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2月25日 IPKF days: The War No One Wanted Colonel R HariharanFormer head of Military Intelligence, IPKF, 1987-90. “This is the man who killed our son,” the middle aged man had said pointing at me, as he introduced me to his wife in my Chennai home in 1989. My wife had seemed shocked – but I sensed his pain and did not mind. I knew the couple well from Jaffna. Their house was the first I visited when I set foot in the troubled Sri Lankan province on August 5, 1987 as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. Their 18-year-old son – a handsome young Tamil Tiger of the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam – was also present there that day. Then, some months later, our war with the Tigers began, and I was told that the youngster had been sent to Mannar to fight our troops. But I told my men to take him alive and not to kill him. “The Tamil Tigers always carry cyanide capsules with them. Catch him before he swallows one,” I instructed my troops. And, well, he did just that – dropping dead well before the Indian troops got to him. Naturally, it was impossible to explain any of this to the inconsolable father – or how much such incidents hurt me in the three years I was India’s military intelligence chief in Sri Lanka. My knowledge of Tamil was an advantage, but no cause for celebration, because of the incessant killings of Tamil civilians in large numbers. And the bloody experience scared me for ever after. For however much I may sympathise with the Tamil struggle for equal rights with the majority Sinhalas, I am dead against armed struggle for achieving the goal. In Sri Lanka I was the senior most Tamil MI officer; and as some from my extended family lived in Jaffna and Colombo I was pretty familiar with what was going on there. The Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement was conceived in haste and executed without thinking through a long term strategy. Ostensibly, it had two goals – to preserve India’s strategic security interests and help the Sri Lankan Tamils get their due, without threatening Sri Lanka’s unity. These were all political and diplomatic goals – not military ones. What made things a great deal worse was that the Indian Peace Keeping Force had no written mandate. Indeed, some of the oral instructions went well beyond our goals. For instance, we were told to ensure that Sri Lanka’s President, Jayawardane, would not become the target of a Sinhala backlash.....Continue 2月20日 In new age, patriotism should be redefifi ned constitutionallyMany of the foreign-born kids might become a doctor, engineer, mayor, scientist or something else or might enjoy the wealth of their rich parents, but, they would be excluded from the privilege of taking the  highest offi ce of the land. In recent times, adopting foreign-born children by American parents has become more of a norm than an exception. Morethe over, millions of immigrants residing in America truly love America more than the land they were born on. Th ey believe America to be their home land but never think of exercising their constitutional eligibility for the highest post.In such a situation, it reminds about the populist democracy like that of India where even immigrants or foreign-born nationals aren't excluded from contesting presidential elections. Ironically, in this context, America seems to be a bit conservative. Most of the foreign-born (Indian, Japanese, Israeli, Chinese) American immigrants are no less patriotic, socialistic and kind to America, academically, politically and economically, holding respected American offi ces but stand ineligible to become a president in comparison to many US born less deserving people. Innocent children are taken to America without their consent, then why should they be deprived of their rights? It is perhaps the right time in the age of globalisation to redefi ne the concept of American, constitutionally, to include ‘America for all Americans’!!!....Continue 2月12日 Once a global financial giant, Citigroup is now counting on its last chance to avoid a cold deathSo much so that even the CEO, Vikram Pandit, has blamed the prior management who dived too deeply into the real estate domain and caused massive losses. And this reflects in the financial records of the company. Today, it is one of the biggest unsecured creditors with close to $138 billion in bonds, which forms an overwhelming 23 per cent of collapsed  investment banking major Lehman Brothers’ debt of $613 billion. Moreover, as per data available with Bloomberg Financial Markets, market value of Citigroup is reduced to a paltry $83 billion (as on September 15, 2008) from mind-boggling $273.6 billion at the end of 2006. Now does this mean that Citigroup is actually moving on similar lines to meet the fates of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch? Well, Xavier Chavee, Senior Director, Standard & Poor’s, candidly answers, “The group would meet a similar destiny as there are lots of obstacles brewing up thanks to its mismanaged inorganic activities. The diversified portfolio, as of now, is the saving grace but the future holds the same fate.” Meanwhile, the company finally seems to have understood the fact that size does matter – at least when it's about controlling the affairs on a global level – as it has now decided to split itself into two entities: Citicorp (to handle the traditional banking work) and Citi Holdings (to take on the firm's riskiest investment assets). But then, the decision has come only after another disastrous result of a quarterly loss of $8.29 billion for the last quarter of year 2008. Such bleeding losses for quarters after quarters are now giving the impression that with every result announcement day, Citi is moving one step closer to its grave. However, splitting of the company perhaps is the last desperate arrow from Citi’s quiver to save the company, and if the strategy fails, soon we may find newspaper articles reading something like what Chris Clott, Associate Professor, California Maritime Academy, says, “Failure of a bank as large as Citigroup would be an enormous loss.”....Continue 2月4日 Turning the TideBarely a stone’s  throw away from Guwahati city that houses the capital complex of Assam, Panikaithi’s Muhammad Azibur Rahman has found a way of dealing with the state’s floods: he crosses the highway with his family as the swirling waters of the Brahmaputra gobbles up his little bamboo hut; for those horrible months he then lives on the other side of the highway in a broken down tent, pieced together with rags. If the water on the other side should rise, however, he then perches himself and his family on the highway itself, living his days and nights in even more horrible poverty. That to him is quite the cycle of life before winter comes and the waters recede and he can see his fields appear once again from the heart of the once turbulent river. He then starts from scratch, building his hut that the river has by then turned into a den of hissing snakes. That is near Guwahati. Now, hundreds of kilometres upstream too, where the Brahmaputra is a raging sea, Uday Pegu of Dhakuakhana has had it much worse, having had to watch two of his family washed away even as the river demolished his rickety “sang bongola”, a bamboo house traditionally built by his people (the Misings) on a bamboo platform to keep their homes safe from the waters that they had learnt to battle down the ages. Things, however, are beginning to change with the ever-handy bamboo of these hills and plains now coming in even handier as the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) in Guwahati innovates Pegu’s age-old tradition – that of using bamboo to keep a population, quite literally, above the floods. At hand is a new bamboo house that comes with an “80-year life” guarantee and costs just upwards of Rs 35,000 to build. And there’s luxury to add if one so wishes: the air-conditioned version of the house costs Rs 3 lakh. But most of all, this is a house that could help keep safe millions of people who have hitherto been at the mercy of floods which routinely wash away their lives, homes and families. In areas such as the Northeast – particularly known for being prone to seismic disturbances – the houses, given their low weight and structure, could be a good shelter against earthquakes too....Continue 1月5日 Not just the yankee wayThough the world has stood witness to ethnic conflicts, religious fundamentalism and communal hatred across the globe for centuries now,  a few communities continue to play a strong role in the prosperity of world economy, thanks to their outstanding ethnic networking, strong identity and a sense of belonging. History bears testimony to the fact that contributions of a few global communities – such as Jewish financiers, Japanese skilled professionals, Indian entrepreneurs and overseas Chinese investors – have been immensely influential in furthering international commerce.Consider this: a research compiled by a high-powered expert community appointed by the Indian Government reveals that the combined wealth of over 20 million overseas Indians is over $1 trillion, equal to India’s GDP. Overseas Indians like LN Mittal, Sri Chand Hinduja, Gopi Chand Hinduja, Anurag Dikshit and many others continue to top the list of the richest people in the UK. Similarly, the Japanese have proved to be another successful community, building empires out of virtually nothing in the last century. Japan today is not only the world’s second largest economy, it has over 20 percentage membership among the 'world’s 10 per cent wealthiest' after the US. The world also cannot forget the Jewish community, which accounts for a mere 0.25 per cent of the world population. ....Continue |
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