Parag Khanna is probably not a very renowned name in India. Recently this renowned American foreign policy expert, came into news after making a quite interesting proposal that the United States should look more towards Latin America than Asia in the new millennium in order to rebuild American economic influence and another very creative part of his idea was that America could think about whether “the $100 billion IT outsourcing industry could be brought back from India into the United States' time zones”.
Now this can at best be considered as a very creative idea albeit with one significant hindrance. After all India is more or less an English-speaking country thanks to our colonial legacy whereas most of Latin America is still very much Spanish and Portuguese speaking region. So until and unless the United States of America turns into a Spanish-speaking majority nation (as most recent demographic studies suggest it would become so probably at the end of this century due to higher birthrates amongst the Americans from the Latino background), India can pretty much feel comfortable of continuing to reap the advantage of being home to one of the largest number of English-speakers outside Britain.
However it is always safe to be sorry in some respects. What should be our Plan-B if the creative idea, floated by Mr. Khanna , does indeed come to reality one day ?
One of the challenges of being an expert in foreign policy is to conjure up unpleasant and previously unthinkable scenarios and try to find out possible solutions so that if the threat really comes to pass, there is a fitting response.
Pro-activeness is something that our grand old Indian policy making establishment can not be blamed to possess too much of. And they do not have any reason to practice it too much in terms of policy making so far in this new millennium.
Historically, the two biggest factors that determine how a country’s establishment looks at its foreign policy are the perception or presence of threats from outside and the willingness to expand a country’s interests and influences.
In the case of India, fortunately we live in a time of history where there is no strong power in our neighborhood, which is at present engaged in a policy to endanger our existence or our interests. This is the main reason that the Indian establishment seem to be always comfortable in “leading from behind” when it comes to major foreign policy initiatives in the 21-st century.
It is true that our diplomats and ministers are invited into major international forums around the World like Davos and numerous conferences on the future of Afghanistan but when it comes to real discussions and decision making to determine the outcome of any important political process of global significance, India seem to be very much in the “leading from behind” mode.
The Indian establishment cannot be blamed for this state of mind. After all, “leading from behind” has not hurt India in any real terms and is not India a IT-superpower and are not the American arms manufacturers coming running to India for possible purchases? So, if India is getting so much without being pre-active why should India think differently?
Well one big lesson of history is that even entrenched situations can change overnight and those who are not ready to accommodate and prepare themselves to the changes of history, pay dearly for it. Take the example of those investors, who have put all their money into purchasing the Russian Czarist bonds prior to the First World War and they went bankrupt rapidly when that government itself collapsed in the course of war and revolutions.
Now coming back to the idea of Mr. Khanna , suppose if India losses its $100 Billion US-outsourcing market what could be the other options that India should look at ?
A very tried and trusted method in this regard is diversifying. However in this case, finding out other different markets may not be that easy. The two other markets that can be comparable to America are the EU and China. Now, Europe is a diverse continent with diverse set of cultures, languages and thanks to the current EU leaders, more complex set of stringent rules and regulations. In other words, Indian Software bigwigs will not have that easy to penetrate into the European market with such ease as with America due to these very reasons. China is altogether a different story whereby Indian private companies would have to face direct competition from their Chinese counterparts backed by the Chinese government , looking to protect and nurture its own domestic IT services industry and probably rightly so from a Chinese viewpoint.
So that narrows down our options to catering software products to the customers in our very own country. India does have a growing population and majority of it still live in abject poverty and backwardness but thanks to the modern revolution of cellular phones, creating innovative products for this otherwise under estimated market could be the “next big thing” for our Software industry. There are more than many million Indians who do fall under $2 dollar income category. Our entrepreneurs and ideators can think about catering basic services to these people through the cell phone technology and still being able to profit from it considering the hugeness of the market.
So as Mr. Khanna advises his fellow Americans to look closer to home, we should also follow his advice and look at our own countrymen to prepare ourselves for any possible fallouts in case the countrymen of Mr. Khanna do consider his ideas seriously.
Note: “Look South, not east” by Parag Khanna (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/11/look_south_not_east)
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Another forgotten aniversary
Forgetting an important date is not too difficult for us. Very often we forget our important meetings, the birthdays of our friends and relatives whom we do not get to meet often thanks to the hustles of the modern life, more often than not we even forget to just pick up the cell phone from our pockets and give a call to a long-ago school or college friend who may be living the next neighborhood, an acquaintance with whom we may have worked just six months back or to some old uncle and aunty just to give them a reminder that they exist in our increasingly sinking universes.
Remembering an event which took place a century is probably a more difficult task to perform. After all this age is the “age of breaking news” whereby we do not even remember the most significant event that took place a week or two back , leave aside what happened a century back. This year was significant in terms of anniversary since this was the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 i.e. World trade centre attacks, an event with great significance, remembrance and tragedy. Yet this year also marks the century of another tragic event which has got very little remembrance until now.
The year was 1911 and the day was 25-th March and the place was Asch Building, at 23-29 Washington Place, New York. It was a completely different world from our times. It was a World where Adolph Hitler was still very much a struggling artist in Vienna; Lenin was moving around Europe to organize followers around his ideas and Mahatma Gandhi a very much practicing lawyer in South Africa. That World was dominated by the great European powers of the day with almost all of current African and Asian nations under their influence. The United States was a fast growing power but still compared to the historical and classical imperial credentials of her more distinguished Western counterparts like the English and the French , the United states was more or less an well-doing start-up compared to the existing industrial behemoths like that of the British or the French empires. So when the event that I am going to talk about now took place on that 25-th March in New York, not many people around the World took notice of it and not many have taken the notice of that event thereafter.
The Asch Building was a ten-story office building in New York; it’s eighth, ninth and tenth floors were hosting the offices of Triangle Shirtwaist Company, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, recent Russian immigrants to America. The main product of the company was “Shirtwaists” a recently invented and extremely popular Woman’s ware. The company employed around 500 people, mostly immigrant girls in the age group of 13-23. The workers had to work long hours and six days a week and had to settle with a salary which was barely able to meet their only very basic requirements.
On 25-th march Saturday, around 4:30 PM, the time when the normal work had stopped and regular paychecks were being paid to the workers suddenly a fire was observed at one of the trash bins. Probably it was lit by an unfinished match or cigarette. The company had provisions to prevent smoking inside its rooms but probably one of the workers , who proved to be little bit more innovative than the overseers , had been able to smuggle one. At the beginning, the workers who were present, tried to extinguish the fire by pouring water but the fire defeated all of their efforts and grew large. Then the people at the eighth floor tried to put out the fire by opening the fire extinguishing hoses but even those did not work out properly. As fire started growing more rapidly, the workers at the eighth floor informed the residents at the tenth floor where the owners were present and left the place. But the workers at the ninth floor were not aware of this rapidly detoriating situation mainly because of two reasons. One, the fire alarms which were there did not function properly and second, the invention of a device like the cell phones was still to happen almost a century later. So what made the workers at the ninth floor aware of the fire was fire itself, according to one worker.
There were two elevators, a fire-exit and stairways for the marooned workers to escape but as with other things in the day, fate slowly but surely removed those options from their hands. Normally it was regulated by the city industrial authorities that doors at the factories should be opened but the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company had ensured that the doors were closed so that no worker can get away with stealing. So the workers of the plant did not have the doors open to them. The two elevator operators Joseph Zito and Gaspar Mortillalo showed deep courage to keep the elevators running and they were able to save a lot of lives in the process but only till the elevators did function. As if it was inevitable, after some time the unfortunate workers trapped at the ninth floor, all options of escape had run out. Louis Waldman, a visitor described what happened next.
“Word had spread through the East Side, by some magic of terror, that the plant of the Triangle Waist Company was on fire and that several hundred workers were trapped. Horrified and helpless, the crowds — I among them — looked up at the burning building, saw girl after girl appear at the reddened windows, pause for a terrified moment, and then leap to the pavement below, to land as mangled, bloody pulp. This went on for what seemed a ghastly eternity. Occasionally a girl who had hesitated too long was licked by pursuing flames and, screaming with clothing and hair ablaze, plunged like a living torch to the street. Life nets held by the firemen were torn by the impact of the falling bodies.”
This horrible phenomenon of jumping to a sure and ghastly death whereby a human body ends up being a “mangled, bloody pulp” to escape from certain immolation will be repeated ninety years later during the twin tower attacks on 9/11. Human beings are prone to do extraordinary things when faced with extraordinary situations. The girls who jumped from that burning building did so to probably choose a quick end to an otherwise miserable life and not to suffer a more lingering and painful death by immolation. For some girls, probably that decision to jump from that building was the only choice that they could make in their lives where most of their lives’ decisions were made by others. Overall, 146 lives were lost to this original version of 9/11.
The owners by this time were safely evacuated and although they were tried for becoming first and second degree accomplishes in manslaughter but the victims of 25-th March , 1911 were not as fortunate as the victims of 11-th September , 2001. No “war on terror” will be launched, no 9-11 commissions will be formed and no foreign countries will be invaded, to avenge them. The owners would later be acquitted from their charges and that would eventually bring an end to this original version of America’s 9/11 and since the victims of 25-th March, 1911 were not so fortunate, very soon they will be put into the more oblivious pages of history.
Remembering an event which took place a century is probably a more difficult task to perform. After all this age is the “age of breaking news” whereby we do not even remember the most significant event that took place a week or two back , leave aside what happened a century back. This year was significant in terms of anniversary since this was the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 i.e. World trade centre attacks, an event with great significance, remembrance and tragedy. Yet this year also marks the century of another tragic event which has got very little remembrance until now.
The year was 1911 and the day was 25-th March and the place was Asch Building, at 23-29 Washington Place, New York. It was a completely different world from our times. It was a World where Adolph Hitler was still very much a struggling artist in Vienna; Lenin was moving around Europe to organize followers around his ideas and Mahatma Gandhi a very much practicing lawyer in South Africa. That World was dominated by the great European powers of the day with almost all of current African and Asian nations under their influence. The United States was a fast growing power but still compared to the historical and classical imperial credentials of her more distinguished Western counterparts like the English and the French , the United states was more or less an well-doing start-up compared to the existing industrial behemoths like that of the British or the French empires. So when the event that I am going to talk about now took place on that 25-th March in New York, not many people around the World took notice of it and not many have taken the notice of that event thereafter.
The Asch Building was a ten-story office building in New York; it’s eighth, ninth and tenth floors were hosting the offices of Triangle Shirtwaist Company, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, recent Russian immigrants to America. The main product of the company was “Shirtwaists” a recently invented and extremely popular Woman’s ware. The company employed around 500 people, mostly immigrant girls in the age group of 13-23. The workers had to work long hours and six days a week and had to settle with a salary which was barely able to meet their only very basic requirements.
On 25-th march Saturday, around 4:30 PM, the time when the normal work had stopped and regular paychecks were being paid to the workers suddenly a fire was observed at one of the trash bins. Probably it was lit by an unfinished match or cigarette. The company had provisions to prevent smoking inside its rooms but probably one of the workers , who proved to be little bit more innovative than the overseers , had been able to smuggle one. At the beginning, the workers who were present, tried to extinguish the fire by pouring water but the fire defeated all of their efforts and grew large. Then the people at the eighth floor tried to put out the fire by opening the fire extinguishing hoses but even those did not work out properly. As fire started growing more rapidly, the workers at the eighth floor informed the residents at the tenth floor where the owners were present and left the place. But the workers at the ninth floor were not aware of this rapidly detoriating situation mainly because of two reasons. One, the fire alarms which were there did not function properly and second, the invention of a device like the cell phones was still to happen almost a century later. So what made the workers at the ninth floor aware of the fire was fire itself, according to one worker.
There were two elevators, a fire-exit and stairways for the marooned workers to escape but as with other things in the day, fate slowly but surely removed those options from their hands. Normally it was regulated by the city industrial authorities that doors at the factories should be opened but the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company had ensured that the doors were closed so that no worker can get away with stealing. So the workers of the plant did not have the doors open to them. The two elevator operators Joseph Zito and Gaspar Mortillalo showed deep courage to keep the elevators running and they were able to save a lot of lives in the process but only till the elevators did function. As if it was inevitable, after some time the unfortunate workers trapped at the ninth floor, all options of escape had run out. Louis Waldman, a visitor described what happened next.
“Word had spread through the East Side, by some magic of terror, that the plant of the Triangle Waist Company was on fire and that several hundred workers were trapped. Horrified and helpless, the crowds — I among them — looked up at the burning building, saw girl after girl appear at the reddened windows, pause for a terrified moment, and then leap to the pavement below, to land as mangled, bloody pulp. This went on for what seemed a ghastly eternity. Occasionally a girl who had hesitated too long was licked by pursuing flames and, screaming with clothing and hair ablaze, plunged like a living torch to the street. Life nets held by the firemen were torn by the impact of the falling bodies.”
This horrible phenomenon of jumping to a sure and ghastly death whereby a human body ends up being a “mangled, bloody pulp” to escape from certain immolation will be repeated ninety years later during the twin tower attacks on 9/11. Human beings are prone to do extraordinary things when faced with extraordinary situations. The girls who jumped from that burning building did so to probably choose a quick end to an otherwise miserable life and not to suffer a more lingering and painful death by immolation. For some girls, probably that decision to jump from that building was the only choice that they could make in their lives where most of their lives’ decisions were made by others. Overall, 146 lives were lost to this original version of 9/11.
The owners by this time were safely evacuated and although they were tried for becoming first and second degree accomplishes in manslaughter but the victims of 25-th March , 1911 were not as fortunate as the victims of 11-th September , 2001. No “war on terror” will be launched, no 9-11 commissions will be formed and no foreign countries will be invaded, to avenge them. The owners would later be acquitted from their charges and that would eventually bring an end to this original version of America’s 9/11 and since the victims of 25-th March, 1911 were not so fortunate, very soon they will be put into the more oblivious pages of history.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Rise of China - what a difference a century makes
The international capitals of global power were buzzing last week with the news that the French president Nicholas Sarkozy has requested China to start purchasing European government bonds to provide much needed finances to the struggling economies of the beleaguered European Union including economic bellwethers like Italy, Spain and Ireland. As a student of history, my first reaction to this news was what a difference a century makes in terms of historical shifting of positions.
Think about this about a historical shift, the country that we call today as the People’s Republic of China was under the ignominious position of being under the yoke of the same countries of Europe who are today asking China for help. In the beginning of 20-th century, the Chinese were not allowed to set their feet on the soil of sudden areas inside places like Beijing which were called “Legation quarters”. After the defeat of the Chinese forces in the Boxers rebellion (1898-1901) by a coalition of the Western powers, the Chinese were asked to accept terms by which the Chinese were not able to settle in places like the “Legation quarters” in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing as well as being subject to the approval of others to procure or prepare arms to defend themselves against the encroachments of the very same powers. The British had forced the Chinese thanks to their superior naval power to consume Opium and hand over important ports like Hong Kong for the provision of important trade routes. Two great powers of the early 20-th century; the Czarist Russia and the Japanese empire had fought with each other basically for the control of the lucrative Chinese territory. The dominant powers of the day saw China as a huge market for consuming their products and a source for cheap raw materials and far cheaper human labor, the latter was used extensively for building the vast American railway system in the late 19-th century.
The whole first half of the 20-th Century saw China going through one calamity after another; first the republican revolution which ended the monarchy and installed the republican Kuomintang regime in the early 1910-s, then the brutal and ruthless Japanese invasion which started in 1930 and ended only after the surrender of Japan at the end of the second world war and produced horrors like “the rape of Nanjing” as aptly described by Iris Chang in her book on the shameful event; these tragic events were followed by the bloody and fratricidal civil war which saw the birth of the modern-day People’s republic of China and then it was the time for the new China to get itself involved into wars in its neighborhood like those in Korea and Vietnam while at the same time she was embroiled in experiments like the cultural revolution and the great leap forward. China lost about 100 million souls in all these conflicts in the violent episodes of the 20 –th century and its economy was barely the size as of India even well in 1940-s. It was impossible to consider China being asked for help in the economic discussions of Europe even at the beginning of the 21-st century. So what were the factors that made to realize so much of a paradigm shift and how would China respond with these offers?
There is a serious debate going on around the intellectual circles in the World about the exact reasons why China was able to reverse its position in the World compared to what it was a century back. One reason that should be highlighted is that the Chinese policymakers from the time of Deng Hsiao Ping understood the benefit of greater trade and commerce around the World. They had understood clearly that China possessed two historically great advantages whose careful exploitation would entail great economic leverage that have been missing in China compared to her Western counterparts. China had the biggest market in terms of population and a hardworking, crafty and most importantly from an industrial viewpoint, an extremely cheap labor class. What China lacked were in terms of sufficient capital and corresponding technology to usher in a new age of industrial revolution. The decision by the Chinese leadership to seek détente with the West at the height of the cold war and the subsequent Chinese admission to the WTO should be viewed in this context. And as the Chinese leadership thought and decided, history has proven them right. China which once in the 20-th century had an economy roughly 20 times less than that of the United States is well poised to take over the United States in the coming 2/3 decades. China boasts a leviathan reserve of $3.2 Trillion dollars in terms of foreign reserves which is the main reason that Monsieur Sarkozy seeks Chinese help in calming the stormy fiscal seas through which Europe finds herself traveling now.
The most important question of the 21-st century is what will China do with its newfound power and influence? Historically China is not a missionary nation alike West in the sense that it does not seek to export and if possible impose Chinese law, language, culture and way of life over the nations whom it does business with. China’s main two important rules of conduct in terms of foreign policy has been that a strict adherence to non-interference in the matters of others and doing business without any pre-condition or pre-conceived notion. These are the two major points that have ensured China can do business with almost all the countries in the planet.
What China can offer to the likes of Monsieur Sarkozy is that in exchange of China pulling European fiscal chestnuts out of fire , Europe should grant the Chinese the rights to own farmlands and cultivate them , set up businesses , invest freely without the usual European hassling rules and regulations and employ cheap Chinese labor in these ventures. These Chinese ventures in Europe would in turn allow the most important thing that the European economies have been lacking so far which is fresh consumer demands. This could be a win-win scenario for both the parties in question.
Think about this about a historical shift, the country that we call today as the People’s Republic of China was under the ignominious position of being under the yoke of the same countries of Europe who are today asking China for help. In the beginning of 20-th century, the Chinese were not allowed to set their feet on the soil of sudden areas inside places like Beijing which were called “Legation quarters”. After the defeat of the Chinese forces in the Boxers rebellion (1898-1901) by a coalition of the Western powers, the Chinese were asked to accept terms by which the Chinese were not able to settle in places like the “Legation quarters” in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing as well as being subject to the approval of others to procure or prepare arms to defend themselves against the encroachments of the very same powers. The British had forced the Chinese thanks to their superior naval power to consume Opium and hand over important ports like Hong Kong for the provision of important trade routes. Two great powers of the early 20-th century; the Czarist Russia and the Japanese empire had fought with each other basically for the control of the lucrative Chinese territory. The dominant powers of the day saw China as a huge market for consuming their products and a source for cheap raw materials and far cheaper human labor, the latter was used extensively for building the vast American railway system in the late 19-th century.
The whole first half of the 20-th Century saw China going through one calamity after another; first the republican revolution which ended the monarchy and installed the republican Kuomintang regime in the early 1910-s, then the brutal and ruthless Japanese invasion which started in 1930 and ended only after the surrender of Japan at the end of the second world war and produced horrors like “the rape of Nanjing” as aptly described by Iris Chang in her book on the shameful event; these tragic events were followed by the bloody and fratricidal civil war which saw the birth of the modern-day People’s republic of China and then it was the time for the new China to get itself involved into wars in its neighborhood like those in Korea and Vietnam while at the same time she was embroiled in experiments like the cultural revolution and the great leap forward. China lost about 100 million souls in all these conflicts in the violent episodes of the 20 –th century and its economy was barely the size as of India even well in 1940-s. It was impossible to consider China being asked for help in the economic discussions of Europe even at the beginning of the 21-st century. So what were the factors that made to realize so much of a paradigm shift and how would China respond with these offers?
There is a serious debate going on around the intellectual circles in the World about the exact reasons why China was able to reverse its position in the World compared to what it was a century back. One reason that should be highlighted is that the Chinese policymakers from the time of Deng Hsiao Ping understood the benefit of greater trade and commerce around the World. They had understood clearly that China possessed two historically great advantages whose careful exploitation would entail great economic leverage that have been missing in China compared to her Western counterparts. China had the biggest market in terms of population and a hardworking, crafty and most importantly from an industrial viewpoint, an extremely cheap labor class. What China lacked were in terms of sufficient capital and corresponding technology to usher in a new age of industrial revolution. The decision by the Chinese leadership to seek détente with the West at the height of the cold war and the subsequent Chinese admission to the WTO should be viewed in this context. And as the Chinese leadership thought and decided, history has proven them right. China which once in the 20-th century had an economy roughly 20 times less than that of the United States is well poised to take over the United States in the coming 2/3 decades. China boasts a leviathan reserve of $3.2 Trillion dollars in terms of foreign reserves which is the main reason that Monsieur Sarkozy seeks Chinese help in calming the stormy fiscal seas through which Europe finds herself traveling now.
The most important question of the 21-st century is what will China do with its newfound power and influence? Historically China is not a missionary nation alike West in the sense that it does not seek to export and if possible impose Chinese law, language, culture and way of life over the nations whom it does business with. China’s main two important rules of conduct in terms of foreign policy has been that a strict adherence to non-interference in the matters of others and doing business without any pre-condition or pre-conceived notion. These are the two major points that have ensured China can do business with almost all the countries in the planet.
What China can offer to the likes of Monsieur Sarkozy is that in exchange of China pulling European fiscal chestnuts out of fire , Europe should grant the Chinese the rights to own farmlands and cultivate them , set up businesses , invest freely without the usual European hassling rules and regulations and employ cheap Chinese labor in these ventures. These Chinese ventures in Europe would in turn allow the most important thing that the European economies have been lacking so far which is fresh consumer demands. This could be a win-win scenario for both the parties in question.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
While the East sleeps, the West rules
My first reaction after watching Dominic Strauss Kahn affair was to ponder about a little bit and then ask myself a question, what made this ripe, old man do what he has done ? Then I realized this man could think about ... well getting away with all those since he knew he was the head of one of the biggest lending institutions in the World , thereby outside the normal course of law , unaccountable by the normal processes of the law.
The main reason that rich and powerful men like DSK could think of getting away with these kinds of crimes is… well, they are the only game in the town. The IMF and its Bretton-woods twin World Bank are the two most important lending institutions in the World, a place where everyone goes for money when their budget balance sheets are finally in red.
The normal prescription of the IMF and the World Bank to their unfortunate patients (read nations in need of balancing their budgets) is similar: cut down your expanses which often boils down to closing down schools for your children, stopping the treatment of the poor in the hospitals and throwing out the needy elderly without their pension benefits and increase taxes on your people. It is said that “a tree is known by the fruits, it bears”. Well, the IMF has a lot of fruits to its credit, the Argentine crisis, the Asean tigers’ crisis and the recent crisis in Greece , Portugal , Spain and the list can go on and on.
Even after selling so many rotten fruits to the public, the IMF can hope to get away and even the maligned DSK can hope to fight for another day is because there is no other player in the market to compete against the ideas the IMF and the World Bank represent.
Let me be very clear here my readers. The West when she is convinced that she has an idea, she would move heaven and earth to implement that idea and will do everything in her power to make the whole world accept that idea. When the West advises us non-Westerners about the virtues free-market economics, make no mistake that she is convinced about her ideas and she will use all the means at her disposal to make everyone of us adhere to those ideas. Unfortunately, we in the “East” (by “East” I mean those who happen to be outside the realm of the privileged club comprising of EU, US, Japan, Australia, Canada and Israel) have to face the consequences if we happen to be at the wrong end of the implementation of those ideas for example say when an Western World Bank economist becomes the economic advisor of an African country without ever setting foot on the soil of that nation and his policies lead to the sad demise of the economy of that country. The people in that country suffer and the World Bank economist just goes for another assignment.
Now this leads to us to the question; why are we in the “East” not doing anything to prevent all these? The historians tell us that the “East” for example China and India led the World in terms of wealth and trade during most of the times of recorded history except say may last two-three centuries of Western domination. Even now days China and India are the two fastest growing economies in the World, the fastest growing economy in Europe happens to be Turkey, in the Latin America Brazil’s economic growth surpasses that of many of her North American counterparts but still why do the global “East” have to listen to the dictates of those World Bank pundits and those IMF experts even when we know those “advises” (read dictates) have only led to ruin for many of us? The answer, in my view is simple: while we in the East look to be numero uno in terms of GDP growth rates, those in the West look to create ideas and propagate them to us. Since we in the “East” neither create any ideas of our own nor have the conviction to implement and propagate those ideas, we are left to follow what the West gives to us.
Here is my solution to it. I believe this is high time for the major economies in the “East” i.e. China, India, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia should come together and create an alternative global financial organization. The above list of the countries must be and should be expandable. I propose that we call this organization “global cooperative bank”. The main function of this institution will be to promote collaboration among different underprivileged (those whom the West shuns for many reasons) countries in the “East” and to help them with their finances and development without the strings and riders, the IMF and the World Bank attaches. This institution could help by investing in the much-needed infrastructure and education projects in Africa, West and Central Asia and Latin America which the West has shunned for various reasons. The fruits of the investments should be shared equally between the underprivileged countries and the investors.
I know there are serious differences between many of us in the “East” but I do believe that we need to come together on this otherwise the West will continue to follow the policy of dividing and ruling over us. And, Yes I know that it will be difficult implementing an organization such as the one I have proposed but I have full confidence if the best of minds from the “East” can come together then surely we will be able to implement alternative ideas like the one I have proposed. I have full confidence in the best of minds in the “East”. And I have strong grounds for my confidence. Last time I checked, I found many of the countries in the “East” for example China and India were running huge trade surpluses over their Western counterparts which goes to show that there are very many goods and services which we in the “East” can produce and export with much lesser cost and assured quality. So if we can do that there is no reason we can not produce ideas which present a better alternative to the World.
There will be two major benefits of the same. The “East” will be able to have her own narrative which it can propose to the West and the West will be able to understand the follies of her own ideas and correct them.
The basic axiom that the market economics fundamentalists teach us is that competition brings improvement in quality of the overall system. I believe the West needs to face some good decent competition in terms of ideas from the “East” and then only we can see a sea change in the global system as we know it. But without that it will be the status quo running on where the East sleeps and the dignity of her women gets compromised by the rich and powerful in the West.
The main reason that rich and powerful men like DSK could think of getting away with these kinds of crimes is… well, they are the only game in the town. The IMF and its Bretton-woods twin World Bank are the two most important lending institutions in the World, a place where everyone goes for money when their budget balance sheets are finally in red.
The normal prescription of the IMF and the World Bank to their unfortunate patients (read nations in need of balancing their budgets) is similar: cut down your expanses which often boils down to closing down schools for your children, stopping the treatment of the poor in the hospitals and throwing out the needy elderly without their pension benefits and increase taxes on your people. It is said that “a tree is known by the fruits, it bears”. Well, the IMF has a lot of fruits to its credit, the Argentine crisis, the Asean tigers’ crisis and the recent crisis in Greece , Portugal , Spain and the list can go on and on.
Even after selling so many rotten fruits to the public, the IMF can hope to get away and even the maligned DSK can hope to fight for another day is because there is no other player in the market to compete against the ideas the IMF and the World Bank represent.
Let me be very clear here my readers. The West when she is convinced that she has an idea, she would move heaven and earth to implement that idea and will do everything in her power to make the whole world accept that idea. When the West advises us non-Westerners about the virtues free-market economics, make no mistake that she is convinced about her ideas and she will use all the means at her disposal to make everyone of us adhere to those ideas. Unfortunately, we in the “East” (by “East” I mean those who happen to be outside the realm of the privileged club comprising of EU, US, Japan, Australia, Canada and Israel) have to face the consequences if we happen to be at the wrong end of the implementation of those ideas for example say when an Western World Bank economist becomes the economic advisor of an African country without ever setting foot on the soil of that nation and his policies lead to the sad demise of the economy of that country. The people in that country suffer and the World Bank economist just goes for another assignment.
Now this leads to us to the question; why are we in the “East” not doing anything to prevent all these? The historians tell us that the “East” for example China and India led the World in terms of wealth and trade during most of the times of recorded history except say may last two-three centuries of Western domination. Even now days China and India are the two fastest growing economies in the World, the fastest growing economy in Europe happens to be Turkey, in the Latin America Brazil’s economic growth surpasses that of many of her North American counterparts but still why do the global “East” have to listen to the dictates of those World Bank pundits and those IMF experts even when we know those “advises” (read dictates) have only led to ruin for many of us? The answer, in my view is simple: while we in the East look to be numero uno in terms of GDP growth rates, those in the West look to create ideas and propagate them to us. Since we in the “East” neither create any ideas of our own nor have the conviction to implement and propagate those ideas, we are left to follow what the West gives to us.
Here is my solution to it. I believe this is high time for the major economies in the “East” i.e. China, India, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia should come together and create an alternative global financial organization. The above list of the countries must be and should be expandable. I propose that we call this organization “global cooperative bank”. The main function of this institution will be to promote collaboration among different underprivileged (those whom the West shuns for many reasons) countries in the “East” and to help them with their finances and development without the strings and riders, the IMF and the World Bank attaches. This institution could help by investing in the much-needed infrastructure and education projects in Africa, West and Central Asia and Latin America which the West has shunned for various reasons. The fruits of the investments should be shared equally between the underprivileged countries and the investors.
I know there are serious differences between many of us in the “East” but I do believe that we need to come together on this otherwise the West will continue to follow the policy of dividing and ruling over us. And, Yes I know that it will be difficult implementing an organization such as the one I have proposed but I have full confidence if the best of minds from the “East” can come together then surely we will be able to implement alternative ideas like the one I have proposed. I have full confidence in the best of minds in the “East”. And I have strong grounds for my confidence. Last time I checked, I found many of the countries in the “East” for example China and India were running huge trade surpluses over their Western counterparts which goes to show that there are very many goods and services which we in the “East” can produce and export with much lesser cost and assured quality. So if we can do that there is no reason we can not produce ideas which present a better alternative to the World.
There will be two major benefits of the same. The “East” will be able to have her own narrative which it can propose to the West and the West will be able to understand the follies of her own ideas and correct them.
The basic axiom that the market economics fundamentalists teach us is that competition brings improvement in quality of the overall system. I believe the West needs to face some good decent competition in terms of ideas from the “East” and then only we can see a sea change in the global system as we know it. But without that it will be the status quo running on where the East sleeps and the dignity of her women gets compromised by the rich and powerful in the West.
The day that de-Americanized America
I remember very clearly an ad on CNN, just days after 9/11. The ad said something like this; “do not forget it is not PLA, it is not Al-Qaida , it is not Hezbollah or Hamas that we are fighting ; what we are fighting is hatred” , then the announcer of the ad stopped a little bit and then added “and it is winning…”
At the time of 9/11, I was just another 19-year old just about to start my life in college; but that particular ad had remained fixated in my memory and as I start to write this just two hours before the 10-th anniversary on 9/11 would commence, the message of that ad still remains fresh in my mind.
Leaders of America had the support of the whole world behind them after 9/11, so much shocked and horrified the World was at those attacks that even the Islamic republic of Iran , the avowed enemy of America ; had offered them cooperation and a permanent end to hostilities in exchange of equal treatment.
What was the reaction of President Bush? Instead of accepting the gratitude of the World, he acted with a mindset to remake the World. He declared Iran as part of an “axis of evil” and followed up with sanctions and covert operations for “regime change”. America would remake the World into her own democratic image, he thundered to the World in his now famous 2002 “axis of evil” address. Maybe it was the outburst of that quintessential American attitude called “American exceptionalism” which always considers itself as part of a divine mission to outdo all wrongs in the World as well as converting the whole World into America’s image.
But what about the American people? What about the average American? Why did he not come to the same understanding the rest of the World had about some of the policies that his leaders were taking on his name? 9/11 not only changed America but it also changed the average American. The average American went into a retreat into a make believe world where he restricts his education about the world to the posts in social networking sites and demagogic websites. In the end, the average American did not bother much when Iraq was invaded on false pretexts, when those obscenities from Abu Gharib shocked the World, when those who caused the global economic recession in 2008 went home with their compensations intact. In the end, in the land of consumerism and individualism, the average American converted himself from a citizen into a consumer and individual. And the reason why it happened? It was the same old reason as shown in that ad after 9/11, it was the sense of hatred; it was the sense of fear; it was the sense of “being wronged” ; it was this sense which did not allow America to become normal and has not allowed her to become normal ever since. The primitive sense of taking revenge and the more primitive sense of existential fear had overpowered the average American so much that he remains stuck to his viewpoint about a cruel World coming to destroy his beloved America.
America was always considered a land of abundant opportunities for the worthy to take; it was the land where you can think about taking your chances in life that you want to take. America believed about opening herself to the World. Now what has happened ever since that fateful day? America did not allow its ports to be operated by Dubai Port City because it feared that terrorists might snick in; America closed its doors to the people of Gaza when they elected Hamas in a democratic election in 2006; President Bush is alleged to have even threatened to bomb the Al-Jazeera offices because he was not happy with the news.
In short, 9/11 was a day that made America stop being America. It was the day that de-Americanized America.
At the time of 9/11, I was just another 19-year old just about to start my life in college; but that particular ad had remained fixated in my memory and as I start to write this just two hours before the 10-th anniversary on 9/11 would commence, the message of that ad still remains fresh in my mind.
Leaders of America had the support of the whole world behind them after 9/11, so much shocked and horrified the World was at those attacks that even the Islamic republic of Iran , the avowed enemy of America ; had offered them cooperation and a permanent end to hostilities in exchange of equal treatment.
What was the reaction of President Bush? Instead of accepting the gratitude of the World, he acted with a mindset to remake the World. He declared Iran as part of an “axis of evil” and followed up with sanctions and covert operations for “regime change”. America would remake the World into her own democratic image, he thundered to the World in his now famous 2002 “axis of evil” address. Maybe it was the outburst of that quintessential American attitude called “American exceptionalism” which always considers itself as part of a divine mission to outdo all wrongs in the World as well as converting the whole World into America’s image.
But what about the American people? What about the average American? Why did he not come to the same understanding the rest of the World had about some of the policies that his leaders were taking on his name? 9/11 not only changed America but it also changed the average American. The average American went into a retreat into a make believe world where he restricts his education about the world to the posts in social networking sites and demagogic websites. In the end, the average American did not bother much when Iraq was invaded on false pretexts, when those obscenities from Abu Gharib shocked the World, when those who caused the global economic recession in 2008 went home with their compensations intact. In the end, in the land of consumerism and individualism, the average American converted himself from a citizen into a consumer and individual. And the reason why it happened? It was the same old reason as shown in that ad after 9/11, it was the sense of hatred; it was the sense of fear; it was the sense of “being wronged” ; it was this sense which did not allow America to become normal and has not allowed her to become normal ever since. The primitive sense of taking revenge and the more primitive sense of existential fear had overpowered the average American so much that he remains stuck to his viewpoint about a cruel World coming to destroy his beloved America.
America was always considered a land of abundant opportunities for the worthy to take; it was the land where you can think about taking your chances in life that you want to take. America believed about opening herself to the World. Now what has happened ever since that fateful day? America did not allow its ports to be operated by Dubai Port City because it feared that terrorists might snick in; America closed its doors to the people of Gaza when they elected Hamas in a democratic election in 2006; President Bush is alleged to have even threatened to bomb the Al-Jazeera offices because he was not happy with the news.
In short, 9/11 was a day that made America stop being America. It was the day that de-Americanized America.
Is the Immigrant the new anti-Christ for the West
The West is under the grip of a fear. From the recent political success of the far-right politician Geert Wilders in the Netherlands to the banning of minarets in Switzerland and the Hejab in France; from the statement by British Prime Minister David Cameron that “multi-culturalism has failed” to an obscure pastor from Florida coming to the forefront of the public attention by burning out the copies of Qurans, the student of history can draw a clear pattern that is the continents of Europe and America are under the grip of an uncanny feeling of fear , the fear of losing its identity to an alien entity that is the immigrant.
The newest nemesis to the continent of Enlightment
The European soul had always stood for homogeneity. It has been a continent that has prided itself upon its culture, its civilizational achievements and how it has defined its own worldview and has implanted its ideas through conquests and colonization all over the globe. Europe as a civilization can certainly consider itself proud because after all it is the continent which has given to the World the fruits of Enlightment in terms of concepts like nation state and freedom of thought. However throughout History Europe has showed one unique quality, a sense of fear from what it considers “the Barbarians at the gate”, a sense of terror that sudden calamities from outside which no one has ever thought of may come and destroy everything that the continent has built over so long with so much blood and tears. This could be a legacy from a continent which saw its existence repeatedly threatened by the ravaging armies of Attila and Alaric from the ancient times or it could well be the legacy of the dark reign of the “Black death” over the dark ages, that has created a permanent impression of fear of anything unknown in the minds of Europe. Because of this mindset Europe has always been fearful and suspicious of anything that it considers alien to its own parameters.
Europe also needed an enemy, the image of a powerful “other” to unite its own house and create the necessary fighting zeal to defeat and destroy the “other”. Thus when the Popes called for crusades they were not only calling the Christendom to destroy its opponents but at the same time they were trying to unite the disparate fighting tribes that made most of the Europe at that time. Closer to our times whenever the Western Empires needed to rally their population they would define an enemy in terms of backwardness and depravity as in the case of the British wartime slogan of “halt the Hun” which talked about Germans as the modern day successors of ancient Huns who wrote destruction to the Roman Empire thereby urging Britons to rally around the flag.
After the devastation of the two World Wars, Europe needed to allow people outside Europe to come into it and take part in the reconstruction. The economic immigrants were expected to come and work in Europe and get better paychecks but they were also expected to either not bring their own cultural beliefs with themselves or restrict those cultural beliefs to the peripheries of their tiny communities or for better to assimilate themselves into the civilizational mainstream of Europe by giving up their existing identities. Thus was born the concept of “Guest Worker”. In short Europe welcomed the immigrants from the developing World because it needed them for its economic purposes but at the same time expected those immigrants not to bring with them any cultural or civilizational ideas of their own to Europe itself.
This worked well for the first generation of immigrants who mainly immigrated to Europe from the 1950-s to the 1970-s. It was a time when European countries were strong in manufacturing thereby they needed the cheap labor from the developing World including West Asia and North Africa. The immigrants got the jobs they were looking for and were thereby happy to oblige to the demands of European mainstream to keep their cultural traits and beliefs to themselves. But as Europe slowly decided to shift its economic focus from manufacturing to services starting in the 1980-s. things started to change for the immigrant communities. They lost the jobs as manufacturing factories started to gradually close down and they found themselves lacking the needed skills to integrate themselves to the new European economies. Although some European immigrant communities for example the Indian communities in Britain did adopt themselves to the new realities and were able to get back the material benefits they were looking for. But for most of the West Asian and North African immigrant communities in Europe this was the beginning of the troubled times. They had lost the jobs that they were brought into doing in the first place and for most of the host societies they could never be completely assimilated to become complete Europeans. This was the case for the Turkish communities in Germany, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Britain and North African communities in France. These communities also found their cultural practices and religious beliefs sharply rebuked and ridiculed by the most extreme elements in the host societies such La Pen in France, Pim Fortyun in the Netherlands and the British National Party in the UK.
Thus the immigrant communities felt themselves under the position of an acute identity crisis and they sought solace in their faiths to make senses of themselves and find a new identity for themselves. Thus came into prominence groups like “Hizb-ur-tahrir” or “Al-Qaida” who talked about creating a holistic identity that resembled closely to the cultural beliefs for the disaffected and increasingly ghettoized youth in the immigrant communities.
In the aftermath of 9/11, the “war on terror” and the economic stagnation in many prominent European nations, the European mainstream turned more inwards and it saw a large immigrant population, alienated and demanding its rights, thus it suddenly felt the same fear that it has experienced throughout its existence , a fear of losing its own identity to outsiders. Undoubtedly, the lower demographic credentials of the native European populations Vis a Vis the comparatively healthy demographic credentials of the immigrant communities added to the feeling of anxiety and fear in the European communities of being numerically overwhelmed by what the European mainstream considered as “aliens”.
Thus the European mindset now sees itself largely in a position whereby it is under severe financial difficulties and fighting to preserve its sense of cultural uniqueness intact from what it considers “illegal aliens”. This is the reason behind the rise of so-many ultra-right, nativist political movements in Europe and unlike in good times the European mainstream is largely acquiescing to these movements.
Overall, in the European context, it is very important for the immigrant communities in places like UK, France, Netherlands and Germany to actively present practically implementable solutions to the myriad economic, social and political problems the native communities in these countries are facing. It is also the responsibility of the host communities to listen carefully and if possible implement the solutions the immigrant communities are willing to present to the host communities. Stigmatizing or creating ethnically biased attitudes about the host or immigrant communities are not going to help neither the host nor the immigrant communities.
The newest nemesis to the continent of Enlightment
The European soul had always stood for homogeneity. It has been a continent that has prided itself upon its culture, its civilizational achievements and how it has defined its own worldview and has implanted its ideas through conquests and colonization all over the globe. Europe as a civilization can certainly consider itself proud because after all it is the continent which has given to the World the fruits of Enlightment in terms of concepts like nation state and freedom of thought. However throughout History Europe has showed one unique quality, a sense of fear from what it considers “the Barbarians at the gate”, a sense of terror that sudden calamities from outside which no one has ever thought of may come and destroy everything that the continent has built over so long with so much blood and tears. This could be a legacy from a continent which saw its existence repeatedly threatened by the ravaging armies of Attila and Alaric from the ancient times or it could well be the legacy of the dark reign of the “Black death” over the dark ages, that has created a permanent impression of fear of anything unknown in the minds of Europe. Because of this mindset Europe has always been fearful and suspicious of anything that it considers alien to its own parameters.
Europe also needed an enemy, the image of a powerful “other” to unite its own house and create the necessary fighting zeal to defeat and destroy the “other”. Thus when the Popes called for crusades they were not only calling the Christendom to destroy its opponents but at the same time they were trying to unite the disparate fighting tribes that made most of the Europe at that time. Closer to our times whenever the Western Empires needed to rally their population they would define an enemy in terms of backwardness and depravity as in the case of the British wartime slogan of “halt the Hun” which talked about Germans as the modern day successors of ancient Huns who wrote destruction to the Roman Empire thereby urging Britons to rally around the flag.
After the devastation of the two World Wars, Europe needed to allow people outside Europe to come into it and take part in the reconstruction. The economic immigrants were expected to come and work in Europe and get better paychecks but they were also expected to either not bring their own cultural beliefs with themselves or restrict those cultural beliefs to the peripheries of their tiny communities or for better to assimilate themselves into the civilizational mainstream of Europe by giving up their existing identities. Thus was born the concept of “Guest Worker”. In short Europe welcomed the immigrants from the developing World because it needed them for its economic purposes but at the same time expected those immigrants not to bring with them any cultural or civilizational ideas of their own to Europe itself.
This worked well for the first generation of immigrants who mainly immigrated to Europe from the 1950-s to the 1970-s. It was a time when European countries were strong in manufacturing thereby they needed the cheap labor from the developing World including West Asia and North Africa. The immigrants got the jobs they were looking for and were thereby happy to oblige to the demands of European mainstream to keep their cultural traits and beliefs to themselves. But as Europe slowly decided to shift its economic focus from manufacturing to services starting in the 1980-s. things started to change for the immigrant communities. They lost the jobs as manufacturing factories started to gradually close down and they found themselves lacking the needed skills to integrate themselves to the new European economies. Although some European immigrant communities for example the Indian communities in Britain did adopt themselves to the new realities and were able to get back the material benefits they were looking for. But for most of the West Asian and North African immigrant communities in Europe this was the beginning of the troubled times. They had lost the jobs that they were brought into doing in the first place and for most of the host societies they could never be completely assimilated to become complete Europeans. This was the case for the Turkish communities in Germany, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Britain and North African communities in France. These communities also found their cultural practices and religious beliefs sharply rebuked and ridiculed by the most extreme elements in the host societies such La Pen in France, Pim Fortyun in the Netherlands and the British National Party in the UK.
Thus the immigrant communities felt themselves under the position of an acute identity crisis and they sought solace in their faiths to make senses of themselves and find a new identity for themselves. Thus came into prominence groups like “Hizb-ur-tahrir” or “Al-Qaida” who talked about creating a holistic identity that resembled closely to the cultural beliefs for the disaffected and increasingly ghettoized youth in the immigrant communities.
In the aftermath of 9/11, the “war on terror” and the economic stagnation in many prominent European nations, the European mainstream turned more inwards and it saw a large immigrant population, alienated and demanding its rights, thus it suddenly felt the same fear that it has experienced throughout its existence , a fear of losing its own identity to outsiders. Undoubtedly, the lower demographic credentials of the native European populations Vis a Vis the comparatively healthy demographic credentials of the immigrant communities added to the feeling of anxiety and fear in the European communities of being numerically overwhelmed by what the European mainstream considered as “aliens”.
Thus the European mindset now sees itself largely in a position whereby it is under severe financial difficulties and fighting to preserve its sense of cultural uniqueness intact from what it considers “illegal aliens”. This is the reason behind the rise of so-many ultra-right, nativist political movements in Europe and unlike in good times the European mainstream is largely acquiescing to these movements.
Overall, in the European context, it is very important for the immigrant communities in places like UK, France, Netherlands and Germany to actively present practically implementable solutions to the myriad economic, social and political problems the native communities in these countries are facing. It is also the responsibility of the host communities to listen carefully and if possible implement the solutions the immigrant communities are willing to present to the host communities. Stigmatizing or creating ethnically biased attitudes about the host or immigrant communities are not going to help neither the host nor the immigrant communities.
Global movement of hopelessness and desperation
This year has seen a number of popular protests against the reigning systems raging across the world from Egypt to New york. Some of them have overthrown long established authoritarian governments as in Egypt and some continues to threaten the exisiting systems as in Greece. A curious student in history and culture would love to ask the question to himself what binds these protests together in an increasingly connected or should I say “globalized” world ? Here are few factors that I believe are responsible about these protest movements and how they may continue to influence us.
An increasingly hopeless people turns agitated
Having a look at some of the major countries like for example Greece , Spain , Italy , Egypt , Tunisia and the United States where the protests are taking place one can find a common pattern in these protest movements. It will be an understatement to say that the reasons of economic inequality and unemployement are the only reasons behind these protests. There is a sense in the wider world that the governing systems are unjust and those who are in the position to make decisions regarding the lives and livelihood of the people are just not interested in making decisions that reflect the best interests of the people. This is particularly true in countries like Greece and Spain where the governments of these countries are talking about harsh financial austerity packages which brings about increasing taxes and cuts in education and medical care; all measures which have to be bore by the shoulders of the common people. As a natural reaction there are lots of emotion in the streets of Athens , Madrid and Rome against their governments as well as the multilateral institutions like the EU and IMF. In United States the famous American dream seems to be turning into nights of despair and desolation for many people. Every recent economic statistics from America suggests that the last two decades have seen the incomes of the middle and lower classes remain stagnant and the incomes of the richest sections of the population have grown considearbly higher. The modern American narrative has been to promise Americans of a better life than their parents if they happen to work hard enough. But since the present generation of middle and lower income Americans have not seen any substantial increase in their incomes and livelihoods there is a feeling of hopelessness amongs the American people. The feeling of hopelessness has been strengthened by the feeling that the American government is not playing the role of the honest broker that it should play in the capitalist economy. People have started to believe that the bankers and financiers instead of ending up behind bars have gone home with much fatter and bigger paychecks after their reckless policies which brought the financial ruin of 2008.
In case of north Africa , the sense of hopelessness have been doubled with the popular sense of impotence to do anything about the corrupt governence in their countries. The suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi illustrates this point very well. These have been the reasons that are driving the protests in these countries.
Practical solutions are required
The global movement of hopelessnes and desperation can protest all day long on the streets but until and unless they come up with practical solutions in an organized way they will not be able to solve their issues that they are looking so earnestly. The economic and social issues facing the countries in question are diverse in nature so their solution could not be monotonous. For example , the people in Egypt need to find a way to face the possible starvation that is looming over their fates in not too distant horizon. What Egypt needs desperately is more cultiviable land to feed its hungry populace. The would-be rulers in Egypt (if the military junta currently controlling Egypt allows free and fare elections) need to find out ways to bring back the billions of dollars that are currently residing in swiss bank accounts of friends of Mr. Mubarak and then use those resources to find out cultiviable lands around the World mainly in countries like Australia , Canada and the US and elsewhere. These are the types of solutions the would-be rulers in places like Egypt and elsewhere needs to think and come out with. One thing is sure that once even some practical solutions can be implemented to the problems of economic inequality then in the modern age of facebook and twitter similar approaches can be learnt and used by people in rest of the World.
Notes
1. Global Peace Index : http://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF/2011/2011%20GPI%20Results%20Report.pdf
2. Riding the wave of discontent : Stephen M. Walt : http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/10/17/riding_the_wave_of_discontent
An increasingly hopeless people turns agitated
Having a look at some of the major countries like for example Greece , Spain , Italy , Egypt , Tunisia and the United States where the protests are taking place one can find a common pattern in these protest movements. It will be an understatement to say that the reasons of economic inequality and unemployement are the only reasons behind these protests. There is a sense in the wider world that the governing systems are unjust and those who are in the position to make decisions regarding the lives and livelihood of the people are just not interested in making decisions that reflect the best interests of the people. This is particularly true in countries like Greece and Spain where the governments of these countries are talking about harsh financial austerity packages which brings about increasing taxes and cuts in education and medical care; all measures which have to be bore by the shoulders of the common people. As a natural reaction there are lots of emotion in the streets of Athens , Madrid and Rome against their governments as well as the multilateral institutions like the EU and IMF. In United States the famous American dream seems to be turning into nights of despair and desolation for many people. Every recent economic statistics from America suggests that the last two decades have seen the incomes of the middle and lower classes remain stagnant and the incomes of the richest sections of the population have grown considearbly higher. The modern American narrative has been to promise Americans of a better life than their parents if they happen to work hard enough. But since the present generation of middle and lower income Americans have not seen any substantial increase in their incomes and livelihoods there is a feeling of hopelessness amongs the American people. The feeling of hopelessness has been strengthened by the feeling that the American government is not playing the role of the honest broker that it should play in the capitalist economy. People have started to believe that the bankers and financiers instead of ending up behind bars have gone home with much fatter and bigger paychecks after their reckless policies which brought the financial ruin of 2008.
In case of north Africa , the sense of hopelessness have been doubled with the popular sense of impotence to do anything about the corrupt governence in their countries. The suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi illustrates this point very well. These have been the reasons that are driving the protests in these countries.
Practical solutions are required
The global movement of hopelessnes and desperation can protest all day long on the streets but until and unless they come up with practical solutions in an organized way they will not be able to solve their issues that they are looking so earnestly. The economic and social issues facing the countries in question are diverse in nature so their solution could not be monotonous. For example , the people in Egypt need to find a way to face the possible starvation that is looming over their fates in not too distant horizon. What Egypt needs desperately is more cultiviable land to feed its hungry populace. The would-be rulers in Egypt (if the military junta currently controlling Egypt allows free and fare elections) need to find out ways to bring back the billions of dollars that are currently residing in swiss bank accounts of friends of Mr. Mubarak and then use those resources to find out cultiviable lands around the World mainly in countries like Australia , Canada and the US and elsewhere. These are the types of solutions the would-be rulers in places like Egypt and elsewhere needs to think and come out with. One thing is sure that once even some practical solutions can be implemented to the problems of economic inequality then in the modern age of facebook and twitter similar approaches can be learnt and used by people in rest of the World.
Notes
1. Global Peace Index : http://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF/2011/2011%20GPI%20Results%20Report.pdf
2. Riding the wave of discontent : Stephen M. Walt : http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/10/17/riding_the_wave_of_discontent
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