Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
NEW METRO AIRPORTS
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
NEW METRO AIRPORTS
Private Profit, Public Chaos
Raghu
EVERYTHING in infrastructure or services in India these days has to be “world class”. And according to liberalisers in government and outside, especially in the media, this must mean owned and run by the private sector preferably with foreign collaboration. The now familiar argument is that the state sector, again by definition, is incapable and that foreign partners will bring in much-needed capital and, more importantly, the “latest” in advanced technologies and management, while the consumer would be king in this “open” environment. Undeterred by experiences of the Enron fiasco or privatisation of electricity distribution, which clearly showed that private monopolies are in fact the anti-thesis of cost-efficiency and consumer friendliness, the UPA government adopted the very same approach to modernisation of India’s airports beginning with the metros. And once again, arguments against this course advanced by numerous expert commentators, progressive sections, trade unions and even the public sector Airports Authority of India (AAI), were brushed aside.
The results are there for all to see, whether it is greenfield airports as in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, or upgraded airports in Delhi and Mumbai. Having been given a completely free run, with no oversight or regulation, the private operators and their foreign collaborators have developed under-capacity infrastructure, pushed up costs to both airlines and passengers, caused enormous chaos and public inconvenience, and have cut many corners for the sake of short-term profit. Since the government has chosen a particular and rather rare model of privatisation (from the many others available internationally) in which the operators in effect have clear ownership and full management of the airports, the necessary linkages with related urban planning and infrastructure have also been absent leading to poor connectivity and city-side services, and more chaos all round.
NEW METRO AIRPORTS
Private Profit, Public Chaos
Raghu
EVERYTHING in infrastructure or services in India these days has to be “world class”. And according to liberalisers in government and outside, especially in the media, this must mean owned and run by the private sector preferably with foreign collaboration. The now familiar argument is that the state sector, again by definition, is incapable and that foreign partners will bring in much-needed capital and, more importantly, the “latest” in advanced technologies and management, while the consumer would be king in this “open” environment. Undeterred by experiences of the Enron fiasco or privatisation of electricity distribution, which clearly showed that private monopolies are in fact the anti-thesis of cost-efficiency and consumer friendliness, the UPA government adopted the very same approach to modernisation of India’s airports beginning with the metros. And once again, arguments against this course advanced by numerous expert commentators, progressive sections, trade unions and even the public sector Airports Authority of India (AAI), were brushed aside.
The results are there for all to see, whether it is greenfield airports as in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, or upgraded airports in Delhi and Mumbai. Having been given a completely free run, with no oversight or regulation, the private operators and their foreign collaborators have developed under-capacity infrastructure, pushed up costs to both airlines and passengers, caused enormous chaos and public inconvenience, and have cut many corners for the sake of short-term profit. Since the government has chosen a particular and rather rare model of privatisation (from the many others available internationally) in which the operators in effect have clear ownership and full management of the airports, the necessary linkages with related urban planning and infrastructure have also been absent leading to poor connectivity and city-side services, and more chaos all round.
Private Profit
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
POOR PLANNING &
IMPLEMENTATION
Delhi airport epitomises these problems in the case of “upgraded” airports. National newspapers and TV channels have recently been full of horror stories about the conditions obtaining at the now privatised airport in Delhi, owned and run by the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) of the GMR Group in collaboration with Fraport, owner-manager of Frankfurt airport in Germany.
Before privatisation, Delhi had capacity to handle 12 million passengers per annum (mppa) whereas traffic had doubled between 2003 and 2006 when it had reached 20 million, with 2007 seeing 28 per cent growth. The capacity planned by DIAL during the first phase of upgradation is 33 mppa by March 2010. If current traffic growth rates above 25 percent per year are maintained or exceeded, which is certain, the upgraded airport would already be over-saturated by the time it is commissioned!
GMR-DIAL has been making tall claims about “being ahead of the curve”, claiming they would build capacity of 43 mppa even by 2010. In fact, simple back-of-the-envelope calculations would show that traffic in Delhi is most likely to cross 50 million by then! Indeed, traffic growth projections have been consistently underestimated, the present growth rate for instance being more than double industry forecasts made as late as 2002. Therefore, at each phase of the expansion, as now, GMR-DIAL will be playing catch-up, always a few steps behind actual requirement. There can be little doubt that the new airport, even after it is fully finished, will be plagued by congestion and under-capacity, a far cry from the “world class” paradise promised.
Lack of foresight is also plainly evident in the phase-wise expansion underway. Passengers at the international departure terminal are taking more than four hours in long snaking queues to clear terminal entry, check-in and passport formalities, and numerous passengers are simply missing their flights each day. Bottlenecks have included less than the required number of entry points, check-in counters and even X-ray machines, none of which have been addressed just to save money in the short-term while passengers suffer.
Such capacity shortage and resulting difficulties were precisely the problem earlier too, but the government joining in the chorus of blaming the public sector AAI which was then systematically undermined by being denied funds for upgradation despite repeated requests. Till their shortcomings came to be regular features in the media, GMR-DIAL were proceeding leisurely with scarcely a thought for passenger discomfort. Now, the company has begun to issue daily newspapers advertisements asking for patience while upgradation goes on! No doubt, upgradation is time-consuming and causes some inconvenience, even if temporary, but such a grace period has been denied to AAI by these same private parties, their supporters in government and the globalising classes.
These problems should have been anticipated, as indeed they were by many commentators, and provided for during upgradation as well as in the final plan. But they have not been: poor planning, shabby implementation, and a callous attitude to passengers remain the order of the day.
All the new airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are grossly under-capacity in terms of all important parameters: runway, aircraft stands, exit gates, aero-bridges, check-in counters. In each case, the ratio of these to passenger traffic is roughly half of what has been provided in the airports run by the collaborating foreign partner in Zurich, Kuala Lumpur or Frankfurt. In each of these, installed capacity is roughly double current traffic: KL, for instance, handles about 25 million passengers with capacity for 50 million. India’s new “world class” airports have barely enough capacity to cope with present traffic.
So where is the much vaunted superior technology and managerial skills that privatisation and foreign collaboration was supposed to bring in? That these are empty promises become even clearer when we look at the greenfield projects where problems of upgrading an existing, functional airport should not arise.
Contd
POOR PLANNING &
IMPLEMENTATION
Delhi airport epitomises these problems in the case of “upgraded” airports. National newspapers and TV channels have recently been full of horror stories about the conditions obtaining at the now privatised airport in Delhi, owned and run by the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) of the GMR Group in collaboration with Fraport, owner-manager of Frankfurt airport in Germany.
Before privatisation, Delhi had capacity to handle 12 million passengers per annum (mppa) whereas traffic had doubled between 2003 and 2006 when it had reached 20 million, with 2007 seeing 28 per cent growth. The capacity planned by DIAL during the first phase of upgradation is 33 mppa by March 2010. If current traffic growth rates above 25 percent per year are maintained or exceeded, which is certain, the upgraded airport would already be over-saturated by the time it is commissioned!
GMR-DIAL has been making tall claims about “being ahead of the curve”, claiming they would build capacity of 43 mppa even by 2010. In fact, simple back-of-the-envelope calculations would show that traffic in Delhi is most likely to cross 50 million by then! Indeed, traffic growth projections have been consistently underestimated, the present growth rate for instance being more than double industry forecasts made as late as 2002. Therefore, at each phase of the expansion, as now, GMR-DIAL will be playing catch-up, always a few steps behind actual requirement. There can be little doubt that the new airport, even after it is fully finished, will be plagued by congestion and under-capacity, a far cry from the “world class” paradise promised.
Lack of foresight is also plainly evident in the phase-wise expansion underway. Passengers at the international departure terminal are taking more than four hours in long snaking queues to clear terminal entry, check-in and passport formalities, and numerous passengers are simply missing their flights each day. Bottlenecks have included less than the required number of entry points, check-in counters and even X-ray machines, none of which have been addressed just to save money in the short-term while passengers suffer.
Such capacity shortage and resulting difficulties were precisely the problem earlier too, but the government joining in the chorus of blaming the public sector AAI which was then systematically undermined by being denied funds for upgradation despite repeated requests. Till their shortcomings came to be regular features in the media, GMR-DIAL were proceeding leisurely with scarcely a thought for passenger discomfort. Now, the company has begun to issue daily newspapers advertisements asking for patience while upgradation goes on! No doubt, upgradation is time-consuming and causes some inconvenience, even if temporary, but such a grace period has been denied to AAI by these same private parties, their supporters in government and the globalising classes.
These problems should have been anticipated, as indeed they were by many commentators, and provided for during upgradation as well as in the final plan. But they have not been: poor planning, shabby implementation, and a callous attitude to passengers remain the order of the day.
All the new airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are grossly under-capacity in terms of all important parameters: runway, aircraft stands, exit gates, aero-bridges, check-in counters. In each case, the ratio of these to passenger traffic is roughly half of what has been provided in the airports run by the collaborating foreign partner in Zurich, Kuala Lumpur or Frankfurt. In each of these, installed capacity is roughly double current traffic: KL, for instance, handles about 25 million passengers with capacity for 50 million. India’s new “world class” airports have barely enough capacity to cope with present traffic.
So where is the much vaunted superior technology and managerial skills that privatisation and foreign collaboration was supposed to bring in? That these are empty promises become even clearer when we look at the greenfield projects where problems of upgrading an existing, functional airport should not arise.
Contd
PRIVATE PROFIT
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
LOSE-LOSE
SITUATION
To add insult to injury, a User Development Fee (UDF) of around Rs 750 per passenger would be charged for using these “world class” facilities at the new airport. Provision for UDF is made in contracts with the private operators, although its amount is nowhere mentioned and is supposed to be related to costs, leaving the door open to arbitrariness and lack of transparency. While passengers thus lose heavily, so too do other users of the airport. For instance, a “throughput charge” of Rs 2150 per kilolitre would be charged from fuel companies for use of facilities provided by the airport. These charges would naturally be passed on to the airlines, who would further pass them on to passengers! While the airport operators are set to gain, this is a lose-lose situation for airlines and passengers both, and the growing Indian civil aviation sector can only suffer as a result.
Low-cost carriers and their users will be the hardest hit, dealing a heavy blow to the on-going broadbasing of the civil aviation industry. User fees would even exceed the price of air tickets especially on short-haul sectors, such as Hyderabad-Bengaluru, and certainly dampen demand. The civil aviation ministry has recently announced a grand plan to promote regional connectivity especially to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, through a new category of carriers, the Scheduled Air Transport (Regional) Services. These too will be severely hit by user fees. In the face of widespread protests by consumers and airlines, the new Hyderabad airport has already announced deferring of user fees from domestic passengers at least for the coming four months pending an audit of airport construction and running costs. But BIAL has refused to follow suit.
LOSE-LOSE
SITUATION
To add insult to injury, a User Development Fee (UDF) of around Rs 750 per passenger would be charged for using these “world class” facilities at the new airport. Provision for UDF is made in contracts with the private operators, although its amount is nowhere mentioned and is supposed to be related to costs, leaving the door open to arbitrariness and lack of transparency. While passengers thus lose heavily, so too do other users of the airport. For instance, a “throughput charge” of Rs 2150 per kilolitre would be charged from fuel companies for use of facilities provided by the airport. These charges would naturally be passed on to the airlines, who would further pass them on to passengers! While the airport operators are set to gain, this is a lose-lose situation for airlines and passengers both, and the growing Indian civil aviation sector can only suffer as a result.
Low-cost carriers and their users will be the hardest hit, dealing a heavy blow to the on-going broadbasing of the civil aviation industry. User fees would even exceed the price of air tickets especially on short-haul sectors, such as Hyderabad-Bengaluru, and certainly dampen demand. The civil aviation ministry has recently announced a grand plan to promote regional connectivity especially to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, through a new category of carriers, the Scheduled Air Transport (Regional) Services. These too will be severely hit by user fees. In the face of widespread protests by consumers and airlines, the new Hyderabad airport has already announced deferring of user fees from domestic passengers at least for the coming four months pending an audit of airport construction and running costs. But BIAL has refused to follow suit.
PRIVATE PROFIT
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
UNDER-CAPACITY,
UNDER-CONNECTED
The new “world class” airport at Bengaluru (and the one in Hyderabad) were to have ushered in a golden era in civil aviation infrastructure in India. And the existing airports are to be closed.
The new Bengaluru airport, owned and being built by Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), a consortium of companies led by Larsen and Toubro, with Zurich Airport as the collaborating partner, began in utter confusion and continues in the same vain. The initially planned capacity of 5 million passengers had to be hastily revised at the time of signing the agreement to 8 mppa gradually building up to 11 million mmpa by 2015, itself revised upward from 10.5 million by 2010 as per the original BIAL-commissioned study conducted by Lufthansa Consulting. But all the foreign corporates had got it completely wrong! The existing HAL Airport already handled over 10.5 million passengers in 2007! So, BIAL will be severely under-capacity on the very day it opens! BIAL’s projection is for 12 per cent annual traffic growth as against over 26 per cent witnessed in Bengaluru and nationwide. Bengaluru should have had capacity to handle 20-25 mmpa by 2015 latest, not only far exceeding current terminal capacities but easily exceeding even the maximum capacity of 17 million of the single runway which, incidentally, is not designed to handle the A-380 super jumbos likely to commence international operations in India next year.
The model of “clear and free” privatisation preferred by the government has meant a total disconnect between the airport itself and issues of connectivity, city-side facilities and urban planning which should be integral parts of planning airport infrastructure. An airport is not just a set of civil works to be dumped somewhere, leaving other aspects to take care of themselves. This is the main reason why most countries and cities prefer a state structure with built-in inter-agency collaboration while bringing in private players through different institutional mechanisms such as long-term leases or management contracts.
The new airport at Bengaluru is 35 km from the city centre to the north and 50 km from Electronics City and the IT hubs in the south, closer to the HAL airport. Travel time from the new airport is 1 hour to reach even the northern city limits, about 2:30 hours to the commercial district and 3:45 hours to the IT hub, not to mention additional delays that could be caused by the notorious Bengaluru traffic. International IT businessmen would do better flying in to Chennai and driving down from there in more or less the same time, and motoring between the metros would be more attractive than flying.
Despite these capacity and connectivity problems, the governments at the centre and in Karnataka, as well as BIAL, insist that the HAL airport be closed down. But BIAL at the same time wants HAL airport be used for helicopter or even jet shuttle services to the new airport so as to overcome connectivity problems! But only for business class passengers at a small charge of Rs 1500! A cruel joke indeed.
Contd
UNDER-CAPACITY,
UNDER-CONNECTED
The new “world class” airport at Bengaluru (and the one in Hyderabad) were to have ushered in a golden era in civil aviation infrastructure in India. And the existing airports are to be closed.
The new Bengaluru airport, owned and being built by Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), a consortium of companies led by Larsen and Toubro, with Zurich Airport as the collaborating partner, began in utter confusion and continues in the same vain. The initially planned capacity of 5 million passengers had to be hastily revised at the time of signing the agreement to 8 mppa gradually building up to 11 million mmpa by 2015, itself revised upward from 10.5 million by 2010 as per the original BIAL-commissioned study conducted by Lufthansa Consulting. But all the foreign corporates had got it completely wrong! The existing HAL Airport already handled over 10.5 million passengers in 2007! So, BIAL will be severely under-capacity on the very day it opens! BIAL’s projection is for 12 per cent annual traffic growth as against over 26 per cent witnessed in Bengaluru and nationwide. Bengaluru should have had capacity to handle 20-25 mmpa by 2015 latest, not only far exceeding current terminal capacities but easily exceeding even the maximum capacity of 17 million of the single runway which, incidentally, is not designed to handle the A-380 super jumbos likely to commence international operations in India next year.
The model of “clear and free” privatisation preferred by the government has meant a total disconnect between the airport itself and issues of connectivity, city-side facilities and urban planning which should be integral parts of planning airport infrastructure. An airport is not just a set of civil works to be dumped somewhere, leaving other aspects to take care of themselves. This is the main reason why most countries and cities prefer a state structure with built-in inter-agency collaboration while bringing in private players through different institutional mechanisms such as long-term leases or management contracts.
The new airport at Bengaluru is 35 km from the city centre to the north and 50 km from Electronics City and the IT hubs in the south, closer to the HAL airport. Travel time from the new airport is 1 hour to reach even the northern city limits, about 2:30 hours to the commercial district and 3:45 hours to the IT hub, not to mention additional delays that could be caused by the notorious Bengaluru traffic. International IT businessmen would do better flying in to Chennai and driving down from there in more or less the same time, and motoring between the metros would be more attractive than flying.
Despite these capacity and connectivity problems, the governments at the centre and in Karnataka, as well as BIAL, insist that the HAL airport be closed down. But BIAL at the same time wants HAL airport be used for helicopter or even jet shuttle services to the new airport so as to overcome connectivity problems! But only for business class passengers at a small charge of Rs 1500! A cruel joke indeed.
Contd
Private Profit
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
PRIVATE INTERESTS OR
THE LARGER GOOD?
The closure of the existing airports in Hyderabad and Bengaluru would be a further loss to users, airlines, staff and the numerous people engaged in transport, catering and other services at a busy metropolitan airport. The Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Civil Aviation has strongly recommended that these existing airports be kept open but the minister and other authorities have rejected this amply justified demand.
We have seen that due to gross underestimation of growth and poor planning, the new airports would not be able to cope with estimated traffic. BIAL CEO Albert Brunner argues that demands to keep the old airports functioning are usual in such cases but that a city the size of Bengaluru does not require two airports. Numerous cities around the world testify to just the opposite, dividing the airports between domestic or regional short-haul flights and longer domestic and international ones. Captain Gopinath of Deccan Aviation has argued that, with the opening up of civil aviation in India, if passengers could be allowed to choose airlines, why not allow them to choose airports? In Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the existing airports could similarly be kept open for low-cost carriers, regional flights, courier services, executive jets and so on. All categories of users and service providers would gain. The new private operators may lose some revenue in the short term but not in the longer term when expanding traffic would more than make up.
Both the government and the private operators have cited contract provisions supposedly calling for existing airports to shut down. Closer reading of the official aviation policy governing these contracts suggests that this is not as water-tight as it is made out to be. The policy actually states that no new or greenfield airport would “normally” be allowed within 150 km unless special circumstances warrant it. Well, the government has just given approval for a Greenfield airport in Greater Noida outside Delhi which is much nearer to the Delhi airport than in these cases, and the capacity issues and costs to budget carriers and their users are special enough circumstances. It remains to be seen what will come of the recent ruling of the High Court in Bengaluru that the old airport in the city be kept open!
Question is, will the government take the necessary action and correct an obvious wrong in favour of the common good or simply allow short-term commercial interests of a few parties to prevail?
Further, modernisation of 35 non-metro airports has been initiated under the aegis of the AAI but involving private players in different ways. Will the government learn the right lessons for this further bout of privatisation, under whatever disguised form, of these airports and of other regional airports?
PRIVATE INTERESTS OR
THE LARGER GOOD?
The closure of the existing airports in Hyderabad and Bengaluru would be a further loss to users, airlines, staff and the numerous people engaged in transport, catering and other services at a busy metropolitan airport. The Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Civil Aviation has strongly recommended that these existing airports be kept open but the minister and other authorities have rejected this amply justified demand.
We have seen that due to gross underestimation of growth and poor planning, the new airports would not be able to cope with estimated traffic. BIAL CEO Albert Brunner argues that demands to keep the old airports functioning are usual in such cases but that a city the size of Bengaluru does not require two airports. Numerous cities around the world testify to just the opposite, dividing the airports between domestic or regional short-haul flights and longer domestic and international ones. Captain Gopinath of Deccan Aviation has argued that, with the opening up of civil aviation in India, if passengers could be allowed to choose airlines, why not allow them to choose airports? In Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the existing airports could similarly be kept open for low-cost carriers, regional flights, courier services, executive jets and so on. All categories of users and service providers would gain. The new private operators may lose some revenue in the short term but not in the longer term when expanding traffic would more than make up.
Both the government and the private operators have cited contract provisions supposedly calling for existing airports to shut down. Closer reading of the official aviation policy governing these contracts suggests that this is not as water-tight as it is made out to be. The policy actually states that no new or greenfield airport would “normally” be allowed within 150 km unless special circumstances warrant it. Well, the government has just given approval for a Greenfield airport in Greater Noida outside Delhi which is much nearer to the Delhi airport than in these cases, and the capacity issues and costs to budget carriers and their users are special enough circumstances. It remains to be seen what will come of the recent ruling of the High Court in Bengaluru that the old airport in the city be kept open!
Question is, will the government take the necessary action and correct an obvious wrong in favour of the common good or simply allow short-term commercial interests of a few parties to prevail?
Further, modernisation of 35 non-metro airports has been initiated under the aegis of the AAI but involving private players in different ways. Will the government learn the right lessons for this further bout of privatisation, under whatever disguised form, of these airports and of other regional airports?
Monday, May 26, 2008
Bravo Villagers
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Ambala (Haryana): Upset with the state government's failure to supply regular electricity, at least 25 panchayats or village bodies in Haryana's Ambala district have issued an order to villagers not to pay power bills.
The decision to ban payment of electricity bills by residents in 25 villages was taken Monday at a meeting held at Barada village, 20 km from this district headquarter town.
The Ambala district administration has taken a serious view of the diktat of the village panchayats and asked concerned officials at the local level to identify village leaders who were behind the order not to pay power bills.
"We will initiate strict action against those instigating innocent villagers. Those not paying bills will face legal action," Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Shayin said here Tuesday.
The 25 panchayats said any villager violating the ban order would have to pay a penalty of Rs.1,100 and also sponsor meals for 100 people. They also threatened social boycott of the errant villager and his family if any power bills were paid.
"We had to resort to this action as the government was unable to supply power beyond four hours everyday. We are facing a lot of hardship," one village leader, requesting anonymity, said.
Village elder Dharamvir defended the panchayat decision saying that when the government had failed to provide a service, where was the need to pay power bills.
Haryana government sources said in Chandigarh that the state was viewing the incident seriously as the move could spread to other parts of the state, putting the government in an embarrassing situation.
The Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had waived power arrears of Rs.16 billion ($400 million) for power bill defaulters of 10 years in May 2005. The bill waiver scheme was given as a one-time concession to make defaulters pay future bills.
Ambala (Haryana): Upset with the state government's failure to supply regular electricity, at least 25 panchayats or village bodies in Haryana's Ambala district have issued an order to villagers not to pay power bills.
The decision to ban payment of electricity bills by residents in 25 villages was taken Monday at a meeting held at Barada village, 20 km from this district headquarter town.
The Ambala district administration has taken a serious view of the diktat of the village panchayats and asked concerned officials at the local level to identify village leaders who were behind the order not to pay power bills.
"We will initiate strict action against those instigating innocent villagers. Those not paying bills will face legal action," Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Shayin said here Tuesday.
The 25 panchayats said any villager violating the ban order would have to pay a penalty of Rs.1,100 and also sponsor meals for 100 people. They also threatened social boycott of the errant villager and his family if any power bills were paid.
"We had to resort to this action as the government was unable to supply power beyond four hours everyday. We are facing a lot of hardship," one village leader, requesting anonymity, said.
Village elder Dharamvir defended the panchayat decision saying that when the government had failed to provide a service, where was the need to pay power bills.
Haryana government sources said in Chandigarh that the state was viewing the incident seriously as the move could spread to other parts of the state, putting the government in an embarrassing situation.
The Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had waived power arrears of Rs.16 billion ($400 million) for power bill defaulters of 10 years in May 2005. The bill waiver scheme was given as a one-time concession to make defaulters pay future bills.
Man strangles daughter in another 'honour' killing
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Fatehabad (Haryana): To uphold the 'honour' of his family, a man in Haryana's Fatehabad district strangulated his daughter on suspicion that she was having an extra-marital affair, the police said Wednesday.
The woman, Reshma, was sleeping in her father Bhawana Ram's house in Laloda village in Fatehabad when he killed her. Her two brothers encouraged their father as he strangulated the helpless woman.
The family suspected that Reshma, who was married for over a decade, was having an illicit relationship with her brother-in-law (sister's husband).
The incident comes within a week of a young couple in Haryana's Karnal district being killed by the girl's parents for having married against their wishes.
In the latest incident, the Fatehabad police have registered a case of murder and conspiracy against Bhawana Ram and his sons.
Fatehabad (Haryana): To uphold the 'honour' of his family, a man in Haryana's Fatehabad district strangulated his daughter on suspicion that she was having an extra-marital affair, the police said Wednesday.
The woman, Reshma, was sleeping in her father Bhawana Ram's house in Laloda village in Fatehabad when he killed her. Her two brothers encouraged their father as he strangulated the helpless woman.
The family suspected that Reshma, who was married for over a decade, was having an illicit relationship with her brother-in-law (sister's husband).
The incident comes within a week of a young couple in Haryana's Karnal district being killed by the girl's parents for having married against their wishes.
In the latest incident, the Fatehabad police have registered a case of murder and conspiracy against Bhawana Ram and his sons.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
NAYA NAVJAGRAN
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
The real issues of people - men and women are poverty, illiteracy, ill health etc., cannot be resolved within the framework of the present society as per totay. As we know there is no equality, nor can there be, of oppressed and oppressor, exploited and exploiter. There is no real freedom, nor can there be, so long as women are handicapped by men's legal privileges, so long as there is no freedom for the worker from the yoke of capital, no freedom for the labouring peasant from the yoke of the capitalist, land owner and merchant. Real emancipation of women will only be possible in a society where the basis of exploitation is removed.For basic changes in the present social order a social reform movement is on and this is called Naya NAVJAGRAN. We should Join it and work to reform the society at large.
R.S.Dahiya
The real issues of people - men and women are poverty, illiteracy, ill health etc., cannot be resolved within the framework of the present society as per totay. As we know there is no equality, nor can there be, of oppressed and oppressor, exploited and exploiter. There is no real freedom, nor can there be, so long as women are handicapped by men's legal privileges, so long as there is no freedom for the worker from the yoke of capital, no freedom for the labouring peasant from the yoke of the capitalist, land owner and merchant. Real emancipation of women will only be possible in a society where the basis of exploitation is removed.For basic changes in the present social order a social reform movement is on and this is called Naya NAVJAGRAN. We should Join it and work to reform the society at large.
R.S.Dahiya
WORKING WOMEN --ERA OF GLOBALISATION
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
In the era of globalisation, successive governments at the centre have been adopting policies, which promoted amassing of profits by the employers at the expense of the workers and their basic rights. Workingwomen bear the brunt of these policies. Despite the hype generated on the increasing job opportunities for women, the fact remains that the maximum increase in women?s employment in the urban areas has been as domestic workers. Women constitute 90 per cent of the total marginal workers; despite the existence of the equal remuneration act since the last more than 30 years, they get 30 per cent lower wages than men; according to a survey, 85 per cent women earn only 50 per cent of the official poverty level income. The government itself directly exploits women by calling hundreds of thousands women appointed under its Integrated Child Development Services, National Rural Health Mission etc., as ?social workers?, ?community workers?, ?accredited activists? etc., and denies them minimum wages and social security.
R.S.Dahiya
In the era of globalisation, successive governments at the centre have been adopting policies, which promoted amassing of profits by the employers at the expense of the workers and their basic rights. Workingwomen bear the brunt of these policies. Despite the hype generated on the increasing job opportunities for women, the fact remains that the maximum increase in women?s employment in the urban areas has been as domestic workers. Women constitute 90 per cent of the total marginal workers; despite the existence of the equal remuneration act since the last more than 30 years, they get 30 per cent lower wages than men; according to a survey, 85 per cent women earn only 50 per cent of the official poverty level income. The government itself directly exploits women by calling hundreds of thousands women appointed under its Integrated Child Development Services, National Rural Health Mission etc., as ?social workers?, ?community workers?, ?accredited activists? etc., and denies them minimum wages and social security.
R.S.Dahiya
CRIME AGAINST WOMEN IN INDIA
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Rape is the fastest growing crime in the country; a rape is being reported every 30 minutes, an alarming increase of nearly 700 per cent since 1971; every hour, 18 women become victims of crime directed specifically at them -- rape, kidnapping and abduction, dowry-related crimes, molestation, sexual harassment, eve-teasing, etc. 40 per cent of married women are victims of domestic violence. The increasing violence against women shown in television and films, and their vulgar portrayal as objectives of sex are important contributing factors in the escalating violence against women. But no serious efforts are made to rectify the weaknesses in dealing with the crimes against women and the conviction rate remains abysmally low.
R.S.Dahiya
Rape is the fastest growing crime in the country; a rape is being reported every 30 minutes, an alarming increase of nearly 700 per cent since 1971; every hour, 18 women become victims of crime directed specifically at them -- rape, kidnapping and abduction, dowry-related crimes, molestation, sexual harassment, eve-teasing, etc. 40 per cent of married women are victims of domestic violence. The increasing violence against women shown in television and films, and their vulgar portrayal as objectives of sex are important contributing factors in the escalating violence against women. But no serious efforts are made to rectify the weaknesses in dealing with the crimes against women and the conviction rate remains abysmally low.
R.S.Dahiya
PROCESS OF COMODIFICATION
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
IN a capitalist society, not only goods and services, but everything and anything including ideas, art, culture, sports and sportspersons, love, god and religion, and human beings and their organs are converted into commodities to be traded. Profit is the driving force and nothing is sacred, to be spared from the clutches of the market if it can yield profits. Occasions are created, promoted and utilised to mint money. This tendency inherent in the capitalist system has multiplied in the era of globalisation. Even historical occasions to commemorate working class struggles like May Day and International Working Women?s Day are sought to be ripped off their class content and trivialised and vulgarised.
R.S.Dahiya
IN a capitalist society, not only goods and services, but everything and anything including ideas, art, culture, sports and sportspersons, love, god and religion, and human beings and their organs are converted into commodities to be traded. Profit is the driving force and nothing is sacred, to be spared from the clutches of the market if it can yield profits. Occasions are created, promoted and utilised to mint money. This tendency inherent in the capitalist system has multiplied in the era of globalisation. Even historical occasions to commemorate working class struggles like May Day and International Working Women?s Day are sought to be ripped off their class content and trivialised and vulgarised.
R.S.Dahiya
Friday, March 14, 2008
WHAT SORTS OF DEVELOPMENT
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
What short of development?
Given that India is a very poor country with enormous diversity in terms of religion, language, and ethnicity, the gradual maturing of Indian democracy has been remarkable achievement, almost unparalleled in political history. But this remarkable achievement has also been fatally flawed by our unforgivable failure to deal in an effective manner with mass poverty and illiteracy and various forms of religious, social and gender discrimination and irreparable environmental degradation. Any vision of development is not worth accepting unless it shows how to eliminate rapidly mass poverty and illiteracy, and overcome simultaneously various social barriers arising from caste, religion and gender prejudices .Two experiences are with us: One is market oriented high growth in a globalised world and the other is bureaucratic state intervention with centralized planning. But these models have not stood the test of time. How we can have sustainable development with dignity and without threatening the environment and the planet earth itself.
R.S.Dahiya
What short of development?
Given that India is a very poor country with enormous diversity in terms of religion, language, and ethnicity, the gradual maturing of Indian democracy has been remarkable achievement, almost unparalleled in political history. But this remarkable achievement has also been fatally flawed by our unforgivable failure to deal in an effective manner with mass poverty and illiteracy and various forms of religious, social and gender discrimination and irreparable environmental degradation. Any vision of development is not worth accepting unless it shows how to eliminate rapidly mass poverty and illiteracy, and overcome simultaneously various social barriers arising from caste, religion and gender prejudices .Two experiences are with us: One is market oriented high growth in a globalised world and the other is bureaucratic state intervention with centralized planning. But these models have not stood the test of time. How we can have sustainable development with dignity and without threatening the environment and the planet earth itself.
R.S.Dahiya
S C's in HARYANA
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Economic development influences social relation and dynamics including inter caste relations. But mere economic development without addressing caste hierarchical social order and varna mind set ,social discrimination continues to exist keeping some communities lag behind others in the process of empowerment and overall development. In terms of social development and social justice there are road blocks. The SC’s in Haryana are moving away from their traditional occupations. 47 % in urban areas and 40% in rural areas were employed in non agricultural sector. Migrant labour has been substantial in agriculture in recent years. New occupations have given S C’s better life and income but not the social equality as yet. The real question is how to develop a more humane Haryana where marginalized sections like SC’s, other marginalized sections, women and youth have a respectable place.
R.S.Dahiya
Economic development influences social relation and dynamics including inter caste relations. But mere economic development without addressing caste hierarchical social order and varna mind set ,social discrimination continues to exist keeping some communities lag behind others in the process of empowerment and overall development. In terms of social development and social justice there are road blocks. The SC’s in Haryana are moving away from their traditional occupations. 47 % in urban areas and 40% in rural areas were employed in non agricultural sector. Migrant labour has been substantial in agriculture in recent years. New occupations have given S C’s better life and income but not the social equality as yet. The real question is how to develop a more humane Haryana where marginalized sections like SC’s, other marginalized sections, women and youth have a respectable place.
R.S.Dahiya
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
North Indian Issue
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
We should condemns the incidents of attacks on people belonging to North India in Mumbai and certain other places in Maharashtra. This is a result of the propaganda and statements directed against Hindi-speaking people living in Mumbai by a parochial political outfit.
The state government and the administration should take firm steps against such chauvinist elements and protect the life and property of all citizens living in Mumbai and the state.
We should not be swayed by sectarian views of regionalism
R.S.Dahiya
We should condemns the incidents of attacks on people belonging to North India in Mumbai and certain other places in Maharashtra. This is a result of the propaganda and statements directed against Hindi-speaking people living in Mumbai by a parochial political outfit.
The state government and the administration should take firm steps against such chauvinist elements and protect the life and property of all citizens living in Mumbai and the state.
We should not be swayed by sectarian views of regionalism
R.S.Dahiya
Sunday, February 3, 2008
A scientist in the field------
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
A Scientist in the Field:
It is here that Bernal’s role as a humanist, a scientist (as much a practical one as a theorist) and a catalyst come to the fore. The threat of German aerial bombing had created panic in London (those were the pre radar days) and even trained scientists (including his friend J.B.S. Haldane) could not predict the damage potential of bombs of different sizes. It was clear that the working class would be the most vulnerable section in the event of bombings. Bernal considered it his duty to educate the citizens about the possible damages, and in constructing damage proof shelters. He sought the help of his friend Solly Zuckerman - a doctor, turned anatomist, turned curator of zoo - to conduct practical experiments. Some abandoned shelters were selected in the countryside . Zuckermann and Bernal brought apes and pigeons and left them in these shelters. They contacted the police department for incendiary bombs of different sizes. With the official sanction the bombs were exploded at different distances from these shelters and then they examined the damages to these captive animals. In a later experiment the two friends acted as their own “guinea pigs”, sitting in the shelters while the bombs were exploded nearby! These simple experiments showed that the believed damage potentials of most of the bombs were highly exaggerated. Their results proved invaluable for civil defence, particularly in working class areas and also generated more confidence amongst the citizens.
This involvement helped Bernal and his friends in gaining acceptance from the governmental defence establishments, even though Bernal was not in good books , i.e. “as red as the fire of hell”. His one time enemy Lord Mountbatten now became his supporter, for the most committed anti fascists were the Reds. Bernal was one of the pioneers in applying operations research ideas in these war years and was directly involved in the D-Day landing of the Allied forces in Normandy. His special attention was in devising aerial photography methods to photograph the shapes of waves on the Normandy beaches under different conditions of wind. From the patterns of these waves he devised methods to determine the inclinations of the beaches and conclude whether they could withstand the landing of tanks and armoured vehicles.
R.S.Dahiya
A Scientist in the Field:
It is here that Bernal’s role as a humanist, a scientist (as much a practical one as a theorist) and a catalyst come to the fore. The threat of German aerial bombing had created panic in London (those were the pre radar days) and even trained scientists (including his friend J.B.S. Haldane) could not predict the damage potential of bombs of different sizes. It was clear that the working class would be the most vulnerable section in the event of bombings. Bernal considered it his duty to educate the citizens about the possible damages, and in constructing damage proof shelters. He sought the help of his friend Solly Zuckerman - a doctor, turned anatomist, turned curator of zoo - to conduct practical experiments. Some abandoned shelters were selected in the countryside . Zuckermann and Bernal brought apes and pigeons and left them in these shelters. They contacted the police department for incendiary bombs of different sizes. With the official sanction the bombs were exploded at different distances from these shelters and then they examined the damages to these captive animals. In a later experiment the two friends acted as their own “guinea pigs”, sitting in the shelters while the bombs were exploded nearby! These simple experiments showed that the believed damage potentials of most of the bombs were highly exaggerated. Their results proved invaluable for civil defence, particularly in working class areas and also generated more confidence amongst the citizens.
This involvement helped Bernal and his friends in gaining acceptance from the governmental defence establishments, even though Bernal was not in good books , i.e. “as red as the fire of hell”. His one time enemy Lord Mountbatten now became his supporter, for the most committed anti fascists were the Reds. Bernal was one of the pioneers in applying operations research ideas in these war years and was directly involved in the D-Day landing of the Allied forces in Normandy. His special attention was in devising aerial photography methods to photograph the shapes of waves on the Normandy beaches under different conditions of wind. From the patterns of these waves he devised methods to determine the inclinations of the beaches and conclude whether they could withstand the landing of tanks and armoured vehicles.
R.S.Dahiya
My village fellows are marching---
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
My village fellows are marching---
Dear all
We talk in a way and debate in the manner where enthusiasm is not enthused.Few lines we are singing collectively to motivate people. Let us see how much we can add---
My village folk are marching out with torches in their hands
My village folk will now win over the darkness
The huts asks the question and the fields also ask
Untill when will my village folk continue to be robbed
Knowing that nothing can be got here without a fight
My village folk are now ready to fight
Obstacles are crying out loud when they are kicked
My village folk are clanking their shakles
My village folk are marching out with torches in their hands
My village folk will now win over the darkness--------
R.S.Dahiya
My village fellows are marching---
Dear all
We talk in a way and debate in the manner where enthusiasm is not enthused.Few lines we are singing collectively to motivate people. Let us see how much we can add---
My village folk are marching out with torches in their hands
My village folk will now win over the darkness
The huts asks the question and the fields also ask
Untill when will my village folk continue to be robbed
Knowing that nothing can be got here without a fight
My village folk are now ready to fight
Obstacles are crying out loud when they are kicked
My village folk are clanking their shakles
My village folk are marching out with torches in their hands
My village folk will now win over the darkness--------
R.S.Dahiya
Myth and realities regarding Population In India:--------
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Myth and realities regarding Population In India:--------
Since India’s independence has population growth overtaken food production?
No
Since India’s independence, its population has grown slightly less than 3 times, while food production has grown over 4 times.
Does higher population density leads to lower economic progress.
No
Orissa has a low population density (236 compared to 324 India) but the proportion of people living below the poverty line is the highest ( 47%).
Kerala on the other hand has a much higher population density ( 819) but is economically better off.
Netherlands and Japan have higher population densities than ours, but they are rich developed countries.
Is India’s population growing rapidly
No
India’s current population growth rate is the lowest in the last in fifty years
Large proportion of the population is young and in reproductive age group leading to momentum effect.
High fertility in some places because of unmet needs (there is a desire without services being available) for contraception
High fertility due to high infant mortality rate in some places
Over 50% girls are married before the age of 18- leading to “too early, too frequent, too many”. 33% births occur before 24 months of the earlier birth
Do we need a targeted population control program to help women?
No
Women are easy target of the Family Planning programme bypassing men
Operations are done hurriedly and with no care leading to death, complications and failure.
All other health services are unavailable
R.S.Dahiya
Myth and realities regarding Population In India:--------
Since India’s independence has population growth overtaken food production?
No
Since India’s independence, its population has grown slightly less than 3 times, while food production has grown over 4 times.
Does higher population density leads to lower economic progress.
No
Orissa has a low population density (236 compared to 324 India) but the proportion of people living below the poverty line is the highest ( 47%).
Kerala on the other hand has a much higher population density ( 819) but is economically better off.
Netherlands and Japan have higher population densities than ours, but they are rich developed countries.
Is India’s population growing rapidly
No
India’s current population growth rate is the lowest in the last in fifty years
Large proportion of the population is young and in reproductive age group leading to momentum effect.
High fertility in some places because of unmet needs (there is a desire without services being available) for contraception
High fertility due to high infant mortality rate in some places
Over 50% girls are married before the age of 18- leading to “too early, too frequent, too many”. 33% births occur before 24 months of the earlier birth
Do we need a targeted population control program to help women?
No
Women are easy target of the Family Planning programme bypassing men
Operations are done hurriedly and with no care leading to death, complications and failure.
All other health services are unavailable
R.S.Dahiya
Iraqi Refugees Turn To prostitution
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Iraqi Refugees Turn To prostitution
No reliable figures of Iraqi prostitutes exist, but an increase in the number of Iraqi women seen in recent months in clubs and on the streets of Damascus, Amman and other cities suggests the problem is growing as more Iraqis flee their country's violence
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that around 2 million Iraqis have fled to neighboring countries since 2003.
But At'outa is just one of an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria alone.
"I ask myself every day, what did I get out of this life? No family, no home and no honor," she said. "The guilt is ripping my body to shreds."
Who is to be blamed?
R.S.Dahiya
Iraqi Refugees Turn To prostitution
No reliable figures of Iraqi prostitutes exist, but an increase in the number of Iraqi women seen in recent months in clubs and on the streets of Damascus, Amman and other cities suggests the problem is growing as more Iraqis flee their country's violence
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that around 2 million Iraqis have fled to neighboring countries since 2003.
But At'outa is just one of an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria alone.
"I ask myself every day, what did I get out of this life? No family, no home and no honor," she said. "The guilt is ripping my body to shreds."
Who is to be blamed?
R.S.Dahiya
KAHANI DEEPA KI
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Dear All
Deepa is a one of the 25 ladies interviewed in a case study.
Deepa was 24 years old and her husband was 30 years old . She had two abortions at two and half months, third was a 8 month girl who died. Chhora to chahiye jaroor. Then she had to have a fourth child to be a girl The girl was.one and half years old and at the time of interview. Compelled to have 5th baby who was a headless baby in 5th month term detected on USG. Medically advised to get abortion. Got aborted. The nanad had given her a tablet for son from Bahadurgarh for her last pregnancy. She was told not to see a woman for one hour after taking the tablet . . She has been married for 5 years and got pregnant within 2 months for the first time and since then she was under social stress to give birth to a boy. Lost in follow up. Donot know what happened next? Can we imagine what might have happened with her.?
R.S. Dahiya
Dear All
Deepa is a one of the 25 ladies interviewed in a case study.
Deepa was 24 years old and her husband was 30 years old . She had two abortions at two and half months, third was a 8 month girl who died. Chhora to chahiye jaroor. Then she had to have a fourth child to be a girl The girl was.one and half years old and at the time of interview. Compelled to have 5th baby who was a headless baby in 5th month term detected on USG. Medically advised to get abortion. Got aborted. The nanad had given her a tablet for son from Bahadurgarh for her last pregnancy. She was told not to see a woman for one hour after taking the tablet . . She has been married for 5 years and got pregnant within 2 months for the first time and since then she was under social stress to give birth to a boy. Lost in follow up. Donot know what happened next? Can we imagine what might have happened with her.?
R.S. Dahiya
Sethusamudram project
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Sethusamudram project
THE Hindutva brigade and their drumbeaters have decided once again to indulge in their favourite pastime. In the last couple of weeks they have been fuelling a campaign that attempts to resurrect the bogey of a "conspiracy" that supposedly negates evidence of "Hindu" India's glittering past ― this time focusing on the Sethusamudram project that will damage the "bridge" supposedly built for Lord Rama's army to cross over to Lanka. In different guises, the Hindutva brigade has attempted to mix science, history, mythology and faith, in order to hoodwink the Indian people and foist upon them their divisive and sectarian agenda. It is an extremely convenient and canny potion, and the Hindutva brigade have perfected the art of concocting it. If we dispute their own scientific arguments, then they fall back on the argument that science cannot override faith. If we question their interpretation of history, we are faced with the contention that mythology and history are inseparable, and in cases of dispute the former will always prevail!
R.S.Dahiya
Sethusamudram project
THE Hindutva brigade and their drumbeaters have decided once again to indulge in their favourite pastime. In the last couple of weeks they have been fuelling a campaign that attempts to resurrect the bogey of a "conspiracy" that supposedly negates evidence of "Hindu" India's glittering past ― this time focusing on the Sethusamudram project that will damage the "bridge" supposedly built for Lord Rama's army to cross over to Lanka. In different guises, the Hindutva brigade has attempted to mix science, history, mythology and faith, in order to hoodwink the Indian people and foist upon them their divisive and sectarian agenda. It is an extremely convenient and canny potion, and the Hindutva brigade have perfected the art of concocting it. If we dispute their own scientific arguments, then they fall back on the argument that science cannot override faith. If we question their interpretation of history, we are faced with the contention that mythology and history are inseparable, and in cases of dispute the former will always prevail!
R.S.Dahiya
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tourism At The End Of The World
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Tourism At The End Of The World
By Stephen Leahy
18 January, 2008
Inter Press Service
TORONTO, Jan 18 (Tierramérica) - Hurry! Hurry! See the polar bears, penguins, Arctic glaciers, small pacific islands before they disappear forever due to global warming.
Tourism companies are now using climate change as a marketing tool: Visit the pacific island paradise of Tuvalu before rising sea levels swallow it in the next 30 to 50 years. See the Arctic while there is still ice and polar bears.
"Some companies are using climate change as a marketing pitch, a 'see it now before it's gone' kind of thing," says Ayako Ezaki, communications director for the International Ecotourism Society, based in Washington DC.
But "ecotourism companies are wary of using that, because we want our customers to see it and then act to protect it so it won't disappear," Ezaki told Tierramérica.
Climate change is reshaping the planet. Some islands will vanish and others will be uncovered as glaciers and ice sheets melt. Animals and plants are going extinct at a rate that will accelerate as the planet continues to heat up.
"Climate changes are impacting on all aspects of human and natural systems, including both cultural and natural World Heritage properties," UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) reported in 2006.
Hundreds of natural and historic sites around the world are at risk, such as the potential loss of ancient ruins in Thailand, coral reefs in Belize, 13th century mosques in the Sahara, and the Cape Floral Kingdom in South Africa, according to the UNESCO study.
And there is a strong, perhaps perverse, desire in many people to go and see rare things: the last few tigers or lady's slipper orchids or a rapidly retreating glacier.
Scientists have become very reluctant to reveal any information about rare species for this reason, and even to keep collectors from scooping them up and selling them on the Internet, said Franck Courchamp, a biologist at University of Paris-South in Orsay, France in an interview.
Meanwhile, more people are travelling and they are going to more far-flung destinations than ever before.
"Tourism has been growing 4.3 percent per year for the last 10 years," says Louise Oram, of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), a business association of the top 100 largest tourism companies.
"And that growth will continue into the near future," Oram told Tierramérica from her office in London.
The industry generated seven trillion -- yes, trillion -- dollars of economic activity in 2007 -- 10.7 percent of global GDP. It is also directly or indirectly responsible for 231 million jobs around the world, she said.
Travel and tourism is the world's largest generator of wealth and jobs according to the WTTC. It is also an industry that has an enormous impact on the environment. That is something the industry is starting to come to grips with, acknowledges Oram.
Ecotourism and nature tourism -- which would include "climate tourism" -- is growing perhaps three times faster than the industry in general, estimates Ezaki, of the International Ecotourism Society.
Ecotourism operators are out front on this issue and try to minimise their impacts where ever possible, she says. "When tourism is not sustainable it hurts the environment and we're trying to change that."
While Society members in nearly 100 countries promise to follow a green code of conduct, there is no inspection and no one has ever been kicked out for violations, she says.
Mass tourism, like the typical tropical beach holiday that forms the bulk of the industry, is not sustainable and will continue to be the major problem into the future. National governments will have to step in and make every aspect of mass tourism as green as possible, according to Ezaki.
"The industry needs to show that green or ecotourism is something exciting and different and not just for backpackers or rich environmentalists."
Tourists can reduce their personal impact on the environment by taking direct flights, travelling for longer periods of time rather than taking several short trips of a few days. They should choose rail or bus for transport when possible and look at walking or biking tours, which offer an exciting way to experience a country, she says.
"The key to our staying in business is to keep the environment pristine," says Prisca Campbell, of Quark Expeditions, a U.S.-based nature tour operator that specialises in trips to the Arctic and Antarctic.
In the Antarctic, tour operators agreed many years ago on very stringent guidelines to reduce impacts on the delicate region, Campbell told Tierramérica.
"Customers tell us they travel to see penguins, icebergs and glaciers, and to learn about the first explorers."
Although the tourists might not mention climate change specifically, tour guides do tell them about the impacts at both poles. Six in 10 customers say they want to take action to make a difference on global warming, said Campbell.
"They're not climate tourists, but some will become climate activists."
(Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)
Tourism At The End Of The World
By Stephen Leahy
18 January, 2008
Inter Press Service
TORONTO, Jan 18 (Tierramérica) - Hurry! Hurry! See the polar bears, penguins, Arctic glaciers, small pacific islands before they disappear forever due to global warming.
Tourism companies are now using climate change as a marketing tool: Visit the pacific island paradise of Tuvalu before rising sea levels swallow it in the next 30 to 50 years. See the Arctic while there is still ice and polar bears.
"Some companies are using climate change as a marketing pitch, a 'see it now before it's gone' kind of thing," says Ayako Ezaki, communications director for the International Ecotourism Society, based in Washington DC.
But "ecotourism companies are wary of using that, because we want our customers to see it and then act to protect it so it won't disappear," Ezaki told Tierramérica.
Climate change is reshaping the planet. Some islands will vanish and others will be uncovered as glaciers and ice sheets melt. Animals and plants are going extinct at a rate that will accelerate as the planet continues to heat up.
"Climate changes are impacting on all aspects of human and natural systems, including both cultural and natural World Heritage properties," UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) reported in 2006.
Hundreds of natural and historic sites around the world are at risk, such as the potential loss of ancient ruins in Thailand, coral reefs in Belize, 13th century mosques in the Sahara, and the Cape Floral Kingdom in South Africa, according to the UNESCO study.
And there is a strong, perhaps perverse, desire in many people to go and see rare things: the last few tigers or lady's slipper orchids or a rapidly retreating glacier.
Scientists have become very reluctant to reveal any information about rare species for this reason, and even to keep collectors from scooping them up and selling them on the Internet, said Franck Courchamp, a biologist at University of Paris-South in Orsay, France in an interview.
Meanwhile, more people are travelling and they are going to more far-flung destinations than ever before.
"Tourism has been growing 4.3 percent per year for the last 10 years," says Louise Oram, of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), a business association of the top 100 largest tourism companies.
"And that growth will continue into the near future," Oram told Tierramérica from her office in London.
The industry generated seven trillion -- yes, trillion -- dollars of economic activity in 2007 -- 10.7 percent of global GDP. It is also directly or indirectly responsible for 231 million jobs around the world, she said.
Travel and tourism is the world's largest generator of wealth and jobs according to the WTTC. It is also an industry that has an enormous impact on the environment. That is something the industry is starting to come to grips with, acknowledges Oram.
Ecotourism and nature tourism -- which would include "climate tourism" -- is growing perhaps three times faster than the industry in general, estimates Ezaki, of the International Ecotourism Society.
Ecotourism operators are out front on this issue and try to minimise their impacts where ever possible, she says. "When tourism is not sustainable it hurts the environment and we're trying to change that."
While Society members in nearly 100 countries promise to follow a green code of conduct, there is no inspection and no one has ever been kicked out for violations, she says.
Mass tourism, like the typical tropical beach holiday that forms the bulk of the industry, is not sustainable and will continue to be the major problem into the future. National governments will have to step in and make every aspect of mass tourism as green as possible, according to Ezaki.
"The industry needs to show that green or ecotourism is something exciting and different and not just for backpackers or rich environmentalists."
Tourists can reduce their personal impact on the environment by taking direct flights, travelling for longer periods of time rather than taking several short trips of a few days. They should choose rail or bus for transport when possible and look at walking or biking tours, which offer an exciting way to experience a country, she says.
"The key to our staying in business is to keep the environment pristine," says Prisca Campbell, of Quark Expeditions, a U.S.-based nature tour operator that specialises in trips to the Arctic and Antarctic.
In the Antarctic, tour operators agreed many years ago on very stringent guidelines to reduce impacts on the delicate region, Campbell told Tierramérica.
"Customers tell us they travel to see penguins, icebergs and glaciers, and to learn about the first explorers."
Although the tourists might not mention climate change specifically, tour guides do tell them about the impacts at both poles. Six in 10 customers say they want to take action to make a difference on global warming, said Campbell.
"They're not climate tourists, but some will become climate activists."
(Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)
'The Biggest Environmental Crime In History'
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
'The Biggest Environmental
Crime In History'
By Cahal Milmo
10 December 2007
The Independent
BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move "Beyond Petroleum" by finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of abandoning its "green sheen" by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which environmentalists say are part of the "biggest global warming crime" in history.
The multinational oil and gas producer, which last year made a profit of £11bn, is facing a head-on confrontation with the green lobby in the pristine forests of North America after Greenpeace pledged a direct action campaign against BP following its decision to reverse a long-standing policy and invest heavily in extracting so-called "oil sands" that lie beneath the Canadian province of Alberta and form the world's second-largest proven oil reserves after Saudi Arabia.
Producing crude oil from the tar sands – a heavy mixture of bitumen, water, sand and clay – found beneath more than 54,000 square miles of prime forest in northern Alberta – an area the size of England and Wales combined – generates up to four times more carbon dioxide, the principal global warming gas, than conventional drilling. The booming oil sands industry will produce 100 million tonnes of CO2 (equivalent to a fifth of the UK's entire annual emissions) a year by 2012, ensuring that Canada will miss its emission targets under the Kyoto treaty, according to environmentalist activists.
The oil rush is also scarring a wilderness landscape: millions of tonnes of plant life and top soil is scooped away in vast open-pit mines and millions of litres of water are diverted from rivers – up to five barrels of water are needed to produce a single barrel of crude and the process requires huge amounts of natural gas. The industry, which now includes all the major oil multinationals, including the Anglo-Dutch Shell and American combine Exxon-Mobil, boasts that it takes two tonnes of the raw sands to produce a single barrel of oil. BP insists it will use a less damaging extraction method, but it accepts that its investment will increase its carbon footprint.
Mike Hudema, the climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace in Canada, told The Independent: "BP has done a very good job in recent years of promoting its green objectives. By jumping into tar sands extraction it is taking part in the biggest global warming crime ever seen and BP's green sheen is gone.
"It takes about 29kg of CO2 to produce a barrel of oil conventionally. That figure can be as much 125kg for tar sands oil. It also has the potential to kill off or damage the vast forest wilderness, greater than the size of England and Wales, which forms part of the world's biggest carbon sinks. For BP to be involved in this trade not only flies in the face of their rhetoric but in the era of climate change it should not be being developed at all. You cannot call yourself 'Beyond Petroleum' and involve yourself in tar sands extraction." Mr Hudema said Greenpeace was planning a direct action campaign against BP, which could disrupt its activities as its starts construction work in Alberta next year.
The company had shied away from involvement oil sands, until recently regarded as economically unviable and environmentally unpleasant. Lord Browne of Madingley, who was BP's chief executive until May, sold its remaining Canadian tar sands interests in 1999 and declared as recently as 2004 that there were "tons of opportunities" beyond the sector. But as oil prices hover around the $100-per-barrel mark, Lord Browne's successor, Tony Hayward, announced that BP has entered a joint venture with Husky Energy, owned by the Hong Kong based billionaire Li Ka-Shing, to develop a tar sands facility which will be capable of producing 200,000 barrels of crude a day by 2020. In return for a half share of Husky's Sunrise field in the Athabasca region of Alberta, the epicentre of the tar sands industry, BP has sold its partner a 50 per cent stake in its Toledo oil refinery in Ohio. The companies will invest $5.5bn (£2.7) in the project, making BP one of the biggest players in tar sands extraction.
Mr Hayward made it clear that BP considered its investment was the start of a long-term presence in Alberta. He said: "BP's move into oil sands is an opportunity to build a strategic, material position and the huge potential of Sunrise is the ideal entry point for BP into Canadian oil sands."
Canada claims that it has 175 billion barrels of recoverable oil in Alberta, making the province second only to Saudi Arabia in proved oil riches and sparking a £50bn "oil rush" as American, Chinese and European investors rush to profit from high oil prices. Despite production costs per barrel of up to £15, compared to £1 per barrel in Saudi Arabia, the Canadian province expects to be pumping five million barrels of crude a day by 2030.
BP said it will be using a technology that pumps steam heated by natural gas into vertical wells to liquefy the solidified oil sands and pump it to the surface in a way that is less damaging than open cast mining. But campaigners said this method requires 1,000 cubic feet of gas to produce one barrel of unrefined bitumen – the same required to heat an average British home for 5.5 days.
A spokesman for BP added: "These are resources that would have been developed anyway."
Licenses have been issued by the Albertan government to extract 350 million cubic metres of water from the Athabasca River every year. But the water used in the extraction process, say campaigners, is so contaminated that it cannot be returned to the eco-system and must instead be stored in vast "tailings ponds" that cover up to 20 square miles and there is evidence of increased rates of cancer and multiple sclerosis in down-river communities.
Experts say a pledge to restore all open cast tar sand mines to their previous pristine condition has proved sadly lacking. David Schindler, professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, said: "Right now the big pressure is to get that money out of the ground, not to reclaim the landscape. I wouldn't be surprised if you could see these pits from a satellite 1,000 years from now
'The Biggest Environmental
Crime In History'
By Cahal Milmo
10 December 2007
The Independent
BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move "Beyond Petroleum" by finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of abandoning its "green sheen" by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which environmentalists say are part of the "biggest global warming crime" in history.
The multinational oil and gas producer, which last year made a profit of £11bn, is facing a head-on confrontation with the green lobby in the pristine forests of North America after Greenpeace pledged a direct action campaign against BP following its decision to reverse a long-standing policy and invest heavily in extracting so-called "oil sands" that lie beneath the Canadian province of Alberta and form the world's second-largest proven oil reserves after Saudi Arabia.
Producing crude oil from the tar sands – a heavy mixture of bitumen, water, sand and clay – found beneath more than 54,000 square miles of prime forest in northern Alberta – an area the size of England and Wales combined – generates up to four times more carbon dioxide, the principal global warming gas, than conventional drilling. The booming oil sands industry will produce 100 million tonnes of CO2 (equivalent to a fifth of the UK's entire annual emissions) a year by 2012, ensuring that Canada will miss its emission targets under the Kyoto treaty, according to environmentalist activists.
The oil rush is also scarring a wilderness landscape: millions of tonnes of plant life and top soil is scooped away in vast open-pit mines and millions of litres of water are diverted from rivers – up to five barrels of water are needed to produce a single barrel of crude and the process requires huge amounts of natural gas. The industry, which now includes all the major oil multinationals, including the Anglo-Dutch Shell and American combine Exxon-Mobil, boasts that it takes two tonnes of the raw sands to produce a single barrel of oil. BP insists it will use a less damaging extraction method, but it accepts that its investment will increase its carbon footprint.
Mike Hudema, the climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace in Canada, told The Independent: "BP has done a very good job in recent years of promoting its green objectives. By jumping into tar sands extraction it is taking part in the biggest global warming crime ever seen and BP's green sheen is gone.
"It takes about 29kg of CO2 to produce a barrel of oil conventionally. That figure can be as much 125kg for tar sands oil. It also has the potential to kill off or damage the vast forest wilderness, greater than the size of England and Wales, which forms part of the world's biggest carbon sinks. For BP to be involved in this trade not only flies in the face of their rhetoric but in the era of climate change it should not be being developed at all. You cannot call yourself 'Beyond Petroleum' and involve yourself in tar sands extraction." Mr Hudema said Greenpeace was planning a direct action campaign against BP, which could disrupt its activities as its starts construction work in Alberta next year.
The company had shied away from involvement oil sands, until recently regarded as economically unviable and environmentally unpleasant. Lord Browne of Madingley, who was BP's chief executive until May, sold its remaining Canadian tar sands interests in 1999 and declared as recently as 2004 that there were "tons of opportunities" beyond the sector. But as oil prices hover around the $100-per-barrel mark, Lord Browne's successor, Tony Hayward, announced that BP has entered a joint venture with Husky Energy, owned by the Hong Kong based billionaire Li Ka-Shing, to develop a tar sands facility which will be capable of producing 200,000 barrels of crude a day by 2020. In return for a half share of Husky's Sunrise field in the Athabasca region of Alberta, the epicentre of the tar sands industry, BP has sold its partner a 50 per cent stake in its Toledo oil refinery in Ohio. The companies will invest $5.5bn (£2.7) in the project, making BP one of the biggest players in tar sands extraction.
Mr Hayward made it clear that BP considered its investment was the start of a long-term presence in Alberta. He said: "BP's move into oil sands is an opportunity to build a strategic, material position and the huge potential of Sunrise is the ideal entry point for BP into Canadian oil sands."
Canada claims that it has 175 billion barrels of recoverable oil in Alberta, making the province second only to Saudi Arabia in proved oil riches and sparking a £50bn "oil rush" as American, Chinese and European investors rush to profit from high oil prices. Despite production costs per barrel of up to £15, compared to £1 per barrel in Saudi Arabia, the Canadian province expects to be pumping five million barrels of crude a day by 2030.
BP said it will be using a technology that pumps steam heated by natural gas into vertical wells to liquefy the solidified oil sands and pump it to the surface in a way that is less damaging than open cast mining. But campaigners said this method requires 1,000 cubic feet of gas to produce one barrel of unrefined bitumen – the same required to heat an average British home for 5.5 days.
A spokesman for BP added: "These are resources that would have been developed anyway."
Licenses have been issued by the Albertan government to extract 350 million cubic metres of water from the Athabasca River every year. But the water used in the extraction process, say campaigners, is so contaminated that it cannot be returned to the eco-system and must instead be stored in vast "tailings ponds" that cover up to 20 square miles and there is evidence of increased rates of cancer and multiple sclerosis in down-river communities.
Experts say a pledge to restore all open cast tar sand mines to their previous pristine condition has proved sadly lacking. David Schindler, professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, said: "Right now the big pressure is to get that money out of the ground, not to reclaim the landscape. I wouldn't be surprised if you could see these pits from a satellite 1,000 years from now
The Bali Deal Is Worse Than Kyoto
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
The Bali Deal Is Worse Than Kyoto
By George Monbiot
18 December, 2007
Monbiot.com
“After 11 days of negotiations, governments have come up with a compromise deal that could even lead to emission increases. The highly compromised political deal is largely attributable to the position of the United States, which was heavily influenced by fossil fuel and automobile industry interests. The failure to reach agreement led to the talks spilling over into an all-night session.”
These are extracts from a press release by Friends of the Earth. So what? Well it was published on December 11 - I mean to say, December 11 1997. The US had just put a wrecking ball through the Kyoto protocol. George Bush was innocent; he was busy executing prisoners in Texas. Its climate negotiators were led by Albert Arnold Gore.
The European Union had asked for greenhouse gas cuts of 15% by 2010. Gore’s team drove them down to 5.2% by 2012. Then the Americans did something worse: they destroyed the whole agreement.
Most of the other governments insisted that the cuts be made at home. But Gore demanded a series of loopholes big enough to drive a Hummer through. The rich nations, he said, should be allowed to buy their cuts from other countries. When he won, the protocol created an exuberant global market in fake emissions cuts. The western nations could buy “hot air” from the former Soviet Union. Because the cuts were made against emissions in 1990, and because industry in that bloc had subsequently collapsed, the former Soviet Union countries would pass well below the bar. Gore’s scam allowed them to sell the gases they weren’t producing to other nations. He also insisted that rich nations could buy nominal cuts from poor ones. Entrepreneurs in India and China have made billions by building factories whose primary purpose is to produce greenhouse gases, so that carbon traders in the rich world will pay to clean them up.
The result of this sabotage is that the market for low-carbon technologies has remained moribund. Without an assured high value for carbon cuts, without any certainty that government policies will be sustained, companies have continued to invest in the safe commercial prospects offered by fossil fuels rather than gamble on a market without an obvious floor.
By ensuring that the rich nations would not make real cuts, Gore also guaranteed that the poor ones scoffed when we asked them to do as we don’t. When George Bush announced, in 2001, that he would not ratify the Kyoto protocol, the world cursed and stamped its foot. But his intransigence affected only the US. Gore’s team ruined it for everyone.
The destructive power of the American delegation is not the only thing that hasn’t changed. After the Kyoto protocol was agreed, the then British environment secretary, John Prescott, announced: “This is a truly historic deal which will help curb the problems of climate change. For the first time it commits developed countries to make legally binding cuts in their emissions.” Ten years later, the current environment secretary, Hilary Benn, told us that “this is an historic breakthrough and a huge step forward. For the first time ever, all the world’s nations have agreed to negotiate on a deal to tackle dangerous climate change.” Do these people have a chip inserted?
In both cases, the US demanded terms that appeared impossible for the other nations to accept. Before Kyoto, the other negotiators flatly rejected Gore’s proposals for emissions trading. So his team threatened to sink the talks. The other nations capitulated, but the US still held out on technicalities until the very last moment, when it suddenly appeared to concede. In 1997 and in 2007 it got the best of both worlds: it wrecked the treaty and was praised for saving it.
Hilary Benn is an idiot. Our diplomats are suckers. American negotiators have pulled the same trick twice, and for the second time our governments have fallen for it.
There are still two years to go, but so far the new agreement is even worse than the Kyoto protocol. It contains no targets and no dates. A new set of guidelines also agreed at Bali extend and strengthen the worst of Gore’s trading scams, the clean development mechanism. Benn and the other dupes are cheering and waving their hats as the train leaves the station at last, having failed to notice that it is travelling in the wrong direction.
Although Gore does a better job of governing now he is out of office, he was no George Bush. He wanted a strong, binding and meaningful protocol, but American politics had made it impossible. In July 1997, the Senate had voted 95-0 to sink any treaty which failed to treat developing countries in the same way as it treated the rich ones. Though they knew this was impossible for developing countries to accept, all the Democrats lined up with all the Republicans. The Clinton administration had proposed a compromise: instead of binding commitments for the developing nations, Gore would demand emissions trading. But even when he succeeded, he announced that “we will not submit this agreement for ratification [in the Senate] until key developing nations participate”. Clinton could thus avoid an unwinnable war.
So why, regardless of the character of its leaders, does the US act this way? Because, like several other modern democracies, it is subject to two great corrupting forces. I have written before about the role of the corporate media - particularly in the US - in downplaying the threat of climate change and demonising anyone who tries to address it. I won’t bore you with it again, except to remark that at 3pm eastern standard time on Saturday, there were 20 news items on the front page of the Fox News website. The climate deal came 20th, after “Bikini-wearing stewardesses sell calendar for charity” and “Florida store sells ‘Santa Hates You’ T-shirt”.
Let us consider instead the other great source of corruption: campaign finance. The Senate rejects effective action on climate change because its members are bought and bound by the companies that stand to lose. When you study the tables showing who gives what to whom, you are struck by two things.
One is the quantity. Since 1990, the energy and natural resources sector - mostly coal, oil, gas, logging and agribusiness - has given $418m to federal politicians in the US. Transport companies have given $355m. The other is the width: the undiscriminating nature of this munificence. The big polluters favour the Republicans, but most of them also fund Democrats. During the 2000 presidential campaign, oil and gas companies lavished money on Bush, but they also gave Gore $142,000, while transport companies gave him $347,000. The whole US political system is in hock to people who put their profits ahead of the biosphere.
So don’t believe all this nonsense about waiting for the next president to sort it out. This is a much bigger problem than George Bush. Yes, he is viscerally opposed to tackling climate change. But viscera don’t have much to do with it. Until the American people confront their political funding system, their politicians will keep speaking from the pocket, not the gut.
George Monbiot is the author of the best selling books The Age of Consent: a manifesto for a new world order and Captive State: the corporate takeover of Britain. He writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper.
The Bali Deal Is Worse Than Kyoto
By George Monbiot
18 December, 2007
Monbiot.com
“After 11 days of negotiations, governments have come up with a compromise deal that could even lead to emission increases. The highly compromised political deal is largely attributable to the position of the United States, which was heavily influenced by fossil fuel and automobile industry interests. The failure to reach agreement led to the talks spilling over into an all-night session.”
These are extracts from a press release by Friends of the Earth. So what? Well it was published on December 11 - I mean to say, December 11 1997. The US had just put a wrecking ball through the Kyoto protocol. George Bush was innocent; he was busy executing prisoners in Texas. Its climate negotiators were led by Albert Arnold Gore.
The European Union had asked for greenhouse gas cuts of 15% by 2010. Gore’s team drove them down to 5.2% by 2012. Then the Americans did something worse: they destroyed the whole agreement.
Most of the other governments insisted that the cuts be made at home. But Gore demanded a series of loopholes big enough to drive a Hummer through. The rich nations, he said, should be allowed to buy their cuts from other countries. When he won, the protocol created an exuberant global market in fake emissions cuts. The western nations could buy “hot air” from the former Soviet Union. Because the cuts were made against emissions in 1990, and because industry in that bloc had subsequently collapsed, the former Soviet Union countries would pass well below the bar. Gore’s scam allowed them to sell the gases they weren’t producing to other nations. He also insisted that rich nations could buy nominal cuts from poor ones. Entrepreneurs in India and China have made billions by building factories whose primary purpose is to produce greenhouse gases, so that carbon traders in the rich world will pay to clean them up.
The result of this sabotage is that the market for low-carbon technologies has remained moribund. Without an assured high value for carbon cuts, without any certainty that government policies will be sustained, companies have continued to invest in the safe commercial prospects offered by fossil fuels rather than gamble on a market without an obvious floor.
By ensuring that the rich nations would not make real cuts, Gore also guaranteed that the poor ones scoffed when we asked them to do as we don’t. When George Bush announced, in 2001, that he would not ratify the Kyoto protocol, the world cursed and stamped its foot. But his intransigence affected only the US. Gore’s team ruined it for everyone.
The destructive power of the American delegation is not the only thing that hasn’t changed. After the Kyoto protocol was agreed, the then British environment secretary, John Prescott, announced: “This is a truly historic deal which will help curb the problems of climate change. For the first time it commits developed countries to make legally binding cuts in their emissions.” Ten years later, the current environment secretary, Hilary Benn, told us that “this is an historic breakthrough and a huge step forward. For the first time ever, all the world’s nations have agreed to negotiate on a deal to tackle dangerous climate change.” Do these people have a chip inserted?
In both cases, the US demanded terms that appeared impossible for the other nations to accept. Before Kyoto, the other negotiators flatly rejected Gore’s proposals for emissions trading. So his team threatened to sink the talks. The other nations capitulated, but the US still held out on technicalities until the very last moment, when it suddenly appeared to concede. In 1997 and in 2007 it got the best of both worlds: it wrecked the treaty and was praised for saving it.
Hilary Benn is an idiot. Our diplomats are suckers. American negotiators have pulled the same trick twice, and for the second time our governments have fallen for it.
There are still two years to go, but so far the new agreement is even worse than the Kyoto protocol. It contains no targets and no dates. A new set of guidelines also agreed at Bali extend and strengthen the worst of Gore’s trading scams, the clean development mechanism. Benn and the other dupes are cheering and waving their hats as the train leaves the station at last, having failed to notice that it is travelling in the wrong direction.
Although Gore does a better job of governing now he is out of office, he was no George Bush. He wanted a strong, binding and meaningful protocol, but American politics had made it impossible. In July 1997, the Senate had voted 95-0 to sink any treaty which failed to treat developing countries in the same way as it treated the rich ones. Though they knew this was impossible for developing countries to accept, all the Democrats lined up with all the Republicans. The Clinton administration had proposed a compromise: instead of binding commitments for the developing nations, Gore would demand emissions trading. But even when he succeeded, he announced that “we will not submit this agreement for ratification [in the Senate] until key developing nations participate”. Clinton could thus avoid an unwinnable war.
So why, regardless of the character of its leaders, does the US act this way? Because, like several other modern democracies, it is subject to two great corrupting forces. I have written before about the role of the corporate media - particularly in the US - in downplaying the threat of climate change and demonising anyone who tries to address it. I won’t bore you with it again, except to remark that at 3pm eastern standard time on Saturday, there were 20 news items on the front page of the Fox News website. The climate deal came 20th, after “Bikini-wearing stewardesses sell calendar for charity” and “Florida store sells ‘Santa Hates You’ T-shirt”.
Let us consider instead the other great source of corruption: campaign finance. The Senate rejects effective action on climate change because its members are bought and bound by the companies that stand to lose. When you study the tables showing who gives what to whom, you are struck by two things.
One is the quantity. Since 1990, the energy and natural resources sector - mostly coal, oil, gas, logging and agribusiness - has given $418m to federal politicians in the US. Transport companies have given $355m. The other is the width: the undiscriminating nature of this munificence. The big polluters favour the Republicans, but most of them also fund Democrats. During the 2000 presidential campaign, oil and gas companies lavished money on Bush, but they also gave Gore $142,000, while transport companies gave him $347,000. The whole US political system is in hock to people who put their profits ahead of the biosphere.
So don’t believe all this nonsense about waiting for the next president to sort it out. This is a much bigger problem than George Bush. Yes, he is viscerally opposed to tackling climate change. But viscera don’t have much to do with it. Until the American people confront their political funding system, their politicians will keep speaking from the pocket, not the gut.
George Monbiot is the author of the best selling books The Age of Consent: a manifesto for a new world order and Captive State: the corporate takeover of Britain. He writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper.
Who Should Pilot Spaceship Earth?
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Who Should Pilot Spaceship Earth?
By Gunther Ostermann
11 December, 2007
Countercurrents.org
“We are in a grave crisis and need to do something real fast.” That’s the general consensus by many climate scientists from Bali. But, they’re up against the economists who claim “scientists are in no position to intelligently guide public policy on climate change”. Really? Aren’t they the people who are mainly responsible with their ‘growth forever’ dream that got us in this mess?
If our consumption oriented HAVING society could be encouraged to adopt the concept of BEING, a philosophy best articulated by the late social psychologist and humanistic philosopher Erich Fromm, we could meet the desired ‘greenhouse gas emission targets’ in a fraction of the time.
Of course, it has to start with the leaders in politics, business, and the dream industries. If they would live and lead by example with a new Global Ethic:
Do not expect others to live with less than what you’re willing to live with, then the majority of the people would gladly follow.
Money represents a demand for goods and services, and that produces greenhouse gases. How then, can a “doomsday forecaster” demand a six figure-speaking fee plus expenses? Would anybody go on an airplane trip where the passengers will hold a vote as to who shall be the captain, co-pilot, and navigator, without any experience? Who would go on such a trip? Why then is Spaceship Earth in the hands of unqualified politicians, just because they’re given a portfolio, or vote?
It would help, if we remember daily that, we come with nothing, and leave just the same. And for over one hundred thousand people the departure date is today.
Let us speak on Behalf of those who cannot yet speak for themselves.
Gunther Ostermann can be reached at gco@shaw.ca
Who Should Pilot Spaceship Earth?
By Gunther Ostermann
11 December, 2007
Countercurrents.org
“We are in a grave crisis and need to do something real fast.” That’s the general consensus by many climate scientists from Bali. But, they’re up against the economists who claim “scientists are in no position to intelligently guide public policy on climate change”. Really? Aren’t they the people who are mainly responsible with their ‘growth forever’ dream that got us in this mess?
If our consumption oriented HAVING society could be encouraged to adopt the concept of BEING, a philosophy best articulated by the late social psychologist and humanistic philosopher Erich Fromm, we could meet the desired ‘greenhouse gas emission targets’ in a fraction of the time.
Of course, it has to start with the leaders in politics, business, and the dream industries. If they would live and lead by example with a new Global Ethic:
Do not expect others to live with less than what you’re willing to live with, then the majority of the people would gladly follow.
Money represents a demand for goods and services, and that produces greenhouse gases. How then, can a “doomsday forecaster” demand a six figure-speaking fee plus expenses? Would anybody go on an airplane trip where the passengers will hold a vote as to who shall be the captain, co-pilot, and navigator, without any experience? Who would go on such a trip? Why then is Spaceship Earth in the hands of unqualified politicians, just because they’re given a portfolio, or vote?
It would help, if we remember daily that, we come with nothing, and leave just the same. And for over one hundred thousand people the departure date is today.
Let us speak on Behalf of those who cannot yet speak for themselves.
Gunther Ostermann can be reached at gco@shaw.ca
Bali Exposes US, Canada And Australian Climate Racism,
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Bali Exposes US, Canada And Australian Climate Racism,
Climate Terrorism, Climate Criminals And Climate Genocide
By Dr Gideon Polya
18 December, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The Bali Climate Change Conference has ended in a FARCE due to the US veto of greenhouse gas emission targets for developed countries. The Bush US position - in clear opposition to the IPCC, the world's scientists, Green groups, Developing nations and the EU - was backed by climate criminal, climate racist, climate terrorist neo-Bush-ite Rudd Australia, Bush-ite Harper Canada and other climate criminal US allies such as Bush-ite Japan and US satrap and carbon dioxide (CO2) polluter extraordinaire Saudi Arabia .
The Bali Farce is best summarized by the following key quote from an excellent article by Patrick O’Connor (see: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/dec2007/bali-d17.shtml ) which summarizes this First World-imposed impending disaster for the world, QUOTE: "The UN-sponsored climate change conference held on the Indonesian island of Bali ended on the weekend without any agreement on combatting global warming other than vague generalities. A last-minute, face-saving communiqué was issued but, at the insistence of the Bush administration and its allies [Australia, Canada, Japan], it made no mention of specific carbon emission reduction targets. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had recommended a cut in carbon emissions of 25 to 40 percent in the advanced industrial countries by 2020 and a total world emissions reduction of 50 percent by 2050."
Before analysing this further, we should define some TERMS that must surely become part of the global lexicon for the FEW DECADES LEFT of the World as we know it.
“Climate change” refers to the warming of the planet due to anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas pollution. As summarized by the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment report (for a Summary of the Summary of the IPCC Synthesis Report see:
http://green-blog.org/2007/11/21/summary-of-the-summary-of-the-2007-ipcc-ar4-synthesis-report/ ) the world is on track for an IPCC “worst case scenario” Category VI scenario (and current global Greenhouse gas, GHG, pollution EXCEEDS that specified in this worst-case scenario) involving stabilization at 660-790 ppm CO2 (twice today’s level of 379 ppm) , 4.9-6.1 degrees centigrade temperature rise above the pre-industrial (4-5 degrees above today’s) and 1.0-3.7 metres sea level above pre-industrial sea level or about 0.8-3.5 metres above today’s).
“Climate stress” refers to the biological consequences reality that the world has already warmed about 1 degree Centigrade above the pre-industrial average but with some areas being markedly hotter than this already (the Indian Ocean has warmed about 2 degrees centigrade on average in the last 40 years). Climate stress is manifested in relation to human societies and with animals and plants in ecosystems around the world (e.g. changes to polar bear habitats, coral bleaching, polar drift of vegetation, pole-ward drift of phytoplankton, susceptibility to mega-fires, drought etc).
“Climate racism” refers to the extraordinary, “might is right”, entrenched disparity in “per capita greenhouse gas pollution” between the “colonial” Anglo-Celtic countries of the US, Canada and Australia and the countries of the developing world (for a very detailed analysis see the US Energy Information Administration, US EIA: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/pdf/emissions.pdf ). Thus in 2004 “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” in tonnes CO2/person was 19.2 (for Australia; 40 if you include Australia’s coal exports), 19.7 (the US), 18.4 (Canada), 4.2 (the World), 3.6 (China), 1.0 ( India) and 0.25 (for Bangladesh) (see “War on Terra, Climate Criminals”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15671/42/ ). The worst offenders (the US, Canada and Australia) successfully blocked Scientist and EU demands at Bali for definite “25-40% reductions by 2020” targets and argued for constraints on developing countries. The de facto position of these climate racist countries is that they somehow have a “right” to pollute with annual per capita CO2 pollution up to 160 times that of Third world countries such as Bangladesh but that developing countries must be constrained.
“Climate terrorism” refers to “might is right” imposition of deadly consequences on the weak by powerful “state terrorist” countries such as Australia, Canada and the US in ruthless prosecution of the selfish, political and economic interests of a tiny minority of their nationals. Already 16 million people due avoidably each year on Spaceship Earth (10 million being infants) (see “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” , G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ) with the world’s #1 state terrorist, Bush America, in charge of the flight deck. Several billion people already suffer malnourishment and US-driven global warming will exacerbate this situation and contribute the deaths of hundreds of millions this century.
“Climate genocide” refers to the horrendous consequences of the ongoing “climate stress”, “climate racism”, “climate criminality” and “climate terrorism”- estimated at hundreds of millions of excess (avoidable) deaths this century. Thus just read the views of Professor David King, Chief Scientific Adviser of the UK, published in 2004 in the prestigious US scientific journal Science(Science 9 January 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5655, pp. 176 – 177; see “Climate change Science: adapt, mitigate or ignore”:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/303/5655/176?ck=
nck&ijkey=Drdt.aSScXqXI&keytype=ref&siteid=sci ).
“Climate criminal” refers to those who act to increase global warming (“climate change”) in greedy and immoral self-interest in disregard of the health and lives of others, whether at an international or national level. Of course this is an international criminality because everyone on the planet shares the same finite atmosphere.
“Terracide” refers to killing of the living systems of the Planet Earth, Terra. (for an artistic attempt to address this see my HUGE paintings “Terra”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15671/42/ and “Apocalypse Now”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17652/42/ ).
The US and its climate racist, climate terrorist, climate criminal allies Australia and Canada are seriously threatening the World with man-made climate change and the most vulnerable countries are those of the Developing World, and in particular mega-delta Developing countries such as Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Burma, Nigeria, Egypt, India and Pakistan (see: “Climate Criminals & Climate genocide. Anglo-Celtia threatens final Bengal Holocaust”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13576/26/ ).
Data from the US Energy Information Administration (see: http://www.eia.doe.gov/ ) shows that domestic fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution by climate racist, climate criminal, climate terrorist Australia, US and Canada has CLIMBED at a roughly constant rate in the quarter century period 1984-2007 – despite the pleas of scientists and 4 (FOUR) successive and increasingly pessimistic Assessment Reports by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (1PCC) in the period 1990-2007 (see: http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?cat=2 ).
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (see: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/ ) shows that the increase in atmospheric CO2 is roughly linear with time at a constant rate of increase of 2.5 ppm per year. This is already having an impact on ecosystems and human societies around the world – including climate criminal countries the US, Canada and Australia. Thus, as shown by Hurricane Katrina, deltaic Louisiana – like deltaic Bangladesh - is acutely susceptible to the global warming consequences of hurricanes and storm surges. Canada is experiencing worsening vegetation, snow cover and other ecosystem changes.
Climate criminal Australia is also “fouling its own nest”. An important study published in December 2007 in the prestigious US scientific journal Science – the top world scientific journal – says that coral reefs cannot survive in the warmer and more acid ocean conditions obtaining at too high atmospheric CO2 concentrations. At concentrations of greater 450 ppm coral reefs are seriously ill and at greater than 500 ppm they are doomed (see: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/
2007/12/14/2118585.htm?section=justin ). The key tipping point for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will come at 450 ppm CO2 – on present trends in only 27 years’ time (in 2034). Yet the greedy, irresponsible US lackey and climate racist Murdochracy Rudd Australia is still proceeding "business as usual" in relation to its world #1 coal exports and its world #1 developed country per capita greenhouse gas pollution (see "Australian Labor Victorious - but not green enough": http://green-blog.org/2007/11/28/australian-labor-victorious-but-not-green-enough/ and “Climate criminal Australia and climate genocide”: http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?p=143 ).
Bali has clearly demonstrated that the world's top developed country “annual per capita CO2 polluters” – Australia, the US and Canada - will simply NOT act now, just as they have failed to act for a quarter of a century. There has been NO RESPONSE YET, in terms of actual CO2 pollution mitigation by these climate criminal countries, to the mounting crisis over the last quarter of a century - examination of the data provided by the US EIA shows their CO2 pollution STILL rising inexorably .
At the Bali Conference these same climate criminal, climate racist, climate terrorist Anglo countries that refuse to limit THEIR CO2 pollution nevertheless wanted to impose targets on developing countries with VASTLY LOWER annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution e.g. (2004 figures) China (5 times lower), India (20 times lower) and Bangladesh (80 times lower) (see “War on Terra, Climate Criminals. “Terra painting”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15671/42/ ).
The politicians have FAILED at Bali. Bali was a FARCE. The World at Bali failed to take the advice of the US, the world’s #1 terrorist state, specifically “do not negotiate with terrorists”. But what can countries outside the Bush Climate Criminal Club DO? What can decent citizens of Bush US, Bush-ite Canada and neo-Bush-ite Australia DO to save the Planet?
The tragedy of what is happening is that the science, technology and economics all say that we CAN ACT NOW and, furthermore, we can make a PROFIT out of acting now (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18817/42/ and http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?p=143 ). Indeed recent advances in solar energy are set to dramatically lower the cost of photovoltaic (PV)-based electricity generation, enabling Man to very cheaply tap into the solar energy hitting the earth each day that is TEN THOUSAND TIMES MORE than we need (see ”Solar energy and the end of war”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18667/42/ ).
The WORLD must URGENTLY ACT NOW by applying Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs and Reparations Demands against the chief climate racist, climate criminal, climate terrorist, climate genocidal countries Australia, US, and Canada that are acutely threatening the world with ecosystem collapse, climate genocide and indeed an all-encompassing Terracide.
Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He has just published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ).
Bali Exposes US, Canada And Australian Climate Racism,
Climate Terrorism, Climate Criminals And Climate Genocide
By Dr Gideon Polya
18 December, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The Bali Climate Change Conference has ended in a FARCE due to the US veto of greenhouse gas emission targets for developed countries. The Bush US position - in clear opposition to the IPCC, the world's scientists, Green groups, Developing nations and the EU - was backed by climate criminal, climate racist, climate terrorist neo-Bush-ite Rudd Australia, Bush-ite Harper Canada and other climate criminal US allies such as Bush-ite Japan and US satrap and carbon dioxide (CO2) polluter extraordinaire Saudi Arabia .
The Bali Farce is best summarized by the following key quote from an excellent article by Patrick O’Connor (see: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/dec2007/bali-d17.shtml ) which summarizes this First World-imposed impending disaster for the world, QUOTE: "The UN-sponsored climate change conference held on the Indonesian island of Bali ended on the weekend without any agreement on combatting global warming other than vague generalities. A last-minute, face-saving communiqué was issued but, at the insistence of the Bush administration and its allies [Australia, Canada, Japan], it made no mention of specific carbon emission reduction targets. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had recommended a cut in carbon emissions of 25 to 40 percent in the advanced industrial countries by 2020 and a total world emissions reduction of 50 percent by 2050."
Before analysing this further, we should define some TERMS that must surely become part of the global lexicon for the FEW DECADES LEFT of the World as we know it.
“Climate change” refers to the warming of the planet due to anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas pollution. As summarized by the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment report (for a Summary of the Summary of the IPCC Synthesis Report see:
http://green-blog.org/2007/11/21/summary-of-the-summary-of-the-2007-ipcc-ar4-synthesis-report/ ) the world is on track for an IPCC “worst case scenario” Category VI scenario (and current global Greenhouse gas, GHG, pollution EXCEEDS that specified in this worst-case scenario) involving stabilization at 660-790 ppm CO2 (twice today’s level of 379 ppm) , 4.9-6.1 degrees centigrade temperature rise above the pre-industrial (4-5 degrees above today’s) and 1.0-3.7 metres sea level above pre-industrial sea level or about 0.8-3.5 metres above today’s).
“Climate stress” refers to the biological consequences reality that the world has already warmed about 1 degree Centigrade above the pre-industrial average but with some areas being markedly hotter than this already (the Indian Ocean has warmed about 2 degrees centigrade on average in the last 40 years). Climate stress is manifested in relation to human societies and with animals and plants in ecosystems around the world (e.g. changes to polar bear habitats, coral bleaching, polar drift of vegetation, pole-ward drift of phytoplankton, susceptibility to mega-fires, drought etc).
“Climate racism” refers to the extraordinary, “might is right”, entrenched disparity in “per capita greenhouse gas pollution” between the “colonial” Anglo-Celtic countries of the US, Canada and Australia and the countries of the developing world (for a very detailed analysis see the US Energy Information Administration, US EIA: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/pdf/emissions.pdf ). Thus in 2004 “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” in tonnes CO2/person was 19.2 (for Australia; 40 if you include Australia’s coal exports), 19.7 (the US), 18.4 (Canada), 4.2 (the World), 3.6 (China), 1.0 ( India) and 0.25 (for Bangladesh) (see “War on Terra, Climate Criminals”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15671/42/ ). The worst offenders (the US, Canada and Australia) successfully blocked Scientist and EU demands at Bali for definite “25-40% reductions by 2020” targets and argued for constraints on developing countries. The de facto position of these climate racist countries is that they somehow have a “right” to pollute with annual per capita CO2 pollution up to 160 times that of Third world countries such as Bangladesh but that developing countries must be constrained.
“Climate terrorism” refers to “might is right” imposition of deadly consequences on the weak by powerful “state terrorist” countries such as Australia, Canada and the US in ruthless prosecution of the selfish, political and economic interests of a tiny minority of their nationals. Already 16 million people due avoidably each year on Spaceship Earth (10 million being infants) (see “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” , G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ) with the world’s #1 state terrorist, Bush America, in charge of the flight deck. Several billion people already suffer malnourishment and US-driven global warming will exacerbate this situation and contribute the deaths of hundreds of millions this century.
“Climate genocide” refers to the horrendous consequences of the ongoing “climate stress”, “climate racism”, “climate criminality” and “climate terrorism”- estimated at hundreds of millions of excess (avoidable) deaths this century. Thus just read the views of Professor David King, Chief Scientific Adviser of the UK, published in 2004 in the prestigious US scientific journal Science(Science 9 January 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5655, pp. 176 – 177; see “Climate change Science: adapt, mitigate or ignore”:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/303/5655/176?ck=
nck&ijkey=Drdt.aSScXqXI&keytype=ref&siteid=sci ).
“Climate criminal” refers to those who act to increase global warming (“climate change”) in greedy and immoral self-interest in disregard of the health and lives of others, whether at an international or national level. Of course this is an international criminality because everyone on the planet shares the same finite atmosphere.
“Terracide” refers to killing of the living systems of the Planet Earth, Terra. (for an artistic attempt to address this see my HUGE paintings “Terra”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15671/42/ and “Apocalypse Now”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17652/42/ ).
The US and its climate racist, climate terrorist, climate criminal allies Australia and Canada are seriously threatening the World with man-made climate change and the most vulnerable countries are those of the Developing World, and in particular mega-delta Developing countries such as Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Burma, Nigeria, Egypt, India and Pakistan (see: “Climate Criminals & Climate genocide. Anglo-Celtia threatens final Bengal Holocaust”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13576/26/ ).
Data from the US Energy Information Administration (see: http://www.eia.doe.gov/ ) shows that domestic fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution by climate racist, climate criminal, climate terrorist Australia, US and Canada has CLIMBED at a roughly constant rate in the quarter century period 1984-2007 – despite the pleas of scientists and 4 (FOUR) successive and increasingly pessimistic Assessment Reports by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (1PCC) in the period 1990-2007 (see: http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?cat=2 ).
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (see: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/ ) shows that the increase in atmospheric CO2 is roughly linear with time at a constant rate of increase of 2.5 ppm per year. This is already having an impact on ecosystems and human societies around the world – including climate criminal countries the US, Canada and Australia. Thus, as shown by Hurricane Katrina, deltaic Louisiana – like deltaic Bangladesh - is acutely susceptible to the global warming consequences of hurricanes and storm surges. Canada is experiencing worsening vegetation, snow cover and other ecosystem changes.
Climate criminal Australia is also “fouling its own nest”. An important study published in December 2007 in the prestigious US scientific journal Science – the top world scientific journal – says that coral reefs cannot survive in the warmer and more acid ocean conditions obtaining at too high atmospheric CO2 concentrations. At concentrations of greater 450 ppm coral reefs are seriously ill and at greater than 500 ppm they are doomed (see: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/
2007/12/14/2118585.htm?section=justin ). The key tipping point for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will come at 450 ppm CO2 – on present trends in only 27 years’ time (in 2034). Yet the greedy, irresponsible US lackey and climate racist Murdochracy Rudd Australia is still proceeding "business as usual" in relation to its world #1 coal exports and its world #1 developed country per capita greenhouse gas pollution (see "Australian Labor Victorious - but not green enough": http://green-blog.org/2007/11/28/australian-labor-victorious-but-not-green-enough/ and “Climate criminal Australia and climate genocide”: http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?p=143 ).
Bali has clearly demonstrated that the world's top developed country “annual per capita CO2 polluters” – Australia, the US and Canada - will simply NOT act now, just as they have failed to act for a quarter of a century. There has been NO RESPONSE YET, in terms of actual CO2 pollution mitigation by these climate criminal countries, to the mounting crisis over the last quarter of a century - examination of the data provided by the US EIA shows their CO2 pollution STILL rising inexorably .
At the Bali Conference these same climate criminal, climate racist, climate terrorist Anglo countries that refuse to limit THEIR CO2 pollution nevertheless wanted to impose targets on developing countries with VASTLY LOWER annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution e.g. (2004 figures) China (5 times lower), India (20 times lower) and Bangladesh (80 times lower) (see “War on Terra, Climate Criminals. “Terra painting”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15671/42/ ).
The politicians have FAILED at Bali. Bali was a FARCE. The World at Bali failed to take the advice of the US, the world’s #1 terrorist state, specifically “do not negotiate with terrorists”. But what can countries outside the Bush Climate Criminal Club DO? What can decent citizens of Bush US, Bush-ite Canada and neo-Bush-ite Australia DO to save the Planet?
The tragedy of what is happening is that the science, technology and economics all say that we CAN ACT NOW and, furthermore, we can make a PROFIT out of acting now (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18817/42/ and http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?p=143 ). Indeed recent advances in solar energy are set to dramatically lower the cost of photovoltaic (PV)-based electricity generation, enabling Man to very cheaply tap into the solar energy hitting the earth each day that is TEN THOUSAND TIMES MORE than we need (see ”Solar energy and the end of war”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18667/42/ ).
The WORLD must URGENTLY ACT NOW by applying Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs and Reparations Demands against the chief climate racist, climate criminal, climate terrorist, climate genocidal countries Australia, US, and Canada that are acutely threatening the world with ecosystem collapse, climate genocide and indeed an all-encompassing Terracide.
Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He has just published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ).
Loss Of Antarctic Ice Has Soared By 75 Per Cent In Just 10 Years
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Loss Of Antarctic Ice Has Soared
By 75 Per Cent In Just 10 Years
By Steve Connor
14 January, 2008
The Independent
Parts of the ice sheets covering Antarctica are melting faster than predicted, with the net loss of ice probably accelerating in recent years because of global warming, a study has found.
A satellite survey between 1996 and 2006 found that the net loss of ice from Antarctica rose by about 75 per cent as the movement of glaciers towards the sea speeded up.
Scientists estimate that that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet lost about 132 billion tons of ice in 2006, compared with a loss of 83 billion tons in 1996. In addition, the Antarctic peninsula lost about 60 billion tons of ice in 2006.
"To put these figures into perspective, 4 billion tons of ice is enough to provide drinking water for the whole UK population for one year," said Professor Jonathan Bamber, of the University of Bristol. "We think the glaciers of the Antarctic are moving faster to the sea. The computer models of future sea-level rise have not really taken this into account."
Sea levels are estimated to have risen by 1.8mm a year on average during the 20th century, but data from the past decade or so suggest that the average rise is now about 3.4 mm per year.
Computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which predict that sea levels will rise by no more than about 50cm by 2100, are based largely on the stability of the Antarctic ice sheets. But many scientists now believe this forecast is too restrained. "I agree with a number of scientists who feel the IPCC is likely to have underestimated the upper bound of predicted sea-level rise by the end of the century – 50 cm is probably too conservative," Professor Bamber added.
There are two key factors in estimating the net loss of Antarctic ice. The first is the flow of glaciers towards the sea; the second is the build-up of snow over the vast landmass of the frozen continent. The IPCC models imply that global warming will increase the moisture content of the atmosphere and so may actually increase snowfall over Antarctica, much of which is too cold to be affected by rising global temperatures. This would suggest a net build-up of ice. However, Professor Bamber believes the IPCC's models have not taken into account the complex, dynamic interaction between the ocean and the ice shelves of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, which are warmer than East Antarctica.
Eric Rignot, who led the latest study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, said the findings indicated a rapid loss of ice to the sea rather than a net gain. "We have determined that the loss is increasing with time, quite rapidly at 75 per cent in ten years," Dr Rignot said. "We have also established that most of this loss, if not its entirety, is caused by glacier acceleration. The IPCC focussed on the surface mass balance component. We find this component is not indicative of the true mass balance."
The acceleration in ice loss over the past 10 years could increase in coming decades, he added. "As some of these glaciers reach deeper beds, their speeds could double or triple, in which case the contribution to sea-level rise from Antarctica could increase quite significantly beyond what it is now. Many people suspect Antarctic ice to be immune from changes. We are finding this is not the case.
"The future is the big question. The potential exists for ice speed to increase two or three times, which will result in a doubling of the mass deficit from Antarctica."
© 2008 Independent News and Media Limited
Loss Of Antarctic Ice Has Soared
By 75 Per Cent In Just 10 Years
By Steve Connor
14 January, 2008
The Independent
Parts of the ice sheets covering Antarctica are melting faster than predicted, with the net loss of ice probably accelerating in recent years because of global warming, a study has found.
A satellite survey between 1996 and 2006 found that the net loss of ice from Antarctica rose by about 75 per cent as the movement of glaciers towards the sea speeded up.
Scientists estimate that that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet lost about 132 billion tons of ice in 2006, compared with a loss of 83 billion tons in 1996. In addition, the Antarctic peninsula lost about 60 billion tons of ice in 2006.
"To put these figures into perspective, 4 billion tons of ice is enough to provide drinking water for the whole UK population for one year," said Professor Jonathan Bamber, of the University of Bristol. "We think the glaciers of the Antarctic are moving faster to the sea. The computer models of future sea-level rise have not really taken this into account."
Sea levels are estimated to have risen by 1.8mm a year on average during the 20th century, but data from the past decade or so suggest that the average rise is now about 3.4 mm per year.
Computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which predict that sea levels will rise by no more than about 50cm by 2100, are based largely on the stability of the Antarctic ice sheets. But many scientists now believe this forecast is too restrained. "I agree with a number of scientists who feel the IPCC is likely to have underestimated the upper bound of predicted sea-level rise by the end of the century – 50 cm is probably too conservative," Professor Bamber added.
There are two key factors in estimating the net loss of Antarctic ice. The first is the flow of glaciers towards the sea; the second is the build-up of snow over the vast landmass of the frozen continent. The IPCC models imply that global warming will increase the moisture content of the atmosphere and so may actually increase snowfall over Antarctica, much of which is too cold to be affected by rising global temperatures. This would suggest a net build-up of ice. However, Professor Bamber believes the IPCC's models have not taken into account the complex, dynamic interaction between the ocean and the ice shelves of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, which are warmer than East Antarctica.
Eric Rignot, who led the latest study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, said the findings indicated a rapid loss of ice to the sea rather than a net gain. "We have determined that the loss is increasing with time, quite rapidly at 75 per cent in ten years," Dr Rignot said. "We have also established that most of this loss, if not its entirety, is caused by glacier acceleration. The IPCC focussed on the surface mass balance component. We find this component is not indicative of the true mass balance."
The acceleration in ice loss over the past 10 years could increase in coming decades, he added. "As some of these glaciers reach deeper beds, their speeds could double or triple, in which case the contribution to sea-level rise from Antarctica could increase quite significantly beyond what it is now. Many people suspect Antarctic ice to be immune from changes. We are finding this is not the case.
"The future is the big question. The potential exists for ice speed to increase two or three times, which will result in a doubling of the mass deficit from Antarctica."
© 2008 Independent News and Media Limited
Poverty Sucks, The Earth And The Soul
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Poverty Sucks, The Earth
And The Soul
By Dr. Glen Barry
02 December, 2007
Earth Meanders
The rich are richer and the poor, poorer -- even as the Earth they share shrivels and dies. Billions live a life of misery on a dollar or two a day, as a sizeable minority enjoys creature comforts fit for kings of old, and a relative few with more wealth then entire nations live in unimagined splendor.
The Earth is alive and 3.5 billion years old. Humanity is one of her newer and apparently short-lived members. In losing our oneness with the Earth, we have embraced the dismantling of her life-support system as a means to feed, house and clothe ourselves. We live as if climate, forests, oceans and water have no value other than as resources to be destroyed for money.
First colonial Europe, then militant America and now China and India Inc. together constitute a spreading economic cancer upon the Earth's natural habitats. Each adheres to ever growing populations and economies destroying ecological systems for, at this point, a few decades of throw away consumption, based upon various national "isms" that are all ecologically lacking.
Humanity is well along the path of cutting and burning ourselves to oblivion. The combined filth from centuries of burning fossil fuels and clearing native vegetation -- primitive practices that continue to this day -- is causing the climate and global ecology to not only change, but collapse.
Widespread poverty makes environmental protection nearly impossible, stymies souls and is deeply unethical. As well-off policy-makers ignore global inequities and suffering while seeking vainly to maintain consuming and polluting as a way of life for the rich, we ensure soon everyone will be poor, and then humanity, and perhaps the Earth, dead (or essentially so).
It is grotesque that global cooperative efforts to address climate change have been delayed because of the rich West's failure to understand history and ecology, and unwillingness to accept the principle of equity. And the not yet over-developed world's inability, particularly the elites, to note and reject failed development schemes for short term material gains.
It is time to get past ecological denial, fear and anger; and move forward with radical cooperative ecological change based upon ecological truth and social need. Creation is at stake.
There is perhaps Bali and a few years to get policy right to reduce emissions and avoid total global ecological decline through cooperative international policy-making. Past that, only painful revolutionary responses could possibly slay the growth machine and maintain an intact and fully operable biosphere. Barring these, the global ecosystem fails.
It is appalling that nations like the United States cannot understand the equity and justice implications of climate change. How can they sleep after a decade of obstruction equating a starving villager polluting a bit more a bit longer to emerge from poverty, with their right to drive SUVs and grow their economy endlessly?
The United States and Europe practice the most evil systems of ecological destruction the world has ever seen, and they must pay with immediate deep emission cuts far into the future.
Yet their destructive way of life has become the desired global norm and "developing" nations are rapidly catching up. China and India's exploding populations import emissions while exporting goods. And tropical forested countries such as Brazil and Indonesia have failed miserably to keep their rainforests intact and carbon in place. Increasingly climate blame is shared.
Please consider these modest suggestions my contribution to the Bali climate conference. Climate change is so advanced that all nations must agree to mandatorily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as the most urgent task ever undertaken by humanity.
Equity and justice dictates rich nations will contribute more in total and speed to emissions cuts, yet poor and developing nations suffer the most from global heating, and must not expect to follow the same failed and deadly development policies. Poverty associated with reduced emissions is preferable to that from failing ecosystems to which there is no adapting.
Clearly a global deal must apportion emission reduction responsibilities -- perhaps 50% to traditional rich developed countries, 30% to the newly industrial super-economies and 20% to others. Far greater minds have proposed similar things in economic terms, Google information on "contraction and convergence".
Further, to commit to 80% cuts in emissions by 2050 without more immediate goals is meaningless. Targets under Kyoto's successor must be ambitious and pulled forward. Given our understanding that climate change has become abrupt and potentially run-way, we need commitments starting within a year for 30% cuts by 2015. And then the strategy, funding and adaptive management to do so.
The only way forward in Bali is to embrace sizable emission cuts that include all nations, even as rich nations are called upon to do more, and all pledges are front loaded. This is the only type of framework within which a deal could possibly be reached that will be effective in stopping climate change.
Poverty, inequity, injustice and climate change are deeply related. There is little possibility of saving the Earth through emission reductions, and otherwise working to achieve global ecological sustainability, unless we also work for a just and equitable world free from poverty.
Poverty Sucks, The Earth
And The Soul
By Dr. Glen Barry
02 December, 2007
Earth Meanders
The rich are richer and the poor, poorer -- even as the Earth they share shrivels and dies. Billions live a life of misery on a dollar or two a day, as a sizeable minority enjoys creature comforts fit for kings of old, and a relative few with more wealth then entire nations live in unimagined splendor.
The Earth is alive and 3.5 billion years old. Humanity is one of her newer and apparently short-lived members. In losing our oneness with the Earth, we have embraced the dismantling of her life-support system as a means to feed, house and clothe ourselves. We live as if climate, forests, oceans and water have no value other than as resources to be destroyed for money.
First colonial Europe, then militant America and now China and India Inc. together constitute a spreading economic cancer upon the Earth's natural habitats. Each adheres to ever growing populations and economies destroying ecological systems for, at this point, a few decades of throw away consumption, based upon various national "isms" that are all ecologically lacking.
Humanity is well along the path of cutting and burning ourselves to oblivion. The combined filth from centuries of burning fossil fuels and clearing native vegetation -- primitive practices that continue to this day -- is causing the climate and global ecology to not only change, but collapse.
Widespread poverty makes environmental protection nearly impossible, stymies souls and is deeply unethical. As well-off policy-makers ignore global inequities and suffering while seeking vainly to maintain consuming and polluting as a way of life for the rich, we ensure soon everyone will be poor, and then humanity, and perhaps the Earth, dead (or essentially so).
It is grotesque that global cooperative efforts to address climate change have been delayed because of the rich West's failure to understand history and ecology, and unwillingness to accept the principle of equity. And the not yet over-developed world's inability, particularly the elites, to note and reject failed development schemes for short term material gains.
It is time to get past ecological denial, fear and anger; and move forward with radical cooperative ecological change based upon ecological truth and social need. Creation is at stake.
There is perhaps Bali and a few years to get policy right to reduce emissions and avoid total global ecological decline through cooperative international policy-making. Past that, only painful revolutionary responses could possibly slay the growth machine and maintain an intact and fully operable biosphere. Barring these, the global ecosystem fails.
It is appalling that nations like the United States cannot understand the equity and justice implications of climate change. How can they sleep after a decade of obstruction equating a starving villager polluting a bit more a bit longer to emerge from poverty, with their right to drive SUVs and grow their economy endlessly?
The United States and Europe practice the most evil systems of ecological destruction the world has ever seen, and they must pay with immediate deep emission cuts far into the future.
Yet their destructive way of life has become the desired global norm and "developing" nations are rapidly catching up. China and India's exploding populations import emissions while exporting goods. And tropical forested countries such as Brazil and Indonesia have failed miserably to keep their rainforests intact and carbon in place. Increasingly climate blame is shared.
Please consider these modest suggestions my contribution to the Bali climate conference. Climate change is so advanced that all nations must agree to mandatorily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as the most urgent task ever undertaken by humanity.
Equity and justice dictates rich nations will contribute more in total and speed to emissions cuts, yet poor and developing nations suffer the most from global heating, and must not expect to follow the same failed and deadly development policies. Poverty associated with reduced emissions is preferable to that from failing ecosystems to which there is no adapting.
Clearly a global deal must apportion emission reduction responsibilities -- perhaps 50% to traditional rich developed countries, 30% to the newly industrial super-economies and 20% to others. Far greater minds have proposed similar things in economic terms, Google information on "contraction and convergence".
Further, to commit to 80% cuts in emissions by 2050 without more immediate goals is meaningless. Targets under Kyoto's successor must be ambitious and pulled forward. Given our understanding that climate change has become abrupt and potentially run-way, we need commitments starting within a year for 30% cuts by 2015. And then the strategy, funding and adaptive management to do so.
The only way forward in Bali is to embrace sizable emission cuts that include all nations, even as rich nations are called upon to do more, and all pledges are front loaded. This is the only type of framework within which a deal could possibly be reached that will be effective in stopping climate change.
Poverty, inequity, injustice and climate change are deeply related. There is little possibility of saving the Earth through emission reductions, and otherwise working to achieve global ecological sustainability, unless we also work for a just and equitable world free from poverty.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
HARYANA FACTS
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
No. of Villages: 6955
No. of Villages Inhabited: 6781
Intensity of Irrigation: 177
Percentage of irrigated to net sown area: 82.4
Fertilizer Consumption (Kgs / Hect.): 171 (NP Ratio 3.1:1)
Average Rainfall (mm.): 455
No. of holdings (Total) (in lakh): 17.28
Marginal farmers (in lakh) (Up to 1 hect.): 8.15 (47 %)
Small farmers (in lakh) (1-2 hect.) 3.38 (20 %)
Others (in lakh) (Above 2 hect.) 5.75 (33 %)
Foodgrains Prod. (Million Tonnes) (2003-04) 13.2
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Rs. in Crore) (2002-03): 34800.40
No. of Villages: 6955
No. of Villages Inhabited: 6781
Intensity of Irrigation: 177
Percentage of irrigated to net sown area: 82.4
Fertilizer Consumption (Kgs / Hect.): 171 (NP Ratio 3.1:1)
Average Rainfall (mm.): 455
No. of holdings (Total) (in lakh): 17.28
Marginal farmers (in lakh) (Up to 1 hect.): 8.15 (47 %)
Small farmers (in lakh) (1-2 hect.) 3.38 (20 %)
Others (in lakh) (Above 2 hect.) 5.75 (33 %)
Foodgrains Prod. (Million Tonnes) (2003-04) 13.2
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Rs. in Crore) (2002-03): 34800.40
ROHTAK DISTRICT
ROHTAK District: At a Glance
The district Rohtak is located in the south east region of Haryana state. It is surrounded by Jind and Sonipat districts on the north, Jhajjar district on the south, Jhajjar and Sonipat district on the east and Hisar and Bhiwani districts on the west side. The town is situated on Delhi - Hisar National Highway No. 10 at a distance of 75 km from Delhi.
Rohtak is considered to be the political capital of Haryana and has given birth to several political leaders of the state. The town has a glorious history and is believed to have derived its name from the Roherra (Tacoma undulate) tree called Rohitaka in Sanskrit.
Asthal bohar, a place situated 6-7 Km east of Rohtak city is known for its ancient sculptured stone idols. Meham town is 30 km west of Rohtak town and has two ancient monuments in the town - Jama Masjid and Pirzada Masjid which are worth visiting.
Facts & Figures
Area 1668.47sq. km
Latitude 28.9 N
Longitude 76.56667 E
Population (2001) 9, 40000
Population Density 539 per sq. km
Males 5, 08000
Females 4, 31000
SexRatio 847
UrbanizationRatio 35.06
Literacy Rate 74.56%
Sub-Division 2
Tehsil 2
Sub-Tehsil 1
Blocks 5
Villages 146
Averagerainfall 458.5 mm
PostalCode 124001
STDCode 01262
The district Rohtak is located in the south east region of Haryana state. It is surrounded by Jind and Sonipat districts on the north, Jhajjar district on the south, Jhajjar and Sonipat district on the east and Hisar and Bhiwani districts on the west side. The town is situated on Delhi - Hisar National Highway No. 10 at a distance of 75 km from Delhi.
Rohtak is considered to be the political capital of Haryana and has given birth to several political leaders of the state. The town has a glorious history and is believed to have derived its name from the Roherra (Tacoma undulate) tree called Rohitaka in Sanskrit.
Asthal bohar, a place situated 6-7 Km east of Rohtak city is known for its ancient sculptured stone idols. Meham town is 30 km west of Rohtak town and has two ancient monuments in the town - Jama Masjid and Pirzada Masjid which are worth visiting.
Facts & Figures
Area 1668.47sq. km
Latitude 28.9 N
Longitude 76.56667 E
Population (2001) 9, 40000
Population Density 539 per sq. km
Males 5, 08000
Females 4, 31000
SexRatio 847
UrbanizationRatio 35.06
Literacy Rate 74.56%
Sub-Division 2
Tehsil 2
Sub-Tehsil 1
Blocks 5
Villages 146
Averagerainfall 458.5 mm
PostalCode 124001
STDCode 01262
HARYANA100 YEARS AGO
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Came across this article about Haryana. Really interesting and knoledge adding.
R.S.Dahiya
Published in The Tribune Windows
Date: October 28, 2000:
“Hariana”100 years ago
By Raghuvendra Tanwar
One hundred and twentyfive years ago, Ambala Cantonment was by far the most important and beautiful city of the region. Developed from scratch in 1843, it was known as "garden city". Sadar Bazar was a thriving centre for trade. Bengalis, a small but influential section of its population of 47,000, worked not only as clerical staff and translators but also organised retail business to meet the
THE growth of Haryana into what it is today has been a long journey. Accounts of travellers and officials who worked here or passed through the region emphatically testify to its backwardness. In fact the term ‘Hariana’, as used by the British, usually referred to the Hisar and Rohtak regions. The 1892, Ambala Gazetteer for example while referring to the famine of 1860, says: "The distress was somewhat less severe in Ambala but was aggravated by the influx of refugees from Bikaner and Hariana." Before we see what travel accounts have to say of some important places as they were at the time, some facts need to be kept in mind requirements of the British officers
The major towns had a fairly healthy proportion of Muslim population. Muslims constituted almost 18.3 per cent (1881) of the region’s population. But for a few scattered cases, the region did not have any communal problems. As such Muslims were an integral part of the social system. As late as 1860, the literacy level of the region was a dismal 3 per cent. Female literacy in 1900, was 0.1 per cent in Rohtak, 0.1 per cent in Hisar, 0.1 per cent in Gurgaon and Karnal and 0.4 per cent in Ambala. In 1870, just 555 girls were going to school in the entire region that today forms Haryana. There was not a single college or technical institution in the 19th century in any of the five districts.
All the five districts put together had only 454 km of metalled roads, of which Ambala district alone accounted for 170 km. But for cities that fell on the two highways passing through the region, practically none had metalled road connections. Only 30 cities had a population of more than 10,000.
There are many reasons for the slow process of urbanisation in the region as compared to western parts of Punjab, one is administrative indifference and apathy, but the most important is water. Records indicate a steady increase in the area brought under the plough by the toiling peasantry but the net area under irrigation remained between 10 and 17 per cent throughout the century. For example, as compared to Karnal’s 6596 masonry wells in 1910, Hisar had only 126 and Rohtak 1455. In 1887, the total area irrigated by canals in the whole of Punjab was about 23.41 lakh acres. Of this, the five districts of Ambala Division that came to from Haryana accounted for less 4 per cent.
That records fail to provide any focus on trade and commerce in the Haryana region is hardly surprising. In 1881, the percentage of people involved in commerce or transport in the five districts is recorded to be less than 2 per cent. The percentage of people holding government jobs was between 1.7 per cent and 2.3 per cent.
Good accounts of the Punjab in particular and the Haryana region in general are available in works of William Moorcraf and George Trebeck (1837); David Ross (1883); George Forster (1808); HML Lawerence (1883); Rev. R. Clark (1883); C.J. French (1872); Henry Yule (Ed. Amy Yule(1902). The Department of Languages, Punjab, made an important contribution in 1970 by reproducing some of these works. To get an authentic picture, such write-ups, however, must be compared with other sources, particularly the gazettes.
One hundred and twentyfive years ago, Ambala Cantonment was by far the most important and beautiful city of the region. Developed from scratch in 1843, it was known as a garden city. Sadar Bazar was a thriving centre for trade. A small but influential section of its population of 47,000 was Bengali. The Bengalis worked not only as clerical staff and translators but organised a retail business to meet the requirements of the British officers. The Masonic Hall, the Sirhind Club and the St. Paul’s Cathedral were the major landmarks. So minutely had the authorities planned the cantonment that they had even provided for a red light area. In sharp contrast, Ambala City surrounded by a large wall and with a population of 26,000, saw little development due to shortage of water.
Pinjore and Kalka were frequently referred to in the 19th century accounts mainly because they fell on the Ambala-Shimla route. At Kalka, bullock and horse carts were changed for hill tongas. The road from Ambala to Kalka was metalled and shaded by banyan trees. Horses of the dak garis were changed every five miles. The Ghaggar sometimes delayed the journey. Those who travelled by foot, on horses or in dolis usually went to Shimla by the old route that touched Kasauli and Subathu. Tongas went on the present route. The gardens at Pinjore were well maintained and the adjoining sarais were popular night halts used by those going to or coming from Shimla.
Accounts of Thanesar, particularly its solar eclipse mela, are fascinating. Up to five lakh people regularly visited Kurukshetra a sleepy town of about 6000 people. Even though the population consisted chiefly of Brahmins, a traveller describes the mausoleum of Shaikh Chillie adjoining the old fort and city: "The most graceful of tombs next to the Taj, built of pure marble". Some of the marble is reported to have been looted and taken to Kaithal. The sad state in which the monument is today is the result of a century of neglect and arson.
Another account describes the once prosperous Thanesar: "There are hundreds of shops mostly empty, the city is infested with monkeys. The yearly flooding of the country renders it unhealthy.... The population is decreasing." Some travellers have noted how the waters of the Saraswati near Thanesar were flooded with ashes of the dead. Sometime in 1830, the Brahmins of Thanesar had asked the Governor-General to ban the catching of fish, slaughtering of horned cattle and cutting of trees as the whole Thanesar region was a tirath. The Governor-General signed an order in 1832, which was executed by H. Lawerence only on February 25, 1843: "In consideration of the great sanctity in which Thanesar is held by the Hindus, His Lordship has been pleased to direct that travellers be enjoined to regard the wishes of the Brahmins in the above respect."
With the coming into operation of the Delhi-Saharanpur-Ambala railway line, towns in the Haryana region which had enjoyed significance and prosperity due to the Grand Trunk Road began to lose their importance included Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal, Pipli.
Karnal was in the 1870s a walled city with a population of about 23,000. A special mention is made by travellers of the dense jungles and extensive wildlife in the immediate surroundings of Karnal. The town had a reputation of unhealthy climatic conditions mainly because of the faulty alignment of the western Yamuna Canal.
By the turn of the century, Panipat lost its importance as a trade transit point between Delhi, Afghanistan and Persia. Most accounts refer to the number of sarais and the many tombs and mosques of Panipat which were "visible from a great distance." Ibrahim Lodhi’s tomb was renovated by the British in 1868 and is thus talked highly of in various accounts. Brass and silver work was the main commercial activity of the time.
The population of Sonepat was 13,000, including 7000 Muslims. Its bazar was clean and "well supplied". But what is really surprising is how some of the beautiful tombs that are referred to in travel accounts have disappeared. There is, for example, a detailed reference to a beautiful mausoleum built by a descendant of Sher Shah near Sonepat. Another tomb as shown by a traveller was converted into a rest house for government officials. Then there is the reference to a masjid belonging to Balban’s time. In it a beautiful black marble tomb of one Sayyid Yusaf is highly praised for its beauty.
In the 1870s, the city of Rohtak had a population of about 8100 Hindus and 6928 Muslims.It had practically no commercial production. Accounts of its surroundings are: "Strong able-bodied sturdy farmers, who keep fine oxens and splendid buffaloes and live in large well-organised village communities.
Hisar draws mention for its 44,000 acre government agriculture farm and its numerous places of Hindu and Muslim worship. Another point raised by those who passed Hisar was its extensive wildlife. There are references of lions in the immediate vicinity of the city. Throughout the 19th century, particularly in 1802, 1817, 1833, 1860, 1877, 1886, 1896 and 1899, it was struck by famine. As compared to Jagadhri in the north of the state, which had an annual rainfall of 900 mm in 1879, Hisar, Hansi and Bhiwani experienced only 163 mm of rainfall.
Moving southwards, Jhajjar draws reference for its pottery and the extensive ruins around it. Jhajjar had about 7000 Hindus and 4500 Muslims.
Gurgaon was, like Ambala, a well-planned ‘green’ city. Houses of British officials were built around a water tank and shaded by large trees. The sulphur springs of Sohna were a major attraction. People with rheumatic problems, skin and flood diseases thronged the place. The baths were divided on caste and community lines, with a special enclosure for Europeans.
The population of Sohna consisted of 4600 Hindus and 2800 Muslims. Rewari, unlike Gurgaon, was an important centre for trade and commerce. With a population of 14000 Hindus and 9000 Muslims, it dealt in brass, zinc and metal products. Its hukahs were popular all across the state. It was also a major trade centre for sugar and grain.
Came across this article about Haryana. Really interesting and knoledge adding.
R.S.Dahiya
Published in The Tribune Windows
Date: October 28, 2000:
“Hariana”100 years ago
By Raghuvendra Tanwar
One hundred and twentyfive years ago, Ambala Cantonment was by far the most important and beautiful city of the region. Developed from scratch in 1843, it was known as "garden city". Sadar Bazar was a thriving centre for trade. Bengalis, a small but influential section of its population of 47,000, worked not only as clerical staff and translators but also organised retail business to meet the
THE growth of Haryana into what it is today has been a long journey. Accounts of travellers and officials who worked here or passed through the region emphatically testify to its backwardness. In fact the term ‘Hariana’, as used by the British, usually referred to the Hisar and Rohtak regions. The 1892, Ambala Gazetteer for example while referring to the famine of 1860, says: "The distress was somewhat less severe in Ambala but was aggravated by the influx of refugees from Bikaner and Hariana." Before we see what travel accounts have to say of some important places as they were at the time, some facts need to be kept in mind requirements of the British officers
The major towns had a fairly healthy proportion of Muslim population. Muslims constituted almost 18.3 per cent (1881) of the region’s population. But for a few scattered cases, the region did not have any communal problems. As such Muslims were an integral part of the social system. As late as 1860, the literacy level of the region was a dismal 3 per cent. Female literacy in 1900, was 0.1 per cent in Rohtak, 0.1 per cent in Hisar, 0.1 per cent in Gurgaon and Karnal and 0.4 per cent in Ambala. In 1870, just 555 girls were going to school in the entire region that today forms Haryana. There was not a single college or technical institution in the 19th century in any of the five districts.
All the five districts put together had only 454 km of metalled roads, of which Ambala district alone accounted for 170 km. But for cities that fell on the two highways passing through the region, practically none had metalled road connections. Only 30 cities had a population of more than 10,000.
There are many reasons for the slow process of urbanisation in the region as compared to western parts of Punjab, one is administrative indifference and apathy, but the most important is water. Records indicate a steady increase in the area brought under the plough by the toiling peasantry but the net area under irrigation remained between 10 and 17 per cent throughout the century. For example, as compared to Karnal’s 6596 masonry wells in 1910, Hisar had only 126 and Rohtak 1455. In 1887, the total area irrigated by canals in the whole of Punjab was about 23.41 lakh acres. Of this, the five districts of Ambala Division that came to from Haryana accounted for less 4 per cent.
That records fail to provide any focus on trade and commerce in the Haryana region is hardly surprising. In 1881, the percentage of people involved in commerce or transport in the five districts is recorded to be less than 2 per cent. The percentage of people holding government jobs was between 1.7 per cent and 2.3 per cent.
Good accounts of the Punjab in particular and the Haryana region in general are available in works of William Moorcraf and George Trebeck (1837); David Ross (1883); George Forster (1808); HML Lawerence (1883); Rev. R. Clark (1883); C.J. French (1872); Henry Yule (Ed. Amy Yule(1902). The Department of Languages, Punjab, made an important contribution in 1970 by reproducing some of these works. To get an authentic picture, such write-ups, however, must be compared with other sources, particularly the gazettes.
One hundred and twentyfive years ago, Ambala Cantonment was by far the most important and beautiful city of the region. Developed from scratch in 1843, it was known as a garden city. Sadar Bazar was a thriving centre for trade. A small but influential section of its population of 47,000 was Bengali. The Bengalis worked not only as clerical staff and translators but organised a retail business to meet the requirements of the British officers. The Masonic Hall, the Sirhind Club and the St. Paul’s Cathedral were the major landmarks. So minutely had the authorities planned the cantonment that they had even provided for a red light area. In sharp contrast, Ambala City surrounded by a large wall and with a population of 26,000, saw little development due to shortage of water.
Pinjore and Kalka were frequently referred to in the 19th century accounts mainly because they fell on the Ambala-Shimla route. At Kalka, bullock and horse carts were changed for hill tongas. The road from Ambala to Kalka was metalled and shaded by banyan trees. Horses of the dak garis were changed every five miles. The Ghaggar sometimes delayed the journey. Those who travelled by foot, on horses or in dolis usually went to Shimla by the old route that touched Kasauli and Subathu. Tongas went on the present route. The gardens at Pinjore were well maintained and the adjoining sarais were popular night halts used by those going to or coming from Shimla.
Accounts of Thanesar, particularly its solar eclipse mela, are fascinating. Up to five lakh people regularly visited Kurukshetra a sleepy town of about 6000 people. Even though the population consisted chiefly of Brahmins, a traveller describes the mausoleum of Shaikh Chillie adjoining the old fort and city: "The most graceful of tombs next to the Taj, built of pure marble". Some of the marble is reported to have been looted and taken to Kaithal. The sad state in which the monument is today is the result of a century of neglect and arson.
Another account describes the once prosperous Thanesar: "There are hundreds of shops mostly empty, the city is infested with monkeys. The yearly flooding of the country renders it unhealthy.... The population is decreasing." Some travellers have noted how the waters of the Saraswati near Thanesar were flooded with ashes of the dead. Sometime in 1830, the Brahmins of Thanesar had asked the Governor-General to ban the catching of fish, slaughtering of horned cattle and cutting of trees as the whole Thanesar region was a tirath. The Governor-General signed an order in 1832, which was executed by H. Lawerence only on February 25, 1843: "In consideration of the great sanctity in which Thanesar is held by the Hindus, His Lordship has been pleased to direct that travellers be enjoined to regard the wishes of the Brahmins in the above respect."
With the coming into operation of the Delhi-Saharanpur-Ambala railway line, towns in the Haryana region which had enjoyed significance and prosperity due to the Grand Trunk Road began to lose their importance included Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal, Pipli.
Karnal was in the 1870s a walled city with a population of about 23,000. A special mention is made by travellers of the dense jungles and extensive wildlife in the immediate surroundings of Karnal. The town had a reputation of unhealthy climatic conditions mainly because of the faulty alignment of the western Yamuna Canal.
By the turn of the century, Panipat lost its importance as a trade transit point between Delhi, Afghanistan and Persia. Most accounts refer to the number of sarais and the many tombs and mosques of Panipat which were "visible from a great distance." Ibrahim Lodhi’s tomb was renovated by the British in 1868 and is thus talked highly of in various accounts. Brass and silver work was the main commercial activity of the time.
The population of Sonepat was 13,000, including 7000 Muslims. Its bazar was clean and "well supplied". But what is really surprising is how some of the beautiful tombs that are referred to in travel accounts have disappeared. There is, for example, a detailed reference to a beautiful mausoleum built by a descendant of Sher Shah near Sonepat. Another tomb as shown by a traveller was converted into a rest house for government officials. Then there is the reference to a masjid belonging to Balban’s time. In it a beautiful black marble tomb of one Sayyid Yusaf is highly praised for its beauty.
In the 1870s, the city of Rohtak had a population of about 8100 Hindus and 6928 Muslims.It had practically no commercial production. Accounts of its surroundings are: "Strong able-bodied sturdy farmers, who keep fine oxens and splendid buffaloes and live in large well-organised village communities.
Hisar draws mention for its 44,000 acre government agriculture farm and its numerous places of Hindu and Muslim worship. Another point raised by those who passed Hisar was its extensive wildlife. There are references of lions in the immediate vicinity of the city. Throughout the 19th century, particularly in 1802, 1817, 1833, 1860, 1877, 1886, 1896 and 1899, it was struck by famine. As compared to Jagadhri in the north of the state, which had an annual rainfall of 900 mm in 1879, Hisar, Hansi and Bhiwani experienced only 163 mm of rainfall.
Moving southwards, Jhajjar draws reference for its pottery and the extensive ruins around it. Jhajjar had about 7000 Hindus and 4500 Muslims.
Gurgaon was, like Ambala, a well-planned ‘green’ city. Houses of British officials were built around a water tank and shaded by large trees. The sulphur springs of Sohna were a major attraction. People with rheumatic problems, skin and flood diseases thronged the place. The baths were divided on caste and community lines, with a special enclosure for Europeans.
The population of Sohna consisted of 4600 Hindus and 2800 Muslims. Rewari, unlike Gurgaon, was an important centre for trade and commerce. With a population of 14000 Hindus and 9000 Muslims, it dealt in brass, zinc and metal products. Its hukahs were popular all across the state. It was also a major trade centre for sugar and grain.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Myth and realities regarding Population In India:--------
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Myth and realities regarding Population In India:--------
Since India’s independence has population growth overtaken food production?
No
Since India’s independence, its population has grown slightly less than 3 times, while food production has grown over 4 times.
Does higher population density leads to lower economic progress
No
India’s current population growth rate is the lowest in the last in fifty years
Large proportion of the population is young and in reproductive age group leading to momentum effect.
High fertility in some places because of unmet needs (there is a desire without services being available) for contraception
High fertility due to high infant mortality rate in some places
Over 50% girls are married before the age of 18- leading to “too early, too frequent, too many”. 33% births occur before 24 months of the earlier birth
Do we need a targeted population control program to help women?
No
Women are easy target of the Family Planning programme bypassing men
Operations are done hurriedly and with no care leading to death, complications and failure.
All other health services are unavailable
R.S.Dahiya
Myth and realities regarding Population In India:--------
Since India’s independence has population growth overtaken food production?
No
Since India’s independence, its population has grown slightly less than 3 times, while food production has grown over 4 times.
Does higher population density leads to lower economic progress
No
India’s current population growth rate is the lowest in the last in fifty years
Large proportion of the population is young and in reproductive age group leading to momentum effect.
High fertility in some places because of unmet needs (there is a desire without services being available) for contraception
High fertility due to high infant mortality rate in some places
Over 50% girls are married before the age of 18- leading to “too early, too frequent, too many”. 33% births occur before 24 months of the earlier birth
Do we need a targeted population control program to help women?
No
Women are easy target of the Family Planning programme bypassing men
Operations are done hurriedly and with no care leading to death, complications and failure.
All other health services are unavailable
R.S.Dahiya
HOW TO REACT?
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
HOW TO REACT?
It’s a social ill that continues to shame India. Nearly 45% of women in the country, aged between 20 and 24, are married off before they reach 18, the legal age to marry. What’s worse, the number is over 50% in eight states.
While 61% of women in Jharkhand were married off before 18, the number stood at 60% in Bihar, 57% in Rajasthan, 55% in Andhra Pradesh, 53% each in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and 52% in Chhattisgarh.
Lack of education was found to be a major factor fuelling this trend. Over 71% of women who got married below the age of 18 had received no education.
These are part of the findings of the latest National Family Health Survey-III, carried out in 29 states during 2005-2006. The survey, conducted by 18 research organizations, including five population research centers, and designed to collect and provide vital information on population, family planning, maternal and child health, child survival, nutrition of children and status of women, also unmasks another worrying trend. Six states — Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal — which reported a lower percentage of under-18 marriages among women during the NFHS-II survey conducted in 1998-99, show an upward trend in NFHS-III. Officials say more and more women in these six states are being married off at the age of 15. The survey, which interviewed 1,24,395 women and reported a response rate of 94.5%, shows that this social malady exists mostly in rural India. While 52.5% of the cases of under-18 marriages were found to be in rural areas, the number Stood at 28.19% in urban India Some states, however, have shown a low prevalence of this practice. States like Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Punjab, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya reported 12%-25% prevalence.
In 2008, for the first time, more than half of the world’s population will live in urban areas. By 2030, towns and cities will be home to almost 5 billion people. The urban population of Africa and Asia will double in less than a generation. This will greately increase the number and proportion of young people in the urban population. Most will be born into poor families, where fertility tends to be higher. The wave of urban population growth calls for the policy makers to consult young people and reflect on their needs, both to realize individual potential and to stimulate urban economies. More quality schools, new investments to create jobs and economic vitality, quality health services are the need of the hour for this young population to live fulfilling lives and make their own decisions on marriage and family formation. If the opportunity is missed it will deepen poverty and accelerate environmental degradation. Only sustainable development for all can stabilize the population of India and the World as a whole..
R.S.Dahiya
HOW TO REACT?
It’s a social ill that continues to shame India. Nearly 45% of women in the country, aged between 20 and 24, are married off before they reach 18, the legal age to marry. What’s worse, the number is over 50% in eight states.
While 61% of women in Jharkhand were married off before 18, the number stood at 60% in Bihar, 57% in Rajasthan, 55% in Andhra Pradesh, 53% each in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and 52% in Chhattisgarh.
Lack of education was found to be a major factor fuelling this trend. Over 71% of women who got married below the age of 18 had received no education.
These are part of the findings of the latest National Family Health Survey-III, carried out in 29 states during 2005-2006. The survey, conducted by 18 research organizations, including five population research centers, and designed to collect and provide vital information on population, family planning, maternal and child health, child survival, nutrition of children and status of women, also unmasks another worrying trend. Six states — Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal — which reported a lower percentage of under-18 marriages among women during the NFHS-II survey conducted in 1998-99, show an upward trend in NFHS-III. Officials say more and more women in these six states are being married off at the age of 15. The survey, which interviewed 1,24,395 women and reported a response rate of 94.5%, shows that this social malady exists mostly in rural India. While 52.5% of the cases of under-18 marriages were found to be in rural areas, the number Stood at 28.19% in urban India Some states, however, have shown a low prevalence of this practice. States like Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Punjab, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya reported 12%-25% prevalence.
In 2008, for the first time, more than half of the world’s population will live in urban areas. By 2030, towns and cities will be home to almost 5 billion people. The urban population of Africa and Asia will double in less than a generation. This will greately increase the number and proportion of young people in the urban population. Most will be born into poor families, where fertility tends to be higher. The wave of urban population growth calls for the policy makers to consult young people and reflect on their needs, both to realize individual potential and to stimulate urban economies. More quality schools, new investments to create jobs and economic vitality, quality health services are the need of the hour for this young population to live fulfilling lives and make their own decisions on marriage and family formation. If the opportunity is missed it will deepen poverty and accelerate environmental degradation. Only sustainable development for all can stabilize the population of India and the World as a whole..
R.S.Dahiya
Young People in the Cities Today
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Young People in the Cities Today
The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in its history. The billion population of towns and cities in 2005 will increase by .8 billion by 0 0. The urban population of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa will double in less than a generation. The fastest growth will be in the poorer urban areas. For example, the slum population of Dhaka has more than doubled in a decade, from .5 million in 1996 to .4 million in 2006. Most urban growth comes from natural
increase (more births than deaths). The urban poor have higher fertility rates than other urbanites: women have less education and less autonomy; they know little about sexual and reproductive health services, and have little access to them. Rural-urban migration also contributes to urban growth. Young people under 5 already make up half the urban population and young people from poor families will be a big part of the urban wave. The future of cities depends on what cities do now to help them, in particular to exercise their rights to education, health, employment, and civic participation. Investment in young people is the key to ending generations of poverty. In particular it is the key to reaching the Millennium Development Goals and halving poverty by2005.
Most urban young people were born in the cities. Others arrive on packed buses or trains, bringing with them few possessions, great expectations, and an eagerness to engage fully in a better life. They come with the hope of a good education, adequate health services, and a society with plenty of jobs to choose from: a plan for escaping the poverty in which their parents are trapped.
Urban centres attract economic investments, and offer a high concentration
of jobs and public services. Political power is concentrated in national, state or district capitals, and secondary schools, higher education institutions, and health care centres are better and more accessible in urban areas. The high disparity in the rates of school attendance among urban and rural youth illustrates the “urban advantage”: rural boys’ and girls’ school attendance rates are, respectively 6 and 8 per cent lower than
their urban counterparts’.
A vanishing dream?
At the beginning of the 21 st century, the best recipe for a life without poverty
is still to grow up urban; but young people’s dream of moving beyond their parents’ poverty is quickly vanishing. Although cities offer better jobs, housing,
Young People in the Cities Today
The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in its history. The billion population of towns and cities in 2005 will increase by .8 billion by 0 0. The urban population of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa will double in less than a generation. The fastest growth will be in the poorer urban areas. For example, the slum population of Dhaka has more than doubled in a decade, from .5 million in 1996 to .4 million in 2006. Most urban growth comes from natural
increase (more births than deaths). The urban poor have higher fertility rates than other urbanites: women have less education and less autonomy; they know little about sexual and reproductive health services, and have little access to them. Rural-urban migration also contributes to urban growth. Young people under 5 already make up half the urban population and young people from poor families will be a big part of the urban wave. The future of cities depends on what cities do now to help them, in particular to exercise their rights to education, health, employment, and civic participation. Investment in young people is the key to ending generations of poverty. In particular it is the key to reaching the Millennium Development Goals and halving poverty by2005.
Most urban young people were born in the cities. Others arrive on packed buses or trains, bringing with them few possessions, great expectations, and an eagerness to engage fully in a better life. They come with the hope of a good education, adequate health services, and a society with plenty of jobs to choose from: a plan for escaping the poverty in which their parents are trapped.
Urban centres attract economic investments, and offer a high concentration
of jobs and public services. Political power is concentrated in national, state or district capitals, and secondary schools, higher education institutions, and health care centres are better and more accessible in urban areas. The high disparity in the rates of school attendance among urban and rural youth illustrates the “urban advantage”: rural boys’ and girls’ school attendance rates are, respectively 6 and 8 per cent lower than
their urban counterparts’.
A vanishing dream?
At the beginning of the 21 st century, the best recipe for a life without poverty
is still to grow up urban; but young people’s dream of moving beyond their parents’ poverty is quickly vanishing. Although cities offer better jobs, housing,
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Do Communicable Diseases Spread Faster Under Globalisation?
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
Do Communicable Diseases Spread Faster Under Globalisation?
In addition to the key area of IMF/Bank induced health sector reforms, globalisation impinges on the health sector in many other ways. Globalisation leads to transnationalisation of public health risks. A major effect has been the resurgence of communicable diseases across the globe. Every phase of human civilisation that has seen a rapid expansion in exchange of populations across national borders has been characterised by a spread of communicable diseases. The early settlers in America, who came from Europe, carried with them small pox and measles that decimated the indigenous population of Native Americans. Plague traveled to Europe from the orient in the
middle ages, often killing more than a quarter of the population of cities in Europe (like the plague
epidemic in London in the fifteenth century). what festers in a metropolitan ghetto of the global North can emerge in a sleepy village in Asia - within weeks or days.
[*Studies indicate that due to rising food prices & subsidy cuts, hunger and morbidity levels have increased. Poor people were increasingly unable to access health institutions, which, under the reform measures, typically introduced fee for services; and it is not at all surprising!*]
This is a natural consequence of exposure to local populations to exotic diseases, to which they
have little or no natural immunity. Today what incubates in a tropical rainforest can emerge in a temperate suburb in affluent Europe, and likewise
[Due to poor health, nutritional status and poor access to health care in developing countries like ours, we are most susceptible to communicable diseases.]
In the case of AIDS the combination of global mobility and cuts in health facilities has been lethal for many developing countries - the disease in Africa, and now in Asia has ravaged a whole generation. Let us not forget that AIDS first manifest itself in the US, but it was Africa that feels the real force of its wrath. In the 1960s scientists were exulting over the possible conquest to be achieved over communicable diseases. Forty years later a whole new scenario is unfolding. AIDS is its most acute manifestation. We also have resurgence of cholera, yellow fever and malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa, malaria and dengue in South America, multi-drug resistant TB, plague, dengue and malaria in India. We see the emergence of exotic viral diseases, like those caused by the Ebola and the Hanta virus. Globalisation that forces migration of labour across large distances, that has spawned a huge "market" on commercial sex, that has changed the environment and helped produce "freak" microbes, has contributed enormously to the resurgence.
Do Communicable Diseases Spread Faster Under Globalisation?
In addition to the key area of IMF/Bank induced health sector reforms, globalisation impinges on the health sector in many other ways. Globalisation leads to transnationalisation of public health risks. A major effect has been the resurgence of communicable diseases across the globe. Every phase of human civilisation that has seen a rapid expansion in exchange of populations across national borders has been characterised by a spread of communicable diseases. The early settlers in America, who came from Europe, carried with them small pox and measles that decimated the indigenous population of Native Americans. Plague traveled to Europe from the orient in the
middle ages, often killing more than a quarter of the population of cities in Europe (like the plague
epidemic in London in the fifteenth century). what festers in a metropolitan ghetto of the global North can emerge in a sleepy village in Asia - within weeks or days.
[*Studies indicate that due to rising food prices & subsidy cuts, hunger and morbidity levels have increased. Poor people were increasingly unable to access health institutions, which, under the reform measures, typically introduced fee for services; and it is not at all surprising!*]
This is a natural consequence of exposure to local populations to exotic diseases, to which they
have little or no natural immunity. Today what incubates in a tropical rainforest can emerge in a temperate suburb in affluent Europe, and likewise
[Due to poor health, nutritional status and poor access to health care in developing countries like ours, we are most susceptible to communicable diseases.]
In the case of AIDS the combination of global mobility and cuts in health facilities has been lethal for many developing countries - the disease in Africa, and now in Asia has ravaged a whole generation. Let us not forget that AIDS first manifest itself in the US, but it was Africa that feels the real force of its wrath. In the 1960s scientists were exulting over the possible conquest to be achieved over communicable diseases. Forty years later a whole new scenario is unfolding. AIDS is its most acute manifestation. We also have resurgence of cholera, yellow fever and malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa, malaria and dengue in South America, multi-drug resistant TB, plague, dengue and malaria in India. We see the emergence of exotic viral diseases, like those caused by the Ebola and the Hanta virus. Globalisation that forces migration of labour across large distances, that has spawned a huge "market" on commercial sex, that has changed the environment and helped produce "freak" microbes, has contributed enormously to the resurgence.
Different Countries'Health Affected
Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana
How has Globalisation Affected Health in Different Countries?
Public health is an obvious casualty of this process. There is a clear contradiction between the principals of public health and neo-liberal economic theory. Public health is a "public good", i.e. its benefits cannot be individually enjoyed or computed, but have to be seen in the context of benefits that are enjoyed by the public. Thus public health outcomes are shared, and their accumulation lead to better living conditions. It does not mechanically translate into visible economic determinants, viz. income levels or rates of economic growth. Kerala, for example, has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the India but its public health indicators that approach the levels in many developed countries. The Infant Mortality Rate in Kerala is less than a third of any other large state in the country.
[It's Alarming!! Across the world, policies dictated by the forces of globalisation (in the form of structural adjustment policies in many countries) had the following specific effects on the health sector.].
But neo-liberal economic policies do not even acknowledge such benefits. The current
economic policies would rather view health as a private good that is accessed through the market.
i. A cut in the welfare investment, leading to gradual dismantling of the public health services.
ii. Introduction of service charges in public institutions, making
the services inaccessible to the poor.
iii. Handing over the responsibility of health service to the private sector and undermining the rationality of public health. The private sector on the other hand focused only on curative care.
India for instance, was forced to reduce its public health expenditure in health and to recover the cost of health services from its users by international banks.
iv. The voluntary sector, which has also stepped in to provide health services is forced to concentrate and prioritize only those areas where international aid is made available - like AIDS, population control, etc. These "fundamentals" were more sharply focused upon in 1987 by the World Bank document titled "Financing Health Services in Developing countries" which made the following
recommendations for developing countries.
1) Increase amounts paid by patients.
2) Develop private health insurance mechanisms (this requires a dismantling of state supported health services as if free or low cost health care is available there is little interest in private insurance).
3) Expand the participation of the private sector.
4) Decentralise government health care services (not real
decentralisation but an euphemism for "rolling back" of state
responsibility and passing on the burden to local communities).
These recommendations were further "fine-tuned" and reiterated by the Bank's World Development Report, 1993 titled "Investing inHealth".
[These "fundamentals" were more sharply focused upon in 1987 by our document titled "Financing Health Services in Developing countries" which made the following recommendations for developing countries. WB]
Today the Bank is the decisive voice in this regard, and the organisations like WHO and UNICEF have been reduced to playing the role of "drum beaters" of the Bank. In almost every developing country, where these prescriptions have been followed, public health conditions have deteriorated. In
Philippines health expenditure fell from 3.45% of GDP in 1985 to 2% in 1993; and in Mexico from 4.7% of GDP to 2.7% in the decade of the 80s. Even developing countries with a strong tradition of
providing comprehensive welfare benefits to its people were not spared (with the exception of
Cuba). In China health expenditure is reported to have fallen to 1% of GDP and 1.5 million TB
cases are believed to have been left untreated since the country introduced mechanisms for cost recovery. In Vietnam the number of villages with clinics and maternity centers fell from
93.1% to 75%. There have been dramatic reversals of health gains made after the Second World War. Thus the gap in the under-five death rate, considered a sensitive indicator of social and economic development, has widened between the rich countries and the poor. The under-five death rate gap increased from a ratio of 7.8 in 1978 to 12.5 in 1998. Similarly, the death rate ratio in the age group five to fourteen has also increased from 3.8 in 1950 to 7 in 1990. The impact was not limited only to poor countries.
[The involvement of the WB & IMF in moulding the policies of countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia expanded dramatically in the 1980s: by the end of 1991, 75 countries had
implemented structural adjustment policies that had an impact on the health sector].
20
In a number of the developed industrial countries, inequalities in health outcomes are being
soon among the poor. In many countries, more women entered the labour force but typically at
lower wages and with inferior working conditions than for men; in many others, women were
displaced from employment as levels of unemployment increase markedly. Simultaneously, the extent
of unpaid labour in households, performed largely by women, increased as public provision of basic goods and services declined. Young children, especially girls, were increasingly withdrawn from school to join the vast and grossly underpaid informal labour market or to assist in running the household. Rising food prices, along with cuts in subsidies for the poor, meant that an increasing proportion of families with precarious resources were pushed under the poverty line, affecting women and girl children disproportionately. As the table below indicates, they had to work for longer hours to purchase the same amount of foods as before, thus getting increasingly exploited. This also meant an increase in young women - and indeed women in general - being pushed into the sex industry, now increasingly global. Given increasing levels of under nutrition, infant and child
mortality rates, which had earlier shown a decline, either stagnated or in the case of some countries, actually increased. So widespread were these effects that even the UNICEF issued calls for "a human face" to structural adjustment programme.
[*An important consequence of globalisation has been commonly described as the "feminisation of poverty" as women increasingly had to strive to hold families
together in various ways in the face of increasing pressures, chief among them are increasing poverty and insecurity.*]
In the face of such evidence, even the World Bank was forced to modify its earlier recommendations. The World Bank started talking about investing in the poor through investments in health and
education; and about the promotion of safety nets and targeted social programmes. This is a clear recognition that specific programmes are necessary to protect the poor from the consequences of structural adjustment and that economic growth by itself does not reduce the problem of poverty. But these changes in the World Bank's thinking are still too inadequate and have come too late for millions who have died as a result of the policies it had promoted. Because of these effects the last two decades of the 20th century have often been described as lost decades. In 1960, the poorest 20 per cent of the global population received 2.3 per cent of the global income. By 1991, their share had sunk to 1.4 per cent. Today, the poorest 20 per cent receive only 1.1 per cent of global income. The
Table 1
Hours Worked to Purchase 1,000 Calories Before and After SAPs
1975 1984
Barley 0.07 0.59
Sugar 0.16 0.51
Corn 0.17 0.64
Wheat flour 0.21 0.52
Dried beans 0.22 3.47
Rice 0.22 0.48
Bread 0.28 0.51
Oil 0.28 0.51
Potatoes 0.76 2.35
Onions 1.02 3.22
Milk 1.05 3.95
Source: Susan George (1990), A Fate Worse Than Debt: The World Financial Crisis
and the Poor, PIRG, New Delhi.
The ratio of income of the wealthiest 20 per cent of the people to that of the poorest 20 per cent were 30 to 1 in 1960. By 1995, that ratio stood at 82 to 1. This is based on distribution between rich and poor countries, but when the maldistribution of income within countries is taken into account, the richest 20 per cent of the world's people in 1990 got at least 150 times more than the poorest 20 per cent. The 20 per cent of the world's people who live in the highest income countries account for 86 per cent of the global consumption; the poorest 20 per cent, only 1.3 per cent. In other words, while the world had grown incomparably richer, the wealth generated had been distributed remarkably unequally.
R.S.dahiya
How has Globalisation Affected Health in Different Countries?
Public health is an obvious casualty of this process. There is a clear contradiction between the principals of public health and neo-liberal economic theory. Public health is a "public good", i.e. its benefits cannot be individually enjoyed or computed, but have to be seen in the context of benefits that are enjoyed by the public. Thus public health outcomes are shared, and their accumulation lead to better living conditions. It does not mechanically translate into visible economic determinants, viz. income levels or rates of economic growth. Kerala, for example, has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the India but its public health indicators that approach the levels in many developed countries. The Infant Mortality Rate in Kerala is less than a third of any other large state in the country.
[It's Alarming!! Across the world, policies dictated by the forces of globalisation (in the form of structural adjustment policies in many countries) had the following specific effects on the health sector.].
But neo-liberal economic policies do not even acknowledge such benefits. The current
economic policies would rather view health as a private good that is accessed through the market.
i. A cut in the welfare investment, leading to gradual dismantling of the public health services.
ii. Introduction of service charges in public institutions, making
the services inaccessible to the poor.
iii. Handing over the responsibility of health service to the private sector and undermining the rationality of public health. The private sector on the other hand focused only on curative care.
India for instance, was forced to reduce its public health expenditure in health and to recover the cost of health services from its users by international banks.
iv. The voluntary sector, which has also stepped in to provide health services is forced to concentrate and prioritize only those areas where international aid is made available - like AIDS, population control, etc. These "fundamentals" were more sharply focused upon in 1987 by the World Bank document titled "Financing Health Services in Developing countries" which made the following
recommendations for developing countries.
1) Increase amounts paid by patients.
2) Develop private health insurance mechanisms (this requires a dismantling of state supported health services as if free or low cost health care is available there is little interest in private insurance).
3) Expand the participation of the private sector.
4) Decentralise government health care services (not real
decentralisation but an euphemism for "rolling back" of state
responsibility and passing on the burden to local communities).
These recommendations were further "fine-tuned" and reiterated by the Bank's World Development Report, 1993 titled "Investing inHealth".
[These "fundamentals" were more sharply focused upon in 1987 by our document titled "Financing Health Services in Developing countries" which made the following recommendations for developing countries. WB]
Today the Bank is the decisive voice in this regard, and the organisations like WHO and UNICEF have been reduced to playing the role of "drum beaters" of the Bank. In almost every developing country, where these prescriptions have been followed, public health conditions have deteriorated. In
Philippines health expenditure fell from 3.45% of GDP in 1985 to 2% in 1993; and in Mexico from 4.7% of GDP to 2.7% in the decade of the 80s. Even developing countries with a strong tradition of
providing comprehensive welfare benefits to its people were not spared (with the exception of
Cuba). In China health expenditure is reported to have fallen to 1% of GDP and 1.5 million TB
cases are believed to have been left untreated since the country introduced mechanisms for cost recovery. In Vietnam the number of villages with clinics and maternity centers fell from
93.1% to 75%. There have been dramatic reversals of health gains made after the Second World War. Thus the gap in the under-five death rate, considered a sensitive indicator of social and economic development, has widened between the rich countries and the poor. The under-five death rate gap increased from a ratio of 7.8 in 1978 to 12.5 in 1998. Similarly, the death rate ratio in the age group five to fourteen has also increased from 3.8 in 1950 to 7 in 1990. The impact was not limited only to poor countries.
[The involvement of the WB & IMF in moulding the policies of countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia expanded dramatically in the 1980s: by the end of 1991, 75 countries had
implemented structural adjustment policies that had an impact on the health sector].
20
In a number of the developed industrial countries, inequalities in health outcomes are being
soon among the poor. In many countries, more women entered the labour force but typically at
lower wages and with inferior working conditions than for men; in many others, women were
displaced from employment as levels of unemployment increase markedly. Simultaneously, the extent
of unpaid labour in households, performed largely by women, increased as public provision of basic goods and services declined. Young children, especially girls, were increasingly withdrawn from school to join the vast and grossly underpaid informal labour market or to assist in running the household. Rising food prices, along with cuts in subsidies for the poor, meant that an increasing proportion of families with precarious resources were pushed under the poverty line, affecting women and girl children disproportionately. As the table below indicates, they had to work for longer hours to purchase the same amount of foods as before, thus getting increasingly exploited. This also meant an increase in young women - and indeed women in general - being pushed into the sex industry, now increasingly global. Given increasing levels of under nutrition, infant and child
mortality rates, which had earlier shown a decline, either stagnated or in the case of some countries, actually increased. So widespread were these effects that even the UNICEF issued calls for "a human face" to structural adjustment programme.
[*An important consequence of globalisation has been commonly described as the "feminisation of poverty" as women increasingly had to strive to hold families
together in various ways in the face of increasing pressures, chief among them are increasing poverty and insecurity.*]
In the face of such evidence, even the World Bank was forced to modify its earlier recommendations. The World Bank started talking about investing in the poor through investments in health and
education; and about the promotion of safety nets and targeted social programmes. This is a clear recognition that specific programmes are necessary to protect the poor from the consequences of structural adjustment and that economic growth by itself does not reduce the problem of poverty. But these changes in the World Bank's thinking are still too inadequate and have come too late for millions who have died as a result of the policies it had promoted. Because of these effects the last two decades of the 20th century have often been described as lost decades. In 1960, the poorest 20 per cent of the global population received 2.3 per cent of the global income. By 1991, their share had sunk to 1.4 per cent. Today, the poorest 20 per cent receive only 1.1 per cent of global income. The
Table 1
Hours Worked to Purchase 1,000 Calories Before and After SAPs
1975 1984
Barley 0.07 0.59
Sugar 0.16 0.51
Corn 0.17 0.64
Wheat flour 0.21 0.52
Dried beans 0.22 3.47
Rice 0.22 0.48
Bread 0.28 0.51
Oil 0.28 0.51
Potatoes 0.76 2.35
Onions 1.02 3.22
Milk 1.05 3.95
Source: Susan George (1990), A Fate Worse Than Debt: The World Financial Crisis
and the Poor, PIRG, New Delhi.
The ratio of income of the wealthiest 20 per cent of the people to that of the poorest 20 per cent were 30 to 1 in 1960. By 1995, that ratio stood at 82 to 1. This is based on distribution between rich and poor countries, but when the maldistribution of income within countries is taken into account, the richest 20 per cent of the world's people in 1990 got at least 150 times more than the poorest 20 per cent. The 20 per cent of the world's people who live in the highest income countries account for 86 per cent of the global consumption; the poorest 20 per cent, only 1.3 per cent. In other words, while the world had grown incomparably richer, the wealth generated had been distributed remarkably unequally.
R.S.dahiya
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