Hoinhen Soi Jo Ram Rachi Raakha!
Lame Duck is Definitely on the Menu with Three Day Annihilation Iran Plan
Contract farming, indiscriminate industrialisation and urbanisation would contribute in major way to escalate slums in India.
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
The (Oval) Office
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=1vxaiw03YIg&mode=related&search=
Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar arrives Viena Sunday to attend the annual meeting of the IAEA though it is not clear if he will hold talks on India-specific safeguards with the UN atomic watchdog, a key step towards operationalising the Indo-US nuclear deal.International experts reaching there for the 51st General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency are understood to be keen to know about the opportunities likely to emerge if the Indo-US civil nuclear deal goes through.Meanwhile, The Union Culture Ministry has slapped a notice on the Archaeological Survey of India, seeking an explanation on the retention of controversial portions of the affidavit filed by the ASI on the Ram Sethu in the Supreme Court ...
Cholesterol testing of toddlers or young children proved an effective screening method for familial hypercholesterolemia, according to a meta-analysis.
A working group of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) will meet on September 24 or 26 to suggest concrete ways to counter terror funding, said financial sector secretary Vinod Rai.
The Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) was inaugurated by Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair today at Thiruvananthapuram.
Assam continued to reel under the impact of floods with about 50 lakh people in 21 of the 28 districts of the state affected, while the toll rose to 49 with 10 more deaths reported, official sources said on Saturday.
Finalising an India-specific safeguards agreement is one of the key steps for operationalising the deal that has been mired in political controversy. There was no immediate word on whether Kakodkar has received the go-ahead from the government to discuss the safeguards pact with the IAEA.
"He is attending a routine meeting of the IAEA. It is like a ritual," was the refrain of an aide to Kakodkar when he was asked whether the top nuclear scientist has received any directive from the government to discuss the safeguards agreement. Zee News reports.
Lame Ducks rule the world. Ducklings eat out the Natural resources in third world countries. Bush is the topmost leader amongst the duck clan. The zionist brahminical comradors ruling the colonies follow suit. Bush remains the front runner in power game despite imminent defeat in worldwide War zone, Killing fields. He is the mythical Ramchandra in the great imperialist Saga who creates the ideals for the ruling classes in this galaxy. Horse sacrifice with infinite genocides continue on his name bearin US interests.So the comradors are also projected as winning heroes thanks to Information explosion and microsoft! Poll surveys in India shows cakewalk for the Pro American Sensex shining India polity win whatsoever eventuality may come in the way! Dr Manmohan Singh and his elite Duck Clan don`t seem a little bit endangered despite Parliamentary minority and anti imperialist sentiment. The rurl eviction drive and demographical adjustment with vote bank mobilisation wil have the last smile on creamy imported faces!Although the Indian economy has grown at an average of 8.6% in the last four years, analysts say the growth has not touched millions of India’s poor.
hoinhee soi jo ram rachi Raakha
The country’s financial capital, Mumbai, houses the largest number of urban slums -- some 6.5 million people live in them. The city is also home to Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi.
New Delhi follows, with 1.8 million people living in squalor, bereft of even the basic necessities of sanitation and clean drinking water.
Kolkata, with 1.49 lakh slum inhabitants, is a close third.
Even a Post Modern Economist like Amartya Sen advices
o not rely on market economy for development.Poverty is pronounced lack of or no access to economic resources such as land capital and credit. The barriers to pursuing these opportunities are the key obstacles to over come extreme poverty. Access to assets and opportunities is constrained by low rates of economic growth, inequality, social exclusion etc.
Millions of Starving Shame the World, U.N. Says.Despite economic achievements in terms of economic performance, however, the region continues to be home for more than two-fifths of the world’s poor. Hunger is but an extreme manifestation of poverty. Freedom from hunger is a basic human right and it has been one of the core objectives of the MDGs.Agriculture is the mainstay of the economies of the South Asian countries. Heavy dependence on agriculture combined with low productivity largely contributes in widespread poverty and poverty in the region. To address the issue of livelihood and food security this sector needs to be strengthened by strong policy support.
Youth unemployment rising, with hundreds of millions more working but living in poverty: ILO
The generation of adequate employment opportunities for our growing labour force is one of the central objectives of south Asian to combat poverty and reduce extreme hunger. Proper policy initiative and the collective efforts will help region to address MDG-1 and will have qualitative addition in the lives of disadvantaged.
THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.At this late stage in an American presidency, even in the most favourable circumstances, even for the most popular incumbents, lame duck is definitely on the menu. Contarrily, US President George W. Bush on Sunday faced a new clash with congressional Democrats over the unpopular war in Iraq as Senate Democrats reportedly reached a deal that would allow soldiers to spend more time at home.
In India, already up in arms against the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left parties are now turning against opening up of the country`s armament industry to private players. The continued intransigence of the Left parties has held up an official announcement on conferment of Rakshya Udyog Ratnas (RUR) status to 14 leading private sector companies even months after they were shortlisted, according to informed sources here. Being labelled RURs would have made private sector companies eligible along with blue chip defence PSUs to receive technology transfer and part of expected defence off sets from foreign companies to stabilise their foray into the weapons sector.
The CPI-M led Centre of Indian Trade Unions is meeting today in Nasik to plan an all India agitation programme against UPA government`s move to open the defence industry to private sector.
Meanwhile, besides SEZ, PCPIR, Chemical Hubs, Big Dams, Water link, Infrastructure, Mobile BF technology, FDI, Privatisation, Disinvestment, Anti People anti labour lawas, Islamophobia, dalit hatred,Indiscriminate Urbanisation and industrialisation, Cola plus MNC Builder Promoter Raj,regimented gestapos, AFSPA, POTA, TADA, Islaphobia and Dalit annihilation, Contract farming is increasingly being presented as a solution for the problems of Indian agriculture, by major international donor agencies, multinational companies and even the government. On the other hand,the number of urban slum-dwellers rose from 27.9 million in 1981 to 46.2 million in 1991 and 61.8 million in 2001, according to estimates by the Town and Country Planning Organisation.The number of people living in slums in India, Asia’s fourth largest economy and the world’s second fastest growing one, has more than doubled in the past two decades, according to official figures. About a quarter of the country’s billion-plus population now live in towns and cities.Contract farming, indiscriminate industrialisation and urbanisation would contribute in major way to escalate slums in India.Human survival depends on a continuous adequate and suitable livelihood, but the world today is afflicted with hunger, poverty and disease. Extreme poverty, unemployment leads to a severe migration Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive strategy addressing the issues, which are leading to migration.
Former Union Minister and Bharatiya Jan Shakti party leader Uma Bharati has locked up a Reliance Fresh retail outlet in Indore.Uma Bharati created a flutter in the Zanjeerwala area of Indore by turning up at the Reliance Fresh outlet with a basket of vegetables on her head after which she went on to put her own lock on the store.
The Mayawati government had late last month ordered the closure of retail outlets after an attack on some stores by Samajwadi Party activists.
Earlier this year, protestors in the Jharkhand town of Ranchi had attacked a Reliance Fresh outlet there and forced it shut.
Over 50 organisations and movements from all over India will meet in the capital on 21 September 2007, to conduct an Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank in India. The tribunal, the first of its kind in India, is an opportunity for impacted communities and concerned groups to present testimony, evidence and research that objectively examine the impact of the World Bank's policies and projects. Over four days from the 21st to the 24th of September 2007, will testify–and a 15-member Jury, which includes Aruna Roy, former SC Judge PB Sawant, Amit Bhaduri and Arundhati Roy, will render judgments on the validity, utility and effectiveness of the Bank’s policies and projects in the country.
“In convening this tribunal, the people of India are attempting to do more than simply rally another protest against injustice,” said Deepika D'Souza, Member of the Tribunal Secretariat and Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Network. “It is a well deliberated strategy aimed at raising a comprehensive national debate over neoliberalism and economic policy.” Internationally, this Tribunal is creating critical dialogue at exactly the time the World Bank is being re-assessed from all quarters, including from within.
A month of mobilization will be launched on 16 September, which will build up to a climax on a global white band day on the 17 October - the International Day on the Eradication of Poverty. During the month, countries around the world will undertake an array of actions, culminating in a global white band day. The white band will remain our symbol and expression of solidarity against poverty.
With little more than a year to go to the end of George Bush’s presidency, his approval ratings stand near historic lows at just above 30 per cent. Last November his party lost control of both houses of Congress. But what is this? Next week Mr Bush seems certain to score one of the most important political victories of his presidency. General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq, will testify before Congress, along with Ryan Crocker, the US Ambassador to Iraq, on the progress of the “surge” Mr Bush ordered earlier this year to much domestic political opposition. At this late stage in an American presidency, even in the most favourable circumstances, even for the most popular incumbents, lame duck is definitely on the menu. The death march of senior officials out of the Administration, routine around this stage of a second presidential term, has become a stampede. Karl Rove, the top White House aide, the Cardinal Richelieu of the Bush presidency, has gone. Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney-General, the Harpo Marx of the Bush presidency, will be gone in a few weeks. By now Mr Bush should be a governing irrelevance, a liability to his party, the object of scorn and derision. Every Republican candidate with an ounce of instinct for self-preservation in his blood should be running away from the President as though he were a burning building.Thus, reports Gerard Baker in Timesonline.
A passenger plane heading to one of Thailand`s leading tourist destinations crashed Sunday as it tried to land in heavy rain, splitting in two as it was engulfed in flames, officials said. As many as 74 people were feared dead.There were 123 mostly foreign passengers and five crew members on the plane, One-To-Go Airlines flight OG269 from Bangkok to Phuket, Thai television station TITV reported.
A European Union court will decide on Monday whether Microsoft abused its near-monopoly position on the world's 1 billion computers and servers to push smaller competitors out of the marketplace.
Thousands of physicians and scientists meet Monday in Chicago to tackle the growing resistance of germs to antibiotics and the effects of global warming on them, at the world's biggest conference on disease-causing microbes.
The RAF scrambled to intercept eight Russian nuclear bombers heading for Britain yesterday in the biggest aerial confrontation between the two countries since the end of the Cold War. The exercise is expensive for the RAF. It costs more than £40,000 an hour to fly a Tornado F3 and yesterday’s operation will have cost at least £160,000. Underlining the scale of the operation, the RAF also sent up an airborne early warning aircraft (Awacs) and a VC10 tanker so that the Tornados could be refuelled. The Tupolev-95 Bear bombers were approaching in formation when they were met by four Tornado F3 fighter jets. Defence sources said that the Russian pilots turned away as soon as they spotted the approaching Tornados and did not enter British airspace.
Norway had earlier sent four F16 jets to shadow the Russians as they neared its airspace in what Moscow insisted was a training mission. The bombers had flown over international waters from the Barents Sea to the Atlantic before heading for Britain.
Russian Bears flying in pairs have triggered several alerts this year as they neared the 12-mile British airspace zone, but this was the first time that so many bombers had simultaneously tested British air defences.
The American and British armies do not have to withdraw from Iraq. They are powerful and can stay as long as they wish, even if entombed like French legionnaires in desert forts and sustained at great cost in lives and money.The United States will continue to pursue diplomatic and economic means to force Iran to halt its nuclear drive, but "all options are on the table," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.Asked on Fox News if President George W. Bush would consult Congress before launching any strikes on Iran, Gates said he would not be drawn on "hypotheticals about what he may or may not do."
"I will tell you that I think the administration believes at this point that continuing to try and deal with the Iranian threat, the Iranian challenge through diplomatic and economic means is by far the preferable approach," he said.
Iran vehemently denies Western allegations it is seeking an atomic weapon, saying its nuclear drive is aimed at providing electricity for a growing population whose fossil fuels will one day run out.
"We always say all options are on the table," Gates said. "But clearly, the diplomatic and economic approach is the one we're pursuing."
Washington also accuses Iran of providing sophisticated weaponry to Shiite militias in Iraq, and Syria of turning a blind eye to infiltration of its borders by Sunni insurgents, charges both governments deny.
Announcing a limited pullout of troops from Iraq on Thursday, Bush demanded that Iran and Syria end attempts to "undermine" the government of insurgency-wracked Iraq.
But the Pentagon chief ruled out using US forces to chase Shiite extremists in Iraq over the Iranian border.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday pledged technical support for peacekeepers due to go to Sudan's Darfur region, but warned Khartoum of possible further sanctions if it failed to make "necessary changes".
Israel boasted on Sunday it has recovered its "deterrent capability" after an air strike in Syria triggered warnings of retaliation and intense media speculation over the aim of the operation.
"The new situation affects the entire region, including Iran and Syria," military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told parliament's powerful foreign affairs and defence committee, local media reported.In keeping with an official Israeli wall of silence on the event, Yadlin told lawmakers he would not address the incident directly, but his statements "alluded to the Israeli raid," public radio reported.He said Israel had now recovered its "deterrent capability" following the 2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Syria angrily denied as US "lies" suggestions that it was receiving nuclear material from North Korea, after foreign media reports that Israel's warplanes could have been targeting a possible joint nuclear project.Damascus said its air defences fired on Israeli warplanes which had dropped munitions deep inside its territory in the early hours of September 6, and it has protested to the UN Security Council.
In pakistan it is High Drama once again with Exit Nawaz , Enters Benzir scenerio, President Pervez Musharraf, facing tough opposition to his re-election for another five years, has extended a "hand of friendship" to Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.Chief Justice has commendably excluded himself from the newly created nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court to hear the Jamaat-e-Islami’s petition concerning Musharraf’s dual office.On the other hand,Pakistan's Election Commission has amended rules barring persons holding an office of profit from participating in presidential polls, paving the way for Pervez Musharraf's re-election as president for another five-year term.
''The Election Commission has amended the Presidential Election Rules 1988 so that Article 63 of the Constitution no longer applies to the President,'' media reports on Sunday quoted Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi as saying.Article 63 lays down conditions under which a person can be disqualified from being a member of Parliament.
''Now Article 63 does not apply to the President. Its clauses which prevent government servants from participating in elections unless they have been retired for at least two years, and stop anyone who holds an office of profit in the service of Pakistan from participating in elections, also do not apply to the President,'' Niazi said.
After amending the rules, the Chief Election Commissioner issued a notification under which Musharraf can contest the presidential polls and get re-elected as the President, he said.
''With the amendment in the rules, the returning officer for the poll can no longer conduct a probe or reject any nomination paper if the candidate is subject to disqualification from being elected as, or from being, a member of Parliament as provided in Article 63,'' Niazi said.
The amendment has omitted the words ''or is subject to any disqualification from being elected as, and from being, a member of the National Assembly'' from the rules, the Daily Times reported.
Celebrities, activists and human rights groups across the globe joined demonstrations Sunday to urge world leaders gathering this week for the UN general assembly not to look away from the crisis in Darfur.
In London, scores of activists donned black blindfolds - symbolizing the international community's failure to act since vowing to stop atrocities in Darfur two years ago.
Demonstrators in Rome wore white T-shirts with a bloodstained hand on the front and marched to the Italian city's central Piazza Farnese.
They carried a peace torch, which they said was lit in Chad where hundreds of thousands from Darfur now live in refugee camps.
Organizers planned protests in more than 30 countries, including Australia, Egypt, Germany, Japan, Mongolia, Nigeria, South Africa and the United States.
They said some in the international community had become complacent since the UN Security Council approved plans on July 31 for a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for the vast, war-battered region in western Sudan.
The deployment of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force faces delays, however, due to a lack of aviation, transport and logistics units, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last month.
In the meantime Darfur's violence has increased, organizers said. Campaigners are demanding that the force be deployed swiftly, and that the international community put pressure on all sides in the conflict until attack on civilians stop.
''The world has acknowledged the atrocities in Darfur. And its leaders have promised to end them. Now they must fulfill that promise,'' said Colleen Connors from Globe for Darfur, a coalition of aid groups working in Darfur.
''The meeting of world leaders in the next two weeks is a critical juncture for the people of Darfur,'' she said. ''We simply cannot afford to look away now.''
Celebrities join campaign
In London, demonstrators carried signs reading ''Stop genocide in Darfur'' and ''Rape, torture, murder. How much longer for Darfur?''
Actors Matt Damon, Don Cheedle, supermodel Elle MacPherson and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu are among the celebrities who appear in a video filmed for the day in which they hold up slogans demanding action.
''The people of Darfur need peace and they need it now. To make peace a possibility governments should push for an immediate ceasefire and supply the peacekeepers they have talked about for months,'' Damon said.
Tutu called Darfur ''the world's largest concentration of human suffering,'' adding ''it's also entirely avoidable if people speak out.''
Britain and China pledged new support Sunday for the hybrid peacekeeping force.
Britain would likely provide technical support for peacekeepers, as well as additional support for the African countries contributing to the force, said Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who helped push the British-French resolution on Darfur through the UN Security Council.
''I want to see the hybrid force in place before the end of the year,'' Brown told the British Broadcasting Corp. ''I want to see it there, if at all possible, earlier than that.''
Beijing, which is trying to counter criticism that it is reluctant to support international intervention in Darfur, said it would send 315 people.
The Chinese group - comprised of Chinese engineer platoons, a well-digging platoon, and a field hospital team - will build roads, bridges and dig wells before the larger UN-AU force arrives, China's Defense Ministry said, according to state media.
Critics have attempted to shame China, one of Sudan's major trading partners, into action by linking China's failure to act in the Darfur crisis to calls for a boycott next year's Summer Olympics in the Chinese capital.
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been uprooted since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in 2003, accusing it of decades of neglect.
Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed - a charge it denies.
Sunday's events were being organized by a coalition of more than 50 organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Save Darfur Coalition.
Hopes of a cease-fire were boosted Saturday, when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said Khartoum was ready to call a cease-fire when peace talks get under way in Libya's capital on Oct. 27.
Opinion - Leader Page Articles
Asia’s strategic triangle: China-India-Japan
Ramesh Thakur
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The three Asian giants can transform Asia into an area of peace by
thinking creatively and cultivating relations based on complementary
interests and realistic expectations rather than the deadweight of history or
the baggage of naive idealism.
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The destiny of Asia in this century will be shaped by the triangular
relationship between China, India, and Japan. The ‘strategic footprint’
of that triangle will cover the world. Cooperation between them will
help to anchor peace and prosperity in Asia. Rivalry and conflict will
roil the world.
Japan is the economic powerhouse that is slowly but surely shaking off
the shackles on the deployment of its military forces overseas in the
cause of international peace. China and India, each nuclear armed and
with a billion people, are the heartland of the world. Their phenomenal
growth over the last decade in particular has acted as southern engines
of growth for the whole world.
The historic trends sweeping across Asia along with most of the rest of
the world include democratisation (yes, even in China, especially at
the grassroots level), globalisation, intensified economic interactions,
and great power harmony. The three Asian giants can transform Asia
into an area of peace by thinking creatively and cultivating relations
based on complementary interests and realistic expectations rather than
the deadweight of history or the baggage of naive idealism.
For all three, the bilateral U.S. relationship is more critical than
with either of the other two potential “strategic partners.” Washington
is the gateway to a huge pool of technology, credits, and markets.
Japan, the only U.S. ally of the three, neither would nor should accept
curtailment of its tried and tested security axis with Washington as the
price of good relations with as yet untested new friends.
Equally, though, no intra-Asian strategic triangle can be formed if
external security alliances are interpreted primarily as advancing the
strategic interests of outsiders at the expense of the legitimate security
needs and concerns of Asian neighbours. Indeed in the past four years,
China has skilfully exploited the U.S. preoccupation with Iraq, and
the calamitous collapse of U.S. reputation because of Iraq, to expand its
soft power reach and influence throughout Asia-Pacific. Since
September 2001, the United States has presented an intense and angry face to
the world. By contrast, China has usurped the traditional U.S. role of
exporting hope, optimism, and reassurance. Asians welcomed the U.S.
presence and role as their region’s security and prosperity guarantor in the
past not because they loved America the most but because they feared
America the least. Not any more.
India may be able to forgive but is unlikely to forget the 60-year old
history of active collaboration between China and Pakistan, including
with respect to the development of nuclear and missile capabilities. And
China does not have to forget in order to overcome as an obstacle the
20th century history of Japanese imperialism in East Asia.
Relations between India and China, the world’s two most populous
countries, oscillate between indifference and rivalry. China and India in
conflict would be easy prey for the tactics of divide-and-rule for
neutralising any remaining pockets of opposition to one-power dominance.
Instead they should join forces to sculpt a multipolar world.
Both resist efforts to link international trade to stringent labour and
environmental standards. China’s WTO membership has enabled them to
cooperate in protecting the interests of developing countries, as is
clear in the stalled trade talks in the Doha round where they have teamed
up with Brazil and South Africa as the champions of the developing
countries. They are united in opposition to fundamentalist religious and
other ethnic movements. Conflicts in Afghanistan and Central Asia involve
sects spread across several political frontiers and jeopardise the
stability of neighbouring countries, including China and India.
Both seem willing to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border
pending resolution of the territorial dispute — a problem left over from
history — through friendly and peaceful consultations. In the meantime,
they have begun several confidence-building measures, including: placing
a ceiling on troop deployments along the border and agreements to
clarify the line of control; providing advance notifications of military
movements and manoeuvres; holding periodic meetings of force commanders;
avoiding violations of each other’s airspace; and refraining from the
use of force to change existing border positions. The two also launched
a security dialogue some years ago.
India has a rugged and resilient democracy; China practises socialism
with Chinese characteristics. Historical and linguistic ties to the
West, economic policies of import-substitution and protectionism, and
political policies of close relations with Moscow kept India at a distance
from China and Japan. The simultaneous improvement of Moscow’s relations
with Beijing and Washington dissipated the geostrategic community of
interest between Delhi and Moscow, threatened to leave India isolated,
and spurred it into searching for improved relations with China.
Divergent interests remain in respect to South Asia. India views China
as an intruder in the region; China believes it is a legitimate
ringside participant; some South Asian states welcome a Chinese counterweight
to Indian hegemony. The presence of 100,000 Tibetans in India is
another potential irritant in bilateral ties.
China and India are competitors for foreign investment, credits, and
markets. Trade between them has grown exponentially in the last few
years, but starting from an extremely low base. Japanese government and
businesses are now trying to react with some urgency to the fact that China
has overtaken Japan among India’s trade partners. In the meantime,
China has become Japan’s biggest market also, surpassing even the U.S.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe just concluded a very high profile visit to
India. He has speculated in his book (Toward a Beautiful Country, 2007)
that in another decade Japan’s relations with India could surpass those
with China and the U.S. This is hyperbole. In any case, mortally wounded
by the disastrous recent election results, Mr. Abe announced his
resignation as Prime Minister on Wednesday and his successor will be picked
next week.
Some of the problem areas between China and India are potential assets
in India-Japan relations, for example, democratic governance. While
Japan has one of the world’s most rapidly aging populations, India is
expected to have the world’s largest working and consuming population by
2020.
Date:14/09/2007 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/14/stories/2007091453681200.htm
