Tuesday shall witness a change historic for America and possibly for a large part of the world...the new president speaks of change and represents it.
But perhaps a bigger change of which Barack Obama is just a manifestation started much before...i speak of the economic change or the economic meltdown as it turns out to be.
In the past hundred years big economic changes have normally been set into motion by war. Wars bring destruction and downturn and thus the opportunity of a renewed upturn and discovery of new frontiers. They bring down the high and mighty and create a new level playing field; they create new stars who have the chance to write their own story on the wall of time.
This time around the tide of economic change was set into motion perhaps by the "war on terror"; by the atrocities committed by both those who are fighting it and those they are fighting against. While this might be true of previous wars too, what is definitely different about this new war is that it is not over- no one knows how long it will last and the victor is not even in sight.
Obama is thus a star brought to the fore by a war different from the past and which will bring him unprecedented challenges to secure the tide of events in his favour.
However, Change as such, like in the past, will create new frontiers to be discovered, new level playing fields and new opportunities.
And so this shall be a change for the good- especially for those who cease the moment and like Obama try and make the most of it.
Long live change!!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
The same answer to Gaza and Kashmir?
Israel is waging a war. Who is it they are really fighting? Hamas, ordinary residents of Gaza or is it waging the war of the west on Islam? Whoever it is fighting and whatever it is fighting for, the question i seek to answer is whether violence can bring about any lasting solutions?
I come from the land of Mahatma Gandhi, yes, India...most recently in the news for the terror attacks on its financial capital, Mumbai. After the Mumbai attack the people of India felt that their Government was a weakling, the politicians all jokers and that we needed to take bold actions akin to Israel against the perpetrators - Islamic militants based out of Pakistan. But the Indian Government stopped at just raising its voice by a bit.
A previous Indian Government's Minister for External affairs, Jaswant Singh, had in fact escorted the very terrorists who supposedly master minded the Mumbai attack to ensure their safe release in exchange for Indian passengers on board a flight to its capital, New Delhi, after it was hijacked and held hostage in Afghanistan in December 1999.
These responses clearly show that India somehow continues to believe (or make believe)that the terror problem it faces from Pakistan can be solved through diplomacy, international pressure and even perhaps through the exchange of culture and the playing of cricket.
So, Israel and India facing a similar problem have adopted two very different approaches to solve them and yet neither appears to be successful. Where lies the answer?
I believe that the answer may lie with Economics.
To present a radical economic solution, is it possible for India to sell off Kashmir, the region which is the bone of contention for its dispute with Pakistan at the cost incurred in the last 55 years trying to keep it under control and perhaps even take into account a brand value loss that it'll suffer?? I know the thought is too radical and perhaps impractical.
But the idea is this...show the Kashmiri people and the Pakistani based militants the cost they incur in human lives and economic prosperity and let them choose what they really want... is it just land they want or do they want happiness and economic prosperity for the people of Kashmir? They just have to look at the fate of people in Pakistan-Occupied -Kashmir which shows clearly that by merely merging into Pakistan or even having an autonomous region will not solve their problems. Economic growth, jobs, prosperity and the resulting peace will.
Let them then choose whether it is India or Pakistan which is in a better position to ensure that they get the basic development they deserve.
Similarly, the Moderate Palestinians under the Fatah party of President Abbas- which Israel supports, has rightly commented that the on going attack by Israeli forces on the Gaza region, rather than helping them, only weakens their proposed solution of peace to the radical elements in their population. The key to solving the Gaza problem using economics may in fact lie with Egypt which by bringing the Gaza strip under its economic cover ( with the support of Israel) can give the region an aspiration to become something more than just being seen as a war zone for Islam.
I know that communist-economic thought says that land is at the heart of all economic problems, but then we first need to recognise the problem of Gaza and Kashmir as economic problems foremost.
I come from the land of Mahatma Gandhi, yes, India...most recently in the news for the terror attacks on its financial capital, Mumbai. After the Mumbai attack the people of India felt that their Government was a weakling, the politicians all jokers and that we needed to take bold actions akin to Israel against the perpetrators - Islamic militants based out of Pakistan. But the Indian Government stopped at just raising its voice by a bit.
A previous Indian Government's Minister for External affairs, Jaswant Singh, had in fact escorted the very terrorists who supposedly master minded the Mumbai attack to ensure their safe release in exchange for Indian passengers on board a flight to its capital, New Delhi, after it was hijacked and held hostage in Afghanistan in December 1999.
These responses clearly show that India somehow continues to believe (or make believe)that the terror problem it faces from Pakistan can be solved through diplomacy, international pressure and even perhaps through the exchange of culture and the playing of cricket.
So, Israel and India facing a similar problem have adopted two very different approaches to solve them and yet neither appears to be successful. Where lies the answer?
I believe that the answer may lie with Economics.
To present a radical economic solution, is it possible for India to sell off Kashmir, the region which is the bone of contention for its dispute with Pakistan at the cost incurred in the last 55 years trying to keep it under control and perhaps even take into account a brand value loss that it'll suffer?? I know the thought is too radical and perhaps impractical.
But the idea is this...show the Kashmiri people and the Pakistani based militants the cost they incur in human lives and economic prosperity and let them choose what they really want... is it just land they want or do they want happiness and economic prosperity for the people of Kashmir? They just have to look at the fate of people in Pakistan-Occupied -Kashmir which shows clearly that by merely merging into Pakistan or even having an autonomous region will not solve their problems. Economic growth, jobs, prosperity and the resulting peace will.
Let them then choose whether it is India or Pakistan which is in a better position to ensure that they get the basic development they deserve.
Similarly, the Moderate Palestinians under the Fatah party of President Abbas- which Israel supports, has rightly commented that the on going attack by Israeli forces on the Gaza region, rather than helping them, only weakens their proposed solution of peace to the radical elements in their population. The key to solving the Gaza problem using economics may in fact lie with Egypt which by bringing the Gaza strip under its economic cover ( with the support of Israel) can give the region an aspiration to become something more than just being seen as a war zone for Islam.
I know that communist-economic thought says that land is at the heart of all economic problems, but then we first need to recognise the problem of Gaza and Kashmir as economic problems foremost.
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