Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, Health Services and Sustainability

Most of the googled news item of 17th February, 2011 showed vigorously about the snippets of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between India and Japan that aims to reach a trade target of $25 billion by 2014. As a glancing reader of the news item, my eyes however got stuck in one detailing fact of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. It mentioned that as a part of this CEPA, India and Japan would establish a social security agreement for Indian qualified nurses and Japanese certified care workers. The question sparkled – “Will that mean more Indian qualified nurses will go to Japan and serve them and more certified care workers from Japan will come here”? This did not stop here as the next question which arose was – “How qualification of the nurses are defined and recognized by Japan and how India recognizes the certification of Japanese careworkers”? Another question came and then it stopped – “Who gives these certifications and recognitions and how”?
Immediately the geek identity within me was searching for an essential linkage between this CEPA and sustainability. An important aspect of sustainability of any human race is the quality of health. Better quality of living should make people happy and it caters to the social dimensions of sustainability or sustainable development. A social security agreement as a part of CEPA should therefore have an overarching objective of addressing the health, quality of life dimensions of the people of the two countries who have signed the agreement. At this juncture, the important question to ask is does a social security agreement like the one I mentioned here allow a better and equitable type of health services between the two nations. If it does, all people in the two countries should get access to larger and better quality health service through this exchange of skills and human beings between the signing nations. This should therefore enhance the social living standards and can improve upon the societal indicators of sustainability and sustainable development in the two signing countries.
But in reality the connections as reflected above doesnot work so smoothly. So a signing of a security deal might not necessarily imply that all the people of India who really need the skilled service of Japanese care workers for a better quality of living would get an access to that. Different kinds of domestic regulatory barriers can hinder the access of the people to the skilled service of the care workers. A mere signing of a deal might not guarantee that the care workers can actually come and start working in the hospitals, health care centres of India. To do that, they might have to get some certificates through some exams that need to be recognized by the hospitals and health care centres of India. Mutual recognition between the two countries need to be put in place. So an absence of this mutual recognition can in reality lead to an absence of Japanese care workers in the hospitals, health care centres. So signing of a security agreement will not necessarily imply that care from skilled Japanese care workers is exchanged between India and Japan and provided to the people who need them in India. Typically, it has been seen that owing to strong domestic regulatory barriers in the health sector of U.K, exchange of nurses from Phillippines, doctors from developing countries have faced hindrances. The strong domestic regulatory and protectionist measures in the health service sector of U.K. have impeded smooth transfer of Phillippine nurses to hospitals in U.K. Often visa issuance, work permits, high cost of living have been a problem too. So even if a deal or agreement is signed a realization of the exchange of skill transfer from one country to another in health service might not happen. This thereby stops people to get access to a better quality health care skill that could have enhanced their quality of living and had enhanced the overall sustainability and development of the society at large.
Similar situation can arise between India and Japan also if the domestic regulations of India, Japan are not congenial to create an exchange of skills, health care in between the two nations through actual realization of the people working in the health sector of the signing countries. To ensure social sustainability of two signing countries through an improvement of health of the people by means of exchange of human skills, it is essential to also fine tune, modify the domestic regulations so that the people of the two countries finally get an access to better quality health care.
The next question is who in the two countries get access to the better quality health care once the smooth exchange of that starts happening out of this social security agreement. If the skill in health care segment that is exchanged is concentrated in certain hospitals, health care centres that are accessible only to the wealthy middle, upper middle and rich income classes then it still doesnot address the social sustainability dimensions of the two signing nations. The domestic health sector governance have to be adjusted and modified to ensure that the skills in health care which are exchanged are accessible to major sections of the society to improve the health standards and overall quality of living of the society. The equity question will become very important to the address social sustainability dimension once real trade, market access of health services start happening.
So there is a strong role of regulation, domestic governance that ensures first of all that after signing of the agreement an exchange of health care actually happens. Once that happens, governance mechanisms within the signing countries have to ensure that they are well distributed in all sections of the society to cater to the needs of social sustainability of the people of the two countries. Transparent, well governed, efficiently functioning domestic institutions will come into picture to ensure that distribution.

So in a nutshell, trade in services between two nations of CEPA through exchange of natural persons can play a major role in sustainability of two nations by raising the health and quality of living standards of the people of signing nations of a CEPA. But that can only happen with the able support of domestic regulations, institutions, governance mechanisms. The future ahead of us will raise more questions and also answer many questions arising from the confluence and convergent areas of trade in services between CEPA partners and social sustainability of the people of partnering countries.

South South Cooperation and Democracy, Development, Society: Some Generic Thoughts

Our time in the current years is already observing a shift in the dominance of nations towards countries of South like India and China. South South Cooperation has achieved a new meaning in the context of this shift in the dominance towards Southern Countries. Additionally, countries of Europe have been going through sovereign debt crisis. This has added to the woes of North North cooperation.

Growing protectionism in U.S driven by the financial crisis has acted as a barrier in determining a smooth transition to North South Cooperation. With this premise the importance of South South Cooperation has increased. This article would not however dwell on these dimensions of South South Cooperation. This short note would rather explore theoretical generic question of whether cooperation of South South nature is driven by the state and nature of democratization of the two states that get involved in cooperation.

So the basic question that we explore in this note is – Does the nature, state of democratization of two states in a South South cooperation guarantee or ascertain the degree, extent and sustainability of cooperation?

In order to get an answer to this question we have to first search through the extensive literature on democratization. Dahl (1998) suggests that democratization as a subject has been widely researched. Geddes (1999) provides extensive literature for Latin America on nature of democracy. However Collier, Levitsky (1997), Geddes (1999), Kitschelt (1992), Remmer (1996) provides us with literature on how and why democracies sustain and how quality of a democracy determines that longevity. Literature validates that quality and longevity of democracy of a country to a large extent is being determined by the level of economic development.

Economic development has also a considerable effect on the sustainability of democracy (Przeworski & Limongi, 1997). Sustainability of democracy is ensured by higher levels of economic development along with other factors like degree of socioeconomic equality. So two countries which can be at the same levels of development can forge a larger beneficial spillovers from cooperation. South South Cooperation between countries at similar levels of development thus might work if we try to bridge this theory of democracy to nature of South South Cooperation.

Additionally, two countries can be at different levels of democratization levels but still cooperation can emerge with a vision of complementary partnership. In terms of South South Cooperation the level of democratisation in two partnering countries might not always be a key factor.

However the level of democratization and stable political environment in two countries can help in forging of the cooperation measures. According to Fish (1998), Kopstein &Reilly (1999), economic reform is one of the best indicators of democratization. In this regard, one needs to see how various countries of South are performing in terms of sustainability, longevity of democracy.
Rich post socialist countries have performed better in terms of sustainability of democracy whereas countries like Albania, Kyrgyztan have been moving away. Sustainability of democratization is guaranteed by economic growth and reforms that can reduce the authoritarian structure of the ruling party. Also with higher economic growth often the accountability of people of the nation can increase with the implementation of necessary domestic reform measures. Public pressure for accountability of the government, larger civil society participation and increased levels of education are some of the outcomes that incur with the advent of economic reforms which leads to larger transparency and democratization on the path of increasing democratization. The moot question is whether occurrence of such conditions in two countries forging a South South Cooperation facilitate the chance and nature of longevity of the nature of cooperation.

Any cooperation measure which aims to promote development, can benefit the public at large by creating more transparent accountable structures that can sustain the degree of cooperation. The same principle will hold good for South South Cooperation measures.

If there is a chance of economic reform that can happen as a spillover of South South cooperation, then such cooperation measures could be used to create democratization in the countries that get engaged in those measures. Performance of south south cooperation in terms of its sustainability can actually increase if those measures create more stable democratization process as an outcome of cooperation.
If the two nations can discount the fact that such democratization process can start as an outcome of the cooperation, then there is a larger change that they will forge such cooperation provided that the two countries are not being guided by authoritarian government and governance principles.
However whether such democratization will happen or not also depends on the political leadership which is at the centre stage of South South cooperation measures. The value system instilled by the political leaders in the implementation measures of South South cooperation policies will guide the nature of democratization as an outcome of the South South Cooperation measures.
Democratization process can be understood through a short and long term view. The one which has emerged in southern Europe or in East of Africa is more of a long term nature whereas the one which has emerged in Latin America, Europe is of a short term nature (Di Palma, 1990).

The reason behind this different duration of democracy and its effect on economic reform can happen owing to a following reason. In a country which has achieved a new democracy, people are more sensitive and if they expect that there are chances of loosing out from economic reform process in the new democracy then the tensions can increase between a new democracy and economic reform. Precisely this then guides how long a democracy will stay in a country. Two countries in South South Cooperation on same levels of economic development can forge a stronger partnership. But the strength of the partnership will also depend on how internally the people of the countries are managing the tensions between the trade offs of economic reform, democracy and the fears of loosing out from such economic reform process. This can only happen if the domestic governance structures, institutions of the two countries are not able to give confidence to the people of the nation. The degree of confidence giving by the state to the people in turn also depends on the positioning of the democracy and at what point of democracy the two countries are standing out. If the democracy is well rooted to the social origins of the people then the fragility and negativity of the tensions between the people from loosening out from a growing democracy, economic reform process can go down. This can instill larger strength to the nature of democratic functioning of the nations, which thereby can also help in forging in South South Cooperation measures of the two partnering countries.
Historical dynamism and relationship guides this process that can also thereby act as a contributory factor in determining the South South Cooperation relationship of the two countries. The nature of the relationship within the countries and people of the countries also determine the cooperation relationship. One can find linkages between this proposition and Moores work on social origins of democracy . Social origins of democracy will also depend on how people, civil societies are functioning in a democratic state and whether the state is connected to the people through civil society groups. Such connection can go up through reduction in concentration of bureaucratic and aggregated forms of representation. Robust civil society participation, transparent institutional functioning, larger societal disaggregated linkages across the people of the society existing in the nations forging South South Cooperation can pave a way towards stronger social origins of democracy in partnering countries of South South Cooperation.

ETHNICITY AND NUMBER CRUNCHING: WHAT NUMBERS DONOT SAY!

The wish to write this article came while reading through a book titled “Islam in Religion and Politics: Perspectives from South Asia” edited by Asim Ray. The chapter on ethnicity issues in Pakistan and the corresponding repercussions on ethnic conflicts of Pakistan enthused me to think through the concept of ethnic fractionalization. A part of the reason behind this enthusiasm is from the drive to explore the causality that explains the mystery of human beings staying together or not staying together. This is one of the most mysterious aspects of life which are often not guided by any natural laws. As a human being I have most of the time felt confused, or dialectic about this mystery. Whenever that confusion has come I have tried to read something dealing with the anthropocentricity of human civilization.
It is from that state, I thought to start reading behavioural science, political science literature dealing with human conflicts, bondings and ethnicity one year back. Those readings have nurtured the growth of this write up the initiation of which happened with a preliminary googling that revealed an index called “Ethno Linguistic Fragmentation Index/ Ethno Nationalist Exclusion Index”.
This index is a simple extended version of market concentration index which shows the likelihood whether two people chosen at random will be from different ethnic groups. It is an extended form of simple Herfindahl concentration index.
The closer the value of the index to 1 the larger is ethnic fractionalization. The index value for some of the countries that suffered from conflicts generated from resource curse challenges is close to 1.

However, according to some literature[1] ethno linguistic fragmentation index is not able to capture the multidimensional aspects of ethnic fractionalisation. So a better way to address that is through an index of ethno nationalist exclusion which brings out state centric differences in ethnic fractionalization in a country.
This kind of index has been applied in studying the ethnic fractionalization in many resource rich countries where conflicts have arisen in resource abundant areas.
But the numbers do not reveal and get into the intricacies of several factors (including the cultural and emotional ones) that play a critical role in creating ethnic fractionalization and corresponding conflicts. Also often the numbers don’t talk about the human element that is very important in guiding the implications of ethnic fractionalization.

The next sections of this article entails some of the factors that explains ethnic fractionalization starting with some definitional aspects of ethnic fractionalization.
1 Ethnic fractionalization

In order to address the issue of ethnic fractionalization the concept of ethnic divide has to be pondered and understood first. An ethnic divide could originate between people and communities, groups due to their lineage to various religions, caste, culture, language and rule by which they are governed.
With respect to the definitional aspects of “Ethnic Fractionalization”, Horowitz[2] has defined ethnic fractionalization on the basis of indicators like appearance, religion, language and any combination of these ones.
Max Weber suggested that ethnicity is defined by belief structures in a community or in a group with a common descent that is demarcated by tribe, race, casts, religion, language, and[3] nationality. Different theories[4] exist that tries to explain how an ethnic fractionalization in a community could lead to conflicts. These theories include - the primordial sociality; clash of cultures; ethnic security dilemma ; mobilization of ethnic groups[5]. Each of these theories tries to explain how differences in ethnicity causes conflict in a particular situation.
According to primordial sociality theory[6], a human being sees any bondage with a particular ethnicity in a collective way and perceives the bondage to be given from outside in a coercive way. The clash of culture suggests that ethnic fractionalization emanates from belonging of human beings to different civilization origins[7]. Ethnic security dilemma arises when human beings from some ethnic groups suddenly are in a situation when they have to protect themselves for their own survival because of a certain adverse event say like an oil spillage affecting communities. In such a situation, human beings from one group of ethnic origin in the presence of other ethnic groups goes through a philosophical, introspecting discourse driving them to think that each community should protect themselves and their ethnic community first as they visualize the human beings from other groups, ethnicity in a competitive frame of mind.

Ethnic fractionalization is a kind of variable that arises out of social construction. Such social construction is often developed to push forward the political goals of institutions and other identities that could contribute to ethnic fractionalization for short term political gains. All these factors create differences in ethnicity and belief structures amongst people.
Governance of conflicts arising from such belief structures have to analyze how such costs can affect belief structures of the people of different ethnicities leading to conflicts. Political economy of governance institutions driven by people of different ethnicities could also exacerbate such feuds. Often religion also can also contribute in shaping up ethnicity.
1.1 Religion

Religion has played a prominent role in creating ethnic fractionalization in some select countries. Tensions and mistrust could often arise owing to a difference in the lineage of the people to different religions. Many intra community conflicts in countries have resulted owing to mistrust that has an origination in the different belief structures arising from belonging to various religions.

Many of these people have belonging to various religious institutions to which they belong before Christianity and Islam spread in these countries. In these countries the social process and the legal regimes did not facilitate a mix of the two different ethnic identities arising from different religious structures.

In addition to religion, institutions also play a role in the ethnic fractionalization.
1.2 Institutions
Strong government and political institutions with a welfare philosophy for people of all groups and an objective of ethnic fractionalization reduction might have been able to tackle problem. Powell (1982) shows that an association exists between ethnic fractionalization and instability of institutions. Powell suggests that in a region with an increase in ethnic fractionalization, the propensity of instability in the institution goes up.
Once that instability goes up, chances of reduction of ethnic fractionalization goes down. Also role of formal institutions play a key role towards enhancement of fractionalization.
But other than formal, informal institutions also have a strong role to play towards ethnic fractionalization. Informal institutional structures play a key role in binding and hindering the transmission of ethnic heterogeneity to potential conflicts. Such informal institutional structures have also helped in cross ethnic tie ups through a structure called “cousinage”. Cousinage has happened because of historical alliances of families between various ethnic groups through the basis of patronyms. This cousinage has facilitated social interactions between various ethnic groups and has played a key role in binding them together.
To illustrate cousinage, one could say that somebody in a community group in Mali, belonging to Keita surname could easily interact with another person with a surname of Coulibaly[8] even if they have not interacted earlier. Cross ethnic interactions bounded by informal institutional structures have prevailed in these countries and helped in maintaining strong bondage between human beings.
Also transethnicity play a key role towards determination of conflicts. Studies done by Easterly and Levine (1997)[9], Posner (2004)[10] suggest that the effects of these transethnicities on socio economic variables of the communities have been adverse leading to larger ethnic fractionalization.
Larger ethnic fractionalization could lead to a delay in creation of public goods dealing with health service, education and infrastructure[11] owing to large transaction cost that could arise due to ethnic fractionalization.
To eradicate this condition, larger effective institutional intervention for governance is required. In the presence of ethnic clouting and rent seeking in governance positions, quality of infrastructure service provision could go down.
However as a contrast, the picture has been very optimistic in some African countries. For example in countries like Malawi, Namibia institutions have worked well.
In Malawi, groups belonging to Chewa, Nyanja, and Tumbuka language are the largest. But inspite of that no dominance of groups has happened. Similarly in Namibia, although the ethnicity belonging to Ovambo is the dominant segment of the population, the other ethnic groups are given importance in terms of their representation in the institutions. Dominance of groups have been eradicated to bring in effective institutional intervention.
Some other explanatory factors

Inter community factors of fractionalization is frequently influenced by the nature of ethnic competition. According to Dion Douglas (1997)[12] ethnic competition gives rise to germination of ethnic conflicts. In a drive for competition, lower trust levels are developed that impinges communities of various ethnicities from forming social networks[13].
Such social networks could happen through larger inter ethnic cultural exchanges, frequent social gatherings and bondage between the groups. One of the essential requirements for such bondage requires creation of a value system of respect for each others ethnic customs, rights, rituals.
Often absence of such a value system hinders creation of a space for social networking. This is further facilitated by the drive of each ethnicity giving larger space to their own culture, customs without providing sufficient space to the other ethnic culture and customs. Such an action is also often incentivised by a drive to have monetary and control of power that could maximize the ethnic capital[14].
Therefore, each ethnic group in the process of maximizing ethnic capital becomes narrowed in their own ethnicity and reduces overall social capital that leads to a larger fractionalization.
Cultural factors[15] that create fractionalization amongst ethnic communities include the differences in language, living style, day to day actions[16] and their affinity to various ethnic cultural preferences by birth. Mostly between the ethnic tribes there is a pattern of sticking to the cultural heritages that any generation has imbibed from earlier generation by birth. This affinity to a lineage by birth could often act as a hindrance towards cultural homogenization of various ethnicities and can lead to fractionalization. It is felt that creation of platforms for cross cultural exchange at regular intervals across various ethnic community domains could be one of the ways to bridge the differences in the cultural attributes of the communities. This could therefore pave a long way towards reduction of ethnic fractionalization.
Demographic and institutional factors are also posed to contribute to ethnic fractionalization process. Failed institutions are being thought to be one of the key factors towards ethnic fractionalization.
According to Sambanis and Elbadawi, (2000)[17], too much of diversity in ethnic groups necessarily won’t allow to create conflict if the institutions are working well as they won’t allow groups to cohesively create a conflict.
According to them when an ethnic group has a larger dominance to the extent of 60% of the population then it has sufficient power to create conflicts. But below that extent, with the existence of many ethnicities if the institutions are functioning well then even with the presence of ethnic fractionalization, conflicts could be checked.
Conclusion
Ethnic fractionalization within and between communities could act as a mechanism to facilitate, enhance the distrust and could contribute towards larger distress and dissent which therefore raises the degree and chance of a conflict. Such distrust could arise because of various intra community and inter community sociological constructs. Additionally, historical, institutional, cultural factors would also play a critical role in the formation, extent and persistence of the distrust.

There is a critical role of governance oversights, efficient functioning of institutions, homogenous wellfaristic polity with a larger holistic accommodative social welfare goals that could reduce such distrust and conflict. Participatory decision making at the community level, effective and efficient democracy with equal weightage to all ethnicity are some of the ways by which these community conflicts could be addressed.

While doing that policies have to be streamlined and those policies have to consider how each of the indicators affecting ethnic fractionalization is influenced through policy actions. The formulation of such a policy would involve dedicated participation from all groups, ethnicities and stakeholders.
References

Abubakar, D. (2001). “Ethnic Identity, Democratization, and the Future of the African State: Lessons from Nigeria”. Ethnicity and Recent Democratic Experiments in Africa, African Issues, 29(1/2):31-36.
Anthony D. Smith, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 16, No. 6 (Nov., 1987), pp. 774-775 , Published by: American Sociological Association
Dion, D. (1997). “Competition and Ethnic conflict: Artifactual?” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 41(5): 638-648.
Easterly, W. (2001). “Can Institutions Resolve Ethnic conflict?” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 49(4): 687-706.
Elbadawi, I., & Sambanis, N. (2000). “Why are There So Many Civil Wars in Africa? Understanding and Preventing Violent Conflict”. Journal of African Economies, 9(3): 244-269.
Ethnic Minorities and the Clash of Civilizations: A Quantitative Analysis of Huntington's Thesis, JONATHAN FOX , British Journal of Political Science (2002), 32:3:415-434 Cambridge University Press, Copyright © 2002 Cambridge University Presshttp://www.iss.co.za/Books/Angola/6Malaquias.pdf last accessed on Dec 15, 2009, Ethnicity and conflict in Angola: prospects for reconciliation, Assis Malaquias
Fearon, James D. (2003). “Ethnic Structure and Cultural Diversity by Country.” Journal of Economic Growth 8 (June): 195-222.http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/wgape/papers/5_Bannon.pdf last accessed on Dec 19, 2009, Working Paper No. 44, SOURCES OF ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION IN AFRICA, by Alicia Bannon, Edward Miguel, and Daniel N. Posner
Goodin, Robert E. and Charles Tilly, eds. 2006. Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Goodwin, Jeff. (2001). No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Horowitz, Donald L. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press.
http://www.cmi.no/publications/publication/?2340=socio-economic-effects-of-gold-mining-in-mali last accessed on Dec 14 2009
James Fearon and David Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency and Civil War,” American Political Science Review 97, 1 (February 2003):75-90
Martin, Hans-Peter and Harald Schumann. 1998. The Global Trap: Globalization and the Assault on Democracy and Prosperity. London and New York: Zed
Nordic Journal of African Studies 15(1): 42–52 (2006) The Security Dilemma and Conflict in Cote d’Ivoire, MATTHEW KIRWIN, Michigan State University, USA
O’Neal, John R. and Russett B. (1999b) ‘The Kantian Peace: The Pacific Benefits of Democracy, Interdependence, and International Organizations, 1885-1992’, World Politics 52: 1-37.
Oladimeji Aborisade and Robert J. Mundt (1999). Politics in Nigeria, New York: Longman Publishers http://www.jsd-africa.com/Jsda/Fallwinter2000/articlespdf/ARC-Development%20in%20Nigeria.pdf last accessed on Dec 15, 2009, Development in Nigeria: A Political and Economic Challeng, Emmanuel O. Oritsejafor
Race, Ethnicity, and the Weberian Legacy, JOHN STONE, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 38, No. 3, 391-406 (1995)
Sambanis, Nicholas. 2001. “Do Ethnic and Nonethnic Civil Wars Have the Same Causes?” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 45:259-282.
Socio-Economic Effects of Gold Mining in Mali, A Study of the Sadiola and MorilaMining Operations, Eyolf Jul-Larsen, Bréhima Kassibo, Siri Lange, Ingrid SamsetR 2006: CHR. Michelsen Institute
Socio-Economic Effects of Gold Mining in Mali, A Study of the Sadiola and MorilaMining Operations, Eyolf Jul-Larsen, Bréhima Kassibo, Siri Lange, Ingrid SamsetR 2006: CHR. Michelsen Institute,pg30http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/198-natural-resources/48504-a-humanitarian-disaster-in-the-making-along-the-chad-cameroon-oil-pipeline.html last accessed on 14th December, 2009
Socio-Economic Effects of Gold Mining in Mali, A Study of the Sadiola and MorilaMining Operations, Eyolf Jul-Larsen, Bréhima Kassibo, Siri Lange, Ingrid SamsetR 2006: CHR. Michelsen Institute



[1] Institutional obstacles to African economic development: State, ethnicity, and customJournal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 71, Issue 3, September 2009, Pages 669-689Jean-Philippe Platteau
[2] Horowitz, Donald L. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[3] Race, Ethnicity, and the Weberian Legacy, JOHN STONE, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 38, No. 3, 391-406 (1995)
[4] Yinger, J. Milton. 1985. “Ethnicity.” Annual Review of Sociology 11:151-80.
[5] Sambanis, Nicholas. 2001. “Do Ethnic and Nonethnic Civil Wars Have the Same Causes?” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 45:259-282.12 Anthony D. Smith, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 16, No. 6 (Nov., 1987), pp. 774-775, Published by: American Sociological Association

[7] Ethnic Minorities and the Clash of Civilizations: A Quantitative Analysis of Huntington's Thesis, JONATHAN FOX , British Journal of Political Science (2002), 32:3:415-434 Cambridge University Press, Copyright © 2002 Cambridge University Press
[8] Cross-Cutting Cleavages and Ethnic Voting:
Results from an Experiment in Mali, Thad Dunning1 and Lauren Harrison2, Yale Universityhttp://web.mit.edu/polisci/research/wip/Dunning%20and%20Harrison_102608.pdf last accessed 5th Jan, 2009
[9] Easterly, William, and Ross Levine. 1997. “Africa’s Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic
Divisions.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 112(November): 1203-50.
[10] Posner, Daniel. 2004. “Measuring Ethnic Fractionalization in Africa.” American Journal of
Political Science 48(October): 849-63.
[11] Alesina, Alberto, and E. La Ferrara. 2005. “Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance.”
Journal of Economic Literature 43(September): 762-800.
[12] Dion, D. (1997). “Competition and Ethnic conflict: Artifactual?” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 41(5): 638-648.
[13] Easterly, W. (2001). “Can Institutions Resolve Ethnic conflict?” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 49(4): 687-706.
[14] Ethnic capital could be seen as a capital that gives returns to future generations of a particular ethnicity. Such ethnic capital is formed by investments made in an ethnic environment by parents for their future generation. Source - http://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/qjecon/v107y1992i1p123-50.html last accessed on Dec 24, 2009
[15] Fearon, James D. 2003. “Ethnic Structure and Cultural Diversity by Country.” Journal of Economic Growth 8 (June): 195-222.
[16] http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/wgape/papers/5_Bannon.pdf last accessed on Dec 19, 2009, Working Paper No. 44, SOURCES OF ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION IN AFRICA, by Alicia Bannon, Edward Miguel, and Daniel N. Posner
[17] Elbadawi, I., & Sambanis, N. (2000). “Why are There So Many Civil Wars in Africa? Understanding and Preventing Violent Conflict”. Journal of African Economies, 9(3): 244-269.

CENSORSHIP, DRAFT CINEMATOGRAPH BILL 2010: OBSERVATIONS

Draft cinematograph bill of 2010 in a very tacit way brings out an emerging tendency of growing state control on freedom of expressions in the art medium. Regulation of expressions in cinema has been done through censorship in India and this censorship has followed the guidelines of “Cinematograph Act” of 1952.
Before any Indian movie starts we see a certification titled Central Board of Film Certificate. Any film is released to public after it has been certified by the regulatory body giving CBFC certification. Central Board of Film Censorship became Central Board of Film Certificate in 1982 following an amendment in the Cinematograph Act of 1952.
The important question is who governs the CBFC and who controls the medium of expression through art form in India. As of now the industry participation in this board deciding film certification is less and often there is a political lineage that governs dictum, decision making of CBFC.
Political lineage indirectly allows a larger state domination in the board. The logic which is given for a state control is that, film is an important medium of expression and can influence the society. So any content in such a powerful medium should have a social responsibility and must contribute to the welfare of the society. Thus state has an obligation to control the expression form in cinema.
But often a large state participation can reduce and create claustrophobic environment for a creator in this powerful expression of art i.e. cinema. Too much state intervention in the decision making board can act as a hindering factor towards new forms of experimentation in cinema. The question is - what should be the regulatory structure of this board that governs the state of the forms of expressions in Indian cinema.
We need to ask questions on how and on what principles decision making is done in the board. Also what should be the structure of the governance mechanisms of the board so that it balances the needs of the movie maker, state and the Indian society. Many times the interests can be conflictual.
So one needs to determine how the fine balancing thread line could be created which balances all the needs. An independent nature of the governance board is essential to create thriving ground for innovative experimentation in Indian cinema. Institutional structures, their nature of functioning also has a key role to play in determining what kind of new art forms are created. Participation by all actors of the sector in the decision making of the board is key towards achieving it.
Decision making and regulation of art through certification needs to have a clear cut vision and logical basis. For instance the draft Cinematograph Bill 2010 mentions of U,12+,15+. There is a need to debate what are the age limits (and on what basis they are done) one needs to define for certain forms of expressions in a cinema. Such decisions are also influenced by the state of our society and how we all and our younger generation are evolving as human beings over time. It is also influenced by how Indian society is at its roots. At the same time the cinema also gives back its impulses back towards the formation of a particular type of a society.
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It is very important to have a regulatory board, institutional structure that takes account of all these finer nuances of the interaction between cinema and society and vice versa in making their decisions. At the same time it should also take care of the agents who play a key role in producing the art form by giving them the breathing space. It is a very sensitive decision making that cannot be left only to the realms of state and certain political lineages. Such decision making has to be supported by Advisory Bodies and Steering Committee guiding the decision making body. The advisory body and steering committee should comprise of sociologist, anthropologist, all experts from film industry thereby bringing a transdisciplinarity in the decision making.
In today’s highly connected digital world, censorship often gets nullified by spread of the censored expressions through other digital medium. The decision making body also has to take account of that. Thus it appears that film censorship and its nature is an intricate subject that needs inputs from various experts. The draft cinematograph bill 2010 has atleast been able to trigger these thoughts in our minds.

WHEN MONEY SUPPLY THEORY INTRIGUES INTO READING HABITS

As a student of social science, we in our bachelor days learnt about money supply theory. The lectures, book chapters on macroeconomics dealing with money supply theory use to shout and tell us that money has three basic values – a) Use , b) Precautionary and c) Speculative. In the bachelor days to understand all this we had to compute equations, draw graphs, vacate pages after pages solving series of equations. But as a student I had failed at that point of time to understand what does these con cepts mean in terms of practice. The time, I am referring to was from 1999 – 2002 and may be even beyond 2002. But the realization of how these three values mentioned in money supply intrigues into our daily reading habits, bread and butter arrived only few days back in 2010.
It took 11 long years to realize this. In these 11 years the theory on money supply defining these three values have not changed. Money if we see otherwise is just a printed raw material which generates a value when it helps us to consume certain things (goods, services), or is being stored, saved to act as an insurance for our uncertain discounted future (precautionary value) or is being invested in illiquid assets (bonds, papers, debentures or any other investment assets) to earn more monetary return (which is the value generated from speculation being done with this paper raw material) in future. In our daily life, we all are playing around and using money by tinkering around with these three values and roles of money as a raw material to generate these set of three values.

But these three roles and values are also there in our daily reading which provides us bread, butter, living. We are actually also tinkering around with the three values that are generated from our reading habits.

Lets now get into a little bit detailing of how these three values viz. use, precautionary, speculative are generated from reading.

If we see reading as an exercise that provides us with set of information, then we as readers try to use those information through application in various areas and try to consume our living by earning money from use of information. So use value of reading habits is the money or value of goods, services that are generated, consumed by using the information that comes from our reading habits. Money, goods, service consumption is an outcome of our reading habits and generates an use value.

Precautionary value of reading is the extra reading that we do and keep on searching, exploring all around as a precaution to generate new ideas which brings recognition, money and helps us to consume goods, service and goodwill of reputation. Thus the extra reading that we do as a precaution since we are uncertain of the shelf life of any new idea generates a precautionary value. But the set of information gathered from a precautionary reading might not always be used or be invested.

When a part of this precautionary reading is invested in developing some new thoughts, ideas, applications, knowledge it generates a speculative value. This is because there is an element of speculation in this part of the precautionary reading as a reader. As researchers, we might like to invest in some of the precautionary readings which we think can generate some values for us in future. So in terms of reading habits, precautionary value of reading generates speculative value. So as a portfolio manager if we get series of information from reading habits, we intend to divide and manage those set of information into different compartments that can subsequently raise three types of value for us – viz. Use, Precautionary, Speculative.

There are so many things to explore in money supply theory that can have wide range of applications across sectors where various issues could be seen through the logical lenses of money supply theory.

For me, as a student of social science after reading the subject of economics for 11 years, things are becoming a little clear in terms of the wide range potential of transdisciplinary, multidisciplinary applications of various economic theories that we have read during our bachelor days.

I think we have not yet learnt it as we have many time not practiced unlearning it. May be because of that many areas are still blur and not clear. But the search has just begun after 11 years and I am sure we all together will join together in this searching journey. Till then, I look forward to comments, insights from all friends, wellwishers, colleagues to get more clarity in my thoughts in this journey.

Practising Intellectualism: "Ism that emerged from household works"

Last one month, it has been a very different experience for me. I have never stayed out of office environment owing to sick leave. Although the leave has not been able to put me out of work in terms of reading, writing. But as people say, every phase of life presents a magic. In bits and pieces many times I have realised that magic - The magic of emergence of intellectualities from household work.



For understanding that it is actually not necessary to always read selected readings of Immanuel Kant which mentions the notion of synthesis of information to produce knowledge. And that knowledge can come through practice only. Kant says that but I realised it through various household works of boiling milk, eggs, cooking vegetables, khichuri, egg curry. In many of these attempts sometimes I have failed but overall this last one month practice of fulfilling household duties of cooking, cleaning and arranging household materials have taught me how much intellect is ingrained in every day to day work. In our households across the Indian society, so many people mostly women are doing all these with such a precision. Every moment when I have messed up the gasoven surface with spillovers from pressure cooker while cooking khichuri have felt that how brilliant practising intellectuals are spread across in the Indian society who are dedicatedly exhibiting their practising intellect. Whenever this thought has come up on mind I have found a similarity of the same in another personality - "Sachin Tendulkar" an epitome of simplicity and a practising intellectual who through 21 years by his childish aspiration exhibiting to all of us the intellect by incessant practising.



This brings me to the question - "Who is an intellectual" - I never understood the real meaning of the word and also cant trust often the dictionary meaning of this word. This last one month has told me that in every house around us there are more than one practising intellectuals whose services and intellectual contribution are not valued or undervalued. For instance isnt a housewife who can tell that before cooking one should check whether there is moisture in the lid and one should clear it through blowing air is equally an intellectual like any other scientist?



I guess so and more importantly when they are able to do that so consistently it really demands much more sense of appreciation. I was actually feeling to write a counter point while reading the synthesis of knowledge sections of Kant from his selected readings. Parallely, was also thinking in today's context what if Kantian discourse is put forward by all the practising intellectuals who are all around us in every household.

It is not far when some day a book will be published like - "Selected Readings of Kantian Discourse - by practising intellectuals of households". I look forward to read that book and learn more about the magical aspects of practising intellectualism.

REMEMBERING IMMANUEL KANT POST AYODHYA VERDICT:

Few weeks back a sensitive peace appeal in a popular newspaper for maintaining harmony across communities following the Ayodhya verdict caught the eye while doing a rough glance through the newspaper. The appeal covered more than half of the newspage and at the same time it was inspiring to see our government taking a proactive step to apply the form of media to maintain harmony. As a nation we are not in a situation to repeat the mistakes that we made during Babri Masjid , Godhra Incident specifically when our strength lies in our diversity and the dynamism inflicted on all of us through that diversity. Also today our priorities are to ensure a developmental pathway that balances the needs of the marginal groups, deprived sections of the Indian society. This has to be done with a minimal impact and footprint on the gifts and resources of nature and our people, culture. However this article will be taking a different pathway from this stage onwards.

The Ayodhya verdict was out yesterday on 30th September, 2010 and news channels were full with discussions, debates, expectation on the probable results of the verdict. There was inquisitiveness and sensitivity all around regarding the verdict. I had to go to a doctor’s clinic for a weekly visit and check ups. All through out, the auto driver was asking me about whether any incident happened or not. Just to understand the person who was driving the vehicle, I asked him what is his view point about what should be the verdict (as it was still thirty minutes before the verdict would be out) and I got an interesting answer.

The person told me that for him the results of the verdict are not so important, as for him a larger priority is driving and that helps him to live together with many other friends in the same profession from different communities.

As soon as he said this, I found out Immanuel Kant in him. Yes, the person in the auto yesterday reminded me of the works of Kant in his “Critique of Judgement” where Kant was trying to deal with the gulf between the application of reason and its practical application in the moral faith in God. This person bridged it so easily. He showed me how religion which is a way of living life can be attained by following the working principles, objectivities of working for a noble cause of an economic activity – viz. servicing passengers and earning from that followed by a tolerant, all encompassing way of living along with other communities. Similar achievement can also be made by so many of us by following our working principles, objectivities of creating new disciplines, outputs bridging the gaps between our sense of reasoning, tolerance, sense of creating harmony and practical application of our belief structures regarding faith in any religion. In order to do that we need to introspect and whenever, wherever required revise the fundamental tenets of the belief structures, reasoning sense to create larger social harmony. Kant had aimed to do this revision through his writings in the “Critique of Judgement” by questioning himself and was also open to listen to relatively more radical (in comparison to Kant) followers like Hegel, Fichte.
On similar lines, we as a nation in 2010 need to revise the fundamental tenets of the belief structures that led to the sufferings following Babri Masjid, Godhra Incident.
This could be one of the ways to help in attaining in enlightenment. On the note of enlightenment, Immanuel Kant also guides us through his works on “What is Enlightenment”?. Kantian enlightenment principles teaches us that all individuals have the responsibility to think freely about religious matters going much beyond the claustrophobia created by religious orthodoxies. In doing that reasoning should be applied that can create goodwill across communities and allow harmony to prevail.
But while following that pathway of freedom, we as human beings are often in a state of competitive conflict between our emotions, passions, instincts and the rationality that tells us to give equal dignity to all human beings. We as human beings have to live with this dualistic, contradictory, conflictual limitations of us and can only get an enlightenment by focusing more on the second dimension of rationality (guiding exchange of human dignities, respect) but at the same time recognizing the conflictual nature. Freedom to think this way and identify the aspects of our emotions and rationality has to be directed to create a channel for human actions that are harmonious and tolerant. Kant tried to do it through his innumerable writings. But in today’s context we also see it happening. For me, a researcher, scientist does it when they come up with innovative work through partnerships with people belonging to other communities, nations that help the society and human beings. Artists achieve it when they struck a harmonious chord together on a stage show in cross country projects. Sports does it when we see 11 footballers from various communities, nations playing together in football clubs and performing their tasks together for the welfare of a football club. Isnt it that all these cited examples are examples of “Enlightenment”. I think, we all can see enlightened souls who are moving all around us in day to day life. We need to have that eye to see through the enlightened part of a human soul.
Kant tried his best to attain that through his writings from 1740 – 1804 and continuous questioning of the systems that guide our reasoning, belief structures. On 30th September, 2010, I learnt about all those works again with the help of a person during the visit to a clinic in an auto drive.