Since the results of the election in West Bengal are out, one cartoon character has been thwarting all around in the creative hemisphere of mind. The character is no other than our famous - "TINTIN "created by Belgian cartoonist Herge. An important question is why suddenly "TINTIN" is baffling and coming on the mind.
Reasoning to the answer of this question lies in the plots that were established in the stories of "TINTIN IN AMERICA", "TINTIN IN THE CONGO". As all TINTIN lovers know how TINTIN has played a major role in various social reforms. Be it against gangsterism during 1930s America or be it against the oil corporation lobby. Role of TINTIN as a social reformer has been amply depicted by Herge in several of the plot centric stories that has enthralled us.
Thus when the election results were out in West Bengal complemented by the anti corruption campaign of Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev, I was thinking it would have been great if suddenly "TINTIN" could have arrived in India at this point of time.
Following TINTIN's arrival in India, several plots could have been born where TINTIN the social reformer who always fought for truth and exposed corruption will join hands with Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev in exposing corruption of politicians in India. Perhaps, TINTIN, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Prof. Calculas could have been appointed by the CBI to find out all the culprits of the mega 2G scam in order to find out the people playing around with the public resources of India.
Snowy could have been the biggest information sniffer who would have more efficiently catch hold of the ruffians easily and avoid the institutional beauracracies that jack down the system of finding out corrupt people in this country. Our beloved Snowy would have just sniffed the people, understood them through his senses and would have grabbed their trousers. TINTIN could have then followed it up by putting in handcuffs. The police and the CBI could have been guided by Prof. Calculas in predicting all future plots indicating which minister is going to get engaged in a scam and to what extent. By this way the famous team of Herge could have reduced the existing level of corruption and would have prevented future scams to happen.
However to make the ministers honest and make confession about their corruption, Captain Haddock could have created local informal parties where they could have been intoxicated and Captain could have influenced them to speak the truth with the help of some potions.
In between, TINTIN could have attended some of the Dharnas with Anna and Baba Ramdev and distributed pamplets for common people with objective findings of his investigation exercise of the 2G scam. By this way, our close to heart boy TINTIN would have shown the youth of the nation a new dawn. In between, he could have met also Prof. Kaushik Basu in Ministry of Finance and also discussed his thoughts with Prof. Basu who has been proposing an idea of legalising corruption to check the mal effects of corruption by means of transparent information dissemination. The minutes of that meeting would have been a really nice plot for "Herge's" future plots.
At the end of a two month stint in New Delhi, TINTIN would have got a salute from all the people of this wonderful country in New Delhi and we all TINTIN lovers would have been reminded of the famous "ticker tape parade" that TINTIN had got in Chicago in "TINTIN IN AMERICA".
But if you all think, that TINTIN's stay in India would have ended over here, then you are completely wrong. Because after this he would travel to West Bengal where the state after 32 years of left regime saw Trinamool Congress coming to the ruling position.
The leader Mamata Banerjee would invite TINTIN to sort out one of the extremist problems in certain parts of West Bengal. TINTIN is informed that the extremist movement is largely being carried out by some of the Maoist groups.
TINTIN takes the case and goes to the field to explore the complex interplay of the state, grass root people, opposition politics and how the people belonging to Maoist groups are also expanding their reach through their bargaining with the down trodden people, politicians and corrupt officials. TINTIN also gets some hint that one group of politicians uses the extremist movements as a pawn to come to power. Media facilitates this game of power control amongst the people of the state through a series of manipulated information dissemination.
Industrialists also dont move back and they also see their incentives in supporting a group of politicians for shift of power. In this spider game of power control TINTIN finds out that everybody is maximising their gains. So he is intrigued by the fact that at the end of the day the loosers are people who are in the margin and who dont belong to any of these groups. For these people who live and struggle for their subsistence, the problem is not sorted out. They receive oppression sometimes through means of state, police, opposition party cadres, maoist groups. Their story of suffering continues. TINTIN could not provide a solution to the Chief Minister when he comes back to Kolkata from the field.
Our beloved cartoon hero is now more bewildered, perplexed and he doesnot get a "ticker tape parade" in Kolkata. Though he fails to resolve this case, he understands the need to do a lot and undo what has been undone at all levels of governance in the state. However, TINTIN goes back to New Delhi and from their to his own country. But before going back and waving from the plane in Subhash Chandra International Airport promises to come back soon to solve some of the unifinished tasks in the state.
We never read these stories of "TINTIN IN NEW DELHI, WEST BENGAL". But we read "TINTIN IN AMERICA", "TINTIN IN CONGO". But I always hope our future generation will also read or see some manifestations of plots like "TINTIN IN NEW DELHI", "TINTIN IN WEST BENGAL" and through these plots the imagination of future social reforms in this country will be born in the minds of all children as we used to have when we had first read - "TINTIN IN AMERICA", "TINTIN IN THE CONGO".
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
“DEHOTOTTER LALON – A”
PAGE 2 -
Poddolochoner gane laloner bhonitate dehotottoke khuje petei
Pari dilam ek onnyo deshe
Shekhane dekhte pelam kichu manush shorirer jomite notun bij bune khate ghumocche
Ar ekta ochin pakhi shorboda shei khater ashe pashe ghure beracche
Pakhitake dhorte giyeo dhorte paarchi na
Tar por hothat shei pakhita kisher ek lalona te niche neme eshe boshe porlo shorirer jomite Laloner lalona te lolona kokhon mishe gelo shei ochin pakhite
Bojhar agei ami bujhe fellam ekei hoito bole – “Dehototter Lalon –A”
POETRIES
PAGE 1 - “Jonaki”
Uro jahaje kore biman bondore obotoroner shomoy shohorer jonaki alogulo khub prokot bhabe jole othe
Mone hoi shoto alok borshodure jole thaka taragulo jonaki hoye bheshe beracche shara shohormoy
Ar tari majhe majhe nagorik raastagulo kichu miliye jawa krishno gohoborer moto jure dicche shei tarader, jonakider
Tumi, Aami, Aamra shokole majhe majhei miliye jai shei krishno gohobore
obotorener shomoy
Kichu torol alo amader sathe miliye jai shei krishno gohobore
Jar noishobdota majhe majhei beje othe guitar er tarer sporshe
Ar thik shei shomoy amar mone pore jai kichu robindranather pongti ar shobdo ja bole – “Shei Bhalo Shei Bhalo – Miliye Jawa Noishobder Torol Alo”
Thursday, March 10, 2011
GENE, LANGUAGE TO MUSIC AND SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability or sustainable development has to consider the indicators of society as one of the important pillars. Society dimension of sustainable development can be enriched through larger formation of social capital. Formation of networks between people lead to a formation of this social capital. For forming those networks people need to stay connected and bonded. For staying bonded through happiness, exchange of positive feelings and energy is important. Music plays a key role in creating this feeling. It is said that music plays a very important role in making bondage between people and creating networks that can form new domains and levels of social capital which can therefore add onto sustainability. Music controls and enhances the positive emotions between two people which can control the quality of the social capital formed through music. This improvement in the quality of social capital thereby enhances the quality of sustainability.
Research has been suggesting that music has its origin to genes and history of language. So if one traces back this origin, then can we say that genes, history of language, sound, rhythm which guides the course of the type of music also plays a role in creating social capital by building more human bondage, networks. This bondage thereafter also contributes to sustainability. So this raises the question whether genes, history of language also plays a role to sustainability.
So while writing this article, I thought to name it as – “GENE, LANGUAGE to MUSIC and SUSTAINABILITY”. However the idea of this association arrived only after reading a paper titled – “ Speak to me, melody, EMBO (European Molecular Biological Organisation) Reports, Science and Society, Vol, 10, No.12, 2009, Pgs. 1294 – 1297”. The paper was given to me for reading by my friend Kostuv Basu.
Association through music can happen between individuals who share like minded or overlapping interest in music. This sharing can help in creating the social capital thereby finally leading to an enhancement in the sustainability.
But the key question is what determines a like mindedness about a particular type of music between two individuals that can help in formation of the social capital and hence can address the sustainability dimension of sustainable development.
Does genetic component play a key role in our musical abilities? Studies on molecular biology has shown that genetic loci of individuals in certain families can have genes that can guide the musical aptitude of the members of the family. Such aptitudes thereafter also determines the taste and preference for music by any particular individual. Results from studies in molecular biology are showing that the creative abilities of individuals in a hereditary lineage are largely determined by the gene structures. These gene structures in turn also affect the behavior of the individuals regarding their music preferences, tastes and chances of bonding with other individuals through music.
So the behavior of attachment of people through a communicating medium of music which forms social capital is very much determined by some of the genetic secrets of neurobiology that are embedded in human beings.
But there is an alternate school also to this thought process. Many neurobiologists and scientists across the world donot believe in the fact that music can be only understood on the basis of genetics. According to this school of thought, vibration of vocal chords determine the tonal and music quality. The nature, degree of the vibration determines the quality of music that can create an association between two human beings. Further this vibration is actually generating a sound wave with a particular frequency. So the typicality of a sound wave, frequency determines the quality aspect of the music rather the gene. Hence any preference for music is embedded in the sense of sound structure that any human body creates.
So two human beings can associate with a particular form of music if they can understand and appreciate similar kind of sound structures that the human body creates. A similar logic can also hold between the sense of appreciation of a speech of one human being by another which further leads to a bonding and formation of a social capital. Many neurobiologists, scientists feel that music and language have similar overlapping cognitive systems. So music can be connected and seen as a form of speech having origins to sound structures. Further these sound structures are connected to origins of language. In some ways one can say that music is a form of speech. This brings forward the question whether music is related to language through a process of evolution. However this can only be known if one gets the answer that whether music when heard has a language and genetic component which gets dissociated in the brain. These facts will be important as then one can also bring in how an anthropological history in language origins and evolution of music plays a role towards formation of human bondings and hence social capital which is key to sustainability.
So one has to seek the answer to the question whether creative genes, sound structures operate simultaneously or separately to determine the preferences of music and hence selection of human beings for bonding leading to creation of social capital. Timing of rhythm can determine the cohesiveness of a cultural human bonding that can generate greater social capital and enhance sustainability.
Roots of language, genes will determine the behavior pattern of a child and will also affect the preferences of the human beings in applying music in forming social capital through bondage. The exact contribution of the language, evolution of anthropology, rhythm, sound structures is yet to be determined. Also it is not known how much separated gene, language and rhythm contents of a music and how the degree and nature of that separation guides a preference for music and hence attributes to the formation of social capital block of sustainability.
May be its not far, when we will find out active participation of anthropologists, neurobiologists, ethnomusicologists in the negotiation platforms of the global debates surrounding several issues of sustainability in the world arena.
Research has been suggesting that music has its origin to genes and history of language. So if one traces back this origin, then can we say that genes, history of language, sound, rhythm which guides the course of the type of music also plays a role in creating social capital by building more human bondage, networks. This bondage thereafter also contributes to sustainability. So this raises the question whether genes, history of language also plays a role to sustainability.
So while writing this article, I thought to name it as – “GENE, LANGUAGE to MUSIC and SUSTAINABILITY”. However the idea of this association arrived only after reading a paper titled – “ Speak to me, melody, EMBO (European Molecular Biological Organisation) Reports, Science and Society, Vol, 10, No.12, 2009, Pgs. 1294 – 1297”. The paper was given to me for reading by my friend Kostuv Basu.
Association through music can happen between individuals who share like minded or overlapping interest in music. This sharing can help in creating the social capital thereby finally leading to an enhancement in the sustainability.
But the key question is what determines a like mindedness about a particular type of music between two individuals that can help in formation of the social capital and hence can address the sustainability dimension of sustainable development.
Does genetic component play a key role in our musical abilities? Studies on molecular biology has shown that genetic loci of individuals in certain families can have genes that can guide the musical aptitude of the members of the family. Such aptitudes thereafter also determines the taste and preference for music by any particular individual. Results from studies in molecular biology are showing that the creative abilities of individuals in a hereditary lineage are largely determined by the gene structures. These gene structures in turn also affect the behavior of the individuals regarding their music preferences, tastes and chances of bonding with other individuals through music.
So the behavior of attachment of people through a communicating medium of music which forms social capital is very much determined by some of the genetic secrets of neurobiology that are embedded in human beings.
But there is an alternate school also to this thought process. Many neurobiologists and scientists across the world donot believe in the fact that music can be only understood on the basis of genetics. According to this school of thought, vibration of vocal chords determine the tonal and music quality. The nature, degree of the vibration determines the quality of music that can create an association between two human beings. Further this vibration is actually generating a sound wave with a particular frequency. So the typicality of a sound wave, frequency determines the quality aspect of the music rather the gene. Hence any preference for music is embedded in the sense of sound structure that any human body creates.
So two human beings can associate with a particular form of music if they can understand and appreciate similar kind of sound structures that the human body creates. A similar logic can also hold between the sense of appreciation of a speech of one human being by another which further leads to a bonding and formation of a social capital. Many neurobiologists, scientists feel that music and language have similar overlapping cognitive systems. So music can be connected and seen as a form of speech having origins to sound structures. Further these sound structures are connected to origins of language. In some ways one can say that music is a form of speech. This brings forward the question whether music is related to language through a process of evolution. However this can only be known if one gets the answer that whether music when heard has a language and genetic component which gets dissociated in the brain. These facts will be important as then one can also bring in how an anthropological history in language origins and evolution of music plays a role towards formation of human bondings and hence social capital which is key to sustainability.
So one has to seek the answer to the question whether creative genes, sound structures operate simultaneously or separately to determine the preferences of music and hence selection of human beings for bonding leading to creation of social capital. Timing of rhythm can determine the cohesiveness of a cultural human bonding that can generate greater social capital and enhance sustainability.
Roots of language, genes will determine the behavior pattern of a child and will also affect the preferences of the human beings in applying music in forming social capital through bondage. The exact contribution of the language, evolution of anthropology, rhythm, sound structures is yet to be determined. Also it is not known how much separated gene, language and rhythm contents of a music and how the degree and nature of that separation guides a preference for music and hence attributes to the formation of social capital block of sustainability.
May be its not far, when we will find out active participation of anthropologists, neurobiologists, ethnomusicologists in the negotiation platforms of the global debates surrounding several issues of sustainability in the world arena.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
ROAD TO SUSTAINABILITY: THROUGH INDICA INSTEAD OF A BULLOCK CART
Gandhian model of sustainability which emphasizes a lot on village based development and sustainability pathways provoked thoughts on me after completion of readings of some of the research literature on life and activities of Gandhi. Though many of his experimental practices can be criticized and not accepted by my inner self but it still intrigued a cherished desire of going and travelling to villages of India in a bullock cart. My left part of the mind was associating a journey to Indian villages through bullock cart as a metaphor of a road to sustainability. But the law of association was not completely implemented. The travel to the villages with the spirit of “Mera/Humhara Gao, Mera/Humhara Desh” happened. But it was not in a bullock cart but rather in a Tata Indica.
The travel itself taught so many principles of sustainability and like always opened the real institutional schooling for me. My colleague, friend Saswata and I used to start a day’s travel in an INDICA from 9.30 a.m. in the morning that ended in the evening. While going through the well maintained highways, we found out how natural compartments of boilers have been made by villagers on the roadside. In these boilers, agri residues are being burnt to provide the heat that is used for making gur, jaggeries on the road side. Three different levels of temperature blocks are maintained where the agri residues are used to provide different levels of heating. The raw sugarcane juice is going through these three sets of heating procedure after which edible colours are mixed to form “Gurs”. The colour of the juice was changing as the pure raw sugarcane juice was passing through the three sets of treatment process at different boiling temperatures. Saswata and I had the sugarcane juice as well as the “Gur”.
Saswata came up with an idea that if the emissions from this residue burning could be reduced by burning lesser amount of agri residues. Some of the heat source from agri residues can be replaced by solar and other forms of renewable energy. The road side “Desi” “Gur” unit was having a chimney too from which emissions were coming out. I was thinking whether solar energy potential for the place is enough to generate enough heat that is required in the entire process dealing with the conversion of juice to gur. Still, had a feeling that a part of the heat energy can come from solar energy.
May be the first step of juice to gur conversion using certain amount of heat from a certain temperature (which is the lower one in the three stage process – with each subsequent stage having a higher temperature than the earlier one) can be carried out with the energy provision from renewable energy sources like solar. This can reduce the use of agri residues and can help in subsequent fall in the amount of burning of agri residues. The principle used was so simple that it made me feel that science close to nature is smooth and appealing at the same time.
Daily proceedings of a production process is also guided by the streams and principles of science that are embedded in nature itself. Often, we from the city, through our cosmopolitan, speculative and interventionist nature make the working principles complicated which are simple in the lap of the gift of nature.
We met farmers with different levels of landholding starting from 2 acres to 20 acres of land. They told us what are the crops they are growing. Crops grown are mostly rice, wheat and also in some places people have moved towards mixed farming and growing potato, flowers, cauliflowers along with rice and wheat. Most of the farmers are well off and own consumer goods like freeze, car, motorcycle. They are living in their “Pacca” ancestral houses also and getting engaged in businesses and often managing their living through sale of milk and dairy products.
Farmers lease out land and also employ labourers in their fields at wages that are determined in the panchayat/gram sabhas. There is no intervention of the panchayat in the daily farming activities. Farmers have freedom in taking their own decisions and manage farming in their own ways. There is participation of female members as well as from Schedule Cast in the Panchayat though a sense of male domination in the decision making of households, farming was felt.
The reason why I am iterating these facts are because sustainability which has the domains of social, economic and governance were addressed in a mixed way as found through the field visits. These villages in Punjab are doing well in terms of their economic, governance indicators. Gender balance also started coming in the local level governance units because of government introduced policy of woman participation at the Panchayat. However in terms of land entitlements, there is a bias. Most of the land entitlements are in the name of the male members of the family. Women are married at an early age and so the land is always in the name of a male member which is passed on to them through an ancestral lineage. So there is a scope of gender empowerment in the village society of Punjab.
The best part of the villages is that they are well connected to highway through roads running in between the rice, wheat and farming fields. This reduces the transportation cost of taking the produce from the farmer field to the nearby mandis. Good road infrastructure immediately thereby has a curtailing effect on the dominance of middlemen between the farmers and mandis. Most of the farmers are taking their produce to the Mandis by themselves which reassured our above intuition. The farmers are also realizing good declared prices of the government for their agricultural produce that they are carrying to the Mandis.
The farmers also stated about their good health condition and satisfaction, happiness regarding the school and health care services that are very nearby to their houses. Many of the healthcare provisions are coming from private health care centres which are nearby to these villages.
However in one of the domains of sustainability viz. environment, some lacunae could be found. Most of the farmers expressed about the reduction in the water levels every year which is enhancing their motorized drilling costs. On an average there has been a drop of 2 feet water level every year. In some villages the water has gone down to 40 feet below the ground.
Some of the farmers with low land holding also suggested the expenses for motorized drilling have gone up substantially due to fall in the water level. Many times, they are not able to match this rise in expenses through the income from sale of agricultural crops and livestock products. This is a need of concern for future.
But there were brighter pictures that were offered to us in this “Road to Sustainability”of us through the Indica. We travelled as far as Wagah Border and went to a place called “Attari”. On way we stopped in the “Golden Temple” and “Jalianwalabagh”. What I liked about “Golden Temple” was the absence of any security checking in the religious place. In today’s violent terrorism stricken world, security checks often shout at us about lack of trust, faith that over the years we as human beings have bestowed on humanity. But an absence of it in the “Golden Temple” made me feel happy and enjoy a sense of freedom generated from the positive spirits of humanity. The “Sangeet” and the spirit added to the serenity in the mind and helped in an emotional upliftment while we visited “Golden Temple”. Just very near to this, Jalianwalabagh reminded us of brutal forces that jeopardized the social terrains of sustainability and humanity way back during our freedom struggle. We did not stop in the lanes of history for long and moved on towards the Wagah border where more facts addressing sustainability was waiting for us.
We saw the first international station of India viz. Attari where the train from Pakistan comes and enters the Indian territory. Luck was on our side and we actually saw a train with passengers from Pakistan. They waved hands to us and we also did that in return to that. Gradually we moved near the barricaded nomans land that doesnot belong to India and Pakistan. The flag of our neighbouring country was flying in front of me and I was not able to accept that some metres ahead it was a different country although it seemed to me the same in all respects. Trucks from Pakistan were unloading salt and the ones from India were unloading vegetables. I was convinced with the fact that this exchange is so crucial for the sustainability of both the nations. The emotional vibrations of the people waving hands from the train made the feelings stronger. Parallely, it raised the conflicts of the various identities within me. The self within me was not ready to accept that there is a different nation out there in the other side of the boundary which is so similar to the geographical features of this side of the boundary. Whereas the national, external identities, objects outside was continuously saying that another nation exists. I was thinking how a balance has to be created within the two even to bring in sustainability in the thinking process of the humanity. While I was lost in this, the conscious mind realized that we have to come back to Jalandhar to catch hold of our train. The travelogue pages ended over there.
This travel opened many doors, questions and brought in answers also in the working areas of sustainability. The only pinch of salt was that I got those answers through the mechanism of travelling in an exosomatic, mechanized transport – “Tata Indica” but not in a bullock cart. May be the answer for future sustainability models lie in this balancing of exosomatic, mechanized dependence of human race along with the essential gifts of nature.
The travel itself taught so many principles of sustainability and like always opened the real institutional schooling for me. My colleague, friend Saswata and I used to start a day’s travel in an INDICA from 9.30 a.m. in the morning that ended in the evening. While going through the well maintained highways, we found out how natural compartments of boilers have been made by villagers on the roadside. In these boilers, agri residues are being burnt to provide the heat that is used for making gur, jaggeries on the road side. Three different levels of temperature blocks are maintained where the agri residues are used to provide different levels of heating. The raw sugarcane juice is going through these three sets of heating procedure after which edible colours are mixed to form “Gurs”. The colour of the juice was changing as the pure raw sugarcane juice was passing through the three sets of treatment process at different boiling temperatures. Saswata and I had the sugarcane juice as well as the “Gur”.
Saswata came up with an idea that if the emissions from this residue burning could be reduced by burning lesser amount of agri residues. Some of the heat source from agri residues can be replaced by solar and other forms of renewable energy. The road side “Desi” “Gur” unit was having a chimney too from which emissions were coming out. I was thinking whether solar energy potential for the place is enough to generate enough heat that is required in the entire process dealing with the conversion of juice to gur. Still, had a feeling that a part of the heat energy can come from solar energy.
May be the first step of juice to gur conversion using certain amount of heat from a certain temperature (which is the lower one in the three stage process – with each subsequent stage having a higher temperature than the earlier one) can be carried out with the energy provision from renewable energy sources like solar. This can reduce the use of agri residues and can help in subsequent fall in the amount of burning of agri residues. The principle used was so simple that it made me feel that science close to nature is smooth and appealing at the same time.
Daily proceedings of a production process is also guided by the streams and principles of science that are embedded in nature itself. Often, we from the city, through our cosmopolitan, speculative and interventionist nature make the working principles complicated which are simple in the lap of the gift of nature.
We met farmers with different levels of landholding starting from 2 acres to 20 acres of land. They told us what are the crops they are growing. Crops grown are mostly rice, wheat and also in some places people have moved towards mixed farming and growing potato, flowers, cauliflowers along with rice and wheat. Most of the farmers are well off and own consumer goods like freeze, car, motorcycle. They are living in their “Pacca” ancestral houses also and getting engaged in businesses and often managing their living through sale of milk and dairy products.
Farmers lease out land and also employ labourers in their fields at wages that are determined in the panchayat/gram sabhas. There is no intervention of the panchayat in the daily farming activities. Farmers have freedom in taking their own decisions and manage farming in their own ways. There is participation of female members as well as from Schedule Cast in the Panchayat though a sense of male domination in the decision making of households, farming was felt.
The reason why I am iterating these facts are because sustainability which has the domains of social, economic and governance were addressed in a mixed way as found through the field visits. These villages in Punjab are doing well in terms of their economic, governance indicators. Gender balance also started coming in the local level governance units because of government introduced policy of woman participation at the Panchayat. However in terms of land entitlements, there is a bias. Most of the land entitlements are in the name of the male members of the family. Women are married at an early age and so the land is always in the name of a male member which is passed on to them through an ancestral lineage. So there is a scope of gender empowerment in the village society of Punjab.
The best part of the villages is that they are well connected to highway through roads running in between the rice, wheat and farming fields. This reduces the transportation cost of taking the produce from the farmer field to the nearby mandis. Good road infrastructure immediately thereby has a curtailing effect on the dominance of middlemen between the farmers and mandis. Most of the farmers are taking their produce to the Mandis by themselves which reassured our above intuition. The farmers are also realizing good declared prices of the government for their agricultural produce that they are carrying to the Mandis.
The farmers also stated about their good health condition and satisfaction, happiness regarding the school and health care services that are very nearby to their houses. Many of the healthcare provisions are coming from private health care centres which are nearby to these villages.
However in one of the domains of sustainability viz. environment, some lacunae could be found. Most of the farmers expressed about the reduction in the water levels every year which is enhancing their motorized drilling costs. On an average there has been a drop of 2 feet water level every year. In some villages the water has gone down to 40 feet below the ground.
Some of the farmers with low land holding also suggested the expenses for motorized drilling have gone up substantially due to fall in the water level. Many times, they are not able to match this rise in expenses through the income from sale of agricultural crops and livestock products. This is a need of concern for future.
But there were brighter pictures that were offered to us in this “Road to Sustainability”of us through the Indica. We travelled as far as Wagah Border and went to a place called “Attari”. On way we stopped in the “Golden Temple” and “Jalianwalabagh”. What I liked about “Golden Temple” was the absence of any security checking in the religious place. In today’s violent terrorism stricken world, security checks often shout at us about lack of trust, faith that over the years we as human beings have bestowed on humanity. But an absence of it in the “Golden Temple” made me feel happy and enjoy a sense of freedom generated from the positive spirits of humanity. The “Sangeet” and the spirit added to the serenity in the mind and helped in an emotional upliftment while we visited “Golden Temple”. Just very near to this, Jalianwalabagh reminded us of brutal forces that jeopardized the social terrains of sustainability and humanity way back during our freedom struggle. We did not stop in the lanes of history for long and moved on towards the Wagah border where more facts addressing sustainability was waiting for us.
We saw the first international station of India viz. Attari where the train from Pakistan comes and enters the Indian territory. Luck was on our side and we actually saw a train with passengers from Pakistan. They waved hands to us and we also did that in return to that. Gradually we moved near the barricaded nomans land that doesnot belong to India and Pakistan. The flag of our neighbouring country was flying in front of me and I was not able to accept that some metres ahead it was a different country although it seemed to me the same in all respects. Trucks from Pakistan were unloading salt and the ones from India were unloading vegetables. I was convinced with the fact that this exchange is so crucial for the sustainability of both the nations. The emotional vibrations of the people waving hands from the train made the feelings stronger. Parallely, it raised the conflicts of the various identities within me. The self within me was not ready to accept that there is a different nation out there in the other side of the boundary which is so similar to the geographical features of this side of the boundary. Whereas the national, external identities, objects outside was continuously saying that another nation exists. I was thinking how a balance has to be created within the two even to bring in sustainability in the thinking process of the humanity. While I was lost in this, the conscious mind realized that we have to come back to Jalandhar to catch hold of our train. The travelogue pages ended over there.
This travel opened many doors, questions and brought in answers also in the working areas of sustainability. The only pinch of salt was that I got those answers through the mechanism of travelling in an exosomatic, mechanized transport – “Tata Indica” but not in a bullock cart. May be the answer for future sustainability models lie in this balancing of exosomatic, mechanized dependence of human race along with the essential gifts of nature.
Friday, February 18, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
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.
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.
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