India and Africa 4 eva!

I had been traveling the past three days, had gone to Vizag in Andhra Pradesh to attend a friend's wedding. The wedding went well, very traditional, and the food very sumptuous, and the city, well, quite hot and humid, but very livable. I plan to write more about my trip later.

In the past week, the Prime Minister of India visited two nations in East Africa - Ethiopia and Tanzania. Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, is also home to the head quarters of the African Union, hence the significance of his visit there, where he addressed the African Union and Heads of State of over 10 African nations. Addressing the second ever Africa-India Summit, the Prime Minister talked about all the right things, especially a greater third world partnership between the two economic blocs.

While for much of the western media, and perhaps any journalist/observer not from Africa/India/China, China's and India's parlays in Africa are more about gaining access to its resources than for the genuine reasons of diplomacy, good relations, and economic and cultural ties. 

Given my disinclination towards trusting the Chinese Government (not the people though. From what I read, their abilities to form opinions has been systematically eliminated - all part of the process to be a world superpower that rules through fear), I do know that respecting other nations does not form a part of their plan for world domination if being nice to others does not help them in that regard. As far as I know, its only recently that China actually started making parlays into African nations, giving them money, or rather, building projects for them - with Chinese money, using Chinese labour, and then using that as a quid pro quo for securing mining rights. That's pretty much how the Chinese have been operating. I would like to believe that while India has a need for resources, and that Africa is a great avenue to provide them, I think its just not in our international relations repertoire to be so obvious sometimes (which I think is a very good thing). Don't get me wrong, it amazes me at how sneaky the Chinese can be with so many other things in the world, with the latest example being propping up Christine Lagarde for IMF head and then getting together with the rest of the BRICS and issuing a statement against it! 

It is not that India and the nations of Africa are strangers to each other. To give the most proverbial of examples, Gandhi ji earned his chops in South Africa, to put it very crudely!

So instead of building a huge parliament building, or other infrastructure monuments, India has focused on sectors it is good at, and I believe sectors that genuinely help a nation stand on its own two feet, such as healthcare and education, just to give two examples. In fact, the Indian Railways, which may invoke strong emotions in many Indians, in good ways and bad, are a big factor in India's push, with India offering railway hardware and railway construction to the continent. The Chinese could have offered the technologies, but they're too busy building high-speed railways across the country, which well, are quite unreliable and of poor quality from what I hear, but my point is that the high speed railways will probably not do in most of the African continent. The African Union in fact requested India to assist with the USD 300 million Ethipia-Djibouti railway line, which will link the landlocked nation of Djibouti to the ports of Ethiopia, thus providing a quicker and safer mode of transport for goods and services in and out of the nation. Of course, sometimes one wonders how India manages to get ahead with its sensationalist and unintelligent media, who again sensationalize the move as India vs. China. Sorry, I don't think I should provide a link here to these tabloids.

In Ethiopia, India's Apollo Hospitals will build a super-speciality hospital for $150 million. Its a wonderful thing, because in the long term, it will have such an enabling effect on the people who will have access to better healthcare, research facilities that will attract the best medical talent in Ethiopia and yes, it won't be manned mainly by Ethiopian doctors and other professionals, thus enhancing their own abilities.

Similarly, the information technology sector is somewhere India has been doing very well in providing aid and resources to its African counterparts. While information technology hardware needs intensive capital investment, and probably depends a lot more on markets to obtain economies of scale, the IT services sector, especially the BPO/KPO sector can be a great spur for the local education landscape, because it will spur people to be educated because there are jobs available, and a big industry invariably supports a broader spectrum of support services and industries around it. So its good to read that Ghana has a desire to do well in this sector, and its a very good feeling to read that India's helping them. This is what the third world needs - just ego-less help and support for each other. In fact, the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in ICT in Ghana has been functional since 2003. In Ghana, India's also going to assist in a multi-thousand crore fertilizer project, another project that will go a long way towards agriculture and food security.

India's actually deeply involved in the INR 4,500 crore The Pan-African E-network project with the African Union, which will eventually connect all African nations by fibre optic cable and satellite links! The man who announced this program first was none other than India's great son, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

There have been similar strides in virtual education and telemedicine, aided by India's strong portfolio of satellites. IGNOU now has plans to open an Indo-Africa Virtual University soon which will focus on very very relevant and important subjects, such as health sciences, vocational training, food and nutritional security, and gender empowerment. IGNOU is already a part of the Pan-African E-network project.

Of course, one of the biggest areas where I have again and again written about the great support India and Africa can provide each other is medicine - cheap, affordable, and effective medicine, a concept which the big drug companies of the developed world can never relate to. If the rich white world had its way, they would have cut India's supply of cheap medicine to the third world a long time ago, and they never stop trying.

A big factor in any international relations is the people. It is my opinion that when governments actually try hard to increase people-to-people interaction, and genuinely invest in developing social and cultural ties, that's when relationships strengthen. India and Russia used to have that for many years, but that's all a thing of the past now. With more African airlines flying into India soon, I really hope a lot more African tourists visit India, and I really really hope our ignorant society does not treat them in its usual racist way - serve the white, scorn the black. Perhaps with more societal linkages, our society, ever lapping up the western pop culture, can realize how common we are to the cultures and cuisines in Africa, especially the east and north, a point which the Prime Minister also raised there.

For those interested, the Africa-India Framework for Enhanced Cooperation, released on 25th May, 2011 at Addis Ababa, is a good read on what the African Union and the Government of India think of as important going forward. For me, nothing will make me happier than to see the third world unite in this utopian picture I have that will make them independent - independent in their economies, and independent in their thought.

European Monetary Fund

The former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been in the news lately because he tried to rape a hotel employee in New York City. He's denied all charges, and has been let out on a bail of USD 1 million and a USD 5 million insurance bond. I think according to the latest news, his DNA has been found on the dress that the lady wore at the time he tried to rape her.

In such high profile cases, its quite possible that the actual truth might get muddied with a lot of conspiracy theories and special interests, and this is probably going to be another example of just that. However, this is where I stop talking about it.

Now that Strauss-Kahn has stepped down, the race to be the next MD of the IMF is speeding up, and a few names have already come to the fore, actually, just one, and Europe's already pushing all its might behind her. She's the Finance Minister of France, Christine Lagarde. According to many western media news sources, she's a popular candidate of the west, and the IMF itself. Somehow, my own impression of the news coverage of the BRICS, and other emerging economies' protest, is that they are reporting it as an irritant to the process, and that it will be once again, upon the west to help out the third world which can't seem to get its act together.

Lagarde, who would succeed countryman Dominique Strauss- Kahn and become the first woman to lead the Washington-based lender since its founding in 1945, now has the backing of Europe’s main economies and, according to her government, China. Brazil will also privately support her rather than backing her main rival, Mexican central bank governor Agustin Carstens, a Brazilian government official said.

“It’s looking like it’s almost a done deal for Lagarde,” Desmond Lachman, a former deputy director at the IMF and now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said by telephone. “The emerging markets can’t get their act together and back one candidate.”

The IMF executive directors representing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa did unite yesterday to protest publicly the presumption that the fund’s next chief once again be a European.

“We are concerned with public statements made recently by high-level European officials to the effect that the position of managing director should continue to be occupied by a European,” the directors, who serve on the IMF board, said in a statement yesterday. “If the fund is to have credibility and legitimacy, its managing director should be selected after broad consultation with the membership.”

I really don't know what game the Chinese are playing when they are supporting Lagarde's candidacy nonetheless, by allowing France to officially announce that she has the Chinese support as well.

The IMF and the World Bank have been the playgrounds of the Americans and the Europeans ever since they were formed, and these two entities are determined that it remains that way.

"It's a European consensus," Francois Baroin, France's budget minister and government spokesman, told Europe 1 radio.

"The euro needs our attention. We need to have the Europeans (on board), the Chinese support the candidacy of Christine Lagarde," he said.

The United States, who sources in Washington have said will back a European, and European nations have enough joint voting power at the IMF to decide who leads it.

I get the idea that the Americans and the western Europeans have already started taking the third world's opinions NOT seriously in this matter, and like I said, they probably consider that its just a minor irritant that they will be able to brush aside without much effort. Unfortunately, they may be right, unless the BRICS, being the most vocal of the third world economic blocs, raises its voice and shows that it is very serious when it says it believes in "abandoning the obsolete unwritten convention that requires that the head of the IMF be necessarily from Europe."

For the Europeans, the need to stay of top of the IMF appears to emerge primarily from the fact that their own economy is screwed up, and that controlling the agency will allow them to perhaps circumvent many rules and regulations that the IMF and the WB have historically forced the third world nations to be subjected to. That is my opinion.

According to the media, there seems to be a common theme in reporting - lack of unity. The Asians apparently are unwilling to support a non- Asian candidate, Brazil does not want to support a Mexican candidate, and China's supporting France because it does not have its own strong candidate. While at the same time, Europe and the US seem united in backing Lagarde.

Ah, I guess the world still has to be a white man's burden, but this time its to shamelessly protect their own economies while the developing world watches.

dabbling in slime

I have a great interest in Indian politics - I like to know what's going on, what kind of alliances are being made, and what kind of shenanigans committed by our elected leaders are ridiculously obvious. Of late, most of my interest in politics has been of extreme rage, I think mainly because of the obviousness of the deception that so many of the leaders at the national and state level are pulling and yet we've been either helpless to do anything or blind to see it. I believe its the first one that is more prevalent.

The last few years of the UPeeA regime have been an epoch in terms of Indian politics and governance, because this government demonstrated on a lot of fronts that no low is too low. What has been fascinating is the absolute brazenness with which the leaders of this country go about doing what they do best without a hint of fear, guilt, shame or anything else for that matter. Sometimes I just can't figure out what is bigger news - the societal/social aspect of such news or the political aspect.

Today for example, M. Karunanidhi's daughter, who is also a Member of Parliament in the Upper House, was denied bail and sent to jail for her role in the 2G Scam, one of UPeeA government's grand milestones in office. So I am not able to understand what the news is - that a wrongdoer who made money off the process is being punished, or that the DMK is angry at the CONgress for letting her go to jail?

I don't know, my fragile little mind is just unable to grasp what's important here. Blah, what does it matter anyway? Two dynastic political parties playing politics with each other shamelessly while the nation watches? So what else is new?

My personal opinion is that when it comes to subservience and sycophancy, the CONgress is an unbeatable party, but then i've been proven wrong for a lot of things in the past.

"There is no doubt the Congress is to be blamed for everything, even for Kanimozhi's arrest today. What have they done to help us? Nothing," said a former DMK minister angrily.

...there was a sense of shock and betrayal among DMK cadres in the run-up to the April 13 assembly elections over the arrest of former telecom minister A Raja in connection with the 2G spectrum scam. It is now boiling over into a deep resentment and anger against the Congress with the arrest of Kanimozhi on Friday.

So yes, I suppose I can say that those who have served the Karunanidhi family well would be shocked that their great leader's daughter is going to jail for something in which they all - the family, the party and some minions, they all made money. Hmm, but just like in international relations, so too in politics, there are no friends, only interests. So yes, now that the scam is done and the money divided and the scapegoat found, I suppose it was time to move on, but could it be that maybe even the CONgress felt that this time the general public seems a lot more restless and unwilling to move on so easily? So no worries, you show to them that you care and you get a few more people arrested.

Okay, we know that the system is entirely and completely twistable right? Maybe that's why the DMK is angry with the CONgress, because with the games these two are playing, I am sure they must've allowed the courts to go ahead and deny bail to her and arrest her. Its quite akin to the recent MMRCA decision to downselect the Americans - It was a political decision to let it be a technical decision. Of course all politicians are connected by similar thoughts and feelings and if nothing else, at least share an honour among thieves. So now that the Tamil Nadu elections are over, JJ is back in the saddle and the DMK is routed, thus comes the arrest of Kanimozhi. Sitaram Yechury may not be much of anything else, but at least he can see far into the future.

So despite all these claims that the law is slowly taking its course and slowly even the big names are coming under the scanner in all these scams, somehow the 'whiny bitch' in me tells that its all a farce which should die down once the population of this nation moves onto more important things such as more cricket, Bollywood tabloid stories and other good things.  

And what does your Prime Minister do? Well, he's the most adorable, impeccable, honest leader we've ever had, so lets just deal with this minor issue ourselves and leave him alone, shall we? What about the first family? Oh how can one even think they would even stoop to such level? Yes, its best we leave them alone too and deal with our own problems.

In fact, this quietness has been a hallmark of this government, which has gone about doing everything that it has been doing - good and bad - without any need or desire to tell the nation about it, or even attempt to explain or debate the issues. Of course, these people were brought back to power even stronger by the people of the country. I wonder what we have to say for ourselves now?

According to Shekar Gupta in the Indian Express:

From day one, UPA 2 seemed like it was embarrassed by the very factors that had given its voters such an aspirational belief. It was shy of talking growth, employment generation, modernisation, even national pride. It was shy of even sending a thank-you card of some kind to those who had voted it back to power.

This has been the quietest, the most shy government in India’s history, and nobody can govern this country from the trenches.

Because in a democracy, politicians must speak with people, to sell their ideas, plans, explain their mistakes, promise redress, and so on. But here, Sonia and Rahul rarely, if ever, speak in public. They almost never speak to the media or make an intervention in Parliament and rarer still on behalf of the government. The party behaves as if this government has been outsourced to bureaucrats. The prime minister too speaks rarely and his minders seem to not only draw great comfort from it, but also take pride in it, as if they have a prime minister they need to protect, and hide from public interaction and gaze.

This reminds me of that warm sunny day when the Prime Minister addressed the nation and talked about how one has to accept these things in coaltion politics. As the joke goes, the Prime Minister's response on the 2G scandal was - "I know only 2G - Sonia G and Rahul G."

and why global health needs more funds...

There's trouble brewing in Nairobi as the Government of Kenya seems unable to meet its commitment to increase funding towards health and HIV. Protesters have taken to the streets to force the government to keep its promise on this issue.

Marching along Nairobi's busy Thika Road, protesters waved posters urging Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and US President Barack Obama - who pledged during his presidential campaign to provide US$50 billion to fight HIV globally by 2013 - to keep their promises. Other placards read, "You Talk, You Talk, We Die!" and "Broken Promises Kill!"

Perhaps the Government of Kenya can keep its promise if the moneyed nations of the world, including the President Obama-led United States, can come together and increase funding for HIV and healthcare across Africa and other poor nations of the world. Of course, they will have to stave off the pressure from their own Big Drug, and that has always been a sticky wicket, considering their deep pockets and influential pull across political corridors in most major governments in North America, Europe and even Asia.

Quoting more from the news story:

Demonstrators cited recent groundbreaking research showing that antiretroviral (ARV) treatment drastically reduced HIV transmission among discordant couples as justification for more funding for the pandemic. An estimated 44 percent of new infections in Kenya occur among married or cohabiting couples.

Unfortunately, while the need for the western world's money to flow into research and support of the global effort against AIDS and other diseases needs to grow, it seems to be shrinking.

Two consecutive rejections by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, flat-lined funding from the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and an end to funding for paediatric ARVs from the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative have significantly dented Kenya's ability to fund its AIDS fight.

The country has put more than 400,000 people on ARVs, but another 600,000 need the drugs and have no access to them; an estimated 1.5 million Kenyans are infected with HIV.

In 2010, the national budget set aside an unprecedented 900 million Kenya shillings - about $10.5 million - for the purchase of ARVs, and the activists said the government's most recent application for $340 million for HIV from the Global Fund had been successful. However, this will still not cover Kenya's funding gap for HIV, which is estimated at $1.67 billion up to 2013.

Trying to look at this issue from a third person's point of view, who is sitting far away from Kenya and belonging to a country which says it has all the signs of being an economic power, I can understand that the Kenyans' first expectation to support the research and funding towards HIV is from their government, but I can't help but note that the Government of Kenya, in itself, it not too strong an entity financially, as a relatively smaller global economy, to make adequate funding towards research and eradication. Now if Kenya, which, comparatively, is one of the more well to do states in Sub-saharan and western Africa, is facing funding trouble, how can the poorer nations of the region be expected to do any better? But as we can see in the world around us, when it comes to the environment and global healthcare, I think nations will just have to buckle up and try to take care of themselves, because more often than not, global promises of support are not met. Now some countries such as India choose not to do anything domestic healthcare despite having resources and power of mobilization, but suffer from acute shortsightedness and lack of will to do anything, but I do hope the governments in Africa will not be so incompetent in this issue.

I hate myself

I hate myself. I hate myself because I want to rant about this world's excessive dependence on oil, this world's excessive and gratuitous production and consumption (barring the millions in the poorest of nations who simply do not figure at all in our frame of reference) and my own inability to not be able to lead a life that cuts down its dependence on the modern forces of production and most unfortunately, consumption.

I say I love nature, and so do the millions of people who buy things sourced from factories consuming coal, fresh water, wood, etc and spewing out sludge and fumes. We all have this good intention in our heart and yet we just can't resist buying that new phone, or that new gadget, or whatever modern products that our bursting economies have access to.

That's what frustrates me. An individual is weak, and individuals form societies, and societies form government, so should it be hard for me to fathom that the global government structure will not be able to find a way out of this ravage of our natural resources because there is simply no other choice? Do we stop living the lives that we are living now? Can we change our lifestyle? Can we stop taking the bus, taking the train, taking the plane, or stop driving the millions of cars and other vehicles covering every corner of inhabited land on the planet?

There are still regions on that planet that host a number of species of flora and fauna and where the tentacles of human consumption and this need to be in control have not reached yet, and such regions have long been in the firing range of the numerous global supermajor oil and gas exploration companies, who are just salivating to drill. Since this whole world revolves around what the United States thinks and does, so obviously we need to pay attention to whats going on there, because what they follow in policy, they have a great tendency to make others follow soon as well. Of course, its not a one way street of course. When the world wants to get together on things such as Kyoto, then the supercop will have nothing to do with it. Sure the Obama administration is keen to increase penalties on erring oil & gas companies and increase their own ability to tackle disasters, both financially and legislatively, but what is lacking from the developed west, with most of the financial resources and talent teeming in their research labs, is the drive to discover and invent and strengthen sources of renewable energy. That hurts me. This should be a global mission, because oil can't be replaced overnight, but what this world can do in earnest, is find ways to make it more sustainable. Acres and acres of forests are being felled everyday in the Earth's tropical forests to make paper that will be turned into credit card mail spam and toilet paper for most of the developed world.  

Gratuitously consume, baby, gratuitously consume. 

Here I am, a treehugger worrying about what will happen to this planet as more people consume more and as more third world nations begin adapting the lifestyles of the rich nations, but the priorities of the world are totally different. A big multi-billion deal between two oil and gas giants from the western and the uhh, Russian world to drill in a most pristine Arctic region breaks down and the financial media reports that the failure of the deal puts the region back on the block for other companies to pounce on!  What hurts me most is that I am a foot soldier in the same economy and am too weak to do anything about it.

So the region that we are talking about in this deal between BP and Rosneft is the Kara Sea. Its north of Siberia, and home to a number of endangered species such as polar bears, walruses and beluga whales. According to news sources, this region is also one with very perilous weather, thus implying that it will be difficult to put in place the entire gamut of technologies and construction which will make drilling safer and less polluting for the surroundings, and thus if a disaster occurs here, then it'll be environmental armageddon for the entire region.

India and China, well, as so-called leaders of the third world economic renaissance, say that they can't allow their economies to sputter because of these so called environmental concerns because they have every right to provide their citizens with the same comforts and facilities that the developed world is able to provide its citizens. Point taken, but why do these nations miss the point that the third world needs to embrace nature and a more sustainable way of development not because the developed world is forcing it to, but because it needs to to ensure and strengthen its own long term survival. 

To give a small example - in a global economy, consumption leads trade, and that consumption, for the most part, is coming from the developed countries. Now what happens to the whole production juggernaut in a small country making cotton textiles for a European country when that European country is no longer able to pay for them? With the way Europe is going these days, I can foresee days of severe austerity ahead of them, and I think it was a long time coming. 

An issue raised today is that electricity produced from renewable sources, such as solar or wind power, is much costlier per unit than electricity produced from conventional sources. That is the gap that the world needs to bring together now. If the last two hundred years of innovation and discovery have shown anything, it is that the possibilities are endless, but only if the resolve is there. There is no reason why solar energy can't be harnessed more, by developing better technologies, just to give an example.

Why would it hurt India to prod every home in this country to go for rain water harvesting? Why can't societies and colonies across the country get together and collectively implement it? The same with solar energy. I occasionally read some commentary on how India gets ample sunlight throughout the year, and how it can be harnessed.

But but but, most importantly, the issue lies in not how we can feed our consumption better, but how we can make our lifestyle more sustainable. This is the biggest failure of our civilization, that we simply can't protect the environment from the spillovers of our lifestyle, be it dirty water which we fail to clean, dirty air which we fail to purify, hydrocarbon products that continue to choke and kill animals on land and sea, and our inability to use our own resources and technologies efficiently. I've already said it before and i'll say it again, humankind will kill all the species on this planet which do not adapt to our lifestyle. Dogs, cats, crows, pigeons can stay.

Supreme Court on Endosulfan

When I wrote about Endosulfan last week, I ended my post with a note saying that the Supreme Court's decision was due to arrive shortly then. Since then, the Supreme Court has indeed passed its comments, and they have banned the production and use of the drug for the next eight months, till they receive and study two research reports currently being prepared on the issue.

Even then, I had said that even though the cost on human life and health is great because of the use of the drug, that is not the only factor that the government and the judiciary must consider when deciding on the merits or demerits of taking a decision on it.

For one, what alternative does the farmer have if not Endosulfan? Unfortunately, none, or at least none that is safer than Endosulfan. With the Supreme Court banning the production and use of the pesticide, many farmers are up in arms because they fear without the drug, the success of their crop will be in serious jeopardy. Besides, the industry is estimated to be worth Rs. 500 crore, and probably employs a substantial number in the organized and unorganized sector.

And of course, as I had written earlier, one simply can't dismiss the serious economic costs of putting an end to its use. One point raised by the Solicitor General was that Endosulfan still did not have any conclusive evidence of its toxicity, and that perhaps the sufferings in Kasargod were a result of its over-excessive use, which some other media reports point to as well.

A distinct characteristic of a free (well, relatively free in our case) society is that you can question even the person who gives the judgement. So the association of manufacturers questioned the very right of the Supreme Court in this matter to pass judgement, and thus, they said, over arch themselves into the executive domain. When the government of India has checks and balances in place to monitor and report on the use and 'alleged' effects of using the pesticide, why should the judiciary get involved in it?

The sad fact is that the government still has not conducted any thorough study till date. Had such a study been conducted, and there was some greater understanding on the actual toxicity of the drug in humans, flora and fauna, then perhaps the steps to counter it could have been started much earlier. Of course, the system in India is not designed to pre-empt anything. Its only meant to shuffle around AFTER tragedies occur. Thus, as the Supreme Court rightly said, when the issue becomes the protection of life itself, then the protection of business interests and all other interests become secondary.

Respect to TISS and its students

A hallmark of a free society is its free people. People who have a right to criticize their government, their leaders, politicians, or anybody who holds an elected office. People who have a right to have a stake in the decisions by their governments that will affect them, their society and their country.

In my opinion, a hallmark of a modern society is its aware and active student body. Revolutions have been born in colleges! It pains me to see India's higher education system totally devoid of that higher understanding for issues, and an absolute disinterest in the affairs of the nation. It pains me to see the student bodies in the many engineering colleges, business schools, medical schools remain blissfully unaware of issues that affect our society. Social awareness is something that our society lacks in general, but our youth lack in particular. Most urban youth population is too busy chasing money, material wealth and superficial happiness. The few institutions that I have always respected for having that iota extra of social awareness, and not being afraid to express it, are JNU and TISS, and with all apologies to other colleges that espouse a similar culture of freedom of expression and thought, I can't think of any other institution.

My respect for TISS grew after they protested against Jairam Ramesh who came to give out their convocation degrees and told him that clearing Jaitapur was not right. I feel its this kind of student activism that maybe, just maybe makes politicians see some reason before they take decisions on important issues. At the same time, are there any scruples left at all in this country's ruling polity?

STRESS ON SAFETY: Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh talks to students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, who protested on Wednesday against the environmental clearance for the Jaitapur nuclear plant in Maharashtra. Photo: Vivek Bendre

‘Don't paint me villain'

“Don't paint me villain in the Jaitapur issue. There is need for greater communication with the public, especially by the NPCIL and the government of Maharashtra.”

He said the present growth in India was imbalanced. “We have growth at all costs. It is imbalanced.” He was increasing awareness among the policy-makers of the environmental cost of growth. “We also don't want environmental protection at all costs. We need a balance,” he said. 

Vague, vague statements. Well, if we have to argue about the possibility of disaster, then the entire Tehri dam could just break and ravage everything in its path, so then one could argue to ban hydroelectric energy. Somehow, when it comes to nuclear energy, I dont know why but i get a feeling that India's absolutely ignoring a greater focus on developing and pushing alternative energy options, perhaps not to replace the traditional sources of power such as coal/gas, but at least make many homes in the vast hinterland and cities much more self-sufficient by simply using the power of the sun or the water from the rains.

more spine please.

Over the past few years, i've been coming to realize that our's is a society of ants. You can stamp out a few, but the colony lives on. If you put block a trail of ants, they will simply start looking for ways to go around, and be well on their way. It seems we are exactly the same species. If somebody stamps out a few of us, we will simply keep going on with our business.

I have not been afraid to make a very sweeping statement lately - India's societies are very, very tolerant towards injustice. Right from our social lives - where girls will be chided for wearing revealing clothes and attracting the attention of male monkeys, while we will simply not comprehend, or will not want to comprehend, that its the male monkey who should be punished, and punished severely. Its the same with our attitude towards crimes against women and children. We simply stop, pause, and move on.

At a more geopolitical level, I am quite sure no country is in any doubt that we're a very soft state. Our Prime Minister seems to be trying to go out of his way to mend ties with Pakistan, who well, will probably never see any reason in peace with India because if there is no India to hate, the glue that binds that country together will start weakening. Hating India is what keeps the Army in control, it's what keeps the rabid Mullahs going, and any peace with India, or even acknowledgement of the fact that we (the Pakistani society), are not going anywhere but down because of this, will never come because it will hurt that fragile econo-system created there. 

But this is not about Pakistan. This is about the resolve of my politicians who rule this country. More often than not, and despite my hopes that "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy", I just don't see most of these politicians to be really that good at thinking at a strategic and geo-political level.

Time and time again, our nation is bombed, our people are killed, and yet somehow I fail to see that seething anger for change, to avenge, or at least seek justice. That's when I remember my own belief, that our society has become too tolerant towards injustice. That's why we have such patronizing lines from the supercop such as Committed to bring 26/11 perpetrators to justice: US. With all due respect to whatever their intentions are, how can the US be committed to bring the perpetrators of 26/11 to justice when India itself is not committed to bring the perpetrators of 26/11 to justice!

Nothing could make me happier than to believe that there is something deeper at play in the Government of India's dealings with the rest of the world, and even at times when I feel our politicians are bending over backwards to please somebody else, or simply bending over at being bullied, I always want to believe that there is some deeper game at play. The MMRCA decision for example. The government said that the down-select was entirely a technical decision based on the best understanding of the IAF. Now even the fact that it was entirely a technical decision was actually a political decision to let it be an entirely technical decision! Surely quality and technical evaluation is not the only factor at play at such a juncture where the President of the US is lobbying for his country's corporation's hardware!

However, as many pointed out, if India and the US have to have a strategic relation based on trust, then sale of some hardware, though a big number in its own right but definitely a small number in the long run, should only be a blip. I do hope everybody gets that. How India's foreign relations with the US and the rest of the world pan out in future, well, that remains to be seen.

Before I went on my internship at an investment bank, I used to think that investment banks and consultancies are all-knowing, and they know so many more things that the common populace does not know. During my internship, i realized that even banks and consultancies work on public information, but the way they glean the maximum available information, and the various ways in which they employ them, is what keeps the business alive. Sometimes I use the same analogy for international relations.

Surely our politicians in seats of power know a lot more than us, and surely the Government of India's cabinet ministers have access to information that can probably shake the foundations of the way we think about our country and others, but at the same time, sometimes I feel we give them too much credit, about knowing what they are doing. The same with India, Russia, US, China, Mexico, whoever. Sometimes maybe a spade is just a spade. Some people believe that governments are all knowing, but it could be argued that it works out in the governments' interest for people to believe they know a lot more than they do!

In the attacks on Mumbai in November of 2008, citizens from many nations were killed. Since we all know how some lives are more important than the others, there's a trial on in the American city of Chicago against 4 Pakistanis charged with plotting towards the terrorist attack. My point is that the US is doing it because some Americans were killed in the attack too, but what will the government of India do to bring justice to the many others who died that day? Or to the families of those who die almost every day in all parts of the nation?

I want to see things happen on the ground. I want to see some justice being meted out in my country against terrorists, against shameless sellout politicians, this whole unscrupulous nexus of politicians, journalists, businessmen that makes a mockery of morals, rules, regulations, the norms that modern society is built on. I want our society to grow some spine, to raise a voice against injustice. Till we remain weak and hollow inside, everybody's going to take us for granted.

Investment, not charity

The Fourth UN Conference for the world's poorest countries recently concluded in the Turkish city of Istanbul. The conference is also referred to by its shortened name - LDC-IV. Over 7000 delegates attended the conference - Heads of States of the world's poorest nations, members of international aid agencies and other stakeholders. The parting theme of the conference - the world's poor nations do not need aid, they need investment.

The poorest nations of the world are not just a vague group of countries, but have been designated as such by the United Nations on a number of parameters. There are 48 nations in the world that are designated as LDC's, or Least Developed Countries, representing 900 million of the world's population, or 12% of the population.

Speaking at the Conference, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon made these three points:

“Investing in LDCs is an opportunity for all,” said Mr. Ban. “First, it is an opportunity to relieve the world’s most vulnerable people of the burdens of poverty, hunger and needless disease. This is a moral obligation.

 

“Second, investing in LDCs can provide the stimulus that will help to propel and sustain global economic recovery and stability. This is not charity, it is smart investment.

 

“Third, it provides a massive opportunity for South-South cooperation and investment. The world’s rapidly emerging economies need both resources and markets.”

The South- South cooperation that the Hon'ble Secretary General talks about is, in my opinion, going to one of the cornerstones of this century, as the "poor, the backward, the native, the non-WASP, the third world, whatever slang and description that has been used to call them by the rich folks", will emerge out of the shadow of influence of their former colonialists or their trading partner or their aid giver. Global trade is one issue where I have always called for a greater south-south cooperation because I know, and I am sure most people know, that global trade was never equal or fair. It was always skewed to suit the policies of the United States, followed by the European Union, the two biggest markets in the world, and hence, the creators of the axiom that the customer is always right. They have been pretty successful till now enforcing it in earnest, creating barriers, imposing tariffs, and all other tricks of the trade (no pun intended).

I can't recall how many times I have read about the tussle between European Union and the textile exporting nations of the world, with EU imposing some restriction or the other regularly. However, now I feel that globalization is finally happening the way it should be - with a certain degree of equality and fairness, as countries begin to think for themselves, and stop following what the IMF/WB or a western trade representative tells them. The WTO is something that will never be agreed to by all the nations of the world together.

I think I had written somewhere that this is not just a trade problem, but a problem of ideology. The western model is that based on global trade, growth, manufacturing, and basically an equal opportunity for all to make a profit for themselves. Thus fairness and equal opportunity in the system is apparently one of the hallmarks of the western model. Unfortunately, as I grew older and read more, I realized that this fairness and equal opportunity is basically extended by the west to its own members. So the US will heavily subsidise its farmers who will then dump all that grain and corn to other countries at throwaway prices which will make their own farmers uncompetitive. And then they'll charge India of protectionism. Ah fairness.

Coming back to the issue at hand, one of the biggest short-cuts we take in our thinking about the LDC's today is that we assume that most, if not all, of them are on the continent of Africa. That is absolutely not true.

The LDC's need to come together to cut down aid, or rather, change it to investment. But when that happens, what will happen to this huge ecosystem of aid agencies? When money turns into investment, the poor country will not need an aid agency's member (or a missionary), but somebody who will execute the project on the ground and help the country set it up. So what will happen to the many charity balls that take place for the third world, where dinner plates go for many thousands of US dollars? How will the thousands of youth from North America and western Europe get to travel to a poor third world nation and return with a halo on their head and tell about it at parties? Basically, how will thousands of people then be able to donate to their televangelists who will bring the glory of the Lord (and food with it) to the downtrodden in Africa or some other poor nation elsewhere? Wait, the last one is another story.

As I talk of a greater south-south cooperation in trade, there needs to be a greater south-south cooperation even in aid and development. I had talked of this a little yesterday when I said that the economic powers from the third world, especially India and China are investing in such development projects all across Africa, but perhaps for their own reasons. This seems more true for China, which has inked deals worth billions with a number of African nations with significant mineral resources.

I have wondered often why agriculture has never really been an issue linked with African development, at least I have never read any writing calling for greater agriculture in Africa. However, it seems there is a call to make agriculture a priority on the continent. There has been a recent trend in Africa where rich farmers from India and China have been buying vast swathes of land on the continent and using it to grow flora such as flowers, fruits and other products for export mainly to Europe. While this is commerce in its own right, it is still pure business, and growing roses for Europe will definitely employ many local citizens, it just means that the resources of that region, such as fertilizer and water, are going into growing export products, and the owner is not even a citizen of that country! Some have gone as far as to label it the second wave of imperialism.

However, the agriculture that Africa needs is not exactly this, but of a more humble, more life-sustaining kind. According to Claire Ngozo writing in the Allafrica.com article linked above,

The report ("A World Without LDC's", by the Civil Society Forum) argues that many developed countries have heavily subsidised their farmers and dumped food in the South through international supply chains in the form of food aid. "As a result, many LDCs have become net food importers and have been unable to benefit from the recent rise in prices of food commodities," the report said.

Rising food prices have pushed 44 million more people into poverty in the ten months since June 2010, according to The World Bank.

Thus, if we have to talk of investment, it does not necessarily mean investing in giant factories or manufacturing units, and investment certainly should not become just another word for aid. Despite the lack of human development and education in the third world, there is a lot of potential in a lot of ways in these countries, exactly the point that the Conference made. Nepal, for example, hosts the highest mountain peak in the world, something which draws numerous mountaineers, tourists and the like to it every year. Certainly the Sagarmatha is not the only great attraction the country has, and it has all the reasons to have a profitable hospitality and tourism industry that will generate direct employment for thousands and indirect employment for millions. Even agriculture on the African continent. There is an impending food grain crisis upon the world according to many sources, and many regions of Africa can provide for arable land and water sources to increase their agricultural output multi fold, but what that would need is investment in technology, seeds and fertilizers. Now these are not just the domains of a developed country, but a lot of developing nations have made rapid strides in agriculture.

If all of the South got together today and said they would help out each other with agricultural technology, animal husbandry, education and healthcare, and other economic and social sectors, and did it earnestly, we could indeed see a world without LDC's. "Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished."

Always time for Africa

I've been so busy with work lately that I hardly have had time to sit down on the computer and spend some quality time blogging. The fact that i've been working Saturdays for the past two weeks, not on my own accord but because due to company policy, made it even worse. Sunday's came and went, and left me the same - tired, totally not refreshed, and basically just not in a mood to write.

I've been so tired of doing the same things, looking at the same people, that I have these great urges to just be around new people. So the past two sundays I have spent some time at the Phoenix Mills mall here in Lower Parel, just to walk around, take in the scenery and just look at different people doing different things. There is just so much commerce around me, even in that speck of land that it often makes me feel so small. People buying something as pricey as an Armani suit to something as everyday as a kilo of vegetables.

In such a state of mind, anybody's philosophical bent automatically sharpens itself, or so I believe, and one starts to think about everything and anything under the sun, and at least for me, I started to think about this concept called happiness, the love of money, the need for affection, the exact meaning of being content, etc etc. Without doubt, when one is down, one looks at others happiness with a sense of envy, and even jealousy. At such times, when obviously everybody else seems to be much happier than you are, you begin to think of things such as unfairness, wrong, injustice, and why is God not giving you a break. As one falls further into this whole, then one starts questioning the very concept of God. Is there a God? Can there be a higher force that has purposefully designed such a world which is chaotic, brimming with its pain and misgiving and crime.

When I begin thinking of Africa, I begin to question the concept of a higher being even more. The hunger, the oppression, the physical and mental slavery that this continent has faced is beyond words. I often question, and pray (!!!) for an answer, are there different Gods for different races and people? This very concept itself is riddled with points and counterpoints. Its something to think about, definitely, but its not what I want to talk about. 

I've always wanted to be associated with the continent of Africa. Though I'm almost projecting the continent in the same stereotype that I often remind people of - projecting the continent as a land of homogenous people and similar cultures, the fact is that I love all of it. I've always wanted to go there, and I thought I almost had a chance to go and work there, in Kenya to be precise, but unfortunately things just didn't pan out in that direction. One fact that has always, and always pricked me, and i've often ranted about it here, is the total lack of media reporting on vast swathes of land which simply do not figure on the power list of the world. South America, though quite a well to do region with many advancing countries, though also filled with rife, is one, and the biggest overlook when it comes to global news as to be Africa. The seed of humankind for history books but not important enough to be reported to the rest of the world. 

I've been meaning to write on African issues more, and have started on an article on the need for aid in Africa, or rather, the need to not have aid. A very common proverb is applicable to the poor nations of Africa/other parts of the world that rely on the aid from the developed countries - give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, and teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life. Many regions of Africa are now dependent on this aid which the west tomtoms as its great support to the poor in Africa. Yet where is the investment in opportunities that will allow the poorest of African nations to earn a decent living daily, while strengthening the commerce of their country? Unfortunately that is not coming from the rest of the world.

India and China are now hounding the continent for resources, and while China has just plain offered it billions of its money and set up some snazzy complexes in exchange for its massive resources of ores and coal, India apparently has been more dedicated in the support it provides, even if it is quid pro quo. They've set up schools, some modest beginnings in IT and telemedicine are there, and one sector where India has been making a difference is in generic drugs. I wrote a long time ago on this blog about how the diseases of the third world are something the big drugs from the west mean nothing if they do not get their margins. For long they've lobbied against generic drugs for AIDS and other diseases being sold there, but till now, fortunately, they have not been able to armtwist the process.

If I have to be a hateful little wet blanket, then I will have to say that its not time for Africa just when its most developed country is hosting the football world cup so the masses of this world who otherwise don't give a rat's ass can dabble in some folk music, bright colors and come up with folk-art resembling designs on products, this world needs to make time for Africa every day. But I will say this, to counter my own argument, that awareness is important, and while even I am guilty of only talking about issues still, I must make a sincere effort to be more aware of whats going on, be ready to stand up for those issues, remove prejudices and misconceptions, and I am quite positive that the good vibes definitely will lead to something better.

I've RSS'ed news from http://www.allafrica.com/ on my desktop, and I am getting to read news from all across the continent, news which aren't even reported on Google. They're talking about the peace process in Khartoum, how the President of Nigeria has appointed 13 women as ministers, and how a political deal has cleared the way for 2012 elections in Lesotho. Good to look beyond whats happening in the developed west or India's tabloid media coverage.

Endosulfan - economics versus biodiversity

The Kasaragod district is the northernmost district in the state of Kerala, adjacent to the more famous district of Kannur. The administrative center of the district is the Kasaragod town. Just like most of Kerala, the district has the beautiful Western Ghats on the east, and the mighty Arabian Sea touches its western shores. It is actually the second smallest of the 14 districts of Kerala, but that doesn't amount to much in a relatively small state.

According to the provisional population totals done in the 2011 Census of India, the district has a total population of 1,302,600, with a favorable Male-Female ratio at 626,617 males to 675,983 females. The literacy rate is also very high, at 89.95% for the entire district population. Keeping everything else aside, the district like most of Kerala is beautiful, green and steeped in history and culture.

So why should I talk of this tiny, relatively calm and happy district among the more than 650 districts in the country? Because the people of this district have been paying the massive human cost of using the insecticide, Endosulfan, now banned in most most countries as others are in the process of banning it. First, using my readily available friend Wikipedia, let me try to learn, for my own sake too, what Endosulfan really is.

Endosulfan is a highly toxic insecticide and acaricide (something which kills ticks and mites), which has the potential to accumulate in the human body, thus making it a dangerous substance and in addition, it is an endocrine disruptor, meaning it affects the normal functioning of the human hormonal glands. If such is the case, the first question one would ask is that why is this insecticide still out there? I think that answer lies not just in the history of Endosulfan but also a lot of organo-chemical drugs that have been developed by the scientific community over the past decades. Many of them at first seem like a great innovation but its only their sustained use and their long term reactions on human beings and other flora/fauna that bring out their real affects.

Two famous chemicals that follow this story and most of us are aware of are DDT and MSG. Both these drugs are now banned in most countries after it has been shown by various scientific studies and experiments that the long term repercussions from these drugs are far worse than the apparent short term gains. MSG in fact, was for many years a favorite flavour used in food items around the world, especially fast food noodles from Japan, considering that the Japanese company, Ajinomoto, actually created this substance and Ajinomoto became a common name for it. Apparently MSG is still commercially produced because most of its opposition is based on anecdotal evidence, but its use has been severely limited in food items, especially in the developed nations. Though time and again, there have been questions raised about the authenticity of the claims that it is bad. This article by Alex Renton in The British newspaper, The Guardian is actually very insightful and a very good read, and he's actually done some good research into the background of MSG, and the issues surrounding it.

Coming back to Endosulfan, it is my strong belief that due to the third world's inherent poverty and the inability of most of their populations to pay the extra cost of shifting to a new mode of production or consumption, allows many of the bad substances to extend their shelf life a little longer. Similarly, on a more sinister scale, their continued demand in such countries allows the makers of those substances to make in some extra money as their developed markets dry up. If this situation occurs when it comes to food items, it becomes especially dangerous, and more often than not, the society and/or the government of that third world nation itself is too unaware, or simply helpless, to do anything about.  

Just to quote an example from The Guardian article linked above, the writer writes - 

Thus since 1968 the processed food industry has had its own nasty headache as a result of MSG. Hundreds of processed products would have to be withdrawn if amino-acid based flavour-enhancers could not be used. They would become, simply, tasteless.

So the food industry employed its usual tactic in the face of consumer criticism: MSG was buried by giving it new names. The industry came up with a fabulous range of euphemisms for monosodium glutamate - the most cheeky of all is 'natural flavourings' (however, the industry did remove MSG from high-end baby foods).

Nowadays the industry's PR beats a big drum. 'Natural, Tasty, Safe' is the slogan. 'Many people believe that monosodium glutamate is made from chemicals. Monosodium glutamate is a chemical in the same way that the water we drink and the oxygen we breathe are chemicals,' explains an MSG website.

When I think of it, this same logic is used by big corporates everywhere and I see it most prominently in the Genetically modified foods issue. Some call them the stuff that will bring food to the tables of the poorest third world citizens, some call it something more sinister. My personal stance on them, with whatever little knowledge I have, is that I am firmly against them.

Endosulfan, now banned in over 80 countries, is one of the substances that has been banned under the Stockholm Convention that took place in 2011. It will be completely banned in 2012 with exceptions to certain use. So a substance that has been banned in over 80 countries is still produced by the government of India through the Hindustan Insecticides Limited. On a side note, one of its "premier" products is still DDT. Thus, with so much information supporting both sides, and such a blank void in between, naturally one wouldn't know what to think. For the farmer, getting cheap insecticides from the government, and which seem to be working efficiently, is probably more important than the many studies done by men in lab coats telling him that it can cause cancer and other potentially fatal harm.

The official stance of the Government of India is that it will take a decision only upon proof of the adverse affects of the insecticide. The report from Indian Council of Medical Research is what the government is waiting for. According to Mr. Jairam Ramesh,

“If there is evidence to show that it has all-India health effects, we will ban it at the national level.” However Mr. Ramesh claimed that Endosulfan was a broad spectrum pesticide and there were no other cost-effective alternatives to it as yet. He knew about the disaster in Kasaragod and had asked for more evidence. “Some people say there are other districts in Karnataka, which have also been affected. I am very sensitive to this issue,” he said.There are two points I want to raise in this - one, while Kerala Government has banned the drug since 2005, it has only been now that the national government is actually looking to find out the details of this insecticide and form an opinion. The second point is that as Mr. Ramesh points out, there are no cost-effective alternatives to it as yet. This second point fits perfectly with the point I had raised earlier that for the third world nations, the economic cost of replacing a substance with such a widespread and critical use is just too high to cast aside.

It is not just the Government of India which was napping, but perhaps the entire country, because the effects of Endosulfan till now has been widespread in a very small region. In fact, when the ban on Endosulfan was discussed in the Stockholm Convention, India raised a strong protest against banning the substance, which I am sure was done purely from an economic point of view. Keep in mind that India is the world's largest exporter of the product, and already there is a strong lobby of Endosulfan manufacturers who say that there is nothing wrong with the substance. I hear news now that India has said it will support the ban, with exceptions.

The matter is now with the Honourable Supreme Court, and one can hope that at least this institution, can give its opinion without any political or economic considerations, and purely from the point of view of what the law seems right or wrong, devoid of emotions. The children, aged, the flora and fauna of the region in and around the northern Kerala district have suffered a great loss which is linked directly to the use of endosulfan, and it is high time the government, and other stakeholders got together to work towards a better alternative. Whatever the official stance of the Government of India, for 80 countries to ban it worldwide, I am sure there is strong reason to believe of its harmful effect on biodiversity. In fact, I believe that the broader issue of a second green revolution needs to be looked at in our country in earnest because if its endosulfan today, it will be something else tomorrow. For too long has our agriculture, which includes the issues of fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, etc, has been looked at and handled in a piecemeal manner. It is way more important than that for us and for our future.  

Post the fall of Berlin Wall

There is a topic which has always fascinated me and made me question - how has the unification of Germany been?

I must admit that I have not made a sincerely concerted effort to really delve into the matter much, but I have read whatever I have come across on this subject, and frankly, I have not come across much. Writing entirely from my own ignorance on the subject at this moment, what i know is this - the two Germany's, by the end of the 1980's, were vastly different in terms of their economic capabilities and material progress. The West was the developed, capitalist nation with a vast global trade, world beating companies and good public relations. The East was well, an ally of the USSR, and thus, on the other side of the capitalists. It was economically weak, poorer people and barely getting by. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the unification of Germany happened alongside the historically symbolic event of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Since then, since the two regions (as opposed to calling them countries/nations since they were more or less the same peoples) were so different economically, the unification was not without its major problems and issues. With a lot of economic wealth that the West Germans had to share with their East German fellow citizens, there was a lot of disagreement among them. Once in a while I hear opinions that the unification is still not a completely over process, even in the economic and infrastructural sense.

The Berlin Wall has been one of the most notable symbols of war, and how it divides societies that are similar in every way, including language and culture. Germany itself, after WW II and the defeat of the Nazi Party, was bombed into oblivion, and divided by the Cold War parties - the US and Soviet Union. The wall was constructed to prevent the East Germans from migrating/defecting to the more prosperous West Germany, and eventually Western Europe and North America.

The Wikipedia page on the Berlin Wall is all about the US and what it did and didn't do, and talking about that, or them, is not my purpose. Besides, there is a whole international relations aspect to this story, about who supported the reunification, who opposed it, and for what reasons. Just to round up on the wall, which was built in 1961 and finally brought down in 1990 with the unification of Germany on October 3, eventually was chipped into pieces by thousands of souvenir seekers and maybe even residents of the Berlin city who saw it as a dark evidence of their city's, and nation's history.  

The German international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, has an article on the German reunification written in 2010, two decades after the process was started. It does corroborate what I believed to the issues with the reunification process. The infrastructure can be put in place quickly, I think, but what is difficult is bringing the citizens of the two regions to come around and accept each other as one. The elderly East Germans, loyal to the communist cause and having lived all their lives like that, never really allowed themselves to integrate, I read in an article sometime ago.

Economy, undoubtedly, is the key measurable indicator of the reunification process. On that front, the DW article says:

Just about every eastern German city and town has been thoroughly renovated. And while income and other economic indices in the East are only 70 to 80 percent of what they are in the West, costs of living - especially for rent - are commensurately lower.

As of July 2010, unemployment in the east (11.5%) was nearly double what it was in the West (6.6%), and an astonishing 50 percent of the 80 billion euros ($103 billion) in annual developmental subsidies transferred from west to east is eaten up by social benefits and welfare payments.

Some 1.6 million people have relocated from east to west since 1990, most in search of better job opportunities, and that trend shows no sign of letting up. Moreover, sociologists speak of a "brain drain" from the East since it's the better educated who make up the majority of those who leave. (so the brain drain that the original Berlin Wall aimed to stop from the East is still happening!)

The current German chancellor, Angela Merkel, hails from the East, although many Germans tend to forget that fact.

The Left Party, the successor to the old socialist party in Communist East Germany, combined with left-wing fringe parties from the West, has established itself as a mouthpiece for disgruntled easterners.

The establishment of the Left Party as a form of peaceful political protest can be seen as evidence of eastern Germans' adoption of western democracy. But it has also deepened many western Germans' sense of a cultural divide between them and their fellow citizens.

The social changes, as I said before, are more difficult to come by, and met with greater resistance.

Ostalgia - eastern Germans' supposed longing for the way things were - is a regular topic in the media, but in polls only around ten percent of easterners say they preferred life under socialism. And eastern Germans' self-identification as a group decreases the later they were born.

Meanwhile, around half of western Germans say the time before 1989 was better than afterward.

Partnerships between eastern and western Germans make up only around four percent of all German marriages.

Two decades on from 1990, it is more apparent than ever that "reunification" is not a restoration of a past society, but a process of creating something new that is inextricable from globalization.

 I have been interested in this issue because its a great example of an issue that is very difficult to handle, and with no right answer. Its not just the economy, but the massive social consequences of such a reunification, for both the "Ossies" and the "Wessies". Social integration does not take place in 20 years, when the society has been disintegrated for over 40 years before that. These changes are generational, it will be interesting to see how modern Germany, a model of industrialism and enterprise in today's globalized world, fares out. For further reading, there is a very good series in Der Speigel but which is slightly harsher in its tone and talks about the burden the East is proving to be still.