Behind the Frontline : The Rear Enemy

The front line enemy of the global financial crisis is obviously the burst of housing bubble . However , there is a more powerful rear enemy , yet to come with its full force in the front line.

The shift of production of food grains by replacing, it with the bio-diesel related production in the hope of reaching Crude (Oil) heaven could be referred as the rear enemy , who is yet to come in the front line with his full force . Still , it has been responsible for the much damage , which it caused with its silent impact, on the household expenses . The supply of food grains has been reduced in the global market , which has lead to inflation of the necessary commodities in the common household cost structure . The effect was drastic in the countries of middle-east and far east Asia. In normal cases , the 1/3 of the household budget goes for debt servicing . However with the rising food prices and related commodities , that 1/3 budget has to be cut off, into smaller budget and at the end no-budget , due to priorities of recurring expenses, related to essential commodities much higher, than the debt servicing budget . The end product is the bursting of the housing bubble which lead to global financial crisis.

Will 'torture to Death' penalty be abolished ?

Human right activist all over the world believes on abloishing the Capital punishment . However there are some of nations still continues with the death penalty . In 2003, according to Amnesty International, speaking to the UN Commission on Human Rights, 28 of those States executed 1,146 prisoners and some 2,756 persons were sentenced to death in 64 countries, and the true numbers were likely higher.

The first attempt by the international community at abolishing the death penalty, or simply minimizing its use, was in 1948 with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It defines in detail the rights and freedoms of individuals, whereas the UN Charter had discussed human rights only in general terms.

The United Nations was created after the Second World War to prevent unnecessary death, according to its Charter, while the Universal Declaration further clarifies that goal in its article 3, stating that “everyone has the right to life”.

In reality, you can find , things are different after looking at the following stunning cases of Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Nigeria apply the death penalty even for homosexuality, according to the International Lesbian and Gay Association.

Nuetrality and Non-Alignement - Are they same ?

India had a pivotal role in the International circuit , way back in 1955 , with Nehru building the founding principles of Non-Alignement m0vement . What are those founding principles ?
Called as Panchseek (five restraints), these principles would serve as the basis of the Non-Aligned Movement. The five principles were:

Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty
Mutual non-aggression
Mutual non-interference in domestic affairs
Equality and mutual benefit
Peaceful co-existence

J.L Nehrus concept of nonalignment brought India considerable international prestige among newly independent states that shared India's concerns about the military confrontation between the superpowers and the influence of the former colonial powers. New Delhi used nonalignment to establish a significant role for itself as a leader of the Third World - the developing countries world.

Is Non-Alignement= Nuetrality ?

There are some who believed, it is not . Though the NAM countries was suppose to be taking no particular stance , in the later part of the movement they where seen, becoming close to some of the superpowers . The movement lost momentum ,with the lack of nuetrality . In 1990 , after a drive on global change with the abolishment of Soviet Union , Indian Foriegn policy depending much in its mediating status in NAM, got into a vaccum . However , Nature doesn't permit vaccum for long time. There was lot of change on Indian Foriegn policy thereafter . Suddenly from that vaccum, to raise the Nation,one has to think creatively .

We see from 1991 there were reforms in all directions . From Economic policy to foriegn policy India took different routes , then it had taken on the last 44 years . Today we see some of the results of new movement.

The results which has helped India to emerge as an economic superpower and build new relationship with USA which was the basis of present Civil Nuclear Deal.

Now , India is in a true sense a nuetral, and non-aligned country. It has re-written the scripture of popular perception that , you can gain the power , by waging war . India has shown the world , it can become powerful , with staying Nuetral . Isn't that a great innovation on Foriegn Policy , which should be patented ? Though no single goverment can claim the patent of it . All of them , has done thier bit .

Now you see , I am also practising my bit of Nuetrality :)

Global Governance - Right time for trying this option ?

The emergence of Global corporation has made it important , that the regulation, which has national restriction should have wider scope. The need of regulation ,which meets the global benchmark, is also growing. The sweeping credit crisis of 2008, is again raising the question, that much responsibilities has been shrugged of by the regulators, due to the complexity of the process, on deriving a regulation involving number of countries.

The success of EU and the G7 and other formats of governance, spreaded around multiple nations are gaining momentum . To make sure that we don't fall into a global financial crisis for irresponsible actions of one particular nation, it is important to explore the options of Global governance. With the G7 being holded right now in Japan , this issue of building up a global governence, which could lead us to better management of Food crisis, Oil Crisis, Climate crisis and Credit crisis should be worked out. The solution to these crisis, would involve thinking , beyond political border , within , a standard framework of Global Governance .

Colloborative research across continents

Yesterday, I attended a half-day EU Info seminar and could not post in the blog. I was invited by Dr. Andrew Sors who was the Minister-Counsellor,Head, Science and Technological Development in the Delegation of the European Commissionto India, Bhutan, Nepal.The Delegation is organising a series of Information Seminars concerning opportunities for Indian participation in EU research actions. The Seminar Series will be held in 8 cities which are important S&T hubs in India, during the period 7 – 18 July.

Each Seminar will be half a day in duration. The Seminar programme, registration details and further information are available at http://www.delind.ec.europa.eu/en/stcoop/fp7roadshow.htm

Well , European Commision is looking for stronger participation of India, in EU research activities which has thematic areas starting from ICT to Nanotechnologies , robotics,life sciences to Renewable energy . Interested research scientist and entreprenuers who are looking for further information can use the EC's portal in this space - http://cordis.europa.eu . It has all the information regarding the Research and Technology Development (RTD) and the related grants of Framework Program (FP7) . They says as it has all the details, and that's why ,it is hard to understand . So the need of this seminars.

EU Colloborative Research brings a lot of team across two different continents which is a rare experience in terms of meeting and networking with people of different culture and values , apart of the sheer joy of creating something new. EU has fairly transperent process. However , the problem is, it takes time to know about the entire set of parametres ,which comes into working ,while creating a EU proposal and getting a EU grant . I had an experience last year on participating in the process of creating a Grant proposal for EU where 7 organisations around the world participated . There where two from India, One from Israel, one from UK ,one from Sweden , One from France ( who later didn't participate) , and two from Italy . Quite a large number of people and enormous communication excercise with deep learning experience .

The age of Supra nationality ?

Europe has learned it after second world war . They had the experience of how the focus on physical territory and religion of nationalism can destroy the entire continent . So they continously put an effort, to create a higher union, which goes beyond physical territories and the religion of nationalism . The efforts has shown fruits with the establishment of G8+5 and European Union ,where there is larger co-operation between Nations, both in a informal and a formal way. Somehow , Asia as a continent has lacked those experience what Europe has gone through . That is the reason that Asian continent has not experienced such broader colloboration in all levels of economy , society and politics.

There is still proxy wars going between the countries in Middle East and South East Asia . The latest example is the Suicide Bomd Burst in Indian Emabassy in Afghanisthan which killed 41 people. There is no idea, when the nations of this continent will understand and think beyond physical territories, and give more priority to the people living in this continent, and thier economic and social salvation. Until that understanding takes root in the minds of leaders of these part of the world , there is little possibility to fight against the social evils together which all of them are suffering from.

Fighting against corruption : The way to global economic salvation

Corruption is one of the major element, which has decreased the ability of the global economic systems to fight poverty. Looking at the Millenium Development Goals (MDG), one would wonder, how far, we are on fighting poverty, in regards to the target year of 2015. There we could see ,that, lot of efforts of building effecient systems ,to make things work for common people,on eardicating poverty, are drained away by corruption. The latest example was the 'Oil-for Food scam' , where top officials of large scale global institutions are found to be involved . This kind of scams, are eye-openers, how the money, which goes to eradicate poverty, gets routed to different channels , and, often the purpose of the benefit of common people are ignored.

Though the problem of corruption, is fundamental to human society, and it exsisted in different forms across, different civilisation at different point of time. The real solution, lies on building process which could stop degeneration of human values. Some says, that the present world with the extensive usage of large scale IT systems and processes is well equiped to solve it . It's true that , with the present generation of technology sophistication , the chances of malpractices are decreased . However the orgination of corruption is in human mind . It is created by excessive lust and greed . How can technology solve this fundamental defects of human nature ?

That's why fighting against corruption is more internal that external . Without a strong battle with corruption , it looks impossible to visualise the way to global economic salvation.