied to questions of the students ranging from education to politics.
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"Today, Tibet needs economic development and for which we cannot afford to be an independent land. But Chinese policies are against us which is not acceptable to us," he said
He signaled about his retirement soon, saying, "I am at the fag end of my mission." Replying to a question, he also advocated permanent seat for India in the UN Security Council and that too with veto power, saying India is the most deserving nation for the status.
He signaled about his retirement soon, saying, "I am at the fag end of my mission." Replying to a question, he also advocated permanent seat for India in the UN Security Council and that too with veto power, saying India is the most deserving nation for the status.
Addressing the students, he described them as the agents of change of the 21 century, who have the responsibility to ensure global peace through action (Karma) and called upon them to work with a vision along the principals of ahimsa to make this century a century of peace.
He also advocated dialogue as the best tool to resolve national and international problems. He also urged students to be concerned about and active in protecting earth from environmental degradation.
He advised them to have a realistic vision governed by knowledge and have unbiased compassion, which he said, are lacking miserably in pursuit of materialistic pleasures. He also emphasized values like cooperation, trust, harmony, tolerance, friendship, moral ethics and on top of all human values, warmheartedness.
Talking about the Nalanda university's education system, he stressed that the country needs to revive that system in the benefit of the humanity. He described the Tibetans as the disciples of India and termed Tibetan tradition a true lineage of Nalanda education system. "We are proud to have that system intact. But, unfortunately, India, our guru, could not preserve the Nalanda tradition, a truly pluralistic system based on experiments, logic and investigation and not on mere quotations," he said.
He also advocated dialogue as the best tool to resolve national and international problems. He also urged students to be concerned about and active in protecting earth from environmental degradation.
He advised them to have a realistic vision governed by knowledge and have unbiased compassion, which he said, are lacking miserably in pursuit of materialistic pleasures. He also emphasized values like cooperation, trust, harmony, tolerance, friendship, moral ethics and on top of all human values, warmheartedness.
Talking about the Nalanda university's education system, he stressed that the country needs to revive that system in the benefit of the humanity. He described the Tibetans as the disciples of India and termed Tibetan tradition a true lineage of Nalanda education system. "We are proud to have that system intact. But, unfortunately, India, our guru, could not preserve the Nalanda tradition, a truly pluralistic system based on experiments, logic and investigation and not on mere quotations," he said.
Referring to the present education system, he said it is devoid of moral ethics. "But now there is a growing concern in many countries about making education as an inculcator of moral ethics based on secular harmony," he said.
Later, he also addressed the students of Rajmata Krishan Kumari Girls School and emphasized on women's education terming it as important.
Later, he also addressed the students of Rajmata Krishan Kumari Girls School and emphasized on women's education terming it as important.
Himachal Pradesh govt. gives clean chit to Karmapa
Himachal Pradesh govt. gives clean chit to Karmapa
The Himachal Pradesh government on Friday gave a clean chit to Karmapa Ugyen Trinely Dorji in a foreign currency haul case, saying he has no links with the money seized from his transit home near Dharamsala.
“The huge foreign currency recovered during raids from the Gyuto Monastery, the transit home of the Karmapa, are donations and offerings from devotees and the Karmapa has no links with it as the affairs of the trust are managed by trustees,” Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu told reporters in Shimla.
Bandh-enforced scarcity of perishable goods starts pinching Sikkim marts
GANGTOK, 11 Feb: Today was the third day of the indefinite bandh in the neighbouring Darjeeling Hills, which has, this time, included Sikkim traffic on NH31A passing through Darjeeling district in its purview. The suddenness with which this bandh was called and enforced [in the wake of the death of two GJM supporters in a police firing at Sibchu] had caught Sikkim off-guard and with no time to stock up on provisions. The GJM has otherwise kept Sikkim traffic out of the purview of its bandhs of late.
Now, three days into the bandh with only SNT convoys allowed through to Siliguri, stocks are running low in Sikkim, especially those of perishable items. The Sunday haat this week will, in all probability, offer very slim picking for shoppers with supplies from Siliguri blocked out.
The SDM, East District, Dr. AB Karki, today confirmed that stocks were indeed running low.
Not only perishable goods, even stocks of petroleum products, including LPG, have reached scarcity levels. It did not help matters that the only vehicle vandalized in the latest bandh was a tanker belonging to a Gangtok petrol pump.
The SDM however also brings in positive tidings with information that 18 trucks of LPG and a similar number of petrol tankers are scheduled to arrive in the capital by Saturday evening. These will definitely ease the situation.
“The Rangpo P.I. will be the in-charge of this consignment and West Bengal Police will escort these trucks and tankers into Sikkim from Siliguri,” Dr. Karki informed.
On today’s status of vehicular traffic beyond Rangpo [to Siliguri], the SDM informs, “A total of 38 vehicles, including 21 buses, had entered Sikkim by 3 p.m. Completing the journey to Siliguri were a total of 48 vehicles, including 14 buses and 11 trucks.”
The SDM further informed that the SI Rangpo has been coordinating a single convoy till today, but given the number of people who need to travel, starting Saturday, two convoys each from Siliguri and Rangpo will be tried.
[SUBASH RAI]
source:Sikkim Now
GANGTOK, 11 Feb: Today was the third day of the indefinite bandh in the neighbouring Darjeeling Hills, which has, this time, included Sikkim traffic on NH31A passing through Darjeeling district in its purview. The suddenness with which this bandh was called and enforced [in the wake of the death of two GJM supporters in a police firing at Sibchu] had caught Sikkim off-guard and with no time to stock up on provisions. The GJM has otherwise kept Sikkim traffic out of the purview of its bandhs of late.
Now, three days into the bandh with only SNT convoys allowed through to Siliguri, stocks are running low in Sikkim, especially those of perishable items. The Sunday haat this week will, in all probability, offer very slim picking for shoppers with supplies from Siliguri blocked out.
The SDM, East District, Dr. AB Karki, today confirmed that stocks were indeed running low.
Not only perishable goods, even stocks of petroleum products, including LPG, have reached scarcity levels. It did not help matters that the only vehicle vandalized in the latest bandh was a tanker belonging to a Gangtok petrol pump.
The SDM however also brings in positive tidings with information that 18 trucks of LPG and a similar number of petrol tankers are scheduled to arrive in the capital by Saturday evening. These will definitely ease the situation.
“The Rangpo P.I. will be the in-charge of this consignment and West Bengal Police will escort these trucks and tankers into Sikkim from Siliguri,” Dr. Karki informed.
On today’s status of vehicular traffic beyond Rangpo [to Siliguri], the SDM informs, “A total of 38 vehicles, including 21 buses, had entered Sikkim by 3 p.m. Completing the journey to Siliguri were a total of 48 vehicles, including 14 buses and 11 trucks.”
The SDM further informed that the SI Rangpo has been coordinating a single convoy till today, but given the number of people who need to travel, starting Saturday, two convoys each from Siliguri and Rangpo will be tried.
[SUBASH RAI]
source:Sikkim Now
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Army has two new mountain divisions
IANS, Feb 8, 2011, 02.17am IST
NEW DELHI: With an eye on China's growing military strength in Tibet, India has 'fully raised' two new mountain divisions with 30,000 troops in the northeast as a counter-measure and to shore up its mountain warfare capabilities.
'We have now fully raised the two new mountain divisions in the northeast. They are fully functional. Only some support elements may join them soon,' a senior officer at the Army headquarters said here.
The new mountain divisions have come up at a time when India's security top brass is warily watching the massive upgrade of Chinese military infrastructure along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) - the ceasefire line as there is no demarcated border - in all the three sectors - western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal).
The two new mountain divisions, raised at a cost of Rs 700 crore, Rs 7 billion each, will be under the command of the Rangapahar-based 3 Corps in Nagaland and the Tezpur-based 4 Corps in Assam of the Army's Kolkata-based Eastern Command.
The two divisions with 15,000 personnel each will further enhance the tactical strength of the Indian Army in the strategically important areas along the borders facing its traditional rival China, which claims the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory.
The other China-specific plans include the raising of the 'Arunachal Scouts' and 'Sikkim Scouts' that was given the nod last year.
India has also deployed a Sukhoi SU-30 air superiority fighter jet squadron in Tezpur as one of the aerial offensive measures apart from upgrading airfields and helipads in the northeast.
Read more: Army has two new mountain divisions - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Army-has-two-new-mountain-divisions/articleshow/7448646.cms#ixzz1DPvKf3ip
IANS, Feb 8, 2011, 02.17am IST
NEW DELHI: With an eye on China's growing military strength in Tibet, India has 'fully raised' two new mountain divisions with 30,000 troops in the northeast as a counter-measure and to shore up its mountain warfare capabilities.
'We have now fully raised the two new mountain divisions in the northeast. They are fully functional. Only some support elements may join them soon,' a senior officer at the Army headquarters said here.
The new mountain divisions have come up at a time when India's security top brass is warily watching the massive upgrade of Chinese military infrastructure along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) - the ceasefire line as there is no demarcated border - in all the three sectors - western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal).
The two new mountain divisions, raised at a cost of Rs 700 crore, Rs 7 billion each, will be under the command of the Rangapahar-based 3 Corps in Nagaland and the Tezpur-based 4 Corps in Assam of the Army's Kolkata-based Eastern Command.
The two divisions with 15,000 personnel each will further enhance the tactical strength of the Indian Army in the strategically important areas along the borders facing its traditional rival China, which claims the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory.
The other China-specific plans include the raising of the 'Arunachal Scouts' and 'Sikkim Scouts' that was given the nod last year.
India has also deployed a Sukhoi SU-30 air superiority fighter jet squadron in Tezpur as one of the aerial offensive measures apart from upgrading airfields and helipads in the northeast.
Read more: Army has two new mountain divisions - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Army-has-two-new-mountain-divisions/articleshow/7448646.cms#ixzz1DPvKf3ip
2nd phase of census from Feb 9
Gangtok, Feb. 7:
The second phase of census will start from February 9 and will be conducted till 28th of February. A revisional round will also be held from March 1 to March 5. The population census is a process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analyzing and publishing or otherwise disseminating demographic, economic and social data pertaining, at a specified time to all people in a country or in well delimited part of the country.
Joint Director, Census ,Sikkim and Assam DK Dey said at the Indian Council Agriculture Research (ICAR) conference hall organised by Directorate of Census Operation, Sikkim, Ministry of Home Affairs that from 7th April till 22nd May last year the first phase was conducted. In the first phase house listing and housing census along with national population was conducted. In the second phase of census the population enumeration will be carried out for which a total one hundred and twenty seven persons in the state will be engaged. The team consists of six principal census officer (PCO), four district census officer (DCO), nine sub divisional charge officer (DCO), thirty seven charge officer (CO), thirty three master trainer (MT) along with two hundred thirty supervisors.
The response during the first census from the state public was positive. During the second phase of census a total of twenty nine questions will be asked which the public needs to respond correctly in making this census a success, , said Mr. Dey.
Those who are not present in their household during the visit by Census officer will be treated as normal residents of the household. They should have been during the enumeration period provided they have not been enumerated elsewhere.
Foreigners who are expected to stay within the geographically limits of this country throughout the enumeration period 9th to 28th February are to be counted wherever they are found, if not enumerated elsewhere. Whereas those foreigners who are expected to stay in India for a part of enumeration period are not eligible for enumeration. Furthermore foreigners and their families who are having diplomatic status will not be enumerated but Indian national employed and staying with the family in a block will be enumerated during the census.
In regards to the census officers’ work schedule and duty Mr. Dey clearly mentioned that during the duty hour census officers can not obstruct anyone from performing duty along with putting offensive, improper or unauthorized question and disclose any census information. If found guilty imprisonment up to 3 years along with a fine of Rs.1000/- under section 11 of the Census Act 1948 will be imposed on the census officer concerned.
Speaking about the use of census data Mr. Dey said that the census is not merely a head count but it acts as a valuable information for planning and formulation of policies, the number of seats as well as the boundaries in parliamentary, assembly constituencies, panchayat’s units and other local bodies, effective public administration, used in 5-year plan, annual plan of central and state government and is also widely used by scholars, business man, industrialists and development workers.
Director, Bhagwan Shankar along with Deputy Director MK Darjee were present during the program.
(Courtesy: Sikkim Mail)
Gangtok, Feb. 7:
The second phase of census will start from February 9 and will be conducted till 28th of February. A revisional round will also be held from March 1 to March 5. The population census is a process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analyzing and publishing or otherwise disseminating demographic, economic and social data pertaining, at a specified time to all people in a country or in well delimited part of the country.
Joint Director, Census ,Sikkim and Assam DK Dey said at the Indian Council Agriculture Research (ICAR) conference hall organised by Directorate of Census Operation, Sikkim, Ministry of Home Affairs that from 7th April till 22nd May last year the first phase was conducted. In the first phase house listing and housing census along with national population was conducted. In the second phase of census the population enumeration will be carried out for which a total one hundred and twenty seven persons in the state will be engaged. The team consists of six principal census officer (PCO), four district census officer (DCO), nine sub divisional charge officer (DCO), thirty seven charge officer (CO), thirty three master trainer (MT) along with two hundred thirty supervisors.
The response during the first census from the state public was positive. During the second phase of census a total of twenty nine questions will be asked which the public needs to respond correctly in making this census a success, , said Mr. Dey.
Those who are not present in their household during the visit by Census officer will be treated as normal residents of the household. They should have been during the enumeration period provided they have not been enumerated elsewhere.
Foreigners who are expected to stay within the geographically limits of this country throughout the enumeration period 9th to 28th February are to be counted wherever they are found, if not enumerated elsewhere. Whereas those foreigners who are expected to stay in India for a part of enumeration period are not eligible for enumeration. Furthermore foreigners and their families who are having diplomatic status will not be enumerated but Indian national employed and staying with the family in a block will be enumerated during the census.
In regards to the census officers’ work schedule and duty Mr. Dey clearly mentioned that during the duty hour census officers can not obstruct anyone from performing duty along with putting offensive, improper or unauthorized question and disclose any census information. If found guilty imprisonment up to 3 years along with a fine of Rs.1000/- under section 11 of the Census Act 1948 will be imposed on the census officer concerned.
Speaking about the use of census data Mr. Dey said that the census is not merely a head count but it acts as a valuable information for planning and formulation of policies, the number of seats as well as the boundaries in parliamentary, assembly constituencies, panchayat’s units and other local bodies, effective public administration, used in 5-year plan, annual plan of central and state government and is also widely used by scholars, business man, industrialists and development workers.
Director, Bhagwan Shankar along with Deputy Director MK Darjee were present during the program.
(Courtesy: Sikkim Mail)
Chakka Jam withdrawn, Indefinite Strike from Today
THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE] EXCLUSIVE BY BARUN ROY
DARJEELING: The Chakka Jam was withdrawn from 4 pm (IST) in Darjeeling Hills and the market was opened. This was done according to the leaders of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to allow the people trapped in the Chakka Jam to reach their respective destination. The market has also been opened so that people could stock up on the food. The indefinite strike will resume from tomorrow.
Meanwhile news coming in from Dooars Terai, the historic Jaldhaka Forest Guest House has been burnt down. A number of Forest Guest Houses have also been reported been burnt along with a number of police vehicles. All the police stations in the Hills have been surrounded by the GJM supporters. The Teesta Bridge has also been reported blocked and transport halted.
THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE] EXCLUSIVE BY BARUN ROY
DARJEELING: The Chakka Jam was withdrawn from 4 pm (IST) in Darjeeling Hills and the market was opened. This was done according to the leaders of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to allow the people trapped in the Chakka Jam to reach their respective destination. The market has also been opened so that people could stock up on the food. The indefinite strike will resume from tomorrow.
Meanwhile news coming in from Dooars Terai, the historic Jaldhaka Forest Guest House has been burnt down. A number of Forest Guest Houses have also been reported been burnt along with a number of police vehicles. All the police stations in the Hills have been surrounded by the GJM supporters. The Teesta Bridge has also been reported blocked and transport halted.
Darjelling Burns
Darj burns after police firing in Jalpaiguri claims 3 GJM activists
INDEFINITE STRIKE CALLED IN THE HILLS, POSTERING EXTENDS BANDH TO NH31A AS WELL
SNOD TANKER SET ALIGHT AT TAR-KHOLA
source;sikkimnow
GANGTOK, 08 Feb: The situation in Darjeeling hills collapsed to anarchy today as Gorkha Janmukti Morcha activists took to the streets torching West Bengal government property and bringing the hill district to a standstill. This, in a spontaneous reaction to news of police firing on a GJM procession near the Sipshu Tea Estate at Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri district which has now claimed three lives.
Initially, two GJM members, one of them a 24 year old lady from Kalimpong, had been killed in the police firing. Later in the day, a third person succumbed to injuries sustained in the police action. In the melee which visited this town on the Darjeeling-Jalpaiguri border, around 10 CRPF personnel are also reported to have been injured. An indefinite bandh has been called in the Darjeeling hills, and posters pasted along the highway announce that this time, traffic from Sikkim will also be blocked.
As news spread of the police firing and the casualties, violence broke out in the Darjeeling Hills and an immediate chakka-jam was called shortly after noon. The bandh was eventually lifted at around 4 p.m. to allow people stranded all over the hills to complete their journeys. The GJM has now called an indefinite bandh from Wednesday onwards.
While vehicular traffic to and from Sikkim on National Highway 31A [in parts which run through Darjeeling] is usually kept out of the purview of these bandhs, this time, GJM picketers along the highway have been pasting posters on all Sikkim-bound vehicles that this time, even Sikkim vehicles will not be allowed on the highway.
Those who travelled on the highway after the bandh was lifted today inform that while tension was not palpable, what was worrying was that there was no sign of either West Bengal police or paramilitary forces on the highway.
Meanwhile, news coming in from Darjeeling informs that following the police firing and deaths, arson broke out in the hills. The tourism office on the Mall in Darjeeling was set ablaze as was the forest dak bungalow at Jaldhaka in the Dooars. A police vehicle was also set alight in Darjeeling it is informed. Forest bungalows and sub-divisional offices were also torched in the Kalimpong sub-division.
Also in Kalimpong today, two North Bengal State Transport Corporation buses were set alight at the motor-stand. Also caught in the mob attack in Kalimpong was an SNT bus, the windshield of which was smashed. No one was however injured in the incident and the vehicle made it back to Sikkim when the bandh was lifted.
At Tar-Khola, the notorious West Bengal settlement ahead of Rangpo, however, a private petrol tanker [belonging to SNOD, Gangtok] headed for Siliguri from Rangpo was set alight. No one was injured and fire-fighters from Rangpo put out the flame, it is learnt.
The situation in the neighbouring Hills remains tense.
INDEFINITE STRIKE CALLED IN THE HILLS, POSTERING EXTENDS BANDH TO NH31A AS WELL
SNOD TANKER SET ALIGHT AT TAR-KHOLA
source;sikkimnow
GANGTOK, 08 Feb: The situation in Darjeeling hills collapsed to anarchy today as Gorkha Janmukti Morcha activists took to the streets torching West Bengal government property and bringing the hill district to a standstill. This, in a spontaneous reaction to news of police firing on a GJM procession near the Sipshu Tea Estate at Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri district which has now claimed three lives.
Initially, two GJM members, one of them a 24 year old lady from Kalimpong, had been killed in the police firing. Later in the day, a third person succumbed to injuries sustained in the police action. In the melee which visited this town on the Darjeeling-Jalpaiguri border, around 10 CRPF personnel are also reported to have been injured. An indefinite bandh has been called in the Darjeeling hills, and posters pasted along the highway announce that this time, traffic from Sikkim will also be blocked.
As news spread of the police firing and the casualties, violence broke out in the Darjeeling Hills and an immediate chakka-jam was called shortly after noon. The bandh was eventually lifted at around 4 p.m. to allow people stranded all over the hills to complete their journeys. The GJM has now called an indefinite bandh from Wednesday onwards.
While vehicular traffic to and from Sikkim on National Highway 31A [in parts which run through Darjeeling] is usually kept out of the purview of these bandhs, this time, GJM picketers along the highway have been pasting posters on all Sikkim-bound vehicles that this time, even Sikkim vehicles will not be allowed on the highway.
Those who travelled on the highway after the bandh was lifted today inform that while tension was not palpable, what was worrying was that there was no sign of either West Bengal police or paramilitary forces on the highway.
Meanwhile, news coming in from Darjeeling informs that following the police firing and deaths, arson broke out in the hills. The tourism office on the Mall in Darjeeling was set ablaze as was the forest dak bungalow at Jaldhaka in the Dooars. A police vehicle was also set alight in Darjeeling it is informed. Forest bungalows and sub-divisional offices were also torched in the Kalimpong sub-division.
Also in Kalimpong today, two North Bengal State Transport Corporation buses were set alight at the motor-stand. Also caught in the mob attack in Kalimpong was an SNT bus, the windshield of which was smashed. No one was however injured in the incident and the vehicle made it back to Sikkim when the bandh was lifted.
At Tar-Khola, the notorious West Bengal settlement ahead of Rangpo, however, a private petrol tanker [belonging to SNOD, Gangtok] headed for Siliguri from Rangpo was set alight. No one was injured and fire-fighters from Rangpo put out the flame, it is learnt.
The situation in the neighbouring Hills remains tense.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Egypt, Israel and a Strategic Reconsideration
Egypt, Israel and a Strategic Reconsideration
February 8, 2011 | 0950 GMT
By George Friedman
source;Stratfor
The events in Egypt have sent shock waves through Israel. The 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel have been the bedrock of Israeli national security. In three of the four wars Israel fought before the accords, a catastrophic outcome for Israel was conceivable. In 1948, 1967 and 1973, credible scenarios existed in which the Israelis were defeated and the state of Israel ceased to exist. In 1973, it appeared for several days that one of those scenarios was unfolding.
The survival of Israel was no longer at stake after 1978. In the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the various Palestinian intifadas and the wars with Hezbollah in 2006 and Hamas in Gaza in 2008, Israeli interests were involved, but not survival. There is a huge difference between the two. Israel had achieved a geopolitical ideal after 1978 in which it had divided and effectively made peace with two of the four Arab states that bordered it, and neutralized one of those states. The treaty with Egypt removed the threat to the Negev and the southern coastal approaches to Tel Aviv.
The agreement with Jordan in 1994, which formalized a long-standing relationship, secured the longest and most vulnerable border along the Jordan River. The situation in Lebanon was such that whatever threat emerged from there was limited. Only Syria remained hostile but, by itself, it could not threaten Israel. Damascus was far more focused on Lebanon anyway. As for the Palestinians, they posed a problem for Israel, but without the foreign military forces along the frontiers, the Palestinians could trouble but not destroy Israel. Israel’s existence was not at stake, nor was it an issue for 33 years.
The Historic Egyptian Threat to Israel
The center of gravity of Israel’s strategic challenge was always Egypt. The largest Arab country, with about 80 million people, Egypt could field the most substantial army. More to the point, Egypt could absorb casualties at a far higher rate than Israel. The danger that the Egyptian army posed was that it could close with the Israelis and engage in extended, high-intensity combat that would break the back of the Israel Defense Forces by imposing a rate of attrition that Israel could not sustain. If Israel were to be simultaneously engaged with Syria, dividing its forces and its logistical capabilities, it could run out of troops long before Egypt, even if Egypt were absorbing far more casualties.
The solution for the Israelis was to initiate combat at a time and place of their own choosing, preferably with surprise, as they did in 1956 and 1967. Failing that, as they did in 1973, the Israelis would be forced into a holding action they could not sustain and forced onto an offensive in which the risks of failure — and the possibility — would be substantial.
It was to the great benefit of Israel that Egyptian forces were generally poorly commanded and trained and that Egyptian war-fighting doctrine, derived from Britain and the Soviet Union, was not suited to the battle problem Israel posed. In 1967, Israel won its most complete victory over Egypt, as well as Jordan and Syria. It appeared to the Israelis that the Arabs in general and Egyptians in particular were culturally incapable of mastering modern warfare.
Thus it was an extraordinary shock when, just six years after their 1967 defeat, the Egyptians mounted a two-army assault across the Suez, coordinated with a simultaneous Syrian attack on the Golan Heights. Even more stunning than the assault was the operational security the Egyptians maintained and the degree of surprise they achieved. One of Israel’s fundamental assumptions was that Israeli intelligence would provide ample warning of an attack. And one of the fundamental assumptions of Israeli intelligence was that Egypt could not mount an attack while Israel maintained air superiority. Both assumptions were wrong. But the most important error was the assumption that Egypt could not, by itself, coordinate a massive and complex military operation. In the end, the Israelis defeated the Egyptians, but at the cost of the confidence they achieved in 1967 and a recognition that comfortable assumptions were impermissible in warfare in general and regarding Egypt in particular.
The Egyptians had also learned lessons. The most important was that the existence of the state of Israel did not represent a challenge to Egypt’s national interest. Israel existed across a fairly wide and inhospitable buffer zone — the Sinai Peninsula. The logistical problems involved in deploying a massive force to the east had resulted in three major defeats, while the single partial victory took place on much shorter lines of supply. Holding or taking the Sinai was difficult and possible only with a massive infusion of weapons and supplies from the outside, from the Soviet Union. This meant that Egypt was a hostage to Soviet interests. Egypt had a greater interest in breaking its dependency on the Soviets than in defeating Israel. It could do the former more readily than the latter.
(click here to enlarge image)
The Egyptian recognition that its interests in Israel were minimal and the Israeli recognition that eliminating the potential threat from Egypt guaranteed its national security have been the foundation of the regional balance since 1978. All other considerations — Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and the rest — were trivial in comparison. Geography — the Sinai — made this strategic distancing possible. So did American aid to Egypt. The substitution of American weapons for Soviet ones in the years after the treaty achieved two things. First, they ended Egypt’s dependency on the Soviets. Second, they further guaranteed Israel’s security by creating an Egyptian army dependent on a steady flow of spare parts and contractors from the United States. Cut the flow and the Egyptian army would be crippled.
The governments of Anwar Sadat and then Hosni Mubarak were content with this arrangement. The generation that came to power with Gamal Nasser had fought four wars with Israel and had little stomach for any more. They had proved themselves in October 1973 on the Suez and had no appetite to fight again or to send their sons to war. It is not that they created an oasis of prosperity in Egypt. But they no longer had to go to war every few years, and they were able, as military officers, to live good lives. What is now regarded as corruption was then regarded as just rewards for bleeding in four wars against the Israelis.
Mubarak and the Military
But now is 33 years later, and the world has changed. The generation that fought is very old. Today’s Egyptian military trains with the Americans, and its officers pass through the American command and staff and war colleges. This generation has close ties to the United States, but not nearly as close ties to the British-trained generation that fought the Israelis or to Egypt’s former patrons, the Russians. Mubarak has locked the younger generation, in their fifties and sixties, out of senior command positions and away from the wealth his generation has accumulated. They want him out.
For this younger generation, the idea of Gamal Mubarak being allowed to take over the presidency was the last straw. They wanted the elder Mubarak to leave not only because he had ambitions for his son but also because he didn’t want to leave after more than a quarter century of pressure. Mubarak wanted guarantees that, if he left, his possessions, in addition to his honor, would remain intact. If Gamal could not be president, then no one’s promise had value. So Mubarak locked himself into position.
The cameras love demonstrations, but they are frequently not the real story. The demonstrators who wanted democracy are a real faction, but they don’t speak for the shopkeepers and peasants more interested in prosperity than wealth. Since Egypt is a Muslim country, the West freezes when anything happens, dreading the hand of Osama bin Laden. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was once a powerful force, and it might become one again someday, but right now it is a shadow of its former self. What is going on now is a struggle within the military, between generations, for the future of the Egyptian military and therefore the heart of the Egyptian regime. Mubarak will leave, the younger officers will emerge, the constitution will make some changes and life will continue.
The Israelis will return to their complacency. They should not. The usual first warning of a heart attack is death. Among the fortunate, it is a mild coronary followed by a dramatic change of life style. The events in Egypt should be taken as a mild coronary and treated with great relief by Israel that it wasn’t worse.
Reconsidering the Israeli Position
I have laid out the reasons why the 1978 treaty is in Egypt’s national interest. I have left out two pieces. The first is ideology. The ideological tenor of the Middle East prior to 1978 was secular and socialist. Today it is increasingly Islamist. Egypt is not immune to this trend, even if the Muslim Brotherhood should not be seen as the embodiment of that threat. Second, military technology, skills and terrain have made Egypt a defensive power for the past 33 years. But military technology and skills can change, on both sides. Egyptian defensiveness is built on assumptions of Israeli military capability and interest. As Israeli ideology becomes more militant and as its capabilities grow, Egypt may be forced to reconsider its strategic posture. As new generations of officers arise, who have heard of war only from their grandfathers, the fear of war declines and the desire for glory grows. Combine that with ideology in Egypt and Israel and things change. They won’t change quickly — a generation of military transformation will be needed once regimes have changed and the decisions to prepare for war have been made — but they can change.
Two things from this should strike the Israelis. The first is how badly they need peace with Egypt. It is easy to forget what things were like 40 years back, but it is important to remember that the prosperity of Israel today depends in part on the treaty with Egypt. Iran is a distant abstraction, with a notional bomb whose completion date keeps moving. Israel can fight many wars with Egypt and win. It need lose only one. The second lesson is that Israel should do everything possible to make certain that the transfer of power in Egypt is from Mubarak to the next generation of military officers and that these officers maintain their credibility in Egypt. Whether Israel likes it or not, there is an Islamist movement in Egypt. Whether the new generation controls that movement as the previous one did or whether they succumb to it is the existential question for Israel. If the treaty with Egypt is the foundation of Israel’s national security, it is logical that the Israelis should do everything possible to preserve it.
This was not the fatal heart attack. It might not even have been more than indigestion. But recent events in Egypt point to a long-term problem with Israeli strategy. Given the strategic and ideological crosscurrents in Egypt, it is in Israel’s national interest to minimize the intensity of the ideological and make certain that Israel is not perceived as a threat. In Gaza, for example, Israel and Egypt may have shared a common interest in containing Hamas, and the next generation of Egyptian officers may share it as well. But what didn’t materialize in the streets this time could in the future: an Islamist rising. In that case, the Egyptian military might find it in its interest to preserve its power by accommodating the Islamists. At this point, Egypt becomes the problem and not part of the solution.
Keeping Egypt from coming to this is the imperative of military dispassion. If the long-term center of gravity of Israel’s national security is at least the neutrality of Egypt, then doing everything to maintain that is a military requirement. That military requirement must be carried out by political means. That requires the recognition of priorities. The future of Gaza or the precise borders of a Palestinian state are trivial compared to preserving the treaty with Egypt. If it is found that a particular political strategy undermines the strategic requirement, then that political strategy must be sacrificed.
In other words, the worst-case scenario for Israel would be a return to the pre-1978 relationship with Egypt without a settlement with the Palestinians. That would open the door for a potential two-front war with an intifada in the middle. To avoid that, the ideological pressure on Egypt must be eased, and that means a settlement with the Palestinians on less-than-optimal terms. The alternative is to stay the current course and let Israel take its chances. The question is where the greater safety lies. Israel has assumed that it lies with confrontation with the Palestinians. That’s true only if Egypt stays neutral. If the pressure on the Palestinians destabilizes Egypt, it is not the most prudent course.
There are those in Israel who would argue that any release in pressure on the Palestinians will be met with rejection. If that is true, then, in my view, that is catastrophic news for Israel. In due course, ideological shifts and recalculations of Israeli intentions will cause a change in Egyptian policy. This will take several decades to turn into effective military force, and the first conflicts may well end in Israeli victory. But, as I have said before, it must always be remembered that no matter how many times Israel wins, it need only lose once to be annihilated.
To some it means that Israel should remain as strong as possible. To me it means that Israel should avoid rolling the dice too often, regardless of how strong it thinks it is. The Mubarak affair might open a strategic reconsideration of the Israeli position.
.
Read more: Egypt, Israel and a Strategic Reconsideration | STRATFOR
February 8, 2011 | 0950 GMT
By George Friedman
source;Stratfor
The events in Egypt have sent shock waves through Israel. The 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel have been the bedrock of Israeli national security. In three of the four wars Israel fought before the accords, a catastrophic outcome for Israel was conceivable. In 1948, 1967 and 1973, credible scenarios existed in which the Israelis were defeated and the state of Israel ceased to exist. In 1973, it appeared for several days that one of those scenarios was unfolding.
The survival of Israel was no longer at stake after 1978. In the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the various Palestinian intifadas and the wars with Hezbollah in 2006 and Hamas in Gaza in 2008, Israeli interests were involved, but not survival. There is a huge difference between the two. Israel had achieved a geopolitical ideal after 1978 in which it had divided and effectively made peace with two of the four Arab states that bordered it, and neutralized one of those states. The treaty with Egypt removed the threat to the Negev and the southern coastal approaches to Tel Aviv.
The agreement with Jordan in 1994, which formalized a long-standing relationship, secured the longest and most vulnerable border along the Jordan River. The situation in Lebanon was such that whatever threat emerged from there was limited. Only Syria remained hostile but, by itself, it could not threaten Israel. Damascus was far more focused on Lebanon anyway. As for the Palestinians, they posed a problem for Israel, but without the foreign military forces along the frontiers, the Palestinians could trouble but not destroy Israel. Israel’s existence was not at stake, nor was it an issue for 33 years.
The Historic Egyptian Threat to Israel
The center of gravity of Israel’s strategic challenge was always Egypt. The largest Arab country, with about 80 million people, Egypt could field the most substantial army. More to the point, Egypt could absorb casualties at a far higher rate than Israel. The danger that the Egyptian army posed was that it could close with the Israelis and engage in extended, high-intensity combat that would break the back of the Israel Defense Forces by imposing a rate of attrition that Israel could not sustain. If Israel were to be simultaneously engaged with Syria, dividing its forces and its logistical capabilities, it could run out of troops long before Egypt, even if Egypt were absorbing far more casualties.
The solution for the Israelis was to initiate combat at a time and place of their own choosing, preferably with surprise, as they did in 1956 and 1967. Failing that, as they did in 1973, the Israelis would be forced into a holding action they could not sustain and forced onto an offensive in which the risks of failure — and the possibility — would be substantial.
It was to the great benefit of Israel that Egyptian forces were generally poorly commanded and trained and that Egyptian war-fighting doctrine, derived from Britain and the Soviet Union, was not suited to the battle problem Israel posed. In 1967, Israel won its most complete victory over Egypt, as well as Jordan and Syria. It appeared to the Israelis that the Arabs in general and Egyptians in particular were culturally incapable of mastering modern warfare.
Thus it was an extraordinary shock when, just six years after their 1967 defeat, the Egyptians mounted a two-army assault across the Suez, coordinated with a simultaneous Syrian attack on the Golan Heights. Even more stunning than the assault was the operational security the Egyptians maintained and the degree of surprise they achieved. One of Israel’s fundamental assumptions was that Israeli intelligence would provide ample warning of an attack. And one of the fundamental assumptions of Israeli intelligence was that Egypt could not mount an attack while Israel maintained air superiority. Both assumptions were wrong. But the most important error was the assumption that Egypt could not, by itself, coordinate a massive and complex military operation. In the end, the Israelis defeated the Egyptians, but at the cost of the confidence they achieved in 1967 and a recognition that comfortable assumptions were impermissible in warfare in general and regarding Egypt in particular.
The Egyptians had also learned lessons. The most important was that the existence of the state of Israel did not represent a challenge to Egypt’s national interest. Israel existed across a fairly wide and inhospitable buffer zone — the Sinai Peninsula. The logistical problems involved in deploying a massive force to the east had resulted in three major defeats, while the single partial victory took place on much shorter lines of supply. Holding or taking the Sinai was difficult and possible only with a massive infusion of weapons and supplies from the outside, from the Soviet Union. This meant that Egypt was a hostage to Soviet interests. Egypt had a greater interest in breaking its dependency on the Soviets than in defeating Israel. It could do the former more readily than the latter.
(click here to enlarge image)
The Egyptian recognition that its interests in Israel were minimal and the Israeli recognition that eliminating the potential threat from Egypt guaranteed its national security have been the foundation of the regional balance since 1978. All other considerations — Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and the rest — were trivial in comparison. Geography — the Sinai — made this strategic distancing possible. So did American aid to Egypt. The substitution of American weapons for Soviet ones in the years after the treaty achieved two things. First, they ended Egypt’s dependency on the Soviets. Second, they further guaranteed Israel’s security by creating an Egyptian army dependent on a steady flow of spare parts and contractors from the United States. Cut the flow and the Egyptian army would be crippled.
The governments of Anwar Sadat and then Hosni Mubarak were content with this arrangement. The generation that came to power with Gamal Nasser had fought four wars with Israel and had little stomach for any more. They had proved themselves in October 1973 on the Suez and had no appetite to fight again or to send their sons to war. It is not that they created an oasis of prosperity in Egypt. But they no longer had to go to war every few years, and they were able, as military officers, to live good lives. What is now regarded as corruption was then regarded as just rewards for bleeding in four wars against the Israelis.
Mubarak and the Military
But now is 33 years later, and the world has changed. The generation that fought is very old. Today’s Egyptian military trains with the Americans, and its officers pass through the American command and staff and war colleges. This generation has close ties to the United States, but not nearly as close ties to the British-trained generation that fought the Israelis or to Egypt’s former patrons, the Russians. Mubarak has locked the younger generation, in their fifties and sixties, out of senior command positions and away from the wealth his generation has accumulated. They want him out.
For this younger generation, the idea of Gamal Mubarak being allowed to take over the presidency was the last straw. They wanted the elder Mubarak to leave not only because he had ambitions for his son but also because he didn’t want to leave after more than a quarter century of pressure. Mubarak wanted guarantees that, if he left, his possessions, in addition to his honor, would remain intact. If Gamal could not be president, then no one’s promise had value. So Mubarak locked himself into position.
The cameras love demonstrations, but they are frequently not the real story. The demonstrators who wanted democracy are a real faction, but they don’t speak for the shopkeepers and peasants more interested in prosperity than wealth. Since Egypt is a Muslim country, the West freezes when anything happens, dreading the hand of Osama bin Laden. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was once a powerful force, and it might become one again someday, but right now it is a shadow of its former self. What is going on now is a struggle within the military, between generations, for the future of the Egyptian military and therefore the heart of the Egyptian regime. Mubarak will leave, the younger officers will emerge, the constitution will make some changes and life will continue.
The Israelis will return to their complacency. They should not. The usual first warning of a heart attack is death. Among the fortunate, it is a mild coronary followed by a dramatic change of life style. The events in Egypt should be taken as a mild coronary and treated with great relief by Israel that it wasn’t worse.
Reconsidering the Israeli Position
I have laid out the reasons why the 1978 treaty is in Egypt’s national interest. I have left out two pieces. The first is ideology. The ideological tenor of the Middle East prior to 1978 was secular and socialist. Today it is increasingly Islamist. Egypt is not immune to this trend, even if the Muslim Brotherhood should not be seen as the embodiment of that threat. Second, military technology, skills and terrain have made Egypt a defensive power for the past 33 years. But military technology and skills can change, on both sides. Egyptian defensiveness is built on assumptions of Israeli military capability and interest. As Israeli ideology becomes more militant and as its capabilities grow, Egypt may be forced to reconsider its strategic posture. As new generations of officers arise, who have heard of war only from their grandfathers, the fear of war declines and the desire for glory grows. Combine that with ideology in Egypt and Israel and things change. They won’t change quickly — a generation of military transformation will be needed once regimes have changed and the decisions to prepare for war have been made — but they can change.
Two things from this should strike the Israelis. The first is how badly they need peace with Egypt. It is easy to forget what things were like 40 years back, but it is important to remember that the prosperity of Israel today depends in part on the treaty with Egypt. Iran is a distant abstraction, with a notional bomb whose completion date keeps moving. Israel can fight many wars with Egypt and win. It need lose only one. The second lesson is that Israel should do everything possible to make certain that the transfer of power in Egypt is from Mubarak to the next generation of military officers and that these officers maintain their credibility in Egypt. Whether Israel likes it or not, there is an Islamist movement in Egypt. Whether the new generation controls that movement as the previous one did or whether they succumb to it is the existential question for Israel. If the treaty with Egypt is the foundation of Israel’s national security, it is logical that the Israelis should do everything possible to preserve it.
This was not the fatal heart attack. It might not even have been more than indigestion. But recent events in Egypt point to a long-term problem with Israeli strategy. Given the strategic and ideological crosscurrents in Egypt, it is in Israel’s national interest to minimize the intensity of the ideological and make certain that Israel is not perceived as a threat. In Gaza, for example, Israel and Egypt may have shared a common interest in containing Hamas, and the next generation of Egyptian officers may share it as well. But what didn’t materialize in the streets this time could in the future: an Islamist rising. In that case, the Egyptian military might find it in its interest to preserve its power by accommodating the Islamists. At this point, Egypt becomes the problem and not part of the solution.
Keeping Egypt from coming to this is the imperative of military dispassion. If the long-term center of gravity of Israel’s national security is at least the neutrality of Egypt, then doing everything to maintain that is a military requirement. That military requirement must be carried out by political means. That requires the recognition of priorities. The future of Gaza or the precise borders of a Palestinian state are trivial compared to preserving the treaty with Egypt. If it is found that a particular political strategy undermines the strategic requirement, then that political strategy must be sacrificed.
In other words, the worst-case scenario for Israel would be a return to the pre-1978 relationship with Egypt without a settlement with the Palestinians. That would open the door for a potential two-front war with an intifada in the middle. To avoid that, the ideological pressure on Egypt must be eased, and that means a settlement with the Palestinians on less-than-optimal terms. The alternative is to stay the current course and let Israel take its chances. The question is where the greater safety lies. Israel has assumed that it lies with confrontation with the Palestinians. That’s true only if Egypt stays neutral. If the pressure on the Palestinians destabilizes Egypt, it is not the most prudent course.
There are those in Israel who would argue that any release in pressure on the Palestinians will be met with rejection. If that is true, then, in my view, that is catastrophic news for Israel. In due course, ideological shifts and recalculations of Israeli intentions will cause a change in Egyptian policy. This will take several decades to turn into effective military force, and the first conflicts may well end in Israeli victory. But, as I have said before, it must always be remembered that no matter how many times Israel wins, it need only lose once to be annihilated.
To some it means that Israel should remain as strong as possible. To me it means that Israel should avoid rolling the dice too often, regardless of how strong it thinks it is. The Mubarak affair might open a strategic reconsideration of the Israeli position.
.
Read more: Egypt, Israel and a Strategic Reconsideration | STRATFOR
Life in balance - by : Purnima Yogi
Life in Balance
42-year-old IT professional dies while jogging’, ‘12-year-old commits suicide after corporal punishment’, ‘Yet another honour killing in Bihar: Lovers hacked to death’ – average headlines in our daily newspapers these days. On and on, the depressing news reports go. Page after page, day after day, they reflect the gruesome realities of life today. They all point to excesses in behavior and thought patterns that are wreaking havoc in today’s society. Getting stressed out at work and then at exercise. Caning a student in front of the whole class, killing oneself after being unable to bear humiliation, eliminating those who violate feudal rules, passion in the face of probable death.
What happened to good old common sense? Why is man going over the top in all walks of life? Does he not understand that there is something called moderation? A middle path, a golden mean, where there is balance of thought, word and action?
I flip the page of yet another newspaper, and come across an interesting news report. “Not too big, not too small; not too far, not too near; not too hot, not too cold…” What sounded like an advertisement for a weekend resort destination turned out to be the description of planet earth – our permanent residence! The report made me marvel about our beloved home – so innately intelligent, suspended in space at just the right distance from the sun, tilted at just the right angle on its axis, rotating and revolving at just the right speed, with the exact gravitational pull to hold us all down, with the right combination of gases and pancha bhootas in its atmosphere – so perfectly balanced in all respects that it makes life possible. Even a teeny-weeny upset in this combination, and we all go for a spin. Literally!
The balance of life
Come to think of it, since eternity, how perfectly are all heavenly bodies suspended and moving in space. Just right, not colliding with each other, not wanting to occupy another’s space, all engaged serenely in a supreme, divine, cosmic dance of balance!
The whole of the cosmos understands balance – why doesn’t man?
The tricky issue of balance As I warm up to this wonderful theme of balance, I see it everywhere around me, in all realms and dimensions. According to the scriptures, the earth is placed in the middle of seven lower worlds or hells (Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Mahatala, Talatala, Rasatala, Patala) and seven upper worlds or heavens including earth (Bhuloka, Bhuvar Loka, Suvar Loka, Maha Loka, Jana Loka, Tapo Loka, Satya Loka). An embodied soul from Bhu Loka, after death, is sent to any of the other lokas depending upon the preponderance of good and bad deeds in its account. It enjoys heaven or suffers in hell but never stays in any of the worlds permanently. When the credit and debit accounts are almost balanced (49 per cent bad karma and 51 per cent good karma), the soul is embodied again on earth so it can cancel out both, never to be born again. A soul can never find salvation as an angel or demon, but only as a human on earth.
Karma is all about balance. Why doesn’t man understand this basic rule?
Look at the human body – a model of balance and coordination. Its balance of hormones, acids and alkalis, salts and minerals, liquid and solid matter make man possible.
All of nature understands balance. It is built around balance and operates in balance. Why not man?
With all his intelligence, man has the power to upset earth’s ecosystem by polluting it with plastic and poisonous emissions, denuding it of forests and dumping harmful chemicals into its waters. He can alter plants and animals genetically, breed either too much or too little, kill foetuses in the womb and upset the male-female ratio on earth. He can drink too much, party too much, sleep too much, get angry too much, eat too much, work too much, exercise too much, watch too much TV and upset his health irrevocably. Or he can do the same by doing too little of all that.
Ruled by moods
Why does man go overboard in his actions and reactions, deliberately or otherwise upsetting the delicate balance of his body, mind and environment? Why can’t he understand the golden rule that action and reaction are equal and opposite. That, the more he over-does something, the more severe will the consequences be?
Psychologists say that a human being is a bundle of feelings and emotions. At any point in time, most of us are wont to feel one of the three basic states of being – unpleasant, neutral or pleasant. More often than not, though, we battle with the feeling of unpleasantness, which we want to replace as fast as possible with feeling pleasant. In the bargain, we swing between one extreme and the other, totally bypassing the stable, central feeling of neutrality. “If uncontrolled, man’s mood swings like a pendulum,” says counsellor Anuradha Kurpad, “The more it swings to the left, the more it needs to swing to the right to maintain balance. The less the disturbance, the less the pendulum swings away from the centre, which is the point of equilibrium. It ultimately comes to a halt on its own if it is not further disturbed. Similarly, if man does not constantly get agitated by thoughts one after the other in continuous succession, the mind becomes stable and comes to rest.” Needless to add, a stable mind is much more capable of taking intelligent decisions than an unstable one.
The incredible grace of balance The middle path
It is thus obvious that our state of stability is completely dependent on the state of our mind – it rules our very existence. Take care to not upset the mind and everything else falls in place. But how not to upset the mind?
World Tennis Champion of the 1970s, Arthur Ashe, was diagnosed with AIDS. A devastated fan wrote to him, wondering why God had chosen to visit a bad disease like AIDS on such a fine man. Ashe replied: “50 million children around the world start playing tennis. Five million learn to play tennis. 500,000 learn professional tennis. 50,000 come to the circuit. 5,000 reach The Grand Slam. 50 reach Wimbledon. Eight reach the quarterfinals, four make it to semifinals, two to the finals. When I was holding the Wimbledon Cup, I never asked God: Why me? So why now, in pain, should I be asking Him: Why me?”
What a great perspective to retain in the face of grave adversity! Such a person is described as a sthithprajna – a man with a steady mind – by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavadgita. Sukhe-dukhe same krutvaa labhaalaabhau jayaajayau. A sthithapragna is one who is undisturbed in happiness and misery, in gain and loss, and in victory and defeat. Buddha calls this attitude the middle path.
Before he became enlightened, the Buddha too experienced extremes states. Born a prince, he experienced opulence, and found it to be unbearable in the light of all the suffering he saw in the world. Then he renounced all and became an ascetic, indulging in severe penance and austerity for six years. He also struggled to reconcile the Vedantic teachings of eternalism – ‘everything exists’ and annihilationism –‘nothing exists’. Siddhartha Gautama discovered that neither took him to nirvana, and realised that salvation lay in following the majjhimã paipadã or the middle path.
To be in the middle is to be centred, neutral, unbiased, fair and upright, therefore avoiding extremes in thought and behavior. Coming from this space, one can investigate all issues and problems in life objectively, understand the truth thoroughly, come to a reasonable conclusion and act appropriately. Buddha says that the Self is neither permanent, nor does it cease to exist at death. No situation is permanent – it comes and goes like a wave. If one experiences headache, he will eventually experience a state of non-headache too. Buddha called this impermanence anicca, and said that this knowledge would keep man from error and suffering. The master supplemented his teaching by offering the noble eight-fold path for practical living, which includes guidelines for wisdom (right understanding, right intent), ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood), and meditation (right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration).
Murphy’s Law
How can one come to grips with the vagaries of life, and remain equanimous under all circumstances? CR Shashi, a small scale industrialist from Bangalore, battles with crises every single day of his life. “I feel I am fire-fighting all the time,” he says, “I step into my factory and into a world of problems – of labour, machinery, clients and suppliers.” So how does he deal with such pressure? “Well, I believe in Murphy’s Law: ‘Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong’! But now I know enough to believe that things will eventually turn out all right. Once I accepted the fact that uncertainty is the nature of business, I stopped getting disturbed every time things went awry,” he says.
Arthur Ashe
"When I was holding the Wimbledon
Cup, I never asked God: Why me?
So why now, in pain, should
I be asking Him: Why me?” Uncertainty is the nature of life, not just business. Acceptance, then, is the critical attitude one has to develop in order to come to grips with life. Once the mind accepts an uncomfortable situation, it can go to the next step of finding the optimum solution to overcome it; if there is no solution in sight, it will wait patiently until the problem blows over. A spiritually inclined person would attribute it to karma, a religious person to God’s will, a positive thinker would survive by telling himself that bad times don’t last and good times are round the corner. Belief in a higher power, belief in tomorrow or confidence in oneself – all work wonderfully in keeping the spirit upbeat at all times.
Often acceptance is mistaken for passiveness, which is as far from the truth as can be. Once, two women, both practicing Buddhists, were riding in an autorickshaw when they were attacked by the driver on an empty stretch. They managed to escape with minimum damage, but were shaken to the core by the experience. Later that day, they asked their teacher what they should have done – what would have been the appropriate, Buddhist response. The teacher said very simply, “You should have very mindfully and with great compassion whacked the attacker over the head with your umbrella.”
Positive thinking is often mistaken for denial, which again, is as far as the truth as can be. While a positive attitude comes after acceptance, denial is the defence mechanism of an immature mind that is unable to cope with uncomfortable reality. Denial is not accepting that the sun sets. Positive thinking is to be secure in the knowledge that it will rise again the next day. While waiting for the morning, to also accept the dark night that comes before sunrise is equanimity.
A bottomless pit
An emperor was on his morning walk when he saw a beggar. “What do you want?” he asked him. Being no ordinary beggar, he laughed and said, “I want my begging bowl to be filled with something. Can you?” “I am an emperor, what can you possibly desire that I cannot give to you?” said the emperor and asked his vazir to fill the beggar’s bowl with gold coins. As soon as it was poured into the bowl, it disappeared. The vazir went on pouring, and the bowl remained empty. As the amazed emperor looked on, his entire treasury disappeared into the beggar’s bowl. Admitting defeat, the emperor asked the beggar what his bowl was made of. The beggar laughed and said, “The bowl is made of human desire.”
Prof Christensen
"Having a clear purpose in life is
essential for balance. I remind myself
of the purpose of my life everyday." As the Buddha put it, desire is the root cause of misery, plain and simple. To admire without desiring is the secret of happiness, but the present-day marketing strategy of buy-one-get-one-free does not allow us to consider that option!
Famous American industrialist and philanthropist, Warren Buffett, is as known for his billions as he is for his simplicity. In a recent interview with BBC, Buffett shared his utterly down-to-earth success fundas:
• Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself
• Money doesn’t create man, man creates money
• Live a simple life
• Don’t do what others say. Do what you feel is good
• Don’t go for brand names. Just wear clothes in which you feel comfortable
• Don’t waste your money on unnecessary things. Spend it on one who is really in need
• The happiest people do not necessarily have the best of all. They simply appreciate what they find on their way
If we can learn to differentiate between need and greed, we can really enjoy window shopping by not wanting to possess whatever’s inside it!
Listen to your body
The human body is a wonderful tool to keep our balance, if only we listen to it. All our organs send us signals when their working is upset by our harmful behavior and thought patterns. If we don’t take corrective measures, they stall. Louise Hay’s Heal Your Body is a wonderful documentation of this truth.
Ancient cultures have always advocated following the golden mean in eating and in everything else. My grandfather, an ayurved pandit, lived up to 86, like many of his generation. He suffered no serious health issues for he lived by the simple principle of eating healthy – Hita Bhuk, Mita Bhuk, Samyak Bhuk – eat meals that are mild, just enough, and timely. An attitude echoed by President Obama, who says, ‘I sit down to eat when I am hungry and I get up when I am still hungry’.
Given man’s propensity to flout this rule, a self-correcting system has been built in by most traditions by earmarking times in the year for fasting like Ramzan, Lent and Ekadashi. An unusually large number of people of Okinawa in Japan live up to more than 100 years, much beyond the average life expectancy anywhere in the world. Their diet follows a concept called Hara Hachi Bu which means ‘eat only until 80 per cent full’! Their diet mainly consists of vegetables, whole grains, fruits, a bit of fish and very little of meat. Hara Hachi Bu was proven to be a success, until, last heard, a McDonald’s outlet was inaugurated there recently!
Clarity of purpose
Acclaimed Harvard Professor, Clayton M Christensen, says that having a clear purpose in life is essential for balance. In his address to the class of 2010 of Harvard Business School (HBS), Christensen says that he is amazed to see more and more of his classmates coming to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. The reason is that they have no clear idea of the purpose of their lives, and therefore do not know how to spend their time, talents, and energy. People tend to allocate these resources for endeavours that offer immediate gratification, like wealth and prestige, rather than to things that matter the most like family, relationships and contentment. The professor says that he reminds himself of the purpose of his life every day. This, he says, has helped him balance work and life beautifully.
Once clarity of purpose is achieved, it is also critical to hold on to it. Come New Year, and I display great clarity of purpose. I religiously make a list of dos and don’ts that I fully intend to implement; one of them not to skip an exercising session, starting that evening. Come evening, and a friend excitedly calls to say she has been blessed with extra tickets for the latest Bollywood blockbuster featuring my favourite star, and my first New Year resolution falls by the wayside.
Robert Bosch
"I don't pay good wages because I
have a lot of money. I have a lot of
money because I pay good wages." What’s wrong with being undisciplined once in a while, one might ask. All of us are tempted to break the rule under what we call an ‘extraordinary circumstance’. But Professor Christensen says that justification for dishonesty, in all its manifestations, lies in the rationale of ‘just this once’. He recalls how being unswerving in his resolve helped him to not give in to the just-this-once syndrome. “I had made a personal commitment to God at age 16 that I would never play basketball on Sunday,” he relates. But a particularly prestigious basketball tournament happened to be scheduled for a Sunday, and so he went to the coach and explained his problem. The coach was incredulous, and so were the team mates, as he was the starting centre. “Everyone on the team came to me and said, ‘You’ve got to play. Can’t you break the rule just this once?’,” says the professor. “I’m a deeply religious man, so I went away and prayed about what I should do. I got a very clear feeling that I shouldn’t break my commitment, so I didn’t play in the championship game.”
Looking back on that seemingly insignificant decision, says Christensen, resisting the temptation though it was an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ proved to be one of the most important decisions of his life. “Had I crossed the line that one time, I would have done it over and over in the years that followed,” he says, for what is life but a series of ‘extraordinary circumstances’? A keen sense of personal accountability is what protects an individual from being swayed by temptation. So it’s good to keep our moral compass operating efficiently and accurately to retain a sense of balance.
Moderate goals
While having a purpose, ‘have a big vision but a small goal’. It’s all very well to have Bill Gates as a role model, but to get frustrated if one can’t be him is sheer stupidity. The circumstances for Gates to become what he is might be far removed from our own. Go slow at first to go fast!
The principle of reciprocity
Life works on the principle of reciprocity. I experienced it recently when, putting aside reservations and expectations, I impulsively said ‘sorry’ to a neighbour with whom I was not on talking terms for a long time. Unable to bear the unfriendliness anymore, I decided to take the first step towards reconciliation. It was such a relief and pleasure to see her face break into a smile. The animosity built over six months melted as if it had never existed. She too, was eager to end the tension but didn’t know how. Fortunately for us, I decided to get off my high-horse.
The only way to receive something is to give it first, whether in relationships or money. Estranged couples fighting over alimony and child custody could use this attitude. Money too, comes to one who doesn’t hoard it, for like water, money needs to flow. Even the legend on a ` 100 currency notes says ‘I promise to pay the bearer a sum of Rupees One Hundred’. A wonderful message that reminds us that the money in our wallet does not belong to us!
“I don't pay good wages because I have a lot of money, I have a lot of money because I pay good wages,” said Robert Bosch, founder of the Bosch Group. All cultures lay great stress on charity and the idea of give and take too is built into tradition, with the practice of families and friends gathering during festivals and celebrations and exchanging gifts. It breaks down ego barriers, discourages hoarding and encourages spending to keep the economy flowing and market booming. Every purchase we make during festivals sustains the livelihood of people in the supply chain. But money doesn’t stay with spendthrifts either, for a fool and his money are soon parted.
Three gunas, three cravings
Depending on their nature, all six-and-a-half billion people of the world fall into one of the three categories of tamas, rajas and sattva. Tamasic people have base instincts, are overly sense-oriented and prone to inertia. Rajasic people are dynamic, go-getters, restless. Sattvic people have soft, finer feelings, more interested in the workings of the inner world than the outer. All of us are a combination of all three. But even if one of them is highly developed or suppressed, we lose balance and perspective. For example, we cannot do without sleep, but sloth is tamasic. Meditation is sattvic, but a certain amount of rajas is required to propel oneself towards that activity. Once we actively sit for meditation, to fidget and get distracted is rajasic. Being too soft in the outer world is also dangerous, as discovered by the sattvic snake who forgot to hiss and got beaten up in the bargain.
Spiritual master Sri Ramachandraji who advocates the sahaj marg identifies three kinds of cravings a human being needs to fulfil, at the physical, mental and spiritual levels. At the physical level, we satisfy the needs of our senses with food and other inputs; at the mental level, we supply ourselves with interest in arts like music, dance and literature. Our spiritual craving is fed with prayer, meditation and contemplation. There are two ways in which we can fail to balance these three. One – we might ignore one or more of these completely, and therefore become stilted in our all-round growth. Two – we might use the wrong inputs to satisfy these cravings. Over-indulgence of physical cravings like consuming spicy food and alcohol everyday can lead to physical and psychosomatic diseases. Excessive inputs to the mind, like addictions to online networking sites like Facebook, can wreak havoc on the mind and intellect. Getting involved with esoteric sciences that involve sacrifice of living beings, witchcraft and Tantra can be harmful for several lifetimes.
Sri Ramachandraji says that too much of tamasic (inertia-inducing) and rajasic (excitement-inducing) inputs like the above take us away from our centre, which is sattva (truth, goodness, purity). Sattvic food, music, worship and prayer soothe the body, mind and soul. They help us stay on the right side of life and enjoy a healthy, balanced outlook on everything.
With an immoderate lifestyle, man can upset the balance of seven spiritual centres or chakras, which will reflect in his aura. The aura is nothing but a pulsating energy consisting of bio-rhythmic, biochemical and bio-electrical vibrations of our body and mind. These can be regulated respectively with pranayama and meditation, eating clean, pure and soft food, and dropping negative thoughts and cultivating good thoughts, says Guru Shri Nimishananda.
But “…how do you define moderate?” demands my friend Sahana, a single woman who likes to indulge in the extra masala dosa once in a while, party late into the night and lie around in bed until noon on Sundays. “What is moderate for me might mean self-indulgence to you. What you call moderate looks like austerity to me!” A legitimate dilemma, for which Nisargadatta Maharaj has the answer: “Once you have gone through an (unpleasant) experience, not to go through it again is austerity. To eschew the unnecessary is austerity. Not to anticipate pleasure or pain is austerity. Having things under control all the time is austerity. Both indulgence and austerity have the same purpose in view – to make you happy. Indulgence is the stupid way, austerity is the wise way”.
Pride goeth before the fall
All excesses committed by humans are due to bloated egos. The bigger the ego, the harder it is to train the mind towards moderation. Once, the Vindhya mountain range, situated between the Kerala and Tamilnadu border, felt that it was no lesser than the Himalayas, and decided to grow taller. Anticipating the imbalance on earth if this were allowed, Lord Shiva immediately dispatched Sage Agastya to arrest this phenomenon. The sage duly set down south and reached the Vindhyas. “Oh, mighty mountain,” he addressed, “I am only four feet tall. My short legs cannot carry me across your great height. Will you please oblige me and lower your level so that I can cross over? You may start growing again after I cross you on my way back.” Sage Agastya was a very revered and feared personality, so Vindhya agreed and assumed its original height. The sage crossed over, and settled down on the other side permanently (in a forest in Theni district)! The Vindhya awaits the sage’s return to this day and the Himalayas continue to retain its supremacy as intended by nature!
If the ego is allowed to grow immoderately, it is bound to upset the balance in man and society. Why are nations and religious groups at war? Why do terrorist groups keep proliferating? Why are criminals getting bolder and elected governments falling before they complete their full term? All because of inflated egos. When the imbalance becomes intolerable, nature will find drastic ways of bringing back the balance. As the Lord says – Yada yadahi dharmasya glanirbhavati Bharata…..sambhavami yuge yuge: ‘Whenever adharma is on the rise and dharma on the decline, I shall return to set the balance right’.
Sooner rather than later, surely, dear Lord!
source;lifepositve
42-year-old IT professional dies while jogging’, ‘12-year-old commits suicide after corporal punishment’, ‘Yet another honour killing in Bihar: Lovers hacked to death’ – average headlines in our daily newspapers these days. On and on, the depressing news reports go. Page after page, day after day, they reflect the gruesome realities of life today. They all point to excesses in behavior and thought patterns that are wreaking havoc in today’s society. Getting stressed out at work and then at exercise. Caning a student in front of the whole class, killing oneself after being unable to bear humiliation, eliminating those who violate feudal rules, passion in the face of probable death.
What happened to good old common sense? Why is man going over the top in all walks of life? Does he not understand that there is something called moderation? A middle path, a golden mean, where there is balance of thought, word and action?
I flip the page of yet another newspaper, and come across an interesting news report. “Not too big, not too small; not too far, not too near; not too hot, not too cold…” What sounded like an advertisement for a weekend resort destination turned out to be the description of planet earth – our permanent residence! The report made me marvel about our beloved home – so innately intelligent, suspended in space at just the right distance from the sun, tilted at just the right angle on its axis, rotating and revolving at just the right speed, with the exact gravitational pull to hold us all down, with the right combination of gases and pancha bhootas in its atmosphere – so perfectly balanced in all respects that it makes life possible. Even a teeny-weeny upset in this combination, and we all go for a spin. Literally!
The balance of life
Come to think of it, since eternity, how perfectly are all heavenly bodies suspended and moving in space. Just right, not colliding with each other, not wanting to occupy another’s space, all engaged serenely in a supreme, divine, cosmic dance of balance!
The whole of the cosmos understands balance – why doesn’t man?
The tricky issue of balance As I warm up to this wonderful theme of balance, I see it everywhere around me, in all realms and dimensions. According to the scriptures, the earth is placed in the middle of seven lower worlds or hells (Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Mahatala, Talatala, Rasatala, Patala) and seven upper worlds or heavens including earth (Bhuloka, Bhuvar Loka, Suvar Loka, Maha Loka, Jana Loka, Tapo Loka, Satya Loka). An embodied soul from Bhu Loka, after death, is sent to any of the other lokas depending upon the preponderance of good and bad deeds in its account. It enjoys heaven or suffers in hell but never stays in any of the worlds permanently. When the credit and debit accounts are almost balanced (49 per cent bad karma and 51 per cent good karma), the soul is embodied again on earth so it can cancel out both, never to be born again. A soul can never find salvation as an angel or demon, but only as a human on earth.
Karma is all about balance. Why doesn’t man understand this basic rule?
Look at the human body – a model of balance and coordination. Its balance of hormones, acids and alkalis, salts and minerals, liquid and solid matter make man possible.
All of nature understands balance. It is built around balance and operates in balance. Why not man?
With all his intelligence, man has the power to upset earth’s ecosystem by polluting it with plastic and poisonous emissions, denuding it of forests and dumping harmful chemicals into its waters. He can alter plants and animals genetically, breed either too much or too little, kill foetuses in the womb and upset the male-female ratio on earth. He can drink too much, party too much, sleep too much, get angry too much, eat too much, work too much, exercise too much, watch too much TV and upset his health irrevocably. Or he can do the same by doing too little of all that.
Ruled by moods
Why does man go overboard in his actions and reactions, deliberately or otherwise upsetting the delicate balance of his body, mind and environment? Why can’t he understand the golden rule that action and reaction are equal and opposite. That, the more he over-does something, the more severe will the consequences be?
Psychologists say that a human being is a bundle of feelings and emotions. At any point in time, most of us are wont to feel one of the three basic states of being – unpleasant, neutral or pleasant. More often than not, though, we battle with the feeling of unpleasantness, which we want to replace as fast as possible with feeling pleasant. In the bargain, we swing between one extreme and the other, totally bypassing the stable, central feeling of neutrality. “If uncontrolled, man’s mood swings like a pendulum,” says counsellor Anuradha Kurpad, “The more it swings to the left, the more it needs to swing to the right to maintain balance. The less the disturbance, the less the pendulum swings away from the centre, which is the point of equilibrium. It ultimately comes to a halt on its own if it is not further disturbed. Similarly, if man does not constantly get agitated by thoughts one after the other in continuous succession, the mind becomes stable and comes to rest.” Needless to add, a stable mind is much more capable of taking intelligent decisions than an unstable one.
The incredible grace of balance The middle path
It is thus obvious that our state of stability is completely dependent on the state of our mind – it rules our very existence. Take care to not upset the mind and everything else falls in place. But how not to upset the mind?
World Tennis Champion of the 1970s, Arthur Ashe, was diagnosed with AIDS. A devastated fan wrote to him, wondering why God had chosen to visit a bad disease like AIDS on such a fine man. Ashe replied: “50 million children around the world start playing tennis. Five million learn to play tennis. 500,000 learn professional tennis. 50,000 come to the circuit. 5,000 reach The Grand Slam. 50 reach Wimbledon. Eight reach the quarterfinals, four make it to semifinals, two to the finals. When I was holding the Wimbledon Cup, I never asked God: Why me? So why now, in pain, should I be asking Him: Why me?”
What a great perspective to retain in the face of grave adversity! Such a person is described as a sthithprajna – a man with a steady mind – by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavadgita. Sukhe-dukhe same krutvaa labhaalaabhau jayaajayau. A sthithapragna is one who is undisturbed in happiness and misery, in gain and loss, and in victory and defeat. Buddha calls this attitude the middle path.
Before he became enlightened, the Buddha too experienced extremes states. Born a prince, he experienced opulence, and found it to be unbearable in the light of all the suffering he saw in the world. Then he renounced all and became an ascetic, indulging in severe penance and austerity for six years. He also struggled to reconcile the Vedantic teachings of eternalism – ‘everything exists’ and annihilationism –‘nothing exists’. Siddhartha Gautama discovered that neither took him to nirvana, and realised that salvation lay in following the majjhimã paipadã or the middle path.
To be in the middle is to be centred, neutral, unbiased, fair and upright, therefore avoiding extremes in thought and behavior. Coming from this space, one can investigate all issues and problems in life objectively, understand the truth thoroughly, come to a reasonable conclusion and act appropriately. Buddha says that the Self is neither permanent, nor does it cease to exist at death. No situation is permanent – it comes and goes like a wave. If one experiences headache, he will eventually experience a state of non-headache too. Buddha called this impermanence anicca, and said that this knowledge would keep man from error and suffering. The master supplemented his teaching by offering the noble eight-fold path for practical living, which includes guidelines for wisdom (right understanding, right intent), ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood), and meditation (right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration).
Murphy’s Law
How can one come to grips with the vagaries of life, and remain equanimous under all circumstances? CR Shashi, a small scale industrialist from Bangalore, battles with crises every single day of his life. “I feel I am fire-fighting all the time,” he says, “I step into my factory and into a world of problems – of labour, machinery, clients and suppliers.” So how does he deal with such pressure? “Well, I believe in Murphy’s Law: ‘Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong’! But now I know enough to believe that things will eventually turn out all right. Once I accepted the fact that uncertainty is the nature of business, I stopped getting disturbed every time things went awry,” he says.
Arthur Ashe
"When I was holding the Wimbledon
Cup, I never asked God: Why me?
So why now, in pain, should
I be asking Him: Why me?” Uncertainty is the nature of life, not just business. Acceptance, then, is the critical attitude one has to develop in order to come to grips with life. Once the mind accepts an uncomfortable situation, it can go to the next step of finding the optimum solution to overcome it; if there is no solution in sight, it will wait patiently until the problem blows over. A spiritually inclined person would attribute it to karma, a religious person to God’s will, a positive thinker would survive by telling himself that bad times don’t last and good times are round the corner. Belief in a higher power, belief in tomorrow or confidence in oneself – all work wonderfully in keeping the spirit upbeat at all times.
Often acceptance is mistaken for passiveness, which is as far from the truth as can be. Once, two women, both practicing Buddhists, were riding in an autorickshaw when they were attacked by the driver on an empty stretch. They managed to escape with minimum damage, but were shaken to the core by the experience. Later that day, they asked their teacher what they should have done – what would have been the appropriate, Buddhist response. The teacher said very simply, “You should have very mindfully and with great compassion whacked the attacker over the head with your umbrella.”
Positive thinking is often mistaken for denial, which again, is as far as the truth as can be. While a positive attitude comes after acceptance, denial is the defence mechanism of an immature mind that is unable to cope with uncomfortable reality. Denial is not accepting that the sun sets. Positive thinking is to be secure in the knowledge that it will rise again the next day. While waiting for the morning, to also accept the dark night that comes before sunrise is equanimity.
A bottomless pit
An emperor was on his morning walk when he saw a beggar. “What do you want?” he asked him. Being no ordinary beggar, he laughed and said, “I want my begging bowl to be filled with something. Can you?” “I am an emperor, what can you possibly desire that I cannot give to you?” said the emperor and asked his vazir to fill the beggar’s bowl with gold coins. As soon as it was poured into the bowl, it disappeared. The vazir went on pouring, and the bowl remained empty. As the amazed emperor looked on, his entire treasury disappeared into the beggar’s bowl. Admitting defeat, the emperor asked the beggar what his bowl was made of. The beggar laughed and said, “The bowl is made of human desire.”
Prof Christensen
"Having a clear purpose in life is
essential for balance. I remind myself
of the purpose of my life everyday." As the Buddha put it, desire is the root cause of misery, plain and simple. To admire without desiring is the secret of happiness, but the present-day marketing strategy of buy-one-get-one-free does not allow us to consider that option!
Famous American industrialist and philanthropist, Warren Buffett, is as known for his billions as he is for his simplicity. In a recent interview with BBC, Buffett shared his utterly down-to-earth success fundas:
• Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself
• Money doesn’t create man, man creates money
• Live a simple life
• Don’t do what others say. Do what you feel is good
• Don’t go for brand names. Just wear clothes in which you feel comfortable
• Don’t waste your money on unnecessary things. Spend it on one who is really in need
• The happiest people do not necessarily have the best of all. They simply appreciate what they find on their way
If we can learn to differentiate between need and greed, we can really enjoy window shopping by not wanting to possess whatever’s inside it!
Listen to your body
The human body is a wonderful tool to keep our balance, if only we listen to it. All our organs send us signals when their working is upset by our harmful behavior and thought patterns. If we don’t take corrective measures, they stall. Louise Hay’s Heal Your Body is a wonderful documentation of this truth.
Ancient cultures have always advocated following the golden mean in eating and in everything else. My grandfather, an ayurved pandit, lived up to 86, like many of his generation. He suffered no serious health issues for he lived by the simple principle of eating healthy – Hita Bhuk, Mita Bhuk, Samyak Bhuk – eat meals that are mild, just enough, and timely. An attitude echoed by President Obama, who says, ‘I sit down to eat when I am hungry and I get up when I am still hungry’.
Given man’s propensity to flout this rule, a self-correcting system has been built in by most traditions by earmarking times in the year for fasting like Ramzan, Lent and Ekadashi. An unusually large number of people of Okinawa in Japan live up to more than 100 years, much beyond the average life expectancy anywhere in the world. Their diet follows a concept called Hara Hachi Bu which means ‘eat only until 80 per cent full’! Their diet mainly consists of vegetables, whole grains, fruits, a bit of fish and very little of meat. Hara Hachi Bu was proven to be a success, until, last heard, a McDonald’s outlet was inaugurated there recently!
Clarity of purpose
Acclaimed Harvard Professor, Clayton M Christensen, says that having a clear purpose in life is essential for balance. In his address to the class of 2010 of Harvard Business School (HBS), Christensen says that he is amazed to see more and more of his classmates coming to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. The reason is that they have no clear idea of the purpose of their lives, and therefore do not know how to spend their time, talents, and energy. People tend to allocate these resources for endeavours that offer immediate gratification, like wealth and prestige, rather than to things that matter the most like family, relationships and contentment. The professor says that he reminds himself of the purpose of his life every day. This, he says, has helped him balance work and life beautifully.
Once clarity of purpose is achieved, it is also critical to hold on to it. Come New Year, and I display great clarity of purpose. I religiously make a list of dos and don’ts that I fully intend to implement; one of them not to skip an exercising session, starting that evening. Come evening, and a friend excitedly calls to say she has been blessed with extra tickets for the latest Bollywood blockbuster featuring my favourite star, and my first New Year resolution falls by the wayside.
Robert Bosch
"I don't pay good wages because I
have a lot of money. I have a lot of
money because I pay good wages." What’s wrong with being undisciplined once in a while, one might ask. All of us are tempted to break the rule under what we call an ‘extraordinary circumstance’. But Professor Christensen says that justification for dishonesty, in all its manifestations, lies in the rationale of ‘just this once’. He recalls how being unswerving in his resolve helped him to not give in to the just-this-once syndrome. “I had made a personal commitment to God at age 16 that I would never play basketball on Sunday,” he relates. But a particularly prestigious basketball tournament happened to be scheduled for a Sunday, and so he went to the coach and explained his problem. The coach was incredulous, and so were the team mates, as he was the starting centre. “Everyone on the team came to me and said, ‘You’ve got to play. Can’t you break the rule just this once?’,” says the professor. “I’m a deeply religious man, so I went away and prayed about what I should do. I got a very clear feeling that I shouldn’t break my commitment, so I didn’t play in the championship game.”
Looking back on that seemingly insignificant decision, says Christensen, resisting the temptation though it was an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ proved to be one of the most important decisions of his life. “Had I crossed the line that one time, I would have done it over and over in the years that followed,” he says, for what is life but a series of ‘extraordinary circumstances’? A keen sense of personal accountability is what protects an individual from being swayed by temptation. So it’s good to keep our moral compass operating efficiently and accurately to retain a sense of balance.
Moderate goals
While having a purpose, ‘have a big vision but a small goal’. It’s all very well to have Bill Gates as a role model, but to get frustrated if one can’t be him is sheer stupidity. The circumstances for Gates to become what he is might be far removed from our own. Go slow at first to go fast!
The principle of reciprocity
Life works on the principle of reciprocity. I experienced it recently when, putting aside reservations and expectations, I impulsively said ‘sorry’ to a neighbour with whom I was not on talking terms for a long time. Unable to bear the unfriendliness anymore, I decided to take the first step towards reconciliation. It was such a relief and pleasure to see her face break into a smile. The animosity built over six months melted as if it had never existed. She too, was eager to end the tension but didn’t know how. Fortunately for us, I decided to get off my high-horse.
The only way to receive something is to give it first, whether in relationships or money. Estranged couples fighting over alimony and child custody could use this attitude. Money too, comes to one who doesn’t hoard it, for like water, money needs to flow. Even the legend on a ` 100 currency notes says ‘I promise to pay the bearer a sum of Rupees One Hundred’. A wonderful message that reminds us that the money in our wallet does not belong to us!
“I don't pay good wages because I have a lot of money, I have a lot of money because I pay good wages,” said Robert Bosch, founder of the Bosch Group. All cultures lay great stress on charity and the idea of give and take too is built into tradition, with the practice of families and friends gathering during festivals and celebrations and exchanging gifts. It breaks down ego barriers, discourages hoarding and encourages spending to keep the economy flowing and market booming. Every purchase we make during festivals sustains the livelihood of people in the supply chain. But money doesn’t stay with spendthrifts either, for a fool and his money are soon parted.
Three gunas, three cravings
Depending on their nature, all six-and-a-half billion people of the world fall into one of the three categories of tamas, rajas and sattva. Tamasic people have base instincts, are overly sense-oriented and prone to inertia. Rajasic people are dynamic, go-getters, restless. Sattvic people have soft, finer feelings, more interested in the workings of the inner world than the outer. All of us are a combination of all three. But even if one of them is highly developed or suppressed, we lose balance and perspective. For example, we cannot do without sleep, but sloth is tamasic. Meditation is sattvic, but a certain amount of rajas is required to propel oneself towards that activity. Once we actively sit for meditation, to fidget and get distracted is rajasic. Being too soft in the outer world is also dangerous, as discovered by the sattvic snake who forgot to hiss and got beaten up in the bargain.
Spiritual master Sri Ramachandraji who advocates the sahaj marg identifies three kinds of cravings a human being needs to fulfil, at the physical, mental and spiritual levels. At the physical level, we satisfy the needs of our senses with food and other inputs; at the mental level, we supply ourselves with interest in arts like music, dance and literature. Our spiritual craving is fed with prayer, meditation and contemplation. There are two ways in which we can fail to balance these three. One – we might ignore one or more of these completely, and therefore become stilted in our all-round growth. Two – we might use the wrong inputs to satisfy these cravings. Over-indulgence of physical cravings like consuming spicy food and alcohol everyday can lead to physical and psychosomatic diseases. Excessive inputs to the mind, like addictions to online networking sites like Facebook, can wreak havoc on the mind and intellect. Getting involved with esoteric sciences that involve sacrifice of living beings, witchcraft and Tantra can be harmful for several lifetimes.
Sri Ramachandraji says that too much of tamasic (inertia-inducing) and rajasic (excitement-inducing) inputs like the above take us away from our centre, which is sattva (truth, goodness, purity). Sattvic food, music, worship and prayer soothe the body, mind and soul. They help us stay on the right side of life and enjoy a healthy, balanced outlook on everything.
With an immoderate lifestyle, man can upset the balance of seven spiritual centres or chakras, which will reflect in his aura. The aura is nothing but a pulsating energy consisting of bio-rhythmic, biochemical and bio-electrical vibrations of our body and mind. These can be regulated respectively with pranayama and meditation, eating clean, pure and soft food, and dropping negative thoughts and cultivating good thoughts, says Guru Shri Nimishananda.
But “…how do you define moderate?” demands my friend Sahana, a single woman who likes to indulge in the extra masala dosa once in a while, party late into the night and lie around in bed until noon on Sundays. “What is moderate for me might mean self-indulgence to you. What you call moderate looks like austerity to me!” A legitimate dilemma, for which Nisargadatta Maharaj has the answer: “Once you have gone through an (unpleasant) experience, not to go through it again is austerity. To eschew the unnecessary is austerity. Not to anticipate pleasure or pain is austerity. Having things under control all the time is austerity. Both indulgence and austerity have the same purpose in view – to make you happy. Indulgence is the stupid way, austerity is the wise way”.
Pride goeth before the fall
All excesses committed by humans are due to bloated egos. The bigger the ego, the harder it is to train the mind towards moderation. Once, the Vindhya mountain range, situated between the Kerala and Tamilnadu border, felt that it was no lesser than the Himalayas, and decided to grow taller. Anticipating the imbalance on earth if this were allowed, Lord Shiva immediately dispatched Sage Agastya to arrest this phenomenon. The sage duly set down south and reached the Vindhyas. “Oh, mighty mountain,” he addressed, “I am only four feet tall. My short legs cannot carry me across your great height. Will you please oblige me and lower your level so that I can cross over? You may start growing again after I cross you on my way back.” Sage Agastya was a very revered and feared personality, so Vindhya agreed and assumed its original height. The sage crossed over, and settled down on the other side permanently (in a forest in Theni district)! The Vindhya awaits the sage’s return to this day and the Himalayas continue to retain its supremacy as intended by nature!
If the ego is allowed to grow immoderately, it is bound to upset the balance in man and society. Why are nations and religious groups at war? Why do terrorist groups keep proliferating? Why are criminals getting bolder and elected governments falling before they complete their full term? All because of inflated egos. When the imbalance becomes intolerable, nature will find drastic ways of bringing back the balance. As the Lord says – Yada yadahi dharmasya glanirbhavati Bharata…..sambhavami yuge yuge: ‘Whenever adharma is on the rise and dharma on the decline, I shall return to set the balance right’.
Sooner rather than later, surely, dear Lord!
source;lifepositve
Undercover Economists
By Jay Dubashi | Feb 5, 2011
Who said this? Oscar Wild, who used to go about dropping such pearls and wound up in a prison? No, it was actually an economist himself looking for a plumber, who, he said, was harder to find than a dinosaur.
It's a topsy-turvy world. There is more gold than ever, but you would be lucky to find a plumber when you want him, or even when you don't want him, as the species seems to have just vanished from our good earth. Why plumbers? You can't get even an electrician or a dhobi for love or money, or for that matter, a good car mechanic to fix your ignition. The bazaars are full of shops selling diamonds, kanjivaram sarees, laptops and jazzy cars, but try to get hold of a plumber, and you would draw a total blank.
I have tried everything to fix our leaking pipe - except give an ad in the local paper and spent a fortune on pliers, wrenches and other exotic paraphernalia plumbers carry or used to carry, in their cases. You can get computer experts, nuclear physicists, space engineers, even management pundits from Harvard, but try to get a plumber, and you would be hitting a wall.
In America, I am told, you have to make an appointment for a plumber, or an electrician, or even a good car mechanic, just as you do for a doctor, and you would be lucky to get one when you want him. Jobs are very scarce in the U.S. right now but so apparently are professionals like electricians or plumbers. They are being imported in large numbers but they have so much work in their home countries they refuse to budge.
It is a funny kind of economics. The richer a country becomes, the scarcer are the kind of people you need. Have you been a good dhobi lately, or even a bad one? There were times when he went about on his bicycle with a huge bundle of dirty clothes in the back seat. Now the bikes have disappeared along with the dhobi. He now goes about on a scooter and I have seen one or two with vans of their own. It is no more a profession; it is a business, and apparently it can do without customers.
The richer your economy gets, the more you have to do things yourself. But this is precisely how we lived as farmers. We used to do everything ourselves, from hacking down trees for fuel to taking coconuts to the nearest ghani to press for oil. The poor bullocks would go round and round and you collected the oil in kerosene tins and came home triumphantly with dozens of tins brimming over with pure coconut oil. We grew our own rice, and since there was a pond on the property, we grew our own fish. We outdid Gandhi in self-reliance, and we never required a plumber or an electrician, because we drew our water from our own well and, of course, there was no electricity.
We did need a dhobi from time to time, particularly in the wedding season, when we had to make ourselves presentable, but the dhobi was our own man, and he went about on foot collecting clothes, until his son went to Dubai and made so much money he forbade his father to wash other people's clothes and the dhobi slowly lost his mind and took to drink. Incidentally, the toddy too was home-made but we were under strict orders to stay away from it.
Now that you need all these people, for our own economy is now said to be emerging it not actually "emerged", they have gone to Dubai and Bahrain, and some as far afield as the UK and U.S., running petrol pumps and taxis and making fifty times as much money as you and me. So, if you want a clean shirt, you clean it yourself or ask your wife to do it. But she is either working in a bank or has become a software expert and is not as handy with the washing machine as she used to be. So we have become expert dhobis, plumbers and electricians as we could be, though we graduated from Harvard or Cambridge and can teach you how to put an atomic power station, if not how to clean a shirt.
This is not economics as we were taught in London and Cambridge, so I have put my Samuelson and Hayek and Keynes aside and bought some how-to books - how to wash your shirt, how to fix your pipe and how to change your fuse. This is what Gandhiji would have wanted us to do, and just when the economy is about to take off, we have become Gandhian.
source valueresearch
By Jay Dubashi | Feb 5, 2011
Who said this? Oscar Wild, who used to go about dropping such pearls and wound up in a prison? No, it was actually an economist himself looking for a plumber, who, he said, was harder to find than a dinosaur.
It's a topsy-turvy world. There is more gold than ever, but you would be lucky to find a plumber when you want him, or even when you don't want him, as the species seems to have just vanished from our good earth. Why plumbers? You can't get even an electrician or a dhobi for love or money, or for that matter, a good car mechanic to fix your ignition. The bazaars are full of shops selling diamonds, kanjivaram sarees, laptops and jazzy cars, but try to get hold of a plumber, and you would draw a total blank.
I have tried everything to fix our leaking pipe - except give an ad in the local paper and spent a fortune on pliers, wrenches and other exotic paraphernalia plumbers carry or used to carry, in their cases. You can get computer experts, nuclear physicists, space engineers, even management pundits from Harvard, but try to get a plumber, and you would be hitting a wall.
In America, I am told, you have to make an appointment for a plumber, or an electrician, or even a good car mechanic, just as you do for a doctor, and you would be lucky to get one when you want him. Jobs are very scarce in the U.S. right now but so apparently are professionals like electricians or plumbers. They are being imported in large numbers but they have so much work in their home countries they refuse to budge.
It is a funny kind of economics. The richer a country becomes, the scarcer are the kind of people you need. Have you been a good dhobi lately, or even a bad one? There were times when he went about on his bicycle with a huge bundle of dirty clothes in the back seat. Now the bikes have disappeared along with the dhobi. He now goes about on a scooter and I have seen one or two with vans of their own. It is no more a profession; it is a business, and apparently it can do without customers.
The richer your economy gets, the more you have to do things yourself. But this is precisely how we lived as farmers. We used to do everything ourselves, from hacking down trees for fuel to taking coconuts to the nearest ghani to press for oil. The poor bullocks would go round and round and you collected the oil in kerosene tins and came home triumphantly with dozens of tins brimming over with pure coconut oil. We grew our own rice, and since there was a pond on the property, we grew our own fish. We outdid Gandhi in self-reliance, and we never required a plumber or an electrician, because we drew our water from our own well and, of course, there was no electricity.
We did need a dhobi from time to time, particularly in the wedding season, when we had to make ourselves presentable, but the dhobi was our own man, and he went about on foot collecting clothes, until his son went to Dubai and made so much money he forbade his father to wash other people's clothes and the dhobi slowly lost his mind and took to drink. Incidentally, the toddy too was home-made but we were under strict orders to stay away from it.
Now that you need all these people, for our own economy is now said to be emerging it not actually "emerged", they have gone to Dubai and Bahrain, and some as far afield as the UK and U.S., running petrol pumps and taxis and making fifty times as much money as you and me. So, if you want a clean shirt, you clean it yourself or ask your wife to do it. But she is either working in a bank or has become a software expert and is not as handy with the washing machine as she used to be. So we have become expert dhobis, plumbers and electricians as we could be, though we graduated from Harvard or Cambridge and can teach you how to put an atomic power station, if not how to clean a shirt.
This is not economics as we were taught in London and Cambridge, so I have put my Samuelson and Hayek and Keynes aside and bought some how-to books - how to wash your shirt, how to fix your pipe and how to change your fuse. This is what Gandhiji would have wanted us to do, and just when the economy is about to take off, we have become Gandhian.
source valueresearch
China - financial superpower
China - financial superpower
The country is becoming the lender of first and last resort for the world
by A V Rajwade
China’s rapid growth and the economic power it has generated are being increasingly felt in global financial and commodities markets. The sheer size of its reserves (very close to $3 trillion) makes it by far the single largest holder and buyer of US treasuries (after the Fed), and its reserve deployment policies will influence both the shape of the US dollar yield curve and the currency’s exchange rate. A sharp fall of the dollar in global markets would inflict huge translation losses for China’s reserves; contrarily, if China stops buying US treasuries at a time when its borrowing needs are expected to go up to $1.5 trillion in the current year, this would steepen the yield curve sharply, inflicting fair value losses on China’s reserves; and negate the effects of the US Federal Reserve’s open market operations. In effect, the US has become a “too large too fail” borrower for China. Reserves apart, China’s sovereign wealth fund (China Investment Corporation) has a corpus of $300 billion and is an increasingly active investor in the equity markets.
It is playing the role of the “lender of last resort” to troubled European countries like Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, and is also becoming “the lender of first resort” to the poorer developing countries, particularly in Africa and Latin America. As for the European countries, it makes strategic sense for China to buy the troubled countries’ bonds, if only because the European Union is its largest single export market. Inclusive of the loans by the China Development Bank and the China Export-Import Bank, China has lent more to the developing countries in the last two years than the World Bank. The amount was as large as $110 billion according to Financial Times.
The loans are not just for financing China’s exports (recently, an Indian power utility received a huge loan from the Chinese lenders to finance import of power plants) but, increasingly, to develop infrastructure and raw material resources in resource-rich countries in Africa and Latin America, with the objective of securing supplies to feed China’s gigantic and fast-growing appetite for oil, base metals and foodgrain. “Loans for oil” deals have also been signed with Russia, Kazakhstan and Venezuela — in these countries, China is also a very large direct investor. China also is helping develop Myanmar’s gas and other resources for import into China. It is also a very large investor in developing Sudan’s resources. (It may be recalled that western oil companies keep away from the last two countries because Washington does not like these governments.) The big test will be Iran, given the sanctions against that country. In short, the financial power is being increasingly used to further China’s trading interests, given that it is not only the world’s largest exporter but also imported goods worth $1.4 trillion last year. In particular, most east Asian economies are getting increasingly dependent on trade with China. For example, it is the largest trading partner for countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, more than a fifth of whose foreign trade is with China.
Its influence is also being felt in the global commodity markets. It is the world’s largest consumer of commodities like steel (44 per cent), cotton (42 per cent) and copper (a little less than 40 per cent). These days, commodity market participants watch developments in China as closely as they used to watch the US and Russia.
China’s influence is also being felt in high-technology areas. Huawei and ZTE are global leaders in communication technology and operate in more than a hundred countries — so does Lenovo, the computer hardware giant. China is the global leader in high-speed rail network, which is being rapidly expanded into the Association of South East Asian Nations countries. Another area in which the Chinese are global leaders is renewable energy. Only a few years ago, Q-Cells of Germany was the global leader in solar energy panels. It has been rapidly overtaken by China’s Suntech. China is also extremely competitive in wind energy. Its knowledge power is also manifest in the fact that it is the world’s second-largest publisher of science and engineering research papers and is expected to overtake the US in the number of patent applications in the current year (Time, January 31). The largest number of foreign students in US universities are now from China.
Overall, the gap between India and China in the economic and technology area seems to be as high as in the tally of Olympic Gold Medals (51 for China, one for India in the 2008 Beijing Olympics). We are obviously better in terms of the democratic freedom of our people. But what about social justice? To quote Pallavi Aiyar in Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China, “It was authoritarian China that seemed to offer greater social justice for its people, freedom for its women, and protection for its poor… The legitimacy of democracy in many ways absolved Indian governments from the necessity of performing.”
The country is becoming the lender of first and last resort for the world
by A V Rajwade
China’s rapid growth and the economic power it has generated are being increasingly felt in global financial and commodities markets. The sheer size of its reserves (very close to $3 trillion) makes it by far the single largest holder and buyer of US treasuries (after the Fed), and its reserve deployment policies will influence both the shape of the US dollar yield curve and the currency’s exchange rate. A sharp fall of the dollar in global markets would inflict huge translation losses for China’s reserves; contrarily, if China stops buying US treasuries at a time when its borrowing needs are expected to go up to $1.5 trillion in the current year, this would steepen the yield curve sharply, inflicting fair value losses on China’s reserves; and negate the effects of the US Federal Reserve’s open market operations. In effect, the US has become a “too large too fail” borrower for China. Reserves apart, China’s sovereign wealth fund (China Investment Corporation) has a corpus of $300 billion and is an increasingly active investor in the equity markets.
It is playing the role of the “lender of last resort” to troubled European countries like Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, and is also becoming “the lender of first resort” to the poorer developing countries, particularly in Africa and Latin America. As for the European countries, it makes strategic sense for China to buy the troubled countries’ bonds, if only because the European Union is its largest single export market. Inclusive of the loans by the China Development Bank and the China Export-Import Bank, China has lent more to the developing countries in the last two years than the World Bank. The amount was as large as $110 billion according to Financial Times.
The loans are not just for financing China’s exports (recently, an Indian power utility received a huge loan from the Chinese lenders to finance import of power plants) but, increasingly, to develop infrastructure and raw material resources in resource-rich countries in Africa and Latin America, with the objective of securing supplies to feed China’s gigantic and fast-growing appetite for oil, base metals and foodgrain. “Loans for oil” deals have also been signed with Russia, Kazakhstan and Venezuela — in these countries, China is also a very large direct investor. China also is helping develop Myanmar’s gas and other resources for import into China. It is also a very large investor in developing Sudan’s resources. (It may be recalled that western oil companies keep away from the last two countries because Washington does not like these governments.) The big test will be Iran, given the sanctions against that country. In short, the financial power is being increasingly used to further China’s trading interests, given that it is not only the world’s largest exporter but also imported goods worth $1.4 trillion last year. In particular, most east Asian economies are getting increasingly dependent on trade with China. For example, it is the largest trading partner for countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, more than a fifth of whose foreign trade is with China.
Its influence is also being felt in the global commodity markets. It is the world’s largest consumer of commodities like steel (44 per cent), cotton (42 per cent) and copper (a little less than 40 per cent). These days, commodity market participants watch developments in China as closely as they used to watch the US and Russia.
China’s influence is also being felt in high-technology areas. Huawei and ZTE are global leaders in communication technology and operate in more than a hundred countries — so does Lenovo, the computer hardware giant. China is the global leader in high-speed rail network, which is being rapidly expanded into the Association of South East Asian Nations countries. Another area in which the Chinese are global leaders is renewable energy. Only a few years ago, Q-Cells of Germany was the global leader in solar energy panels. It has been rapidly overtaken by China’s Suntech. China is also extremely competitive in wind energy. Its knowledge power is also manifest in the fact that it is the world’s second-largest publisher of science and engineering research papers and is expected to overtake the US in the number of patent applications in the current year (Time, January 31). The largest number of foreign students in US universities are now from China.
Overall, the gap between India and China in the economic and technology area seems to be as high as in the tally of Olympic Gold Medals (51 for China, one for India in the 2008 Beijing Olympics). We are obviously better in terms of the democratic freedom of our people. But what about social justice? To quote Pallavi Aiyar in Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China, “It was authoritarian China that seemed to offer greater social justice for its people, freedom for its women, and protection for its poor… The legitimacy of democracy in many ways absolved Indian governments from the necessity of performing.”
Ban on use of plastics for packaging tobacco products
The Hindu Tobacco on sale at a roadside shop in Chennai. The centre on Monday banned the use of plastics for packaging gutka and other tobacco products. File photo: R. Ragu
The Environment Ministry on Monday issued a notification banning the use of plastics for packaging gutka and other tobacco products after it was pulled up by the Supreme Court for not implementing the law regulating the use of the environmentally harmful polymers.
The Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 also bans the packaging of foodstuffs in recycled plastics or compostable plastics.
On February 2, the Supreme Court had refused to grant more time to the Centre for implementing the law to regulate the use of plastic for packaging tobacco products and asked it to notify that within two days.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, however, on Monday said it is impractical and undesirable to impose a blanket ban on the use of plastic all over the country.
“The real challenge is to improve municipal solid waste management systems. In addition to the privatisation and mechanisation of the municipal solid waste management systems, we must be sensitive to the needs and concerns of the lakhs of people involved in the informal sector,” the Minister said.
The new notification replaces the earlier Recycled Plastics Manufacture and Usage Rules, 1999 (amended in 2003).
“These Rules have been brought out following detailed discussions and consultations with a wide spectrum of stakeholders including civil society, industry bodies, relevant central government Ministries and state governments,” the Ministry said.
Under the new Rules, recycled carry bags shall conform to specific Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
“Plastic carry bags shall either be white or only with those pigments and colourants which are in conformity with the bar prescribed by the BIS. This shall apply expressly for pigments and colourants to be used in plastic products which come in contact with foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and drinking water.
The new rules say that plastic carry bags shall not be less than 40 microns in thickness. Under the earlier rules, the minimum thickness was 20 microns.
Several state governments have stipulated varying minimum thickness. It is now expected that 40 microns norms will become the uniform standard to be followed across the country, the Ministry said.
According to the new rules, the minimum size (of 8x12 inches) for the plastic carry bags prescribed under the earlier Rules has been dispensed with.
“Carry bags can be made from compostable plastics provided they conform to BIS standards,” it said.
One of the major provisions under the new rules is the explicit recognition of the role of waste pickers.
“The new rules require the municipal authority to constructively engage agencies or groups working in waste management including these waste pickers. This is the very first time that such a special dispensation has been made,” the Ministry said.
Regional Research Institute of Ayurveda- A Centre for Research and Alternative Medicine
Suman Gazmer writes: The study of age old practice of Ayurveda is entrenched in the Indian education sector with numerous institutional and research centres in every State of the country preserving and enhancing the growth of medicinal plants.
Sikkim, a Himalayan State blessed with a rich biodiversity, is also under the Ayurveda studies umbrella with Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha, Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare setting up a Regional Research Institute (Ayurveda) here at Tadong, 4 kms away from the capital town ofGangtok. The institution is not only providing health services to the people here but is also engaged in research work and survey of the 500 odd medicinal plants found in Sikkim.
On an average, the Tadong Regional Research Institute (Ayurveda) treats 30 to 40 patients daily in winter at its OPD and during summers, the footfalls increases to 60. However, the institute is trying to reach out to the general public at the grassroots level by generating awareness of Ayurveda among them and thus encourage them towards healthy lifestyle and take preventive measures. It has been organizing various awareness camps to popularize Ayurveda among the masses on its own or with collaboration with the State Government or Press Information Bureau, during the Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign held in various parts of the State.
Persons treated in the various far flung areas of Sikkim during the medical camp make it a point to come at the institution for follow up. Gastritis, back pain and arthritis are the common ailments found among the Sikkimeseand we have successfully treated about 700 patients within 9 months last year, said Dr. A.K Panda, Research Officer-cum-in charge of the Regional Research Institute (Ayurveda). Being the only Ayurveda institute in the state, it has also undertaken the clinical trials for studying the efficiency of drugs by collecting data from folk lore, senior citizens and folk healers.
The Ayurveda emphasizes on preventive and healing therapies along with various methods of bio-cleansing and rejuvenation. Therefore, the Regional Research institute (Ayurveda) is providing Panchakarma Kshar Sutra at its centre. Ten persons on average are being provided this Panchakarma Kshar Sutra therapy daily.
The other mandates of this institute are to undertake clinical trials for studying the efficacy of drugs, to provide health education and knowledge of preventive measures and to generate awareness among the people about the Ayurveda in Sikkim.
As Sikkim is blessed with abundant medicinal plants, this institution has its own survey of medicinal plants unit (SMPU) which has already surveyed more than 130 medicinal plants that are found in the Himalayan State. It has documented its survey in a book ‘Medico Ethno Botanical Explorations in Sikkim Himalayas’. Apart from the various research works, the institute also works on the traditional uses and medicinal potential of Cordyceps Sinesiswhich is mostly found in the high altitude areas of North Sikkim. The locals call Cordyceps Sinesis as Yarsa Gumbaor Keera Jhar.
According to research of the institute the folk healers of Sikkim use Cordyceps Sinensis to cure over 21 ailments like cancer, asthma, TB, diabetes, cough and cold. This is a rare combination of caterpillar and a fungus and found in the altitudes of 4500 m in Sikkim.
The institution has also conducted an anti-cancer study with Kalo Haldi (Black Turmeric), Bikhma(Vatsnabha) and Chirato (Kiratatikta) in collaboration with Jadavpur University and Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. It is shortly initiating a project called value chain of medicinal plants in Sikkim in collaboration withSikkim University to bridge the gap between the producer and consumers.
The regional research institute is also monitoring the side effect of herbal product specially Ayurveda andAmji or the Tibetan system of treatment. It also has a separate centre for pharma co-vigilance where the people can report about the side effect of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddhi drugs.
Suman Gazmer writes: The study of age old practice of Ayurveda is entrenched in the Indian education sector with numerous institutional and research centres in every State of the country preserving and enhancing the growth of medicinal plants.
Sikkim, a Himalayan State blessed with a rich biodiversity, is also under the Ayurveda studies umbrella with Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha, Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare setting up a Regional Research Institute (Ayurveda) here at Tadong, 4 kms away from the capital town ofGangtok. The institution is not only providing health services to the people here but is also engaged in research work and survey of the 500 odd medicinal plants found in Sikkim.
On an average, the Tadong Regional Research Institute (Ayurveda) treats 30 to 40 patients daily in winter at its OPD and during summers, the footfalls increases to 60. However, the institute is trying to reach out to the general public at the grassroots level by generating awareness of Ayurveda among them and thus encourage them towards healthy lifestyle and take preventive measures. It has been organizing various awareness camps to popularize Ayurveda among the masses on its own or with collaboration with the State Government or Press Information Bureau, during the Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign held in various parts of the State.
Persons treated in the various far flung areas of Sikkim during the medical camp make it a point to come at the institution for follow up. Gastritis, back pain and arthritis are the common ailments found among the Sikkimeseand we have successfully treated about 700 patients within 9 months last year, said Dr. A.K Panda, Research Officer-cum-in charge of the Regional Research Institute (Ayurveda). Being the only Ayurveda institute in the state, it has also undertaken the clinical trials for studying the efficiency of drugs by collecting data from folk lore, senior citizens and folk healers.
The Ayurveda emphasizes on preventive and healing therapies along with various methods of bio-cleansing and rejuvenation. Therefore, the Regional Research institute (Ayurveda) is providing Panchakarma Kshar Sutra at its centre. Ten persons on average are being provided this Panchakarma Kshar Sutra therapy daily.
The other mandates of this institute are to undertake clinical trials for studying the efficacy of drugs, to provide health education and knowledge of preventive measures and to generate awareness among the people about the Ayurveda in Sikkim.
As Sikkim is blessed with abundant medicinal plants, this institution has its own survey of medicinal plants unit (SMPU) which has already surveyed more than 130 medicinal plants that are found in the Himalayan State. It has documented its survey in a book ‘Medico Ethno Botanical Explorations in Sikkim Himalayas’. Apart from the various research works, the institute also works on the traditional uses and medicinal potential of Cordyceps Sinesiswhich is mostly found in the high altitude areas of North Sikkim. The locals call Cordyceps Sinesis as Yarsa Gumbaor Keera Jhar.
According to research of the institute the folk healers of Sikkim use Cordyceps Sinensis to cure over 21 ailments like cancer, asthma, TB, diabetes, cough and cold. This is a rare combination of caterpillar and a fungus and found in the altitudes of 4500 m in Sikkim.
The institution has also conducted an anti-cancer study with Kalo Haldi (Black Turmeric), Bikhma(Vatsnabha) and Chirato (Kiratatikta) in collaboration with Jadavpur University and Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. It is shortly initiating a project called value chain of medicinal plants in Sikkim in collaboration withSikkim University to bridge the gap between the producer and consumers.
The regional research institute is also monitoring the side effect of herbal product specially Ayurveda andAmji or the Tibetan system of treatment. It also has a separate centre for pharma co-vigilance where the people can report about the side effect of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddhi drugs.
IRMA evaluates MGNREGA's implementation in Sikkim
by Prashant Rupera
Sikkim now needs to adopt mechanism to sustain assets that it has created under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) programme. A research team from country's premier rural management institute - the Institute of Rural Management, Anand ( IRMA) - which evaluated MGNREGA's implementation in the North Eastern state has suggested this to the Sikkim government.
Sikkim is the only state which has bagged three national awards for its exemplary work under MGNREGA.
"Implementation of MGNREGA started in Sikkim from February 2006. The state has already achieved the objective of providing 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to each rural household opting for it. Having completed around four years of the programme's implementation, the rural management and development department of Sikkim had approached us in early 2010 to do an evaluation of the programme in the state," IRMA's director professor Vivek Bhandari told TOI.
The study done by Bhandari, professor Pratik Modi and professor Ajay Dandekar has suggested that the Sikkim government should set up a cell which can train officials from other states on implementation of MGNREGA. "The state government has already decided to adopt this recommendation," says Dandekar.
The research team found four major types of work implemented under MGNREGA. This included water conservation, land development, plantation and aforestation apart from road connectivity. "The state government has been particularly focusing on creation of durable assets under MGNREGA. In 2009-10 alone, 175 rural footpaths, 132 flood control works, 71 water conservation works, 414 drought proofing and plantation works, 89 micro irrigation channels and 148 land development works were completed," the report states.
The study points out that while positive impact of the assets created under MGNREGA will continue, there is absence of any mechanism to ensure durability and sustainability of the assets created under the programme. "The state administration should start thinking in this direction as the assets created under the programme, in near future will start demanding maintenance in order to continue to provide positive net returns to the community," says Dandekar, adding that they have identified provisions under MGNREGA which can ensure long-term sustainability of the assets.
"There are provisions presently available under the programme whereby a part of the funding can be used for maintaining such assets," adds Dandekar.
Read more: IRMA evaluates MGNREGA's implementation in Sikkim - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/IRMA-evaluates-MGNREGAs-implementation-in-Sikkim/articleshow/7439237.cms#ixzz1DKGLZ3JA
by Prashant Rupera
Sikkim now needs to adopt mechanism to sustain assets that it has created under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) programme. A research team from country's premier rural management institute - the Institute of Rural Management, Anand ( IRMA) - which evaluated MGNREGA's implementation in the North Eastern state has suggested this to the Sikkim government.
Sikkim is the only state which has bagged three national awards for its exemplary work under MGNREGA.
"Implementation of MGNREGA started in Sikkim from February 2006. The state has already achieved the objective of providing 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to each rural household opting for it. Having completed around four years of the programme's implementation, the rural management and development department of Sikkim had approached us in early 2010 to do an evaluation of the programme in the state," IRMA's director professor Vivek Bhandari told TOI.
The study done by Bhandari, professor Pratik Modi and professor Ajay Dandekar has suggested that the Sikkim government should set up a cell which can train officials from other states on implementation of MGNREGA. "The state government has already decided to adopt this recommendation," says Dandekar.
The research team found four major types of work implemented under MGNREGA. This included water conservation, land development, plantation and aforestation apart from road connectivity. "The state government has been particularly focusing on creation of durable assets under MGNREGA. In 2009-10 alone, 175 rural footpaths, 132 flood control works, 71 water conservation works, 414 drought proofing and plantation works, 89 micro irrigation channels and 148 land development works were completed," the report states.
The study points out that while positive impact of the assets created under MGNREGA will continue, there is absence of any mechanism to ensure durability and sustainability of the assets created under the programme. "The state administration should start thinking in this direction as the assets created under the programme, in near future will start demanding maintenance in order to continue to provide positive net returns to the community," says Dandekar, adding that they have identified provisions under MGNREGA which can ensure long-term sustainability of the assets.
"There are provisions presently available under the programme whereby a part of the funding can be used for maintaining such assets," adds Dandekar.
Read more: IRMA evaluates MGNREGA's implementation in Sikkim - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/IRMA-evaluates-MGNREGAs-implementation-in-Sikkim/articleshow/7439237.cms#ixzz1DKGLZ3JA
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