First impact of Globalization

Ashok V. Desai has described India in 1865 when the first wave of globalization hit India creating a trade surplus.

Thus we see in the mid-19th century the first impact of globalization on India. Shipping technology changed; ships became larger and travelled further (steamers were just coming into use in 1865). With it, direction of trade changed; from trade within the Indian Ocean region, India began to trade more with Britain and China. Industrializing Britain and opium-eating China created new markets; as they expanded, India developed a massive export surplus. It did not know what to do with all that money, so it stashed away gold and silver. Was that deindustrialization? There may have been; but there was export-led growth too. For some of India

Indian News Roundup

  • India’s foreign minister Natwar Singh in a party meeting made some hilarious observations. Priyendra Deshwal has a good rebuttal.
  • For all the hatred she has shown for America, it seems Arundhati Roy admires Americans. This was mentioned in a lecture she gave at UC Berkeley

    When asked about the US, she said she admires Americans and thinks that because the people here are far more well off than the rest of the world, the Americans can mobilize and make a difference to humanity as a whole by influencing the role of Govt. and the military establishment than people any other part of the world.[Arundhati Roy’s talk at UC Berkeley]

Only in India

While the name Madrassa may evoke images of a terrorist factory from what we have seen in Pakistan, it is not always so. In India, in a madrassa, Hindu and Muslim students learn together, all the subjects, not just Quran.

The morning prayers begin with an ode to Mahatma Gandhi followed by traditional Islamic teachings and a patriotic song. Needless to say, the resonance of children learning Urdu and Sanskrit together and singing patriotic songs is a heartwarming sight for a nation ridden by some dangerously deep religious divides.

“It is different from the way rest of the madrasas work. Here children from all the castes study, whether they are Muslims or Hindus alongwith Urdu language children are also taught English, Hindi and Sanskrit,” Maulana Ansar Ahmed, the Madarsa head-master said. ocals said they remained unaffected by the communal undertones and were more interested in chalking out a better future for their children. “Children are taught everything in this madrasa and they are also taught Urdu so we send them here,” Devi Prasad Gaud, a parent said.[Hindu students study at a Madrasa]

The Anti-Globalization Comics

While the World Social Forum was going in Mumbai, India, Madhu Kishwar had written an article exposing the hypocrites behind that movement. Now she has a book: Deepening Democracy: The Challenges of Globalisation and Governance and Sulekha is carrying an excerpt of it.

Unfortunately, the very same AGBs who pant and fume at India opening up to foreign investments have very little objection to India being aid-dependent. They are in fact, upset at the recent feeble attempts of the Indian government to lessen India’s aid dependence. There is something comic about representatives of the AGBs warning us about the evils of globalisation despite their own politics being altogether reliant on international aid money. They have no problem in being tied to the apron strings of international donor agencies to finance their politics, but they do not trust Indians to benefit from partnership in world trade. Their policy of ‘No to Free Trade, Yes to Tied Aid’ explains their real worth.[The Rhetoric and Reality of the Anti-Globalisation Brigades]

More on Balochistan

Niraj has a set of links to articles by B.Raman which will help in understanding why the Balochis hate the Pakistan Govt. From reading those articles it looks like another East Pakistan in the making. While major construction is going on for the Gwadar Port in Balochistan, the Balochis are kept away from the jobs and in their place Punjabis and Pashtuns whose loyalty were not suspect were moved in.
The Army is also building cantonments in Balochistan which the Balochis do not see favourably.

Under US pressure to restore law and order in Baluchistabn, Musharraf, with financial assistance from the US Central Command, has embarked upon a plan for the construction of three more cantonments in Baluchistan at Dera Bugti, Kohlu and Gwadar. Though these cantonments have been projected by the Pakistan Army as meant to enable the Army deal more effectively with the dregs of the IIF, the Baluch nationalists fear that Musharraf has been exploiting the US concerns to get money for strengthening the Army presence in the province to enable him to crush the nationalists at an opportune moment.[Unrest In Baluchistan]

Both the opposition and treasury senators are of the opinion that the cantonments are being built to supress the nationalists, while Musharraf thinks that it is absolutely necessary.
Due to their treatment as second class citizens, the Balochis are revolting and the Army is moving in to supress the revolt. But then there are contradicting reports coming about the military action. Now there is a new report

A tribal leader in the restive Baluchistan has accused Pakistan army of using tanks and helicopter gunships to quell “agitation against outsiders.” This contradicts official versions that no military operation was held in the province. Prominent Baluch tribal leader, Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti, who heads the Jamhoori Watan Party, told reporters in Pakistan’s Hyderabad on Thursday that a number of areas in the province were devastated due to attacks by rockets, missiles and heavy bombing. Tanks, gunships, helicopters, army and para-military forces were being used right from Turbat to Gwadar in Baluchistan, Bugti was quoted as saying by the local media.[Tribal leader accuses Pak of using tanks, choppers]

Musharraf Dispensible ?

Now that Shaukat Aziz as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, SA Tribune thinks that Musharraf is dispensible.

Musharraf has completed five years of his rule and at the end of that period he is today almost living under house arrest, confined to a bunker. He cannot come out into the public. If he has to go anywhere, the entire city has to come to a standstill. In the last few weeks he has not ventured out of the Presidency, not even for any Independence Day event.

He does not trust even his own top Generals. Within his Army he is seen as a COAS who has blocked the careers of those on top and has promoted and picked men of his choice causing a lot of heart burning elsewhere. He is hated by the terrorists, despised by politicians, of both the Opposition and the Treasury benches, though they may not have the courage to say so at his face.

The ordinary man on the street never trusted him before and distrusts him more now as life for him has gone from bad to worse, despite all the tall claims of macroeconomic successes and dollar reserves. Voters did not come out in his phony referendum and they never voted for any one because of Musharraf. Without the heavy hand of intelligence agencies and official machinery, even Shaukat Aziz would not have agreed to contest, let alone win, the Parliamentary seats he easily won today.[via oxTalk]

Shaukatz Aziz is no politician. He is not from the military either. In Pakistan, politicians do not matter anyway. But unless you have the trust of the army, you cannot last that long. It will be interesting to see how the new PM handles the Jihadis, the Americans on the Western border and the Indians on the Eastern border.

Technology To The Masses

CNN has a story on a innovative way used by IIT Kanpur to bring technology to the masses. They use a bicycle richshaw to carry a computer with high speed Internet access to give classes to people.

A few miles from Bithoor, another cycle rickshaw carries its high-tech load to Gorahah village, where men and women gather side-by-side for a class on electronic mail. The mix is nothing short of a revolution in tradition-bound rural India, where women are often kept indoors.

“We are now learning computers. There is no point if we can’t use that new knowledge. We have to go out and do something worthwhile,” said Snehalatha, 22, who also attends college. Clad in orange pants and a pink tunic, Snehalatha signs up for Yahoo mail, as an impatient queue lengthens behind her.

The classes teach the basics of computing, word processing, spreadsheets, Internet browsing and Web cameras. Once they learn to use a webcam the villagers can take part in online classes, something the info-cart organizers hope to implement later.[Wheels of hope bring Internet to villagers]

MT Design Thought: Entries like these belong to a sideblog since I have no commentary to offer. MT 3.1 will have support for Multi Blogs and after that I should also implement one.

Being Pervez Musharraf

An election year in US means a bad time for terrorists in Pakistan. Already there were reports coming out that the Bush Administration is putting lot of pressure on our greatest ally to capture some High Value Targets. Our ally is doing exactly that while denying everything in the local press.

The opposition in Pakistan says Islamabad is bending too far backward to obey the election-related fiats coming from the United States. They accuse President Pervez Musharraf of making war against his own people on the orders of George Bush. No one believes the government

Sana Rajah's Kashmir Solution

Dr. Sana Rajah has a wonderful solution to the Kashmir problem in an article written in The New Nation, Bangladesh’s Independent News Source. First he starts by analyzing the problem and identifies that the UN Resolutions are impossible to implement now. He then describes the adamant stand taken by both nations and says that the plebiscite might be a bad idea as many parts of both nations might ask for the same. But then after that he loses his marbles and suggests

A viable solution to the issue would be to facilitate a plebiscite restricted to the Valley, where the demand for independence is the strongest and in its most violent manifestation. The populace of the rest of the Indian Kashmir and Pakistan’s part of it have not displayed any potent desire for freedom, and seem content in their present situation.

This would allow Pakistan and India to maintain control of the Northern Areas and Ladakh respectively. However, an independent Valley would still be economically dependent on India and Pakistan, as it is a land-locked region. Let us hope that the issue can be settled, so that lasting peace becomes a reality.[The UN Resolutions on Kashmir]

No mention of the fact that it was violence from Pakistan that caused them to lose Kashmir in the first place. No mention of the fact that the current violence is coming from Pakistani sponsored militants which has been proven again and again.
So here you go, just have a plebiscite in the Kashmir valley because it is the most violent place. Just because India did not create trouble in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Pakistan gets to keep it. No self determination for them. What a brilliant idea.

Some Changes

When you blog about something, that entry stays on your main page for a few days and then it sinks down into your personal blog blackhole almost never to surface again. I found two plugins to bring some of those entries back to the surface again.

  • OnThisDay brings up old entries blogged on the same day in previous years. (Example on the sidebar)
  • RelatedEntries is a tag on the Individual Archive Page and displays 3 (configurable) entries in the same category.

I still don’t like the look and feel of this blog, so I will be actively stealing your CSS files.
Also speaking of MT, there is an excellent blog called Movalog by Aravind on customizing MT. (He is only 15 years old)