Public Opinion - 1 : European Union

European Union

It has always been an Utopia- sortie for Indians like me, for we always associate liberal ideals and ethical fairness with the word 'Europe'.

Right from the start of the millennium, EU has always been in news, world over , with its Unitary currency Euro coming into global basket of currencies.

Being a coin collector, I still can remember the frenetic pace at which the demand for Marks, Francs increased in the years to come, for they had adopted Euro.

Cut the story short, now EU is in news for all the wrong reasons like skeptics questioning the stability of EU itself, rise in unemployment numbers, re-emergence of Nazi- like parties in Greece (Rise of the Greek neo-Nazis: Ultra-right party Golden Dawn wants to force immigrants into work camps and plant landmines along Turkish border ).

Along with above said, the divide between Northern countries ( Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands ) and Southern countries ( Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal ) is fast increasing .

With Germany performing better than the rest of the Europe, people have started to harp the old tunes of supposed German supremacy and wildly imaginary tales of Germany trying to impose hard austerity measures over errant countries.

But contrary to the widespread view, public view in Europe is vastly different from what we would have imagined.

Here are the conclusions that have come out of a study by Pew Research Global Attitudes project. 

1. The faith in common currency Euro is unshaken

2. People are willing to accept austerity measures to reduce public debts.

3.  Contrary to the supposed belief, it is the French who are increasingly disillusioned with the current state of economy

And most of all People believe that Germany is the most trustworthy nation

Wish European Union emerge stronger from the ensuing crises. 

Source : The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union

Changing Europe : George Friedman from Stratfor , here to talk on how Geography shapes everything that we know. One man to hear, to know how Geo-politics shapes the world we live in . Here he explains Why Europe is in brink of collapse.

http://new.livestream.com/livecfa/Friedman

Can Social Media 'Reform' Indian Society -2 : Social Media and Decision Making

Social Media: Can social media bring transparency in decision making apparatus of Government through crowd sourcing?

Let me try answering this question keeping in mind a developing nation with a vibrant civil society like India .

People, now clamor for transparency in policy making and functioning of government , and hence see Social media as a savior to reach those demands. 

As a developing nation, when we look around in the world, countries are struggling to create such an environment because it is prohibitively costly to create such an extensive framework where opinions of citizens could be taken by Government.

On the other hand, government is trying to take hold of Internet as a medium. Though it is impossible to achieve that state, it actively discourages people from voicing their concerns for the fear of spying by the government. Recently , our government issued a statement that it is creating a central authority for screening 'every byte' of information that is communicated. So these acts would just create a 'Unhealthy environment ' for discussion.

So what we need is a Citizen organization which can act as a facilitator of voicing grievances and Social media based framework would be much cheaper to establish and robust too. But can creation of such a body alone solve the problem ? No.

What we need is a change in stance by Government in tolerating opposing views in cyber space and it should try create a framework wherein better suggestions would be rewarded. The citizen organization should be in a position to exercise authority by having a partnership based interaction rather than being a postman. That would prevent government from manipulation and the worst case scenario of making the whistle blower, a convict. 

Distrust causes hesitation among masses to express freely on a forum that is run by the government, especially if censorship and punishment might follow.

A McKinsey and Co., report states that by 2015, 330 million Indians will be online. As of now it has 120 million Internet users and Over the next three years, India will add the highest number of Internet users, taking the penetration rate to 28%. India boasts of 62 million facebook users (3rd highest user base globally) and more than 15 million twitter users. These figures are likely to grow, indicating that there is a fertile ground which is emerging, wherein more and more people expect real time access and authentic engagement.

//Any problem is half solved, once it is properly defined//. Hence with existing social media and right policy decision from Government to facilitate such a Citizen organization, would help it to identify the problems and accelerate the implementation.

Here, I would like to add an recent development :

In case some of you are interested, the Urban Development Ministry (India) is inviting citizens to join a new Google group they have set up in order to crowd source/solicit recommendations and ideas on the 14th Central Finance Commission - with respect to Urban Local Bodies. 

The link to subscribe is as follows: 

google.com

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/moud14cfc

[Thanks to Arbind Gupta for providing the correct link]

Hoping to see how things get shaped up.

How is it to grow up as a single child ?

Hi again !!!

Here am going to talk about what it is to be a single child.

People always tend to have a perception that single child are usually introverts, socially awkward , less competitive and self obsessed.

Am a single child and I wish to give you some background about myself in order to clarify that the experiences of single kids aren't the same , for the whole social experience that one has is influenced not only by siblings, but also by parents, grand parents, cousins, nephews and Uncle / Aunts.

* My family is basically a nuclear family in Chennai and with my parents being new to the city, we had all experiences of an immigrant family . As my parents weren't comfortable with the city experience, I was raised more protective.

* So that means, I didn't have friends in my neighbor hood. And add to that , I visit my relatives only during vacations and the duration is usually too short to have any memorable experience. 

* I didn't get the experience of grand parents for reasons that they were either no more or it really didn't matter. I never heard stories of Devas/ rakshashas from my grand mother nor moral lessons from my grand father. Add to that, as a kid I used to hear from my friends about the awesome stories their grand parents shared with them and I didn't have any thing to say. I mean really I didn't even have a word to say, unless I make up some stories .

* With me being the elder kid of my generation in the extended family, I didn't have any role model as such. I never had a elder cousin who would share his/her experiences ranging from  fights with their friends or learning a sport or  stories about their crush. 

* One thing which I did have is my uncle and aunt who were more like a parent to me. But that couldn't change the experiences which I had. 

So with all above , that may seem as an ideal setup to grow into a introvert, socially inept, less competitive person.

But it wasn't so. And I can vouch that to any, who is reading this entry.

The one thing  the experience as a single child taught me is 

* To be open to views and experiences from outside : As a child, when you don't hear much from people around you, you always tend to observe more people other than your family. Television became my friend and I indeed learnt much more,  for I needed stories to be discussed in school, to sound cool. 

* Loneliness is not fearful : One thing that you face in current society is that many people are increasingly feeling lonely due to their lifestyle and resort to many avenues to break off that feel. In my case, I was conditioned to being lonely. Being alone wasn't a choice, but more a reality. That slowly makes you enjoy the idea of being alone. Hence I would like to use the word ' Alone ' in place of lonely , for its attached negative connotation.

* Accepting people as they are : One thing you tend to develop is tolerance and the idea of accepting people as they are. This may be a protective mechanism within to not lose people but it slowly makes you a person who can accommodate completely differing views with elan. So that certainly makes you more a sociable person and hence developing into an Introvert is completely out of question. But it doesn't mean that you are going to be real extrovert. Personal experiences decide the degree of extrovertedness .

* Competitive, Hardy, Independent : Being alone, you have no choice other than being competitive for you won't have a sibling to help you with any. In my case, I didn't have grandparents to run and sob that I lost at something or I was bullied. Being alone also makes you develop a sense of independence and hence you would stop bothering your parents for trivial issues. That actually makes you independent, hardy and have a sense of control on yourself. After all in life, you can't afford to always have a companion to overcome barriers, be it real or emotional.

* Accepting views of parents and their hardships : Being in a nuclear family and being a single child, helps you to empathize the position of your parents much better and you there are chances that you would be taken seriously. And people , Empathy is essentially a skill to be learnt. For in fairly large families, there is always a possibility to not know the real situation.

* To counter superficial celebrations : Over a period of time, you would come to view birthdays, father day, mother day and all other days as a superficial celebration. Though it may depend upon the peer pressure, my personal view is clarity of thought that you acquire helps you to sift superficiality from real feel. In fact, single kids usually don't end up sentimental. And that also guards you from disappointment for you would have known that all relationship is fallible. 

And superficial celebrations, are usually a defensive mechanism to fill the emotional vacuum we have inside. And we all know that running away form a problem isn't exactly a solution. 

But I do miss a close confidant to share , have every chance of becoming self obsessed, lack of a role model to look up to, the push you need to give yourself  to move forward is sometimes painful, the pain you feel when you look back to see what have you missed and the crushing pain to see you are on your own in future.

But people, on a lighter note, birth rates are falling worldwide and single child are going to soon become a norm. So cheer up, form lasting friendships , enjoy every moment which you can ( Enjoyment is not always celebration, enjoyment is mostly the internal feel when you cherish what you do ) and take care of parents ( for we being single is mostly because of the conscious decision they took for our well being ). So let's not make them rue over that. 

Am open to hearing views from any who is reading this post and wish to hear them. Looking forward.

Jeyannathann Karunanithi Pillai's answer to Life: How is growing up with a sibling different from being a single child?

Was Ravana hero or Villian ? - Part 1

Before, arguing whether he is a Hero or Villain, lets clear up one fact.

Ravana was Father - in - Law of Rama . 

Sita was in fact an Asura Princess born to Ravana and Mandodari.

But Ravana's associates saw her as a bad luck to Ravana as soon as she was born, hence decide to take her to Deva's lands and kill her. But due to fate she came in hands of Janaka, a Deva King. And he saw her as a gift from Earth.

Once Ravana came to know about this, from then he was all ears about the happenings to Sita.

In fact, he hated the custom of Swayamvara for he felt bad that his daughter is being seen by many courters like a commodity. Here we can understand his fervor to break this meaningless, subservient custom.

When Sita saw Prince of Ayodhya, Rama, he did see the love in her eyes. 

Actually Ravana was present in the Swayamvara to witness the marriage of his daughter. In fact he was there to stop the marriage and take her back home to get her married to a wealthy prince for he felt Deva Lands were poor and impoverished with least respect for women.

But he backed off seeing the love for Rama that Sita had.

When Rama lost his claim for land, Ravana became furious for he can't imagine his daughter living in Jungle like a gatherers wife.

 He in fact thought that, lets bring Sita to Lanka and make her stay in Palace and once Rama comes in search for her,  make him a prince for a dominion.

So the reason for he abducting Sita, was to take her as a Daughter to his home and it was out of Love and Affection he had for her. 

So how would that make him a Bad person.

By the way , Rama wasn't too good by himself. 

1. He killed Bali, the Vanara King against Kshatriya Dharma

2. He questioned the integrity of his own wife and made her self immolate just for the sake of some irrelevant questions raised.

In comparison to that

1. Ravana was just a dotting father who cant see his daughter suffer because of her husband's pointless Dharma.

2. When Ravana married Mandodari, he never ever touched her without her permission. So he had high ideals regarding treating women equally.

If this is the case, Is Ravana really a Villain , if not a Hero ?

Accumulated Sins: How India lost behind a Malaria Ridden Swamp, Bombed Patch and a Godless Middle Kingdom

Let me start by comparing growth trajectories of 3 nations which started off at more or else same level with regards to the potential to grow. That is India, China and Sri Lanka.

Before starting, would like to state the fact that // Human wellbeing play a major role, in how the massive gains in GDP is translated into further well being hence sustained growth.//

Though many believe that India, China and SriLanka have started from the same point, the decisions they made were quite different.

* China entered the International scene only in early 80s after decades of self imposed isolation.  But the work they did in rural electrification and basic universal health coverage during Mao's era of 1960s enabled them to scale up productivity, when the global demand for manufacturing goods increased.

* SriLanka, right from the start worked on universal education and developing excellent primary healthcare facilities. Until today, they have the highest literacy percentage and rank far above other South Asian nations in HDI (Human Development Index). Moreover Sri Lanka greatly benefited from abandoning import-substitution mode of industrialization. In fact when Singapore was just a Malaria ridden swamp land that Malaysia didn't want to have, Sri Lanka was seen as a role model by Singapore.

And the interesting fact is SriLanka and China had started liberalization is late 1970's and made a great leap, 10 years before India even thought of making one.

That made India miss the Era of Manufacturing ( from mid 70's to mid 90's) , hence completely losing out to Thailand and other Asian Tiger Economies like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore.

In case of South Korea, post-Korean War, the Government overtly encouraged Chaebols (Conglomerates) and hence the capacity builded up exponentially. Moreover the advances they made in Education (Both Primary and higher Education) during Manufacturing boom of 80's and early 90's, enabled them to catch up with the Era of Information Technology and Innovation which came just after Manufacturing boom.

So essentially, Sri Lanka , South Korea and China had a better framework for utilizing the opportunities and hence achieved sustained growth in comparison with India.

And with respect to India, they did a shoddy job in

1. Rural electrification (Incomplete and Still an election plank)

2. Primary Health Care (Health Indicators far worse than Sub-Saharan countries) except in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh

3. Inability to provide quality education through universal compulsory literacy schemes.

4. Popular policies adopted by governments in 1980s after Emergency period, paved way for bankruptcy situation in 1991 which forced India to liberalize in order to receive global financial aid. 

And thus started the Great Liberalization under the able guidance of our Beloved Dr. Manmohan Singh.

And now even after relentless growth in GDP, the fruits have never reached the majority of the population for the simple reason that we had never thought of learning from our mistakes.

The Sad but absolute truth is the fruits will never reach the masses unless our Human Development Index rises and that needs massive investments with implementation at war footing.

If not, the so called Demographic Sweet-spot ( The state were a large proportion of the population would be in working age) would go useless and emerge as a potential time-bomb to the integrity of the nation itself for it's not doing enough to satisfy the aspirations of the youth.

Seems the accumulated sins, from not learning from the mistakes are here to haunt India for a long time.

God Save India !!!!!!!

Can social media 'reform' Indian society?

Before we address the social media as a single entity, lets analyze on how 'homogeneous' is the crowd that constitutes this 'supposed' influence group.

Though the current global discourses point towards the major role that social media play and could play, it would be a partial view of the big picture that is emerging. Many factors like the level of openness that is inherent in a society, the form of government that is ruling, the historical data on people's response to popular movements/Activism in a particular region is not considered, when organizations jump on to conclusions about the role that social media could play. They seek to simplify the social media engagement and its influences only through further simplified variables like followers, fans, likes and shares. What we fail to understand is that actions are effected by individuals and not virtual numbers.

We need to understand that in case of India,  social media influence is usually overestimated. Views may lie but numbers don't . A rough back of the envelope calculation would prove that, though the active users are growing the tangible activity isn't as much as we would expect . So we need to keep our expectations realistic and engage this growing crowd with information and debates .

And just as how I mentioned, "social media activity shouldn't be overestimated" , Our society's empathy should also be not overestimated. 'Empathy' is a major factor that played out in Arab countries as Arab spring. And hence we need to factor in the level of empathy, that social media could elicit in our target population.

However this  doesn't mean that Social Media is just a passing hype that has to be ignored. It means that our perception of Social Media needs to factor in diverse factors above mentioned in order to course-correct our expectations and the type of social media campaigns that we would seek to undertake.

The role that social media plays now is,  developing a Collective consciousness. And that is in fact needs to be aroused for our society to be sensitive about perpetrated crimes and pressing issues . In case of perpetration of crime against women, We are still living in a society where a significant percentage of people from all levels share a thought that these crimes are brought upon by the victim .So that means the level of empathy is very low that is clouded by issues like the social class of the girl,her age,the community she is from and so on. When such is the case , these Facebook statuses, Likes,tweets,memes,photos and shares are indeed playing a great role in keeping these incidents in our collective memory with a sense of empathy.

So on the whole, I believe that Social Media as a system is deserved to be understood better and that would enable us to reach out to people with earnest intent and brimming confidence.

Coming back to the question of 'Reform', only an organic growth would stand the tough times and that's the reason why Social media needs to internalize 'humane' aspects to behave as an super-organism, in order to effect our Aspirations. Because its 'WE' who constitute 'Social Media' and not 'Little Green Men/Women from Mars'.

Thus Spoke An Non-Resident Desi Ant - The Tale of the Vanquished : A.D 2061

We all would have heard the story of Industrious Ant and  Carefree Grasshopper.

It goes like The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs dances plays the summer away. Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

And here comes a Desi twist to this Aesop fable.

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs dances plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

And now starts the " Classic Appeasement Indian Drama " !!!!

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter .

Mayawati states this as 'injustice' done on Minorities.

Amnesty International and Kofi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven & Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the 'Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act'[POTAGA] , with effect from the beginning of the winter..

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions in Government Services.

At last, The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV, BBC, CNN.

Arundhati Roy calls it 'A Triumph of Justice'.

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'.

CPM calls it the 'Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden'

Kofi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley ,

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ,

....AND

As a result of losing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers, India is still a developing country...!!

Thus Spoke An Non-Resident Desi Ant  to its American Born Confused Desi Antlings ......... 

A.D.2061

* An Updated version of a hugely circulated e-mail , "Exactly this is India , and its Still a Developing country"