KRUJE, Albania: Pashe Keqi recalls the day nearly sixty years ago when she decided to become a man. She chopped off her long black curls, traded in her dress for her father's baggy trousers, armed herself with a hunting rifle and vowed to forsake marriage, children and sex.
Had she been born in Albania today, says the 78-year-old sworn virgin, who made an oath of celibacy in return for the right to live and rule her family as a man, she would choose womanhood.
"Back then, it was better to be a man because, before, a woman and an animal were considered the same thing," says Keqi, who has a bellowing baritone voice, sits with her legs open wide like a man and relishes downing shots of Raki and smoking cigarettes. "Now, Albanian women have equal rights with men and are even more powerful, and I think today it would be fun to be a woman."
Sworn virgins became the patriarchs of their families, with all the trappings of male authority, by swearing to remain virgins for the rest of their lives.
The ritual was a form of self-empowerment for rural women living in a desperately poor and macho country that was cut off from mainstream Europe for decades under a Stalinist dictatorship. But in Albania today, with Internet dating and MTV, the custom is all but disappearing. Girls no longer want to become boys.
The tradition of the sworn virgin can be traced to the Kanun of Leke Dukagjini, a code of conduct that has been passed on orally among the clans of northern Albania for more than five centuries. Under the Kanun, the role of women is severely circumscribed: Take care of children and maintain the home. While a woman's life is worth half that of a man, a virgin's value is the same - 12 oxen.
The sworn virgin was born of social necessity in an agrarian region plagued by war and death. If the patriarch of the family died with no male heirs, unmarried women in the family could find themselves alone and powerless. By taking an oath of virginity, women could take on the role of men as head of the family, carry a weapon, own property and move freely.
They dress like men, adopt a male swagger and spend their lives in the company of other men.
Some also took the vow as a means to avoid an arranged marriage. Still others became sworn virgins to express their autonomy. Some who regretted the sacrifice transformed themselves back into women and married later in life.
"Stripping off their sexuality by pledging to remain virgins was a way for these women in a male-dominated, segregated society to engage in public life," says Linda Gusia, a professor of gender studies at the University of Pristina in Kosovo. "It was about surviving in a world where men rule."
Taking an oath to become a sworn virgin should not, sociologists say, be equated with homosexuality, which has long been taboo in rural Albania. Nor do the women have sex changes. In the northern Albanian countryside, about 40 sworn virgins remain, according to researchers studying the custom.
Known in her household as the "Pasha," Keqi says she decided to become the man of the house at age 20 when her father was murdered in a blood feud. Her remaining four brothers opposed the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albania for 40 years until his death in 1985, and they were either imprisoned or killed. Becoming a man, she said, was the only way to support her mother, her four sisters-in-law and their five children.
Lording it over her large family in her modest house in Tirana, where her nieces served her brandy while she barked out orders, Keqi said living as a man had allowed her freedom denied other women. She could work construction jobs and pray at the mosque alongside other men. Even today, her nephews and nieces said, they would not dare marry without their "uncle's" permission.
"I was totally free as a man because no one knew I was a woman," Keqi said. "I could go wherever I wanted to and no one would dare swear at me because I could beat them up. I was only with men. I don't know how to do women's talk. I am never scared." When she was recently hospitalized for an operation, she recalled, the other woman in her room was horrified to find herself sharing close quarters with a man and requested a move.
Keqi said that being a woman made her a more compassionate man. "If the other men were disrespecting a woman, I would tell them to stop." She said being deprived of a life of sexual intimacy was a necessary sacrifice. She did not miss having children, she added, because she was surrounded by her nieces and nephews. "Once I made up my mind 100 percent, I had the strength to never turn back."
Being the man of the house also made her responsible for avenging her father's death, she said, including the Kanun's edict that spilled blood must be met with spilled blood. When her father's killer was released from prison five years ago, by then a man of 80, Keqi said she ordered her 15 year-old nephew to shoot him. Then the family of the man took revenge and killed her nephew.
"I always dreamed of avenging my father's death. My brothers tried to, but did not succeed. Of course, I have regrets my nephew was killed. But if you kill me, I have to kill you." In Albania, a majority Muslim country, the Kanun is adhered to by both Muslims and Christians, though the Ottoman Turks and successive governments have all tried to limit its influence.
Albanian cultural historians said the cleaving to medieval customs long discarded elsewhere was a byproduct of the country's previous isolation. But they stressed that today, the traditional role of the Albanian woman was changing.
"The Albanian woman today is a sort of minister of economics, a minister of affection and a minister of interior who controls who does what," said Ilir Yzeiri, a critic who writes about Albanian folklore. "Today women in Albania are behind everything."
Some sworn virgins bemoan this female liberation. Diana Rakipi, 54, a security guard in the seaside city of Durres, in west Albania, who became a sworn virgin to take care of her nine sisters, said she looked back with nostalgia to the Hoxha era. During communist times, she served as a senior army officer, training women soldiers in combat. Now, she lamented, women did not know their place.
"Today women go out half naked to the disco and do not know their limits," said Rakipi, who has cropped hair and wears a military beret. "I was always treated my whole life as a man, always with respect. I can't clean, I can't iron, I can't cook. That is a woman's work."
But even in the remote mountains of Kruje, about 50 kilometers, or 30 miles, north of Tirana, where long dirt roads snake through olive groves, locals say the Kanun's influence on gender roles is disappearing. They said erosion of the traditional family, in which everyone once lived under the same roof, had altered women's position in society.
"Women and men are now almost the same," says Caca Fiqiri, whose aunt Qamile Stema, age 88, is the last sworn virgin remaining in her village. "We respect sworn virgins very much and consider them as men because of their great sacrifice. But there is no longer a stigma not to have a man of the house."
Yet there is no doubt who wears the trousers in the family's one-room stone house in Barganesh, their ancestral village. There, on a recent day, "uncle" Qamile was surrounded by her clan, dressed in a qeleshe, the traditional white cap of an Albanian man. Her only concession to femininity were pink flip-flops.
Pointing to an old black and white photo hanging in the entrance - showing a handsome young man in his prime - Stema said she took an oath of virginity at age 20, after her father died, and she was left the eldest of nine sisters.
After becoming a man, Stema said she could leave the house and chop wood with the other men. She carried a gun. At wedding parties, she sat with the men. When she talked to women, she recalled, they recoiled in shyness.
Stema said becoming a sworn virgin was a necessity, and a sacrifice. "The truth is I feel lonely sometimes. All my sisters have died, and I live alone. But I never wanted to marry. Some in my family tried to get me to change my clothes and wear dresses, but when they saw I had become a man, they left me alone."
Stema said she would die a virgin. Had she married, she joked, it would have been to a traditional Albanian woman. "I guess you could say I was partly a woman and partly a man, but of course I never did everything a man does," she said. "I liked my life as a man. I have no regrets."
Jul 12, 2008
Health - Diabetes Underrated,insidious and deadly
In a set of recent focus groups, participants were asked to rank the severity of various health problems, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
On a scale of 1 to 10, cancer and heart disease consistently ranked as 9s and 10s. But diabetes scored only 4s and 5s.
"The general consensus seems to be, 'There's medication,' 'Look how good people look with diabetes' or 'I've never heard of anybody dying of diabetes,' " said Larry Hausner, chief executive of the American Diabetes Association, which held the focus groups. "There was so little understanding about everything that dealt with diabetes."
But diabetes is anything but minor. It wreaks havoc on the entire body, affecting everything from hearing and vision to sexual function, mental health and sleep. It is the leading cause of blindness, amputations and kidney failure, and it can triple the risk for heart attack and stroke.
"It is a disease that does have the ability to eat you alive," said John Buse, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine who is the diabetes association's president for medicine and science. "It can be just awful — it's almost unimaginable how bad it can be."
Diabetes results when the body cannot use blood sugar as energy, either because it has too little insulin or because it cannot use insulin. Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95 percent of cases, typically develops later in life and is associated with obesity and lack of exercise. Type 1 diabetes, which is often diagnosed in children, occurs when the immune system mistakenly destroys cells that make the insulin.
The disconnect between perception and reality is particularly worrisome at a time when national diabetes rates are surging. Just last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the number of Americans with diabetes had grown to about 24 million, or 8 percent of the population. Almost 25 percent of those aged 60 and older had diabetes in 2007. And the CDC estimates that 57 million people have abnormal blood sugar levels that qualify as pre-diabetes.
To be sure, diabetes is treatable, and an array of new medications and monitoring tools have dramatically improved the quality of care. But keeping the illness in check requires constant vigilance and expensive care, along with lifestyle changes like losing weight, exercising regularly and watching your carbohydrates.
Buse says patients who are focused on their disease and who have access to regular medical care have a good chance of living out a normal life span without developing a diabetes-related disability.
But some patients say they are too busy to take better care of themselves, and many low-income patients can't afford regular care. Even people with health insurance struggle to keep up with the co-payments for frequent doctor visits and multiple medications.
And to make matters worse, diabetes is associated with numerous other health problems. Last week, for example, The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that people with depression were at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes, and vice versa.
That is not surprising: according to data published last year in the journal Diabetes Care, depression tends to interfere with a patient's self-care, which requires glucose monitoring, medications, dietary changes and exercise.
Ultimately, diabetes can take a toll from head to toe. In the brain, it raises the risk not only for depression but also for sleep problems and stroke. It endangers vision and dental health. This month, The Annals of Internal Medicine is reporting that the disease more than doubles the risk of hearing loss.
Moving down the body, diabetes can lead to liver and kidney disease, along with serious gastrointestinal complications like paralysis of the stomach and loss of bowel control. Last year the journal Diabetes Care reported that in a sample of nearly 3,000 patients with diabetes, 70 percent had nonalcohol fatty liver disease.
Poor circulation and a loss of feeling in the extremities, called neuropathy, can lead to severe ulcers and infections; each year in the United States, there are about 86,000 diabetes-related amputations.
Diabetes can also take a toll on relationships. By some estimates, 50 percent to 80 percent of men with diabetes suffer from erectile dysfunction. Experts say women with diabetes often lose their libidos or suffer from vaginal dryness.
The challenge for doctors is to convince patients that diabetes is a major health threat. For years, the message from the American Diabetes Association has been one of reassurance that the disease is treatable. Now, beginning in 2009, the association plans to reframe its message to better communicate the seriousness of the disease.
"Our communication strategy is going to be that diabetes has deadly consequences, and that the ADA is here to change the future of diabetes," said Hausner, a former executive with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society who came to the association 10 months ago. "It's the word 'deadly' that was the potentially controversial word for the organization. In the past, people said, 'We don't want to get anybody scared.' "
The new strategy is not a scare tactic, he added. Prevention and hope will still be part of the message.
"It's not that we don't want people to have hope," he said. "We want people to understand this is serious."
On a scale of 1 to 10, cancer and heart disease consistently ranked as 9s and 10s. But diabetes scored only 4s and 5s.
"The general consensus seems to be, 'There's medication,' 'Look how good people look with diabetes' or 'I've never heard of anybody dying of diabetes,' " said Larry Hausner, chief executive of the American Diabetes Association, which held the focus groups. "There was so little understanding about everything that dealt with diabetes."
But diabetes is anything but minor. It wreaks havoc on the entire body, affecting everything from hearing and vision to sexual function, mental health and sleep. It is the leading cause of blindness, amputations and kidney failure, and it can triple the risk for heart attack and stroke.
"It is a disease that does have the ability to eat you alive," said John Buse, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine who is the diabetes association's president for medicine and science. "It can be just awful — it's almost unimaginable how bad it can be."
Diabetes results when the body cannot use blood sugar as energy, either because it has too little insulin or because it cannot use insulin. Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95 percent of cases, typically develops later in life and is associated with obesity and lack of exercise. Type 1 diabetes, which is often diagnosed in children, occurs when the immune system mistakenly destroys cells that make the insulin.
The disconnect between perception and reality is particularly worrisome at a time when national diabetes rates are surging. Just last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the number of Americans with diabetes had grown to about 24 million, or 8 percent of the population. Almost 25 percent of those aged 60 and older had diabetes in 2007. And the CDC estimates that 57 million people have abnormal blood sugar levels that qualify as pre-diabetes.
To be sure, diabetes is treatable, and an array of new medications and monitoring tools have dramatically improved the quality of care. But keeping the illness in check requires constant vigilance and expensive care, along with lifestyle changes like losing weight, exercising regularly and watching your carbohydrates.
Buse says patients who are focused on their disease and who have access to regular medical care have a good chance of living out a normal life span without developing a diabetes-related disability.
But some patients say they are too busy to take better care of themselves, and many low-income patients can't afford regular care. Even people with health insurance struggle to keep up with the co-payments for frequent doctor visits and multiple medications.
And to make matters worse, diabetes is associated with numerous other health problems. Last week, for example, The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that people with depression were at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes, and vice versa.
That is not surprising: according to data published last year in the journal Diabetes Care, depression tends to interfere with a patient's self-care, which requires glucose monitoring, medications, dietary changes and exercise.
Ultimately, diabetes can take a toll from head to toe. In the brain, it raises the risk not only for depression but also for sleep problems and stroke. It endangers vision and dental health. This month, The Annals of Internal Medicine is reporting that the disease more than doubles the risk of hearing loss.
Moving down the body, diabetes can lead to liver and kidney disease, along with serious gastrointestinal complications like paralysis of the stomach and loss of bowel control. Last year the journal Diabetes Care reported that in a sample of nearly 3,000 patients with diabetes, 70 percent had nonalcohol fatty liver disease.
Poor circulation and a loss of feeling in the extremities, called neuropathy, can lead to severe ulcers and infections; each year in the United States, there are about 86,000 diabetes-related amputations.
Diabetes can also take a toll on relationships. By some estimates, 50 percent to 80 percent of men with diabetes suffer from erectile dysfunction. Experts say women with diabetes often lose their libidos or suffer from vaginal dryness.
The challenge for doctors is to convince patients that diabetes is a major health threat. For years, the message from the American Diabetes Association has been one of reassurance that the disease is treatable. Now, beginning in 2009, the association plans to reframe its message to better communicate the seriousness of the disease.
"Our communication strategy is going to be that diabetes has deadly consequences, and that the ADA is here to change the future of diabetes," said Hausner, a former executive with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society who came to the association 10 months ago. "It's the word 'deadly' that was the potentially controversial word for the organization. In the past, people said, 'We don't want to get anybody scared.' "
The new strategy is not a scare tactic, he added. Prevention and hope will still be part of the message.
"It's not that we don't want people to have hope," he said. "We want people to understand this is serious."
Fun - A private Dance ?
There are no weekend box office charts for online videos. But if there were, near or at the very top of the list right now might well be a four-and-a-half-minute video called "Dancing," which more than four million people have viewed on YouTube, and perhaps another million on other sites, in the just over two weeks since it appeared. It's the online equivalent of a platinum hit, seeping from one computer to the next like a virus.
The title is not misleading. "Dancing" shows a guy dancing: a big, doughy-looking fellow in shorts and hiking boots performing an arm-swinging, knee-pumping step that could charitably be called goofy. It's the kind of semi-ironic dance that boys do by themselves at junior high mixers when they're too embarrassed to partner with actual girls.
The dancer is Matt Harding, the 31-year-old creator of the video, and with some New Agey-sounding music playing in the background, he turns up, grinning and bouncing, in 69 different locations, including India, Kuwait, Bhutan, Tonga, Timbuktu and the Nellis Airspace in Nevada, where he performs the dance in zero gravity.
He started doing it at work, years ago, when he was living in Brisbane, Australia. "I'd dance at lunchtime or during an awkward pause or just to annoy people," Harding said. "It was sort of a nervous tic."
Now he's on the streets in Mumbai one minute, balanced on the Giant's Causeway rock formation in Northern Ireland the next, and then he's in a tulip field in the Netherlands or in front of a geyser in Iceland. Sometimes Harding dances alone. On a Christmas Island beach he has an audience of crabs, and on Madagascar he performs for lemurs.
The title is not misleading. "Dancing" shows a guy dancing: a big, doughy-looking fellow in shorts and hiking boots performing an arm-swinging, knee-pumping step that could charitably be called goofy. It's the kind of semi-ironic dance that boys do by themselves at junior high mixers when they're too embarrassed to partner with actual girls.
The dancer is Matt Harding, the 31-year-old creator of the video, and with some New Agey-sounding music playing in the background, he turns up, grinning and bouncing, in 69 different locations, including India, Kuwait, Bhutan, Tonga, Timbuktu and the Nellis Airspace in Nevada, where he performs the dance in zero gravity.
He started doing it at work, years ago, when he was living in Brisbane, Australia. "I'd dance at lunchtime or during an awkward pause or just to annoy people," Harding said. "It was sort of a nervous tic."
Now he's on the streets in Mumbai one minute, balanced on the Giant's Causeway rock formation in Northern Ireland the next, and then he's in a tulip field in the Netherlands or in front of a geyser in Iceland. Sometimes Harding dances alone. On a Christmas Island beach he has an audience of crabs, and on Madagascar he performs for lemurs.
But more often — and this accounts for much of the video's appeal — he's in the company of others: South African street children in Soweto, bushmen in New Guinea, Bollywood-style dancers in India, some oddly costumed waitresses in Tokyo, crowds of free spirits in Paris, Madrid and rainy Montreal, all copying, or trying to, his flailing chicken-step. Harding even dances for a lone military policeman (unmoved to join him) in the Korean demilitarized zone.
In many ways "Dancing" is an almost perfect piece of Internet art: it's short, pleasingly weird and so minimal in its content that it's open to a multitude of interpretations. It could be a little commercial for one-world feel-goodism. It could be an allegory of American foreign policy: a bumptious foreigner turning up all over the world and answering just to his own inner music. Or it could be about nothing at all — just a guy dancing.
However you interpret it, you can't watch "Dancing" for very long without feeling a little happier. The music (by Gary Schyman, a friend of Harding's, and set to a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, sung in Bengali by Palbasha Siddique, a 17-year-old native of Bangladesh now living in Minneapolis) is both catchy and haunting. The backgrounds are often quite beautiful. And there is something sweetly touching and uplifting about the spectacle of all these different nationalities, people of almost every age and color, dancing along with an uninhibited doofus.
Children, not surprisingly, turn out to be the best at picking up on Harding's infectious vibe. There's frequently a grown-up, on the other hand — especially one in the front row of a crowd — who tends to ham it up and make a fool of himself.
The other remarkable thing about the "Dancing" phenomenon is that it is, to a very considerable extent, a creation of the Internet. It doesn't just live, so to speak, on the Web; it was the Web that, more or less accidentally, brought it into being. The current video is actually the third iteration of a project that began in 2003, when a friend, using a Canon pocket camera with the capacity to record brief videos (when it was still something of a novelty), shot Harding doing his dance in Hanoi.
It was the equivalent of taking a photograph as a souvenir, Harding said in a phone conversation recently while driving with his girlfriend in Northern California. Harding, who grew up in Westport, Connecticut, skipped college at the suggestion of his father, who didn't see the point of paying tuition for someone he thought was unmotivated. He has been employed in a video game store and as a designer of video games, but prefers just to travel. "It's one thing I'm really good at," he said.
He collected all the dancing shots from that first trip in 2003, edited them into a little video with a soundtrack from an adaptation of a traditional song from the Solomon Islands, performed by the group Deep Forest, and, at his sister's suggestion, posted it on his Web site, wherethehellismatt.com. (No reference intended to the "Today" show feature "Where in the World Is Matt Lauer?" "I'm almost never up that early," Harding said.)
In many ways "Dancing" is an almost perfect piece of Internet art: it's short, pleasingly weird and so minimal in its content that it's open to a multitude of interpretations. It could be a little commercial for one-world feel-goodism. It could be an allegory of American foreign policy: a bumptious foreigner turning up all over the world and answering just to his own inner music. Or it could be about nothing at all — just a guy dancing.
However you interpret it, you can't watch "Dancing" for very long without feeling a little happier. The music (by Gary Schyman, a friend of Harding's, and set to a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, sung in Bengali by Palbasha Siddique, a 17-year-old native of Bangladesh now living in Minneapolis) is both catchy and haunting. The backgrounds are often quite beautiful. And there is something sweetly touching and uplifting about the spectacle of all these different nationalities, people of almost every age and color, dancing along with an uninhibited doofus.
Children, not surprisingly, turn out to be the best at picking up on Harding's infectious vibe. There's frequently a grown-up, on the other hand — especially one in the front row of a crowd — who tends to ham it up and make a fool of himself.
The other remarkable thing about the "Dancing" phenomenon is that it is, to a very considerable extent, a creation of the Internet. It doesn't just live, so to speak, on the Web; it was the Web that, more or less accidentally, brought it into being. The current video is actually the third iteration of a project that began in 2003, when a friend, using a Canon pocket camera with the capacity to record brief videos (when it was still something of a novelty), shot Harding doing his dance in Hanoi.
It was the equivalent of taking a photograph as a souvenir, Harding said in a phone conversation recently while driving with his girlfriend in Northern California. Harding, who grew up in Westport, Connecticut, skipped college at the suggestion of his father, who didn't see the point of paying tuition for someone he thought was unmotivated. He has been employed in a video game store and as a designer of video games, but prefers just to travel. "It's one thing I'm really good at," he said.
He collected all the dancing shots from that first trip in 2003, edited them into a little video with a soundtrack from an adaptation of a traditional song from the Solomon Islands, performed by the group Deep Forest, and, at his sister's suggestion, posted it on his Web site, wherethehellismatt.com. (No reference intended to the "Today" show feature "Where in the World Is Matt Lauer?" "I'm almost never up that early," Harding said.)
The video went up in the fall of 2004, before YouTube or the other big video upload sites, but even so it quickly became a hit among the people trolling the Internet back then.
"It got picked up by somethingawful.com and sites like that," Harding recalled. "Usually, what they showed was people getting hurt or doing something really stupid, so I was bracing myself for abuse, but everyone seemed to like it."
So did the newly formed Stride chewing gum company, which offered to underwrite Harding's subsequent travels, virtually no strings attached. (In the 2006 version the Stride name pops up in the corner of the screen every now and then, and, in the newest video, the company is acknowledged at the very end, but amazingly, in this era of shameless commercial tie-ins, Harding is not obliged to wear a Stride T-shirt or deliver a little pitch for the product. Exactly what connection the company sees between gum and a guy dancing, but not chewing, remains a bit of a mystery.)
In 2005 Harding released a second video much like the first — exotic locations, guy dancing, New Agey music — except with better sound and camera resolution, and in 2006 he went back to Stride and asked if he could repeat the venture, this time with other people dancing along with him.
The idea first came to him in 2006, he recalled, when he was dancing with some street kids in Rwanda. "If I had tried dancing with kids in a mall in San Francisco, say, I probably would have got arrested," he said. "But in Africa there aren't any barriers, and there's immediate access to this kind of joy and irreverence."
He added: "Those first videos were something I needed to do for me, but I realized then that watching me dance was getting a little old. The new video pushes a different button — you've got all these different people doing the same thing. I remember thinking, 'Wouldn't it be neat if you could capture that?' "
The new video has better photography still and a score, called "Praan," that Schyman orchestrated for a 25-piece band. For the lyrics, he and Harding decided to stick with a language other than English (because it's less of a cliché, Harding said) — but how do you find someone who can sing Bengali? On the Internet, of course. Harding's girlfriend, Melissa Nixon, who works for Google, discovered Siddique on YouTube.
Harding is aware that fame on the Internet is fleeting, and needs novelty for life support. On the one hand, data are never lost — it's floating out there in cyberspace forever — but, on the other, our memories (and those of our computers) are limited and subject to constant upgrades. A video is downloaded, sent to a friend or two and then quickly forgotten. Who anymore goes back to look at that animated dancing baby that was all the rage in the '90s? So Harding isn't certain yet whether he wants to make a sequel.
"I wouldn't want to make another video unless there was something to say that I hadn't said," he explained. "I'm going to see if there's something more to be done, but if not, I'm happy with what there is. I don't want to pop the bubble."
"It got picked up by somethingawful.com and sites like that," Harding recalled. "Usually, what they showed was people getting hurt or doing something really stupid, so I was bracing myself for abuse, but everyone seemed to like it."
So did the newly formed Stride chewing gum company, which offered to underwrite Harding's subsequent travels, virtually no strings attached. (In the 2006 version the Stride name pops up in the corner of the screen every now and then, and, in the newest video, the company is acknowledged at the very end, but amazingly, in this era of shameless commercial tie-ins, Harding is not obliged to wear a Stride T-shirt or deliver a little pitch for the product. Exactly what connection the company sees between gum and a guy dancing, but not chewing, remains a bit of a mystery.)
In 2005 Harding released a second video much like the first — exotic locations, guy dancing, New Agey music — except with better sound and camera resolution, and in 2006 he went back to Stride and asked if he could repeat the venture, this time with other people dancing along with him.
The idea first came to him in 2006, he recalled, when he was dancing with some street kids in Rwanda. "If I had tried dancing with kids in a mall in San Francisco, say, I probably would have got arrested," he said. "But in Africa there aren't any barriers, and there's immediate access to this kind of joy and irreverence."
He added: "Those first videos were something I needed to do for me, but I realized then that watching me dance was getting a little old. The new video pushes a different button — you've got all these different people doing the same thing. I remember thinking, 'Wouldn't it be neat if you could capture that?' "
The new video has better photography still and a score, called "Praan," that Schyman orchestrated for a 25-piece band. For the lyrics, he and Harding decided to stick with a language other than English (because it's less of a cliché, Harding said) — but how do you find someone who can sing Bengali? On the Internet, of course. Harding's girlfriend, Melissa Nixon, who works for Google, discovered Siddique on YouTube.
Harding is aware that fame on the Internet is fleeting, and needs novelty for life support. On the one hand, data are never lost — it's floating out there in cyberspace forever — but, on the other, our memories (and those of our computers) are limited and subject to constant upgrades. A video is downloaded, sent to a friend or two and then quickly forgotten. Who anymore goes back to look at that animated dancing baby that was all the rage in the '90s? So Harding isn't certain yet whether he wants to make a sequel.
"I wouldn't want to make another video unless there was something to say that I hadn't said," he explained. "I'm going to see if there's something more to be done, but if not, I'm happy with what there is. I don't want to pop the bubble."
World - Bringing Bangladesh into the internet age
In Bangladesh, where less than 1 percent of the population has Internet access and where the rare broadband connection is prohibitively expensive, bridging the digital divide may require new approaches.
A group of Bangladeshi expatriates think they have found one that could work - a plan to bring affordable Internet access to their homeland through a blend of high-end wireless technology and social entrepreneurship.
The service, a joint venture between several Bangladeshi-born U.S. citizens and an Internet company based in Oregon, couples paid service for consumers and businesses with free access for schools, and employs a seldom-deployed wireless system.
"We are unique in terms of our vision," said Reaz Shaheed, chief executive of the venture, AlwaysOn Network Bangladesh. "We are not interested only in profit. We also have a social agenda."
Shaheed said providing free Internet access for schools was more than a gesture. By getting students online, and keeping them there, he hopes to build demand, which will pay off later. "We think it's a good investment," he said. "We don't see them as freeloaders."
For most people in Bangladesh, Internet access is anything but free. A slow 10 to 15 kbps, or kilobits per second, connection costs about $15 a month. Faster services command a hefty premium. A 64 kbps connection is about $65 a month, and a one megabit per second, or mbps, broadband connection is about $600.
Shaheed says that his rates will vary, but he says that he will be able to offer a 64 kbps connection for as little as $15.
While Shaheed talks gladly of a social purpose, he said the offer of free access for schools was not the reason why AlwaysOn won its license to provide the service. "What motivated the government," he said, was that "we were willing to cover the whole country and provide Internet to the rural areas."
To do that, Shaheed turned to a technology developed by SOMA Networks, based in San Francisco. It has been adopted by AlwaysOn Network, based in Portland, Oregon, which delivers high-speed wireless Internet access to rural areas of Oregon. AlwaysOn Network owns about 25 percent of the Bangladeshi venture, with 10 Bangladeshi nationals owning the rest.
Shaheed, a Bangladeshi-born engineer who worked for 23 years at Intel, says that the SOMA technology was particularly suited to Bangladesh's conditions: heavy monsoon rains, winter fog and densely packed urban areas. It is also easy to set up: Subscribers either install a unit in their home or on an outside wall for those buildings far from a base station, said Frank Petkovich, senior director of corporate strategy at SOMA.
The Bangladeshi service is based on a cellular phone technology called W-CDMA, or Wideband Code Division Multiple Access. The technology allows a broadband link to be achieved up to 15 kilometers, or about 9 miles, from a base station, Shaheed said.
Shaheed said a test run among about 100 subscribers in parts of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, was successful enough to convince him to quit his job at Intel, which he did recently. By the end of this year he hopes to cover metropolitan Dhaka as well as surrounding schools. Within a few years, he said, he hopes to have the whole country covered.
Most of the existing Internet connections for Bangladeshis are via GPRS, or General Packet Radio Service, a wireless standard for mobile data transmission that is being replaced elsewhere by faster technologies.
SOMA Networks says that business models blending technological and commercial arguments with a social purpose will proliferate as policy makers around the world aim to connect more people to modern communications networks.
"What we see globally is governments putting together significant funds to bring Internet access to places that don't have it," said Tom Flak, senior vice president of operations at SOMA. "It's becoming more of a social mandate now, and broadband is considered less of a luxury today than a necessity."
A group of Bangladeshi expatriates think they have found one that could work - a plan to bring affordable Internet access to their homeland through a blend of high-end wireless technology and social entrepreneurship.
The service, a joint venture between several Bangladeshi-born U.S. citizens and an Internet company based in Oregon, couples paid service for consumers and businesses with free access for schools, and employs a seldom-deployed wireless system.
"We are unique in terms of our vision," said Reaz Shaheed, chief executive of the venture, AlwaysOn Network Bangladesh. "We are not interested only in profit. We also have a social agenda."
Shaheed said providing free Internet access for schools was more than a gesture. By getting students online, and keeping them there, he hopes to build demand, which will pay off later. "We think it's a good investment," he said. "We don't see them as freeloaders."
For most people in Bangladesh, Internet access is anything but free. A slow 10 to 15 kbps, or kilobits per second, connection costs about $15 a month. Faster services command a hefty premium. A 64 kbps connection is about $65 a month, and a one megabit per second, or mbps, broadband connection is about $600.
Shaheed says that his rates will vary, but he says that he will be able to offer a 64 kbps connection for as little as $15.
While Shaheed talks gladly of a social purpose, he said the offer of free access for schools was not the reason why AlwaysOn won its license to provide the service. "What motivated the government," he said, was that "we were willing to cover the whole country and provide Internet to the rural areas."
To do that, Shaheed turned to a technology developed by SOMA Networks, based in San Francisco. It has been adopted by AlwaysOn Network, based in Portland, Oregon, which delivers high-speed wireless Internet access to rural areas of Oregon. AlwaysOn Network owns about 25 percent of the Bangladeshi venture, with 10 Bangladeshi nationals owning the rest.
Shaheed, a Bangladeshi-born engineer who worked for 23 years at Intel, says that the SOMA technology was particularly suited to Bangladesh's conditions: heavy monsoon rains, winter fog and densely packed urban areas. It is also easy to set up: Subscribers either install a unit in their home or on an outside wall for those buildings far from a base station, said Frank Petkovich, senior director of corporate strategy at SOMA.
The Bangladeshi service is based on a cellular phone technology called W-CDMA, or Wideband Code Division Multiple Access. The technology allows a broadband link to be achieved up to 15 kilometers, or about 9 miles, from a base station, Shaheed said.
Shaheed said a test run among about 100 subscribers in parts of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, was successful enough to convince him to quit his job at Intel, which he did recently. By the end of this year he hopes to cover metropolitan Dhaka as well as surrounding schools. Within a few years, he said, he hopes to have the whole country covered.
Most of the existing Internet connections for Bangladeshis are via GPRS, or General Packet Radio Service, a wireless standard for mobile data transmission that is being replaced elsewhere by faster technologies.
SOMA Networks says that business models blending technological and commercial arguments with a social purpose will proliferate as policy makers around the world aim to connect more people to modern communications networks.
"What we see globally is governments putting together significant funds to bring Internet access to places that don't have it," said Tom Flak, senior vice president of operations at SOMA. "It's becoming more of a social mandate now, and broadband is considered less of a luxury today than a necessity."
World - In U.S,high cost of driving ignites online classes boom
NEWTOWN, Pennsylvania: First, Ryan Gibbons bought a Hyundai so he would not have to drive his gas-guzzling Chevy Blazer to college classes here. When fuel prices kept rising, he cut expenses again, eliminating two campus visits a week by enrolling in an online version of one of his courses.
Like Gibbons, thousands of students nationwide, including many who were previously reluctant to study online, have suddenly decided to take one or more college classes over the Internet.
"Gas prices have pushed people over the edge," said Georglyn Davidson, director of online learning at Bucks County Community College, where Gibbons studies, and where online enrollments are up 35 percent this summer over last year.
The vast majority of the nation's 15 million college students — at least 79 percent — live off campus, and with gas prices above $4 a gallon, many are seeking to cut commuting costs by studying online. Colleges from Massachusetts and Florida to Texas to Oregon have reported significant online enrollment increases for summer sessions, with student numbers in some cases 50 percent or 100 percent higher than last year. Although some four-year institutions with large online programs — like the University of Massachusetts and Villanova — have experienced these increases, the greatest surges have been registered at two-year community colleges, where most students are commuters, many support families and few can absorb large new expenditures for fuel.
At Bristol Community College in Fall River, Massachusetts, for instance, online enrollments were up 114 percent this summer over last, and half the students queried cited gas costs or some other transportation obstacle as a reason for signing up to study over the Internet, said April Bellafiore, an assistant dean there.
"Online classes filled up immediately," Bellafiore said. "It blew my mind."
Enrollments in online classes expanded rapidly early in this decade, but growth slowed in 2006 to less than 10 percent, according to statistics compiled last year by researchers at Babson College in Massachusetts. Some recent increases reported by college officials in interviews were much larger, which they attributed to the rising cost of gasoline. Pricing policies for online courses vary by campus, but most classes cost as much as, or more than, traditional ones.
At Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Florida, online enrollment rose to 2,726 this summer from 2,190 last year, a 24.5 percent increase. "That is a dramatic increase we can only attribute to gas prices," said Jim Drake, Brevard's president.
Drake and officials at several other colleges expressed concern that mounting fuel costs could force some students to drop out of college altogether, especially since only a fraction of courses at most colleges are offered online. Drake has put Brevard on a four-day week to help employees and students save gas.
David Gray, chief executive of UMass Online, the distance education program at the University of Massachusetts, said that at an educators' conference this week in San Francisco, officials from scores of universities discussed how the energy crisis could affect higher education. "There was broad agreement that gas price increases will be a source of continued growth in online enrollments," Gray said.
Once an incidental expense, fuel for commuting to campus now costs some students half of what they pay for tuition, in some cases more. Sergey Sosnovsky, who is pursuing pre-engineering studies at Bucks County Community College, paid $240 a month for gas during the spring semester, while his full-time tuition cost about $500 a month, he said. Other students here and in half a dozen other states told similar stories.
Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Missouri, which enrolls residents on both sides of the Arkansas-Missouri border, had 52 percent more students sign up for Internet-based courses this summer than last, said Witt Salley, the college's director of online teaching and learning.
One student taking online coursework for the first time is Kameron Miller, a 30-year-old working mother who lives in Buffalo, Missouri, 40 miles north of Springfield. Her commute to classes in her 1998 Chevy Venture during the spring semester cost her at least $200 a month for gas, Miller said. This summer, she is taking courses in health, humanities and world music — all online.
"I don't feel I get as much out of an online class as a campus course," Miller said. "But I couldn't afford any other decision."
Among the four-year institutions reporting increased online enrollment, UMass Online, which enrolls students at its five Massachusetts campuses and worldwide, experienced 46 percent growth this summer over last among students at the university's Dartmouth, Massachusetts, campus. At Villanova University in Pennsylvania, enrollment in online, graduate, engineering, nursing and business courses has increased more than 40 percent this summer, said Robert Stokes, an assistant vice president there.
Waiting lists for Web-based courses have lengthened at some institutions. At the University of Colorado, Denver, for instance, 361 students are on the waiting list for online courses for the fall term, compared to 233 last year on the same date, said Bob Tolsma, an assistant vice chancellor.
In Tennessee, the six universities, 13 two-year colleges and 26 technology centers overseen by the Tennessee Board of Regents enrolled 9,000 students for online courses this summer, compared with about 7,000 last summer, a 29 percent increase, said Robbie Melton, an associate vice chancellor.
"We had to train more faculty and provide more online courses because students just couldn't afford to drive to our campuses," Melton said.
Sandra Jobe, a 46-year-old bookkeeper who is studying for a master's degree in education at Tennessee State University, said she reduced the number of trips she had to make each week to the university's Nashville campus to two from four by enrolling in an online course.
"The campus experience is good; I wouldn't diminish that," Jobe said. "But when you're penny-pinching, online is a good alternative."
South Texas College, which has five campuses in Hidalgo and Starr Counties in the Rio Grande Valley, saw a 35 percent increase in online enrollments this summer over last, said William Serrata, a vice president. Other years have seen summer increases of 10 percent to 15 percent, he said. "This really speaks to students' not wanting to travel due to the gas prices," Serrata said.
Elvira Ozuna, who is 37 and studying for an associate's degree in occupational therapy, was driving four times a week, 50 miles round trip from her home to South Texas College's campus in McAllen. But this summer she enrolled in two online courses, eliminating that commute.
Ozuna said she found online work more difficult than classroom study. "But I saved on the gasoline," she said.
Distance education is no silver bullet that can alone solve the challenges posed for higher education by rising gasoline prices, officials warned.
For one thing, many students, especially in rural areas, lack the high-speed Internet connections on which online courses depend.
"The infrastructure doesn't exist to give all rural students clear online access," said Stephen Katsinas, a professor at the University of Alabama. "Rural America is where the digital divide is most dramatic."
Furthermore, most colleges still offer only a fraction of their courses over the Internet. Bucks County Community College, for instance, will offer 414 credit courses during the fall term. Only 103 of those will be offered online, and another 48 as hybrid courses, that is, partly online but with some campus visits required. So most students will still need to come to campus.
Gibbons, who is 20, works days and aspires to be a writer. He said his online course, "Introduction to the Novel," had been a good experience, especially the Web-based discussions of Jane Austen's novels. (He likes posting comments by e-mail better than speaking in class.) He said he still preferred on-campus study, "but with the price of gas jumping up, I'll probably be taking more courses online now."
Like Gibbons, thousands of students nationwide, including many who were previously reluctant to study online, have suddenly decided to take one or more college classes over the Internet.
"Gas prices have pushed people over the edge," said Georglyn Davidson, director of online learning at Bucks County Community College, where Gibbons studies, and where online enrollments are up 35 percent this summer over last year.
The vast majority of the nation's 15 million college students — at least 79 percent — live off campus, and with gas prices above $4 a gallon, many are seeking to cut commuting costs by studying online. Colleges from Massachusetts and Florida to Texas to Oregon have reported significant online enrollment increases for summer sessions, with student numbers in some cases 50 percent or 100 percent higher than last year. Although some four-year institutions with large online programs — like the University of Massachusetts and Villanova — have experienced these increases, the greatest surges have been registered at two-year community colleges, where most students are commuters, many support families and few can absorb large new expenditures for fuel.
At Bristol Community College in Fall River, Massachusetts, for instance, online enrollments were up 114 percent this summer over last, and half the students queried cited gas costs or some other transportation obstacle as a reason for signing up to study over the Internet, said April Bellafiore, an assistant dean there.
"Online classes filled up immediately," Bellafiore said. "It blew my mind."
Enrollments in online classes expanded rapidly early in this decade, but growth slowed in 2006 to less than 10 percent, according to statistics compiled last year by researchers at Babson College in Massachusetts. Some recent increases reported by college officials in interviews were much larger, which they attributed to the rising cost of gasoline. Pricing policies for online courses vary by campus, but most classes cost as much as, or more than, traditional ones.
At Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Florida, online enrollment rose to 2,726 this summer from 2,190 last year, a 24.5 percent increase. "That is a dramatic increase we can only attribute to gas prices," said Jim Drake, Brevard's president.
Drake and officials at several other colleges expressed concern that mounting fuel costs could force some students to drop out of college altogether, especially since only a fraction of courses at most colleges are offered online. Drake has put Brevard on a four-day week to help employees and students save gas.
David Gray, chief executive of UMass Online, the distance education program at the University of Massachusetts, said that at an educators' conference this week in San Francisco, officials from scores of universities discussed how the energy crisis could affect higher education. "There was broad agreement that gas price increases will be a source of continued growth in online enrollments," Gray said.
Once an incidental expense, fuel for commuting to campus now costs some students half of what they pay for tuition, in some cases more. Sergey Sosnovsky, who is pursuing pre-engineering studies at Bucks County Community College, paid $240 a month for gas during the spring semester, while his full-time tuition cost about $500 a month, he said. Other students here and in half a dozen other states told similar stories.
Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Missouri, which enrolls residents on both sides of the Arkansas-Missouri border, had 52 percent more students sign up for Internet-based courses this summer than last, said Witt Salley, the college's director of online teaching and learning.
One student taking online coursework for the first time is Kameron Miller, a 30-year-old working mother who lives in Buffalo, Missouri, 40 miles north of Springfield. Her commute to classes in her 1998 Chevy Venture during the spring semester cost her at least $200 a month for gas, Miller said. This summer, she is taking courses in health, humanities and world music — all online.
"I don't feel I get as much out of an online class as a campus course," Miller said. "But I couldn't afford any other decision."
Among the four-year institutions reporting increased online enrollment, UMass Online, which enrolls students at its five Massachusetts campuses and worldwide, experienced 46 percent growth this summer over last among students at the university's Dartmouth, Massachusetts, campus. At Villanova University in Pennsylvania, enrollment in online, graduate, engineering, nursing and business courses has increased more than 40 percent this summer, said Robert Stokes, an assistant vice president there.
Waiting lists for Web-based courses have lengthened at some institutions. At the University of Colorado, Denver, for instance, 361 students are on the waiting list for online courses for the fall term, compared to 233 last year on the same date, said Bob Tolsma, an assistant vice chancellor.
In Tennessee, the six universities, 13 two-year colleges and 26 technology centers overseen by the Tennessee Board of Regents enrolled 9,000 students for online courses this summer, compared with about 7,000 last summer, a 29 percent increase, said Robbie Melton, an associate vice chancellor.
"We had to train more faculty and provide more online courses because students just couldn't afford to drive to our campuses," Melton said.
Sandra Jobe, a 46-year-old bookkeeper who is studying for a master's degree in education at Tennessee State University, said she reduced the number of trips she had to make each week to the university's Nashville campus to two from four by enrolling in an online course.
"The campus experience is good; I wouldn't diminish that," Jobe said. "But when you're penny-pinching, online is a good alternative."
South Texas College, which has five campuses in Hidalgo and Starr Counties in the Rio Grande Valley, saw a 35 percent increase in online enrollments this summer over last, said William Serrata, a vice president. Other years have seen summer increases of 10 percent to 15 percent, he said. "This really speaks to students' not wanting to travel due to the gas prices," Serrata said.
Elvira Ozuna, who is 37 and studying for an associate's degree in occupational therapy, was driving four times a week, 50 miles round trip from her home to South Texas College's campus in McAllen. But this summer she enrolled in two online courses, eliminating that commute.
Ozuna said she found online work more difficult than classroom study. "But I saved on the gasoline," she said.
Distance education is no silver bullet that can alone solve the challenges posed for higher education by rising gasoline prices, officials warned.
For one thing, many students, especially in rural areas, lack the high-speed Internet connections on which online courses depend.
"The infrastructure doesn't exist to give all rural students clear online access," said Stephen Katsinas, a professor at the University of Alabama. "Rural America is where the digital divide is most dramatic."
Furthermore, most colleges still offer only a fraction of their courses over the Internet. Bucks County Community College, for instance, will offer 414 credit courses during the fall term. Only 103 of those will be offered online, and another 48 as hybrid courses, that is, partly online but with some campus visits required. So most students will still need to come to campus.
Gibbons, who is 20, works days and aspires to be a writer. He said his online course, "Introduction to the Novel," had been a good experience, especially the Web-based discussions of Jane Austen's novels. (He likes posting comments by e-mail better than speaking in class.) He said he still preferred on-campus study, "but with the price of gas jumping up, I'll probably be taking more courses online now."
World - Confident Iraq becomes a tougher negotiating partner
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration's quest for a deal with Iraq that would formally authorize an unlimited American troop presence there well beyond President George W. Bush's tenure appears to be unraveling. The irony is that it may be a victim of the administration's successes in the war.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq and his senior aides are now openly demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops, at least on paper. That is partly a nod to Iraqi political realities, since Iraqi politicians must call for the end of American occupation. No one in Iraq realistically expects to throw out the Americans anytime soon — and few in Iraq believe that it would be safe to do so immediately.
But Maliki's once enfeebled government, emboldened by several recent military successes, is eager to assert its sovereignty.
The Iraqi demands have put Bush in a politically awkward spot.
The president has explicitly opposed any binding timetables — either from the Iraqis or from the war's critics here at home — but he also pledged less than a month ago to abide by the will of Iraq's leaders.
"You know, of course, we're there at their invitation," Bush said in Paris during his recent European tour. "This is a sovereign nation."
This new Iraqi confidence is easy to overstate, and many of the statements simply prove that Iraq's democracy has matured to the point that elected leaders there must pander to important constituencies, even if they quietly acknowledge the need for American military support for the foreseeable future.
Still, even senior American commanders now say that Iraq is taking on more responsibility for security after years of halting and uncertain progress. Lieutenant General James Dubik, who until recently oversaw the training of Iraqi forces, told Congress on Wednesday that Iraq's ground forces could be fully functional as soon as the middle of next year.
That, along with Iraqi military successes in Basra, Sadr City in Baghdad and Mosul, has made Maliki's government seem far less vulnerable than it once did.
As a result, officials and analysts say, Iraq is far less willing than it once might have been to accept every American demand in negotiations now under way to establish the legal status of foreign troops in Iraq after the end of this year.
Iraq's negotiators have already rebuffed the administration's initial demand that all American contractors in Iraq, including the security guards of companies like Blackwater, receive blanket immunity from prosecution, one administration official familiar with the talks said.
On Monday, Maliki also suggested that Iraq might prefer a less sweeping, shorter-term agreement than the long-term one he and Bush signed off on last November, when his government was nowhere near as stable or assertive as it is today.
The failure to reach a robust agreement would be a rebuke to Bush in his waning months in office just as his strategy to send thousands of extra troops to Iraq beginning last year — the "surge," as it became known — is bearing fruit. That could force the administration to compromise even more.
While the administration almost certainly will not accept a rigid, written timetable for withdrawal, one American official said on Wednesday that the White House might have to accept some language in any agreement that reflected Iraqi desires for an end of the American military presence.
Another American official in Baghdad said an accord could even include a statement like Senator John McCain's campaign proposal envisioning an end of the war in 2013, without setting a meaningful timetable. Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, on Wednesday clarified his remarks about a timetable for ending combat operations and withdrawing foreign troops to say that Iraq was seeking "planning time horizons."
The White House sought to play down the significance of the differences.
"I know people are looking at this as a sign of a split between the United States and Iraq," a spokesman, Tony Fratto, said Wednesday. "I think these are signs of encouraging developments in Iraq. They want to and are becoming much more adept at providing their own security."
Beneath the public statements of officials on both sides lies a more complicated reality, involving difficult diplomatic and legal questions.
Once the current United Nations mandate for the American-led military operation in Iraq expires at the end of the year, for example, something has to replace it. That is largely why administration officials remain confident that they will ultimately be able to reach an agreement, though the shape of it appears increasingly uncertain.
So, too, does the deadline. The White House initially hoped to reach an agreement by the end of July. Some officials in Washington now acknowledge that an accord is increasingly likely to slip to later in the year.
At a minimum, the White House has lost control of the stagecraft of the pending agreement — if not yet a deal itself — as the question of the future American role in Iraq becomes a fixture of election campaigns in both countries.
Democrats in Congress have intensified their objections to the negotiations because they would prefer to see a President Obama complete them. Maliki's government has to sell any agreement to a fractured and restive alliance of political parties with varying degrees of patience for any American military presence.
"Even the technical and mundane becomes a potential political issue," the administration official familiar with the talks said.
The official noted that the discussions involved everything from the broadest question of authorizing combat operations to the minutia of whether American soldiers will need to have Iraqi driver's licenses.
All of the main Iraqi parties, the officials and analysts said, share the goal of at least minimizing the American footprint, reflecting Iraq's desire to be sovereign and free. Although much remains uncertain, and the improvements potentially fragile, the drop in violence in Iraq — to the lowest levels since February 2004, according to the latest report by the American command in Baghdad — has made it possible to consider Iraq free and sovereign sooner than most anyone expected.
"In one sense," said Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution in Washington, "the best thing will be the United States getting booted out of Iraq once the Iraqis can provide their own security."
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq and his senior aides are now openly demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops, at least on paper. That is partly a nod to Iraqi political realities, since Iraqi politicians must call for the end of American occupation. No one in Iraq realistically expects to throw out the Americans anytime soon — and few in Iraq believe that it would be safe to do so immediately.
But Maliki's once enfeebled government, emboldened by several recent military successes, is eager to assert its sovereignty.
The Iraqi demands have put Bush in a politically awkward spot.
The president has explicitly opposed any binding timetables — either from the Iraqis or from the war's critics here at home — but he also pledged less than a month ago to abide by the will of Iraq's leaders.
"You know, of course, we're there at their invitation," Bush said in Paris during his recent European tour. "This is a sovereign nation."
This new Iraqi confidence is easy to overstate, and many of the statements simply prove that Iraq's democracy has matured to the point that elected leaders there must pander to important constituencies, even if they quietly acknowledge the need for American military support for the foreseeable future.
Still, even senior American commanders now say that Iraq is taking on more responsibility for security after years of halting and uncertain progress. Lieutenant General James Dubik, who until recently oversaw the training of Iraqi forces, told Congress on Wednesday that Iraq's ground forces could be fully functional as soon as the middle of next year.
That, along with Iraqi military successes in Basra, Sadr City in Baghdad and Mosul, has made Maliki's government seem far less vulnerable than it once did.
As a result, officials and analysts say, Iraq is far less willing than it once might have been to accept every American demand in negotiations now under way to establish the legal status of foreign troops in Iraq after the end of this year.
Iraq's negotiators have already rebuffed the administration's initial demand that all American contractors in Iraq, including the security guards of companies like Blackwater, receive blanket immunity from prosecution, one administration official familiar with the talks said.
On Monday, Maliki also suggested that Iraq might prefer a less sweeping, shorter-term agreement than the long-term one he and Bush signed off on last November, when his government was nowhere near as stable or assertive as it is today.
The failure to reach a robust agreement would be a rebuke to Bush in his waning months in office just as his strategy to send thousands of extra troops to Iraq beginning last year — the "surge," as it became known — is bearing fruit. That could force the administration to compromise even more.
While the administration almost certainly will not accept a rigid, written timetable for withdrawal, one American official said on Wednesday that the White House might have to accept some language in any agreement that reflected Iraqi desires for an end of the American military presence.
Another American official in Baghdad said an accord could even include a statement like Senator John McCain's campaign proposal envisioning an end of the war in 2013, without setting a meaningful timetable. Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, on Wednesday clarified his remarks about a timetable for ending combat operations and withdrawing foreign troops to say that Iraq was seeking "planning time horizons."
The White House sought to play down the significance of the differences.
"I know people are looking at this as a sign of a split between the United States and Iraq," a spokesman, Tony Fratto, said Wednesday. "I think these are signs of encouraging developments in Iraq. They want to and are becoming much more adept at providing their own security."
Beneath the public statements of officials on both sides lies a more complicated reality, involving difficult diplomatic and legal questions.
Once the current United Nations mandate for the American-led military operation in Iraq expires at the end of the year, for example, something has to replace it. That is largely why administration officials remain confident that they will ultimately be able to reach an agreement, though the shape of it appears increasingly uncertain.
So, too, does the deadline. The White House initially hoped to reach an agreement by the end of July. Some officials in Washington now acknowledge that an accord is increasingly likely to slip to later in the year.
At a minimum, the White House has lost control of the stagecraft of the pending agreement — if not yet a deal itself — as the question of the future American role in Iraq becomes a fixture of election campaigns in both countries.
Democrats in Congress have intensified their objections to the negotiations because they would prefer to see a President Obama complete them. Maliki's government has to sell any agreement to a fractured and restive alliance of political parties with varying degrees of patience for any American military presence.
"Even the technical and mundane becomes a potential political issue," the administration official familiar with the talks said.
The official noted that the discussions involved everything from the broadest question of authorizing combat operations to the minutia of whether American soldiers will need to have Iraqi driver's licenses.
All of the main Iraqi parties, the officials and analysts said, share the goal of at least minimizing the American footprint, reflecting Iraq's desire to be sovereign and free. Although much remains uncertain, and the improvements potentially fragile, the drop in violence in Iraq — to the lowest levels since February 2004, according to the latest report by the American command in Baghdad — has made it possible to consider Iraq free and sovereign sooner than most anyone expected.
"In one sense," said Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution in Washington, "the best thing will be the United States getting booted out of Iraq once the Iraqis can provide their own security."
World - Australian sex-abuse case shadows pope's coming visit
SYDNEY: Less than a week before Pope Benedict XVI is due to arrive in Sydney for what the Roman Catholic Church has billed as "the largest youth event in the world," the most senior Australian bishop has become embroiled in a new scandal involving alleged sexual abuse by a priest.
Pope Benedict won praise for tackling the issue of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church during his recent visit to the United States, and he is expected to address the issue when he begins his formal celebration of World Youth Day next week.
Now the most senior Catholic prelate in Australia, Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, is fighting allegations that he lied to a man who says he was abused by a priest.
The allegations center around a letter sent to the alleged victim of abuse, Anthony Jones. In 1982, when Jones was 29 years old and a teacher at a Catholic school, he says a priest, Father Terence Goodall, fondled his genitals and forced him into sexual acts.
Although he complained to the church authorities immediately after the incident, it was not until 2002, when he sent another letter, that they began an investigation into his allegations.
In February 2003, an independent investigator appointed by the church, a former police officer, Howard Murray, concluded that Jones had been abused, but Pell rejected the findings.
In a February 2003 letter to Jones, although Pell admitted that some homosexual activity had taken place and that an investigator assigned by the church to look into the case had found the claims to be substantiated, he questioned Jones's assertion that the sex was nonconsensual.
"What cannot be determined by me, however, is whether it was a matter of sexual assault as you state or homosexual behavior between two consenting adults," Pell wrote to the complainant.
However, the most damaging allegation is that Pell deliberately lied later in the letter, when he backed up his decision to dismiss the man's accusation with the statement that "No other complaint of attempted sexual assault has been received against Father Goodall and he categorically denies the accusation."
But an investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. has shown that on the same day, Feb. 14, 2003, Pell wrote to another alleged victim of Goodall's abuse, who was an 11-year-old altar boy at the time he was attacked, upholding his claims of sexual abuse against the priest.
Pell has said there was no attempt at a cover-up.
"I apologize for the confusion caused to Mr. Jones," he said. "The letter to Mr. Jones was badly worded and a mistake - an attempt to inform him there was no other allegation of rape."
And the cardinal has defended the church's procedures to cope with claims of sexual abuse. "There were mistakes made in the letter, but otherwise the procedures were good," he said.
The picture has been further muddied by a telephone transcript obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s Lateline program and broadcast in a series of shows this week.
ABC says the transcript is from a telephone tap obtained by the police and it records Goodall not only apologizing to Jones for what he admits was a nonconsensual sexual act but also saying that he had never told church investigators that the act was consensual.
Following the ABC broadcasts, Pell said Thursday that he was ready to reopen the investigations into the allegations by Jones.
Australia seems to be divided over the controversy. There is pride that the country has been chosen to play host to World Youth Day, and some have questions about Jones's story.
"What is curious about the 1982 incident is that Mr. Jones was no vulnerable minor, but a 29-year-old teacher at the time. However unwelcome he says Goodall's advances were, it seems extraordinary that an unwilling adult male did not rebuff them," The Australian newspaper said in an editorial Thursday.
"It is not unreasonable that while accepting the investigation's findings, 'including homosexual misbehavior,' that Pell 'found evidence for rape insufficient,"' it concluded.
Pope Benedict won praise for tackling the issue of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church during his recent visit to the United States, and he is expected to address the issue when he begins his formal celebration of World Youth Day next week.
Now the most senior Catholic prelate in Australia, Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, is fighting allegations that he lied to a man who says he was abused by a priest.
The allegations center around a letter sent to the alleged victim of abuse, Anthony Jones. In 1982, when Jones was 29 years old and a teacher at a Catholic school, he says a priest, Father Terence Goodall, fondled his genitals and forced him into sexual acts.
Although he complained to the church authorities immediately after the incident, it was not until 2002, when he sent another letter, that they began an investigation into his allegations.
In February 2003, an independent investigator appointed by the church, a former police officer, Howard Murray, concluded that Jones had been abused, but Pell rejected the findings.
In a February 2003 letter to Jones, although Pell admitted that some homosexual activity had taken place and that an investigator assigned by the church to look into the case had found the claims to be substantiated, he questioned Jones's assertion that the sex was nonconsensual.
"What cannot be determined by me, however, is whether it was a matter of sexual assault as you state or homosexual behavior between two consenting adults," Pell wrote to the complainant.
However, the most damaging allegation is that Pell deliberately lied later in the letter, when he backed up his decision to dismiss the man's accusation with the statement that "No other complaint of attempted sexual assault has been received against Father Goodall and he categorically denies the accusation."
But an investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. has shown that on the same day, Feb. 14, 2003, Pell wrote to another alleged victim of Goodall's abuse, who was an 11-year-old altar boy at the time he was attacked, upholding his claims of sexual abuse against the priest.
Pell has said there was no attempt at a cover-up.
"I apologize for the confusion caused to Mr. Jones," he said. "The letter to Mr. Jones was badly worded and a mistake - an attempt to inform him there was no other allegation of rape."
And the cardinal has defended the church's procedures to cope with claims of sexual abuse. "There were mistakes made in the letter, but otherwise the procedures were good," he said.
The picture has been further muddied by a telephone transcript obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s Lateline program and broadcast in a series of shows this week.
ABC says the transcript is from a telephone tap obtained by the police and it records Goodall not only apologizing to Jones for what he admits was a nonconsensual sexual act but also saying that he had never told church investigators that the act was consensual.
Following the ABC broadcasts, Pell said Thursday that he was ready to reopen the investigations into the allegations by Jones.
Australia seems to be divided over the controversy. There is pride that the country has been chosen to play host to World Youth Day, and some have questions about Jones's story.
"What is curious about the 1982 incident is that Mr. Jones was no vulnerable minor, but a 29-year-old teacher at the time. However unwelcome he says Goodall's advances were, it seems extraordinary that an unwilling adult male did not rebuff them," The Australian newspaper said in an editorial Thursday.
"It is not unreasonable that while accepting the investigation's findings, 'including homosexual misbehavior,' that Pell 'found evidence for rape insufficient,"' it concluded.
World - Tradition of blood feuds isolates Albanian men
SHKODER, Albania: Christian Luli, a soft-spoken 17-year-old, has spent the past 10 years imprisoned inside his family's small, spartan house, fearing he will be killed if he walks outside the front door.
To pass the time, he plays video games and sketches houses. Unable to attend high school, he reads at the level of a 12-year-old. A girlfriend is out of the question. He would like to become an architect, but he despairs of a future locked inside, staring at the same four walls.
"This is the situation of my life," Christian said, looking plaintively through a window at the forbidden world outside. "I have known nothing else since I was a boy. I dream of freedom and of going to school. If I was not so afraid, I would walk out the door. Living like this is worse than a prison sentence."
Christian's misfortune is to have been born the son of a father who killed a man in this poor northern region of Albania, where the ancient ritual of the blood feud still holds sway.
Under the Kanun, an Albanian code that has been passed on for more than 500 years, "blood must be paid with blood." A victim's family is authorized to avenge a slaying by killing any of the killer's male relatives.The National Reconciliation Committee, an Albanian nonprofit organization that works to eliminate the practice of blood feuds, estimates that 20,000 people have been ensnared by blood feuds since they resurfaced after the collapse of Communism in the country in 1991.
Since that time, 9,500 people have been killed and nearly 1,000 children deprived of schooling because they have been locked indoors.
By tradition, any man old enough to wield a hunting rifle is considered a fair target for vengeance, making 17 male members of Christian's family vulnerable. They, too, are stuck in their homes.
The sole restriction is that the boundaries of the family home must not be breached. Women and children also have immunity, though some, like Christian, who matured early, begin their confinement as boys.
Members of victims' families are usually the avengers, though some families outsource the revenge to contract killers.
Blood feuds have been common in other societies, like southern Italy with its Mafia vendettas; Iraq with its retaliatory violence between Shiite and Sunni families; and parts of the Appalachian Mountains in the United States.
But they have been particularly prevalent in Albania, a desperately poor country struggling to uphold the rule of law after decades of a brutal Stalinist regime.
Blood feuds all but disappeared in Albania during the 40-year rule of Enver Hoxha, the Communist dictator who outlawed the practice, sometimes burying those who disobeyed alive in the coffins of their victims. But legal experts in Albania say the feuds erupted again after the fall of Communism ushered in a new period of lawlessness.
Nearly a thousand men involved in feuds have escaped abroad, some of them applying for asylum. But dozens of people have been hunted down outside Albania and killed by avenging families.
Ismet Elezi, a professor of criminal law at the University of Tirana, who advises the government and the police on how to tackle the problem, said recent changes in the Albanian penal code, including sentences of 25 years to life in prison for those who kill in a blood feud and stiff penalties for individuals who threaten to retaliate, had helped diminish the practice.
Yet he noted that some still gave greater credence to the Kanun than to the criminal justice system, often with devastating social consequences.
"The younger generation is no longer looking to the older generation's codes of behavior," he said. "But blood feuds are still causing misery because the men stuck inside their homes can't work, the children can't go to school and entire families are cut off from the outside world."
Alexander Kola, a mediator who works to resolve blood feuds, said the most common causes of feuds were disputes over property or land. But he said feuds could also erupt over seemingly minor affronts. He recalled a recent case in which a dozen men had been forced indoors after a male family member killed a shopkeeper who refused to sell his child an ice cream cone. In another case, a feud exploded when a sheep grazed on a neighbor's land, precipitating a deadly fight.
Sociologists in Albania said the feuds had inverted traditional gender roles in rural Albania, with women becoming the breadwinners of the family while the men were forced to stay home and do housework.
Christian's mother, Vitoria, 37, said she had ordered him to remain indoors from the age of 7 after her husband and his brother killed a man in their village following a drunken argument. She said her other son, Klingsman, 7, was attending school but would soon be forced to join his brother's life of confinement. Her husband and brother-in-law are serving 20-year prison sentences for murder.
"I live in constant fear and anxiety that Christian will be killed, that they are hunting my children," said the mother, who relies on charity to support her, the two boys and their two sisters. "I just wish the other family would kill someone in our family so that this nightmare would finally be over."
She said she had sent a mediator to the other family in an effort to seek forgiveness, but to no avail.
The family of the victim, Simon Vuka, declined to comment. But Kola, who is mediating the case, said that the family was not prepared to forgive because the victim had two young sons who had been left fatherless. "Many victims' families feel that imprisoning all the men in the killer's family inside their homes is a better revenge than killing them."
Kola, a former gym instructor who studied conflict resolution in Norway, said he tried to reconcile feuding families by identifying influential friends or relatives of the victim who could implore the family to forgive and forget. He said the plea for forgiveness was often accompanied with an offering of gold coins or other gifts from the killer's family. "I tell the families of the victims that forgiveness is more important than revenge," he said.
Christian, lanky and stoic with a maturity beyond his years, said he blamed his father, his uncle and an outmoded code for destroying his life. He said it was unfair that he was being punished for the sins of his relatives.
His only contact with the outside world comes once a month, when a group of nuns who do charity work in the community form a protective circle around him and whisk him into a car for a 30-minute trip to a nearby community center. He said he had fantasized about escaping from Albania, but his family was too poor to send him abroad. He could arm himself and flee, but he fears that the risks could be deadly.
"The Kanun is full of idiot rules for another age," he said. "It is totally unfair and senseless."
In addition to affecting the young, blood feuds have meant that some aging members of the Albanian population go without adequate health care because they cannot leave their homes.
Sherif Kurtaj, 62, has been forced to live with an untreated back tumor and rotten teeth. He has been trapped inside his house for eight years, ever since his two sons killed a neighbor who he said had ridiculed the boys because they were planning to emigrate to Germany. He said he needed life-saving surgery, but feared that if he went to the hospital, he would die from an avenger's bullet.
Kurtaj said his two sons, both of whom face 16-year prison sentences, had been on the run since the killing.
Even if they turned themselves in, he lamented, he would still have to remain indoors.
He said his friends were afraid to visit for fear of being shot accidentally.
Kurtaj could file a complaint under Albanian law against the family of the victim for threatening to kill him; such an offense carries a prison sentence of as much as three years. But he said he was afraid that would only bring reprisals.
"The Kanun must be obeyed," he said. "The blood needs to be avenged."
To pass the time, he plays video games and sketches houses. Unable to attend high school, he reads at the level of a 12-year-old. A girlfriend is out of the question. He would like to become an architect, but he despairs of a future locked inside, staring at the same four walls.
"This is the situation of my life," Christian said, looking plaintively through a window at the forbidden world outside. "I have known nothing else since I was a boy. I dream of freedom and of going to school. If I was not so afraid, I would walk out the door. Living like this is worse than a prison sentence."
Christian's misfortune is to have been born the son of a father who killed a man in this poor northern region of Albania, where the ancient ritual of the blood feud still holds sway.
Under the Kanun, an Albanian code that has been passed on for more than 500 years, "blood must be paid with blood." A victim's family is authorized to avenge a slaying by killing any of the killer's male relatives.The National Reconciliation Committee, an Albanian nonprofit organization that works to eliminate the practice of blood feuds, estimates that 20,000 people have been ensnared by blood feuds since they resurfaced after the collapse of Communism in the country in 1991.
Since that time, 9,500 people have been killed and nearly 1,000 children deprived of schooling because they have been locked indoors.
By tradition, any man old enough to wield a hunting rifle is considered a fair target for vengeance, making 17 male members of Christian's family vulnerable. They, too, are stuck in their homes.
The sole restriction is that the boundaries of the family home must not be breached. Women and children also have immunity, though some, like Christian, who matured early, begin their confinement as boys.
Members of victims' families are usually the avengers, though some families outsource the revenge to contract killers.
Blood feuds have been common in other societies, like southern Italy with its Mafia vendettas; Iraq with its retaliatory violence between Shiite and Sunni families; and parts of the Appalachian Mountains in the United States.
But they have been particularly prevalent in Albania, a desperately poor country struggling to uphold the rule of law after decades of a brutal Stalinist regime.
Blood feuds all but disappeared in Albania during the 40-year rule of Enver Hoxha, the Communist dictator who outlawed the practice, sometimes burying those who disobeyed alive in the coffins of their victims. But legal experts in Albania say the feuds erupted again after the fall of Communism ushered in a new period of lawlessness.
Nearly a thousand men involved in feuds have escaped abroad, some of them applying for asylum. But dozens of people have been hunted down outside Albania and killed by avenging families.
Ismet Elezi, a professor of criminal law at the University of Tirana, who advises the government and the police on how to tackle the problem, said recent changes in the Albanian penal code, including sentences of 25 years to life in prison for those who kill in a blood feud and stiff penalties for individuals who threaten to retaliate, had helped diminish the practice.
Yet he noted that some still gave greater credence to the Kanun than to the criminal justice system, often with devastating social consequences.
"The younger generation is no longer looking to the older generation's codes of behavior," he said. "But blood feuds are still causing misery because the men stuck inside their homes can't work, the children can't go to school and entire families are cut off from the outside world."
Alexander Kola, a mediator who works to resolve blood feuds, said the most common causes of feuds were disputes over property or land. But he said feuds could also erupt over seemingly minor affronts. He recalled a recent case in which a dozen men had been forced indoors after a male family member killed a shopkeeper who refused to sell his child an ice cream cone. In another case, a feud exploded when a sheep grazed on a neighbor's land, precipitating a deadly fight.
Sociologists in Albania said the feuds had inverted traditional gender roles in rural Albania, with women becoming the breadwinners of the family while the men were forced to stay home and do housework.
Christian's mother, Vitoria, 37, said she had ordered him to remain indoors from the age of 7 after her husband and his brother killed a man in their village following a drunken argument. She said her other son, Klingsman, 7, was attending school but would soon be forced to join his brother's life of confinement. Her husband and brother-in-law are serving 20-year prison sentences for murder.
"I live in constant fear and anxiety that Christian will be killed, that they are hunting my children," said the mother, who relies on charity to support her, the two boys and their two sisters. "I just wish the other family would kill someone in our family so that this nightmare would finally be over."
She said she had sent a mediator to the other family in an effort to seek forgiveness, but to no avail.
The family of the victim, Simon Vuka, declined to comment. But Kola, who is mediating the case, said that the family was not prepared to forgive because the victim had two young sons who had been left fatherless. "Many victims' families feel that imprisoning all the men in the killer's family inside their homes is a better revenge than killing them."
Kola, a former gym instructor who studied conflict resolution in Norway, said he tried to reconcile feuding families by identifying influential friends or relatives of the victim who could implore the family to forgive and forget. He said the plea for forgiveness was often accompanied with an offering of gold coins or other gifts from the killer's family. "I tell the families of the victims that forgiveness is more important than revenge," he said.
Christian, lanky and stoic with a maturity beyond his years, said he blamed his father, his uncle and an outmoded code for destroying his life. He said it was unfair that he was being punished for the sins of his relatives.
His only contact with the outside world comes once a month, when a group of nuns who do charity work in the community form a protective circle around him and whisk him into a car for a 30-minute trip to a nearby community center. He said he had fantasized about escaping from Albania, but his family was too poor to send him abroad. He could arm himself and flee, but he fears that the risks could be deadly.
"The Kanun is full of idiot rules for another age," he said. "It is totally unfair and senseless."
In addition to affecting the young, blood feuds have meant that some aging members of the Albanian population go without adequate health care because they cannot leave their homes.
Sherif Kurtaj, 62, has been forced to live with an untreated back tumor and rotten teeth. He has been trapped inside his house for eight years, ever since his two sons killed a neighbor who he said had ridiculed the boys because they were planning to emigrate to Germany. He said he needed life-saving surgery, but feared that if he went to the hospital, he would die from an avenger's bullet.
Kurtaj said his two sons, both of whom face 16-year prison sentences, had been on the run since the killing.
Even if they turned themselves in, he lamented, he would still have to remain indoors.
He said his friends were afraid to visit for fear of being shot accidentally.
Kurtaj could file a complaint under Albanian law against the family of the victim for threatening to kill him; such an offense carries a prison sentence of as much as three years. But he said he was afraid that would only bring reprisals.
"The Kanun must be obeyed," he said. "The blood needs to be avenged."
World - A former guerrilla who wants to lead his country again
PRISTINA, Kosovo: In 2005, just after arriving in The Hague to face charges for alleged war crimes, Ramush Haradinaj found himself face to face with Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian strongman, who was being held in a nearby cell.
For Haradinaj, a former commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army and a squat hulk of a man who had fought a guerrilla war against Milosevic's forces, the encounter was a shock.
"Milosevic asked if I was Haradinaj in English and said, 'How are you? How do you like it here? How is it going there in Kosovo?"' recalled Haradinaj, who was acquitted on 37 counts of crimes against humanity and released from The Hague in April after the court found that evidence was too weak to tie him directly to the killings of which he had been accused.
"I replied that Europe was going to help build a state in Kosovo, with America taking care of our security," he continued. "He was very polite. But he didn't like my answer and he left. I didn't feel like a loser in this story, because I was a member of the winning team."
But when Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders finally declared independence last February, Haradinaj's sense of triumph was tempered by his being forced to watch from prison.
Now, Haradinaj, 40, who was prime minister of UN-administered Kosovo for 100 days before surrendering to The Hague in March 2005, is vowing to lead the newborn country once again.
"We have a huge mess," he said at his sprawling mansion on a hill overlooking Pristina, Kosovo's capital. "There are people with no water for their toilets. There is no electricity. I am the one who can deliver. I want to be the next prime minister of this country. There is no doubt about that."
Celebrated as a freedom fighter among ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and reviled by Serbs, who nicknamed him "Rambo" for his indestructibility, Haradinaj received a hero's welcome when he returned home. In northern Kosovo, Serbs burned judges' robes to show their contempt.
"Haradinaj's release is a gross injustice and undermines the whole Hague process," said Vuk Jeremic, Serbia's young and pro-European foreign minister.
At the outset of Haradinaj's trial, Carla Del Ponte, The Hague's former chief prosecutor, who indicted Haradinaj on charges including the murder, torture, rape and expulsion of Serbs, Albanians and gypsies, called him a "gangster in uniform" with blood on his hands. Lawyers and judges on the court complained that witness intimidation had been widespread. Prosecutors have indicated that they plan to appeal.
Haradinaj made little effort to conceal his contempt for Del Ponte, who in a recent book linked the Kosovo Liberation Army to an alleged organ-trafficking scheme in which Serbian and Albanian civilians were abducted in Kosovo and taken to Albania, where their organs were extracted before they were killed.
"Del Ponte spent eight years as the chief prosecutor, and her duty was to bring the truth," Haradinaj said. "Instead, she was self-preoccupied with how she looks and how she is perceived by the public." Asked about the organ allegations, he declined to reply.
Haradinaj said that going overnight from the post of prime minister to detention had been difficult. To pass the time, former warriors convened a cooking club. Milosevic cooked cevapi, little Balkan meatballs.
The onetime guerrilla, more at home with an AK-47, said he did not know how to cook. "I was scared to have so much time just sitting, sitting," he recalled.
"But the battlefield was worse than The Hague. There, you saw your brothers killed every day."
Haradinaj has had a life marked by struggle, loss, violence and bloodshed. Two of his brothers were killed during fighting with Serbian soldiers. A third was killed in his car in 2005.
Haradinaj said he became convinced that armed struggle was the only way to overcome Serbian domination as early as age 14, when he saw the Serbian police beating young Albanian demonstrators. "I saw that they were beating them because they had the guns and were the strong ones," he said. "I realized then that we needed to be even stronger."
In 1989, the year Milosevic stripped away Kosovo's autonomy, Haradinaj emigrated to Switzerland, where he spent nine years working as a nightclub bouncer and in construction. He said he began to prepare for the physical exertion of the battlefield by studying kung fu, reading books on guerrilla tactics and doing 100-kilometer, or 60-mile, runs in the Alps. He returned to Kosovo in early 1998, as Albanian guerrillas and Serbian forces began to clash, and established himself as commander of his home Dukagjini region.
During his first days of battle, he saw his younger brother Luan killed while the two were crossing from Albania to Kosovo. He said he carried his brother's body for four hours on his back until he could bury him.
In March 1998, Milosevic's forces tried to kill Haradinaj and his family at their compound in Gllogjan, in west Kosovo. He was shot seven times, he recalled, but survived, thanks to a set of keys in his breast pocket, which deflected a potentially lethal bullet.
Kosovo Liberation Army soldiers who had fought alongside Haradinaj said he inspired deep loyalty through charisma, supreme self-confidence and fearlessness. Ramush Ahmeti, a fighter in his unit, recalled that when some soldiers sang patriotic anthems to prepare for battle, Haradinaj would silence them and encourage them to run laps instead.
Yet when another of Haradinaj's brothers, Shkelzen, was killed in 1999 and his fighters were broken and demoralized, Ahmeti said, Haradinaj suddenly broke into a partisan song. "He was singing to try to prevent us from breaking down," Ahmeti said. "We would die for him because he was willing to die for us."
After NATO intervened in the war in 1999 and Serbian forces withdrew, Haradinaj - by then legendary in Kosovo - earned a law degree from Pristina University. Fellow students said they had been shocked to find the former warrior with them in the classroom. Haradinaj, who did not go to college, also taught himself English, French and German and became a wine connoisseur.
Yet violence dogged him. On July 7, 2000, he led some men to a rival family's house in western Kosovo. A battle broke out, according to the police, and Haradinaj was wounded with a grenade. He was never prosecuted.
After helping to disarm the Kosovo Liberation Army and establish it as a civilian force, which Western diplomats say helped bring stability to the province, he set up a political party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. In elections in October 2004, his party finished third and Haradinaj became prime minister of a coalition government.
Western diplomats say he was an intelligent and energetic leader. In March 2004, when ethnic Albanians rioted across Kosovo, he was credited with preventing hundreds from attacking Kosovo's best-known Serbian Orthodox monastery.
While he was in prison last year, Haradinaj had to watch as his archrival, Hashim Thaci, a former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, emerged as prime minister. A few weeks ago, an armed assailant tried to shoot his way into Thaci's residence and two of his brothers were attacked, according to the police. Some in Thaci's camp blamed Haradinaj, who denied involvement.
Vlora Qitaku, a spokeswoman for Thaci's party, said Haradinaj was a political has-been whose party had lost the past five elections. "We are trying to build a new democracy, and we will not allow Ramush to turn Kosovo into a jungle."
Haradinaj lashed out at the government and the West for allowing Belgrade to control the Serb-dominated north, and warned that Albanians would grow impatient.
"We have to be able to deliver on Feb. 17," he said, referring to the date of independence. "I know what patience means, but if you sleep, it's not good. It can be too late."
For Haradinaj, a former commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army and a squat hulk of a man who had fought a guerrilla war against Milosevic's forces, the encounter was a shock.
"Milosevic asked if I was Haradinaj in English and said, 'How are you? How do you like it here? How is it going there in Kosovo?"' recalled Haradinaj, who was acquitted on 37 counts of crimes against humanity and released from The Hague in April after the court found that evidence was too weak to tie him directly to the killings of which he had been accused.
"I replied that Europe was going to help build a state in Kosovo, with America taking care of our security," he continued. "He was very polite. But he didn't like my answer and he left. I didn't feel like a loser in this story, because I was a member of the winning team."
But when Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders finally declared independence last February, Haradinaj's sense of triumph was tempered by his being forced to watch from prison.
Now, Haradinaj, 40, who was prime minister of UN-administered Kosovo for 100 days before surrendering to The Hague in March 2005, is vowing to lead the newborn country once again.
"We have a huge mess," he said at his sprawling mansion on a hill overlooking Pristina, Kosovo's capital. "There are people with no water for their toilets. There is no electricity. I am the one who can deliver. I want to be the next prime minister of this country. There is no doubt about that."
Celebrated as a freedom fighter among ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and reviled by Serbs, who nicknamed him "Rambo" for his indestructibility, Haradinaj received a hero's welcome when he returned home. In northern Kosovo, Serbs burned judges' robes to show their contempt.
"Haradinaj's release is a gross injustice and undermines the whole Hague process," said Vuk Jeremic, Serbia's young and pro-European foreign minister.
At the outset of Haradinaj's trial, Carla Del Ponte, The Hague's former chief prosecutor, who indicted Haradinaj on charges including the murder, torture, rape and expulsion of Serbs, Albanians and gypsies, called him a "gangster in uniform" with blood on his hands. Lawyers and judges on the court complained that witness intimidation had been widespread. Prosecutors have indicated that they plan to appeal.
Haradinaj made little effort to conceal his contempt for Del Ponte, who in a recent book linked the Kosovo Liberation Army to an alleged organ-trafficking scheme in which Serbian and Albanian civilians were abducted in Kosovo and taken to Albania, where their organs were extracted before they were killed.
"Del Ponte spent eight years as the chief prosecutor, and her duty was to bring the truth," Haradinaj said. "Instead, she was self-preoccupied with how she looks and how she is perceived by the public." Asked about the organ allegations, he declined to reply.
Haradinaj said that going overnight from the post of prime minister to detention had been difficult. To pass the time, former warriors convened a cooking club. Milosevic cooked cevapi, little Balkan meatballs.
The onetime guerrilla, more at home with an AK-47, said he did not know how to cook. "I was scared to have so much time just sitting, sitting," he recalled.
"But the battlefield was worse than The Hague. There, you saw your brothers killed every day."
Haradinaj has had a life marked by struggle, loss, violence and bloodshed. Two of his brothers were killed during fighting with Serbian soldiers. A third was killed in his car in 2005.
Haradinaj said he became convinced that armed struggle was the only way to overcome Serbian domination as early as age 14, when he saw the Serbian police beating young Albanian demonstrators. "I saw that they were beating them because they had the guns and were the strong ones," he said. "I realized then that we needed to be even stronger."
In 1989, the year Milosevic stripped away Kosovo's autonomy, Haradinaj emigrated to Switzerland, where he spent nine years working as a nightclub bouncer and in construction. He said he began to prepare for the physical exertion of the battlefield by studying kung fu, reading books on guerrilla tactics and doing 100-kilometer, or 60-mile, runs in the Alps. He returned to Kosovo in early 1998, as Albanian guerrillas and Serbian forces began to clash, and established himself as commander of his home Dukagjini region.
During his first days of battle, he saw his younger brother Luan killed while the two were crossing from Albania to Kosovo. He said he carried his brother's body for four hours on his back until he could bury him.
In March 1998, Milosevic's forces tried to kill Haradinaj and his family at their compound in Gllogjan, in west Kosovo. He was shot seven times, he recalled, but survived, thanks to a set of keys in his breast pocket, which deflected a potentially lethal bullet.
Kosovo Liberation Army soldiers who had fought alongside Haradinaj said he inspired deep loyalty through charisma, supreme self-confidence and fearlessness. Ramush Ahmeti, a fighter in his unit, recalled that when some soldiers sang patriotic anthems to prepare for battle, Haradinaj would silence them and encourage them to run laps instead.
Yet when another of Haradinaj's brothers, Shkelzen, was killed in 1999 and his fighters were broken and demoralized, Ahmeti said, Haradinaj suddenly broke into a partisan song. "He was singing to try to prevent us from breaking down," Ahmeti said. "We would die for him because he was willing to die for us."
After NATO intervened in the war in 1999 and Serbian forces withdrew, Haradinaj - by then legendary in Kosovo - earned a law degree from Pristina University. Fellow students said they had been shocked to find the former warrior with them in the classroom. Haradinaj, who did not go to college, also taught himself English, French and German and became a wine connoisseur.
Yet violence dogged him. On July 7, 2000, he led some men to a rival family's house in western Kosovo. A battle broke out, according to the police, and Haradinaj was wounded with a grenade. He was never prosecuted.
After helping to disarm the Kosovo Liberation Army and establish it as a civilian force, which Western diplomats say helped bring stability to the province, he set up a political party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. In elections in October 2004, his party finished third and Haradinaj became prime minister of a coalition government.
Western diplomats say he was an intelligent and energetic leader. In March 2004, when ethnic Albanians rioted across Kosovo, he was credited with preventing hundreds from attacking Kosovo's best-known Serbian Orthodox monastery.
While he was in prison last year, Haradinaj had to watch as his archrival, Hashim Thaci, a former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, emerged as prime minister. A few weeks ago, an armed assailant tried to shoot his way into Thaci's residence and two of his brothers were attacked, according to the police. Some in Thaci's camp blamed Haradinaj, who denied involvement.
Vlora Qitaku, a spokeswoman for Thaci's party, said Haradinaj was a political has-been whose party had lost the past five elections. "We are trying to build a new democracy, and we will not allow Ramush to turn Kosovo into a jungle."
Haradinaj lashed out at the government and the West for allowing Belgrade to control the Serb-dominated north, and warned that Albanians would grow impatient.
"We have to be able to deliver on Feb. 17," he said, referring to the date of independence. "I know what patience means, but if you sleep, it's not good. It can be too late."
World - An Interpreter speaking up for immigrants
WATERLOO, Iowa: In 23 years as a certified Spanish interpreter for U.S. courts, Erik Camayd-Freixas has spoken up in criminal trials many times, but the words he uttered were rarely his own.
Then he was summoned here by court officials to translate in the hearings for nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers arrested in a raid on May 12 at a meatpacking plant. Since then, Camayd-Freixas, a professor of Spanish at Florida International University, has taken the unusual step of breaking the code of confidentiality among legal interpreters about their work.
In a 14-page essay he circulated among two dozen other interpreters who worked here, Professor Camayd-Freixas wrote that the immigrant defendants whose words he translated, most of them villagers from Guatemala, did not fully understand the criminal charges they were facing or the rights most of them had waived.
In the essay and an interview, Professor Camayd-Freixas said he was taken aback by the rapid pace of the proceedings and the pressure prosecutors brought to bear on the defendants and their lawyers by pressing criminal charges instead of deporting the workers immediately for immigration violations.
He said defense lawyers had little time or privacy to meet with their court-assigned clients in the first hectic days after the raid. Most of the Guatemalans could not read or write, he said. Most did not understand that they were in criminal court.
"The questions they asked showed they did not understand what was going on," Professor Camayd-Freixas said in the interview. "The great majority were under the impression they were there because of being illegal in the country, not because of Social Security fraud."
During fast-paced hearings in May, 262 of the illegal immigrants pleaded guilty in one week and were sentenced to prison — most for five months — for knowingly using false Social Security cards or legal residence documents to gain jobs at the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in nearby Postville. It was the largest criminal enforcement operation ever carried out by immigration authorities at a workplace.
The essay has provoked new questions about the Agriprocessors proceedings, which had been criticized by criminal defense and immigration lawyers as failing to uphold the immigrants' right to due process. Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, said she would hold a hearing on the prosecutions and call Professor Camayd-Freixas as a witness.
"The essay raises questions about whether the charges brought were supported by the facts," Lofgren said.
Bob Teig, a spokesman for Matt Dummermuth, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, said the immigrants' constitutional rights were not compromised.
"All defendants were provided with experienced criminal attorneys and interpreters before they made any decisions in their criminal cases," Teig said. "Once they made their choices, two independent judicial officers determined the defendants were making their choices freely and voluntarily, were satisfied with their attorney, and were, in fact, guilty."
Teig said the judges in the cases were satisfied with the guilty pleas.
"The judges had the right and duty to reject any guilty plea where a defendant was not guilty," Teig said. "No plea was rejected."
The essay by Professor Camayd-Freixas, who is the director of a program to train language interpreters at the university, has also caused a stir among legal interpreters. In telephone calls and debates through e-mail, they have discussed whether it was appropriate for a translator to speak publicly about conversations with criminal defendants who were covered by legal confidentiality.
"It is quite unusual that a legal interpreter would go to this length of writing up an essay and taking a strong stance," said Nataly Kelly, an analyst with Common Sense Advisory, a marketing research company focused on language services. Kelly is a certified legal interpreter who is the author of a manual about interpreting.
The Agriprocessors hearings were held in temporary courtrooms in mobile trailers and a ballroom at the National Cattle Congress, a fairgrounds here in Waterloo. Professor Camayd-Freixas worked with one defense lawyer, Sara Smith, translating her discussions with nine clients she represented. He also worked in courtrooms during plea and sentencing hearings.
Smith praised Professor Camayd-Freixas's essay, saying it captured the immigrants' distress during "the surreal two weeks" of the proceedings. She said he had not revealed information that was detrimental to her cases.
But she cautioned that interpreters should not commonly speak publicly about conversations between lawyers and clients. "It is not a practice that I would generally advocate as I could envision circumstances under which such revelations could be damaging to a client's case," Smith said.
Professor Camayd-Freixas said he had considered withdrawing from the assignment, but decided instead that he could play a valuable role by witnessing the proceedings and making them known.
He suggested many of the immigrants could not have knowingly committed the crimes in their pleas. "Most of the clients we interviewed did not even know what a Social Security card was or what purpose it served," he wrote.
He said many immigrants could not distinguish between a Social Security card and a residence visa, known as a green card. They said they had purchased fake documents from smugglers in Postville, or obtained them directly from supervisors at the Agriprocessors plant. Most did not know that the original cards could belong to Americans and legal immigrants, Camayd-Freixas said.
Smith went repeatedly over the charges and the options available to her clients, Professor Camayd-Freixas said. He cited the reaction of one Guatemalan, Isaías Pérez Martínez: "No matter how many times his attorney explained it, he kept saying, 'I'm illegal, I have no rights. I'm nobody in this country. Just do whatever you want with me.' "
Professor Camayd-Freixas said Pérez Martínez wept during much of his meeting with Smith.
Smith, like more than a dozen other court-appointed defense lawyers, concluded that none of the immigrants' legal options were good. Prosecutors had evidence showing they had presented fraudulent documents when they were hired at Agriprocessors.
In plea agreements offered by Dummermuth, the immigrants could plead guilty to a document fraud charge and serve five months in prison. Otherwise, prosecutors would try them on more serious identity theft charges carrying a mandatory sentence of two years. In any scenario, even if they were acquitted, the immigrants would eventually be deported.
Worried about families they had been supporting with their wages, the immigrants readily chose to plead guilty because they did understand that was the fastest way to return home, Professor Camayd-Freixas said.
"They were hoping and they were begging everybody to deport them," he said.
Smith said she was convinced after examining the prosecutors' evidence that it was not in her clients' interests to go to trial.
"I think they understood what their options were," she said. "I tried to make it very clear."
Legal interpreters familiar with the profession said that Professor Camayd-Freixas' essay, while a notable departure from the norm, did not violate professional standards.
Isabel Framer, a certified legal interpreter from Ohio who is chairwoman of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators, said Professor Camayd-Freixas did not go public while the cases were still in court or reveal information that could not be discerned from the record. Framer said she was speaking for herself because her organization had not taken an official position on the essay.
"Interpreters, just like judges and attorneys, have an obligation to maintain the confidentiality of the process," she said. "But they don't check their ethical standards at the door."
Mktg - Beijing equipped to prevent ambush marketing
BEGINNING on Friday, the Chinese government will begin restricting advertising space in Beijing, giving preference to the official sponsors of the Olympic Games.
The restrictions are meant to clamp down on so-called ambush marketers, which are companies that are not official sponsors but hope to gain some halo effect from the Games. One advertiser that is likely to suffer the most is Nike, which has broad marketing ambitions in China but no qualifying sponsorship deal.
Ambush marketing has long been a flashpoint at the Olympics. Sponsors pay upward of $65 million for the right to affiliate their brand with the Olympics, and they do not want their advertisements eclipsed by nonpaying competitors. The job of policing the marketing landscape is generally left to the host country, the International Olympic Committee and national organizing committees.
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, which is known as Bocog, has asked advertising agencies to avoid using Olympic symbols without authorization and is asking media companies to carry ads of Olympic sponsors on their channels featuring Olympic content.
From the perspective of the sponsors, this is a good thing indeed.
"We really rely on them to monitor and correct those problems," said Petro Kacur, a spokesman for Coca-Cola, an official sponsor. "It's not a role that we play."
China has signaled that it takes this responsibility seriously. Starting on Friday, "all prominent advertising space in Beijing, including at the airport and on subway lines, will be controlled, giving official sponsors priority," said Chen Feng, deputy director of marketing for Bocog, according to a report in Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency.
Given that China does not generally use a light touch in carrying out rules of this sort, it is possible that unauthorized ads will be removed forcefully and immediately. According to a report in Advertising Age, the government has removed more than 30,000 outdoor ads in Beijing in the last year.
Although the government has been keeping a tight leash on Olympics-related matters, it did give some ground to foreign broadcasters this week. On Wednesday, Beijing eased restrictions on television reporting during the Games, saying that it would allow live news coverage in Beijing and would permit satellite trucks to be stationed in Beijing and other cities with Olympic events. That cleared up two big points of contention.
A third one was settled as well: the government said it would permit limited live coverage from Tiananmen Square for networks like NBC, which has the official broadcasting rights in the United States. NBC confirmed on Thursday that it now planned to broadcast live from there.
"The fact that live coverage will eventually be allowed is a positive development," said Lucie Morillon, a spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders, in an e-mail message on Thursday. "But this should have been allowed from the start, since the Chinese authorities promised 'complete freedom of the press' in 2001," when Beijing won the bid to host the Games.
On the advertising front, the government's goal has been to make Beijing look spic and span. In part to eliminate clutter, advertisements on the front, back and doors of buses in Beijing were banned beginning this month. However, many of the moves are to protect sponsors.
"The volume of advertising, mostly billboard advertising, has been cut down considerably," said Dan Mintz, chief creative officer of Dynamic Marketing Group, a Chinese advertising firm that works with Volkswagen, which is an official Olympic sponsor, and Nike. Nike has traditionally been one of the biggest ambush marketers at the Olympics.
In Barcelona in 1992, Michael Jordan and some other American basketball team members covered the Reebok logos on their uniforms because they were individually sponsored by Nike. And at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when Nike was not the official sponsor, it took over a parking garage near the center of the Games and turned it into a hospitality center and retail store.
In China, Adidas and Nike will face off. Last week, Adidas opened its largest retail store in Beijing, 10,000 square feet; it is opening about 1,000 retail stores in China this year.
Nike is sponsoring some individual athletes and groups as well as the United States Olympic Committee, but it is not considered an official sponsor because it has not signed on with Bocog or the IOC
Nike "is committed to full compliance around Olympics branding" in Beijing, a spokesman, Derek Kent, wrote in an e-mail message.
It is standard for cities that hold the Olympics to try to control ambush marketing, said Patrick Sandusky, vice president for sports marketing at Hill & Knowlton and the spokesman for Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid.
"When cities bid for the Games, they usually get into some sort of agreement with the advertisers in their city and the billboards in their city to ensure they're only used for sponsors," Sandusky said.
Jim Scherr, chief executive of the United States Olympic Committee, said his organization had "a group of people who spend their time making sure our brand is not traded on by those who do not have a proper association with it."
For sponsors like Visa, which has been making preparations in Beijing for more than two years, the protections are welcome. Visa had a logistical challenge as well as a marketing one: it had to get merchants equipped to accept Visa cards, strike partnerships with Chinese banks and have ATM's installed.
At the beginning, "we were building up brand awareness in China from almost a zero base," said Rajiv Kapoor, executive vice president for marketing at Visa Asia/Pacific. "We wanted to go in strategically before there would be more sponsor clutter."
The restrictions are meant to clamp down on so-called ambush marketers, which are companies that are not official sponsors but hope to gain some halo effect from the Games. One advertiser that is likely to suffer the most is Nike, which has broad marketing ambitions in China but no qualifying sponsorship deal.
Ambush marketing has long been a flashpoint at the Olympics. Sponsors pay upward of $65 million for the right to affiliate their brand with the Olympics, and they do not want their advertisements eclipsed by nonpaying competitors. The job of policing the marketing landscape is generally left to the host country, the International Olympic Committee and national organizing committees.
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, which is known as Bocog, has asked advertising agencies to avoid using Olympic symbols without authorization and is asking media companies to carry ads of Olympic sponsors on their channels featuring Olympic content.
From the perspective of the sponsors, this is a good thing indeed.
"We really rely on them to monitor and correct those problems," said Petro Kacur, a spokesman for Coca-Cola, an official sponsor. "It's not a role that we play."
China has signaled that it takes this responsibility seriously. Starting on Friday, "all prominent advertising space in Beijing, including at the airport and on subway lines, will be controlled, giving official sponsors priority," said Chen Feng, deputy director of marketing for Bocog, according to a report in Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency.
Given that China does not generally use a light touch in carrying out rules of this sort, it is possible that unauthorized ads will be removed forcefully and immediately. According to a report in Advertising Age, the government has removed more than 30,000 outdoor ads in Beijing in the last year.
Although the government has been keeping a tight leash on Olympics-related matters, it did give some ground to foreign broadcasters this week. On Wednesday, Beijing eased restrictions on television reporting during the Games, saying that it would allow live news coverage in Beijing and would permit satellite trucks to be stationed in Beijing and other cities with Olympic events. That cleared up two big points of contention.
A third one was settled as well: the government said it would permit limited live coverage from Tiananmen Square for networks like NBC, which has the official broadcasting rights in the United States. NBC confirmed on Thursday that it now planned to broadcast live from there.
"The fact that live coverage will eventually be allowed is a positive development," said Lucie Morillon, a spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders, in an e-mail message on Thursday. "But this should have been allowed from the start, since the Chinese authorities promised 'complete freedom of the press' in 2001," when Beijing won the bid to host the Games.
On the advertising front, the government's goal has been to make Beijing look spic and span. In part to eliminate clutter, advertisements on the front, back and doors of buses in Beijing were banned beginning this month. However, many of the moves are to protect sponsors.
"The volume of advertising, mostly billboard advertising, has been cut down considerably," said Dan Mintz, chief creative officer of Dynamic Marketing Group, a Chinese advertising firm that works with Volkswagen, which is an official Olympic sponsor, and Nike. Nike has traditionally been one of the biggest ambush marketers at the Olympics.
In Barcelona in 1992, Michael Jordan and some other American basketball team members covered the Reebok logos on their uniforms because they were individually sponsored by Nike. And at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when Nike was not the official sponsor, it took over a parking garage near the center of the Games and turned it into a hospitality center and retail store.
In China, Adidas and Nike will face off. Last week, Adidas opened its largest retail store in Beijing, 10,000 square feet; it is opening about 1,000 retail stores in China this year.
Nike is sponsoring some individual athletes and groups as well as the United States Olympic Committee, but it is not considered an official sponsor because it has not signed on with Bocog or the IOC
Nike "is committed to full compliance around Olympics branding" in Beijing, a spokesman, Derek Kent, wrote in an e-mail message.
It is standard for cities that hold the Olympics to try to control ambush marketing, said Patrick Sandusky, vice president for sports marketing at Hill & Knowlton and the spokesman for Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid.
"When cities bid for the Games, they usually get into some sort of agreement with the advertisers in their city and the billboards in their city to ensure they're only used for sponsors," Sandusky said.
Jim Scherr, chief executive of the United States Olympic Committee, said his organization had "a group of people who spend their time making sure our brand is not traded on by those who do not have a proper association with it."
For sponsors like Visa, which has been making preparations in Beijing for more than two years, the protections are welcome. Visa had a logistical challenge as well as a marketing one: it had to get merchants equipped to accept Visa cards, strike partnerships with Chinese banks and have ATM's installed.
At the beginning, "we were building up brand awareness in China from almost a zero base," said Rajiv Kapoor, executive vice president for marketing at Visa Asia/Pacific. "We wanted to go in strategically before there would be more sponsor clutter."
India - Medical Madness
Every now and then, I read something in the news that makes me mad. Then I stew over it, getting madder and madder. And when this happens, sometimes I connect two otherwise unconnected bits of information to make one unified sore point. Here is a prime example.
A couple of days ago, there was a little snippet of news about medical graduates in Maharashtra — apparently, only three out of 109 students that passed out of a reputed medical college in Mumbai opted for the mandatory one year's practice in rural Maharashtra. The rest paid Rs 1,00,000 to break this bond. The NGO that disclosed this news said that the story was being played out in the 13 other medical colleges in the state as well. It is obvious that new medical graduates prefer the advantages of a city practice to the discomforts of village life. I guess one can't force someone to go practise in a village if he doesn't want to — but since I've lived in a rural area where medical facilities continue to be non-existent, this news item really got my goat.
Just as I was stewing over this, I had a call from Naval, a Bihari migrant in Delhi whom I've known for many years. He sounded very agitated. "My younger brother, who's always dreamt of being a doctor," he told me, "is having a hard time." The boy had appeared for pre-medical tests in many states this year for the third time, after having spent what must have been quite a fortune on preparing for them. "My brother is very bright," said Naval, "and of course a doctor in the family would raise our status tremendously in our village — so we all supported him as best as we could." The entire process of applying for a seat in a medical college, said he, was so expensive that most village students just could not afford it. "Every exam you take, every college you apply to, charges a hefty fee. To even stand a chance, especially if you have been to school in a village or small town, you need extra coaching. I'd say that just the process of appearing for medical entrance tests, you need at least Rs 50,000 ," said he.
Anyway, Naval's brother was eventually offered a seat in a medical college, and the family was ecstatic. The boy was keen to return to his village home after graduating, and wanted to set up practice there.
Not surprisingly, this made the family happier.
However, when Naval and his brother reached the college, they were in for a rude shock. They'd come a day late, they were told, and the college had given his seat to someone else. "But we weren't told that attending the orientation was mandatory!" Naval protested. Apparently, said the college authorities, it was, and they were just following the rules. The distraught pair asked around, and discovered that medical seats were still available, but at a price of about Rs 12 lakh , while dentistry seats were available at half the price. The only other option, they were told, was to get someone influential to plead their case. Which is why Naval was calling up everyone he knew, including me.
I've no idea what will happen to Naval's brother. But when I think of how difficult it is for villagers like him to even dream of becoming doctors and then read about those Mumbai medics who are too squeamish to practise in the villages, it seems to me that our medical system is diseased …and the entire medical community will need to come up with a cure.
A couple of days ago, there was a little snippet of news about medical graduates in Maharashtra — apparently, only three out of 109 students that passed out of a reputed medical college in Mumbai opted for the mandatory one year's practice in rural Maharashtra. The rest paid Rs 1,00,000 to break this bond. The NGO that disclosed this news said that the story was being played out in the 13 other medical colleges in the state as well. It is obvious that new medical graduates prefer the advantages of a city practice to the discomforts of village life. I guess one can't force someone to go practise in a village if he doesn't want to — but since I've lived in a rural area where medical facilities continue to be non-existent, this news item really got my goat.
Just as I was stewing over this, I had a call from Naval, a Bihari migrant in Delhi whom I've known for many years. He sounded very agitated. "My younger brother, who's always dreamt of being a doctor," he told me, "is having a hard time." The boy had appeared for pre-medical tests in many states this year for the third time, after having spent what must have been quite a fortune on preparing for them. "My brother is very bright," said Naval, "and of course a doctor in the family would raise our status tremendously in our village — so we all supported him as best as we could." The entire process of applying for a seat in a medical college, said he, was so expensive that most village students just could not afford it. "Every exam you take, every college you apply to, charges a hefty fee. To even stand a chance, especially if you have been to school in a village or small town, you need extra coaching. I'd say that just the process of appearing for medical entrance tests, you need at least Rs 50,000 ," said he.
Anyway, Naval's brother was eventually offered a seat in a medical college, and the family was ecstatic. The boy was keen to return to his village home after graduating, and wanted to set up practice there.
Not surprisingly, this made the family happier.
However, when Naval and his brother reached the college, they were in for a rude shock. They'd come a day late, they were told, and the college had given his seat to someone else. "But we weren't told that attending the orientation was mandatory!" Naval protested. Apparently, said the college authorities, it was, and they were just following the rules. The distraught pair asked around, and discovered that medical seats were still available, but at a price of about Rs 12 lakh , while dentistry seats were available at half the price. The only other option, they were told, was to get someone influential to plead their case. Which is why Naval was calling up everyone he knew, including me.
I've no idea what will happen to Naval's brother. But when I think of how difficult it is for villagers like him to even dream of becoming doctors and then read about those Mumbai medics who are too squeamish to practise in the villages, it seems to me that our medical system is diseased …and the entire medical community will need to come up with a cure.
India - Politics of the possible
Few have the ability to network and manipulate the levers of power as Singh does.
I was born and grew up in a three-room flat on 202 Chittaranjan Avenue. There were five of us and only one bathroom. I still remember the torture in the mornings when all of us used to queue outside the toilet. Since then I have an obsession with big bathrooms. Every room in my Greater Kailash House has a bathroom. I've seen those days; I left home because I didn't want to continue with my father's trading business. I had nothing. Proud fathers get suits stitched for their sons. I paid for my first suit myself, when I was 28. Those 10 years were a period of great struggle. I'm afraid of nothing. What's the worst that can happen? That I have to return to those days? So what? I've survived them once already."Who said this ?
The man whose picture is on the right. The king of the politics of possibilities — Amar Singh is back in action. Expect turbulence ahead.
Singh began the Samajwadi Party's (SP) reincarnation in national politics in the first week of July — as a friend and supporter of the Congress — with the statement: "We're not wheelers and dealers. We don't want anything from the relationship". Till then he had just been a friend and well-wisher of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Now he has the onerous responsibility of keeping the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) afloat. So who is this man ?
In small towns, there is a class of traders and businessmen that rushed to open demat accounts last year. For them, Amar Singh is the symbol of what they can achieve. He's known as the man who can make things work. He is unashamedly feudal in the way he does business, but he can leverage and network to get doors opened. Singh has never been less-than-frank about his abilities. His first memorable business deal was for Vam Organics, where he worked. "Alcohol-based chemical industries were booming as long as I was there," he said. The industrial alcohol market was tightly-regimented and controlled by the UP government. How did he manage to make a success of business in that environment? "By networking — through bureaucratic and political networking" he said.
From then to now, it has been a long journey. Having traded the black safari suit for the kurta pyjama, in the 1980s Singh faced betrayal from the Congress Party, that promised him a seat from Madhya Pradesh. He joined the Samajwadi Party because he had something he could offer to the SP and the SP had something it could give him. Mulayam Singh Yadav recognised the merit of a man who was content being the bridesmaid, never the bride. He never interfered in Amar Singh's business plans for the SP.
And Singh had many. As a politician, he was born at the cusp of the birth of India's second generation economic reforms programme. Successive unstable governments in the late 1990s, in an environment of half-done reforms, afforded unique opportunities to gain considerable leverage — Singh taught Mulayam Singh Yadav how to utilise it. From someone who was adept at getting his work done by babus, Singh graduated to someone who could now order babus to work.
But his field of political operation continued to be Uttar Pradesh. When the Samajwadi Party came to power in UP, Singh launched, with great enthusiasm and fanfare, administrative structures that he said would change the face of the state. To his credit, he tried to modernise a moribund system by making it more corporate, more responsive. A UP Development Council, a system that was corporate-compatible, single-window systems, revamping, privatisation…
Despite Singh's best efforts, it didn't work. Too much else intervened: demands of day-to-day politics, UP's existential contradictions and the standard UP politician's inability to see beyond his nose. Again, there were many to take advantage of a measure only half done. It was Mulayam Singh Yadav who privatised 24 state-owned sugar mills in UP in 2003 as chief minister, but the issue was mired in controversy as all the mills were to be handed over to one particular industrial house, that has now emerged as the largest sugar producer in the country.
Singh does not agree, but UP was in a shambles because Mulayam Singh's Yadav's tenure started out as modern and visionary — with considerable credit due to Amar Singh — but got bogged down in Yadav's family politics, mismanagement and his disproportionate assets cases (one is being reviewed by the Supreme Court). Singh will also dispute this vigorously, but somewhere along the line, he also lost interest in modernising UP, content with just going with the flow.
But today, the man has something to prove once again. With his uncanny ability to bring people representing disparate interests together on one platform, he can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. The Congress has to decide which it wants him to be.
I was born and grew up in a three-room flat on 202 Chittaranjan Avenue. There were five of us and only one bathroom. I still remember the torture in the mornings when all of us used to queue outside the toilet. Since then I have an obsession with big bathrooms. Every room in my Greater Kailash House has a bathroom. I've seen those days; I left home because I didn't want to continue with my father's trading business. I had nothing. Proud fathers get suits stitched for their sons. I paid for my first suit myself, when I was 28. Those 10 years were a period of great struggle. I'm afraid of nothing. What's the worst that can happen? That I have to return to those days? So what? I've survived them once already."Who said this ?
The man whose picture is on the right. The king of the politics of possibilities — Amar Singh is back in action. Expect turbulence ahead.
Singh began the Samajwadi Party's (SP) reincarnation in national politics in the first week of July — as a friend and supporter of the Congress — with the statement: "We're not wheelers and dealers. We don't want anything from the relationship". Till then he had just been a friend and well-wisher of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Now he has the onerous responsibility of keeping the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) afloat. So who is this man ?
In small towns, there is a class of traders and businessmen that rushed to open demat accounts last year. For them, Amar Singh is the symbol of what they can achieve. He's known as the man who can make things work. He is unashamedly feudal in the way he does business, but he can leverage and network to get doors opened. Singh has never been less-than-frank about his abilities. His first memorable business deal was for Vam Organics, where he worked. "Alcohol-based chemical industries were booming as long as I was there," he said. The industrial alcohol market was tightly-regimented and controlled by the UP government. How did he manage to make a success of business in that environment? "By networking — through bureaucratic and political networking" he said.
From then to now, it has been a long journey. Having traded the black safari suit for the kurta pyjama, in the 1980s Singh faced betrayal from the Congress Party, that promised him a seat from Madhya Pradesh. He joined the Samajwadi Party because he had something he could offer to the SP and the SP had something it could give him. Mulayam Singh Yadav recognised the merit of a man who was content being the bridesmaid, never the bride. He never interfered in Amar Singh's business plans for the SP.
And Singh had many. As a politician, he was born at the cusp of the birth of India's second generation economic reforms programme. Successive unstable governments in the late 1990s, in an environment of half-done reforms, afforded unique opportunities to gain considerable leverage — Singh taught Mulayam Singh Yadav how to utilise it. From someone who was adept at getting his work done by babus, Singh graduated to someone who could now order babus to work.
But his field of political operation continued to be Uttar Pradesh. When the Samajwadi Party came to power in UP, Singh launched, with great enthusiasm and fanfare, administrative structures that he said would change the face of the state. To his credit, he tried to modernise a moribund system by making it more corporate, more responsive. A UP Development Council, a system that was corporate-compatible, single-window systems, revamping, privatisation…
Despite Singh's best efforts, it didn't work. Too much else intervened: demands of day-to-day politics, UP's existential contradictions and the standard UP politician's inability to see beyond his nose. Again, there were many to take advantage of a measure only half done. It was Mulayam Singh Yadav who privatised 24 state-owned sugar mills in UP in 2003 as chief minister, but the issue was mired in controversy as all the mills were to be handed over to one particular industrial house, that has now emerged as the largest sugar producer in the country.
Singh does not agree, but UP was in a shambles because Mulayam Singh's Yadav's tenure started out as modern and visionary — with considerable credit due to Amar Singh — but got bogged down in Yadav's family politics, mismanagement and his disproportionate assets cases (one is being reviewed by the Supreme Court). Singh will also dispute this vigorously, but somewhere along the line, he also lost interest in modernising UP, content with just going with the flow.
But today, the man has something to prove once again. With his uncanny ability to bring people representing disparate interests together on one platform, he can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. The Congress has to decide which it wants him to be.
World - Sir Salman's Second Coming
The going had not been good for Salman Rushdie for most of 2008. Critics everywhere tore into his latest novel The Enchantress of Florence. "Static and enervated…as though it has been mechanically assembled from a recipe," said the New York Times. "Salman Rushdie's inkwell has dried up; it is time he bought a new ball point pen," remarked Khushwant Singh witheringly. His personal life too was on the brink, after his "emotionally violent" divorce from his fourth wife Padma Lakshmi, 23 years his junior, that he admitted "provoked a crippling bout of writer's block which threatened to end my writing career".
But there is afterlife after double disaster. The New York-based author was knighted last month and has now won the Best of the Booker, the English-speaking world's prestigious fiction prize for the third time on its fortieth anniversary. His 1981 classic Midnight's Children — that jostling melee of characters, images and pidgin English whose drippy-nosed protagonist Saleem Sinai is a metaphor for the partitioned sub-continent — was voted online by readers, and endorsed by judges, as the best novel in the history of the Booker Prize. That Rushdie's competition included Nobel prize winners like J M Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer means that the book stands out; that its exciting imaginative and linguistic stretch still resonates with younger audiences 27 years after its first appearance.
It is possibly true that his best work is behind him and that he has entered a phase of literary decline — for how will he match the pyrotechnical wizardry of the early novels? All he has produced since the 1990s is turkey after turkey, the last widely applauded work being The Moor's Last Sigh (1995). After that: a case of mixed reviews and a mixed up life. Too many medals can weigh decoratively heavy on an old general's chest; so too can a heap of honours emphasise a writer's sterility.
A writer's life is often supposed to be a life of detachment, distance, solitude, even isolation. From their ivory towers they emerge from time to time to strew a few pearls before an avid and hungry public. Salman Rushdie's life is the opposite: of active interlocution, controversy and courting celebritydom. There has always been a touch of the showman about him and he now makes the cut as the paparazzi's next best party guest. By his own admission if he hadn't been a writer he would have been an actor; he enjoys cameo appearances in films like Bridget Jones's Diary. (J M Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer would probably find such an idea abhorrent.)
The analogy with an old soldier isn't inexact, either, for Sir Salman proudly carries scars from a famous, long drawn-out war. For years after the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini on publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988 and the uproar that followed — book burnings, bannings and other violence — he was on the run, a heavily guarded fugitive moving from one safe house to another. The British broke off diplomatic relations with Iran over the cause celebre (they weren't restored till 1998). Despite mutterings in some quarters, British taxpayers bore the massive costs of protecting him unlike cowardly governments in India, reduced to hand-wringing appeasement, when called to stand up for Taslima Nasrin and M F Husain.
Rushdie emerged as the champion of freedom of expression and the creative imagination, a role he plays to the hilt, pugnaciously guarding the legacy as a famous liberal of the late 20th century. Feisty, articulate, erudite, prolific and coruscating in conversation — he is all that. But how will Sir Salman restore his creativity?
But there is afterlife after double disaster. The New York-based author was knighted last month and has now won the Best of the Booker, the English-speaking world's prestigious fiction prize for the third time on its fortieth anniversary. His 1981 classic Midnight's Children — that jostling melee of characters, images and pidgin English whose drippy-nosed protagonist Saleem Sinai is a metaphor for the partitioned sub-continent — was voted online by readers, and endorsed by judges, as the best novel in the history of the Booker Prize. That Rushdie's competition included Nobel prize winners like J M Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer means that the book stands out; that its exciting imaginative and linguistic stretch still resonates with younger audiences 27 years after its first appearance.
It is possibly true that his best work is behind him and that he has entered a phase of literary decline — for how will he match the pyrotechnical wizardry of the early novels? All he has produced since the 1990s is turkey after turkey, the last widely applauded work being The Moor's Last Sigh (1995). After that: a case of mixed reviews and a mixed up life. Too many medals can weigh decoratively heavy on an old general's chest; so too can a heap of honours emphasise a writer's sterility.
A writer's life is often supposed to be a life of detachment, distance, solitude, even isolation. From their ivory towers they emerge from time to time to strew a few pearls before an avid and hungry public. Salman Rushdie's life is the opposite: of active interlocution, controversy and courting celebritydom. There has always been a touch of the showman about him and he now makes the cut as the paparazzi's next best party guest. By his own admission if he hadn't been a writer he would have been an actor; he enjoys cameo appearances in films like Bridget Jones's Diary. (J M Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer would probably find such an idea abhorrent.)
The analogy with an old soldier isn't inexact, either, for Sir Salman proudly carries scars from a famous, long drawn-out war. For years after the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini on publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988 and the uproar that followed — book burnings, bannings and other violence — he was on the run, a heavily guarded fugitive moving from one safe house to another. The British broke off diplomatic relations with Iran over the cause celebre (they weren't restored till 1998). Despite mutterings in some quarters, British taxpayers bore the massive costs of protecting him unlike cowardly governments in India, reduced to hand-wringing appeasement, when called to stand up for Taslima Nasrin and M F Husain.
Rushdie emerged as the champion of freedom of expression and the creative imagination, a role he plays to the hilt, pugnaciously guarding the legacy as a famous liberal of the late 20th century. Feisty, articulate, erudite, prolific and coruscating in conversation — he is all that. But how will Sir Salman restore his creativity?
World - Descent into Chaos ( Book)
'All they (the US) are interested in is Osama bin Laden'
Pakistani historian and political commentator Ahmed Rashid, who masterfully explained The Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia (2000), and followed it up with Jihad: The Rise of Islam in Central Asia (2002), has now provided an update with Descent into Chaos: How the War Against Islamic Extremism is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia (Allen Lane/Penguin, special Indian price, Rs 495). Rashid, who has been in and out of Central Asia and Afghanistan for over 25 years, knows the ground beneath his feet like no one else does. For most of his working life as a journalist he has not been able to stay away from Afghanistan and the central Asian republics. In a sense, he knows too much: of its divisive history; its impossible politics; its feuding clans; its talent for making enemies; its criminal economy based on opium and heroin, of which it is the world's main supplier. And all this personal experience has been backed by deep research and interviews with the leading "players": he is a personal friend of Hamid Karzai, and has intimate details of the role of the United States and the failure of nation-building in this region, which are fully authenticated with details of sources. But Rashid's greatest credit lies in his ability to see through the clutter of detail and tell the common reader what the new Great Game is all about and why terrorism and Islamic extremism are growing stronger.
In his Introduction, Rashid tells us that "the book is about American failure to secure the region after 9/11, to carry out nation building on a scale that could have reversed the appeal of terrorism and Islamic extremism and averted state collapse on a more calamitous scale than could ever have happened before 9/11." The answer to ‘What Went Wrong' lies in a close study of history, the nature of Afghan society and Islamic extremism, the ham-handedness of American responses, the role of the military in Pakistani politics, repressive central Asian despots who have used religion to underpin their governments.
A capsule history to begin with. In the 1980s, when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, America helped the Afghans to get rid of them (using Pakistan's military and the ISI as the cat's paw), and assumed, foolishly, that in gratitude Afghanistan would join the American camp. But the Afghans, at least the Taliban, is not grateful. They took the understandable view that they fought a proxy war for the United States against the Russians, and now that the Russians are no longer a threat, Afghanistan is discarded. Quite besides this, what the US didn't realise and still doesn't, is that Afghans are a fiercely independent people: they had never been colonised, either by a European country or by American culture. Besides, it was a tribal society where government authority did not extend beyond Kabul, Kandahar and Herat.
But this is a book not merely about Afghanistan; it is equally about central Asian republics, mainly Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. Rashid elaborates what he had said in Jihad that this region was governed by brutally autocratic regimes that repressed all dissent, including the traditional heterodox Islam of the region. Out of this brew came extremist Islam, which became affiliates of al-Qaeda with its nihilistic agenda and a hateful social programme. As Rashid puts it: "There was no economic manifesto, no plan for better governance and the building of political institutions, and no blueprint for creating democratic participation in the decision-making process of their future Islamic state." That's not all. Basically, the United States wasn't interested in rebuilding the infrastructure that requires long-term investment and long-term thinking is alien to the American mind. All they are interested in is Osama bin Laden.
Rashid is at his best on Pakistan, which he knows like the back of his hand. Trapped in a feudal set-up, between a few powerful families and an over-weaning military that has a finger in every pie, it is lost between two worlds — "one dead, the other powerless to born". Rashid has seen the future of this part of the world and it doesn't work. Here is an important book by an insider of our region.
Pakistani historian and political commentator Ahmed Rashid, who masterfully explained The Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia (2000), and followed it up with Jihad: The Rise of Islam in Central Asia (2002), has now provided an update with Descent into Chaos: How the War Against Islamic Extremism is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia (Allen Lane/Penguin, special Indian price, Rs 495). Rashid, who has been in and out of Central Asia and Afghanistan for over 25 years, knows the ground beneath his feet like no one else does. For most of his working life as a journalist he has not been able to stay away from Afghanistan and the central Asian republics. In a sense, he knows too much: of its divisive history; its impossible politics; its feuding clans; its talent for making enemies; its criminal economy based on opium and heroin, of which it is the world's main supplier. And all this personal experience has been backed by deep research and interviews with the leading "players": he is a personal friend of Hamid Karzai, and has intimate details of the role of the United States and the failure of nation-building in this region, which are fully authenticated with details of sources. But Rashid's greatest credit lies in his ability to see through the clutter of detail and tell the common reader what the new Great Game is all about and why terrorism and Islamic extremism are growing stronger.
In his Introduction, Rashid tells us that "the book is about American failure to secure the region after 9/11, to carry out nation building on a scale that could have reversed the appeal of terrorism and Islamic extremism and averted state collapse on a more calamitous scale than could ever have happened before 9/11." The answer to ‘What Went Wrong' lies in a close study of history, the nature of Afghan society and Islamic extremism, the ham-handedness of American responses, the role of the military in Pakistani politics, repressive central Asian despots who have used religion to underpin their governments.
A capsule history to begin with. In the 1980s, when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, America helped the Afghans to get rid of them (using Pakistan's military and the ISI as the cat's paw), and assumed, foolishly, that in gratitude Afghanistan would join the American camp. But the Afghans, at least the Taliban, is not grateful. They took the understandable view that they fought a proxy war for the United States against the Russians, and now that the Russians are no longer a threat, Afghanistan is discarded. Quite besides this, what the US didn't realise and still doesn't, is that Afghans are a fiercely independent people: they had never been colonised, either by a European country or by American culture. Besides, it was a tribal society where government authority did not extend beyond Kabul, Kandahar and Herat.
But this is a book not merely about Afghanistan; it is equally about central Asian republics, mainly Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. Rashid elaborates what he had said in Jihad that this region was governed by brutally autocratic regimes that repressed all dissent, including the traditional heterodox Islam of the region. Out of this brew came extremist Islam, which became affiliates of al-Qaeda with its nihilistic agenda and a hateful social programme. As Rashid puts it: "There was no economic manifesto, no plan for better governance and the building of political institutions, and no blueprint for creating democratic participation in the decision-making process of their future Islamic state." That's not all. Basically, the United States wasn't interested in rebuilding the infrastructure that requires long-term investment and long-term thinking is alien to the American mind. All they are interested in is Osama bin Laden.
Rashid is at his best on Pakistan, which he knows like the back of his hand. Trapped in a feudal set-up, between a few powerful families and an over-weaning military that has a finger in every pie, it is lost between two worlds — "one dead, the other powerless to born". Rashid has seen the future of this part of the world and it doesn't work. Here is an important book by an insider of our region.
India - P.Karat and M.Singh
The nuclear deal: better late than never and a poetic outcome for India, the PM Manmohan Singh and Communist leader Prakash Karat.
Only in India was the 90th anniversary of the Russian October revolution celebrated. In Russia, they were busy drilling oil and rounding up the usual political suspects; in China, the Communists were busy planning and implementing their economic, political and nuclear strategies for the next 50 years. In India, left leader Prakash Karat was busy planning and celebrating the onset and survival of Communism. That was in November 2007. Just seven months later, Mr Karat may have just managed to sign the death warrant of the last Lenin-Stalin-Mao style communist party standing in the world. Better late than never. What caused Mr Karat to sign traditional communism's death warrant? Arrogance and ideology or is it vice-versa? Most likely both; in that communist history repeats itself; which is why deeply ideological communism is an extinct species.
Let us examine what has happened. There is a historic agreement with the US ostensibly regarding the use of nuclear technology, energy, etc. The deal is BIG because for the first time in post-independence India, a major agreement is being signed with the US; India had signed several major partnerships with the now defunct communist Soviet Union. Think about it. For 60 years, supported, influenced and instigated by the Indian Communists, India signed treaties, made agreements, abandoned principles in order to fawn at the feet of foreign hand communists. Lest people forget, we even changed the name of the film From Russia with Love to From 007 with Love. That is the extent of decision making we had signed over to the foreign Communists.
Make no mistake about it. The nuclear deal is a mega turning point and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, deserves a lot of credit for it. For four and a half years, he and the Congress party have been justifiably criticised for really doing nothing. Actually, that is wrong — there were several negative policies, some in the economic arena (fringe benefits tax, wasteful expenditure on populist programs, lack of co-ordination with the RBI, messing up of foreign exchange policy — the list is long) and others in the social arena (corruption via licensing, education policy, reintroduction of reservation raj, etc.). Positives: hard to count on even one finger. Yes, the economy had grown at a fast pace, but that had precious little to do with the largely misguided polices at the centre.
Then along came the nuclear Indo-US agreement. Actually, the deal was initiated by the BJP and the UPA has taken it forward. Which is why it is both pathetic, and surprising, for the BJP to now oppose its own proposal. Obviously, political considerations are relevant; obviously the BJP has to play the role of an honourable opposition. But political wisdom would suggest that the BJP vote with the government. If it does, by the time elections roll around, the nuclear deal will be forgotten and new considerations, and most importantly political sleeping partnerships, will take over. But if the BJP votes against the deal, then all will not be forgiven.
The political opposition will come from the middle class, now some 40 per cent of the Indian population. The middle class beats its own drum, unmoved by the pyrotechnics of the Communists, the BJP, or the Congress. The next election will most likely be won by the coalition that appeals most to the middle class; this should not be forgotten. And the middle class, for self-interest reasons, does not believe in ideologies except the ideology of economic opportunities, a level playing field, and fairness in politics and enterprise. [This is not to say that there aren't people in the middle class who are corrupt, believe in licensing, believe in reservations, etc; it is just to say that the class interests are opposite to the beliefs of the communists and rent-seeking members of the rich class.]
For India the nuclear deal is a trend-setting one. The full impact of Manmohan Singh's role in the Indian economy, affairs, and politics, can be assessed with the following fact: he was present at, and leader, of the two most important decisions in post-independent Indian history. The economic reforms initiated by him and PM Rao changed the course of modern India, and helped accelerate the development of the middle class. The nuclear agreement will have a similar effect on the economy, and on India's role in the world. What Nehru could not obtain with his non-alignment movement, Manmohan Singh would have achieved for India and its political leaders for decades to come.
If the deal is so historic, why did the Congress party wait until literally the last hour? It did not make sense to do so, and many commentators said so when the Congress caved in to the unreasonable and traitorous demands of the Communists last year. In 2007, the Congress itself was on an arrogant high — the economy was booming, inflation was low, and major leaders of the party actually thought that their (lack of) policies had initiated the economic boom. Globalisation has dashed that wishful thinking; and democracy did the rest. Indian voters thrashed the Congress in every election over the last year. Nothing succeeds like failure in setting the mind straight. The fear of being loathed and vanquished must have weighed on the Congress leaders. What they should have done last year they did this week. A historic week. Better late than never.
The author is Chairman, Oxus Investments, a New Delhi based asset management company. The views expressed are personal.
Only in India was the 90th anniversary of the Russian October revolution celebrated. In Russia, they were busy drilling oil and rounding up the usual political suspects; in China, the Communists were busy planning and implementing their economic, political and nuclear strategies for the next 50 years. In India, left leader Prakash Karat was busy planning and celebrating the onset and survival of Communism. That was in November 2007. Just seven months later, Mr Karat may have just managed to sign the death warrant of the last Lenin-Stalin-Mao style communist party standing in the world. Better late than never. What caused Mr Karat to sign traditional communism's death warrant? Arrogance and ideology or is it vice-versa? Most likely both; in that communist history repeats itself; which is why deeply ideological communism is an extinct species.
Let us examine what has happened. There is a historic agreement with the US ostensibly regarding the use of nuclear technology, energy, etc. The deal is BIG because for the first time in post-independence India, a major agreement is being signed with the US; India had signed several major partnerships with the now defunct communist Soviet Union. Think about it. For 60 years, supported, influenced and instigated by the Indian Communists, India signed treaties, made agreements, abandoned principles in order to fawn at the feet of foreign hand communists. Lest people forget, we even changed the name of the film From Russia with Love to From 007 with Love. That is the extent of decision making we had signed over to the foreign Communists.
Make no mistake about it. The nuclear deal is a mega turning point and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, deserves a lot of credit for it. For four and a half years, he and the Congress party have been justifiably criticised for really doing nothing. Actually, that is wrong — there were several negative policies, some in the economic arena (fringe benefits tax, wasteful expenditure on populist programs, lack of co-ordination with the RBI, messing up of foreign exchange policy — the list is long) and others in the social arena (corruption via licensing, education policy, reintroduction of reservation raj, etc.). Positives: hard to count on even one finger. Yes, the economy had grown at a fast pace, but that had precious little to do with the largely misguided polices at the centre.
Then along came the nuclear Indo-US agreement. Actually, the deal was initiated by the BJP and the UPA has taken it forward. Which is why it is both pathetic, and surprising, for the BJP to now oppose its own proposal. Obviously, political considerations are relevant; obviously the BJP has to play the role of an honourable opposition. But political wisdom would suggest that the BJP vote with the government. If it does, by the time elections roll around, the nuclear deal will be forgotten and new considerations, and most importantly political sleeping partnerships, will take over. But if the BJP votes against the deal, then all will not be forgiven.
The political opposition will come from the middle class, now some 40 per cent of the Indian population. The middle class beats its own drum, unmoved by the pyrotechnics of the Communists, the BJP, or the Congress. The next election will most likely be won by the coalition that appeals most to the middle class; this should not be forgotten. And the middle class, for self-interest reasons, does not believe in ideologies except the ideology of economic opportunities, a level playing field, and fairness in politics and enterprise. [This is not to say that there aren't people in the middle class who are corrupt, believe in licensing, believe in reservations, etc; it is just to say that the class interests are opposite to the beliefs of the communists and rent-seeking members of the rich class.]
For India the nuclear deal is a trend-setting one. The full impact of Manmohan Singh's role in the Indian economy, affairs, and politics, can be assessed with the following fact: he was present at, and leader, of the two most important decisions in post-independent Indian history. The economic reforms initiated by him and PM Rao changed the course of modern India, and helped accelerate the development of the middle class. The nuclear agreement will have a similar effect on the economy, and on India's role in the world. What Nehru could not obtain with his non-alignment movement, Manmohan Singh would have achieved for India and its political leaders for decades to come.
If the deal is so historic, why did the Congress party wait until literally the last hour? It did not make sense to do so, and many commentators said so when the Congress caved in to the unreasonable and traitorous demands of the Communists last year. In 2007, the Congress itself was on an arrogant high — the economy was booming, inflation was low, and major leaders of the party actually thought that their (lack of) policies had initiated the economic boom. Globalisation has dashed that wishful thinking; and democracy did the rest. Indian voters thrashed the Congress in every election over the last year. Nothing succeeds like failure in setting the mind straight. The fear of being loathed and vanquished must have weighed on the Congress leaders. What they should have done last year they did this week. A historic week. Better late than never.
The author is Chairman, Oxus Investments, a New Delhi based asset management company. The views expressed are personal.
India - Power Shift?
T N Ninan / New Delhi July 12, 2008, 0:00 IST
Mumbai has long prided itself on being the country's commercial capital. Maybe the time has finally come for it to give up such notions. For, a news report last week said that, for the first time, there are more airline flights operating out of Delhi than Mumbai. That does not clinch the argument, of course — because if it did, Atlanta and Chicago (both of which have busier airports than New York's) would be claiming to be America's premier city and that would be absurd. It is just that the information on air traffic caps the mounting evidence of a shift in the centre of economic gravity.
Track the new businesses being started up in the country, and if they are not in the tech sector, the chances are that they are located in Delhi/Gurgaon/Noida. The majority of FMCG companies other than Unilever are in the Delhi area: Nestle, Coke and Pepsi, Dabur, Gillette, GSK Consumer Brands, etc. The same is true of the newer consumer durables companies, like Samsung and LG. More ad budgets are now determined in Delhi than before, and certainly Delhi/Noida is the capital of the rapidly growing news business, with the leading TV news companies (NDTV, Network 18) and print giants (the Times group, HT Media) located here. It has also long been known that Delhi leads in auto sales; indeed, Delhi is said to account for more car sales than Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata combined.
This is not to argue that Mumbai leads in nothing. It remains the unchallenged king of the financial world, which means banking, insurance, the stock market and much else. It houses the big four of the corporate world (Tata, Kumar Mangalam Birla and the two Ambanis). And Mumbai still has many of the charms that it first acquired as a presidency town: a can-do spirit, an excellent work ethic, civility in daily exchanges between people, safety on the streets, a cosmopolitan air that survives the assaults by the Shiv Sena, and a practical approach to living and dealing — all of which compare favourably with Delhi's more complex mix of aggression and brash self-confidence. But it is an interesting point that even where both cities have big players, as in real estate, it is the Delhi companies that have shown more aggression — the big listed real estate companies are those from Delhi: DLF and Unitech among them.
What tilts the scales decisively is the quality of life in the two cities. Delhi has constantly improving civic infrastructure, affordable housing, more sensible rental laws, and reasonable commuting times, whereas Mumbai looks increasingly down at heel and overwhelmed by its problems, and is now unable to cope with its monsoon showers. Indeed, it is the city's civic failures and its hopelessly expensive housing that have driven most of the new businesses in the country to alternative centres like Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Mumbai could have developed itself as an international financial or commercial centre, but it has already been upstaged by Dubai, which is fast gaining acceptance as a regional hub. Companies like Western Union and Pepsi no longer have their India chiefs reporting to Singapore or Hong Kong; instead, it is now Dubai. The harsh truth is that no city can continue to prosper and grow if it is not a transport hub and if it is not a preferred place for living and working, as Dubai has become. As for Delhi, by 2010 it will almost certainly have the bigger, busier and swankier airport, with a smoother ride into town assured by a new expressway. Almost any visitor's first impressions will be better in Delhi than in Mumbai, and that is half the battle.
India - Interview Hyderabad Airport CEO
Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) has completed the first 100 days of its commissioning. It is all set to become India’s first aeronautic facility to get the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), making it the second such airport facility in the world. RGIA’s CEO P S Nair talks about the foremost aviation facility in the country.
In real terms, what kind of savings do the eco-friendly airport processes and practices yield? The airport, which has been designed to be environment friendly, has achieved savings in energy consumption (20%) and water consumption (25%). We are saving more than Rs 1 crore on power bills alone every year. Keeping in view the mounting cost of energy, our eco-friendly building will help in saving several crores by utilising natural lighting and keeping our energy costs at the bare minimum. We have not quantified the total savings on eco-friendly practices, but these are expected to be in the range of around 20-25% of our total energy costs in the long term. We have appointed TERI as our environment consultant for energy savings. What are the other practices that have been adopted to make RGIA a model aeronautical facility? Besides saving on energy, we are also applying modern equipment and intelligent software technology to save precious aviation fuel by offering one of the fastest aeronautic operations to airlines. Our entire airport is under Campus Area Network with every function attached to our airport operational database. It cuts the aircraft’s average turnaround time (time taken between landing and take-off) to 20-25 minutes, against 40-45 minutes for any busy airport in India. (Passengers takes only 10-15 minutes to board a aircraft.) Better facilities allow higher utilisation of aircraft leading to huge saving on fuel and lowering operating costs for airlines. Does it also translate into savings for the troubled aviation industry? Yes, there are a host of avenues for airlines to save costs. We are the first airport to become e-invoicing (online bills to airlines) compatible, something that will be enforced globally by International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2009 for all airport operators worldwide. RGIA is also the first one to introduce 2-D bar code system on all check-in luggage to minimise mishandling and losses. The code is backed by the Baggage Reconciliation System, which provides online detail of passenger bags to all airlines. We have also put up 16 common user self-service (CUSS) kiosks allowing passengers to check in on their own for any airline at the terminal. And for passengers, the entire terminal is fully wi-fi enabled.
What has the reason for such a keen emphasis on IT solutions? We have converted the entire airport functions into a large chain of networks, which are performed and backed by high technology application. There are hardly any operations performed manually at this airport and we are leveraging the IT systems for better economics and increased revenues in the long run. What are the passenger-centric facilities being introduced in the aeronautic operations? It is the first airport in the country to launch a nap and shower facility for passengers. There will be a 25-room facility for short-stay passengers. We have an aeroexpress service — 35 AC shuttle coach from five designated locations — at an affordable Rs 95 for any in-bound passenger, besides over 700 AC radio taxis for out-bound passengers. Besides this, for the high end passengers we have executive car service with over 100 cars at the airport. The food & beverage options at the airport have been improved over the past 100 days and now we have Pizza Hut, Hard Rock Cafe and KFC outlets as new additions while the affordable McDonald outlet will start functioning very soon. How are you ensuring better connectivity at the airport? We are negotiating with several airlines to start operations. Air India express and Gulf Air have started operation from July while 22 airlines are already connecting to 35 different destinations. We have 12 million passenger capacity per annum in the first phase and have developed 2,600 acre of the total 5,495 acre allotted to us. We are expanding to take the total capacity to 40 million passengers at the end of final phase.
India - Hindu Editorial on Draft Text - Nuclear Deal
I didn't understand some of it,but a good read,never the less ;-)
Parsing the India-specific safeguards agreement news analysis
Siddharth Varadarajan
The draft text negotiated with the IAEA places the country mid-way between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states in terms of its rights and obligations.
By going about its business of approaching the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency for approval of India’s safeguards agreement with stealth and even subterfuge, the United Progressive Alliance government has scored a political own-goal which is likely to detract from the debate over the contents of the safeguards text itself.
This is unfortunate because the 23-page document, negotiated over five rounds of meetings between India and the IAEA Secretariat, contains much that is worthy of comment and analysis. The bulk of the technical aspects of the document — especially on safeguards procedures — with one or two important exceptions is virtually a carbon copy of the provisions found in the Agency’s template document for site-specific safeguards in a non-nuclear weapon state (Infcirc 66/Rev.2). But it is in the crucial provisions dealing with (1) what is to be safeguarded and for how long, and (2) the purpose and objective of the safeguards agreement and the conditions under which it is operative, that the draft takes on an “India-specific” character that is radically different from the ones applicable to NNWSs.
If the non-nuclear weapon states have virtually no rights and only obligations vis-À-vis the IAEA and the five official nuclear weapons states have only rights and virtually no obligations, India has negotiated for itself a position more or less in between. As a country with nuclear weapons voluntarily offering some civilian facilities for safeguards, it has many more rights and fewer obligations than an NNWS; at the same time, it has fewer rights than an NWS and certainly more obligations. Scope and structure
Broadly speaking, rather than islanding its military nuclear sector and placing every other nuclear facility under safeguards, the Indian agreement essentially offers an island of self-defined facilities drawn from its civilian sector for potential safeguarding. And that too only if India feels that by doing so the “implementation of relevant bilateral or multilateral arrangements to which India is a party” are fulfilled (Art. 13, 14 and 5).
In other words, safeguards are being accepted by India pursuant to these arrangements and for no other reason. The preamble invokes an article of the IAEA statute authorising it to “apply safeguards, at the request of the parties, to any bilateral or multilateral arrangement, or at the request of a State to any of the State’s activities in the field of atomic energy.” In this context, it notes “the relevance for this agreement” of the Indo-U.S. joint statement of July 2005 in which India “has stated its willingness to identify and separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and programmes in a phased manner,” file a Declaration with the IAEA regarding its civilian nuclear facilities and “place voluntarily” those civilian facilities under safeguards.
The most important part of the Agreement from the perspective of international law is the preambular assertion that “an essential basis of India’s concurrence to accept Agency safeguards” is (1) the conclusion of international arrangements for the uninterrupted and continuous access to nuclear fuel, and (2) support for an Indian effort to develop a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel. The same section of the preamble also notes that “India may take corrective measures to ensure uninterrupted operation of its civilian nuclear facilities in the event of disruption of foreign fuel supplies.”
This condition, which first began life as a unilateral assertion by India in its separation plan of March 2006 and was subsequently accorded political recognition by the U.S. in the 123 agreement, emerges here as a legally binding condition upon which the entire edifice of the Safeguards Agreement is constructed.
While non-proliferation activists abroad have denounced these provisions, a controversy has arisen within India about the inclusion of these phrases in the preambular rather than the operational section of the agreement. The government’s critics say that since “corrective measures” are not mentioned anywhere other than the preamble, they are not “legally binding.” The government insists this makes no difference. In reality, the truth probably lies in between.
The preamble is an integral part of the agreement and cannot be separated from the operational section without the latter part losing its entire context. In the Indian case, the legal linkage between the preambular and operational section is made stronger by stating at the end of the preamble: “Now, therefore, taking into account the above, India and the Agency have agreed as follows:” No Infcirc/153 preamble contains the words “taking into account the above.”
For non-nuclear weapons states, the need for a safeguards agreement stems from their obligations under the NPT. For India, the need arises from its bilateral and multilateral arrangements and the understandings therein. Thus, the context in which the need for safeguards arises is absolutely crucial here. The application of safeguards is conditional on the implementation of these arrangements. Thus the linkage between preamble and operational text is tighter than in other legal contexts.
At the same time, it is a fact that Indian negotiators had initially sought to insert the right to take corrective measures in at least four different places. As the talks with the IAEA Secretariat progressed, this was whittled down to the reference that remains, which the Indian negotiators felt was sufficient. As a result, the right to take corrective measures comes in implicitly, through the conditions precedent to the need for safeguards. If India were ever to invoke these measures, it would no doubt face flak (depending on what those measures were) but it would nevertheless have a legal leg to stand on.
Given the controversy over these provisions, a concern has arisen about what India could do if it is suddenly denied access to nuclear fuel for its imported and indigenously produced civilian reactors. Would safeguards remain in force “in perpetuity” even if fuel supplies are cut off? Though the word “perpetuity” does not figure in the agreement, the answer is ‘yes’ in the case of imported reactors since lifetime safeguards are written into Article 29’s reference to “termination of safeguards” being implemented “taking into account the provisions of GOV/1621.”
GOV/1621 was a document introduced by the IAEA in 1973 with two principal provisions. The first has to do with continuation of safeguards on safeguardable material, the duration of which it extends to the time such material needs to be safeguarded. The second aspect is termination. The Hyde Act introduced the reference to this document in order to define the perpetuity safeguards that India had agreed to in March 2006 in such a way as to prevent India from removing imported facilities from IAEA supervision. However, non-supplied facilities — that is, those that India indigenously manufactures and voluntarily offers for safeguards — will be subjected to safeguards only as long as they use imported fuel. In other words, India does not even need to invoke its separate right to corrective measures; the protection here is in-built. This provision provides a major incentive for the international community to ensure continuity of fuel supplies for these reactors.
The problem of ensuring operating continuity for imported reactors in case of a supplier reneging on a commitment remains. In principle, India may invoke its right to take corrective measures but any “retaliatory” step can at best serve as a pressure tactic; it cannot provide fuel where none exists. With the ghost of Tarapur always fresh in its mind, India in recent years has sought to protect itself from this possibility in various ways. The Kudankulam safeguards agreement covering imported VVER reactors from Russia, for example, provides for lifetime fuel supply under a sovereign guarantee of the Russian Federation. The safeguards agreement goes one step further by establishing a template wherein fuel supply guarantees are an essential part of any transfer to India of safeguarded reactors with the added layer of protection provided by the corrective measures envisaged in the preamble. Suppliers who are not able to provide such a guarantee or deal with the possibility of India invoking its right to corrective measures will find the country unwilling to buy their wares.
In any event, the safeguards agreement provides for India to report to the IAEA without delay “any disruption of operation of [safeguarded] facilities on account of material violation or breach of bilateral or multilateral arrangements to which India is a party” (Art. 52 (c)). Articles 105 and 106 allow India to raise these violations directly with the IAEA Board. This is clearly a reference to the eventuality — mentioned in Article 14 of the U.S.-India 123 Agreement — on ‘termination and cessation of cooperation’ by the United States. Some critics in India had noted the absence of a reference to the supremacy of international law in the 123 agreement in the event of unilateral termination of supplies by the U.S. A fix has been attempted in the Safeguards Agreement in Article 10 — a provision not found in standard safeguards agreements for NNWSs — when it states, “Nothing in this Agreement shall affect other rights and obligations of India under international law.”
The safeguards agreement represents an attempt to tie down the political commitments of July 2005 and March 2006 into a legal framework in which India has clearly defined rights. Some of these rights are explicit, others are implicit. But as with any legal regime, implementation of the agreement in a manner consistent with India’s expectations and interests will depend on a range of political factors, including both the attitude of the international community and the willingness of future governments in India to assert the country’s rights when the chips are down.
Parsing the India-specific safeguards agreement news analysis
Siddharth Varadarajan
The draft text negotiated with the IAEA places the country mid-way between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states in terms of its rights and obligations.
By going about its business of approaching the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency for approval of India’s safeguards agreement with stealth and even subterfuge, the United Progressive Alliance government has scored a political own-goal which is likely to detract from the debate over the contents of the safeguards text itself.
This is unfortunate because the 23-page document, negotiated over five rounds of meetings between India and the IAEA Secretariat, contains much that is worthy of comment and analysis. The bulk of the technical aspects of the document — especially on safeguards procedures — with one or two important exceptions is virtually a carbon copy of the provisions found in the Agency’s template document for site-specific safeguards in a non-nuclear weapon state (Infcirc 66/Rev.2). But it is in the crucial provisions dealing with (1) what is to be safeguarded and for how long, and (2) the purpose and objective of the safeguards agreement and the conditions under which it is operative, that the draft takes on an “India-specific” character that is radically different from the ones applicable to NNWSs.
If the non-nuclear weapon states have virtually no rights and only obligations vis-À-vis the IAEA and the five official nuclear weapons states have only rights and virtually no obligations, India has negotiated for itself a position more or less in between. As a country with nuclear weapons voluntarily offering some civilian facilities for safeguards, it has many more rights and fewer obligations than an NNWS; at the same time, it has fewer rights than an NWS and certainly more obligations. Scope and structure
Broadly speaking, rather than islanding its military nuclear sector and placing every other nuclear facility under safeguards, the Indian agreement essentially offers an island of self-defined facilities drawn from its civilian sector for potential safeguarding. And that too only if India feels that by doing so the “implementation of relevant bilateral or multilateral arrangements to which India is a party” are fulfilled (Art. 13, 14 and 5).
In other words, safeguards are being accepted by India pursuant to these arrangements and for no other reason. The preamble invokes an article of the IAEA statute authorising it to “apply safeguards, at the request of the parties, to any bilateral or multilateral arrangement, or at the request of a State to any of the State’s activities in the field of atomic energy.” In this context, it notes “the relevance for this agreement” of the Indo-U.S. joint statement of July 2005 in which India “has stated its willingness to identify and separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and programmes in a phased manner,” file a Declaration with the IAEA regarding its civilian nuclear facilities and “place voluntarily” those civilian facilities under safeguards.
The most important part of the Agreement from the perspective of international law is the preambular assertion that “an essential basis of India’s concurrence to accept Agency safeguards” is (1) the conclusion of international arrangements for the uninterrupted and continuous access to nuclear fuel, and (2) support for an Indian effort to develop a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel. The same section of the preamble also notes that “India may take corrective measures to ensure uninterrupted operation of its civilian nuclear facilities in the event of disruption of foreign fuel supplies.”
This condition, which first began life as a unilateral assertion by India in its separation plan of March 2006 and was subsequently accorded political recognition by the U.S. in the 123 agreement, emerges here as a legally binding condition upon which the entire edifice of the Safeguards Agreement is constructed.
While non-proliferation activists abroad have denounced these provisions, a controversy has arisen within India about the inclusion of these phrases in the preambular rather than the operational section of the agreement. The government’s critics say that since “corrective measures” are not mentioned anywhere other than the preamble, they are not “legally binding.” The government insists this makes no difference. In reality, the truth probably lies in between.
The preamble is an integral part of the agreement and cannot be separated from the operational section without the latter part losing its entire context. In the Indian case, the legal linkage between the preambular and operational section is made stronger by stating at the end of the preamble: “Now, therefore, taking into account the above, India and the Agency have agreed as follows:” No Infcirc/153 preamble contains the words “taking into account the above.”
For non-nuclear weapons states, the need for a safeguards agreement stems from their obligations under the NPT. For India, the need arises from its bilateral and multilateral arrangements and the understandings therein. Thus, the context in which the need for safeguards arises is absolutely crucial here. The application of safeguards is conditional on the implementation of these arrangements. Thus the linkage between preamble and operational text is tighter than in other legal contexts.
At the same time, it is a fact that Indian negotiators had initially sought to insert the right to take corrective measures in at least four different places. As the talks with the IAEA Secretariat progressed, this was whittled down to the reference that remains, which the Indian negotiators felt was sufficient. As a result, the right to take corrective measures comes in implicitly, through the conditions precedent to the need for safeguards. If India were ever to invoke these measures, it would no doubt face flak (depending on what those measures were) but it would nevertheless have a legal leg to stand on.
Given the controversy over these provisions, a concern has arisen about what India could do if it is suddenly denied access to nuclear fuel for its imported and indigenously produced civilian reactors. Would safeguards remain in force “in perpetuity” even if fuel supplies are cut off? Though the word “perpetuity” does not figure in the agreement, the answer is ‘yes’ in the case of imported reactors since lifetime safeguards are written into Article 29’s reference to “termination of safeguards” being implemented “taking into account the provisions of GOV/1621.”
GOV/1621 was a document introduced by the IAEA in 1973 with two principal provisions. The first has to do with continuation of safeguards on safeguardable material, the duration of which it extends to the time such material needs to be safeguarded. The second aspect is termination. The Hyde Act introduced the reference to this document in order to define the perpetuity safeguards that India had agreed to in March 2006 in such a way as to prevent India from removing imported facilities from IAEA supervision. However, non-supplied facilities — that is, those that India indigenously manufactures and voluntarily offers for safeguards — will be subjected to safeguards only as long as they use imported fuel. In other words, India does not even need to invoke its separate right to corrective measures; the protection here is in-built. This provision provides a major incentive for the international community to ensure continuity of fuel supplies for these reactors.
The problem of ensuring operating continuity for imported reactors in case of a supplier reneging on a commitment remains. In principle, India may invoke its right to take corrective measures but any “retaliatory” step can at best serve as a pressure tactic; it cannot provide fuel where none exists. With the ghost of Tarapur always fresh in its mind, India in recent years has sought to protect itself from this possibility in various ways. The Kudankulam safeguards agreement covering imported VVER reactors from Russia, for example, provides for lifetime fuel supply under a sovereign guarantee of the Russian Federation. The safeguards agreement goes one step further by establishing a template wherein fuel supply guarantees are an essential part of any transfer to India of safeguarded reactors with the added layer of protection provided by the corrective measures envisaged in the preamble. Suppliers who are not able to provide such a guarantee or deal with the possibility of India invoking its right to corrective measures will find the country unwilling to buy their wares.
In any event, the safeguards agreement provides for India to report to the IAEA without delay “any disruption of operation of [safeguarded] facilities on account of material violation or breach of bilateral or multilateral arrangements to which India is a party” (Art. 52 (c)). Articles 105 and 106 allow India to raise these violations directly with the IAEA Board. This is clearly a reference to the eventuality — mentioned in Article 14 of the U.S.-India 123 Agreement — on ‘termination and cessation of cooperation’ by the United States. Some critics in India had noted the absence of a reference to the supremacy of international law in the 123 agreement in the event of unilateral termination of supplies by the U.S. A fix has been attempted in the Safeguards Agreement in Article 10 — a provision not found in standard safeguards agreements for NNWSs — when it states, “Nothing in this Agreement shall affect other rights and obligations of India under international law.”
The safeguards agreement represents an attempt to tie down the political commitments of July 2005 and March 2006 into a legal framework in which India has clearly defined rights. Some of these rights are explicit, others are implicit. But as with any legal regime, implementation of the agreement in a manner consistent with India’s expectations and interests will depend on a range of political factors, including both the attitude of the international community and the willingness of future governments in India to assert the country’s rights when the chips are down.
India - Business Travellers check into Budget Hotels
NEW DELHI: In yet another pointer towards bearish sentiments in the economy, corporate travellers are downgrading their hotel stays. The corporate travel segment, which is considered to be the bread and butter of most top city hotels, appears to be shifting from the five star and luxury segment hotels to mid-market and budget hotels.
HVS International executive director Siddharth Thaker said, “We have seen occupancies in the hospitality sector dipping by 8-11% in the quarter ended June, in comparison to the same quarter last year.” He added that this demand has shifted to mid-market and budget hotels besides guest houses as well as service apartments. This is being attributed to the cost pressures facing companies coupled with the slowdown in the Indian economy which has forced them to cut down and rationalise their travel budgets. Players in the travel and hospitality industry add that several companies have asked their executives to stay in 3-4 star hotels or budget hotels during business trips as against five star hotels in the past. Says Lemon Tree Hotels chairman and managing director Patu Keswani, “The mid market hotel segment is operating at nearly 20% higher occupancies this season. A large chunk of it is coming from corporate travellers.” Over the last few months, Lemon Tree’s city hotels in Pune and Gurgaon are completely catering to corporate travel clients.
Industry players believe that going by the current trends, the shift of corporate travellers towards mid market hotels is going to be much higher during the winter season. Says Choice Hotels chief executive officer Vilas Pawar, “During the winter season there is much more corporate activity and so we expect that in the next seven to eight months, we would see a more marked shift of corporate travellers from luxury to mid-market as well as budget hotels.” Choice Hotels operate mid-market brands like Clarion and Comfort Inn among others. However, luxury and five star hotels deny having seen any marked dip in their occupancies and add that the corporate travel segment in particular has not seen any impact. Analysts and tour operators believe that there is a decline in occupancy rates in the top city hotels and this will force them to bring in the much needed rationalisation of room tariffs.
HVS International executive director Siddharth Thaker said, “We have seen occupancies in the hospitality sector dipping by 8-11% in the quarter ended June, in comparison to the same quarter last year.” He added that this demand has shifted to mid-market and budget hotels besides guest houses as well as service apartments. This is being attributed to the cost pressures facing companies coupled with the slowdown in the Indian economy which has forced them to cut down and rationalise their travel budgets. Players in the travel and hospitality industry add that several companies have asked their executives to stay in 3-4 star hotels or budget hotels during business trips as against five star hotels in the past. Says Lemon Tree Hotels chairman and managing director Patu Keswani, “The mid market hotel segment is operating at nearly 20% higher occupancies this season. A large chunk of it is coming from corporate travellers.” Over the last few months, Lemon Tree’s city hotels in Pune and Gurgaon are completely catering to corporate travel clients.
Industry players believe that going by the current trends, the shift of corporate travellers towards mid market hotels is going to be much higher during the winter season. Says Choice Hotels chief executive officer Vilas Pawar, “During the winter season there is much more corporate activity and so we expect that in the next seven to eight months, we would see a more marked shift of corporate travellers from luxury to mid-market as well as budget hotels.” Choice Hotels operate mid-market brands like Clarion and Comfort Inn among others. However, luxury and five star hotels deny having seen any marked dip in their occupancies and add that the corporate travel segment in particular has not seen any impact. Analysts and tour operators believe that there is a decline in occupancy rates in the top city hotels and this will force them to bring in the much needed rationalisation of room tariffs.
Tech - Electronic Papyrus
Tablet sized e-Book readers that allow people to peruse their favourite authors on portable screens have several advantages over conventional paper tomes. Hundreds of books can be stored on the same device, readers can adjust text size and font and read in low or even no light. Although the device runs on electricity, the production of e-Books does not consume paper, ink and other resources used to produce printed books. Yet in spite of such obvious benefits e-Books have never really caught on with the same zing other devices like cellphones and hand-held personal music players have. One of the main reasons is that the act of reading a book is a complex, conditioned behaviour which involves and is associated with the feel, flexibility and even smell of paper. An e-Book reader, on the other hand, comes across as a hard, bulky machine where the "page" is made of glass and the "print" is way too glossy. All that could change, however, with the introduction of a new screen technology called organic thin-film-transistor which uses polymers rather than silicon and thus allows for more flexible materials. The result has been the launch of a new e-Book reader manufactured by a Dutch company, with an ultra-thin flexible screen that can be folded up and put in a pocket. If the new format catches on it could change reading habits far more dramatically than even DVDs, streaming video and MP3 players have changed the way we watch films or listen to music. That's because while the alternate big-screen or home theatre experience is still a viable — and, often, preferred — option as far as cinema and recordings are concerned, book reading cannot be enhanced any further, either socially or in any technical sense. But besides storage capacity, design and flexibility, other factors will also determine e-Books' success in the future. Text, for instance, can be searched automatically and cross-referenced using hyperlinks, making them ideal for any work which benefits from such functions. Also, since most offer wireless internet connectivity, books can be purchased and downloaded directly without having to visit a bookstore. This kind of ease of distributing text means that they can be used to stimulate higher sales of books and so help authors and publishers in the process too
India - It's in our favour
T.P.Sreenivasan
With the midnight unveiling of the draft safeguards agreement, which has been tabled at the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, two facts have come to light. First, the government was reluctant to publish the text prematurely not because it had anything in the agreement to hide from its people, but because it did not want to show it off and provoke the non-proliferation ayatollahs in the United States to mount a campaign against it. Second, the decision of the leftists to withdraw support to the government was not on account of the "devil in the details" of the agreement, but on the larger issue of a strategic alliance with the United States. They wanted to take the crucial step before the world discovered that the draft agreement was in keeping with the promises made by the prime minister. The draft is yet to be approved by the IAEA board, but if it emerges unscathed, even with a vote on it, much of the criticism that the inspections would tie India down in perpetuity to intrusive scrutiny of our indigenous facilities should disappear. Significantly, the agreement is material-specific rather than reactor-specific. The purpose of the inspections is stated to be "to guard against withdrawal of safeguarded material from civilian use". In other words, regardless of the separation plan, India and the IAEA can jointly determine, on the basis of a 1973 document of the board of governors, that a particular facility had ceased to be of relevance to the objectives of the inspections. Once the imported fuel is removed, the eight Indian Pressurised Heavy Water reactors would be off the inspections list. What is more, the annex to the agreement, which should list the facilities for inspection, has been left blank with a column to indicate the dates on which the facilities concerned were notified by India for inspection. The list in the separation plan, which was subject to controversy in India, has not been included in the annex. The date when the agreement comes into force as well as the listing of the facilities have been left entirely to India's sovereign decision, a point that was stressed in the joint statement, but subsequently diluted by the Americans. The fear that the safeguards agreement will come into force even if the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the US Congress do not take the deal forward has no basis whatsoever anymore. It will apply only after a declaration by India on its sovereign decision to place voluntarily civilian facilities in a phased manner. India had insisted, right from the beginning, that the IAEA should somehow endorse the principle in the deal that there will be reliable, uninterrupted and continuous fuel supply in perpetuity in return for safeguards in perpetuity. It had also maintained that it had the right to build up a strategic reserve. The IAEA was in no position to guarantee such supplies, but agreed to reflect this Indian requirement in the preamble.
Apparently this was possible only after a personal intervention by the director general of the IAEA. Naturally, the provisions of the preamble are not enforceable, but once the board takes note of the point, India will be in a strong position to insist on continuous supplies as a precondition for continuing inspections. Yet another provision that India could take corrective measures in the event of cessation of supplies leaves the field open for India to use its own fuel. No wonder, critics have singled out this provision for questioning and demanded that there should be clarity about what these measures would be. One windfall that has come in India's way, whether by design or as a logical consequence, is that our other safeguards agreements, which are applicable to facilities that use imported fuel, will be suspended as long as the new safeguards agreement is in force. This will be an improvement because the facilities, which are under individual safeguards agreements, will be freed as soon as they cease to have imported fuel. The draft agreement does not give India the same status as the nuclear weapon states, so designated, but the assertion that the number, duration and intensity of the inspections shall be kept at the minimum takes us closer to the original five, whose installations are hardly inspected. The prompt support extended to the draft by the governor from the US signals that America was indeed looking over the shoulders of the IAEA negotiators as they painstakingly put together a draft that followed the provisions of the Indo-US agreement. The pressures of the non-proliferation lobby will have little impact on the US in these circumstances. The G8 countries have also expressed support to the deal at their recent summit. But other governors may raise the points brought out by the non-proliferationists, one of whom has characterised the draft as "stinking". He has demanded that, at the very least, the designated facilities should be inspected in perpetuity and that the IAEA should terminate the agreement in the event of another Indian test. The reverberations of these demands will be heard in the NSG as well as in the US Congress. But the board is well on its way to approving the draft agreement, with a few abstentions, but no negative votes. (The writer is a former Indian ambassador.)
Entertainment - Southern Superstars and Brand Endorsements
CHENNAI: Kamal Haasan has probably lost count of the number of times he has been approached to endorse a brand. In fact, there have been offers till as recently as last year. “The money was too small and it was not hard to say no,” says the actor, laughing. More seriously, the actor’s discomfort with appearing in commercials is quite evident. “I think the cost of my own integrity is far greater,” he adds. Haasan like his contemporary Rajinikanth has stayed away from commercial endorsements and it is apparent that the decision is one of choice rather than default. “I am here to act and why should I do anything else?” asks Haasan. Rajinikanth, like him, has also been clear about why he will not be drawn anywhere close to either appearing in commercials or lending his name for anything beyond what he is best known for, which is acting. Take the case of late 2000 when a couple of senior officials at Star TV flew down to Chennai hoping to sew up a deal with the Southern superstar. The purpose of the visit was rope in Rajinikanth for a Kaun Banega Crorepati for Tamil satellite television. The success of the gameshow in Hindi with Amitabh Bachchan was a huge boost for Star and they were keen on doing something similar on Vijay TV. What transpired during that meeting was really informal conversation before the broadcasters decided to break the ice and ask the Tamil superstar if he would be open to playing the host for the Tamil version. Apparently, Rajinikanth was happy to be considered, but politely declined saying he was not ready for it. Keeping Rajinikanth and Haasan company is the Telugu star, Nagarjuna who again has steadfastly stayed away from brand associations. So, what would these super heros cost to a brand, if they were ever tempted to turn brand ambassadors. But, more about that a bit later. STARRY STATUS There are a couple of interesting similarities between Rajinikanth and Haasan. Both began their careers in the 70s and acted in many a film together as well. The peak to stardom too took place at pretty much the same time and for close to three decades, the two have controlled the fortunes of the Tamil film industry in more than one ways. Strangely enough, the phase during the 80s and to a large extent the 90s as well saw the South catering to a specific and a small audience. That limited the appeal of Rajinikanth and Hassan to Tamil Nadu and other parts of the South in addition to having a small spillover in Tamil-speaking countries like Singapore and Malaysia. “Around 10-15 years ago, films with these stars were not really watched a great deal in the North as was the case with stars from the East (Uttam Kumar and Biswajit). These actors were largely restricted to the South and East and therefore, they were never top of mind names to most people,” points out Sunil Alagh, Chairman, SKA Advisors and well known brand consultant. At that stage, it was more than common to watch a Dharmendra or a Rajesh Khanna or even a Sanjeev Kumar being in the brand endorsement story in some form. Those from the era of the late 70s or early 80s would find it hard to recall too many advertisements with Southern stars barring those with Jaya Prada for a saree brand or a handful of male stars making a rare appearance. “It’s not a problem at the brand’s end. It’s a lack of inclination at the star’s end,” points out Vivek Kamath, Director, Matrix Entertainment, a celebrity management firm. For Rajinikanth and Haasan, their iconic status often comes in the way of endorsing brands. Films and politics are often closely interlinked and messages made through films often have significant political overtones. It is this image which often needs to be managed carefully
Haasan, for his part, thinks there are other things to be looked at while doing endorsements. “There are always issues of products being spurious or being injurious to health like cigarette smoking. These things make me uncomfortable,” he says. Advertisers offer another point of view. “Actors in the South are choosy about the brands they endorse because the brand’s fortunes are linked to the film’s fortunes. The failure of a brand, for instance, could directly affect the perception of the star’s next movie,” says S. Radhakrishnan, President, Mudra (South). Instances like Kerala superstar, Mammooty’s decision not to endorse Coca-Cola was after the brand ran into problems with activists in the state are not a rarity. Likewise, Nagarjuna, the Telugu industry’s star, is seen only in messages related to a social cause. BRAND WORTHY? The scarcity factor is what Rajinikanth and Haasan bank on. Their films are released on an infrequent basis (a release very 1½ -2 years) compared to their counterparts in Bollywood who often have three releases each year. More importantly, both these stars could become a lot more expensive if they chose to star in advertisements. “Economies of scale may be a deterrent in the case of Southern stars as investments on them need to be monetized over one or two or at best a few states,” says Manish Porwal, CEO, Percept Talent Management. None of that has actually been a deterrent for some innovative people. Of course, there have been interesting cases of a still from a Rajinikanth’s film from the early 90s, Muthu on the wrapper of a chips brand manufactured by Japanese food company, Tohato. This was not courtesy a deal signed with the actor but was instead the result of the star’s popularity in Japan which the company capitalized on. Interestingly, it was Muthu that was among the earliest films of Rajinikanth with political overtones that resulted in the buzz in about the star’s foray into Tamil Nadu politics. The release of 'Sivaji — The Boss' was also accompanied by talks that a leading soft drinks manufacturer came close to clinching a deal with him. This involved Rajinikanth’s face on the bottle cap. Apparently, the star was not too kicked with the idea. Haasan admits that there was a temptation to take the plunge at some stage. “Sometimes, I guess all of us need the money. Having said that, there are no regrets since it is important to enjoy my acting,” he says quite firmly. Advertising industry executives think it would be anything but cheap to get these stars. They opine that it would be at least twice as much as what the Bollywood stars charge. Logically, it could be only the soft drink manufacturers or mobile service providers who could make investments of that magnitude. On the face of it, there does seem to be a huge market for these stars. “Yes, there will be a lot of advertisers who will be willing to sign on Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. Of course, they will be very expensive as a proposition and in the logical world of marketing may not be value for money in most cases,” says Percept’s Porwal. With both these stars having had unimaginably long runs at the box office, the reason to endorse brands gets only stronger over time. Other younger stars from Tamil Nadu and other states in the South have done a great deal though which has now resulted in greater leveling amongst stars from all regions. “This is due to greater media exposure and the Indian youth becoming more universal in their aspirations and appreciation. Therefore, age is against Kamal and Rajini and the younger stars like Madhavan in Tamil Nadu and Chetan in Karnataka having higher levels of appeal,” maintains SKA Advisors’ Alagh. Without a doubt, these two mega-stars are finicky about what their public image is. Their visuals in the smallest barber shops in Tamil Nadu or even the garish posters in auto-rickshaws are more the exception than the rule. Till then advertisers will have to work just a little bit harder
Haasan, for his part, thinks there are other things to be looked at while doing endorsements. “There are always issues of products being spurious or being injurious to health like cigarette smoking. These things make me uncomfortable,” he says. Advertisers offer another point of view. “Actors in the South are choosy about the brands they endorse because the brand’s fortunes are linked to the film’s fortunes. The failure of a brand, for instance, could directly affect the perception of the star’s next movie,” says S. Radhakrishnan, President, Mudra (South). Instances like Kerala superstar, Mammooty’s decision not to endorse Coca-Cola was after the brand ran into problems with activists in the state are not a rarity. Likewise, Nagarjuna, the Telugu industry’s star, is seen only in messages related to a social cause. BRAND WORTHY? The scarcity factor is what Rajinikanth and Haasan bank on. Their films are released on an infrequent basis (a release very 1½ -2 years) compared to their counterparts in Bollywood who often have three releases each year. More importantly, both these stars could become a lot more expensive if they chose to star in advertisements. “Economies of scale may be a deterrent in the case of Southern stars as investments on them need to be monetized over one or two or at best a few states,” says Manish Porwal, CEO, Percept Talent Management. None of that has actually been a deterrent for some innovative people. Of course, there have been interesting cases of a still from a Rajinikanth’s film from the early 90s, Muthu on the wrapper of a chips brand manufactured by Japanese food company, Tohato. This was not courtesy a deal signed with the actor but was instead the result of the star’s popularity in Japan which the company capitalized on. Interestingly, it was Muthu that was among the earliest films of Rajinikanth with political overtones that resulted in the buzz in about the star’s foray into Tamil Nadu politics. The release of 'Sivaji — The Boss' was also accompanied by talks that a leading soft drinks manufacturer came close to clinching a deal with him. This involved Rajinikanth’s face on the bottle cap. Apparently, the star was not too kicked with the idea. Haasan admits that there was a temptation to take the plunge at some stage. “Sometimes, I guess all of us need the money. Having said that, there are no regrets since it is important to enjoy my acting,” he says quite firmly. Advertising industry executives think it would be anything but cheap to get these stars. They opine that it would be at least twice as much as what the Bollywood stars charge. Logically, it could be only the soft drink manufacturers or mobile service providers who could make investments of that magnitude. On the face of it, there does seem to be a huge market for these stars. “Yes, there will be a lot of advertisers who will be willing to sign on Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. Of course, they will be very expensive as a proposition and in the logical world of marketing may not be value for money in most cases,” says Percept’s Porwal. With both these stars having had unimaginably long runs at the box office, the reason to endorse brands gets only stronger over time. Other younger stars from Tamil Nadu and other states in the South have done a great deal though which has now resulted in greater leveling amongst stars from all regions. “This is due to greater media exposure and the Indian youth becoming more universal in their aspirations and appreciation. Therefore, age is against Kamal and Rajini and the younger stars like Madhavan in Tamil Nadu and Chetan in Karnataka having higher levels of appeal,” maintains SKA Advisors’ Alagh. Without a doubt, these two mega-stars are finicky about what their public image is. Their visuals in the smallest barber shops in Tamil Nadu or even the garish posters in auto-rickshaws are more the exception than the rule. Till then advertisers will have to work just a little bit harder
Columnists - George Fernandes & Jaya Jaitely
There is an Elephant in the Room
Bureaucratic minds in India are constantly engaged with the idea of China, particularly in comparing milestones in economic development. Political India, on the other hand, enjoys some degree of smugness when India is termed a rising superpower on par with China. Without daring to actually say so publicly for fear of sounding critical of China, we apologetically attribute our slower growth indicators to the fact that things take a little longer in a democracy, where laws, human rights and worker’s rights, environmental pollution and a wide range of other concerns need to be addressed.
Unfortunately, the crucial issue of India’s security concerns vis-à-vis China is that it is like a particularly huge elephant in the room, sitting on our sofa, making noises from time to time, nibbling at the snacks on the plate, yet being studiously ignored by large sections of the ruling establishment. The exceptions are the Indian Army, which cannot speak out independently, and others who make India their central concern and are not beholden to purely Communist-centric ideological positions.
In early 1998, as Defence Minister of India, I was interviewed by Karan Thapar for a television programme. The first question he asked me was whether China was India’s “Enemy No.1”, in the popular parlance of the Bombay film world. When I answered in the negative, he pursued in his typical dogged manner and presented another option: “Is China threat No. 1?” Again, I did not agree to his formulation and said, “No, it is potential threat No. 1, but we are engaged in talks which should bring about a better situation,” or words to that effect, as I clearly did not want to sound antagonistic towards China, yet had to speak the truth. A copy editor in a national newspaper headlining the television interview gave a twist to my statement. He decided that the Defence Minister of India had said that “China was India’s Enemy No. 1,” and repeated often enough by left-oriented journalists, it was quickly accepted as the blasphemous truth. It must be mentioned that the interview took place after the Pokhran II nuclear tests — and after Pakistan’s test, carried out just three weeks later in response to ours. It seemed obvious to everyone that Pakistan was our biggest threat, so what I said not only went against commonly perceived notions but was viewed by the Opposition, particularly the left parties, as an astounding affront. Despite many clarifications, including by my friend Karan Thapar, the truth for many is still the copy editor’s silly and inaccurate headline. However, having set the record straight on this matter for the umpteenth time, it is necessary for the people of India to know how China deals with India on security issues and how pathetic is India’s response to many uncomfortable realities.
The story of 1962, when Prime Minister Nehru and his Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon blinded themselves with slogans of Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai and exposed the nation to the shock of a full-fledged military invasion by Chinese troops, a war and a defeat, is still raw in many quarters. Historical records of India’s strategic failings at this time are kept under wraps. Why are we afraid of facing our own history with a view to correcting past mistakes? Despite having lost Indian territory which has not been recovered till date — and despite a unanimous Parliamentary resolution in 1962 to do so — conversations with common folk in China reveal that in fact they have been taught to believe that it was India that invaded China in the first place. The communists in India who dominate every foreign policy and historical debate have continued to let this mistaken view prevail among their cadres both in India and abroad. This results in a failure to do what is necessary to strengthen India’s borders and defence preparedness. Very recently A.K. Antony, India’s current Defence Minister, expressed his shock at the lack of strategic infrastructure on our borders with China. China’s development on this front is far ahead of ours. It is amazing that the Defence Minister should be taken by surprise when it is his job to ensure that the Indian army is fully supported with airstrips, roads, bridges, helipads and other facilities to operate at optimum efficiency. The army provides daily situation reports and endless wish-lists. Any responsible Defence Minister, including Antony, would certainly have taken note and agreed to them. Are instructions not carried out because of our usual bureaucratic sluggishness — as was witnessed with snowmobile requirements in Siachen in 1999 — or is it something more sinister than that? The people of India need to know the real reasons for this lack of preparedness for any eventuality and be reassured that they will not be surprised again as in 1962.
Atal Behari Vajpayee visited China as India’s Foreign Minister in 1979 and again as Prime Minster in 2003. Narasimha Rao visited as Prime Minister in 1993. When Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited China in 1988, much was made of the many handshakes and keenness to restore friendly relations. The question of border disputes was airily brushed aside when Rajiv Gandhi stated that the McMahon Line was “merely a thick line drawn on an old map and was subject to many interpretations.” A series of meetings and contacts had taken place earlier and following the new mild and amenable position, a further series of meetings have continued between Indian and Chinese authorities. These have led to cultural exchanges and active embassies on both sides, and India is now China’s largest trading partner in Asia. However, there has been no progress on matters of strategy and security.
For any progress on that front, all we need to do is read Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi’s statement made on CNN-IBN in November 2006: “In our position, the whole state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory. And Tawang is only one of the places in it. We are claiming all of that. That is our position.” Significantly, the statement was made just before Hu Jintao was to visit India. Apart from a contradiction from India’s Foreign Minister, the matter was dropped. As significantly, the Chinese intruded into Arunachal Pradesh when Prime Minister Vajpayee was on his visit to China in 1993. This too was hushed up for reasons of diplomacy. If anyone, politician or official, from Arunachal Pradesh applies for a visa from the Chinese Embassy to travel to China they are refused on the grounds that since Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China they do not require visas, thus indirectly asserting that Indians there are actually Chinese. Did Sonia Gandhi take such matters up during her recent much-hyped visit to China or was it just a very expensive photo opportunity for her and her son?
While China makes it a point to protest if a Tibetan protester is visible during visits of their high-ups to India, we deliberately ignore the fact that powerful Chinese missiles are stationed in Tibet and are aimed in India’s direction. More than 200,000 Chinese troops are stationed in central Tibet on the Indian border. Five missile bases and at least eight ICBMs, 70 medium range missiles and 20 intermediate range missiles are within striking distance. China also uses Tibet for chemical warfare exercises and toxic waste dumping from other countries. We have long ignored the strategic importance of an independent Tibet as a buffer zone between India and China. We could add to that the question of why India, as a democratic country that allows freedom of speech, should not let people on its soil protest for what they perceive to be their rights. During the 1990s, we had to approach the Supreme Court to defend the rights of Tibetans to burn the Chinese flag as a means of protest. (Many of us, along with hundreds of Tibetans, were detained at police stations because the Chinese premier was driving past.) Chief Justice P.B. Sawant ruled that every refugee had the same rights (including burning the flag of another nation) as all Indian citizens, except for the right to vote, and that all those who had been wrongfully detained should be released forthwith. It was a legal victory for us, but subsequent governments have still kept all protesting Tibetans well out of sight when Chinese dignitaries visit India.
While India offers asylum to Tibetan refugees and honours the Dalai Lama and his way of peace and non-violence, it readily signs a joint declaration with China recognising Tibet as part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China and disallowing Tibetans from engaging in political (i.e. anti-China) activities in India. History bears ample evidence that Tibet was never part of China and has a completely separate cultural and religious foundation. India recognised this through its diplomatic outpost in Lhasa till the Tibetans were swallowed by the Cultural Revolution in China and were forced to seek refuge in India in the early 1950s. We seem to adopt a dual personality by proudly offering Buddhism to the world, defending secularism, and propagating Gandhian principles everywhere while continuing to shut our ears and eyes to China’s whims on matters of territorial expansion. The high-speed railway into Tibet, excellent roads right up to our borders in Ladakh, Nepal’s invitation to China to extends its railway to Nepal, and China’s recent assistance to the Sinhalas against the Tamils are of a piece with China’s powerful presence and territorial ambitions that are never off the table anywhere.
During the National Democratic Alliance regime, as Defence Minister I spoke to Gen Fu Quanyou, Chief of the Chinese Army, about our concerns at their supplying missiles, including the Ghauri, to Pakistan, and the helipad issue in Arunachal Pradesh. It was only during this period that the Defence Ministry’s concerns were given importance, often overruling the displeasure of the Ministry of External Affairs which not only had been setting the parameters of discussion but seemed to be content with the countless comings and goings that have brought no progress on issues of India’s security interests.
Alongside, take a look at the countries which the Chinese Communist Party is eyeing today — Tibet, Taiwan, Burma and now Nepal. In Africa, they have begun controlling regimes by pouring in considerable funds to counter the ‘pop star’ benevolence of Western countries. The regime itself does not believe in religion, but, while printing Bibles to soften countries for the Olympics, they regularly attack the Falun Gong, a peaceful domestic cultural movement, regularly torturing and killing many of its followers. The Chinese Communist Party destroyed the traditional culture of the land which was based on faith and virtue and there are unconfirmed but undenied reports that Buddhist statues have been destroyed by them in Arunachal Pradesh. Tiananmen demonstrated to the world the real face of the Chinese regime and its response to those who speak of human rights or democracy, which are the cornerstones of all that India stands for. It is indeed painful to see India engaging obsequiously with Burma’s military junta even while it conducts a violent crackdown on monks protesting peacefully. We rationalise our engagement with Burma by hoping they will not encourage our militant groups to establish posts on their side. There has been no visible benefit so far of this specious engagement, while China’s hold on the Burmese military regime grows stronger every day. We are fast losing our old relationship with Nepal’s democratic forces, conceding space to China via Maoist dominance.
Is all this out of some unknown long-term strategy, a simple case of sluggish lack of preparedness, or mere political expediency of the cowardly? It must be remembered that the entire region around India is intrinsically undemocratic or subject to instability and violence and much of this is integrating with and fuelling insurgency in our border states, besides the growing numbers of Maoists working across large swathes of India, who are committed to violence to achieve power.
How long will we hide these existing realities under the carpet and pretend to our people that India has the political, moral and military capabilities to protect and sustain its economic ambitions?
World - Mealy mouthed about food
Substance ingested for nutrition or pleasure, according to financial health of the ingesting party.
The British currently loathe Gordon Brown. Before he left for the G8 summit, he had sternly wagged his finger at them like our mothers used to, and exhorted them to stop wasting food because there is a crisis on and kids are going hungry in the Third World. British homes are throwing away about 4 million tonnes of food a year, so everyone was suitably abashed. Then the newspapers leaked the summit’s menu and all hell broke loose.
That menu is now moving faster on the internet than any Paris Hilton video. It features a six-course working lunch, a fifteen-course dinner and a wine list longer than the Ten Commandments. It offers almost everything that moves, apart from things that stand still and are ridiculously easy to catch and eat. There’s weird stuff — beetroot foam, hairy crab, winter lily bulb with summer savoury, milk-fed lamb and bighand thornyhead fish. It’s enough to make the gorge rise, because this summit was supposed to halt the global food crisis.
Luckily, the core G8 has resolutely kept India out and Manmohan Singh does not share Gordon Brown’s shame. He dined on the sidelines in reduced circumstances, thanks to the perfidy of Prakash Karat. Well saved, for like the British PM, he too had stuck his neck out. After a spate of show-off wedding parties organised here by expat steel tycoons, hotel magnates and such, he had wagged his finger sternly at conspicuous consumers.
Ironically, it was his own policymaking that made conspicuous consumption possible. Earlier, we were happy to live insignificant, abstemious lives. Now, the baseline of roti, kapda aur makaan — Indira Gandhi’s slogan and 1974 box office hit — has been raised to vodka golgappas, layered ensembles and luxury villas. And like the Brits, those of us who can afford to waste are doing so.
Curious, because in India, deep philosophy backs the injunction against wasting food. You don’t have to lick your plate clean only because kids elsewhere are going hungry, as Mummy told us. A reverence for food dates at least from the Taittiriya Upanishad, which ethically connects food with life, mind and creation at large. So compelling is the argument that readers find themselves unable to throw away a stone-cold samosa crust for fear of insulting the universe and all that is in it, including themselves. Now, a mere decade of prosperity is erasing that tradition.
So can we blame the G8 diners for their insensitivity? They have been prosperous for much longer. And anyway, someone has to eat all the fuzzy crab and hornyhead fish out there. Because the Upanishad says we can’t let it go to waste.
(Pratik Kanjilal is Publisher, The Little Magazine)
The British currently loathe Gordon Brown. Before he left for the G8 summit, he had sternly wagged his finger at them like our mothers used to, and exhorted them to stop wasting food because there is a crisis on and kids are going hungry in the Third World. British homes are throwing away about 4 million tonnes of food a year, so everyone was suitably abashed. Then the newspapers leaked the summit’s menu and all hell broke loose.
That menu is now moving faster on the internet than any Paris Hilton video. It features a six-course working lunch, a fifteen-course dinner and a wine list longer than the Ten Commandments. It offers almost everything that moves, apart from things that stand still and are ridiculously easy to catch and eat. There’s weird stuff — beetroot foam, hairy crab, winter lily bulb with summer savoury, milk-fed lamb and bighand thornyhead fish. It’s enough to make the gorge rise, because this summit was supposed to halt the global food crisis.
Luckily, the core G8 has resolutely kept India out and Manmohan Singh does not share Gordon Brown’s shame. He dined on the sidelines in reduced circumstances, thanks to the perfidy of Prakash Karat. Well saved, for like the British PM, he too had stuck his neck out. After a spate of show-off wedding parties organised here by expat steel tycoons, hotel magnates and such, he had wagged his finger sternly at conspicuous consumers.
Ironically, it was his own policymaking that made conspicuous consumption possible. Earlier, we were happy to live insignificant, abstemious lives. Now, the baseline of roti, kapda aur makaan — Indira Gandhi’s slogan and 1974 box office hit — has been raised to vodka golgappas, layered ensembles and luxury villas. And like the Brits, those of us who can afford to waste are doing so.
Curious, because in India, deep philosophy backs the injunction against wasting food. You don’t have to lick your plate clean only because kids elsewhere are going hungry, as Mummy told us. A reverence for food dates at least from the Taittiriya Upanishad, which ethically connects food with life, mind and creation at large. So compelling is the argument that readers find themselves unable to throw away a stone-cold samosa crust for fear of insulting the universe and all that is in it, including themselves. Now, a mere decade of prosperity is erasing that tradition.
So can we blame the G8 diners for their insensitivity? They have been prosperous for much longer. And anyway, someone has to eat all the fuzzy crab and hornyhead fish out there. Because the Upanishad says we can’t let it go to waste.
(Pratik Kanjilal is Publisher, The Little Magazine)
Lifestyle - Is she losing interest in sex?
A study has revealed that women are fast losing interest in sex. And this has been revealed by a number of 40-something men. Loss of libido in women, or low sexual desire, is the most common sexual problem for members of the fair sex and the major reason why they seek sex therapy. It affects upto 33 per cent to 67 per cent of women, depending on how sexual desire is defined and reported. And men aren’t beyond this too. But since it only affects about half as many men as women, it is nowhere close to men’s top sex problems. Loss of Libido Sexual desire is one of the most difficult factors to define for the simple reason that it is more psychological than physiological. Loss of libido refers to a lack of interest in sex for a prolonged period. Most women are conscious of this feeling. And unfortunately, many of these ladies don’t like the idea of confessing it to their husbands. Normal in women? It is important to understand that the loss of libido is not a disorder. How can it be a dysfunction if one-third of all women, no matter what their age, report that they lose interest in sex? Low sexual desire is an understandable result of an imbalance in your life. It may root to your relationship, your stress, or simply, changes in your body. Secondly, just because loss of libido in women is common, it doesn’t mean you can’t fix it. Even worse, losing interest in sex can mean you miss out on a lot more than simply one of life’s few non-fattening pleasures. It can begin to drain the passion out of the rest of your life, as well. Causes of loss of libido Biology: Sex can have serious consequences for women – a baby for starters, to take care of for the next twenty years. Not surprising that females seem hard-wired to approach sex with slightly less abandon than males do. Social conditioning: The messages women get from society with its double standards and attitudes towards sex, have a big affect on their sexual desire. Even with adult women who’ve been exposed to the Sex And The City culture, there is still a social conditioning prevalent that men are ‘studs’ if they are sexual, while women are ‘sluts’. Quality of relationship: For women, desire is strongly elicited to the relationship. “If we don’t talk and connect, we don’t have sex,” they often say. It’s not what happens in the bedroom – their desire arises when they are interacting with their partner. If the quality of those intimate but non-sexual contacts aren’t being attended to, most women just won’t feel “in the mood.” Hormones: Hormonal fluctuations with pregnancy, breast-feeding, and then with menopause a little later in life all can lessen desire to some extent. Medications: Depression and the anti-depressants used to treat it can also inhibit desire. So also can certain blood pressure-lowering drugs. Conditions such as endometriosis, fibroids and thyroid disorders can also be a cause. Life stages: Life changes – especially the birth of a child – can cause a loss of libido in women. It often occurs to women in their 20s with a child under five or six – their lack of interest doubles and triples. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out – physical stress and fatigue are also considered big factors.
Entertainment - Cinema beyond Bollywood
Shorts by young filmmakers, flicks out of Pakistan, a restored oldie, works by international masters... Neha Bhatt on what to watch at Osian's Cinefan.
Ten years ago, you couldn't have guessed that a "niche" film festival like Osian's Cinefan, an annual event in New Delhi (with a preview in Mumbai), would bring such a rush of energy to the average moviegoer. Over the years, the festival has won over a much wider base of audiences — people looking at films as more than mindless entertainment.
For all such enthusiasts, this year's fest brings an impressive collection of films — from a wide range of short films by young filmmakers dabbling in new mediums and concepts to highly-acclaimed works from Arab and Asian countries, the choicest of literary adaptations to classics from masters such as Fellini, Kurosawa and Mrinal Sen.
Over 200 films, handpicked and curated carefully, are to roll out this week, including those from Pakistan and from country in focus Israel. Here's a look at what you must catch — at the fest or elsewhere if you miss it there.
The stunning opening film, Sparrow, by Hong Kong-based filmmaker Johnnie To, is a must-watch. Shot over three years, Sparrow borrows its title from the street slang for pickpocket. The story follows the lives of a beautiful woman and three professional pickpockets who come together in search of an elusive key.
Then there's the festival's centrepiece movie, Wong Kar Wai's balmy My Blueberry Nights which was the opening film at Cannes last year. In her acting debut, Norah Jones stars as Elizabeth who sets out on a journey across America after a heartbreak, and on the way meets people who change her perspective on life and love.
The closing film this year is Mumbai Cutting, an anthology of short films by 11 directors, in keeping with the new focus on short films.
Emotionally complex, Mumbai Cutting alternates between the comical and the cynical, relating the story of a man and a woman who come together in grief after losing their loved ones, a writer who makes it his mission to connect with a troubled orphan, a Muslim woman attempting to procure a fake passport, and an aspiring actor who races through the streets in order to reach an important audition.
Filmmakers Sudhir Mishra, Jahnu Barua, Rahul Dholakia, Rituparno Ghosh and Anurag Kashyap among others, come together for this anthology. The starcast includes the likes of Ranvir Shorey, Raima Sen, Reema Lagoo and Vinay Pathak.
The long and short of itWhat's refreshing this year is the platform provided to short fiction films. Of the 42 short films chosen from across Asia and the Arab world, 13 premiere at the fest. Others have been screened at film festivals across the globe. Watch out for, says section curator Monica Bhasin, Match Factor, made by Pakistani filmmaker Maheen Zia and screened earlier at the Berlin film fest.
However, Cinefan consciously keeps away from the documentary-style of filmmaking for now, point out festival directors Latika Padgaonkar and Indu Shrikent. "We'd like to start with fiction before going on to anything else," says Padgaonkar.
All the films are between 5-40 minutes and it's interesting to see new mediums used, slick camerawork and offbeat storylines. Another short film not to be missed comes from Pakistan: This Is Hindustan That Is Pakistan by Ehteshmuddin Mohammad. Shrikent also recommends Rewind by Atul Ashok Taishete.
Pakistan diariesSpinning on the new-found appreciation of Indian audiences for Pakistani films after Khuda Ke Liye, a clutch of movies from across the border are being showcased. Ramchand Pakistani starring Nandita Das demands attention in particular.
The film tells the story of a young boy who crosses the border to India unknowingly — gathering little of the socio-political blunder he has committed — and the tragic consequences of it. A Pakistani horror film Hell's Ground is high on the list too, as is a novel adaptation titled Victoria Ka Ticket. (Other literary adaptations include war film Beaufort, the classic Lady Chatterley and the acclaimed Peeping Tom from Japan.)
Assamese gold Seventy three year-old film Joymoti, the first-ever Assamese language film, has been restored by filmmaker Altaf Mazid and is to be screened too. Jyotiprasad Agarwala's timeless classic, Mazid says, is almost as beautiful as when he saw it for the first time.
At a time when the Hindi film industry alone churns out 800 films a year, few have the inclination to pursue classics that may get lost as a result. The story behind the recovery of the duplicate print of Joymoti is, in fact, quite dramatic.
After the original print and negatives were lost in a studio fire which destroyed a large part of Agarwala's setup in the 1940s, a duplicate was recovered in a garage in the 1980s by his elder brother. The film was significantly damaged but Mazid managed to piece together 80 per cent of it from footage from a documentary made on the movie.
Reconstructing the scenes in a linear version was tough. Mazid calls it a "labour of love". "I did everything on my home computer with an assistant, on a budget of Rs 20,000. But it was hard to work without the script. It took me months to string together the sequence," Mazid tells me.
Despite poor sound quality, the soundtrack remains fresh, thanks to the fact that a separate recording of the music had been archived carefully. The film, Mazid says, has the quality of a contemporary. Old or new, cinema is the flavour of the season.
Ten years ago, you couldn't have guessed that a "niche" film festival like Osian's Cinefan, an annual event in New Delhi (with a preview in Mumbai), would bring such a rush of energy to the average moviegoer. Over the years, the festival has won over a much wider base of audiences — people looking at films as more than mindless entertainment.
For all such enthusiasts, this year's fest brings an impressive collection of films — from a wide range of short films by young filmmakers dabbling in new mediums and concepts to highly-acclaimed works from Arab and Asian countries, the choicest of literary adaptations to classics from masters such as Fellini, Kurosawa and Mrinal Sen.
Over 200 films, handpicked and curated carefully, are to roll out this week, including those from Pakistan and from country in focus Israel. Here's a look at what you must catch — at the fest or elsewhere if you miss it there.
The stunning opening film, Sparrow, by Hong Kong-based filmmaker Johnnie To, is a must-watch. Shot over three years, Sparrow borrows its title from the street slang for pickpocket. The story follows the lives of a beautiful woman and three professional pickpockets who come together in search of an elusive key.
Then there's the festival's centrepiece movie, Wong Kar Wai's balmy My Blueberry Nights which was the opening film at Cannes last year. In her acting debut, Norah Jones stars as Elizabeth who sets out on a journey across America after a heartbreak, and on the way meets people who change her perspective on life and love.
The closing film this year is Mumbai Cutting, an anthology of short films by 11 directors, in keeping with the new focus on short films.
Emotionally complex, Mumbai Cutting alternates between the comical and the cynical, relating the story of a man and a woman who come together in grief after losing their loved ones, a writer who makes it his mission to connect with a troubled orphan, a Muslim woman attempting to procure a fake passport, and an aspiring actor who races through the streets in order to reach an important audition.
Filmmakers Sudhir Mishra, Jahnu Barua, Rahul Dholakia, Rituparno Ghosh and Anurag Kashyap among others, come together for this anthology. The starcast includes the likes of Ranvir Shorey, Raima Sen, Reema Lagoo and Vinay Pathak.
The long and short of itWhat's refreshing this year is the platform provided to short fiction films. Of the 42 short films chosen from across Asia and the Arab world, 13 premiere at the fest. Others have been screened at film festivals across the globe. Watch out for, says section curator Monica Bhasin, Match Factor, made by Pakistani filmmaker Maheen Zia and screened earlier at the Berlin film fest.
However, Cinefan consciously keeps away from the documentary-style of filmmaking for now, point out festival directors Latika Padgaonkar and Indu Shrikent. "We'd like to start with fiction before going on to anything else," says Padgaonkar.
All the films are between 5-40 minutes and it's interesting to see new mediums used, slick camerawork and offbeat storylines. Another short film not to be missed comes from Pakistan: This Is Hindustan That Is Pakistan by Ehteshmuddin Mohammad. Shrikent also recommends Rewind by Atul Ashok Taishete.
Pakistan diariesSpinning on the new-found appreciation of Indian audiences for Pakistani films after Khuda Ke Liye, a clutch of movies from across the border are being showcased. Ramchand Pakistani starring Nandita Das demands attention in particular.
The film tells the story of a young boy who crosses the border to India unknowingly — gathering little of the socio-political blunder he has committed — and the tragic consequences of it. A Pakistani horror film Hell's Ground is high on the list too, as is a novel adaptation titled Victoria Ka Ticket. (Other literary adaptations include war film Beaufort, the classic Lady Chatterley and the acclaimed Peeping Tom from Japan.)
Assamese gold Seventy three year-old film Joymoti, the first-ever Assamese language film, has been restored by filmmaker Altaf Mazid and is to be screened too. Jyotiprasad Agarwala's timeless classic, Mazid says, is almost as beautiful as when he saw it for the first time.
At a time when the Hindi film industry alone churns out 800 films a year, few have the inclination to pursue classics that may get lost as a result. The story behind the recovery of the duplicate print of Joymoti is, in fact, quite dramatic.
After the original print and negatives were lost in a studio fire which destroyed a large part of Agarwala's setup in the 1940s, a duplicate was recovered in a garage in the 1980s by his elder brother. The film was significantly damaged but Mazid managed to piece together 80 per cent of it from footage from a documentary made on the movie.
Reconstructing the scenes in a linear version was tough. Mazid calls it a "labour of love". "I did everything on my home computer with an assistant, on a budget of Rs 20,000. But it was hard to work without the script. It took me months to string together the sequence," Mazid tells me.
Despite poor sound quality, the soundtrack remains fresh, thanks to the fact that a separate recording of the music had been archived carefully. The film, Mazid says, has the quality of a contemporary. Old or new, cinema is the flavour of the season.
India - Waari - Where millions walk for God
MUMBAI: It's a vision that would melt the heart of the staunchest atheist. And it must be one of its kinds in the world; at one time, millions of people walk in Waari- a holy pilgrimage in Maharashtra. It's perhaps, the world's longest pilgrimage. Remarkable, in over 700 years of Waari tradition, no stampede or chaos has ever taken place. Waari is undertaken in the Hindu month of Ashadhi Ekadashi. Every year, millions of devotees walk along the 450-km route from Alandi (near Pune) to Pandarpur (near Kolhapur) in Western Maharashtra. They walk with one focus and that is to reach Pandharpur and offer their respects to Lord Vithal (reincarnation of Vishnu in the form of Krishna). The waarkaris (pilgrims) are mainly agriculturists and the majority of them are poor. After travelling for almost 15-20 days, devotees reach Pandarpur to meet their favourite God, Vithal. This year Waari started on June 26 and draws to an end on July 14th. A chain of millions of men, women and children walking for miles with non-stop chants of Gyanba-Tukaram on their lips, is an incredible spectacle. Origin and philosophy of Waari References of Waari can be found as far back as one thousand years. Nobody knows anything about the original waarkaris. According to an account, parents of 13th century Marathi poet-saint Dnyaneshwar undertook this pilgrimage. And he did the same, later. Sant Dnyaneshwar undertook this tradition where all along the route worshippers rendered traditional songs called Abhanga. He used to walk barefoot with a flag in his hands, keeping his fast throughout the journey. The group is divided into dindi, which is a small group. All dindis combined is called Waari. Seven centuries have passed, but worshippers from all the corners of Maharashtra still go for this holy journey. Most waarkaris observe fast. Some of them even walk barefoot; a spiritual belief propagating that the path to reach God is chock-a-block with obstacles and hardships. Devotees of all age groups form the Dindi and celebrate abandoning all tensions and problems. All the worshippers reach their destination; in spiritual terms "God", "Happiness" and "Freedom". In 1685, Narayan Baba, the youngest son of Tukaram and a man of innovative spirit decided to bring about a change in the dindi-wari tradition by introducing the Palkhi (palanquin), which is a sign of social respect. He put the silver padukas (footsteps) of Tukaram in the Palkhi and proceeded with his dindi to Alandi where he put the padukas of Dnyaneshwar in the same Palkhi. This tradition of twin Palkhis continued, but in 1830 there were some disputes in the family of Tukaram, concerned with rights and privileges. Following this, some thoughtful persons decided to break-up the tradition of twin Palkhis and organise, two separate Palkhis - Tukaram Palkhi from Dehu and the Dnyaneshwar Palkhi from Alandi. Still, both the Palkhis meet in Pune for a brief halt and then diverge at Hadapsar to meet again at Wakhri, a village near Pandharpur and the last stop of waarkaris. Along with times, the popularity of this ancient tradition soared. And a total of over 40 Palkhis, including Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram, visit Pandharpur every year. This year 275 registered dindis (it is more if one counts the unregistered dindis) and 2 lakh devotees are marching along the route to Pandharpur. The total number of pilgrims is lesser than the previous year. It is due to scanty rainfall and high inflation that has made it unaffordable for poor who normally undertake this pilgrimage after the sowing season is over.
Barrington de La Roche and Inesa Vaiciute from England specially came to India to see Waari. They were struck by the sheer magic of it. "This is the real India I wanted to see," exults Barrington who belongs to a French royal family, settled in England for 100 years. "It's absolutely fascinating," adds his friend Inesa. This was their first visit to the country and they couldn't believe their eyes when they saw the worshippers trekking barefoot with flags in hand and prayers on lips. They are filmmakers and were introduced to the idea by their 80-year old Indian friend Basant Chapekar who has lived in England for 63 years. Chapekar's late mother used to visit India every year for Waari. This year he decided to honour his mother by undertaking this spiritual journey. While walking with waarkaris, one undergoes a change and learns to adjust to any situation; it's tweaking life as you go along. The foreign couple is so taken in by Indian spirituality that they do not have much to complain. "It's only the toilets that we have some problem with," utters Inesa with a smile. As for the cultural shocks, "It happened when we arrived in Mumbai!" she replied. "We were so taken aback by the noise, the crowd and the chaos. Here (rural India), despite the crowd, it's so peaceful," utters Barrington who is filming the events at Waari and intends to make a documentary. When asked if they had understood anything about the philosophy of Waari they replied, "We are still analysing. Each day, there is someone who tells us something new about it. Each one comes up with his own interpretations." Sixty-four year old Barrington rues, had he been introduced to Indian philosophy and way of life earlier in his life, he would not have become a drug addict. "I am clean now but there was a (dark) phase I went through in my life." An event the foreign couple eagerly described was when the dindis arrived at a place called Jejuri. The dindis reached the Khandoba temple and performed a "Bhandara". It's a ritual where the waarkaris place the Dnyaneshwar Palkhi (palanquin) on the steps of the temple and all the devotees throw turmeric powder on it. A smoke of yellow hue rose in the sky covering the Palkhi. It was great visual for the camera to capture. Another event that made them speechless was the game of "Ringan". Devotees line up on either side of the road and two horses (one with a flag bearing rider) race across the stretch and then go back on the same route. This concept was designed as an entertainment to beat the monotony of tired devotees who walked non stop for 3-4 hours. Another form of amusement is "Fugdi" which the women play by joining hands and going round in circle. Such activities refresh and energise the devotees who carry on the journey with renewed vigour. No division of caste, religion or status At the campsite where Barrington and Inesa were staying, few paces away, sat seventy-five years old Jaitun Bi - bend with age but standing tall in spirits. Everybody was touching her feet. A Muslim, she became a Lord Krishna devotee at the age of five and ever since had been going on Waari. She was introduced to this by her guru Sadguru Hanuman Das. "Being a Muslim there was some opposition by my community. But I felt this magnetic attraction towards Krishna and threw myself wholeheartedly into His service," says the woman who faced a boycott by her community on account of her actions. Pressures were put on her to marry but she wowed herself to Brahmacharya (celibacy). Waari knows no divisions of religion or caste says Jaitun Bi, who has in her group, several Muslim followers like Lalaji Abdul Sheikh (65) who does Kirtans and Bhajans (hymns). Jaitun Bi's brother Abbas Bhai too has joined her. Jaitun Bi, who is fondly called "mataji", belongs to Malegaon in Baramati district. She first started Waari in 1942 when India was under the British rule. And to honour the Indian Nationalists she began her first Waari by placing a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi in her dindi. In 1947 her dindi was named after her and now it's called Jaitun Bi Dindi. As Jaitun Bi holds court, fresh smell of chula made rotis waft through the air. There are several people sitting down to dinner of simple besan sabji and chapatti. Barrington and Inesa are invited to join the gastronomic treat, and they gladly accept it. Inesa, a Lithuanian, looks every inch an Indian in a shalwar-kameez , plated hair and a bindi on her forehead. She said," I am living with these women and they treat me like a doll - someone is plating my hair and gives me tips on various topics. Over here, there is so much care and love." There are stories galore when one goes on Waari. One Ganpat Maharaj Jagtap, who lost his eye sight at a young age due to illness, started going for Waari as a young boy. He decided to write the Bhajans (hymns) in brail so that the blind too could join in the singing. Affinity towards all caste, creed and religion is evident when one walks in the Waari. Muslim devotees from North India used to come for Waari, earlier. As time passed it became increasingly difficult for them to join the Waari every year. Hence, they said that they were finding it very difficult to join Waari but their hearts were in it. Hence, a white flag was assigned to dindi No. 7 as a symbolic gesture of solidarity with and a mark of respect to their Muslim brethren. Though majority of the people walking in the Waari are poor, economic status is not important. There would be an affluent businessman walking alongside a poor farmer. Maharashtra's forest minister Babanrao Pachpute who goes for Waari every year too was walking, and it did not disturb the momentum of the group.
Why walk for God? When asked why they were walking, the waarkaris replied it just made them happy. Bhakti (devotion) just filled them with peace. A waarkari walks for the love of God. His focus is to reach Pandharpur, bathe in river Chandrabhaga, offer Puja to Dyaneshwar's paduka, buy Prasad (offering from God), go round the main temple that houses Vithal's deity and leave for his village, where he distributes the prasad among fellow villagers. After weeks of walking he does not get to see Lord Vithal's idol inside the temple because it is too crowded for everyone to reach the inner sanctum of the temple. Yet, he feels blessed to have undertaken the pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Waarkaris do not ask for anything from the Lord. Life now is easier for scribes Over the years it has become easier for journalists to cover waari. Recounts freelance journalist Suryakant Bhagwan Bhise, who has covered the event for 19 years, "Things were very difficult in those days. There was no place to rest, bathe, eat or sleep. I have spent a number of nights in paddy fields, sitting the whole time clutching my bag with my meagre belongings. As time passed, I developed good contacts and started arranging accommodations and meals for visiting journalists." Waarkaris set up camp anywhere. And so Bhise too had to follow. Another sore point was the communication systems. Over a decade ago Bhise found it very hard to send his stories to his paper. "My stories used to reach my paper days later. And they were published after three days of filing them. I never got to read them." For long distance phone call there were only trunk calls that one could make from rural Maharashtra. Then the STD phone facility made life easier. Gradually, with the advent of fax and internet, communications channel became so smooth that the stories began to be filed in real time. Over the years, media too started taking interest with more and more newspapers and TV channels sending their reporters for the coverage. It's not an easy job. The pilgrimage goes on for nearly three weeks and one can experience fatigue, get bruised and sore all over. When 25000 rotis were distributed in a day Bhise narrates an indent showing the spirit of Waari. Wherever the waarkaris pass his village, people touch their feet calling them "Maoli" (in the image of mother-father). It's a feeling they associate with Lord Vithal. And from each home, school children bring five rotis, some flour (besan) and peanuts to make chutney. They make a dish called Pithle (with besan) and distribute everything among waarkaris who do not accept any alms or food from anyone. But there are others in the group, who join the trek, and they accept it. With each home contributing food, in a day a mammoth 25000 rotis are distributed in a day. Armed with the spirit of Waari, India may never know food crisis. Lessons for corporates A noticeable feature on the walk with waarkaris the similar names of mobile tea stalls by the road side. All had 'Saagar" emblazoned on them. It emerged that once someone started a tea stall by that name and since then everybody adopted the same name. So, there was Saagar tea-stall galore; a lesson in brand equity for management students! The organisation, management and administration of the Waari were the brain child of Haibatbaba Aarphalkar, a lieutenant of Maratha ruler Mahadji Scindia who designed with military precision the movement of the dindis. The management, precision and administration of the group is a lesson that none of the management schools will ever teach in their course. But, it's a grass root lesson worthy of any education. Dindis don't wait for anyone or any calamity. Rain, hail storm or VIP visit, they keep walking. So much so, a practical joke doing the rounds among scribes was that they were wary of sleeping in one of the tents pitched by waarkaris because if they are required to dismantle their tents at 3 in the morning they would do so and move on, leaving the person sleeping under the open sky. There have been incidences of old and infirm dying while walking. The group stops to arrange for the dead to be transported to its destination. And if the body remains unclaimed the waarkaris perform the cremation and move ahead. They never leave them unattended. Then there is Audumbar Mahadev Chatake who spent 14 years doing waari and believes if one dies that on this spiritual journey then he is the lucky one to receive the "Number 1 Death." According to him such persons must not have sinned in their last seven births. It's only the fortunate who get this sort of death, believes Chatake.
Fine tuning life Adjustment is evident at every step. To shield themselves from lashing rain waarkaris use colorful plastic sheets as it's cumbersome to hold umbrellas. Everybody makes "adjustments", even when it comes to using water. Since the pilgrims are on the move, water is a rare commodity. A scribe narrated how he was asked to share his glass of water after he had used it to wash his hands and was about to throw away the rest. At campsite, through satirical dramas like bharud, message like ills of smoking are brought forth. Dindi promotes the three-pronged philosophy of positive approach to health, environment and spiritual development. Business as usual When the waarkaris move, an entire village moves with them. There is a barber, grocers and others who walk ahead of the group and set up shop by the road side. Brisk selling takes place. Kabir Gaekwad (30) from Solapur sells basic eatables like peanuts and cucumber. Before the group reaches its destination he moves ahead and sets up shop on the ground. He buys supplies from the village or town that fall on his way; he keeps moving all along the route. "This way I earn my livelihood and also do my Waari," says the nondescript man who earns around Rs 3 to 4 thousands during the pilgrimage. Spontaneous hospitality There are people like the elderly Jain businessman Doshi who throw open their doors for the pilgrims. His mother used to go on Waari. "Twenty-five years ago, inspired by my mother's devotion, I started serving the pilgrims and continue to do so. Every year, when they pass by my house, I serve them with food, and allow them facilities like ablutions in my house." This impromptu hospitality was seen right through the road that waarkaris traversed. Quaint houses along the dusty rural roads had allowed the pilgrims to make use of basic facilities. Military like precision Each dindi is led by saffron-flag bearers. They are followed by women holding the holy plant Tulsi on heads. Following them is a man playing the Veena. He is followed by another set of instrumentalists playing Mridang and singing Bhajans (hymns). The rest in the group follow those ahead. Each dindi is supervised by a Chopdar. Individual Chopdar coordinate with the main Chopdar who is regarded as the supreme commander of the dindis. He enjoys immense authority. He carries a silver rod in his hand (akin to a rod of Jutscie). His influence is evident when one sees him in action. In a 100 acres field where lakhs of pilgrims assemble the Chopdar raises his rod just once and a pin-drop silence follows. Only the group with a grievance continues beating the drum. Thereafter, the Chopdar redresses the grievance of that particular group, and the entire assemblage moves on. It takes all sorts to make the world go round The sight of men and women bathing in the same pond, side by side and uninhibited was a staggering revelation. No lewd gestures were made and sexual harassment has never been reported. It is a tribute to the spiritual level of the waarkaris (pilgrims or devotees). Their thoughts are so pure that they see no evil, utter no evil and hear no evil. Undoubtedly, dindis comprise waarkaris with a single-minded dedication to reach Pandharpur. But there are others who join them on the way. They comprised the riff-raffs, too who cannot brushing past a woman or stealthily run away with a devotee's belongings. Though such incidents do not happen too often, they are not totally unknown. However, no serious criminal offence takes place and the regular waarkaris keep a watchful eye to avoid any untoward incident during the pilgrimage. When the group passes a town the lodges do brisk business; prostitution is known to take place at such times. Legend of Pandharpur As per the folklore a devotee named Pundalik lived in Pandharpur. Lord vithal once went to Pundalik's house to meet him. But Pundalik made Lord Vithal wait at his doorstep because he was attending to his beloved parents at the time. The Lord willingly stood outside and waited for Pundalik to finish serving his parents. The message is that Pundalik believed in Karama (deed) being greater than Bhakti (devotion) of the Lord whom he regarded as a friend. It's a belief that the Lord came to meet Pundalik at Pandarpur and stayed back. He resides there till date and all his devotees go to meet him at Pandharpur. The idol of the Lord inside the temple is depicted in the image of a shepherd clad in a loin cloth. Dash for Pandharpur When devotees approach Pandharpur, they make a dash for the temple. This is called Dhaava and even this is so well organised that no stampede has ever been reported. After worshipping the Lord at Pandharpur a reverse Waari starts but it's a smaller group of people who go back in the procession. Lord is their Captain Witnessing the energy of the pilgrims someone remarked that it's the faith that moves them. Even the city-bred among the waarkaris walk for miles before resting. In cities, they would not walk 500 meters without feeling tired. A young man from Mumbai was surprised that he had trekked with the pilgrims up to 8 km of Dive Ghat and descended 6 km down without a feeling to give up on the journey. The pilgrims clearly transcend to a higher plane. And it's an experience that even the ordinary people undergo.
Barrington de La Roche and Inesa Vaiciute from England specially came to India to see Waari. They were struck by the sheer magic of it. "This is the real India I wanted to see," exults Barrington who belongs to a French royal family, settled in England for 100 years. "It's absolutely fascinating," adds his friend Inesa. This was their first visit to the country and they couldn't believe their eyes when they saw the worshippers trekking barefoot with flags in hand and prayers on lips. They are filmmakers and were introduced to the idea by their 80-year old Indian friend Basant Chapekar who has lived in England for 63 years. Chapekar's late mother used to visit India every year for Waari. This year he decided to honour his mother by undertaking this spiritual journey. While walking with waarkaris, one undergoes a change and learns to adjust to any situation; it's tweaking life as you go along. The foreign couple is so taken in by Indian spirituality that they do not have much to complain. "It's only the toilets that we have some problem with," utters Inesa with a smile. As for the cultural shocks, "It happened when we arrived in Mumbai!" she replied. "We were so taken aback by the noise, the crowd and the chaos. Here (rural India), despite the crowd, it's so peaceful," utters Barrington who is filming the events at Waari and intends to make a documentary. When asked if they had understood anything about the philosophy of Waari they replied, "We are still analysing. Each day, there is someone who tells us something new about it. Each one comes up with his own interpretations." Sixty-four year old Barrington rues, had he been introduced to Indian philosophy and way of life earlier in his life, he would not have become a drug addict. "I am clean now but there was a (dark) phase I went through in my life." An event the foreign couple eagerly described was when the dindis arrived at a place called Jejuri. The dindis reached the Khandoba temple and performed a "Bhandara". It's a ritual where the waarkaris place the Dnyaneshwar Palkhi (palanquin) on the steps of the temple and all the devotees throw turmeric powder on it. A smoke of yellow hue rose in the sky covering the Palkhi. It was great visual for the camera to capture. Another event that made them speechless was the game of "Ringan". Devotees line up on either side of the road and two horses (one with a flag bearing rider) race across the stretch and then go back on the same route. This concept was designed as an entertainment to beat the monotony of tired devotees who walked non stop for 3-4 hours. Another form of amusement is "Fugdi" which the women play by joining hands and going round in circle. Such activities refresh and energise the devotees who carry on the journey with renewed vigour. No division of caste, religion or status At the campsite where Barrington and Inesa were staying, few paces away, sat seventy-five years old Jaitun Bi - bend with age but standing tall in spirits. Everybody was touching her feet. A Muslim, she became a Lord Krishna devotee at the age of five and ever since had been going on Waari. She was introduced to this by her guru Sadguru Hanuman Das. "Being a Muslim there was some opposition by my community. But I felt this magnetic attraction towards Krishna and threw myself wholeheartedly into His service," says the woman who faced a boycott by her community on account of her actions. Pressures were put on her to marry but she wowed herself to Brahmacharya (celibacy). Waari knows no divisions of religion or caste says Jaitun Bi, who has in her group, several Muslim followers like Lalaji Abdul Sheikh (65) who does Kirtans and Bhajans (hymns). Jaitun Bi's brother Abbas Bhai too has joined her. Jaitun Bi, who is fondly called "mataji", belongs to Malegaon in Baramati district. She first started Waari in 1942 when India was under the British rule. And to honour the Indian Nationalists she began her first Waari by placing a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi in her dindi. In 1947 her dindi was named after her and now it's called Jaitun Bi Dindi. As Jaitun Bi holds court, fresh smell of chula made rotis waft through the air. There are several people sitting down to dinner of simple besan sabji and chapatti. Barrington and Inesa are invited to join the gastronomic treat, and they gladly accept it. Inesa, a Lithuanian, looks every inch an Indian in a shalwar-kameez , plated hair and a bindi on her forehead. She said," I am living with these women and they treat me like a doll - someone is plating my hair and gives me tips on various topics. Over here, there is so much care and love." There are stories galore when one goes on Waari. One Ganpat Maharaj Jagtap, who lost his eye sight at a young age due to illness, started going for Waari as a young boy. He decided to write the Bhajans (hymns) in brail so that the blind too could join in the singing. Affinity towards all caste, creed and religion is evident when one walks in the Waari. Muslim devotees from North India used to come for Waari, earlier. As time passed it became increasingly difficult for them to join the Waari every year. Hence, they said that they were finding it very difficult to join Waari but their hearts were in it. Hence, a white flag was assigned to dindi No. 7 as a symbolic gesture of solidarity with and a mark of respect to their Muslim brethren. Though majority of the people walking in the Waari are poor, economic status is not important. There would be an affluent businessman walking alongside a poor farmer. Maharashtra's forest minister Babanrao Pachpute who goes for Waari every year too was walking, and it did not disturb the momentum of the group.
Why walk for God? When asked why they were walking, the waarkaris replied it just made them happy. Bhakti (devotion) just filled them with peace. A waarkari walks for the love of God. His focus is to reach Pandharpur, bathe in river Chandrabhaga, offer Puja to Dyaneshwar's paduka, buy Prasad (offering from God), go round the main temple that houses Vithal's deity and leave for his village, where he distributes the prasad among fellow villagers. After weeks of walking he does not get to see Lord Vithal's idol inside the temple because it is too crowded for everyone to reach the inner sanctum of the temple. Yet, he feels blessed to have undertaken the pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Waarkaris do not ask for anything from the Lord. Life now is easier for scribes Over the years it has become easier for journalists to cover waari. Recounts freelance journalist Suryakant Bhagwan Bhise, who has covered the event for 19 years, "Things were very difficult in those days. There was no place to rest, bathe, eat or sleep. I have spent a number of nights in paddy fields, sitting the whole time clutching my bag with my meagre belongings. As time passed, I developed good contacts and started arranging accommodations and meals for visiting journalists." Waarkaris set up camp anywhere. And so Bhise too had to follow. Another sore point was the communication systems. Over a decade ago Bhise found it very hard to send his stories to his paper. "My stories used to reach my paper days later. And they were published after three days of filing them. I never got to read them." For long distance phone call there were only trunk calls that one could make from rural Maharashtra. Then the STD phone facility made life easier. Gradually, with the advent of fax and internet, communications channel became so smooth that the stories began to be filed in real time. Over the years, media too started taking interest with more and more newspapers and TV channels sending their reporters for the coverage. It's not an easy job. The pilgrimage goes on for nearly three weeks and one can experience fatigue, get bruised and sore all over. When 25000 rotis were distributed in a day Bhise narrates an indent showing the spirit of Waari. Wherever the waarkaris pass his village, people touch their feet calling them "Maoli" (in the image of mother-father). It's a feeling they associate with Lord Vithal. And from each home, school children bring five rotis, some flour (besan) and peanuts to make chutney. They make a dish called Pithle (with besan) and distribute everything among waarkaris who do not accept any alms or food from anyone. But there are others in the group, who join the trek, and they accept it. With each home contributing food, in a day a mammoth 25000 rotis are distributed in a day. Armed with the spirit of Waari, India may never know food crisis. Lessons for corporates A noticeable feature on the walk with waarkaris the similar names of mobile tea stalls by the road side. All had 'Saagar" emblazoned on them. It emerged that once someone started a tea stall by that name and since then everybody adopted the same name. So, there was Saagar tea-stall galore; a lesson in brand equity for management students! The organisation, management and administration of the Waari were the brain child of Haibatbaba Aarphalkar, a lieutenant of Maratha ruler Mahadji Scindia who designed with military precision the movement of the dindis. The management, precision and administration of the group is a lesson that none of the management schools will ever teach in their course. But, it's a grass root lesson worthy of any education. Dindis don't wait for anyone or any calamity. Rain, hail storm or VIP visit, they keep walking. So much so, a practical joke doing the rounds among scribes was that they were wary of sleeping in one of the tents pitched by waarkaris because if they are required to dismantle their tents at 3 in the morning they would do so and move on, leaving the person sleeping under the open sky. There have been incidences of old and infirm dying while walking. The group stops to arrange for the dead to be transported to its destination. And if the body remains unclaimed the waarkaris perform the cremation and move ahead. They never leave them unattended. Then there is Audumbar Mahadev Chatake who spent 14 years doing waari and believes if one dies that on this spiritual journey then he is the lucky one to receive the "Number 1 Death." According to him such persons must not have sinned in their last seven births. It's only the fortunate who get this sort of death, believes Chatake.
Fine tuning life Adjustment is evident at every step. To shield themselves from lashing rain waarkaris use colorful plastic sheets as it's cumbersome to hold umbrellas. Everybody makes "adjustments", even when it comes to using water. Since the pilgrims are on the move, water is a rare commodity. A scribe narrated how he was asked to share his glass of water after he had used it to wash his hands and was about to throw away the rest. At campsite, through satirical dramas like bharud, message like ills of smoking are brought forth. Dindi promotes the three-pronged philosophy of positive approach to health, environment and spiritual development. Business as usual When the waarkaris move, an entire village moves with them. There is a barber, grocers and others who walk ahead of the group and set up shop by the road side. Brisk selling takes place. Kabir Gaekwad (30) from Solapur sells basic eatables like peanuts and cucumber. Before the group reaches its destination he moves ahead and sets up shop on the ground. He buys supplies from the village or town that fall on his way; he keeps moving all along the route. "This way I earn my livelihood and also do my Waari," says the nondescript man who earns around Rs 3 to 4 thousands during the pilgrimage. Spontaneous hospitality There are people like the elderly Jain businessman Doshi who throw open their doors for the pilgrims. His mother used to go on Waari. "Twenty-five years ago, inspired by my mother's devotion, I started serving the pilgrims and continue to do so. Every year, when they pass by my house, I serve them with food, and allow them facilities like ablutions in my house." This impromptu hospitality was seen right through the road that waarkaris traversed. Quaint houses along the dusty rural roads had allowed the pilgrims to make use of basic facilities. Military like precision Each dindi is led by saffron-flag bearers. They are followed by women holding the holy plant Tulsi on heads. Following them is a man playing the Veena. He is followed by another set of instrumentalists playing Mridang and singing Bhajans (hymns). The rest in the group follow those ahead. Each dindi is supervised by a Chopdar. Individual Chopdar coordinate with the main Chopdar who is regarded as the supreme commander of the dindis. He enjoys immense authority. He carries a silver rod in his hand (akin to a rod of Jutscie). His influence is evident when one sees him in action. In a 100 acres field where lakhs of pilgrims assemble the Chopdar raises his rod just once and a pin-drop silence follows. Only the group with a grievance continues beating the drum. Thereafter, the Chopdar redresses the grievance of that particular group, and the entire assemblage moves on. It takes all sorts to make the world go round The sight of men and women bathing in the same pond, side by side and uninhibited was a staggering revelation. No lewd gestures were made and sexual harassment has never been reported. It is a tribute to the spiritual level of the waarkaris (pilgrims or devotees). Their thoughts are so pure that they see no evil, utter no evil and hear no evil. Undoubtedly, dindis comprise waarkaris with a single-minded dedication to reach Pandharpur. But there are others who join them on the way. They comprised the riff-raffs, too who cannot brushing past a woman or stealthily run away with a devotee's belongings. Though such incidents do not happen too often, they are not totally unknown. However, no serious criminal offence takes place and the regular waarkaris keep a watchful eye to avoid any untoward incident during the pilgrimage. When the group passes a town the lodges do brisk business; prostitution is known to take place at such times. Legend of Pandharpur As per the folklore a devotee named Pundalik lived in Pandharpur. Lord vithal once went to Pundalik's house to meet him. But Pundalik made Lord Vithal wait at his doorstep because he was attending to his beloved parents at the time. The Lord willingly stood outside and waited for Pundalik to finish serving his parents. The message is that Pundalik believed in Karama (deed) being greater than Bhakti (devotion) of the Lord whom he regarded as a friend. It's a belief that the Lord came to meet Pundalik at Pandarpur and stayed back. He resides there till date and all his devotees go to meet him at Pandharpur. The idol of the Lord inside the temple is depicted in the image of a shepherd clad in a loin cloth. Dash for Pandharpur When devotees approach Pandharpur, they make a dash for the temple. This is called Dhaava and even this is so well organised that no stampede has ever been reported. After worshipping the Lord at Pandharpur a reverse Waari starts but it's a smaller group of people who go back in the procession. Lord is their Captain Witnessing the energy of the pilgrims someone remarked that it's the faith that moves them. Even the city-bred among the waarkaris walk for miles before resting. In cities, they would not walk 500 meters without feeling tired. A young man from Mumbai was surprised that he had trekked with the pilgrims up to 8 km of Dive Ghat and descended 6 km down without a feeling to give up on the journey. The pilgrims clearly transcend to a higher plane. And it's an experience that even the ordinary people undergo.
Columnists - Barkha Dutt Column
Campus Cristi
A couple of mon-ths back I was moderating a TV discussion between writer Amitav Ghosh, and a perky, outspoken bunch of university students. One of them popped up with the invariable, but clichéd question: Did Ghosh believe there was a ‘Stephanian school of literature’, given how many famous authors seem to walk off its shining green lawns?
Amitav and I, both from ‘College’ (if you want to spot a St Stephen’s alumnus, that’s the surefire sign — there’s no article or pronoun when we talk of our campus years; it’s just ‘college’ — cringed slightly at the presumptuous tag. But then he went on to say, what many others — bureaucrats, businessmen, journalists and artistes — have said before.
“College,” he said, was where he met the most extraordinarily bright and, perhaps, the nicest people he has ever known and its diversity and ideas shaped him in an indelible way. This, from someone who has also studied at Oxford, taught at Harvard and lived in New York.
I knew exactly what he meant in the implicit bonding that only a shared experience can create. But, if usually, meeting someone from College evokes a quiet pride, this time I felt a mild panic and deep sadness. Was this going to be the last time someone would describe those deliciously textured and passionate years in a way that was immediately identifiable across generations? Was the St Stephen’s ethos — built assiduously over 127 years — now terminally ill? Would College ever be the same again? The Church, you see, is killing our alma mater. The monstrous culture of quotas is all set to swallow its soul.
First, the (ominous sounding) Supreme Council that controls St Stephen’s, increased the reserved seats for Christian students from 40 per cent to 50 per cent.
Then, finding that many of these blocked seats went empty over the years because of a lack of qualified candidates among minority students, it drastically pulled down the cut-off marks needed for admission to 60 per cent. So, while, every other student passing out of high school needs anywhere in the range of an 85-90 per cent score in the board exams to even eye three years at St Stephen’s, being Christian means you can walk in with a much lower grade.
These were decisions that ripped through the heart of college, pushing its faculty, students and alumni onto different sides of ugly battlelines. Soon, the contentious principal who began the process had to exit, but the college was left headless and steeped in petty politics and volatile internal divisions. It’s so ironic for an institution that was always accused of being elitist because it did not even participate in the Delhi University students’ elections, preferring instead to create its own student body.
Those days, our defence used to be that we didn’t care to be soiled by the muck and dirt of campus politics. Who would have thought then that the same institution would end up being mired in controversy? Two ministers in the present union cabinet — India’s foreign secretary and the head of the country’s Planning Commission — are all Stephanians. How ironic then, that at this point, the College doesn’t even have a principal — it has been orphaned by an appalling lack of leadership.
But unmindful of the storm raging all around it — a storm that could bring more than the building down — the powerful mafia of Bishops that control St Stephen’s (supported by others within the college) are going ahead with another outrage.
Now they want to reserve faculty seats for Christian teachers. The administrative body that controls the college has quietly instructed heads of department to fill vacant posts with Christian candidates.
Just recently, a former gold medalist student, who wanted to come back and teach at College, was rejected for the job in favour of a Christian alternative. Teachers have protested, argued, dashed off angry letters — even gone on TV to make their point — but the stern men in the purple robes have the ruthlessness of the old Crusaders. They really couldn’t give a toss.
And why should they? They have an inspiring role model in the Human Resource Development Minister who just this month ordered India’s IITs to reserve teachers’ seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs. Not one of the IIT directors was consulted before the dictatorial memo was circulated asking that the faculty quotas be implemented with ‘immediate effect’. The IIT teachers have attempted a few, feeble street protests, but they all know the die has been cast and there is no looking back now. When Brand IIT can be mauled beyond recognition by subversive politics, why would anyone care about a small island of excellence called St Stephen’s College?
For very long now those who oppose reservations have been branded as ‘casteist’ and ‘elitist’ by the quota-pushers. But actually, the debate engulfing my old college has precious little to do with caste, class or egalitarianism. In the name of religion and Christianity, St Stephen’s is being pummelled by bigots and autocrats into the very opposite of its essence.
Yes, St Stephen’s is a ‘Christian’ college. But back in the day, what that used to mean was that the choir and the cross, and the little chapel at the back would be the setting for an ensemble cast of hundreds of people from different faiths, backgrounds and castes, to make a home for three years; a home that we never wanted to leave. And its Latin motto — ad dei gloriam — ‘For the greater glory of God’ — always made perfect sense. It was hopeful, inspirational and filled with the grand possibilities of Life.
Now, we can just sit back and watch another institute that India was proud of being destroyed in the name of God. And we can’t even turn to faith and ask that they be forgiven, for “they know not what they do”. The tragedy is they know exactly what they are doing. And you and I can do nothing to change it.
(Barkha Dutt is the Group Editor, English News, NDTV)
A couple of mon-ths back I was moderating a TV discussion between writer Amitav Ghosh, and a perky, outspoken bunch of university students. One of them popped up with the invariable, but clichéd question: Did Ghosh believe there was a ‘Stephanian school of literature’, given how many famous authors seem to walk off its shining green lawns?
Amitav and I, both from ‘College’ (if you want to spot a St Stephen’s alumnus, that’s the surefire sign — there’s no article or pronoun when we talk of our campus years; it’s just ‘college’ — cringed slightly at the presumptuous tag. But then he went on to say, what many others — bureaucrats, businessmen, journalists and artistes — have said before.
“College,” he said, was where he met the most extraordinarily bright and, perhaps, the nicest people he has ever known and its diversity and ideas shaped him in an indelible way. This, from someone who has also studied at Oxford, taught at Harvard and lived in New York.
I knew exactly what he meant in the implicit bonding that only a shared experience can create. But, if usually, meeting someone from College evokes a quiet pride, this time I felt a mild panic and deep sadness. Was this going to be the last time someone would describe those deliciously textured and passionate years in a way that was immediately identifiable across generations? Was the St Stephen’s ethos — built assiduously over 127 years — now terminally ill? Would College ever be the same again? The Church, you see, is killing our alma mater. The monstrous culture of quotas is all set to swallow its soul.
First, the (ominous sounding) Supreme Council that controls St Stephen’s, increased the reserved seats for Christian students from 40 per cent to 50 per cent.
Then, finding that many of these blocked seats went empty over the years because of a lack of qualified candidates among minority students, it drastically pulled down the cut-off marks needed for admission to 60 per cent. So, while, every other student passing out of high school needs anywhere in the range of an 85-90 per cent score in the board exams to even eye three years at St Stephen’s, being Christian means you can walk in with a much lower grade.
These were decisions that ripped through the heart of college, pushing its faculty, students and alumni onto different sides of ugly battlelines. Soon, the contentious principal who began the process had to exit, but the college was left headless and steeped in petty politics and volatile internal divisions. It’s so ironic for an institution that was always accused of being elitist because it did not even participate in the Delhi University students’ elections, preferring instead to create its own student body.
Those days, our defence used to be that we didn’t care to be soiled by the muck and dirt of campus politics. Who would have thought then that the same institution would end up being mired in controversy? Two ministers in the present union cabinet — India’s foreign secretary and the head of the country’s Planning Commission — are all Stephanians. How ironic then, that at this point, the College doesn’t even have a principal — it has been orphaned by an appalling lack of leadership.
But unmindful of the storm raging all around it — a storm that could bring more than the building down — the powerful mafia of Bishops that control St Stephen’s (supported by others within the college) are going ahead with another outrage.
Now they want to reserve faculty seats for Christian teachers. The administrative body that controls the college has quietly instructed heads of department to fill vacant posts with Christian candidates.
Just recently, a former gold medalist student, who wanted to come back and teach at College, was rejected for the job in favour of a Christian alternative. Teachers have protested, argued, dashed off angry letters — even gone on TV to make their point — but the stern men in the purple robes have the ruthlessness of the old Crusaders. They really couldn’t give a toss.
And why should they? They have an inspiring role model in the Human Resource Development Minister who just this month ordered India’s IITs to reserve teachers’ seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs. Not one of the IIT directors was consulted before the dictatorial memo was circulated asking that the faculty quotas be implemented with ‘immediate effect’. The IIT teachers have attempted a few, feeble street protests, but they all know the die has been cast and there is no looking back now. When Brand IIT can be mauled beyond recognition by subversive politics, why would anyone care about a small island of excellence called St Stephen’s College?
For very long now those who oppose reservations have been branded as ‘casteist’ and ‘elitist’ by the quota-pushers. But actually, the debate engulfing my old college has precious little to do with caste, class or egalitarianism. In the name of religion and Christianity, St Stephen’s is being pummelled by bigots and autocrats into the very opposite of its essence.
Yes, St Stephen’s is a ‘Christian’ college. But back in the day, what that used to mean was that the choir and the cross, and the little chapel at the back would be the setting for an ensemble cast of hundreds of people from different faiths, backgrounds and castes, to make a home for three years; a home that we never wanted to leave. And its Latin motto — ad dei gloriam — ‘For the greater glory of God’ — always made perfect sense. It was hopeful, inspirational and filled with the grand possibilities of Life.
Now, we can just sit back and watch another institute that India was proud of being destroyed in the name of God. And we can’t even turn to faith and ask that they be forgiven, for “they know not what they do”. The tragedy is they know exactly what they are doing. And you and I can do nothing to change it.
(Barkha Dutt is the Group Editor, English News, NDTV)
Entertainment - Adlabs to make India's largest multiplex
MUMBAI: After contesting a strong bid against various domestic and international multiplex chains, Adlabs Cinemas has finally stitched a deal with Phoenix Mills to build the largest multiplex cinema in India.
According to the deal, the 140,000 sq. ft. Adlabs multiplex, floating up at Mumbai's Phoenix Market City complex in Kurla, will have 15 screens with an overall seating capacity of approximately 4000.
Apart from the construction of regular screens that will showcase the latest releases, Adlabs will also erect the "Adlabs megaplex", which will screen "popular" sports events and live concerts.
Additionally, the megaplex, the interiors of which are being designed by international designers and architects, will house two luxury screens with adjoining 'Ebony Lounges', to house live band performances round the year.
Adlabs Cinemas COO Tushar Dhingra said, "Adlabs' commitment has always been to set precedents for new entertainment concepts in the country. We believe that the new Adlabs megaplex will set world benchmarks in terms of design and ambience, technology and overall consumer viewing experience."
The Rs 11 billion mixed-use complex, spread over 4.5 million sq. ft, will house hypermarket, departmental stores, food courts, entertainment zones and around 400 branded stores.
Phoenix Market City management COO Tony Ward said, "The Kurla project is planned to become a complete consumer destination and a must-see for Mumbai populace and tourists. This is going to be a world-class destination with retail spaces, offices, hotel and multiplex. It will also include a uniquely designed leisure area for people, something which will be entirely new for the city. Because of its central location, the complex will be able to cater to Mumbai's western, central and the population from the downtown."
Also, Market City Management is developing large Market City complexes ranging from 2 to 4 million sq. ft. in 20 other cities in India, that includes metros like Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, and tier-2 and tier-3 cities like Indore, Raipur and Udaipur.
Adlabs Cinemas currently has 170 screens in India, 251 screens in the US and 51 screens in Malaysia.
According to the deal, the 140,000 sq. ft. Adlabs multiplex, floating up at Mumbai's Phoenix Market City complex in Kurla, will have 15 screens with an overall seating capacity of approximately 4000.
Apart from the construction of regular screens that will showcase the latest releases, Adlabs will also erect the "Adlabs megaplex", which will screen "popular" sports events and live concerts.
Additionally, the megaplex, the interiors of which are being designed by international designers and architects, will house two luxury screens with adjoining 'Ebony Lounges', to house live band performances round the year.
Adlabs Cinemas COO Tushar Dhingra said, "Adlabs' commitment has always been to set precedents for new entertainment concepts in the country. We believe that the new Adlabs megaplex will set world benchmarks in terms of design and ambience, technology and overall consumer viewing experience."
The Rs 11 billion mixed-use complex, spread over 4.5 million sq. ft, will house hypermarket, departmental stores, food courts, entertainment zones and around 400 branded stores.
Phoenix Market City management COO Tony Ward said, "The Kurla project is planned to become a complete consumer destination and a must-see for Mumbai populace and tourists. This is going to be a world-class destination with retail spaces, offices, hotel and multiplex. It will also include a uniquely designed leisure area for people, something which will be entirely new for the city. Because of its central location, the complex will be able to cater to Mumbai's western, central and the population from the downtown."
Also, Market City Management is developing large Market City complexes ranging from 2 to 4 million sq. ft. in 20 other cities in India, that includes metros like Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, and tier-2 and tier-3 cities like Indore, Raipur and Udaipur.
Adlabs Cinemas currently has 170 screens in India, 251 screens in the US and 51 screens in Malaysia.
Entertainment - It takes an Ekta to ruin a mahabharata
I suppose I should be eternally grateful that I missed the first episode of Ekta Kapoor’s Mahabharata on 9X. Apparently, she began with Draupadi’s cheerharan and from what I’ve heard, Anita Whats-her-name (who plays Draupadi) shrieked and screeched so much, viewers had to rush out to buy ear plugs or face the prospect of temporary deafness. I was saved this alarming fate, but I couldn’t escape the seasickness. Because I did see the next few episodes, where, in true Ekta Kapoor style, the camera went zoom-zoom-zoom, in and out of character’s faces; zoom-zoom-zoom sideways-and-up-down (they should really try camera movements in S and Z shapes too).
After the cheerharan episode, we went back in time to the beginning of the story and were introduced to Shantanu and Ganga. Well, Ganga is played by the First Bahu of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki and Shantanu is played by the actor who played the First Bahu’s First Husband. I tried really really hard but just couldn’t see Sakshi Tanwar as the celestial Ganga or Kiran Karmakar as Shantanu, the great king of Hastinapur. They remained plain old Parvati and Om, never mind the fancy costumes. And I almost expected some Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki twist-in-the-plot to surface in Kahaani Mahaabhaarat Kii (have I got all the extra letters right?).
Because here’s the truth: Ekta’s Mahabharata is just like her saas-bahu serials. She can shoot in Ladakh or Alaska or Timbuctoo, she can get Manish Malhotra to do the costumes (or Armani or whoever), but what can she do about her own sensibility? How can she take Ekta Kapoor out of her Kahaani Mahaabhaarata Kii? (Even the title wasn’t left alone!)
I’m not a big fan of the calendar art style in which our epics are usually presented (like NDTV Imagine’s Ramayana); but when confronted with the Ekta Kapoor school of story-telling, give me the Sagars any day. At least their Ramayana has the unsophisticated but powerful charm of local Ramleelas. All they’re doing is narrating — with affection and reverence — the familiar story of a well-loved God.
The Mahabharata is not a religious epic in the way the Ramayana is (despite the presence of Krishna). But it is, unarguably, the greatest story ever told. And since it was not written by Ekta Kapoor’s scriptwriters in Bombay, it belongs to all of us. Which is why seeing this magnificent epic reduced to saas-bahu-type crassness is enough to make one feel quite ill (apart from feeling seasick anyway).
However, television has no truck with sensibility or sensitivity. I have no idea whether Ekta Kapoor’s Mahabharata will be a success or not (read will it get great ratings or not). What I do know is this: the Mahabharata is such an awesome story that it takes a special kind of genius to ruin it. And — going by the first few episodes — this particular version has succeeded in doing so.
I do hope the Star Plus version (whenever it finally makes an appearance) will be better. (Hell, anything, would probably be better).
And finally. Zee has started its latest edition of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. The highlight is that Himesh Reshammiya is back, minus the cap and stubble. So the mystery is solved: Himesh is not bald, the removal of the cap reveals a healthy mop of hair. And host Aditya Narain is back too, with a Mohawk on his head and sneakers on his feet.
Apart from Himesh, the other mentors are Aadesh Srivastava, Pritam and Shankar Mahadevan. The gharanas have just been chosen, and I’m bracing myself for a six/seven month-long haul, featuring tears, fights, controversies, the works. The only good thing, as I’ve always maintained, is the singing (usually first rate, and this applies to the other music contests too).
In fact, if one could cut out all the rona-dhona and melodrama and just watch these shows for the songs, it would be perfect.
After the cheerharan episode, we went back in time to the beginning of the story and were introduced to Shantanu and Ganga. Well, Ganga is played by the First Bahu of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki and Shantanu is played by the actor who played the First Bahu’s First Husband. I tried really really hard but just couldn’t see Sakshi Tanwar as the celestial Ganga or Kiran Karmakar as Shantanu, the great king of Hastinapur. They remained plain old Parvati and Om, never mind the fancy costumes. And I almost expected some Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki twist-in-the-plot to surface in Kahaani Mahaabhaarat Kii (have I got all the extra letters right?).
Because here’s the truth: Ekta’s Mahabharata is just like her saas-bahu serials. She can shoot in Ladakh or Alaska or Timbuctoo, she can get Manish Malhotra to do the costumes (or Armani or whoever), but what can she do about her own sensibility? How can she take Ekta Kapoor out of her Kahaani Mahaabhaarata Kii? (Even the title wasn’t left alone!)
I’m not a big fan of the calendar art style in which our epics are usually presented (like NDTV Imagine’s Ramayana); but when confronted with the Ekta Kapoor school of story-telling, give me the Sagars any day. At least their Ramayana has the unsophisticated but powerful charm of local Ramleelas. All they’re doing is narrating — with affection and reverence — the familiar story of a well-loved God.
The Mahabharata is not a religious epic in the way the Ramayana is (despite the presence of Krishna). But it is, unarguably, the greatest story ever told. And since it was not written by Ekta Kapoor’s scriptwriters in Bombay, it belongs to all of us. Which is why seeing this magnificent epic reduced to saas-bahu-type crassness is enough to make one feel quite ill (apart from feeling seasick anyway).
However, television has no truck with sensibility or sensitivity. I have no idea whether Ekta Kapoor’s Mahabharata will be a success or not (read will it get great ratings or not). What I do know is this: the Mahabharata is such an awesome story that it takes a special kind of genius to ruin it. And — going by the first few episodes — this particular version has succeeded in doing so.
I do hope the Star Plus version (whenever it finally makes an appearance) will be better. (Hell, anything, would probably be better).
And finally. Zee has started its latest edition of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. The highlight is that Himesh Reshammiya is back, minus the cap and stubble. So the mystery is solved: Himesh is not bald, the removal of the cap reveals a healthy mop of hair. And host Aditya Narain is back too, with a Mohawk on his head and sneakers on his feet.
Apart from Himesh, the other mentors are Aadesh Srivastava, Pritam and Shankar Mahadevan. The gharanas have just been chosen, and I’m bracing myself for a six/seven month-long haul, featuring tears, fights, controversies, the works. The only good thing, as I’ve always maintained, is the singing (usually first rate, and this applies to the other music contests too).
In fact, if one could cut out all the rona-dhona and melodrama and just watch these shows for the songs, it would be perfect.
Jul 11, 2008
Tech - Circuit 60 times faster than broadband
Scientists have developed, what they claim is a small scratch on a piece of glass, which will make the Internet nearly 60 times faster and give users unlimited, error-free access anywhere in the world.
“This is a critical building block and a fundamental advance on what is already out there. We are talking about networks that are potentially up to 100 times faster without costing the consumer any more. “The scratched glass we have developed is actually a photonic integrated circuit. This circuit uses the ‘scratch’ as a guide or a switching path for information—kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another—except this switch takes only one picosecond to change tracks.
“This means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times. We are talking about photonic technology that has terabit per second capacity,” lead researcher Ben Eggleton at the University of Sydney said. Though the initial demonstration has shown that it is possible to achieve speeds 60 times faster than many current networks, with further development, the process is likely to produce even faster results, according to the researchers.
“Currently we use electronics for our switching and that has been OK but as we move toward a more tech-savvy future there’s demand for instant web gratification. Photonic technology delivers what’s needed and, importantly, what is wanted,” he said The University of Sydney has developed the scratch in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark and financial support from the Australian Research Council
Business - Oversupply/rentals to kill malls
Eight years ago, mall developers couldn’t get enough of Gurgaon. The lure of big bucks in the booming retail sector was hard to resist and herd mentality ensured that malls mushroomed all over the place.But sustaining them proved to be a different ballgame altogether and now, many of these malls have become defunct or been converted into commercial spaces. The story isn’t exclusive to Gurgaon. Mall developers in other metros and tier-I cities are set to meet the same fate, say retailers. If retailers who conduct business in these malls are pessimistic, the situation is clearly grim. Though no official data exist on the number of malls being developed, industry reports peg the number of malls coming up in India in the next three years at 350. Of these, about 200 may reach completion. Govind Shrikhande, chief executive of retail chain Shoppers Stop, doesn’t think even 80-100 of these malls would survive. “There is only so much that a specific catchment area can absorb successfully,” he says. Srinath Sridharan, the vice-president and head of strategic alliances at Wadhawan Holdings, which owns the Spinach, S-mart and Sabka Bazaar retail chains, presages far darker times. “You have to be optimistic to say only half of the malls becoming defunct. I feel 80% of them will not even see the light of day. Retailers today cannot afford the high rentals being demanded. It’s difficult to say if rentals are a part of sales or the other way round,” he says. Saturation in some areas and high rentals are the big negatives. Sandeep Runwal, managing director of Runwal Group, which operates R Mall in Mumbai, blames high property prices and rising construction costs for the steep rentals. Another gripe retailers have is that most mall developers only focus on big projects. They often don’t get the concept of retail right or work on the right designs or product mix. “For example, Shoppers Stop with HyperCity is a good combo but it won’t work to have a Big Bazaar at the same place because that caters to a lower segment of consumers,” a retailer, who did not wish to be named, points out. Too many of them leads to implosion. Amber Maheshwari, director of Mumbai-based real estate consultant DTZ, said one successful mall brings 6-7 more to its area. “This is a disaster in itself. Then, there aren’t enough retailers to fill the malls, especially with the high rentals around.” Standing out in the crowd becomes critical, thus. To do that, developers have to make their malls unique and find a good anchor retailer, says Nimish Shah, vice president of retail at Spencer’s, the supermarket chain owned by the RPG group. “Right now, we are witnessing an oversupply of vanilla malls,” he says. Developers, however, remain unfazed. Runwal agrees many malls will shut down unless they get their business model right, but asserts that the potential for such properties remains huge. “This is just the beginning. We are all learning from our mistakes, improvising and innovating. It is a high-risk business but everyone still wants a piece of it,” he said. Sanjay Prabhu, general manager of Inorbit Mall in Mumbai, concurs getting the business model right is an imperative. “Many developers are already facing difficulties getting retailers on board. They have all jumped in to make hay but are not really focusing on what the retailer wants,” Prabhu said. So what happens to those superfluous malls when the Doomsday prediction comes true? The refrain among retailers is “we don’t know”. Will they recover their investments? No one’s sure. Some failed projects may metamorphose into commercial spaces, but that’s easier said than done. Retailers also have turned cautious. Those who were on a major expansion spree to gain large footprints have slowed down. They are picking their locations and malls with care, waiting to watch how the market evolves. Developers would find it tough to sell space and operate malls for more than a year unless they bring in retail consultants, designers and managers to build the right business model, say experts.
Business - Jet Airways to fly to Dubai
New Delhi: The country’s largest private carrier Jet Airways India Ltd has been granted bilateral rights to fly to Dubai. With a huge Indian working population, Dubai is the largest market in West Asia, with 2.5 million passengers per year from India. At present, Jet Airways flies to Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. With this new bilateral agreement, Jet Airways will fly daily services from Dubai to Mumbai and Delhi, with a seat capacity of 1,582 to each destination. Jet’s wholly owned subsidiary JetLite has secured rights to operate daily services on the Hyderabad-Dubai and Nagpur-Dubai routes with 1,050 seats each. As per the regulation, JetLite should start operations to Dubai within this calendar year. Deccan Aviation Ltd has not secured rights to operate in this sector, though it had sought permission. Jet, including JetLite, has a combined fleet strength of 109 aircraft operating more than 526 flights a day, connecting 64 destinations.
Columnists - Vir Sanghvi
Super Hero - Succcess Formula
Superheroes are back. Now that Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr in the title role, has been such a, well, superhit, Hollywood is ready to film nearly every comic book ever written. The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to Batman Begins, is expected next week. A new version of The Hulk, with Edward Norton in the Bruce Banner role, has eased memories of Ang Lee’s terrible 2003 adaptation which wasted Eric Bana (he played Banner). Alan Moore’s The Watchmen (a graphic novel rather than a comic book, for those who believe in these distinctions) has been shot and will be released next year.
Also at the planning stage are a fourth Spiderman movie (without Tobey Maguire, possibly), a second Iron Man, Captain America, the Avengers (as in the Marvel comic not the British TV show), a new Superman, Ant Man, more Batman sequels and Thor. Wonder Woman is struggling to get a movie deal; The Flash, who never made it past TV, may get a picture of his own and the Hellboy series is firmly established.
The great thing about the superhero movie boom is that finally, directors are trying to capture the spirit of the comic books. The Watchmen movie treats the original comic panels as a storyboard and so, will reproduce Moore’s dark view of the superhero world almost exactly. Sin City and 300 (to say nothing of Road To Perdition) have shown us that because comics are a visual medium, film-makers are best off adapting them by simply following the pictures.
On the other hand, comics do not allow for the heart-stopping special effects that the movies are capable of. Superman Returns stayed close to the ethos of Richard Donner’s 1977 Superman movie but better special effects allowed it to manipulate audiences more cleverly than Donner could in those days. Donner’s movie was sold with the slogan, “You’ll believe a man can fly.” The new Superman did more than just fly and, in the 3-D version, seemed all too real.
Moreover, whenever film-makers have had the opportunity to go ‘adult’ with comic books heroes, most have excelled themselves. Batman, for instance, is capable of being interpreted at many different levels. In the 1960s TV show, the tone was campy and silly. When Tim Burton got his hands on the material, he looked for darkness. But the studios did not let Burton approximate the tone of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight comic book, a 1986 re-imagining of the Batman legend. Now, Nolan has been allowed to create the darkest Batman yet and his Joker is not Jack Nicholson’s comedian but Heath Ledger’s psychopath.
Much the same is true of Superman. The 1950s TV series with George Reeves (himself the subject of a recent movie, Hollywoodland) called him a fighter for “truth, justice and the American way”. The Donner movie threw out the American patriotism and made him a God-like alien who had compassion for earthlings. When Richard Lester took over the franchise, he went for laughs and lowered the tone. By the time Brian Singer got involved, there were three different interpretations. The Lois and Clark TV show was a straightforward love story-cum-action adventure; The Adventures of Superboy was a kid’s TV show; and the Smallville TV series was straight out of TheX Files. For his Superman Returns in 2006, Singer could have gone with any of these versions of the Superman legend. He chose the earlier Donner interpretation with its emphasis on the essential dignity of the material.
The X-Men, another successful film version of a Marvel staple, have had three movies devoted to them and have grossed over a billion dollars. Though they are mutants rather than superheroes, they wear costumes and fit broadly within the genre. Their movies have explored such issues as society’s attitude to people who are different, suggesting parallels with racism and xenophobia. Many of the same themes have been effectively recycled in TV’s Heroes which is such an X-Men rip-off that I often wonder why Marvel does not sue for theft of intellectual property.
How well a superhero movie does seems to be a reflection on how successful the director is in introducing non-superhero themes. It’s easy to show Superman flying through the air, simple to show Spiderman straddling tall buildings with his webs and not hard to build a better Batmobile. But it’s hardly ever enough. The Batman series, for instance, collapsed after Tim Burton stopped directing the movies and such directors as Joel Schumacher went for simple comic book adventures. Batman and Robin not only wasted George Clooney (a very good Batman, better certainly than Michael Keaton, Burton’s Batman) but effectively killed off the franchise by treating viewers as children.
By the time Christopher Nolan revived the series, we had seen the success of Spiderman and X-Men. In both films, the stunts and superpowers were incidental. It was the plots and the adult themes that triumphed. Spiderman took off from Stan Lee’s original conceit of a nerdy loser who gets superpowers but still finds no happiness. X-Men stuck to the lofty themes of society and outsiders.
It can be no accident that Nolan’s BatmanBegins was less about the Caped Crusader’s adventures in the Batcave and more about Bruce Wayne’s attempts to reclaim the legacy of his murdered father. Studios have learnt that children will watch anything. But for a superhero movie to earn back its investment, it needs to appeal to adults as well. And adults want grown-up stories and serious themes.
Of course you could argue that any film about a man who wears his underwear outside his trousers—as most superheroes do—can never be truly serious. And you’d be right. The charm of superhero movies is that they take the adventure stories and fantasies of our childhood and update them so that we can see the characters we grew up with facing the kind of adult problems that trouble us in our daily lives.
So yes, nobody making a Superman movie will make a work of art to rival Citizen Kane or Pather Panchali. But a good director can turn the stuff of childhood dreams into adult entertainment in a way that engages the brain even as the heart soars at the thrills.
Superheroes are back. Now that Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr in the title role, has been such a, well, superhit, Hollywood is ready to film nearly every comic book ever written. The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to Batman Begins, is expected next week. A new version of The Hulk, with Edward Norton in the Bruce Banner role, has eased memories of Ang Lee’s terrible 2003 adaptation which wasted Eric Bana (he played Banner). Alan Moore’s The Watchmen (a graphic novel rather than a comic book, for those who believe in these distinctions) has been shot and will be released next year.
Also at the planning stage are a fourth Spiderman movie (without Tobey Maguire, possibly), a second Iron Man, Captain America, the Avengers (as in the Marvel comic not the British TV show), a new Superman, Ant Man, more Batman sequels and Thor. Wonder Woman is struggling to get a movie deal; The Flash, who never made it past TV, may get a picture of his own and the Hellboy series is firmly established.
The great thing about the superhero movie boom is that finally, directors are trying to capture the spirit of the comic books. The Watchmen movie treats the original comic panels as a storyboard and so, will reproduce Moore’s dark view of the superhero world almost exactly. Sin City and 300 (to say nothing of Road To Perdition) have shown us that because comics are a visual medium, film-makers are best off adapting them by simply following the pictures.
On the other hand, comics do not allow for the heart-stopping special effects that the movies are capable of. Superman Returns stayed close to the ethos of Richard Donner’s 1977 Superman movie but better special effects allowed it to manipulate audiences more cleverly than Donner could in those days. Donner’s movie was sold with the slogan, “You’ll believe a man can fly.” The new Superman did more than just fly and, in the 3-D version, seemed all too real.
Moreover, whenever film-makers have had the opportunity to go ‘adult’ with comic books heroes, most have excelled themselves. Batman, for instance, is capable of being interpreted at many different levels. In the 1960s TV show, the tone was campy and silly. When Tim Burton got his hands on the material, he looked for darkness. But the studios did not let Burton approximate the tone of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight comic book, a 1986 re-imagining of the Batman legend. Now, Nolan has been allowed to create the darkest Batman yet and his Joker is not Jack Nicholson’s comedian but Heath Ledger’s psychopath.
Much the same is true of Superman. The 1950s TV series with George Reeves (himself the subject of a recent movie, Hollywoodland) called him a fighter for “truth, justice and the American way”. The Donner movie threw out the American patriotism and made him a God-like alien who had compassion for earthlings. When Richard Lester took over the franchise, he went for laughs and lowered the tone. By the time Brian Singer got involved, there were three different interpretations. The Lois and Clark TV show was a straightforward love story-cum-action adventure; The Adventures of Superboy was a kid’s TV show; and the Smallville TV series was straight out of TheX Files. For his Superman Returns in 2006, Singer could have gone with any of these versions of the Superman legend. He chose the earlier Donner interpretation with its emphasis on the essential dignity of the material.
The X-Men, another successful film version of a Marvel staple, have had three movies devoted to them and have grossed over a billion dollars. Though they are mutants rather than superheroes, they wear costumes and fit broadly within the genre. Their movies have explored such issues as society’s attitude to people who are different, suggesting parallels with racism and xenophobia. Many of the same themes have been effectively recycled in TV’s Heroes which is such an X-Men rip-off that I often wonder why Marvel does not sue for theft of intellectual property.
How well a superhero movie does seems to be a reflection on how successful the director is in introducing non-superhero themes. It’s easy to show Superman flying through the air, simple to show Spiderman straddling tall buildings with his webs and not hard to build a better Batmobile. But it’s hardly ever enough. The Batman series, for instance, collapsed after Tim Burton stopped directing the movies and such directors as Joel Schumacher went for simple comic book adventures. Batman and Robin not only wasted George Clooney (a very good Batman, better certainly than Michael Keaton, Burton’s Batman) but effectively killed off the franchise by treating viewers as children.
By the time Christopher Nolan revived the series, we had seen the success of Spiderman and X-Men. In both films, the stunts and superpowers were incidental. It was the plots and the adult themes that triumphed. Spiderman took off from Stan Lee’s original conceit of a nerdy loser who gets superpowers but still finds no happiness. X-Men stuck to the lofty themes of society and outsiders.
It can be no accident that Nolan’s BatmanBegins was less about the Caped Crusader’s adventures in the Batcave and more about Bruce Wayne’s attempts to reclaim the legacy of his murdered father. Studios have learnt that children will watch anything. But for a superhero movie to earn back its investment, it needs to appeal to adults as well. And adults want grown-up stories and serious themes.
Of course you could argue that any film about a man who wears his underwear outside his trousers—as most superheroes do—can never be truly serious. And you’d be right. The charm of superhero movies is that they take the adventure stories and fantasies of our childhood and update them so that we can see the characters we grew up with facing the kind of adult problems that trouble us in our daily lives.
So yes, nobody making a Superman movie will make a work of art to rival Citizen Kane or Pather Panchali. But a good director can turn the stuff of childhood dreams into adult entertainment in a way that engages the brain even as the heart soars at the thrills.
Entertainment - Magicians get organised
NEW DELHI: Magicians are getting organised, with businesses calling on their services for product promos, launches, brand shows, entertainment or mere motivation. University of Hogwarts is not alone. Most Indian magicians are now floating their companies, hosting websites and launching training academies for future wizardry. If PC Sorcar Jr has trained his eyes on a University of Magic in Kolkata this November, Gopinath Muthukad’s Magic Academy is thriving in Thiruvananthapuram. Besides, brands such as LIC, Unitech, Reliance Infocomm, Siemens, Philips, Union Bank of India and a host of other companies are relying on magicians for the push factor, downturn or upturn, ha! When Sorcar made the Taj Mahal disappear through illusion, he was approached by a bevy of brands that draw succour from the ‘Taj’ prefix. In the same vein, Muthukad, Upendra Thakur, PR Akash and a horde of magicians have sniffed an opportunity in corporate India, and will not let go in a hurry. The most accomplished of the Indian magicians, PC Sorcar Jr, is no stranger to fortune. Third in the line of a magician family, he recalls how his father PC Sorcar Sr signed up with Shirley Maclaine for shows in her Las Vegas casino. “My company, Indrajaal, still conducts those shows,” he contends with a certain pride. With 156 people, two lions and an elephant, Sorcar conducts approximately 400 shows a year. And with his sleight of hand, he commands sponsorships from pen to pen-drive makers. In the wake of the millennium, the Raunaq Group even roped him in as brand ambassador. The 45-year-old Gopinath Muthukad started out with his own brand of magic at the age of seven, and set up his Muthukad Magical Entertainers in 1985. Today, he has 30 members in his company, and is also credited with his 12-year-old Magic Academy at Thiruvananthapuram that churns out 20 magicians every year. Admittedly, he makes about Rs 1 crore a year with about 70-75 shows thrown in. “Last year, when LIC launched a product, we created a special show around it, and likewise, for Union Bank of India,” says Muthukad. For tyros, here’s how the LIC show was conducted—four jars were placed on the table with one jar containing this new LIC product. Three people from the audience were called on to the stage randomly to choose the jars. Whichever jar they picked up, the one containing the policy always went to Muthukad. Here’s his repartee: “Don’t be disappointed. You may also approach your LIC agent for a policy”. For the Delhi-based Upendra Thakur, retail has opened up a new roadmap to ring in the money. “Mall developers are calling me daily and I’ve already performed at MGF Metropolitan Mall, DT Mall and City Centre Mall in Gurgaon,” he says, adding that his rates vary from Rs 5,000-10,000 per day for just a couple of hours’ performance in the malls. Besides, regular shows elsewhere fetches him “more”. The man from Darbhanga came to Delhi in 1996 and set up his business as a one-man-show. “Even today, I hire people from the market on daily wages,” he maintains. But pressing demand from retailers and brands is making him rethink. “It’s time I operate more like a company and that’s why I’m scouting for investments,” he says. He’s currently working for Unitech’s Adventure Island on a Rs 1.5-lakh per month contract, and has earlier done promos for Reliance Infocomm, Whirlpool, Etihad Airways, Philips , Siemens, T9 and auto component maker H1 India. Ditto for PR Akash, who has his own magic brand under ‘The Miracle World’ banner. “Magic is an art with a lot of R&D thrown in, implying high investment. While it’ll be nice to get investors in my company, they should be ready to invest in costly processes,” he says. Though Akash has been dabbling in magic for conferences, hotels and resorts and malls for a while now, “I’m awaiting my real big order from Airtel”.
Entertainment - Brand Mallika
Mallika Sherawat has now become the first Bollywood actress to have a trademark of her own name. It means that henceforth no one can use her name for publicity or for any other commercial purpose without her consent.
Our sources say, “Mallika has been at the receiving end in the recent past. She had a problem recently when her name was used in the publicity of the film Welcome, when she had only made a special appearance in the film. To avoid such things happening again in future, Mallika has been contemplating applying for a trademark for her name so that no one can use it for any commercial purpose.”Trademarks are generally distinctive symbols, pictures, or words that sellers affix to distinguish and identify the origin of their products. Mallika's lawyer, Sumit Agrawal confirms the news and says, “Yes, it was long overdue and the formal procedure is currently on. We have laid claim upon the name. It is a common practice in the west and many celebrities in the west have their own trademark. Now no one can use her name or photograph to sell their product. This way she can have her own signature label, perfumes, designer label. In India there is no particular law to curb the misuse of your name. Yet it is unfair. She is a successful actress and model and people often use her pictures and name freely.”He further says, “Mallika is a brand and a brand with tremendous value. She is now exercising her right to protect her private life, commercial value and commercial interest. It's high time that everyone here does that.”Does that mean that her pictures and her name will not be used in other films, henceforth? He says, “This is also infringement of copyright and it is prohibited. One normally has to take permission for using her poster in the background or using her name in the film. These instances are increasing. Now the trademark will prevent this.”
Our sources say, “Mallika has been at the receiving end in the recent past. She had a problem recently when her name was used in the publicity of the film Welcome, when she had only made a special appearance in the film. To avoid such things happening again in future, Mallika has been contemplating applying for a trademark for her name so that no one can use it for any commercial purpose.”Trademarks are generally distinctive symbols, pictures, or words that sellers affix to distinguish and identify the origin of their products. Mallika's lawyer, Sumit Agrawal confirms the news and says, “Yes, it was long overdue and the formal procedure is currently on. We have laid claim upon the name. It is a common practice in the west and many celebrities in the west have their own trademark. Now no one can use her name or photograph to sell their product. This way she can have her own signature label, perfumes, designer label. In India there is no particular law to curb the misuse of your name. Yet it is unfair. She is a successful actress and model and people often use her pictures and name freely.”He further says, “Mallika is a brand and a brand with tremendous value. She is now exercising her right to protect her private life, commercial value and commercial interest. It's high time that everyone here does that.”Does that mean that her pictures and her name will not be used in other films, henceforth? He says, “This is also infringement of copyright and it is prohibited. One normally has to take permission for using her poster in the background or using her name in the film. These instances are increasing. Now the trademark will prevent this.”
India - To P or not to P ( Good Read)
The true test of a revolutionary idea is when people shake their heads in disbelief as to why they didn’t think of it before. Such an idea has taken physical form in the town of Musiri in Tamil Nadu. In a radical public-private partnership, people are being offered up to Rs 6 every time they relieve themselves in a specially constructed toilet. In the age of free television sets before elections, if you get Rs 6 to spend your proverbial penny, we think everyone concerned is making a profit.
The fact that urinating in the big wide open or against the neighbourhood wall is something that we, let alone the good citizens of Musiri, take almost for granted should not deter from the intent of the lavatory experiment. This partnership serves many purposes: it encourages people to discard old habits and at the same time provide ingredients that will go into the manufacture of fertilisers that can be profitably sold to farmers. This is a PPP enterprise where the pun is very much intended.
So what’s the moral of the story? That changing unhygienic social practices pays? Yes, that too. But at a more immediate level it is that proper incentives are needed to ensure that PPPs work. Well, if people knew the value of urinating, why would they waste it? The Planning Commission ought to study this example if it wants PPPs to work in building roads, highways and power plants. The answer is to go with the flow.
The fact that urinating in the big wide open or against the neighbourhood wall is something that we, let alone the good citizens of Musiri, take almost for granted should not deter from the intent of the lavatory experiment. This partnership serves many purposes: it encourages people to discard old habits and at the same time provide ingredients that will go into the manufacture of fertilisers that can be profitably sold to farmers. This is a PPP enterprise where the pun is very much intended.
So what’s the moral of the story? That changing unhygienic social practices pays? Yes, that too. But at a more immediate level it is that proper incentives are needed to ensure that PPPs work. Well, if people knew the value of urinating, why would they waste it? The Planning Commission ought to study this example if it wants PPPs to work in building roads, highways and power plants. The answer is to go with the flow.
India - Characters in search of an Author
There is hardly a new thing that can be said about the Indo-US nuclear deal. But the deal has shown new sides to those public figures whom we thought we knew well. Here they are, looked at through the post-nuclear deal tamasha glass:
1. Manmohan Singh: After years of playing dumb-(or, at least, mumble) charades with both the Congress President and the Indian people, ‘I’m-a- Man’ Manmohan has suddenly received a double shot of adrenaline, which ought to help him help the country return to its fiscal good health. Armed with Marlboro machismo, he returned from the G8 summit getting ready to play footsie with the Samajwadi Party.
2. Sonia Gandhi: No one exactly knows how she managed to rule the country as a meta-PM — did someone say absentee landlady? — for four years. But one is sure that in wooing the Samajwadi Party, she hasn’t exactly found an ideal house guest. Had she had the courage to go for polls right now, the Left would have got bloodied noses, the decks would have been cleared and the ‘best man’ would have come out on top. Instead, by trafficking with the SP, she may have got the Congress in a hazy zone of political gimmickry.
3. Prakash Karat: The man of the moment that has passed. He is the Shakespearean fool, who while pointing out the follies of the world, is the first to go down, bells on his cap still a-jingling. His earnestness is his tragic flaw. Karat has no connection to ‘lived and living’ politics and yet wanted — and, lest we forget, got — to enjoy power disproportionate to his responsibilities. He could have been the new face of the Old Left, but became a victim of ideological geriatrics. If he goes under the pile, the Left may be saved. Otherwise, ‘Marx naam satya hai...’
4. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: He has no established connection to the nuclear deal and has kept steadfastly mum about it. But he could have emerged as the counterpoint to Karat’s sophisticated caveman instincts. He, however, has much more on his plate than to save the Left in the national Capital. He was initially the pro-reform, pro-deal comrade. Yet,the way he’s managed his beleaguered state, where ‘too little, too late’ morphed into ‘too much, too soon’, sealed his voice.
5. A.B. BARDHAN: If there’s a one-man party, it’s Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan. He is the representative, the spokesperson, the office bearer and tea boy for the CPI. But exactly what sort of political force the CPI is and what exactly is its constituency, no one dares to ask — lest they have to face a volley of obscure rhetorical quotations from Soviet textbooks that includes pre-Soviet ones like Cherensky’s What is to be Done?
6. Amar Singh: The wheeling-dealing survivor and negotiator of all high-profile and low-credibility deals. He smiles and outwits everyone in The Game. The assorted power and glamour quotient of Mulayam Singh and Amitabh Bachchan fall far short of what he’s imbued in. It’s Shylock-time for him now as he figures out how to extract a pound of flesh for his party, his friends and, yes, himself.
Columnists - Rajdeep Sardesai
Amar Chithra Katha
When the history of contemporary Indian politics is written, Amar Singh will have a special place as arguably the first neta to bridge the gap between political and corporate India, and between Page 1 and Page 3. Tracking him on the 2004 election campaign was a revealing experience. Through the day, we were travelling across the dusty tracks of interior Uttar Pradesh as the Samajwadi Party leader addressed a series of well-attended Thakur samaj rallies. In the evening, we were in the cool comfort of his South Delhi residence where the guest list for dinner included a sprinkling of stars and corporate tycoons. As our camera recorded the private party, I asked Singh how he reconciled the role of neta by day and party animal by night. “I am not a hypocrite,” he shot back, with a familiar grin, “If Amitabh and Anil Ambani are my friends, why should I hide it from the world? If I play Holi with Shilpa Shetty, why should I be ashamed of it?”
Why indeed. From political gatecrasher to India’s Most Wanted, Amar Singh has come a long way. In the process, he has come to represent a new breed of Indian politicians who have redefined the conventional rules of the game: political clout is less and less about mass appeal and more about artful deal-making. He may not be a vote gathering politician like his ‘netaji’ Mulayam, may never contest a Lok Sabha seat, but he is still invaluable to a party like the Samajwadi Party.
Mulayam’s politics have been limited to the rough and tumble of the UP akhara. It is Singh who provides him an entry into the wider world of money and glamour. In a sense, he is a trend-setter. Today, almost every political party has its fair share of Amar Singhs: those who will not fight elections, but who are indispensable to their party bosses because of the range of their connections with big business, with a touch of Bollywood for good measure.
The newly-formed Samajwadi party-UPA partnership is, at one level, a straight business deal that has been cleverly marketed as being in the ‘national interest’. A family-owned company called the Samajwadi Party is in desperate trouble in its home state where a single ownership firm, the Bahujan Samaj Party, is determined to destroy its financial and political base.
Another more loosely controlled family company, the Indian National Congress, is in equal discomfort because its CEO has entered into a well considered agreement with a sovereign nation which he is now being forced to renege on because of trade union opposition from within. The only solution is to throw out the pesky trade union and tie up with a potential rival business house. If corporate mergers and acquisitions are played with hard-nosed business acumen, why should politics be any different?
To an extent, the brazen opportunism of an Amar Singh only offers a mirror to a de-ideologised political class that is unwilling to look beyond naked self-interest. Hasn’t the Congress leadership been opportunistic in tying up with a party which only till weeks ago was Enemy No. 1? Haven’t the UPA’s allies winked at the arrangement because they are equally desperate to stave off elections at all costs? And can the BJP really claim to occupy the moral high ground when its leadership has been forced to confess to attempting to topple the Manmohan Singh government in an unseemly manner? And how can even the self-righteous Left justify being on the same side as the BJP when it maintains that the saffron outfit’s ‘communal’ agenda is the biggest threat to the nation? In the muck of Indian politics, there are no Mahatmas left any more.
Perhaps, the only difference is that Amar Singh has been a little more candid about the nature of his politics. The Samajwadi Party leader has few compunctions of being identified with a corporate group, but the fact is that there are many more of our politicians who are also batting for specific business interests, only they will not admit as much in public. In Parliament, questions are asked on behalf of specific industrial houses; in ministries, projects are cleared and decisions are taken to favour individual corporates; in the bureaucracy, secretaries are appointed because of their business affiliations. So, when Amar Singh virtually calls for the head of the Finance and Petroleum Minister, when he raises questions over spectrum allocation, when he demands a windfall tax on petroleum exports, he is only taking a public stance on a corporate war that others are siding with in private.
Nor is this necessarily unique to this country. Across the world, lobbyists work the corridors of power, peddling influence and networking the system. But whereas in the United States, for example, the role of the lobbyist has been legitimised, in India we are still reluctant to admit to their presence, preferring to see them as shadowy operators. What individuals like Amar Singh have done is remove the ‘nudge-nudge, wink-wink’ secrecy that surrounds the corporate-politician connection in the process of decision-making.
So, as an energetic Amar Singh rushes from the Prime Minister’s residence to Rashtrapati Bhavan, perhaps we need to acknowledge that his rise is only the result of the changing nature of politics. Politics is increasingly about fund-raising, mega deals and big money. And yet, while politics needs money, it must also be about ideas, about passion, about a vision for society, about a struggle for justice. That great reconciler, M.K. Gandhi, spent his days in Birla House and was known for his closeness to business houses, but his eye was fixed on his social and political mission. Only money power, without a sense of mission or greater purpose, will mean that public life will cease to be about the public.
When the history of contemporary Indian politics is written, Amar Singh will have a special place as arguably the first neta to bridge the gap between political and corporate India, and between Page 1 and Page 3. Tracking him on the 2004 election campaign was a revealing experience. Through the day, we were travelling across the dusty tracks of interior Uttar Pradesh as the Samajwadi Party leader addressed a series of well-attended Thakur samaj rallies. In the evening, we were in the cool comfort of his South Delhi residence where the guest list for dinner included a sprinkling of stars and corporate tycoons. As our camera recorded the private party, I asked Singh how he reconciled the role of neta by day and party animal by night. “I am not a hypocrite,” he shot back, with a familiar grin, “If Amitabh and Anil Ambani are my friends, why should I hide it from the world? If I play Holi with Shilpa Shetty, why should I be ashamed of it?”
Why indeed. From political gatecrasher to India’s Most Wanted, Amar Singh has come a long way. In the process, he has come to represent a new breed of Indian politicians who have redefined the conventional rules of the game: political clout is less and less about mass appeal and more about artful deal-making. He may not be a vote gathering politician like his ‘netaji’ Mulayam, may never contest a Lok Sabha seat, but he is still invaluable to a party like the Samajwadi Party.
Mulayam’s politics have been limited to the rough and tumble of the UP akhara. It is Singh who provides him an entry into the wider world of money and glamour. In a sense, he is a trend-setter. Today, almost every political party has its fair share of Amar Singhs: those who will not fight elections, but who are indispensable to their party bosses because of the range of their connections with big business, with a touch of Bollywood for good measure.
The newly-formed Samajwadi party-UPA partnership is, at one level, a straight business deal that has been cleverly marketed as being in the ‘national interest’. A family-owned company called the Samajwadi Party is in desperate trouble in its home state where a single ownership firm, the Bahujan Samaj Party, is determined to destroy its financial and political base.
Another more loosely controlled family company, the Indian National Congress, is in equal discomfort because its CEO has entered into a well considered agreement with a sovereign nation which he is now being forced to renege on because of trade union opposition from within. The only solution is to throw out the pesky trade union and tie up with a potential rival business house. If corporate mergers and acquisitions are played with hard-nosed business acumen, why should politics be any different?
To an extent, the brazen opportunism of an Amar Singh only offers a mirror to a de-ideologised political class that is unwilling to look beyond naked self-interest. Hasn’t the Congress leadership been opportunistic in tying up with a party which only till weeks ago was Enemy No. 1? Haven’t the UPA’s allies winked at the arrangement because they are equally desperate to stave off elections at all costs? And can the BJP really claim to occupy the moral high ground when its leadership has been forced to confess to attempting to topple the Manmohan Singh government in an unseemly manner? And how can even the self-righteous Left justify being on the same side as the BJP when it maintains that the saffron outfit’s ‘communal’ agenda is the biggest threat to the nation? In the muck of Indian politics, there are no Mahatmas left any more.
Perhaps, the only difference is that Amar Singh has been a little more candid about the nature of his politics. The Samajwadi Party leader has few compunctions of being identified with a corporate group, but the fact is that there are many more of our politicians who are also batting for specific business interests, only they will not admit as much in public. In Parliament, questions are asked on behalf of specific industrial houses; in ministries, projects are cleared and decisions are taken to favour individual corporates; in the bureaucracy, secretaries are appointed because of their business affiliations. So, when Amar Singh virtually calls for the head of the Finance and Petroleum Minister, when he raises questions over spectrum allocation, when he demands a windfall tax on petroleum exports, he is only taking a public stance on a corporate war that others are siding with in private.
Nor is this necessarily unique to this country. Across the world, lobbyists work the corridors of power, peddling influence and networking the system. But whereas in the United States, for example, the role of the lobbyist has been legitimised, in India we are still reluctant to admit to their presence, preferring to see them as shadowy operators. What individuals like Amar Singh have done is remove the ‘nudge-nudge, wink-wink’ secrecy that surrounds the corporate-politician connection in the process of decision-making.
So, as an energetic Amar Singh rushes from the Prime Minister’s residence to Rashtrapati Bhavan, perhaps we need to acknowledge that his rise is only the result of the changing nature of politics. Politics is increasingly about fund-raising, mega deals and big money. And yet, while politics needs money, it must also be about ideas, about passion, about a vision for society, about a struggle for justice. That great reconciler, M.K. Gandhi, spent his days in Birla House and was known for his closeness to business houses, but his eye was fixed on his social and political mission. Only money power, without a sense of mission or greater purpose, will mean that public life will cease to be about the public.
Entertainment - Kahaani Ekta Ke Mahabharat Ki
Six-pack abs, waxed chests, off-shoulder blouses and a scantily-clad Draupadi decked in a chiffon sari... that’s what Ekta Kapoor’s version of Mahabharata is all about. And since sex sells, her version of the epic started off with Draupadi’s vastraharan. The departure from the tried and tested has generated a whole lot of interest and even more feedback. Much of it negative. Online reviews have panned the strong saas-bahu flavour of the epic, the inappropriate costumes by Manish Malhotra, and the language used. Anita Hasanandani as Draupadi has received the most brickbats.
As for the pros, there are just a couple: Aryan Vaid (Duryodhana) is looking hot and Daler Mehndi’s title track is good. The Buzz18 review says: “Draupadi is introduced in signature Ekta style. Her free flowing red sari reminds us of Prerna’s red dupatta in Kasautii Zindagi Kay. Anita Hasanandani as Draupadi is good with her histrionics but fails to strike the right chord.... The incessant screeching, the glycerine eyes are tad too much to handle.” Indicine.com comments: “It looked like a normal Ekta Kapoor saas-bahu serial. It wasn’t realistic, at least Ekta Kapoor should have had a look at Jodhaa Akbar, a costume drama which was presented in a very realistic way. Anita Hasanandani as Draupadi shrieked at the top of her voice, cried like she does in all those saas-bahu series and in comparison to Rupa Ganguly, failed miserably.” Viewers have given their verdict — and it’s a hung jury. Bhojpuri hero and TV star Ravi Kissen says, “I found it interesting and different. It’s something new that will attract the youth. And starting the serial with Draupadi’s vastraharan shows that sex sells.”
Saakshi, 23, has no compliments to pay. “It’s more like soft porn!” she exclaims. “They are flaunting their bodies with tattoos and low-waist dhotis. The dialogues need to be censored. One went something like ‘Tum mere pati ke saamnay nanga kar rahay ho!’”
MNC executive Rohit Chawla, 26, thinks the show won’t last more than a week. “There’s not even one per cent of the Mahabharata we’ve seen in our childhood.” IP University student Deeksha Somani, 18, says, “Anita as Draupadi is intolerable. Everyone is overacting.” Vidisha Sharma, 20, is positive: “If you don’t go by the story, then the men are looking hot, especially Aryan Vaid with his jewellery and kohled eyes.” If you don’t go by the story. That says it all.
Saakshi, 23, has no compliments to pay. “It’s more like soft porn!” she exclaims. “They are flaunting their bodies with tattoos and low-waist dhotis. The dialogues need to be censored. One went something like ‘Tum mere pati ke saamnay nanga kar rahay ho!’”
MNC executive Rohit Chawla, 26, thinks the show won’t last more than a week. “There’s not even one per cent of the Mahabharata we’ve seen in our childhood.” IP University student Deeksha Somani, 18, says, “Anita as Draupadi is intolerable. Everyone is overacting.” Vidisha Sharma, 20, is positive: “If you don’t go by the story, then the men are looking hot, especially Aryan Vaid with his jewellery and kohled eyes.” If you don’t go by the story. That says it all.
Jul 10, 2008
Tech - How to stop chips from melting
How to stop chips from melting—and save the planet, too
READERS of a certain age may remember that Volkswagen Beetles once had air-cooled engines. That made for simplicity. But, eventually, increasing power meant that even VW conceded the point and started to cool its motors with water.
Something similar is about to happen with computer chips. Each flipping of a “one” to a “zero”, or vice versa, generates heat—and the flipping is happening so fast that if nothing is done chips will soon start melting. Moreover, the trend is to stack chips on top of one another, to improve communications between them. The adverse side of stacking is that it makes shedding the heat even harder, because of the falling ratio of the processor's surface area (through which heat can escape) to its volume (the amount of material generating heat).
According to Thomas Brunschwiler, a researcher at IBM's laboratory in Zurich, when you build processors this way you generate heat at about one kilowatt per cubic centimetre—more intensely than in a nuclear reactor and ten times the record of any other man-made device. That would destroy an uncooled chip within a hundredth of a second.
Water, however, conducts heat 4,000 times faster than air, and can also carry more much of the stuff in a given volume. Mr Brunschwiler and his colleagues have therefore been experimenting with water-cooled chips. They have developed a stacked processor that is permeated by a network of channels. These channels, which have a diameter of 50 microns (about the width of a human hair) are etched using standard silicon fabrication. They enable water to be pumped in a network that runs between the horizontal layers of a stack and the thousands of vertical interconnections that carry information between these layers. The water collects the heat and carries it away.
IBM Cooler than it looks
That, in the prototypes at least, is enough to keep the chips from melting. But in these days of environmental awareness, not to mention high energy prices, it seems a waste simply to throw the heat thus collected into the atmosphere. If chips are as hot as power stations, the thinking goes, why not use them as such?
In practice, not enough heat is generated to make a useful amount of electricity. But heat is useful stuff in its own right. It might, for instance, be used to warm buildings. The Zurich laboratory has already constructed a prototype that feeds the water from the chips into a heat-exchanger. The next stage is to link this exchanger to a district-heating system so that it can be pumped into central-heating. Bruno Michel, manager of advanced thermal packaging at the laboratory, reckons the heat from a medium-sized data centre—one consuming a megawatt of power—would be enough to warm about 70 houses within a range of 3km. IBM hopes to build such a centre within five years.
If it works, the potential is huge. At the moment, the world's data centres are estimated to consume about 14 gigawatts of power, and to be responsible for 2% of global carbon-dioxide emissions—roughly the same as air traffic.
Water-cooling of this sort may also make a more direct contribution to the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions, by promoting the use of solar energy. Solar cells are also made of silicon, and the latest fashion is to concentrate sunlight on them using mirrors. That means you need less silicon to make a given amount of electricity, but it also makes the silicon very hot—as hot as a commercial microprocessor.
By cooling such devices with liquids, IBM reckons it can increase the amount of sunlight that can be focused on them without destroying them, thus increasing the amount of electrical energy they produce. Supratik Guha, a researcher at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Centre in Yorktown Heights, New York, has put this to the test and found that he can concentrate 2,300 times more sunlight on a cell than nature would provide, while maintaining that cell at a (relatively) cool 85°C. Without the cooling system, its temperature would rapidly exceed 1,500º, causing it to melt. With cooling, the cells can manage an output of 70 watts a square centimetre—a record, according to IBM, and a demonstration that plumbing, too, can be a high-tech form of engineering.
World - Overconfident India
Indians are complacent about the perils of multi-lateral diplomacy, and much else
IT CAME like monsoon rain, after a head-aching spell of summer heat. On July 7th, ending months of mixed messages and tiresome speculation, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, said that India would press ahead “very soon” with a controversial policy: a civil-nuclear co-operation agreement with America.
This would give India access to nuclear fuel and technology, despite its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In a country with massive energy needs, and pretensions to global-power status, that would be momentous. Only, the deal is not yet done: it needs approving by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and America's Congress. Winning their blessings before President George Bush's term expires next January will be tight.
APFeeling chuffed
Not that you would necessarily know this from Indian media coverage of the saga. Most Indian commentators—including those within the ruling Congress party—appear to have concluded that, now that Mr Singh has plumped for it, despite opposition from his government's parliamentary allies, the deal is a dead-cert.
They may turn out to be right. Mr Bush will certainly push hard for it. But with several other NSG members having expressed concerns, and the attitude of China, India's great rival, still unknown, the deal's safe passage cannot be assumed. Then again, it is unsurprising that so many Indians do assume it. A pronounced feature of their country's rapid emergence is the awesome self-confidence—and sometimes hubris—it inspires in Indian breasts.
No visitor to the country can fail to be impressed by this. Its English language newspapers—admittedly, read mainly by a prospering minority—would never let them. They have long tended towards triumphalism—notwithstanding more sober recent headlines, inspired by high inflation and a plunging stockmarket. Thus, the latest foreign acquisition by “India Inc.”, as the country's private sector is known, is a sure-fire splash. On editorial pages, Indian economists have long predicted China-style, double-digit economic growth for their country.
Opinion polls—which tend to represent the views of relatively-rich city-dwelling Indians—also make rousing news. A survey of global attitudes, released last month by the Pew Research Centre, found that a higher proportion of Indians felt positive about their national economy than all except Chinese and Australians (though the proportion of sunny Indians, at 62%, was 12% down on the previous year).
Indeed, they have had lots to be cheered by. Over the past three years, India's economy has grown at a magnificent average of 9% a year. And the private sector—whose foreign investments last year exceeded those made in India by foreign firms—has led the charge.
As has been widely reported, the fruits of India's economic rise are rich and varied. The country's massive armed forces are modernising. The diplomatic corps is swelling. India's revered cricketers, who were never so rich and pampered, are doing consistently better than they have ever done before.
But, impressive as these successes are, they do not augur the imminent global dominance that many Indians seem to expect. Foreign visitors to India are also invariably impressed by its dreadful problems: the ever-present poor; perilous and congested roads; disorderly and congested airports; the moronic regulations still imposed by the state.
So, what makes Indians so buoyant? Perhaps, relief: that the dark decades of soaring population growth, inching economic growth and intractable poverty, are finally over. No doubt, too, some prominent Indians are a little naive about the realities of multi-lateral diplomacy and ill-informed about the paths to development that others have trod. With little opportunity to travel, and a whole world within their borders, Indians have tended, until relatively recently, to be rather inward-looking—unlike the country's vast and thriving diaspora.
Perhaps, too, there may be something about living always in a crowd that encourages loud and overconfident opinion-giving. Or maybe, in their national subconscious, Indians have calculated that audacity, however unfitting at the time, simply works for them. It is certainly a feature of their brilliant entrepreneurism: another national characteristic—exhibited in teeming slums as well as in corporate boardrooms.
As for the nuclear deal, Indians' blithe faith in its chances may stem from something else altogether. The Pew Research Centre found that Mr Bush's approval rating in India was “still astonishingly high” at 55%. In fact, Indians were the only people sampled who rated Mr Bush more highly than they did Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. So, perhaps they know something the rest of us don't?
Business - Index of Happiness
NAIROBI From The Economist print edition
A bottle of Coke tracks change in Africa
AFRICANS buy 36 billion bottles of Coke a year. Because the price is set so low—around 20-30 American cents, less than the price of the average newspaper—and because sales are so minutely analysed by Coca-Cola, the Coke bottle may be one of the continent’s best trackers of stability and prosperity.
“We see political instability first because we go down as far as we can into the market,” says Alexander Cummings, head of Coca-Cola’s Africa division. The ups and downs during Kenya’s post-election violence this year could be traced in sales of Coke in Nairobi’s slums and in western Kenya’s villages. Events in the Middle East, such as the 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, can dent sales in Muslim parts of Africa, though anti-American feeling usually wears off quite quickly.
Coca-Cola says it is the largest private-sector employer in Africa. Its system of distribution, which moves the sugary drink from bottling plants deep into slums and the bush a few crates at a time, may employ around 1m Africans. A study at the University of South Carolina suggested that 1% of South Africa’s economy was tied up, one way or another, in the distribution and sale of Coke. The company has been in Africa since 1928. Its outgoing global boss, Neville Isdell, grew up—barefoot, he says—in Zambia. Mr Cummings is from Liberia. In Africa, as elsewhere, the company has to defend itself from critics who accuse it of “mining water” for production, encouraging expensive and environmentally harmful refrigeration, and hurting local producers of juice and water.
At a macro-level, when Coke fails, the country whose market it is trying to penetrate usually fails too. Coca-Cola’s bottling plant in Eritrea hardly works because the country’s totalitarian government makes it impossible to import the needed syrup. The factory in Somalia sputtered on heroically during years of fighting but finally gave out when its sugar was pinched by pirates and its workers were held up by gunmen. Mr Cummings admits that Coca-Cola is “on life support” in Zimbabwe.
Still, if Coca-Cola’s predictions are anything to go by, Africa’s future is mostly bright. The company expects sales in Africa to grow by an annual 10-13% over the next few years, handily outstripping economic growth. The biggest markets will be in petro-economies such as Nigeria and Angola, and countries like Ghana and Kenya where a middle class is emerging. Kenya’s citizens may like to know that, despite their country’s many troubles earlier this year, Coca-Cola has invested $50m in a new bottling plant and $10m in new offices.
Business - Starbucks
NEW YORKFrom The Economist print edition
The troubled company wakes up and smells the coffee
FOR years it seemed that American consumers’ demand for liquid fuel was price inelastic—whether it was to drive their cars or get their brains going in the morning. Yet $4 seems to have been the price at which demand becomes elastic, for both petrol and a frothy latte. As a result, baristas at Starbucks coffee shops around America are starting to get a taste of what it feels like to be a carworker in Detroit. On July 1st the coffee retailer, based in Seattle, said it would close a further 500 stores in America (in addition to the 100 closures it announced earlier this year), and reduce its workforce of roughly 172,000 by around 7%.
A remarkable 70% of the stores due to close were opened after 2005, which seems to confirm the comment made by Howard Schultz, when he returned to the helm of the company in January, that most of Starbucks’ wounds were self-inflicted. As it expanded at a breakneck pace, the company opened too many Starbucks in subprime locations. But the deteriorating American economy is doing further damage. As a premium-priced supplier, Starbucks is suffering from the same trading down that is sending shoppers rushing from Target to Wal-Mart. McDonald’s, it seems, has perfectly timed its decision to start selling coffee that is pleasant to drink.
Shares in Starbucks are now trading at barely one-third of their peak value from two years ago. Yet, rather than being a sign of panic, the closures may be evidence that Mr Schultz means to return the company to its focus on quality, rather than growth. After closing all its American stores simultaneously for a brief retraining session a few months ago, there are plans for further improvements in the staff’s competence and demeanour, and in the cleanliness and comfort of its shops.
There are also innovations in the works, ranging from healthy smoothies, to a mysterious (and so far unnamed) Italian drink, to further automation. In March Starbucks bought the Coffee Equipment Company, a small outfit that produces a hugely expensive coffee-making machine called the Clover. It is now testing the machines in a handful of its American shops.
Admittedly, there have been some complaints about the introduction of the milder “Pike Place” filter-coffee blend. But on the firm’s popular new customer website, MyStarbucksIdea.com, the main concerns are about the quality of the food sold by Starbucks and, above all, its prices. Encouragingly for Mr Schultz, there are also many positive suggestions, from serving vegan food to introducing a loyalty card, which suggests that plenty of customers still care for Starbucks enough to give him a chance to win them back—recession or no recession.
Mktg - Playing the game
From The Economist print edition
Rival brands, as well as athletes, compete at sporting events
TAKING your hat off at the door may seem like a throwback to a more genteel age. But the practice lives on at modern sporting events. Dutch buyers of Heineken beer were given green hats to wear to the recent Euro 2008 football tournament. Anyone who tried to enter a stadium wearing one, however, as many fans did in 2004, was asked to remove it. The hats were an “ambush marketing” campaign, in which companies try to promote their brands at sporting events without paying sponsorship fees. Heineken’s rival, Carlsberg, was an official sponsor of Euro 2008, paying $21m for the privilege. A few TV close-ups of fans wearing Heineken hats would have cost very little by comparison. This was just one of 18 examples of ambush marketing at Euro 2008 identified by researchers at Coventry University Business School.
Ambush marketers have replaced hooligans as the villains of sporting events, because they undermine official sponsors, which are the main source of revenue in some sports. The stakes are highest at the Olympics. This year 12 firms, including Coca-Cola, Samsung and Visa, have paid a total of $866m to be official sponsors of the Beijing Olympics—and they want exclusivity.
The Chinese authorities have responded with their usual subtlety. Between July 11th and September 17th the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic games will take control of all prominent advertising sites in the Chinese capital, including those at train stations and airports, and their use will be limited to official sponsors only. (In 1996, when the Olympics were staged in Atlanta, the city was plastered with ads by Nike, which was not a sponsor.) Athletes will be banned from taking their own drinks into the Olympic Village to “protect sponsors’ rights”. And at each event if any spectators manage to get past the officials with unofficial food, drinks or clothing, broadcasters will be obliged to avoid showing them in close-up.
But preventing ambushes is difficult. Marketers tend to launch ambush campaigns only once an event has started, making pre-emptive strikes almost impossible. And policing the brand use of individual spectators at the stadium is tricky. Coca-Cola, which has sponsored every Olympiad since 1928, says sponsorship provides “a way to connect with people around the world at a very personal, emotional level”. But if that means depriving spectators of their half-finished Pepsi as they enter a stadium, the emotions may not be happy ones.
Overzealous enforcement can also result in bad press—as with the orange plastic Lederhosen given out by Bavaria, a Dutch brewery, to Dutch fans before a match at the 2006 football World Cup. Officials asked fans to remove the offending garments, to placate Budweiser, a rival beer brand that was the tournament’s official sponsor. Many fans ended up watching the match in their underwear, and the resulting fuss generated even more publicity for Bavaria.
Rival brands, as well as athletes, compete at sporting events
TAKING your hat off at the door may seem like a throwback to a more genteel age. But the practice lives on at modern sporting events. Dutch buyers of Heineken beer were given green hats to wear to the recent Euro 2008 football tournament. Anyone who tried to enter a stadium wearing one, however, as many fans did in 2004, was asked to remove it. The hats were an “ambush marketing” campaign, in which companies try to promote their brands at sporting events without paying sponsorship fees. Heineken’s rival, Carlsberg, was an official sponsor of Euro 2008, paying $21m for the privilege. A few TV close-ups of fans wearing Heineken hats would have cost very little by comparison. This was just one of 18 examples of ambush marketing at Euro 2008 identified by researchers at Coventry University Business School.
Ambush marketers have replaced hooligans as the villains of sporting events, because they undermine official sponsors, which are the main source of revenue in some sports. The stakes are highest at the Olympics. This year 12 firms, including Coca-Cola, Samsung and Visa, have paid a total of $866m to be official sponsors of the Beijing Olympics—and they want exclusivity.
The Chinese authorities have responded with their usual subtlety. Between July 11th and September 17th the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic games will take control of all prominent advertising sites in the Chinese capital, including those at train stations and airports, and their use will be limited to official sponsors only. (In 1996, when the Olympics were staged in Atlanta, the city was plastered with ads by Nike, which was not a sponsor.) Athletes will be banned from taking their own drinks into the Olympic Village to “protect sponsors’ rights”. And at each event if any spectators manage to get past the officials with unofficial food, drinks or clothing, broadcasters will be obliged to avoid showing them in close-up.
But preventing ambushes is difficult. Marketers tend to launch ambush campaigns only once an event has started, making pre-emptive strikes almost impossible. And policing the brand use of individual spectators at the stadium is tricky. Coca-Cola, which has sponsored every Olympiad since 1928, says sponsorship provides “a way to connect with people around the world at a very personal, emotional level”. But if that means depriving spectators of their half-finished Pepsi as they enter a stadium, the emotions may not be happy ones.
Overzealous enforcement can also result in bad press—as with the orange plastic Lederhosen given out by Bavaria, a Dutch brewery, to Dutch fans before a match at the 2006 football World Cup. Officials asked fans to remove the offending garments, to placate Budweiser, a rival beer brand that was the tournament’s official sponsor. Many fans ended up watching the match in their underwear, and the resulting fuss generated even more publicity for Bavaria.
World - Iran's nuclear programme
AMERICA and Israel often hint at military action to stop Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons programme. A number of factors have produced a particularly charged atmosphere of late: Iran’s growing uranium-enrichment programme; a faltering Western diplomatic effort to halt it; a fading American administration; and a nervous Israel. The latest wargames by Israel, America and Iran, plus Iran’s apparent rejection of Western diplomatic incentives to halt its nuclear work, all further raise the chances that sparks may fly.
Iranian television showed the test-firing of nine missiles on Wednesday July 9th, a day after an aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened to “burn” Tel Aviv and American ships in the Gulf, and strike at America’s “vital interests around the globe”, if Iran were attacked. The test included a version of the Shahab-3 missile which can reach Israel. This appears to be in response to Israeli war-games in June, in which about 100 jets flew over the eastern Mediterranean, apparently to rehearse the bombing of long-distance targets. Western officials were particularly struck by bum-numbing helicopter sorties of more than 1,300km, about the distance to Iran, to simulate the rescue of downed pilots. By implication these also demonstrated an ability to insert special forces.
Unusually, Israel conducted the exercise with Greece, rather than its traditional partner, Turkey, perhaps because Greece has some of the Russian-made SA-20 anti-aircraft missiles that Iran has recently bought. In the Gulf, meanwhile, American, British and Bahraini ships are involved in a joint exercise codenamed “Stake Net” to protect gas and oil installations. This seems to be a reaction to Iranian threats to retaliate against any attack by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the passage for roughly 40% of the world’s traded oil.
Does any of this make war more likely? The likelihood of an American attack has dropped since a National Intelligence Estimate concluded last year that Iran had stopped the development of a nuclear warhead in 2003. Iran’s work on the most difficult preliminary step, making enriched uranium (ostensibly for civil nuclear power), goes on. But Western experts think that it still faces big problems. In their annual threat assessment America’s spies said that Iran should technically be able to make enough fissile material for a bomb some time between 2010 and 2015, but it may take longer.
America’s ground forces are overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, although the American vice-president, Dick Cheney, is reported still to be pushing for an air strike. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of America’s joint chiefs of staff, said this month that opening a third front with Iran would be “extremely stressful, very challenging, with consequences that would be difficult to predict”. Asked whether Israel might act, he said: “This is a very unstable part of the world, and I don’t need it to be more unstable.” Israeli officials have said diplomacy is preferable to war. But political and military factors may yet convince Israel to take action.
Israel worries that, even if Tehran does not yet have enough fissile material for a bomb, every month that passes adds to its knowledge. The next American president may be less tough on Iran than the current one. If military action has to be taken, Israel may calculate, better to do it before the new man takes over. Moreover, if Israel intends to bomb the Russian-built nuclear reactor at Bushehr, it would be better to do so before it is loaded with fuel, probably before October. Israel might also prefer to act before Iran deploys its new generation of air-defence missiles, which may happen early next year.
An attack would not be easy. Iran’s nuclear installations are dispersed, and some facilities are buried deeply. In contrast with Israel’s bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, and of an alleged Syrian nuclear facility last year, there is no element of surprise. Israel might seek a nod from America—or it might be willing to act alone. It would probably need to use Iraq’s (American-controlled) airspace and would ideally want American support to deal with the consequences—perhaps including an attack by Hizbullah in Lebanon. Past Israeli wargames are said to have envisioned thousands of Israeli civilians killed by Iranian and Hizbullah missiles.
Iranian television showed the test-firing of nine missiles on Wednesday July 9th, a day after an aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened to “burn” Tel Aviv and American ships in the Gulf, and strike at America’s “vital interests around the globe”, if Iran were attacked. The test included a version of the Shahab-3 missile which can reach Israel. This appears to be in response to Israeli war-games in June, in which about 100 jets flew over the eastern Mediterranean, apparently to rehearse the bombing of long-distance targets. Western officials were particularly struck by bum-numbing helicopter sorties of more than 1,300km, about the distance to Iran, to simulate the rescue of downed pilots. By implication these also demonstrated an ability to insert special forces.
Unusually, Israel conducted the exercise with Greece, rather than its traditional partner, Turkey, perhaps because Greece has some of the Russian-made SA-20 anti-aircraft missiles that Iran has recently bought. In the Gulf, meanwhile, American, British and Bahraini ships are involved in a joint exercise codenamed “Stake Net” to protect gas and oil installations. This seems to be a reaction to Iranian threats to retaliate against any attack by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the passage for roughly 40% of the world’s traded oil.
Does any of this make war more likely? The likelihood of an American attack has dropped since a National Intelligence Estimate concluded last year that Iran had stopped the development of a nuclear warhead in 2003. Iran’s work on the most difficult preliminary step, making enriched uranium (ostensibly for civil nuclear power), goes on. But Western experts think that it still faces big problems. In their annual threat assessment America’s spies said that Iran should technically be able to make enough fissile material for a bomb some time between 2010 and 2015, but it may take longer.
America’s ground forces are overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, although the American vice-president, Dick Cheney, is reported still to be pushing for an air strike. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of America’s joint chiefs of staff, said this month that opening a third front with Iran would be “extremely stressful, very challenging, with consequences that would be difficult to predict”. Asked whether Israel might act, he said: “This is a very unstable part of the world, and I don’t need it to be more unstable.” Israeli officials have said diplomacy is preferable to war. But political and military factors may yet convince Israel to take action.
Israel worries that, even if Tehran does not yet have enough fissile material for a bomb, every month that passes adds to its knowledge. The next American president may be less tough on Iran than the current one. If military action has to be taken, Israel may calculate, better to do it before the new man takes over. Moreover, if Israel intends to bomb the Russian-built nuclear reactor at Bushehr, it would be better to do so before it is loaded with fuel, probably before October. Israel might also prefer to act before Iran deploys its new generation of air-defence missiles, which may happen early next year.
An attack would not be easy. Iran’s nuclear installations are dispersed, and some facilities are buried deeply. In contrast with Israel’s bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, and of an alleged Syrian nuclear facility last year, there is no element of surprise. Israel might seek a nod from America—or it might be willing to act alone. It would probably need to use Iraq’s (American-controlled) airspace and would ideally want American support to deal with the consequences—perhaps including an attack by Hizbullah in Lebanon. Past Israeli wargames are said to have envisioned thousands of Israeli civilians killed by Iranian and Hizbullah missiles.
World - Green Gambit
FANS of “Yes, Minister”, a 1980s British sitcom, will recall that whenever Sir Humphrey Appleby, the emollient civil servant, labelled a brainwave by his minister “courageous”, a climbdown was inevitable. That is the adjective being used by many of the supporters of Stéphane Dion, the leader of Canada’s opposition Liberal Party, to describe the plan for a national carbon tax that he unveiled with campaign-style fanfare in mid-June.
Despite a slightly wimpish image, Mr Dion, a former academic, certainly does not lack courage. On July 4th he was due to head for Alberta, Canada’s oil patch, to spend the weekend at the Calgary Stampede endeavouring to sell a tax expressly designed to curb energy use.
In theory, Mr Dion has hit on a winning issue. Latest figures show that Canada’s emissions of greenhouse gases are 30% above the current target set in the Kyoto protocol. Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government lacks a serious plan to cut emissions. Many Canadians are embarrassed by this and care about the environment
But at the moment they are more worried about a slowing economy and rising energy costs. So they are unlikely to welcome higher fuel taxes, as Mr Dion proposes. He insists that his tax proposals would be revenue-neutral: the carbon levy would be offset by cutting income taxes and by extra handouts for the poor. Petrol would be untouched because it already carries a 10% federal excise tax.
But Mr Harper, whose political roots are in Alberta, clearly smells blood. He calls the carbon tax “insane” and predicts it will not only “screw the West”, where most Canadian oil and gas is produced, but also “screw everybody across the country”. The prime minister’s unusually forthright language “is probably a good summary of how it will go over”, says Roger Gibbins of Canada West Foundation, a Calgary-based think tank. Even before the details were out, the Conservatives released a series of crude but effective internet ads featuring a talking blob of oil that warns viewers this “tax trick” would “drive up the cost of everything”.
Nevertheless, Mr Dion may still be on to something. A surprising number of business groups and economists have come out in support, if not of the tax itself, then at least of stronger federal policies to cut emissions. Federal passivity has led to some provincial governments taking their own initiative: British Columbia imposed its own carbon tax on July 1st, and Quebec did something similar last year. Even Alberta has a limited programme to trade emissions permits within the province. Ontario is leaning towards a cap-and-trade system, as is the federal government.
Business wants to see an end to this “policy chaos”, says Thomas D’Aquino, who speaks for Canada’s largest companies. It has not gone unnoticed that big trading partners, including the United States, have either put a price on carbon or are about to do so. Exporters worry that their products could be penalised if Canada does not follow suit.
Whether or not western Canada warms to his carbon tax, Mr Dion may derive some political benefit. Since becoming Liberal leader 19 months ago, he has been derided as ineffectual. But he is at his most confident when acting the policy wonk. His much-mocked English has improved.
Strengthening the Liberals’ green credentials might win the party new support at the expense of the leftish New Democratic Party or the Green Party, a newish outfit which commands a steady 10% in the opinion polls although it has yet to win a seat in parliament. With the Liberals and Conservatives neck-and-neck in opinion polls, Mr Dion’s gamble that Canadians’ green instincts will trump their reliance on cheap energy might just decide who forms the next government
World - Sick Transit
The murder of an anti-corruption campaigner
A PROMISE to root out corruption was one reason why Bruce Golding led his Jamaica Labour Party to an election victory last year, ending 18 years of rule by the People’s National Party. But suddenly the battle to clean up government has turned bloody. On June 27th two gunmen murdered Douggie Chambers, the chairman of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company. He had gone out into the street for a quick smoke before signing an agreement with union leaders. Even in a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates, his killing on June 27th came as a shock.
Mr Chambers was an accountant and a specialist fraud investigator brought in by Mr Golding on a token salary to reform the transit company, which runs the capital’s bus service. It was losing over $25m a year, because of petty scams and a padded staff, with almost ten workers for each functioning bus. Several managers were fired within weeks. On the day he died, Mr Chambers had finalised redundancy terms for 485 workers.
For all its everyday violence, contract killings of public figures are rare in Jamaica. The finger was quickly pointed at the Klansman gang, which runs protection rackets around the bus depot in Spanish Town, the district where Mr Chambers was shot. His murder is a big setback for Mr Golding and for Jamaica, whose anaemic economy and indebted government are saddled with several loss-making state enterprises. The public sector already found it hard to recruit capable and honest managers, and will now find it harder.
The government is trying to clean up the customs, a “hotbed of corruption” involving private companies and officials, according to the finance minister, Audley Shaw. It is also reforming the National Housing Trust, which provides cheap mortgages. Last month it signed an agreement that turns the loss-making state-owned sugar industry into a joint venture with a Brazilian ethanol company.
Will Mr Chambers have died in vain? The government has sent a bill to parliament to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate corruption. A junior minister from the former government was charged in February with fraudulently extracting cash from a Cuban scheme which supplied free energy-saving light bulbs to Jamaican households.
Not everyone has been applauding the new government’s efforts. The main business lobby complained that Mr Shaw’s drive for tax compliance was “anti-private sector”. After Mr Chamber’s murder, it offered a reward of less than $7,000 for information about the crime. That will do little to ensure that his killers—and their associates—are swiftly caught and punished.
A PROMISE to root out corruption was one reason why Bruce Golding led his Jamaica Labour Party to an election victory last year, ending 18 years of rule by the People’s National Party. But suddenly the battle to clean up government has turned bloody. On June 27th two gunmen murdered Douggie Chambers, the chairman of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company. He had gone out into the street for a quick smoke before signing an agreement with union leaders. Even in a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates, his killing on June 27th came as a shock.
Mr Chambers was an accountant and a specialist fraud investigator brought in by Mr Golding on a token salary to reform the transit company, which runs the capital’s bus service. It was losing over $25m a year, because of petty scams and a padded staff, with almost ten workers for each functioning bus. Several managers were fired within weeks. On the day he died, Mr Chambers had finalised redundancy terms for 485 workers.
For all its everyday violence, contract killings of public figures are rare in Jamaica. The finger was quickly pointed at the Klansman gang, which runs protection rackets around the bus depot in Spanish Town, the district where Mr Chambers was shot. His murder is a big setback for Mr Golding and for Jamaica, whose anaemic economy and indebted government are saddled with several loss-making state enterprises. The public sector already found it hard to recruit capable and honest managers, and will now find it harder.
The government is trying to clean up the customs, a “hotbed of corruption” involving private companies and officials, according to the finance minister, Audley Shaw. It is also reforming the National Housing Trust, which provides cheap mortgages. Last month it signed an agreement that turns the loss-making state-owned sugar industry into a joint venture with a Brazilian ethanol company.
Will Mr Chambers have died in vain? The government has sent a bill to parliament to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate corruption. A junior minister from the former government was charged in February with fraudulently extracting cash from a Cuban scheme which supplied free energy-saving light bulbs to Jamaican households.
Not everyone has been applauding the new government’s efforts. The main business lobby complained that Mr Shaw’s drive for tax compliance was “anti-private sector”. After Mr Chamber’s murder, it offered a reward of less than $7,000 for information about the crime. That will do little to ensure that his killers—and their associates—are swiftly caught and punished.
Lifestyle - Of sommeliers and stomachs
Jul 3rd 2008From The Economist print edition
Red wine exercises its benefits before it enters the bloodstream
FINE food sings on the palate, but pairing it with the right wine creates a chorus. Among those in the know, the plum, chocolate and spice flavours of Cabernet Sauvignons, Merlots, Pinot Noirs and Sangioveses best accentuate the rich flavours of red meats. Now, however, a group of researchers led by Joseph Kanner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has discovered that pairing red wines like these with red meat appears to be more than just a matter of taste. If the two mix in the stomach, compounds in the wine thwart the formation of harmful chemicals that are released when meat is digested.
The idea that red wine is actually good for your health is irresistible to the average tippler. But it appears to be true. In particular, red wines are rich in polyphenols, a group of powerful antioxidants that are thought to protect against cancer and heart disease by destroying molecules that would otherwise damage cells. How the polyphenols in wine exercise their beneficial effects, though, has been mysterious. That is because they do not seem to travel in any quantity from the stomach into the bloodstream.
The answer, Dr Kanner has found, lies in the stomach itself. The digestion of high-fat foods such as red meat releases oxidising toxins. One in particular, called malondialdehyde, is implicated in arteriosclerosis, cancer, diabetes and a host of other serious diseases. Dr Kanner suspected that the key to wine’s protective effect is when, precisely, it is consumed. He hypothesised that if the polyphenols arrive in the stomach at the moment when the fats are releasing malondialdehyde and its kin, then this might stop these toxic materials from getting any farther into the body.
To test this idea, he and his colleagues fed a group of rats one of two meals—either red meat from a turkey (a foodstuff shown by previous research to raise malondialdehyde levels in humans) or such meat mixed with red-wine concentrate. An hour and a half after the rats had eaten, they were killed. Dr Kanner then removed their stomachs and analysed the contents. As he reports in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the wine concentrate did indeed reduce the formation of malondialdehyde. It also cut the level of hydroperoxides, another group of oxidising agents that cause cell damage.
Based on these results, Dr Kanner and his colleagues argue that looking for antioxidants from wine in the bloodstream was a mistake; they do not need to be there to be useful. Their research also suggests that the habit of eating fruit at the end of a meal is a healthy one. Many fruits, too, are rich in polyphenols (wine is, after all, just fermented fruit juice). By treating them as dessert, these fruits arrive in the stomach at the point when meat-digestion is poised to do its worst—nipping the problem in the bud, as it were.
World - Beetle Attack
OVER the past 14 years, a tiny insect no bigger than a grain of rice has laid waste a swathe of British Columbia’s forests so vast that the rust-red wasteland is visible from space. The mountain pine beetle has infested and killed over half the lodgepole pine forest in the centre of the province—an area larger than England. It has rampaged eastwards into northern Alberta for the first time. (It has also made localised attacks on forests in all 11 western American states.) Scientists now fear the voracious beetle is about to invade the jack pines of the boreal forest, which could see the plague sweep across northern Canada to the Atlantic coast. It is an unprecedented infestation that could become a catastrophe.
The pine beetle is a well-known pest, not an exotic import, but no effective means has been found to stop it. The beetles swarm up trees in large numbers, killing them by boring through the bark, sapping their nutrients and emitting a damaging blue fungus. Cold winters and forest fires normally keep the beetle populations in check. Some forest scientists trace the current outbreak to 1994, when provincial-government foresters, fearing the ire of greens, failed to eradicate a small infestation in a provincial park by cutting and burning. In any event, recent British Columbian winters have not been cold enough to kill the beetles.
The infestation is gathering pace: foresters fear that by 2013 four-fifths of British Columbia’s central-southern pine forest will be gone. Wafted eastwards by strong winds, in 2002 the beastie made its debut in northern Alberta and further south in the national parks of Jasper, Banff and Kananaskis on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It has advanced 400 kilometres (250 miles) across the province to Slave Lake. The beetle is now established in Alberta, despite vigorous cutting and burning.
It is closing in on the vast boreal forest. It is only 100km from the nearest outbreak, and winds can carry newly-hatched pine beetles up to 300km a year, notes Allan Carroll of the Canadian Forest Service. The boreal forest is mainly composed of jack pines, which lack the natural defences of the lodgepole pine; this has evolved in coexistence with the beetles.
The hope is that the infestation will stall on Alberta’s eastern border with Saskatchewan, where large stands of jack pine are scarce. Better still would be a long, bitterly cold winter like those that were common until the 1980s. “Climate change is unequivocally affecting the outbreak,” says Mr Carroll. They may be big energy consumers, but many western Canadians have also started to worry about what carbon emissions may be doing to their beloved forest.
The pine beetle is a well-known pest, not an exotic import, but no effective means has been found to stop it. The beetles swarm up trees in large numbers, killing them by boring through the bark, sapping their nutrients and emitting a damaging blue fungus. Cold winters and forest fires normally keep the beetle populations in check. Some forest scientists trace the current outbreak to 1994, when provincial-government foresters, fearing the ire of greens, failed to eradicate a small infestation in a provincial park by cutting and burning. In any event, recent British Columbian winters have not been cold enough to kill the beetles.
The infestation is gathering pace: foresters fear that by 2013 four-fifths of British Columbia’s central-southern pine forest will be gone. Wafted eastwards by strong winds, in 2002 the beastie made its debut in northern Alberta and further south in the national parks of Jasper, Banff and Kananaskis on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It has advanced 400 kilometres (250 miles) across the province to Slave Lake. The beetle is now established in Alberta, despite vigorous cutting and burning.
It is closing in on the vast boreal forest. It is only 100km from the nearest outbreak, and winds can carry newly-hatched pine beetles up to 300km a year, notes Allan Carroll of the Canadian Forest Service. The boreal forest is mainly composed of jack pines, which lack the natural defences of the lodgepole pine; this has evolved in coexistence with the beetles.
The hope is that the infestation will stall on Alberta’s eastern border with Saskatchewan, where large stands of jack pine are scarce. Better still would be a long, bitterly cold winter like those that were common until the 1980s. “Climate change is unequivocally affecting the outbreak,” says Mr Carroll. They may be big energy consumers, but many western Canadians have also started to worry about what carbon emissions may be doing to their beloved forest.
World - A flying tiger
India relaunches its effort to save tigers
ON JUNE 30th a doped five-year-old tiger flew 300km by helicopter, from a small Indian national park replete with tigers, Ranthambore, to a bigger park, Sariska, which had none. This was the first attempt to relocate wild tigers in India since the 1930s—and an indication of how desperate the species’ plight has become.
According to the best recent estimate, released in February by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), a government-funded research body, India has about 1,400 tigers. This figure—equivalent to just under half the world’s tigers—was much lower than official estimates. It represented a 60% decline in India’s tiger population over five years. Sadly, this was not surprising.
ShutterstockBurning bright
Demand for tiger skins, as well as bones, penises and other parts used in Chinese traditional medicine, has boomed, pegged to China’s rapid economic growth. At the same time, conservation efforts in India have fallen from woeful to worse. The forest service, which looks after areas where tigers roam, is a portly shadow of its 1970s self, when Indira Gandhi launched her celebrated feline rescue plan, Project Tiger.
In the way of Indian public servants, many forestry officials have grown fat, old and corrupt. This makes them ill-suited to vigorous patrolling. Moreover, many are complacent, at best, in the face of lean and sophisticated poaching gangs. These typically pay forest-dwellers—members of India’s most marginalised tribal communities—to slaughter tigers to order, and then cart the carcasses north of the Himalayas, where they may fetch tens of thousands of dollars each.
Until recently, India’s government denied that a slaughter was taking place. And Sariska, the flying tiger’s new home, was an emblem of this. According to a 2004 government estimate, the park had 16-18 tigers. Yet the following year WII confirmed what many had claimed: that the park had in fact been emptied of tigers.
The tigers’ lot is not unlike that in 1972, when Project Tiger began. Then, tiger numbers had for the first time dropped below 2,000—down from an estimated 40,000 at the end of the 19th century. In a flurry of autocratic activity—producing new legal protections for tigers and new kit for its custodians—Mrs Gandhi reversed that decline; the tiger population may have doubled over the following 15 years.
Yet, even if she wanted to, India’s current supremo, Mrs Gandhi’s daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi, has less license to fight tooth-and-claw for the big cat. She presides, from the wings, over a weak and unstable coalition, led by her Congress party. Attracting the votes of the many poor people who live in tiger habitat has been a more pressing concern for her government than preserving the lives of unenfranchised tigers.
But no government wants to see the tiger, an emblem of India, go extinct on its watch. So, the government is taking some action, of which the relocation to Sariska was an important sign. The pioneer five-year-old was joined on July 4th by a young female from Ranthambore. Another female is scheduled to make the same journey shortly.
To boost their chances of survival, the Rajasthan government has uprooted a village away from the release site and has plans to move three more. The affected villagers are being resettled outside the park, with compensation promised at up to $25,000 per family. This will be paid by India’s central government, which allocated $153m to tiger protection in February.
This pot should enable state governments to move up to 200,000 people from 27 current tiger sanctuaries, and another eight promised sanctuaries. It may also cover the cost of a plan to create “green corridors” between tiger habitats, allowing the cats to cross-fertilise their isolated gene pools. After its quiet decline, this is a hopeful time for the Royal Bengal tiger.
But sustaining the momentum will be difficult—for all the reasons why Project Tiger petered out into failure. Where there is poverty, people and tigers cannot easily co-exist. And in India, an agrarian country with a billion-plus people, land is dreadfully scarce.
So, too is efficiency in government. By Congress's own rule of thumb-attributed to Rajiv Gandhi, a former leader, in the 1980s and since echoed by many activists and politicians-85% of welfare spending fails to reach its intended recipients. In the long-run, as Project Tiger showed, that may also be the fate of conservation spending.
Given these long odds—even as Sariska’s new apex predator sniffs out its range—there are some who think the tiger’s survival too unlikely to waste time and money on. After all, India also has some 600m people to save from poverty. And, moreover, there are numerous less glamorous species, of beetles and birds, which might be saved with conservation cash expended on tigers.
But, had these critics actually seen a tiger, they might say different.
World - The War President
MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE, Sri Lanka’s president, shakes out his white outfit and spreads his bare toes with a satisfied air. “We have concentrated on the LTTE [the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam],” he says, “because unless we defeat them, we will have no peace and development.” In January he abrogated a ceasefire and stepped up a brutal two-year offensive against the no-less-brutal LTTE. This week his army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, claimed the operation had succeeded. The Tigers, said the general, had lost the capability of fighting as a conventional army. “We have defeated them.”
The Tigers have not surrendered and would presumably disagree. But the president’s brother, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is also defence secretary, says the government has a once-in-a-generation chance to crush them. General Fonseka claims the Tigers have lost 9,000 fighters since 2006. They were driven from one big Tamil town, Jaffna, in 1995. Now they no longer pose a threat to another, Trincomalee.
In 2005 they enforced a boycott of a presidential election in the areas they controlled. Last year they were driven from the eastern part of their northern stronghold and failed to stop the ensuing provincial vote (one that most independent observers considered deeply flawed). The Tigers split in 2004. One of the group’s former child soldiers, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (known as Pillayan), whose still-armed militia contested the election as born-again democrats, has become chief minister of the Eastern Province—the highest-ranking elected office held by a Tamil.
Perhaps most important, the LTTE is said to have lost much of its foreign backing. Two years ago Tamil organisations could still raise money freely in Europe. Now, the LTTE are on many terrorist lists (America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation dubs them “the most dangerous and deadly extremists in the world”). Canada has added the World Tamil Movement, a Tiger front, to its banned list; Italy has arrested 33 suspected LTTE financiers in one of the biggest crackdowns in years.
Yet it is much too soon to declare victory. The Tigers, a small guerrilla force of around 5,000 fighters, have repeatedly resisted conventional attack. In the 1980s, they beat back India’s army. Their fearsome leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, remains at large. Trincomalee bristles with soldiers and checkpoints. Even if they were to lose the territory they hold, the Tigers could still sink back into the local population and launch attacks from there.
For that reason, says President Rajapakse, the real test of whether the Tigers are defeated will be their willingness to lay down their arms and negotiate. There is no sign, yet, that they are willing to do so.
But the claim of victory is still important, for it represents a test for the president, too. His government has been consumed by war to the detriment of other things, notably basic human rights. President Rajapakse is a former human-rights activist who in 1990 called on donors to link aid to human rights and told parliament: “We are prepared to go to any lengths to save human rights from this government.” Now he stands accused of the very abuses he criticised. Defeating the Tigers might allow him to show his government in a better light.
That would mean, first, offering the Tamils genuine self-government. A system of devolution exists but has not been implemented. The system is feeble—Pillayan describes it as “just a start”—but there is little excuse for withholding it now there is an elected council in the east, home to Sinhalese and Muslims as well as Tamils.
Next, it would mean tackling neglected economic problems. The country is showing signs of a wage-price spiral, with annual inflation touching 26%, labour unrest and a threatened general strike. The convener of a teachers’ union, the delightfully named Joseph Stalin, says teachers are refusing to mark exam papers. The central bank is trying to break the wage-price cycle by a credit squeeze but its efforts are being undermined by government spending on the war. The budget deficit is 9% of GDP and there is pressure to spend even more on roads, canals, hospitals and Tamil-speaking nurses in the war-ravaged east.
Most important, improving the government’s reputation means allaying political and human-rights concerns. The Sinhalese, some 80% of the population, are Buddhists, who pride themselves on tolerance and calm. In his white costume, scarlet scarf and sandals, President Rajapakse cultivates the image of a beneficent guru. Yet the war has hardened attitudes. Criticism of it is called treason. “I’ve never seen the country so polarised,” says Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a think-tank.
The press has been a bellwether. Basil Rajapakse, another of the president’s brothers, who is his chief adviser on domestic politics, says—unreassuringly— that the government does not want a law on censorship “but a voluntary self-control”. Accusations of harassment are frequent. This week a journalist from the Sri Lankan Press Institute, which had just launched defamation proceedings against a government-controlled newspaper, was attacked by club-wielding thugs, while travelling with a British diplomat, who was also clubbed. Late last year the International Press Institute put Sri Lanka on its watch-list of countries where the media’s situation is precarious, along with Russia.
More subtly, politics seem to have become less open and accountable. The reins of power have been drawn into the hands of the three Rajapakse brothers. In a region where democratic dynasties are common, the Rajapakse clan is unusual. It does not hail from the traditional English-speaking elite that produced Sri Lanka’s other presidents. Mahinda, from Hambantota, represents the rural south, the Buddhist provincial bourgeoisie, rather than the urban elite. To offset weak traditional loyalties, he has curried favour by lavish ministerial appointments. Sri Lanka has a huge, 108-strong cabinet. One minister resigned, saying his ministry should be abolished since it had nothing to do.
This has worrying consequences. Democratic Sri Lanka, which suffered more than most from the 2004 tsunami, has the sort of relations with international agencies you would associate with Sudan. In May it lost its seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council (not a body demanding the highest standards: Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia are members). America’s State Department has cited credible reports of government involvement in extra-judicial killings, and complicity in the recruitment of child soldiers by its allies. Sri Lanka’s mission in Geneva responds to criticism by calling the former head of the UNHRC, Louise Arbour, unqualified to monitor human rights in the country. This dispute is self-defeating. Under a trade deal with the European Union called GSP-plus, Sri Lanka’s garment exports (its second-largest source of foreign exchange) enjoy duty-free access to the EU. But GSP-plus hinges partly on human rights. Sri Lanka risks losing its privileges.
The president was elected on a platform of getting tough with the Tigers. But that was thanks partly to the boycott imposed by the Tigers themselves. Hardline governments, they reckon, end up helping their cause by driving even moderate Tamils into their clutches. Mr Rajapakse has driven the Tigers from the east, held an election there and claims to be closing in on victory. Yet the costs have been enormous and if the Tigers refuse to negotiate, there seems to be no alternative strategy to one entailing more bloodshed. Asked about this, Mr Rajapakse says the Tigers will be forced to talk—and, in a gesture he uses when nettled, shoves his bare feet firmly back into his sandals
The Tigers have not surrendered and would presumably disagree. But the president’s brother, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is also defence secretary, says the government has a once-in-a-generation chance to crush them. General Fonseka claims the Tigers have lost 9,000 fighters since 2006. They were driven from one big Tamil town, Jaffna, in 1995. Now they no longer pose a threat to another, Trincomalee.
In 2005 they enforced a boycott of a presidential election in the areas they controlled. Last year they were driven from the eastern part of their northern stronghold and failed to stop the ensuing provincial vote (one that most independent observers considered deeply flawed). The Tigers split in 2004. One of the group’s former child soldiers, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (known as Pillayan), whose still-armed militia contested the election as born-again democrats, has become chief minister of the Eastern Province—the highest-ranking elected office held by a Tamil.
Perhaps most important, the LTTE is said to have lost much of its foreign backing. Two years ago Tamil organisations could still raise money freely in Europe. Now, the LTTE are on many terrorist lists (America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation dubs them “the most dangerous and deadly extremists in the world”). Canada has added the World Tamil Movement, a Tiger front, to its banned list; Italy has arrested 33 suspected LTTE financiers in one of the biggest crackdowns in years.
Yet it is much too soon to declare victory. The Tigers, a small guerrilla force of around 5,000 fighters, have repeatedly resisted conventional attack. In the 1980s, they beat back India’s army. Their fearsome leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, remains at large. Trincomalee bristles with soldiers and checkpoints. Even if they were to lose the territory they hold, the Tigers could still sink back into the local population and launch attacks from there.
For that reason, says President Rajapakse, the real test of whether the Tigers are defeated will be their willingness to lay down their arms and negotiate. There is no sign, yet, that they are willing to do so.
But the claim of victory is still important, for it represents a test for the president, too. His government has been consumed by war to the detriment of other things, notably basic human rights. President Rajapakse is a former human-rights activist who in 1990 called on donors to link aid to human rights and told parliament: “We are prepared to go to any lengths to save human rights from this government.” Now he stands accused of the very abuses he criticised. Defeating the Tigers might allow him to show his government in a better light.
That would mean, first, offering the Tamils genuine self-government. A system of devolution exists but has not been implemented. The system is feeble—Pillayan describes it as “just a start”—but there is little excuse for withholding it now there is an elected council in the east, home to Sinhalese and Muslims as well as Tamils.
Next, it would mean tackling neglected economic problems. The country is showing signs of a wage-price spiral, with annual inflation touching 26%, labour unrest and a threatened general strike. The convener of a teachers’ union, the delightfully named Joseph Stalin, says teachers are refusing to mark exam papers. The central bank is trying to break the wage-price cycle by a credit squeeze but its efforts are being undermined by government spending on the war. The budget deficit is 9% of GDP and there is pressure to spend even more on roads, canals, hospitals and Tamil-speaking nurses in the war-ravaged east.
Most important, improving the government’s reputation means allaying political and human-rights concerns. The Sinhalese, some 80% of the population, are Buddhists, who pride themselves on tolerance and calm. In his white costume, scarlet scarf and sandals, President Rajapakse cultivates the image of a beneficent guru. Yet the war has hardened attitudes. Criticism of it is called treason. “I’ve never seen the country so polarised,” says Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a think-tank.
The press has been a bellwether. Basil Rajapakse, another of the president’s brothers, who is his chief adviser on domestic politics, says—unreassuringly— that the government does not want a law on censorship “but a voluntary self-control”. Accusations of harassment are frequent. This week a journalist from the Sri Lankan Press Institute, which had just launched defamation proceedings against a government-controlled newspaper, was attacked by club-wielding thugs, while travelling with a British diplomat, who was also clubbed. Late last year the International Press Institute put Sri Lanka on its watch-list of countries where the media’s situation is precarious, along with Russia.
More subtly, politics seem to have become less open and accountable. The reins of power have been drawn into the hands of the three Rajapakse brothers. In a region where democratic dynasties are common, the Rajapakse clan is unusual. It does not hail from the traditional English-speaking elite that produced Sri Lanka’s other presidents. Mahinda, from Hambantota, represents the rural south, the Buddhist provincial bourgeoisie, rather than the urban elite. To offset weak traditional loyalties, he has curried favour by lavish ministerial appointments. Sri Lanka has a huge, 108-strong cabinet. One minister resigned, saying his ministry should be abolished since it had nothing to do.
This has worrying consequences. Democratic Sri Lanka, which suffered more than most from the 2004 tsunami, has the sort of relations with international agencies you would associate with Sudan. In May it lost its seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council (not a body demanding the highest standards: Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia are members). America’s State Department has cited credible reports of government involvement in extra-judicial killings, and complicity in the recruitment of child soldiers by its allies. Sri Lanka’s mission in Geneva responds to criticism by calling the former head of the UNHRC, Louise Arbour, unqualified to monitor human rights in the country. This dispute is self-defeating. Under a trade deal with the European Union called GSP-plus, Sri Lanka’s garment exports (its second-largest source of foreign exchange) enjoy duty-free access to the EU. But GSP-plus hinges partly on human rights. Sri Lanka risks losing its privileges.
The president was elected on a platform of getting tough with the Tigers. But that was thanks partly to the boycott imposed by the Tigers themselves. Hardline governments, they reckon, end up helping their cause by driving even moderate Tamils into their clutches. Mr Rajapakse has driven the Tigers from the east, held an election there and claims to be closing in on victory. Yet the costs have been enormous and if the Tigers refuse to negotiate, there seems to be no alternative strategy to one entailing more bloodshed. Asked about this, Mr Rajapakse says the Tigers will be forced to talk—and, in a gesture he uses when nettled, shoves his bare feet firmly back into his sandals
World - Continuing to fail
NAIROBIFrom The Economist print edition
Will Somalia ever get the peacekeepers it needs?
AFTER months of delicate negotiations, Somalia’s internationally recognised but feeble transitional government and its Islamist opposition agreed to work together to rebuild their ruined country. Under an agreement signed in neighbouring Djibouti in June, Ethiopia, which invaded Somalia in late 2006 to prop up the ailing secular-minded Somali government, was to withdraw its troops. Somalia’s Islamists, who have been fighting an insurgency ever since, would stand their fighters down. It would have been a breakthrough for a country that has lacked a central government since the fall of its long-time dictator, Siad Barre, in 1991. But the deal was stillborn. Since then, Somalia has rotted away, a victim of international indifference and its own internecine history.
Somalia’s more extreme Islamists have shown their contempt for the moderates by stepping up their attacks. The extremists are led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a wily former army officer who flirted with peace before rejecting it. He is aided by fighters loosely linked to the Shabab (“the Youth”), the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, which briefly ran most of the country in 2006, plus nationalist Somalis from disaffected bits of the powerful Hawiye clan and criminals flying a jihadist flag of convenience. And now al-Qaeda is sensing an opportunity in a country where it has previously got nowhere. Abu al-Libi, one of its top men, who escaped from the American Bagram prison camp in Afghanistan in 2005, has circulated a video on the internet calling on foreigners to fight alongside the Somali jihadists, with the aim of establishing a caliphate.
The extremists are helped by the continuing presence of Ethiopian troops. Most Somalis in Mogadishu, the capital, still resent them. After a recent retaliatory Ethiopian mortar attack, a Somali living in the capital described how he helped his neighbours: “We collected the flesh of their bodies that was stuck to the walls.” Some 6,500 Somalis, many of them civilians, may have been killed since Ethiopia invaded early last year, though no one really knows the number.
The UN reckons that 2.6m out of 8m Somalis need help to keep fed and sheltered; some 1m have fled from their homes. That figure could rise with the recent failure of crops and the death of animals from drought. Spiralling food costs and the diving value of the Somali shilling have made things worse. Families are dying of hunger in camps for the internally displaced on the main road south of Mogadishu.
Somalia may be one of the most dangerous places in the world for one citizen to help another. Those who do often pay with their lives. Last week insurgents killed Muhammad Hassan Kulmiye, a brave local peace campaigner, and kidnapped a local head of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. Workers from several agencies, including Oxfam and the UN’s World Food Programme, have been shot dead in recent weeks. Foreign aid workers from Kenya, Britain and Italy have been kidnapped and are still unaccounted for.
The United States had hoped that Ethiopia’s intervention would secure regional stability by eliminating the more extreme Islamists. But it has succeeded mainly in pushing the more moderate ones together with the most belligerent. America’s decision earlier this year to list the Shabab as a terrorist group has given American force commanders a green light to launch air strikes and send covert missions into Somalia. Some missiles fired from American submarines off the Somali coast have indeed killed Islamist insurgent leaders. But others have missed them—and killed Somali civilians instead.
Most moderate Somalis deplore the air strikes. So do most of the British, Swedish, Italian and Kenyan diplomats involved in Somalia (and based in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi), as do many in America’s own State Department. They say that the raids have weakened Somalia’s moderates and strengthened the extremists.
The insurgency may be getting fiercer again. Government officials, including the president, Abdullahi Yusuf, an implacable foe of the hardliners, face frequent assassination attempts. Islamist insurgents have attacked towns and villages across the country, including some close to the border with Kenya. Its army has been deployed at the border and sometimes across it, but has been unable to stem the influx of Somali refugees. A complicated situation has been made worse by Eritrea, which supports Somalia’s hardliners because they are killing Ethiopians, whom the Eritreans deem to be their enemy.
The only hope at present is for a robust international peacekeeping force to come in and allow the Ethiopians to withdraw. The UN Security Council has passed resolutions paving the way for its own blue-helmet mission. But this is unlikely to happen. UN-backed peacekeepers have an unhappy history in Somalia and furthermore the UN lacks resources. It took a lot of political pressure to get the Security Council to agree to send peacekeepers to Darfur, the blighted western region of Sudan; they have yet to arrive in the promised numbers months after they were due. Nor is it likely that the African Union will add to its few thousand peacekeepers, mainly Ugandans, in Mogadishu. Western diplomats working on Somalia say their reports make little impact on their governments back home. Despite the misery, the international will is lacking. So Somalia remains abandoned, lawless and too dangerous for most outsiders to operate in.
Will Somalia ever get the peacekeepers it needs?
AFTER months of delicate negotiations, Somalia’s internationally recognised but feeble transitional government and its Islamist opposition agreed to work together to rebuild their ruined country. Under an agreement signed in neighbouring Djibouti in June, Ethiopia, which invaded Somalia in late 2006 to prop up the ailing secular-minded Somali government, was to withdraw its troops. Somalia’s Islamists, who have been fighting an insurgency ever since, would stand their fighters down. It would have been a breakthrough for a country that has lacked a central government since the fall of its long-time dictator, Siad Barre, in 1991. But the deal was stillborn. Since then, Somalia has rotted away, a victim of international indifference and its own internecine history.
Somalia’s more extreme Islamists have shown their contempt for the moderates by stepping up their attacks. The extremists are led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a wily former army officer who flirted with peace before rejecting it. He is aided by fighters loosely linked to the Shabab (“the Youth”), the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, which briefly ran most of the country in 2006, plus nationalist Somalis from disaffected bits of the powerful Hawiye clan and criminals flying a jihadist flag of convenience. And now al-Qaeda is sensing an opportunity in a country where it has previously got nowhere. Abu al-Libi, one of its top men, who escaped from the American Bagram prison camp in Afghanistan in 2005, has circulated a video on the internet calling on foreigners to fight alongside the Somali jihadists, with the aim of establishing a caliphate.
The extremists are helped by the continuing presence of Ethiopian troops. Most Somalis in Mogadishu, the capital, still resent them. After a recent retaliatory Ethiopian mortar attack, a Somali living in the capital described how he helped his neighbours: “We collected the flesh of their bodies that was stuck to the walls.” Some 6,500 Somalis, many of them civilians, may have been killed since Ethiopia invaded early last year, though no one really knows the number.
The UN reckons that 2.6m out of 8m Somalis need help to keep fed and sheltered; some 1m have fled from their homes. That figure could rise with the recent failure of crops and the death of animals from drought. Spiralling food costs and the diving value of the Somali shilling have made things worse. Families are dying of hunger in camps for the internally displaced on the main road south of Mogadishu.
Somalia may be one of the most dangerous places in the world for one citizen to help another. Those who do often pay with their lives. Last week insurgents killed Muhammad Hassan Kulmiye, a brave local peace campaigner, and kidnapped a local head of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. Workers from several agencies, including Oxfam and the UN’s World Food Programme, have been shot dead in recent weeks. Foreign aid workers from Kenya, Britain and Italy have been kidnapped and are still unaccounted for.
The United States had hoped that Ethiopia’s intervention would secure regional stability by eliminating the more extreme Islamists. But it has succeeded mainly in pushing the more moderate ones together with the most belligerent. America’s decision earlier this year to list the Shabab as a terrorist group has given American force commanders a green light to launch air strikes and send covert missions into Somalia. Some missiles fired from American submarines off the Somali coast have indeed killed Islamist insurgent leaders. But others have missed them—and killed Somali civilians instead.
Most moderate Somalis deplore the air strikes. So do most of the British, Swedish, Italian and Kenyan diplomats involved in Somalia (and based in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi), as do many in America’s own State Department. They say that the raids have weakened Somalia’s moderates and strengthened the extremists.
The insurgency may be getting fiercer again. Government officials, including the president, Abdullahi Yusuf, an implacable foe of the hardliners, face frequent assassination attempts. Islamist insurgents have attacked towns and villages across the country, including some close to the border with Kenya. Its army has been deployed at the border and sometimes across it, but has been unable to stem the influx of Somali refugees. A complicated situation has been made worse by Eritrea, which supports Somalia’s hardliners because they are killing Ethiopians, whom the Eritreans deem to be their enemy.
The only hope at present is for a robust international peacekeeping force to come in and allow the Ethiopians to withdraw. The UN Security Council has passed resolutions paving the way for its own blue-helmet mission. But this is unlikely to happen. UN-backed peacekeepers have an unhappy history in Somalia and furthermore the UN lacks resources. It took a lot of political pressure to get the Security Council to agree to send peacekeepers to Darfur, the blighted western region of Sudan; they have yet to arrive in the promised numbers months after they were due. Nor is it likely that the African Union will add to its few thousand peacekeepers, mainly Ugandans, in Mogadishu. Western diplomats working on Somalia say their reports make little impact on their governments back home. Despite the misery, the international will is lacking. So Somalia remains abandoned, lawless and too dangerous for most outsiders to operate in.
World - A dubious trade
WHAT is the right price for a dead soldier? The question has gripped Israel this week after the government said that it had accepted a prisoner swap with Hizbullah, Lebanon’s Shia militia.
Under the deal, Israel will surrender Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese who has been in jail since he killed three Israelis in 1979, as well as four other Lebanese prisoners and the remains of several more. Later on, it will turn over an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners to Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. In return it will get back Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, two soldiers whom Hizbullah kidnapped two years ago, sparking a five-week-long war, along with a report on the fate of Ron Arad, an air force officer whose plane was downed over Lebanon in 1986 and who was known to be alive until talks to release him broke down in 1988. Mr Arad has long been presumed dead, and the government says Mr Goldwasser and Mr Regev probably are too.
Some newspaper pundits praised the exchange as proof of how highly Israel values its soldiers, even when dead. Others mournfully recalled the glorious days when Israel refused to do deals with hijackers and hostage-takers and launched daring rescue raids instead (though in this case, a raid would have had little chance of success). And the heads of Israel’s domestic and foreign security services both opposed the deal as giving the enemy too much for too little. Hizbullah’s chest-thumping over having liberated captive “freedom fighters” can hardly make Israeli hawks sleep easier. That a little-known group claiming affiliation to Hizbullah also took responsibility for a bulldozer rampage by a young Palestinian in Jerusalem on July 2nd, which claimed three Israeli lives, has added to the unease.
But Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, needed a victory. Corruption scandals, criticisms over his handling of the 2006 Lebanon war and pressure from the missing soldiers’ families through the media had pushed Labour, the second party in Mr Olmert’s governing coalition, to present him with a choice: face early parliamentary elections, or hold primaries within his Kadima party by September 25th. He chose the latter. Despite everything, if he notches up some successes before then he might still see off his rivals within Kadima.
The Lebanese swap, which could take place in the next fortnight, would be the first success. The next could be to close a deal with Hamas to exchange Gilad Shalit, a soldier it has been holding (alive) in Gaza for two years, for more Palestinian prisoners—possibly over a thousand, making it the most expensive such swap in Israel’s history. Again, for a weakened prime minister, the pressure to get Mr Shalit back safely has been intense.
But the talks with Hamas, being mediated by Egypt, can go ahead only if a ceasefire that the two sides agreed last month holds. It has been breached almost since the first moment. Other militant groups in Gaza have launched a handful of mortars and rockets at Israel, provoking exasperation from Hamas, which seems unable to control them. Israel, for its part, has kept shut border crossings with Gaza that it was supposed to open, and several times Israeli troops have shot at Palestinians who strayed near the Gaza border fence, injuring at least one.
The third thing that might win Mr Olmert some points is the peace talks he recently launched with Syria. Direct talks last foundered in 2000, though the two sides were reportedly close to a deal in which Israel would return the Golan Heights that it occupied in 1967. The current talks have so far been indirect, with Turkish mediators shuttling between Israeli and Syrian officials in Ankara. But there is much speculation that Mr Olmert may talk to or shake hands with Bashar Assad, the Syrian president, at a summit of European and Mediterranean leaders in Paris on July 13th.
That would be a small but significant gesture. But further progress would still be hard. Domestic opposition in Israel to returning the Golan, where about 17,000 Israelis have settled and many more take their holidays, is strong. Israelis want another sign of goodwill from Syria, such as returning the remains of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who was convicted and hanged in 1965. A Syrian with experience in unofficial “track-two” negotiations suggests that Israel could make its own gesture by relinquishing the Shabaa Farms, a small, unpopulated nub of territory on the Golan which Lebanon claims as its own. America has proposed that Israel hand it over to the UN. “It doesn’t matter who it really belongs to,” says the Syrian. “Give it up and you would kill two birds with one stone.”
Under the deal, Israel will surrender Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese who has been in jail since he killed three Israelis in 1979, as well as four other Lebanese prisoners and the remains of several more. Later on, it will turn over an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners to Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. In return it will get back Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, two soldiers whom Hizbullah kidnapped two years ago, sparking a five-week-long war, along with a report on the fate of Ron Arad, an air force officer whose plane was downed over Lebanon in 1986 and who was known to be alive until talks to release him broke down in 1988. Mr Arad has long been presumed dead, and the government says Mr Goldwasser and Mr Regev probably are too.
Some newspaper pundits praised the exchange as proof of how highly Israel values its soldiers, even when dead. Others mournfully recalled the glorious days when Israel refused to do deals with hijackers and hostage-takers and launched daring rescue raids instead (though in this case, a raid would have had little chance of success). And the heads of Israel’s domestic and foreign security services both opposed the deal as giving the enemy too much for too little. Hizbullah’s chest-thumping over having liberated captive “freedom fighters” can hardly make Israeli hawks sleep easier. That a little-known group claiming affiliation to Hizbullah also took responsibility for a bulldozer rampage by a young Palestinian in Jerusalem on July 2nd, which claimed three Israeli lives, has added to the unease.
But Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, needed a victory. Corruption scandals, criticisms over his handling of the 2006 Lebanon war and pressure from the missing soldiers’ families through the media had pushed Labour, the second party in Mr Olmert’s governing coalition, to present him with a choice: face early parliamentary elections, or hold primaries within his Kadima party by September 25th. He chose the latter. Despite everything, if he notches up some successes before then he might still see off his rivals within Kadima.
The Lebanese swap, which could take place in the next fortnight, would be the first success. The next could be to close a deal with Hamas to exchange Gilad Shalit, a soldier it has been holding (alive) in Gaza for two years, for more Palestinian prisoners—possibly over a thousand, making it the most expensive such swap in Israel’s history. Again, for a weakened prime minister, the pressure to get Mr Shalit back safely has been intense.
But the talks with Hamas, being mediated by Egypt, can go ahead only if a ceasefire that the two sides agreed last month holds. It has been breached almost since the first moment. Other militant groups in Gaza have launched a handful of mortars and rockets at Israel, provoking exasperation from Hamas, which seems unable to control them. Israel, for its part, has kept shut border crossings with Gaza that it was supposed to open, and several times Israeli troops have shot at Palestinians who strayed near the Gaza border fence, injuring at least one.
The third thing that might win Mr Olmert some points is the peace talks he recently launched with Syria. Direct talks last foundered in 2000, though the two sides were reportedly close to a deal in which Israel would return the Golan Heights that it occupied in 1967. The current talks have so far been indirect, with Turkish mediators shuttling between Israeli and Syrian officials in Ankara. But there is much speculation that Mr Olmert may talk to or shake hands with Bashar Assad, the Syrian president, at a summit of European and Mediterranean leaders in Paris on July 13th.
That would be a small but significant gesture. But further progress would still be hard. Domestic opposition in Israel to returning the Golan, where about 17,000 Israelis have settled and many more take their holidays, is strong. Israelis want another sign of goodwill from Syria, such as returning the remains of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who was convicted and hanged in 1965. A Syrian with experience in unofficial “track-two” negotiations suggests that Israel could make its own gesture by relinquishing the Shabaa Farms, a small, unpopulated nub of territory on the Golan which Lebanon claims as its own. America has proposed that Israel hand it over to the UN. “It doesn’t matter who it really belongs to,” says the Syrian. “Give it up and you would kill two birds with one stone.”
Business - OnMobile to play audio ads on mobile calls
Mobile value added services (VAS) company OnMobile has launched an audio advertising platform for operators. Called AdRBT (ad ringback tones), the service will play audio ads to callers when they dial a mobile number. In other words, when a person calls someone on his mobile, he will hear an ad while the phone is ringing. Interestingly, this ad will be based on the preferences of the caller, which OnMobile will derive from the caller’s mobile number. Therefore, every call made will lead to a different ad.The subscriber on whose phone the AdRBT is playing will have to give permission by subscribing to the service. In return, the subscriber will receive some incentive from the operator. OnMobile estimates that a subscriber receives 10 calls daily on an average. Explaining the concept to afaqs!, Debraj Tripathy, head of mobile marketing at OnMobile, says, “Subscribers may be gratified by operators allowing songs to play for specific callers, or they may get free SMSes and so on.”AdRBT will also allow callers to respond to the ad by requesting for more information by pressing a specific key while the ad is playing. For example, by pressing the # key, the caller can receive an SMS from the advertiser at the end of the call. “For now, the ads are being sold on an impression basis. However, as we work out how often people respond to AdRBT and to what type of ads, we will start making deals with advertisers based on response rates in about six-eight months,” adds Tripathy.The ads can be targeted based on the location and VAS usage of the caller. The VAS usage data gives information such as what handset the caller is using, whether he uses the roaming service, how often he travels abroad, the types of ringtones he downloads and the services he uses. OnMobile will also play ads in regional languages.Apart from choosing the profile of the customer, advertisers will also be able to specify the number of times they want their ad to be played in, say, a week or a month, says Tripathy. They can also specify how many times they want their ad to be played to a particular caller in a fixed time period. AdRBT will also allow for storyboard ads to be played. Therefore, each caller can hear a series of ads based on a story or concept. Though this is a good opportunity for advertisers, how will subscribers take to AdRBT? It’s early to say, but Tripathy says that research conducted by OnMobile shows that “subscribers think it is a good concept if the gratification is right”. Something similar to AdRBT was tried by Reliance Communications in January when it promoted the Reliance Power IPO by playing its ad as a caller ringback tune (CRBT) on most Reliance mobiles. This did not go down too well with the subscribers, who found it to be an unwanted service, without any incentive.Tripathy says, “What Reliance Communications did was a corporate campaign, where the same ad was played for all callers. AdRBT is different because it will play targeted ads with the permission of the subscriber.”OnMobile has also tied up with a network operator for AdRBT, but has not announced the deal yet.
Business - Ticketwala.com
Ticketvala.com, the portal for booking bus tickets, is rolling out a national campaign to promote its services. The campaign will be largely in print, but will be supported by radio, outdoor and online media. The company, which offers ticket home delivery services in seven major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, has started off the campaign in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. It will soon be moving to the Northern cities. Haranath Lokanadham, chief executive officer and president of Ticketvala.com, says the company is spending Rs 2.3-3 crore on the campaign, a fair amount of which will go into print ads. The campaign has been created by Saints and Warriors in Mumbai. The simple print ads are based on a single premise – convenience to the customer. With the tagline of ‘Click or call, that’s all!’, there is a series of six print ads with headlines such as ‘Learn from politicians when it comes to tickets. Get things done on phone.’ Lokanadham says that apart from English, the campaign may be launched in regional languages, too. Speaking about the campaign, Pushpinder Singh, chairman of Saints and Warriors, says, “Ticketvala.com has an edge because of the technology it has perfected for bus fleet operators. However, the customer is not concerned about technology and his key motive for coming on the site is convenience.”The agency has created a mascot for Ticketvala, which, Singh says, “stands for convenience and represents the common man”.The radio spot in English is a spoof on actor Rajnikanth’s style and is in the form of a jingle. The same ad will be played in all the cities as it has been created with pan India appeal, according to the agency.The outdoor campaign will be based on the print ads, but there will be some localisation in each city and will refer to the locations in each city where people go to buy bus tickets. Ticketvala recently hired Mudra Connext, an independent agency of Mudra MAX, as its integrated media agency. Lokanadham says about 250 tickets are booked per day on the site from more than 300 operators. “We hope to double this number (of bookings) after the campaign,” he adds. Ticketvala is owned by Travis Internet Pvt. Ltd and was launched in 2006. It originally focused on providing technology solutions to bus operators. In 2007, it launched bus ticketing and delivery services for consumers through the portal and a toll free number. The company received $2 million in funding from FootPrint Ventures in November 2007. Ticketvala is also expanding into other services, such as budget hotels, car hire and bus hire
Sport - BCCI's 2nd innings with Champions T20
Twenty20 cricket is back again, but this time in an international avatar. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to offer telecast rights for the Champions Twenty20 tournament in which domestic clubs from various countries will battle it out for top honours this September.Telecast rights for the 15-match extravaganza over eight days are expected to fetch between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 1,500 crore. The BCCI still has to decide whether to sell the rights for five or ten years.For the DLF IPL tournament, the Sony-World Sports Group consortium paid $1.03 billion (around Rs 4,120 crore) for telecast rights for ten years.Sony paid around 7 crore per match (for 59 matches) for the IPL. The cost of telecast rights per match in the new world Twenty20 will be Rs 6.6 crore to Rs 10 crore.Media experts expect an enthusiastic response to the tournament. "The one-dayer 50-50 format has died down. We expect that it will be possible to charge a premium for the Champion Twenty20 tournament," said an executive of Madison Media, a leading media buying agency."We are looking at an ad slot of Rs 3.5 lakh for ten seconds for main sponsors against IPL's Rs 2.5 lakh. We can cash in on the IPL's success and the tournament is just before Dussehra, the festival season," the executive added.Media sources, however, said the BCCI could also choose not to invite bids and sell the rights to any channel instead, since the tournament was a private property. BCCI vice-president and IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said: "The details of the procedure need to be finalised."Sources said the BCCI was still seeking clearance from some international boards (for participation), which was causing the delay.In the first year, the Champions Twenty20 will have four nations participating with two teams from each nation. As of now, only India, Australia and South Africa have confirmed their participation. The second year will witness seven nations participating, said Modi.The two teams representing India will be the finalists of the DLF IPL, which implies that for the first season Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings will play in the tournament.Meanwhile, a decision needs to be taken on international players. For instance, Australian cricketer Shane Watson plays for Rajasthan Royals. However with Australia participating in the league, the question is which team the cricketer should play for.
Business - Paid mobile entertainment losing steam
Aminah Sheikh & Shivani Shinde Business Standard Mumbai, July 10, 2008
Good broadband connectivity and a robust business model can put the service back on track.Content providers who, till a couple of months back, were bullish on making money from mobile entertainment are now going slow with their expansion plans.Consider this. Leading broadcaster Star India's mobile interactive division, Star Mobile Entertainment — which made some serious headway in the space by launching a service whereby mobile users could opt to view soaps from across Star India's network -— recently reviewed its operational strategy.When the initiative was launched last year, users were charged Rs 30 per month for unlimited usage after a one-month free trial. This was in additional to the SMS and data transaction cost (Rs 10 for 1MB of data). However, having realised that the Indian market is not very conducive for such services, Star now offers this service for free.Viren Popli, senior vice-president, Star Mobile Entertainment, says: "Unless the delivery capabilities are not enhanced, there is no business model in place. Therefore, our plans on launching mobile-specific serials and so on have also been put on hold for sometime."Star is not the only player to have taken a step back. Hungama Mobile, too, which had launched Dus Kahaniya (10 short films) last year for the mobile platform, had a similar experience.Neeraj Roy, managing director, Hungama Mobile, explains: "We have observed that users are unwilling to pay for such content. Hence, it is not commercially viable to create such content in the current scenario."Industry players, however, concur that even though the concept of short films or soaps for the mobile platform does not make commercial sense, it is an important step forward for content providers."Consumption patterns are changing and short form content is on a rise. But people do not want to pay for such content. It will take at least 2-3 years for users to get comfortable with the concept. Also, the infrastructure has to support the service," said a media analyst.Ishwar Jha, CEO, Digital Media Convergance, a part of ESSEL Group (promoter of Zee TV) feels that one of the prime reasons for these services not catching on is the absence of infrastructure.He adds: "For videos to be popular we would need 3G technology, for which the government is yet to solve the spectrum issue. Moreover, there is no clear revenue model, hence pricing is still a contentious issue. Besides mobile users have not been taken on to mobile TV."Zee currently provides its mobile TV services to BSNL users in North India and a beta version is being run in Mumbai. Currently, Digital Media Convergance provides mobisoaps of select TV episodes, travelogs, recipes, and movie clips.
Good broadband connectivity and a robust business model can put the service back on track.Content providers who, till a couple of months back, were bullish on making money from mobile entertainment are now going slow with their expansion plans.Consider this. Leading broadcaster Star India's mobile interactive division, Star Mobile Entertainment — which made some serious headway in the space by launching a service whereby mobile users could opt to view soaps from across Star India's network -— recently reviewed its operational strategy.When the initiative was launched last year, users were charged Rs 30 per month for unlimited usage after a one-month free trial. This was in additional to the SMS and data transaction cost (Rs 10 for 1MB of data). However, having realised that the Indian market is not very conducive for such services, Star now offers this service for free.Viren Popli, senior vice-president, Star Mobile Entertainment, says: "Unless the delivery capabilities are not enhanced, there is no business model in place. Therefore, our plans on launching mobile-specific serials and so on have also been put on hold for sometime."Star is not the only player to have taken a step back. Hungama Mobile, too, which had launched Dus Kahaniya (10 short films) last year for the mobile platform, had a similar experience.Neeraj Roy, managing director, Hungama Mobile, explains: "We have observed that users are unwilling to pay for such content. Hence, it is not commercially viable to create such content in the current scenario."Industry players, however, concur that even though the concept of short films or soaps for the mobile platform does not make commercial sense, it is an important step forward for content providers."Consumption patterns are changing and short form content is on a rise. But people do not want to pay for such content. It will take at least 2-3 years for users to get comfortable with the concept. Also, the infrastructure has to support the service," said a media analyst.Ishwar Jha, CEO, Digital Media Convergance, a part of ESSEL Group (promoter of Zee TV) feels that one of the prime reasons for these services not catching on is the absence of infrastructure.He adds: "For videos to be popular we would need 3G technology, for which the government is yet to solve the spectrum issue. Moreover, there is no clear revenue model, hence pricing is still a contentious issue. Besides mobile users have not been taken on to mobile TV."Zee currently provides its mobile TV services to BSNL users in North India and a beta version is being run in Mumbai. Currently, Digital Media Convergance provides mobisoaps of select TV episodes, travelogs, recipes, and movie clips.
Business - From Clicks to Bricks Part 2
Today, in the second part, we look at how a consumer behaves differently offline vis-à-vis at an online marketplace and the factors that contribute to the success of such offline stores, as, for instance, location. Different strokesInterestingly, the target group and consumer behaviour both change when moving from online to offline. Online customers are younger, while offline customers tend to be more broad based. The degree of involvement too differs. Take Zapak’s experience. Rohit Sharma, chief operating officer, Zapak Digital Entertainment, says, “Online gaming has two segments of gamers – casual and hardcore. The casual gamer plays games online. The age band for casual gamers is six to 35 years, whereas hardcore gamers, who play in Gameplexes, are between 12 and 25.” Since their launch in August last year, occupancy levels have shot up to 50 per cent in all 21 Gameplexes, with average footfalls of 900 a day. Each Zapak Gameplex has between 35 and 50 seats. It offers membership packs ranging between Rs 50 and Rs 2,500 to gamers. Matrimony is a different ballgame. The core profile of members on Shaadi.com is Indians between 21 and 35 years because they are considered to be in the ‘marriageable’ bracket. But the matrimonial sites’ centres cater to a wider audience of parents, family and siblings of prospective brides and bridegrooms. Shaadi’s membership fees range from Rs 2,501 for three months to Rs 15,001 for a year. In travel, buying behaviour moves from purchasing airline tickets to handling larger transactions such as holiday packages at retail stores. Holiday packages, which are a high involvement product, require a different strategy to sell. Customers have many questions and concerns, especially when it comes to travelling overseas or on a long itinerary to multiple destinations in a country. Says Deep Kalra, founder and chief executive officer, MakeMyTrip, “While they are happy to research online, we have experienced that the buying decision requires physical reassurance.” The plotting of a storeUnderstanding consumer behaviour is certainly as important as in any other business. But while online companies are normally accessible beyond geographical boundaries, these companies often have to take strategic decisions regarding location when it comes to offline stores. Travelguru, for instance, looked at launching stores in metros and Tier II cities and places which get high footfalls traditionally. A shopping mall is a great place – people can spend their weekends and also get their vacations planned. Travelguru Holidays stores have an average size of 500 square feet. “In the case of a shopping mall outlet, the customer can discuss the itinerary according to his requirements with the Travelguru staff and get hotel/ holiday vouchers at the end of his mall visit,” says Amit Kapoor, associate vice-president, business development, Travelguru, explaining the other benefits these stores offer.Cleartrip chose to launch kiosks in Big Bazaar outlets because they offer the right environment to reach out to millions of middle class Indians across the country. Zapak, on the other hand, has a young TG and the idea was to target youth hangout locations. It went for areas that see high footfalls from this TG and locations that were easily accessible. BigFlix, a home entertainment provider, looked at factors like high access areas and convenient neighbourhood locations to set up stores.Jeevansathi.com has 25-30 Match Points, each measuring 250-300 square feet in North and West India. Jeevansathi’s offline business will also capitalise on Naukri.com’s existing network of 61 offices. This network of offices is spread across the metros and Tier II cities in India. In each of the offices, manpower will be added and trained to be Jeevansathi counsellors.The Shaadi and BharatMatrimony Centres work on a franchisee model. In the former, franchisees need to make an investment of between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 12 lakh. Every centre has trained professionals as advisors and standardised services to help parents of prospective brides and bridegrooms. Everyone involved hopes that these brick and mortar outlets will cement more deals for them.The argument for onlineWill the future see more offline ventures springing up? Despite their offline jaunts, most don’t believe that offline will proliferate. Stuart Crighton, founder and COO, Cleartrip.com, for one, says that the website has taken a conscious decision to stay focused on the web (online sales contribute 95 per cent of its business). Ninety per cent of Yatra’s business too comes from online. MakeMyTrip gets 80 per cent of its revenue from online and 20 per cent from offline. Ram Badrinathan, senior director research, PhoCusWright, a US based travel market research firm with offices in Mumbai, says that despite the growth in offline stores, India will remain a technology enabled online model and real business can only be built through direct online distribution. According to him, the real estate costs, particularly in urban India, will prevent a burst of offline stores. And an offline presence of just a store or three in a city doesn’t help the brand at all. Some such as Bengaluru based Seventymm, a DVD rental firm which acquired 100 per cent equity of the Delhi based Madhouse, will have no truck with offline setups, though it does go in for below-the-line activities and roadshows. Says Subhanker Sarker, COO, “This is an eyeball to eyeball interaction where we explain to people how our online rental works. Our customers are looking at an enriching home video watching experience. We have no plans to launch stores anytime soon.” eBay India has ventured offline with initiatives like Trading Posts (offline centres where members walk in and place their listings) and Trading Points (in cyber cafés where a Web Guide helps eBay members and others in transacting on the site), but standalone stores are a no-no. “We’re not looking at launching eBay stores. We manage to reach our target audience online itself. Of the total online population of about 35-50 million, only around six million are online ‘buyers’. So, there’s a huge potential and we are looking to convert people into online buyers,” says Deepa Thomas, senior manager, pop culture, eBay India. Badrinathan feels that it will be difficult to drive substantial sales from offline stores. So, all pointers indicate that online will continue to be the primary driver with a few offline ventures providing just the right amount of impetus.
Mktg - Interview,President Jaquet Droz
Though the Swiss watch giant Swatch was introduced as a low-cost, hi-tech watch, it has travelled far and wide to reach where it is now. With the acquisition of Jaquet Droz, a 270-year-old artistic watch brand, Swatch has managed to gain a stable place in the world of luxury and limited edition watches. In an interview with BrandLine, Manuel Emch, President of Jaquet Droz, spells out his plans for India’s Rs 600-crore luxury market.
Excerpts from the interview:
Jaquet Droz is a name that has apparently almost vanished from the public perception. Why did Swatch group invest in this company?
Only a few names evoke tradition as well as a constant quest for technological and creative advances, and Jaquet Droz is one of them. Swatch’s dream to merge technology with tradition came true with this acquisition. It was founded by Pierre Jaquet Droz, a mechanical genius and a pioneer in the art of the haute horlogerie. Though it was small, it was among important brands around the 18th century. As Swatch intends to perpetuate this astonishing history of artistic watch-making with the continued renewal of unique pieces in limited series, thus contributing to the constant improvement of horological art, the acquisition made a world of difference.
What does the brand Jaquet Droz signify? What is its USP?
Jaquet Droz has developed the concept of unique pieces made to order, where the watch is treated as a work of art. The pieces are uniquely handcrafted and use the best of materials ranging from a dinosaur bone to gemstones such as aventurine, spectrolite, rutile quartz, meteorite and onyx. The Jaquet Droz watches have a trademark figure 8, a union of two circles resembling the mathematical symbol of infinity. The figure 8 is also highly appreciated because it is synonymous with prosperity in Asia; it symbolises eternity, and in many countries possessing an object bearing this symbol brings good luck. For Jaquet Droz, the 8 represents perfect balance. Almost anything about the brand revolves around this number. For instance, even our production numbers range from 8s to 888s.
What is the profile of a Jaquet Droz buyer?
A Jaquet Droz buyer could be anyone ranging from an architect or a ship builder to a sportsman or an artist. Anyone who has a creative mind and an eye for detail could be a prospective buyer. Jaquet Droz starts with a price tag of Rs 4 lakh and maintains an average of Rs 10 lakh.
How do you differentiate your marketing strategies for India?
We intend spending about 15-20 per cent of our turnover on brand awareness and retailing. We have launched four points of sale in India so far and we plan to set up standalone boutiques in the next two or three years. Initially we do not intend investing a lot in advertising. We plan to focus on personalised marketing and the Internet would be one of our biggest marketing tools. We intend promoting the brand through testimonials as we believe that our buyers are our brand ambassadors. Of course, like Swatch always has, there are collectors’ associations and clubs for Jaquet Droz as well and we plan to organise small events to increase the knowledge about the brand.
How’s the market for limited edition watches? How has the watch transformed itself from ‘an object to read time’ to ‘an object that needs to be preserved and treasured’?
The watch is not needed as an object to read time! Not anymore … Access to time is simple these days – you get it on your cell phone, you can check for it on the computer or any other gadget. The watch is the only jewel on a man’s hand, apart from the wedding ring, so it needs to be made special, artistic and technologically advanced for the beholder to preserve it for a life. India is among the top three dynamic markets in the watch-making industry and is growing at an unimaginable pace, of nearly 70 per cent.
Luxury limited edition watches involve more research, more time, and more money. Close to 8-12 per cent of Jaquet Droz’s investment is allocated to research. Developing a limited edition piece takes 24-48 months and making it 2-3 months.
What challenges do you face in marketing luxury watches in India?
For us, India is just a year-old market. The challenges, therefore, are many. To start with, the market is very young when it comes to luxury and limited edition watches. One thing that looms large when you think of the Indian market is the tax-related difficulties. The import taxes are quite high and therefore the cost structure gets really challenging. Real estate is, moreover, a big market in India; one has to be extra careful while setting up retail outlets. The distribution market is quite tricky, but the market sounds quite interesting and assuring. Challenges on the face of differentiating the needs of the consumer are, however, not much. The watch is no more valued for reading time; therefore, that is not much of a problem.
How many pieces do you produce annually and how many do you plan to sell in India?
Jaquet Droz has set itself a target of $1 million for the year ending March 2009. In another five to six years, it hopes to hit the $5-6 million mark. We produce close to 2,500 pieces a year and we plan to sell at least 200 to 300 pieces in India in the next two to three years. Right now, Switzerland, France, the US, Hong Kong and China are among the top markets. Close to 40 per cent of our investment is in China, one of the developing markets for Jaquet Droz. We are hoping India will join the league in a decade’s time.
Marketing - Maintain a power distance
Indian society is a pyramidal construction with the power gradient being steep between levels/classes. An age-old structure that Indians are very comfortable with. And the truth about a pyramidal structure is that in such a structure you either look up or look down at other people. There cannot be a third way, a relationship of equality. In such a structure either you rule or you are being ruled. Therefore the only relationships that the Indians have existed comfortably in are of either superior or subordinate.
Added to it is the historical experience of society handling power. There haven’t been too many instances in history of the middle class holding power in India. Whenever a part of the middle class has acquired power, suddenly those parts have generally displayed a change in behaviour which has been towards becoming rude. (The neo-rich class has at times tried to aggressively assert its dominance in an ugly way.)
By and large, mainstream Indians (or the middle class) are bad masters – they don’t know how to handle authority. We’ve never been good to people below us. We’ve never been too courteous to sections that perform menial tasks and in this regard we find that people in some of the Western societies are far more courteous to the bartender or the guy at the gate or the valet at the car park. The Power Distance Theory
A more scientific understanding of this behaviour comes from the study of different cultures by Geert Hofstede on various dimensions. The Hofstede model of five dimensions of national cultures has analysed and differentiated societies from 50 countries on the basis of Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism, Masculinity and Long-Term Orientation. One of the dimensions on which the 50 countries were plotted and differentiated was the Power Distance Index (PDI)
Power Distance was defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of organisations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above. The most important bit is that it suggests that in a lot of societies the level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. All societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others. On the basis of how people in different cultures willingly accept or reject these inequalities the societies in 50 different countries have been classified as small and large power distance societies.
Some of the characteristics of a large power distance society are:
Power is a basic fact of society ante-dating good or evil: its legitimacy is irrelevant
Parents teach children obedience
Older people both respected and feared
Teacher-centered education
Hierarchy means existential inequality
Subordinates expect to be told what to do
Corruption frequent; scandals are covered up
Income distribution very uneven
Religions with a hierarchy of priests
India has Power Distance as the highest Hofstede Dimension for the culture, with a ranking of 77 as compared to the world average of 56.5. This score indicates a high level of inequality of power and wealth within the society. What is important to understand is that this condition is not subverted upon the population, but rather accepted by the population as a cultural norm.
This is where India completely differs from some of the Western cultures such as Sweden, Austria, the UK, the US and Australia who have very low PDI scores less than 40 and hence are classified as low power distance societies. Hence the relationships between entities there are more equal and less hierarchical.Power distance between brands and consumers
What this means is that in the low power distance societies it is possible for brands to have the relationship of equality with the consumer. The brands can ascribe the status of ‘King’ to the consumer and yet retain the status of equal in the hierarchy. But not in a high power distance society such as India and the others. And therein, perhaps, lies the reason for the problems the service brands are facing in controlling their relationship with the consumers.
In the Western markets the consumercentric nature of brand management slowly evolved to putting the consumer at the centre of everything and started treating them as kings. But since these were all small power distance societies, even while treating the consumer as the ‘king’ the brands themselves didn’t have to compromise their own position.
Not so in a high PDI (Power Distance Index). In such cultures there can only be a hierarchical relationship between the consumer and the brand. The servile nature of the business puts the service brands at a disadvantage in consumer relationships, and over and above this when their ‘let the consumer be king’ model comes into force they completely become subservient to the consumer, leading them to start treating them with the same disdain they treat any subservient entity in their culture.
This explains why, as the service brands are falling over each other to please the consumer he is treating them with more and more contempt. Not that he dislikes being given importance but because that’s the only way he knows to treat his subject.
This also explains why the consumer was more respectful 10 years ago when he wasn’t treated too well by the State-owned brands. It is very simple. Intentionally or otherwise, the service providers then kept the power with themselves and the consumer, comfortable with being at the lower rung of the power equation, gave the brands the status of the ruler and was happy to be ruled.
But in today’s scenario, the brands have a serious challenge in front of them to retain their premiumness. Can’t Be King: What does it mean?
It simply means the brands need to be always at a higher level of hierarchy than the consumer if they need to protect the premium-ness. If the choice has to be made then the brand should be the king.
So are there examples of brands that seem to be doing it right? Are there service brands that behave like kings and have people following them? Well, there are many such as Gymkhana Club and India Habitat Centre which enjoy high premium simply because of their exclusionist positioning. The most interesting case in point is Kingfisher Airlines which seems to be climbing fast on brand preference among fliers in India. The whole experience is built almost as an invite from the king to his private kingdom to enjoy the luxury. It offers you great service but keeps itself on a higher pedestal and doesn’t compromise its position in the whole equation. Therefore it is very much possible to keep the consumer at the centre without having to make him King.What it does not mean
What needs to be understood is that this is not about treating the consumer disdainfully. The brands will need to provide the best of service but what they need to avoid is becoming too eager to please the customer. Across all consumer touch points we need to be careful about our status in the relationship.
The greater the number of humble telephone calls I receive from the customer service asking if I’m happy the more I will start asserting my ruler status on the brand.
The service brands need to be careful when they’re training their staff in the softer skills. They need to be told the difference between being polite and being servile. The CEOs of top companies should not appear in a servile avataar in TVCs even if they’re handling some delicate PR issue. I would always recommend the way Vijay Mallya invites you aboard his flight. That looks like a ‘King’ inviting you to his kingdom. The equation with the consumer is therefore stated clearly in the very beginning.
It is also not about being niche and mass. The argument that by increasing the power distance from your consumers you will become niche is also not correct. In fact, the brands with more power distance from their consumers will always be the bigger and more desired brands than others. Sonia Gandhi and Shah Rukh Khan are examples of two celebrities in India whose popularity has increased in direct proportion to their power distance from their consumers. And in market share terms they are bigger brands than any other in India.
After the telecom and financial services the next wave of service brands to hit Indian consumers will be from retail, entertainment and food services. Before they make plans to rule the market they need to decide who will rule the relationship.Not just India
Indian has a PDI of 77. But then there are countries such as Russia, Romania, Mexico, Bangladesh and others from the Arab world with PDI scores higher than 80. The service brands will have to make similar choices in those cultures as well. Other cultural dimensions will affect the overall consumer behaviour in each country but brands will have to decide which side of the power equation they want to be on.
Therefore, let the brand always be the King. Or at least the consumer should never be.
Lifestyle - Unsafe sex in Asia
Up to 10 million women in Asia sell sex and at least 75 million men pay for it regularly. With an estimated 10 male clients for every sex worker in Asia, men who go for unprotected commercial sex are probably the single most important determinant of the size of HIV epidemics in most of Asia, followed by sharing of contaminated needles and syringes and unprotected sex between men.
These were the findings of the Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia in its report, Redefining AIDS in Asia: Crafting an Effective Response, which was released by Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh on Monday. According to UNAIDS, an estimated 4.9 million Asians are currently infected with HIV. In 2007, 440,000 people were infected with HIV and 300,000 died of AIDS-related infections and diseases.
By pragmatically focusing prevention programmes to the sex trade and on drug use, the commission suggests that governments would make considerable progress in halting and reversing the epidemic. In most Asian countries, an increase in casual and premarital sex among women is unlikely to lead to a net increase in new infections, notes the commission, which is supported by UNAIDS.
India as had some successes. Though the country has 2.5 million people infected with HIV, which is over half of Asia's 4.9 million HIV population, effective initiatives such as condom promotion among sex workers, raising awareness, lowering stigma and making treatment accessible has slowed down new infections in some states such as Tamil Nadu. Other Asian countries, however, are lagging behind in their response to AIDS. If countries do not change policies, HIV would infect 10 million Asians and claim 500,000 lives annually by 2020.
"Countries at the early stages of the epidemic needed to spend an average of 50 cents per capita to reverse the epidemic. Every dollar spent on early prevention would save $8 in treatment costs later. Yet, the money spent on HIV programmes from national budgets decreased over the past decade in the 23 countries surveyed, the only exceptions being India and China," said C Rangarajan, chairman of the nine-member commission and chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM.
These were the findings of the Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia in its report, Redefining AIDS in Asia: Crafting an Effective Response, which was released by Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh on Monday. According to UNAIDS, an estimated 4.9 million Asians are currently infected with HIV. In 2007, 440,000 people were infected with HIV and 300,000 died of AIDS-related infections and diseases.
By pragmatically focusing prevention programmes to the sex trade and on drug use, the commission suggests that governments would make considerable progress in halting and reversing the epidemic. In most Asian countries, an increase in casual and premarital sex among women is unlikely to lead to a net increase in new infections, notes the commission, which is supported by UNAIDS.
India as had some successes. Though the country has 2.5 million people infected with HIV, which is over half of Asia's 4.9 million HIV population, effective initiatives such as condom promotion among sex workers, raising awareness, lowering stigma and making treatment accessible has slowed down new infections in some states such as Tamil Nadu. Other Asian countries, however, are lagging behind in their response to AIDS. If countries do not change policies, HIV would infect 10 million Asians and claim 500,000 lives annually by 2020.
"Countries at the early stages of the epidemic needed to spend an average of 50 cents per capita to reverse the epidemic. Every dollar spent on early prevention would save $8 in treatment costs later. Yet, the money spent on HIV programmes from national budgets decreased over the past decade in the 23 countries surveyed, the only exceptions being India and China," said C Rangarajan, chairman of the nine-member commission and chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM.
Business - Small prices,big brands
For 19-year-old Hemant Patel, getting a pair of branded jeans was a top priority when he entered his first year of junior college two years ago. But like most college students, Patel only had his meagre pocket money to fund his branded needs. It was then that Patel spotted The Loot at Marine Lines when he was on a train to college. The banner, with a picture of a stuffed gunny bag, said "Brands for less, up to 60 per cent discount." Patel entered the world of The Loot and become one of its many loyal customers.
IdeaThe burgeoning chain of this multi-brand store that is on permanent discount shook Mumbai's retail world four years ago and now is slowly taking its unique concept across the country. The Loot is the only multi-brand store that offers national and international brands at a minimum discount of 25 per cent, going up to 60 per cent. This is not a factory outlet, where the pair of denims will have a missing rivet or funny zip, it is a place where you get branded goods that are not seconds, on discount all through the year.
"The Loot gave me my first Pepe jeans. Owning a London brand was a big deal for a 17-year-old,"said Patel. "Ever since then, The Loot has been my haunt. What's so great about The Loot is that the stuff is not company rejects and the shopping experience is great."
It is exactly this sentiment that Jay Gupta, the brain behind this novel award-winning concept wanted to achieve.
"I wanted to make brands accessible to every college student. People love brands but find it too expensive to indulge in them. This is what I wanted to change," said the 33-year-old.
Sitting in his new office at Mahim, where he spends about 13 hours every day, Gupta smiled when he thought back on how he hit upon the idea. "It was not a eureka idea that I just stumbled upon. It took a lot of observation and planning," he said.
For six years, Gupta sat behind a desk at a retail multi-brand franchise outlet and watched several people walking in but very few of them actually buying anything. That was in 1998. "I realised that although we had a lot of potential customers, they did not convert into sales. So people were interested in branded goods, but did not have the will to pay such high costs," said Gupta. He, along with RP Chhabra, the chief executive officer, decided that the gap between desire and buying capacity needed to be bridged.
"We shut our franchise shops and started The Loot. We started with barely four brands but today we sell 60 national and international brands," said Gupta.
Business
Identifying the gap between the average Mumbaikar's desire to own a brand and his unwillingness to spend on it was just the first step. To bridge this gap required a great deal of investment and risk. "We shut down all our stores to introduce this concept, so it was a risk I took, with nothing much to fall back on," said Gupta.
The business model was simple. For every 12 retail frontline stores, one store is required to sell new products that have not yet been sold or surplus stock - this is the stash that The Loot eyes. Research shows that 45 per cent of branded goods in India are sold on discount. These can be at factory outlets or during periodic sales of branded stores. It is this sector - which is estimated to be Rs 11,880 crores - that The Loot has targeted.
The Loot purchases stock directly from companies, and since they do outright buying with immediate cash payments, companies are more than happy to do business with them and give them discounted rates in return for all these benefits. Unlike The Loot, most retailers purchase goods on credit and some on a consignment basis, which means that the store will only house your goods. Products that are not sold are sent back to the manufacturer.
Also, The Loot does bulk buying, which gets them a larger discount. "For example, if a brand has about 10,000 pieces of a particular style of jeans, but only in the colour black, retail stores would not buy all of them, because they need a variety of colours on their floor. We will pick up all these pieces outright at heavily discounted rates. The company gives it to us at that rate because it would be dead stock or else," explained Gupta.
But one thing The Loot is very particular about is factory rejects. "I personally look into the quality control of every range. No company rejects. Our USP is that unlike factory outlets or export surplus stores our goods are of the best quality at the best rates possible."
Another aspect that Gupta studied was the mindset of people. "People want to get brands at reasonable prices but they don't want to enter a small store with piled up clothes and no trial room. They need a shopping experience," he said. So every store of The Loot is spacious, air-conditioned like any other retail store. To enhance the shopping experience, every store also offers exchange and trial room facilities.
"The idea was unique and what made it stand apart was that though you were shopping at a discount store, the ambience was as good as a showroom. You had uniformed salesmen, trial rooms and fancy décor, so the consumer never felt he had walked into a cheap place," said Sushil Dungarwal, former CEO of The Loot.
But since the store buys goods in such large quantities, warehousing is another important aspect of the business. "We have built a state-of-the art warehouse facility in Bhiwandi that cost us Rs 10 crore. The warehouse can store about 10 lakh pieces and can house goods for at least 400 stores," said Gupta. Warehousing is one of the most important aspects of retailing. The warehouse is where goods are collected, sorted and marked. It is the hub of the business.
Success
From the single-floor showroom in Marine Lines, The Loot has opened 30 shops in cities across India. A majority, about 15, are located in Mumbai. The Loot has now opened a 15,000-square-foot shop in Bangalore, making it one of the largest multi-brand retail stores in the country.
"We shut our franchise shops and started The Loot," said an ambitious Gupta, who took over domestic responsibilities while he was still studying in degree college. "We started with barely four brands, but today we sell 60 national and international brands." They have also launched in-house brands like Eccentric and Bus Stop. The Loot now plans to launch 'Road', a brand that exclusively sells travel gear.
But does this discount of 25 to 60 per cent bite into profits? "Initially, our gross profit would be only none per cent, but today after four years of expanding we make a gross profit of 40 per cent, which is on par with any other retail store," said Gupta proudly.
While the store sells clothes for men and women, Gupta believes that women should get the best deal. "I ensure that all women's garments and accessories have a minimum of 50 per cent off. We have also introduced a designer label Sepia, which is designed by Priyadarshni Rao," Gupta said. The concept behind The Loot might be unique, but marketing the idea was a challenge "People could not believe that there could be a permanent discount at a store, and then they were convinced it had to be a factory outlet. We had to work very hard to change these perceptions," said Gupta.
A lot of innovative marketing had to be done. One thing that worked was having an unconventional brand ambassador - Gulshan Grover or the Bad Man. Every time a Loot store opens, Grover in a gypsy along with several bikers parades around the city. He then crashes into a temporary wall constructed for the inauguration near the new store. There are no red ribbons cut. This innovative scheme has gained The Loot a lot of popularity.
But a brand ambassador is not good enough. The merchandise has to appeal to the target audience. Another challenge was finding locations for outlets. The places had to be close to colleges and other key locations. The stores had to be large and difficult to miss. Then, maintaining customer loyalty is a continuous challenge. "Customers are attracted to the reasonable rates, but sometimes we might not have all the colours and sizes of a particular product. They want everything at a discount," he said.
Future
Jay Gupta wants to take The Loot across the country. After successfully starting 30 stores, 15 of them located in Mumbai, he wants to reach every major city in the country by 2010. "Now, when companies want to meet their sales targets, they are at our office," he said proudly. "Earlier, we would have to approach brands to tie up with us, but today even brands approach us for tie-ups."
His latest feat is a 15,000-square-feet shop in Bangalore. The store has become the largest multi-brand retail store in the country.
"We have 30 operational stores now and work is in progress for another 30 stores," said Gupta. "Our target is to have 100 stores by 2009 and 200 by 2010." But apart from setting up stores, Gupta is also working on creating in-house brands and accessories, such as perfumes, belts, shoes and bags. "Now that people know about The Loot and the quality of its products it is time to expand and create more in-house brands."
But with this ambitious five-year plan, which makes Gupta work for 12 hours a day, his biggest stress-buster is his two-year-old son. He wishes he could spend more time with him, but his family says that he is the best dad. "On Sundays, he dedicates the entire day to his son. We only go out to places where we can take our child. He will never make a plan to go clubbing because that his child's day," said his wife Ruchita Gupta.
India - Stop worrying and start loving nuclear power
The common claim made by critics of the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement is that, ultimately, it can’t really be about powering light bulbs. The fun fact always cited: the Indian government’s own projection that nuclear power won’t contribute more than 3 per cent of the country’s energy requirements in the near future.
This figure is more than wonky. On the downside, it assumes no private capital, no imported nuclear fuel. And on the upside, it expects the Department of Atomic Energy’s (DAE) thorium-cycle gamble to pay off. All three are suspect variables. Let’s turn to the past for a better indication. History shows a country can ramp up nuclear production once it gets the right policies and politics in place.
The most famous example is France. France is the pin-up girl of nuclear power, generating 70 per cent of its electricity from glow-in-the-dark fuel. Less known is how fast this was accomplished. The figures are stunning. In a 10-year period from 1989 to 1999, France was able to get 42,000 MW of nuclear-based power up and running. In one year, 1985, the country operationalised over 7,000 MW of nuclear power capability. In comparison, India’s total nuclear power capacity today is less than 3,800 MW.
China is threatening France’s record. Tote up the construction sites and completion targets. They show that between 2010 and 2015 Beijing will bring 22,300 MW of nuclear energy on stream. It has drafted plans to add yet another 19,400 MW between 2014 and 2018. The Left in New Delhi claims nuclear power is too expensive. Chinese communists share their dialectic, but clearly not their mathematics.
Vinay Rai, energy fellow at Stanford University, has shown that nuclear energy is competitive with coal and natural gas. The problem, he says, is that India’s lack of nuclear fuel access “has had the effect of making nuclear power appear more expensive”. In an environment similar to which exists in the West, nuclear power costs between 6.7-4.2 cents per kilowatt-hour and is comparable to the 10.1-3.9 cents price range for coal and natural gas in India.
Indian nuclear power has been constrained by more than just fuel. Capital has been lacking: nuclear energy is cheap over time but initial costs are high. Then there’s technology. Thanks to sanctions, Indian engineers have had to develop expensive home-bred replacements. The nuclear deal will lift all these barriers.
Undo these shackles and what France accomplished in the 1980s could be repeated here. It would actually be easier to do this these days. Reactors in those days were small, largely in the 900 MW range. Today, one could nearly double India’s nuclear power capability with just two 1,500 MW reactors. France had to finance the reactors from its own pocket. Today, exporting and building reactors is a well-oiled business. France and Russia have off-the-shelf package deals for customers combining fuel, reactor and finance.
Finally, modern reactors are more safe, less waste-producing and come up faster than they did even 15 years ago. “New reactors take an average six years to build, have one year of trials, and link up to the grid on the eighth year,” says Anupam Srivastava, a technology expert at the University of Georgia. The real constraint on nuclear expansion, say some experts, is a global shortage of trained engineers.
So what is an optimistic but realistic scenario for Indian nuclear power after the deal is done? Under the existing government-only system, the constraint is capital. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has cash reserves of $2-3 billion. Given that infrastructure projects normally require the government to provide 20-25 per cent of the cost, this could be leveraged to as much as $15 billion. This would pay for 10,000 MWs of reactors.
Revolution can only come from privatisation. A suitably amended Atomic Energy Act would allow the NPCIL to license reactor building and operating to the private sector. Unsurprisingly, the Tatas, Reliance and other Indian firms have already been talking with foreign firms about acquiring technology. Given time, India Inc will probably master the technology and get into the line itself. Look at China. Its second generation reactors are already 50 per cent local. The next lot, says the World Nuclear Association, will be 75 per cent indigenous. See a trend?
There are a lot of ifs regarding a nuclear renaissance in India. The privatisation amendment could become stuck. The DAE is, in the end, a government bureaucracy. And the Indo-US nuclear deal has plenty of hoops to jump through. But if all the tumblers fall into place, a 20 per cent nuclear component to India’s electricity production by 2030 is a distinct possibility. “There is no limit on the amount of nuclear power India can generate, providing it invests the right amount of resources,” says Manohar Thyagaraj of the US-India Business Alliance.
The people who say there are no nukes in India’s energy future echo the ones who said the 1991 economic reforms would be a disaster, that infotech was a lot of bunkum, and generally suffer from Indo-pessimism. It all depends, to paraphrase a famous leftist, whether India can seize the coming year.
This figure is more than wonky. On the downside, it assumes no private capital, no imported nuclear fuel. And on the upside, it expects the Department of Atomic Energy’s (DAE) thorium-cycle gamble to pay off. All three are suspect variables. Let’s turn to the past for a better indication. History shows a country can ramp up nuclear production once it gets the right policies and politics in place.
The most famous example is France. France is the pin-up girl of nuclear power, generating 70 per cent of its electricity from glow-in-the-dark fuel. Less known is how fast this was accomplished. The figures are stunning. In a 10-year period from 1989 to 1999, France was able to get 42,000 MW of nuclear-based power up and running. In one year, 1985, the country operationalised over 7,000 MW of nuclear power capability. In comparison, India’s total nuclear power capacity today is less than 3,800 MW.
China is threatening France’s record. Tote up the construction sites and completion targets. They show that between 2010 and 2015 Beijing will bring 22,300 MW of nuclear energy on stream. It has drafted plans to add yet another 19,400 MW between 2014 and 2018. The Left in New Delhi claims nuclear power is too expensive. Chinese communists share their dialectic, but clearly not their mathematics.
Vinay Rai, energy fellow at Stanford University, has shown that nuclear energy is competitive with coal and natural gas. The problem, he says, is that India’s lack of nuclear fuel access “has had the effect of making nuclear power appear more expensive”. In an environment similar to which exists in the West, nuclear power costs between 6.7-4.2 cents per kilowatt-hour and is comparable to the 10.1-3.9 cents price range for coal and natural gas in India.
Indian nuclear power has been constrained by more than just fuel. Capital has been lacking: nuclear energy is cheap over time but initial costs are high. Then there’s technology. Thanks to sanctions, Indian engineers have had to develop expensive home-bred replacements. The nuclear deal will lift all these barriers.
Undo these shackles and what France accomplished in the 1980s could be repeated here. It would actually be easier to do this these days. Reactors in those days were small, largely in the 900 MW range. Today, one could nearly double India’s nuclear power capability with just two 1,500 MW reactors. France had to finance the reactors from its own pocket. Today, exporting and building reactors is a well-oiled business. France and Russia have off-the-shelf package deals for customers combining fuel, reactor and finance.
Finally, modern reactors are more safe, less waste-producing and come up faster than they did even 15 years ago. “New reactors take an average six years to build, have one year of trials, and link up to the grid on the eighth year,” says Anupam Srivastava, a technology expert at the University of Georgia. The real constraint on nuclear expansion, say some experts, is a global shortage of trained engineers.
So what is an optimistic but realistic scenario for Indian nuclear power after the deal is done? Under the existing government-only system, the constraint is capital. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has cash reserves of $2-3 billion. Given that infrastructure projects normally require the government to provide 20-25 per cent of the cost, this could be leveraged to as much as $15 billion. This would pay for 10,000 MWs of reactors.
Revolution can only come from privatisation. A suitably amended Atomic Energy Act would allow the NPCIL to license reactor building and operating to the private sector. Unsurprisingly, the Tatas, Reliance and other Indian firms have already been talking with foreign firms about acquiring technology. Given time, India Inc will probably master the technology and get into the line itself. Look at China. Its second generation reactors are already 50 per cent local. The next lot, says the World Nuclear Association, will be 75 per cent indigenous. See a trend?
There are a lot of ifs regarding a nuclear renaissance in India. The privatisation amendment could become stuck. The DAE is, in the end, a government bureaucracy. And the Indo-US nuclear deal has plenty of hoops to jump through. But if all the tumblers fall into place, a 20 per cent nuclear component to India’s electricity production by 2030 is a distinct possibility. “There is no limit on the amount of nuclear power India can generate, providing it invests the right amount of resources,” says Manohar Thyagaraj of the US-India Business Alliance.
The people who say there are no nukes in India’s energy future echo the ones who said the 1991 economic reforms would be a disaster, that infotech was a lot of bunkum, and generally suffer from Indo-pessimism. It all depends, to paraphrase a famous leftist, whether India can seize the coming year.
India - Save every drop
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast a normal monsoon for 2008. This is good news. A good monsoon will help Indian agriculture sustain a 4 per cent growth rate, rein in food price inflation and improve food security for the poor. However, the way we use a good monsoon is in need of urgent change. For millennia, the Indian farmer has used rainwater to raise his main kharif crop, making agriculture risk-prone. Mid-season or terminal dry spells during the monsoon period often result in halving of crop yields. Canal irrigation was thought to be an answer to this problem. But even after 200 years of canal building, less than 15 per cent of Indian farmlands benefit from canal irrigation. The rest is either rain-fed or supported by some 20 million farmer-owned irrigation wells. In sustaining well-irrigation lies the future of Indian farming. Thanks to groundwater development, Indian agriculture today is far less susceptible to the vagaries of the monsoon. Irrigated rabi wheat has become the most important crop in large swathes of India. In West Bengal, irrigated boro rice has helped break its agrarian gridlock. In the semi-arid west and south, a booming dairy economy is sustained by lightly irrigated fodder millets during summer. Contrary to popular thinking, the marginal farmer is at the forefront of the groundwater revolution. During 1970-1995, marginal and small farms increased their groundwater-irrigated area by 400 per cent. Large farms increased it by only 60 per cent. Governments at the Centre and in the states keep investing heavily in dams and canals. These projects have guzzled crores of rupees, claimed most monsoon run-off areas but have added nothing to the irrigated areas since 1990. We need to rethink our use of the monsoon for improved water security. This is especially true in the hard rock aquifer areas of peninsular India — 65 per cent of our land mass — where dry-land agriculture depends increasingly upon crop-saving supplemental irrigation from over 11 million open dug wells. In 86 million hectares of India's rain-fed areas, mid-season or terminal droughts regularly take their toll on kharif crops. Traditionally, the Indian farmer has used his dug well only for taking out water from the aquifer. This needs to change. Managed properly, dug wells can be excellent devices for putting monsoon floodwaters into the aquifers to be retrieved during dry spells to save crops. Scientists scoff at the idea because Americans and Australians do not use dug wells for recharge. But they overlook the fact that westerners do not have the millions of dug wells that we have and we do not have the vast uninhabited swathes that they have. We must design our recharge strategy around what we have. Our dug wells are often built as collector wells with a huge capacity for storage.
For instance, in Kolar and Coimbatore, they are over 10 metres in diameter and 30-50 metres deep. Farmers commonly make several lateral bores inside them to access surrounding water-bearing formations. When recharged, such wells can also dispatch water to those water-bearing formations. What hard-rock India needs is a new mindset of managing dug wells as dual-purpose structures, for taking out water when needed, and putting water into the aquifers when surplus is running off during a good monsoon. Presently, water available for recharge is estimated after allowing for the requirements of existing and planned surface reservoirs. We need to take up an intensive project to rethink the ways to harness a good monsoon. First, extensive groundwater recharge should get priority claim on reservoir water after power generation. Second, farmers must be exposed to the benefits of recharging wells with monsoon floodwaters rather than turning it away from wells as they have always done. Third, farmers should be helped to desilt floodwaters before recharge. Fourth, they should be encouraged to desilt their wells every 3-5 years. Fifth, economic incentives should be offered to villages that take to recharge. Sixth, funds from schemes like NREGS should be allocated for deepening existing wells and digging new wells provided they are recharge-enabled. Finally, instead of regulating well-digging, groundwater laws should elicit farmer participation in the recharge campaign. If all 11 million dug wells in hard-rock India are recharge-enabled, during a good monsoon, these can add 25-30 billion cubic metres of water to the aquifers, and provide crop-saving supplemental irrigation. Over the years, a sustained recharge campaign can drought-proof kharif crops and also sustain some rabi or summer irrigation. It will also increase lean season flows in rivers, revive wetlands and reduce the high fluoride contamination in groundwater, which is a public health hazard in hard-rock areas. The economics of recharge are highly attractive too. It costs just around Rs 5,000 to modify a dug well for recharge and support supplemental irrigation on 2-2.5 hectares. Compare this with the estimated Rs 2 lakh it costs to cover one hectare by canal irrigation. At the national level, a groundwater recharge campaign can pay for itself many times over simply by reducing farm power subsidies. In recent decades, India has emerged as the world's largest groundwater user. Nowhere else in the world are hard-rock aquifers under vast areas so intensively used as here. There is a dire need to rethink our 'monsoon strategy' in the wake of this reality. (The writer is a principal scientist with Inter-national Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka.)
World - Look out for fraud ( Research)
NEW YORK: In 1996, editors of the journal Oncogene contacted Francis Collins, director of the US Center for National Genome Research, about a seemingly important paper on leukemia that had come out of his lab. A reviewer had noticed something strange in the paper which claimed that acute leukemia was influenced by a defective gene. Collins investigated and soon found out that the irregularity was because Amitov Hajra, a PhD student working in his lab who was a coauthor, had committed fraud. Collins reported the fraud to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), the watchdog for science research funded by the public health service, and retracted five papers immediately. A decade after the Hajra case, ORI undertook a massive study of the incidence of scienti-fic fraud in US biomedical and health sciences. The results, which were published last month, show that scientists in the US are committing fraud more commonly than we suspect. This is troubling because scientists typically enjoy a high level of trust from the public when they make public statements. Although most scientists are honest, the ORI study implies that unquestioning trust of scientists' statements today is a mistake. ORI surveyed 2,012 scientists across 605 institutions and almost 9 per cent said they had witnessed scientific misconduct in the preceding three years. Based on its survey data, ORI estimates that, for every 100 researchers, there are three instances of fraud every year, most of which aren't reported. This shows that scientific fraud is endemic in the institutions surveyed. And it's probably not just limited to the US and to the fields of health and biological science. In fact, there have been a number of high-profile cases of fraud worldwide recently. A notorious example happened in South Korea three years ago when Hwang Woo-suk claimed to have cloned human stem cells and was exposed. Three years before the South Korean scandal, Hendrik Schon, a young German physicist working at Bell Labs, pulled off a massive fraud in physics. Over four years, he systematically faked results in fields ranging from superconductivity to nanotechnology. Fraud in science is not new. Galileo, Newton and Mendel are among those who have been accused of tweaking their results to improve them, which is a strict no-no in science. In the second century BC, the Greek astronomer Hipparchus is supposed to have done something even more flagrant: he copied a Babylonian star catalogue and passed it off as his own. Science today is a salaried profession, with attendant career pressures. There are millions of scientists at work, more than at any point in history. There is tremendous competition for grant money. All this makes it ripe for fraud. I was at Bell Labs when the Schon scandal unfolded. Fraudsters are often young, charismatic schemers. Schon was no exception. When the Schon scandal unfolded, a number of scientists said that the very fact that the fraud was discovered so quickly was proof that the scientific method works. It's true that most major scientific frauds are exposed relatively quickly. Science relies on repeatability and any major experiment will be repeated and tested by other researchers. If the result cannot be reproduced, the claim is suspect. What the ORI study indicates is that this self-correction is obviously not enough, and there is the need for more policing in science. Around the world, science is often funded through public money, and we need to make sure that such money is well spent. ORI recommends zero-tolerance policy, protection of whistleblowers and model ethical behaviour by prominent scientists. The reality is that we will never be completely rid of fraud in science. There will always be a few scientists like Schon and Hajra. We just need to recognise that human shortcomings are very much part of the story of science and put more safeguards in place.
World - Going Invisible
Science fiction needs to reinvent itself if it still wants to hold people in thrall to the magic of extrapolation. Because over a period of time — and especially during the last 50 years or so — hard science has been catching up and delivering even on some of SF's most far-out and fantastic ideas. Faster-than-light speeds, teleportation, thought transference, artificial intelligence, time travel and synthetic life, for instance, which were once considered the exclusive province of fantasy, are being approached by serious scientists seemingly determined to bring the Enterprise down to Earth. The latest in their list of achievements now appears to be invisibility. According to the scientific journal, Optic Letters, researchers at the University of Illinois in the United States have demonstrated by means of a computer simulation how it might be possible to make an object appear to vanish from sight. The trick apparently is to coat it with multiple concentric layers of a type of silicon crystal so that when light of a particular wavelength strikes the coating it bends around the object and continues on its way, like water flowing around a rock. Since seeing something requires light waves to actually strike the object and reflect off it in order to impinge on our eyes, this process would, effectively, render it invisible. Of course there are still several problems to be solved regarding such "optical cloaking", as it's being called. For one thing, the simulation has been successful so far only with samples the size of a human hair. But the researchers feel it shouldn't be too difficult to scale up the extent to everyday sizes over the next few years. Also, they've demonstrated the effect using just red light at present, whereas true invisibility would be achieved only if it worked with all waves of light along the entire visual spectrum. However, when and if they do get light to bend around, say, a battleship or a tank — since military applications come to mind immediately — the entire meaning of stealth warfare could change drastically. So could social interaction when clothes come pre-optically cloaked too. If anyone could become invisible at will by using a Harry Potter like cape, a whole lot of issues relating to privacy would have to be addressed. That's the problem with science approaching the magical.
Business - Google unveils a Lively virtual world
As if Google didn't have a strong enough hold on the planet already, today it's launching its own world -- a virtual world, to be exact. Lively, which Google likes to call a "virtual experience," allows you to create an avatar, decorate your own virtual room, invite friends to your room and do things you've always dreamed of, like blow up oil barrels on a deserted island.
Unlike popular virtual worlds such as Second Life, Lively doesn't require you to download new software. All you need is a browser plug-in. The service is also more distributed than Second Life: Its rooms will live on Web pages on Facebook and other sites, so you might stumble across them when browsing the Internet. Rooms can be private spaces, with entry by invitation only, or open-topic rooms, where you can meet people interested in discussing topics you love, like Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston or Google. It also ties into other Google services. You can stream YouTube videos into your virtual living room or post your Picasa pictures on your walls.
"Our intent is to be part of the users' everyday experience," said Niniane Wang, an engineering manager at Google who helped create Lively. "We designed it to be easy to use."
An early look into Lively suggests that Google succeeded at that mission. It's easy to choose avatars from a number of different options, including a turban-wearing bear. It's easy to change their clothes, hair color and skin color. It's easy to drag and drop furniture and lava lamps to position them around your room. Want your turban-wearing bear to wave to the hot mama across the room? Just type \wave. Want him to giggle? Just type \laugh.
Lively looks hip, too. It's kind of a combination between anime and a Disney movie, with wide-eyed avatars and colorful, angular scenery. Chat bubbles are brightly colored and attached to avatars with long stems.
All of which leads to the big question: Is Lively going to be the site that finally brings virtual worlds into the mainstream? Probably, said Chris Sherman, executive director of Virtual Worlds Management, an industry trade group. "With a player like Google jumping into this, you're going to see a lot more people understand this space and pay attention to it," he said.
Lively's popularity with the virtual world crowd, however, will ...
... depend on a few factors. Will Google allow avatars to buy and sell virtual goods? Will there be any currency at all in Lively? Will users be able to create things from scratch?
A Google spokeswoman said that there isn't any currency in Lively, but that users will be able to add objects from Lively's catalog to their rooms free of charge. And users can't yet create their own items but should be able to down the road.
With all these features and more rolling out later, Lively is likely to give Second Life and other popular virtual worlds a run for their money, said Michael Gartenberg, research director at Jupiter Research. That's because, like most Google products, Lively is free. Second Life charges $9.95 a month for premium membership.
Second Life isn't going to sit tight while other virtual worlds try to attract mainstream users, though. It announced today that it had worked with IBM to figure out how to teleport avatars from one virtual world to another, a development it called "a historic day for Second Life, and for virtual worlds in general." That means that down the line, an avatar in a world such as Second Life might be able to go hang out in a virtual world such as Habbo with ease.
Maybe some day, they'll go hang out in Lively too -- unless the virtual world space ain't big enough for the both of them. I hope it is. After all, although Google's entry into the virtual space is impressive, Second Life was there first.
Business - Apple iPhone 3G - 30 minute marketing
By Shahnaz Mahmud NEW YORK One of the most talked-about aspects of the Apple iPhone 3G is an approximately half-hour instructional video on Apple.com that lovingly details each new feature and function. But if you really think about it, it's a 30-minute advertisement, said Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research."Even though it's educational and you're giving people an experience, it's this really sort of deep immersion in Apple's brand and approach and there's huge value in that. How often do you get more than a minute of customers' undivided attention?" Golvin asked. The educational strategy, employing senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing Bob Borchers as the instructor, is not the first time the company has done this, but it's the longest tutorial to date for Apple. (Borchers has demonstrated his expertise in other how-to videos.) The biggest takeaway may be in how effective it is at building interaction and engagement with customers who are either preparing to buy or are thinking about it."Anytime you have advanced technology it's important to help consumers understand how to use it and the benefits you get from it. And I think this will be an important tool moving forward," said Josh Martin, senior analyst within the media and entertainment unit at The Yankee Group. For other tech-product manufacturers who can successfully achieve the same level of interest in their products, Martin said "the degree of consistency" (in having Borchers be the how-to guy) might provide a level of comfort and familiarity, which can add to the strength of these videos as a marketing tool. An Apple representative declined to comment on the marketing video.