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[1] From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Mon Jan 1, 2007 Subject: Two Visions on New Year: (Modest) 'Liberal' Agenda and Rightwing Exuberance Two Visions on New Year: (Modest) 'Liberal' Agenda and Rightwing Exuberance I/II. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/OPINION/Editorial/LEADER_ARTICLE_We_Are_The_W\ orld/articleshow/1002137. cms LEADER ARTICLE: We Are The World Kofi A Annan Nearly 50 years ago, when I arrived in Minnesota as a student fresh from Africa, I had much to learn — starting with the fact that there is nothing weird about wearing earmuffs when the temperature is 15 below. All my life since has been a learning experience. Now I want to pass on five lessons I have learnt during 10 years as UN secretary-general — lessons which I believe the community of nations needs to learn, as it confronts the challenges of the 21st century. First, in today's world we are all responsible for each other's security. Against such threats as nuclear proliferation, climate change, global pandemics, or terrorists operating from safe havens in failed states, no nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others. Only by working to make each other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security for ourselves. This responsibility includes our shared responsibility to protect people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. That was accepted by all nations at the UN summit in 2005. But when we look at the murder, rape and starvation still being inflicted on the people of Darfur, we realise that such doctrines remain pure rhetoric unless those with the power to intervene effectively — by exerting political, economic or, in the last resort, military muscle — are prepared to take the lead. It also includes a responsibility to future generations — to preserve resources that belong to them as well as to us. Every day that we do nothing, or too little, to prevent climate change imposes higher costs on our children. Second, we are also responsible for each other's welfare. Without a measure of solidarity, no society can be truly stable. It is not realistic to think that some people can go on deriving great benefits from globalisation while billions of others are left in, or thrown into, abject poverty. We have to give all our fellow human beings at least a chance to share in our prosperity. Third, both security and prosperity depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law. Throughout history human life has been enriched by diversity, and different commu-nities have learnt from each other. But if our communities are to live in peace we must stress also what unites us: our common humanity, and the need for our human dignity and rights to be protected by law. That is vital for develop-ment, too. Both foreigners and a country's own citizens are more likely to invest when their basic rights are protected and they know they will be fairly treated under the law. And policies that genuinely favour development are more likely to be adopted if the people most in need of development can make their voice heard. States need to play by the rules towards each other, as well. No community anywhere suffers from too much rule of law; many suffer from too little — and the international community is among them. This we must change. My fourth lesson, therefore, is that governments must be accountable for their actions, in the international as well as domestic arena. Every state owes some account to other states on which its actions have a decisive impact. As things stand, poor and weak states are easily held to account, because they need foreign aid. But large and powerful states, whose actions have the greatest impact on others, can be constrained only by their own people. That gives the people and institutions of powerful states a special responsibility to take account of global views and interests. And today they need to take into account also what we call "non-state actors". States can no longer — if they ever could — confront global challenges alone. Increasingly, they need help from the myriad types of association in which people come together voluntarily, for profit or to think about, and change, the world. How can states hold each other to account? Only through multilateral institutions. So my final lesson is that those institutions must be organised in a fair and democratic way, giving the poor and the weak some influence over the actions of the rich and the strong. Developing countries should have a stronger voice in international financial institutions, whose decisions can mean life or death for their people. And new permanent or long-term members should be added to the UN Security Council, whose current membership reflects the reality of 1945, not of today's world. No less important, all the Security Council's members must accept the responsibility that comes with their privilege. The Council is not a stage for acting out national interests. It is the management committee of our fledgling global security system. More than ever today humanity needs a functioning global system. And experience has shown, time and again, that the system works poorly when its member states are divided and lack leadership, but much better when there is unity and far-sighted leadership and engagement of all major actors. The world's leaders, of today and tomorrow, have a great responsibility. The people of the world must see that they live up to it. The writer completed his final term as UN secretary-general on December 31. II. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/OPINION/Editorial/Reason_to_Cheer/articleshow\ /1002136. cms Reason to Cheer Will 2007 be better or worse than 2006? There are many who are convinced that the world is going to pot, beset by global warming, terror, poverty, inequality and a host of other ills. While its state should not induce complacency the bad news, nevertheless, often seems more compelling and newsworthy than the good news. It's the Cassandra complex in reverse: many propagate awful falsehoods which are widely believed and become self-fulfilling prophesies. But a new book by American economist Indur Goklany sets today's voguish pessimism in perspective. It compiles extensive statistics to show that the world is, in fact, getting better rather than worse. If one takes a critical human development indicator such as life expectancy, the gap between rich and poor nations has declined from 25 years in the 1950s to 12.2 years now. Indians born today can expect to live 64 years, as opposed to 39 years for those born then. For low-income countries infant deaths per 1,000 live births reflect a secular decline from 159 in 1960 to 77 in 1999. Sub-Saharan Africa, at the bottom of the human development heap, also shows a similar decline. In all cases the gap with rich nations is closing. Another study has shown that the proportion of the world's population living below $1 a day, adjusted for inflation, shrank from 63 per cent in 1950 to 35 per cent in 1980 to 12 per cent in 1999. Clearly some things are going right with the world, contrary to what purveyors of gloom and doom would have us believe. On ecological degradation, the Swedish environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg has suggested that growing prosperity results in a cleaning up of the environment. Air and water quality has improved dramatically in rich nations, while forests are replacing fields. That is not to say that one should relax one's vigilance on environmental issues, but paranoia is misplaced. We may be pumping more chemicals into the environment, and we should limit this wherever possible; but life expectancy is going up nevertheless. Global warming is a serious issue, and we must manage carbon emissions; but the benefits of rapid economic growth are likely to outweigh the costs of global warming. One could also take a fresh look at the inequality issue. If the poor are coming out of poverty it doesn't matter much if, at the same time, the rich are growing richer. Much is made of India's regional disparities, but look at the bright side. At least some states are doing well, which can serve as a model for other states and spur their efforts to do better. At the start of 2007 India's economy, as a whole, is poised to zoom. Hope, rather than despair, ought to be the keynote. ----------- [2] From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Mon Jan 1, 2007 Subject: Singur: Another Analysis Singur on the Kharagpur track We learn from the print media that after Singur, huge amounts of agricultural land will be acquired in the Kharagpur area of Midnapore (West). (The author is Reader, Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore) http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:bXFLTSNVClEJ:www.thestatesman.net/page.news.\ php%3Fclid%3D4%26theme%3D%26usrsess%3D1%26id%3D141514 ----------- [3] From: "Mike Ghouse" <MIKEGHOUSE@aol.com> Date: Mon Jan 1, 2007 Subject: 2 things to do in 2007 Each one of us may have planned our year for job, family, home, vacation etc. Let's spend a few minutes to improve our own spiritual health. You may think about committing to do the following: 1. Volunteer 1 hour a week, it will keep unhappiness away. It is not a charity it is food for our happiness. Half of your time must go to people other than your own group to really make sense. 2. Once a year or once a month, whatever dinner gathering you hold, whatever party you go to - invite friends from other faiths to join Once we know each other, a lot of things get repaired over a period of time. If not for some one else, for our own joy. [....] This is really good short story to read... do take time to read this. A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to hot coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for each of you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups. Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it." So, don't let the cups drive your 2007... enjoy the coffee instead. Wishing you the best of 2007 New Year ---------------------------------------------- PLEASE NOTE: HATE MAILS WILL BE DELETED .IT IS ALSO NOT OUR MISSION TO PROMOTE RELIGION ON THIS GROUP. India Thinkers Net ----------------------------------------------- |
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| << January02, 2007 - [India Thinkers Net] Kashmir,Kerala ADB loan,Assam,Mumbaikar, etc |
January03, 2007 - [India Thinkers Net]Modi's privatisation of water ,Singur (Reji P George) >> |
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