The Arab Renaissance

Appropriated authority through individual tyrannical force or institutional usurpation can seem limitless. Yet those that appropriate it are eventually brought to justice and may have to deal with the same brute force.

Ironic, when that happens, they are either on the run or hiding in sewer holes begging for precious life, like Mummer Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein.

Yet something does not seem right when those that were once the subjects of appropriated authority, become a reflection of it whilst the perpetuator is being hunted down in the proverbial rat hole.

The images of Saddam Hussein rolling out his tongue at the command of his captors for examination and the images of Gaddafi in his last moments and especially lying on the floor without a wrap covering his wounds, are going to stay in my mind for a long time. It does not auger well for the civilised world to make a spectacle of death. I agree with those that refused the media access to the pictures of a wounded / dead Osama bin Laden. There must be dignity in death.

There is something barbaric about the way that global masses and global media reacted to the death of Gaddafi. As I watched the gloating spectacle of the last few minutes of Gaddafi’s death, I was struck by how little progress as a civilisation we have made. At least so it appeared at that moment. There was a feeling of being transported back in time. Those captor cries, that mad stampede and brutal jostling of a still  hated tyrant now shaking with fear at his imminent death, mirrored the decadence that has crept into human values and civilisation.

That moment in time remains a testimony to the fact that the civilised world gunning for Gaddafi stooped to the same barbaric values as Gaddafi. At that moment in time there seemed to be little difference between Gaddafi and his captors. However just their cause, the captors came across as barbaric. Yet sitting in our homes and watching television, the brutal and the vicarious seems to enthral us.

The underlying message of the Arab Spring is being overshadowed by mob vengeance. There is much more to gloat about.

Its’ the wheel of life…some would argue. Ironic that it all gained momentum in Baghdad and Cairo. Was it not precisely these and other Middle East countries  that were so instrumental in igniting the renaissance in Europe? Passing on learning and new ideas to a then stagnant  Europe caught up in its dark middle ages. Today the wheel has just spun back… ..the Middle East, some parts of it caught up by rulers of the past has redeemed itself and hopefully will catch up with its glorious past.

So what does the Arab spring signify for me? It signifies the same old eternal struggle of mankind…Yet how important it is to keep having these renaissance moments in every civilisation.

Recently my son came back home and said he had been asked by his school to research the similarities between Renaissance and the Wall Street Occupation. At first I scratched my head and thought, one was a social awakening and the other an economic awakening…both awakenings of some sort....what else could be the similarities?

In my mind the similarities between the Arab Spring and the Renaissance seem far more and yet on deeper thought…all such movements have similarities….some lesser others greater.

My son put it in perspective and said it’s the feudal system mom. Ah! “it’s the cry against a social structure!”. Yet the Renaissance was more about the bringing about of change through awakening, I argued with my utterly unimpressed son. The renaissance was change ignited by learning and not just a fight against a strict social order. The change in the social order was brought about by the emergence of a new class or classes including the intellectuals and artists. Renaissance was the winds of change brought about by exposure to different civilisations. Is the Wall Street protest really that? I argued with my son, that the Wall Street protest is more a protest against government bails outs and the creation of a super rich class of paid employees by the financial system. It is a revolt by those that have been left on the fringes of upward social movement.

The common link is the awakening.

Yet, while projecting the awakening, the focus on the mobs exhilarating over a dead Gaddafi, is subjugating the finer sensibilities of the Arab awakening and letting the mob rule mentality steal the show. ..

What a coincidence that Wall Street protests followed the Arab Spring. Can we attribute one to the other! Perhaps! The Arab protest may have in some way inspired the Wall Street protests. The point I want to make is that however different the underlying causes of the ongoing Arab and the western movements… the method of bringing about change has been the same…..mass movements against perceived economic and social breakdown.

Ironically in the western world, Greece triggered the protests…and the revival of Greek learning was a great influencing factor in the Renaissance….

As the world population amasses over six billion, learning may not be rewarded the way it was in the past… perhaps there are more underlying lessons to be learnt from all that is happening around us. The fear is about another future renaissance being actually dominated by sheer mob mentality, in the absence of the tapering influence of knowledge on barbarity.

Poverty

Wage negotiations, increasing government funding for sectors like health care and tough structural changes within the Canadian economy is making it difficult for governments to allocate social funding targeted at poverty removal.

We may still live in denial about growing poverty in Canada but statistics, however difficult to come by, paint a picture of marginalisation of some sections of Canadian society and an erosion of the Middle Class. Low wages is another factor contributing to poverty.
Into the future this segment is likely to increase in bulge devouring those that are impacted by permanent changes to the job market and the ability of governments to keep increasing minimum wages to match inflation. Increasing cost of food, speculation and most of all the vagaries of weather will each play its own role.
Average growth in Canadian incomes has been 1.3% each year, rising from $28,000 in 1981 to 39,914 in 2007. This many years has not even equalled inflation.
Meanwhile as recession, high energy costs continue to push people into bare subsistence levels; the nation still does not have an official government measure for poverty.
Here’s what Statistics Canada has to say: “Statistics Canada has clearly and consistently emphasized, since their publication began over 25 years ago, that the LICOs (Low Income Cut Offs) are quite different from measures of poverty. They reflect a consistent and well-defined methodology that identifies those who are substantially worse off than the average. In the absence of an accepted definition of poverty, these statistics have been used by many analysts who wanted to study the characteristics of the relatively worse off families in Canada.”.
What about the growing numbers of unemployed who don’t even make it in the LICO’s list? Many out there who are not even a blip on the radar of the official statistical grouping.
A few days back while interviewing Albertans on the impact of inflation, I was told the impact is just beginning to trickle down. Janice Melnychuk of Vibrant communities says, “People are going to have to choose between buying food and paying the house rent and this will complicate health issues and put burden on food banks. She says it is time for not just Alberta but the government of Canada to have a cohesive social policy”.
Small businesses are smarting under the impact of the recent recession as also inflation. A few grocery shops in Edmonton have had to close shop because it was difficult to pay for trucked food from the U.S and other countries.
An index of Canadian small business confidence fell to a six-month low in May as optimism, particularly in Ontario, slipped in the wake of high energy prices.

The question that keeps doing the rounds in my mind is when will there be talk about all inclusive economic strategies that lift people out of poverty, instead of social doles.” Social hand outs for a large percentage of the population are a clear indicator of the lack of economic progress of a society, however advanced. It is also reflective of a lack of planning in terms of preparing future generations for jobs of the future.
We want to be optimistic…who does not? Yet there is no sign that there is a plan to create more jobs over and above those that have been lost temporarily or forever due to structural changes in our economy. What is the incentive for small businesses or even large businesses to set up shop and bring back businesses that have been lost to other countries. Whenever I pick up the phone and dial customer service for existing telecoms services, I get transported to either the Philippines or India. This despite the fact that there are Canadians (refugees/ new Canadians) who may be desperate enough to work at lesser wages.Yet, we prefer to transfer these jobs to other countries and allow Canadians to fend poverty.
What is needed is not money kept aside for doles but economic policies specifically targeted at the poor. The doles can act as income suppliments.
The Human Resource Ministry needs to be pro-active and think of ways of re training Canadians to take up jobs which are parcelled out to temporary foreign workers. The excuse given out is that Canadians are either not willing or not trained enough in those jobs. Poverty and unemployment are also an outcome of the lack of  imaginative thinking of those in charge of our planning.
With government spending on health occupying 12% of GDP and growing and debt, both individual and government weighing down on expenditure the scope for social responsibility of governments is pretty much restricted. Even in oil rich Alberta, gap between the incomes of the richest 20% and the poorest 20% of Albertans has increased by 62.9%. In 1999, the top 20% earned 14.5 times more than the lowest 20%. Alberta now has the highest after-tax in-come gap between rich and poor of any province.
Statistics show that Alberta now boasts the biggest gap between the rich and poor of any Canadian province.
Those that are proponents of a free market economy and minimal government intervention should be alarmed that under the Conservatives, government bulge increased to 3.6 million in the third quarter, up 0.3% from the 4th Q of 2010. Statistics Canada says, “Public sector employees represented 10.6% of the total Canadian population in the first quarter, unchanged during the last year. This proportion had been rising slowly since the first quarter of 2001 when it was 9.7%.The three levels of general government (federal, provincial and territorial, and local) accounted for 38.2% of total public sector employment in the first quarter. Educational institutions represented 29.5%, followed by health and social service institutions (23.5%) and government business enterprises (8.7%).
Meanwhile economic data does not look that promising. Exports between the year 2000 and 2010 period dipped down into negative territory, roughly about ten percent. Consumer spending at about 64% and government expenditure at nearly 25% is moving the economy. With a huge rise in personal and government debt this is likely to see halt and then the real impact of the recession shows.
Foreign investment of Canadian securities has slowed down and investment in Canadian bonds seems to have shown a marked downturn.
Foreign direct investment, that had seen a near 10% plunge in 2010 saw a slight growth in 2011 but remains a far cry from levels seen in 2007.


References:

Canadian poverty


RBC reports






  

Crisis of religion

Another personal piece of writing. How I hate these but they act as a kind of catharsis. While doing a course on religion with the International Centre for Journalists, I realised how divisive religion still is. I also realised that I love my God, adore Him and yet I feel scared talking about religion. Why?
There are a myriad of reasons for this.

As I go through my journey in life I get more and more convinced that religion will be exploited and abused. My fear of religion may have been subconscious so far but now the urgency with which it seeps into my conscious being is perhaps the BP Oil spill rate - perhaps faster.

Why? Im Hindu, I am living in one of  the most advanced countries in the west. Why fear? I was brought up in a Catholic environment-having studied all my life in privilaged private Catholic schools run by Irish nuns. I learned catechism and went to the church etc. I know Christianity as much as Hinduism. So why fear? What about the west should or is scaring people?

I can only say its the feeling more than the articulation of facts behind my fear that is important. Somehow we easteners - have an inherent intutive consciousness that could perhaps be a substitute for the over rationalisation in the western culture. I fear in over rationalisation we are either hiding something or are missing the simple links.

I guess being a kashmiri Pandit ( for the less initiated in Hinduism, it is the highest caste in the stratified Hindu world of class and religion ), I have always been more spiritual than religious. Hinduism in any case does talk about the essential spirit of being a Hindu as one who is a good Christian, a good Jew, and all the other religions ). Vivekananda is worth more than a read.

I guess India instead of rising up to its yogic and spiritual leadership potential just sunk into the quagmire of regional politics and the confusion of its own growth run amock. Now in a world dominated by economic and social chaos, religion may find it difficult to speak its own independent language. Religion as practised by some extreme groups from various religions is just helping those that want to create a human divide for specific political reasons. That is why it must be stopped. Protest must be silent as epitomised by Gandhi.

 Kashmir, not just now but for ages has been one of the most turbulent places on earth. I guess that has to do with its combination of geopolitical, strategic placement on the physical contours of our earth as also with its breathtaking beauty. Majestic, untrammelled, beckoning, luring. Most of all the intellectual and academic contouring of its human masses.

Nestled deep inside me I guess is the fear of generations of Kashmiri pandits, hunted down and mowed to bare existential proportions as a race. As a child you are conditioned especially if your small dwindling numbers keep coming under attack. But as I grew up and was exposed to this as yet beautiful  multicultural world of ours, the fear subsided till one day I paid the heavy price of defying ancestral knowledge and getting lured by all encompassing humanity into believeing that these were just old men's tales.

Being the daughter of a journalist with illustrious credentials, I was always wanting to outshine. I followed in the footsteps of my father and becamse a fearless outspoken critic of vested political, business, social interests. No one told me that journalists can no longer be fearless. I thought as any young journalist that no one could touch me. Uppercaste ruling elite Kashmiri Hindu woman, I tried to keep reaching beyond every limit. Little did I know that as I aimed for the stars in the sky, my gaze fixed upwards, was oblivious to movements on the ground.

As a reporter I started covering my birthplace and though it was business and political journalism, I knew I was a Hindu minority in a muslim state and had to be trail blazingly honest. Like every journalist my dream was to meet and interview all those "Islamic fundamentalists" who wanted complete seperation from India. Along the way I met and interviewed people from the establishment as well.

I cared a damn. It was a story and I had to get to speak to these men and understand their psyche. I interviewed many of them and many times felt the shadow of state presence. I cared a damn - I was a Hindu. I could not go wrong. India is a majority Hindu state. This arrogance cost me. Journalists I realised could no longer claim to be a brand apart from decisive politics practised by governments. They may have their own compulsions but I never understood those. I dont understand them even now.

While covering Kashmir I realised that political uprisings have roots in economic deprivation, marginalisation. Somewhere the political system had gone wrong and now it was all about the rift between Muslims and Hindus. Yet I kept on highlighting the battered state of the economy, the isolation of the government from its people, the casting aside by muslim politicians of their own muslim constituents. At the peak of elections, there was no face to the politician asking for votes. Thousands of expectant voters but  politicians too scared to venture out. Yet the elections kept taking place.... and those that were the privelaged ... those that were in with the elite clique..... (nothing unique to India)..... kept winning. And underneath the surface the simmering kept getting intense till it had to burst one day. Perhaps the scenario was more complex as there were outside countries involved as well. Perhaps I'm being too simplistic, perhaps....

The one lesson, journalists themselves must beware of is aspersions being cast on them for reasons far from obvious.  This new religious war is far too expensive for media as it is in its present day and form to win....
That breaks my heart. Nothing breaks my heart more than innocent victimisation. The machinery of journalism is worn and itself in the hands of those that run the other machinery. Im scared for journalism and I'm scared for democracy. That is why now more than ever we as journalists need to be cautious in reporting Islam or any other religious issue. Most of all we need to fight for openess.

A leaky dilemna

What is playing out in the Gulf Of Mexico had been envisaged in a 2008 CRS report for members of the U.S congress. Titled 'Oil spills in U.S coastal waters, background governance and issues for Congress', the report warns that America may have lost its expertise and institutional knowledge to effectively respond to a major oil spill.

One of the sources of this conclusion perhaps was the 'After Action Report' by the U.S coast guard after completion of its 2004 Spill of National Significance (SONS) exercise. Here are some extracts from the report: 'Oil spill response personnel did not appear to have even a basic knowledge of the equipment required to support salvage or spill clean up operations.There was a shortgae of personnel with experience to fill key positions. Many middle level spill management staff had never worked a large spill and some had never been involved in an exercise. As a result some issues and complex processes unique to spill response were not effectively addressed."

The 2008 CRS report expresses concern about a possible increase in oil spills considering that oil production and import are expected to rise and with this the transportation of oil domestic or international to refineries and ultimately to the consumer. The report states that American pipelines remain a major source of worry. "American oil pipleine infrastructure is old and in some areas pipleines are operating well beyond their intended service life". Most of the U.S oil imports (55%) arrive via the Gulf Coast. Of the oil spills within the coast guard jurisdiction (marine and coastal area) nearly 50 per cet of the incidents and the volume spilled have been in the Gulf Of Mexico and its shoreline states. The Gulf must surely remain an area of special attention.

What is worrisome is the fact that coast guard data on recorded spills from facilities and pipelines does not match the actual numbers happening out there both on land and at sea.

The BP blow out must shine the spotlight on other seepages minor or major offshore or onshore like those from abandoned or orphan wells.Reports clearly indicate that operators may not have the required funds to properly shut down offshore oil platforms at the end of the facilities operating life or while idling. As with many onshore wells, this potential problem is exacerbated by the steady transfer of offshore leases from major oil companies to independents as production declines. Despite bonding requirements, public liability remains a concern.The General Accounting Office conducted a detailed study in 1993 examining offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. GAO’s estimates for the full cost of dismantling platforms and plugging wells under the OCS program ranged from $4.2 to $4.4 billion. Yet, surety bonds in place covered only 1.6 percent of this prospective liability. According to MMS, total offshore liability has since risen to approximately $5.5 billion, of which approximately $1 billion is covered by surety bonds.Although the coverage ratio has risen from 1.6 to 18 percent over the past years, the potential public exposure tops $4.5 billion.

The cost of coverage ranges from one to four percent of the bonded amount depending on factors like drilling equipment reseves left underneath the well, amount of collateral. However, the one percent cost applies only to financially strong operators with full collateral for the coverage. A two percent rate is the realistic minimum for the independents. There are fears that these firms will make up the bulk of the unfunded liability in the Gulf. Based on a premium rate of two to four percent, addressing the liability shortfall would cost existing producers $53 to $106 million per year.Currently, the federal taxpayer bears this liability.

How many of the existing abandoned/orphaned oil facilities are leaking oil into the water?

Some may argue smaller amounts of oil leaking into the Gulf should not be a cause of concern. Chronic low level exposure to oil contaminants can significantly affect the survival and reproductive success of marine birds and mammals. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have confirmed that oil pollution concentrates of as low as one part per billion could stunt pink salmon growth and cause other chronic health problems for the fish. The NMFS has also confirmed that the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill will continue to kill or damage future generations of pink salmon

Clearly government needs to have a fresh look at these and other related issues keeping in mind that even an international oil company like BP underplayed the possibility of an under water blow out,though such occurances are not out of the ordinary. More surprising that despite the oil pollution act of 1990 BP had no plans on how to respond to a worst case scenario though the act clearly states that the owner or operator of a vessel or facility must have these plans. Congress did not intend for every vessel to have on board all the personnel and equipment needed to respond to a worst case spill but vessels must have a plan and procedures to call upon, typically through a contractual relationship, the necessary equipment and personnel for reponding to a wrost case spill.

The act extended the role and scope of the National Contingency Plan, establishing a multi layered planning and response system to improve preparedness and response to spills in marine environments. Among other things the act also requred the President to establish procedures and standards for responsing to worst case oil spill scenarios.

Clearly there has been failure at more than one level.

Add to this the statistical knowledge sitting with government departments that in recent years annual spill volumes from offshore facilities in federal waters have increased and a vast majority of these spills have taken place in the Gulf Of Mexico.

And despite all the noise by the U.S state governors in the wake of the recent deep water spill, the precise volume and incident frequency in state waters is difficult to determine. Reportedly oil spills in state waters account for twice the oil discharges of activities in federal waters. Majority of the oil extraction operations are located in state waters off the coast of Louisiana and Texas.