The recent melodrama after the success of Slumdog Millionaire forced me to ask this question to myself. What was so "Indiansih" about the movie that it won so many accolades in India before and after winning eight Oscars. It was not for the first time that A R Rahaman took an international project. If we forget A R Rahaman and Gulzar and the small role that Anil Kapoor played in the movie, there wasn't any other contribution made by an Indian in this movie. All the crew members in the movie were non Indian. So then, why such a big fuss? It won Oscars just like any other good movie would have done. Definitely Slumdog is not an exception, when Hollywood went offshore to pick up a theme. I can say this with much conviction because I have watched the movies Blood Diamond and The Last King of Scotland.
Indians love hero worship. From Team India players to Bollywood stars to politicians, we are known to put heroes up there. And in a country of a billion-plus, what does one do when one falls short of heroes? Do we outsource them or appropriate anybody remotely Indian? The celebration in India over Bobby Jindal’s elevation as Louisiana Governor proves again that whenever, anywhere, round the globe, we smell Indian we begin following the trails like sniff dogs. Even as his village and the rest of India broke into a jig over his political ascent in the US, very few realized that here was a man who had never even visited India. Mother Teresa born in Macedonia, distressed with the poverty stricken India, claimed us as her (too big!!) foster child. We claimed her as our own and one may argue, that she, too, had lovingly claimed us as her own. Then V S Naipaul created waves in the literary circuit and we went all out to embrace him. When NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, born to an Indian father, went into space, we were one of the first to go to town about her victory leap. We prayed day and night for her safe return. Not that we did any wrong praying for her. But we prayed for her considering her an Indian. Tell me is she really more Indian than American?
Do we as Indians tend to borrow role models because we don’t have enough of our own? Or are Bobby, Sunita, etc really our heroes and we are just doing what suits us best - hero worship?
Showing posts with label Adrenaline show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adrenaline show. Show all posts
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Bad Health….
Does India really value life above all else?
Shocking. Alarming. A massive crippling crisis. These words ring the chords of another November 26th or July 11th. However, when I’m speaking these words, I’m referring to the state of maternal mortality in the country. According to UN, 80,000 Indian women- pregnant or new mothers- die each year from totally preventable causes such as excessive bleeding, anaemia or ratcheting blood pressure.
Not that I’m playing a blame-game against the government. I’m talking about the same Indian Janta who marched the streets with banners and shouting for resignation of the ministries after the Mumbai mayhem, which they said was totally ‘preventable’ if not the negligence of the government in playing their role. But the same Janta recourses to a mute slumber when millions of mothers or even children under five die from entirely preventable causes such as malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition or starvation. Take maternal mortality itself. Maternal mortality rate in India is six times worse than China, eight times worse than Cuba’s, whose people have been living in embargo for decades. And it’s 14 times worse than Chile’s. The UN estimates that 2.1 million Indian children under the age of five die every year mostly from preventable disease.
Indeed, controlling the causes behind these may not be as forbidding a challenge as containing terrorist. Basic hygiene, clean water, and essential medicine are all that it takes. For instance, potentially fatal dehydration from diarrhea can easily be avoided using sugar, salt and water!!
Security is now being spoken as an election issue. But never has such importance being accorded to human health. Of the 5 percent GDP that Indians spend on health, only .9 percent is supported by government. But we never raise a voice against such issues. Obviously we are too busy fighting for extending the reservation quota or the V-Day stuffs. Whose has got the time to watch these alarming death tolls, when you have got girls in noodle straps boozing in pubs? Nevertheless, dying of these preventable causes belongs to our very own Indian Culture. Unlike in the US and Europe, health has never being a social or political issue, rather say no issue at all. Bad health is something that happens in our country. It’s just in India that you could die even of diarrhea.
Just step back a bit and all the preventable fatalities-whether from terror, disease, dowry or even road accidents- seems to be symptoms of systematic ailment. The cheapest commodity in India today is human life!
Shocking. Alarming. A massive crippling crisis. These words ring the chords of another November 26th or July 11th. However, when I’m speaking these words, I’m referring to the state of maternal mortality in the country. According to UN, 80,000 Indian women- pregnant or new mothers- die each year from totally preventable causes such as excessive bleeding, anaemia or ratcheting blood pressure.
Not that I’m playing a blame-game against the government. I’m talking about the same Indian Janta who marched the streets with banners and shouting for resignation of the ministries after the Mumbai mayhem, which they said was totally ‘preventable’ if not the negligence of the government in playing their role. But the same Janta recourses to a mute slumber when millions of mothers or even children under five die from entirely preventable causes such as malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition or starvation. Take maternal mortality itself. Maternal mortality rate in India is six times worse than China, eight times worse than Cuba’s, whose people have been living in embargo for decades. And it’s 14 times worse than Chile’s. The UN estimates that 2.1 million Indian children under the age of five die every year mostly from preventable disease.
Indeed, controlling the causes behind these may not be as forbidding a challenge as containing terrorist. Basic hygiene, clean water, and essential medicine are all that it takes. For instance, potentially fatal dehydration from diarrhea can easily be avoided using sugar, salt and water!!
Security is now being spoken as an election issue. But never has such importance being accorded to human health. Of the 5 percent GDP that Indians spend on health, only .9 percent is supported by government. But we never raise a voice against such issues. Obviously we are too busy fighting for extending the reservation quota or the V-Day stuffs. Whose has got the time to watch these alarming death tolls, when you have got girls in noodle straps boozing in pubs? Nevertheless, dying of these preventable causes belongs to our very own Indian Culture. Unlike in the US and Europe, health has never being a social or political issue, rather say no issue at all. Bad health is something that happens in our country. It’s just in India that you could die even of diarrhea.
Just step back a bit and all the preventable fatalities-whether from terror, disease, dowry or even road accidents- seems to be symptoms of systematic ailment. The cheapest commodity in India today is human life!
Monday, September 29, 2008
On the brink of famine
Despite growing attention in the world media and expanding efforts by many organizations, the world hunger crisis continues to worsen. There are innumerable people around us, who fight daily hunger and starvation, and still many people, defeated, at last, have now found a corner and sleeping until death finds them. The basic staples that feed the world- wheat, rice, corn continue their inexorable rise in cost and scarcity. Sudan, Zambia, Ethiopia and throughout the Horn of Africa, there is a dearth of food and people are not able to find a four square meal. The scarcity has become so acute that presently poor families are spending up to 80% of their budget on food. Every year 3.5 million children are dying due to malnutrition.
This crisis has its roots in four interlinked trends. The first is the chronically low productivity of farmers in the poorest countries. The farmers have little means to pay for the high prices of good quality seeds, multi-nutrient fertilizers and modern irrigation system. The second is the misguided policy in the U.S. and Europe of subsidizing the diversion of food crops to produce biofuels like corn based ethanol. The third is the drastic climate change; while it is raining day and night in one part; many other regions are experiencing drought like conditions. Take for example the recent droughts in Australia and Europe, which cut the global production of grain in 2005 and 2006. The fourth is the growing global demand for food and feed grain brought by the surging populations and income. To put in short, the rising demand has little supply, with the poor taking the hardest blow. Brisk actions are required or else food riots will become a commonplace in the entire world as it is presently in countries like Egypt, Yemen, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Senegal. Newspapers in Egypt are reporting that people have started to go for inferior commodities lacking in nutritional value; they are buying less and less meat/poultry/cheese and they are also cutting down on expenses for education and health expenses, etc. the country is experiencing many price-related protests. The world has not experienced anything quite like this before. In the face of rising food prices and spreading hunger, the social order is beginning to break down in some countries. In several provinces in Thailand, for instance, rustlers steal rice by harvesting fields during the night. In response, Thai villagers with distant fields have taken to guarding ripe rice fields with loaded shotguns
It is time that the U.S. and Europe should abandon their policies of subsidizing the conversion of food into biofuels. The U.S. government gives farmers a taxpayer-financed subsidy of 51¢ per gal. of ethanol to divert corn from the food and feed-grain supply. There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods--tree crops (like palm oil), grasses and wood products--but there's no case for doling out subsidies to put the world's dinner into the gas tank. We urgently need to weather proof the agricultural activities. While we cannot stop the clouds from pouring, but a small measure like a farm pond- that collects rain water, can do wonders in a dry spell and turn a famine into a bountiful harvest. The world has already committed to establishing a Climate Adaptation Fund to help poor regions climate-proof vital economic activities such as food production and health care but has not yet acted upon the promise.
What is true for food will be true for energy, water and other increasingly scarce resources. We can combat these problems--as long as we act rapidly. New energy sources like solar thermal power and new energy-saving technologies like plug-in hybrid automobiles can be developed and mobilized within a few years. Environmentally sound fish-farming can relieve pressures on the oceans. The food crisis provides not only a warning but also an opportunity. We need to invest vastly more in sustainable development in order to achieve true global security and economic growth.
What we do know:
· Wheat prices are up 120%
· Rice prices have risen 75%
· Poor families spend up to 80% of their budget on food
· According to the World Bank, an estimated 100 million people have fallen into poverty in the last 2 years
· Prices are expected to stay high through 2015
· 21 of 36 countries in a food security crisis are in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nations FAO
· West Africa, the Horn of Africa, and fragile states are especially vulnerable.
But what we need to know is that still there are places and people who waste food. A lot of food is wasted every day at our hostels, house and hotels. For every unfortunate who sleeps starving, there is his fortunate counter-part who just threw his supper because he did not find it tantalizing. It’s a request to everyone who reads this- kindly think twice, before you waste food, about the 3.5 million children and the families that die every year due to hunger and starvation. There are a few who lives to eat, a little more who eats to live but there are millions dying without eating.
This crisis has its roots in four interlinked trends. The first is the chronically low productivity of farmers in the poorest countries. The farmers have little means to pay for the high prices of good quality seeds, multi-nutrient fertilizers and modern irrigation system. The second is the misguided policy in the U.S. and Europe of subsidizing the diversion of food crops to produce biofuels like corn based ethanol. The third is the drastic climate change; while it is raining day and night in one part; many other regions are experiencing drought like conditions. Take for example the recent droughts in Australia and Europe, which cut the global production of grain in 2005 and 2006. The fourth is the growing global demand for food and feed grain brought by the surging populations and income. To put in short, the rising demand has little supply, with the poor taking the hardest blow. Brisk actions are required or else food riots will become a commonplace in the entire world as it is presently in countries like Egypt, Yemen, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Senegal. Newspapers in Egypt are reporting that people have started to go for inferior commodities lacking in nutritional value; they are buying less and less meat/poultry/cheese and they are also cutting down on expenses for education and health expenses, etc. the country is experiencing many price-related protests. The world has not experienced anything quite like this before. In the face of rising food prices and spreading hunger, the social order is beginning to break down in some countries. In several provinces in Thailand, for instance, rustlers steal rice by harvesting fields during the night. In response, Thai villagers with distant fields have taken to guarding ripe rice fields with loaded shotguns
It is time that the U.S. and Europe should abandon their policies of subsidizing the conversion of food into biofuels. The U.S. government gives farmers a taxpayer-financed subsidy of 51¢ per gal. of ethanol to divert corn from the food and feed-grain supply. There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods--tree crops (like palm oil), grasses and wood products--but there's no case for doling out subsidies to put the world's dinner into the gas tank. We urgently need to weather proof the agricultural activities. While we cannot stop the clouds from pouring, but a small measure like a farm pond- that collects rain water, can do wonders in a dry spell and turn a famine into a bountiful harvest. The world has already committed to establishing a Climate Adaptation Fund to help poor regions climate-proof vital economic activities such as food production and health care but has not yet acted upon the promise.
What is true for food will be true for energy, water and other increasingly scarce resources. We can combat these problems--as long as we act rapidly. New energy sources like solar thermal power and new energy-saving technologies like plug-in hybrid automobiles can be developed and mobilized within a few years. Environmentally sound fish-farming can relieve pressures on the oceans. The food crisis provides not only a warning but also an opportunity. We need to invest vastly more in sustainable development in order to achieve true global security and economic growth.
What we do know:
· Wheat prices are up 120%
· Rice prices have risen 75%
· Poor families spend up to 80% of their budget on food
· According to the World Bank, an estimated 100 million people have fallen into poverty in the last 2 years
· Prices are expected to stay high through 2015
· 21 of 36 countries in a food security crisis are in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nations FAO
· West Africa, the Horn of Africa, and fragile states are especially vulnerable.
But what we need to know is that still there are places and people who waste food. A lot of food is wasted every day at our hostels, house and hotels. For every unfortunate who sleeps starving, there is his fortunate counter-part who just threw his supper because he did not find it tantalizing. It’s a request to everyone who reads this- kindly think twice, before you waste food, about the 3.5 million children and the families that die every year due to hunger and starvation. There are a few who lives to eat, a little more who eats to live but there are millions dying without eating.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
DAL LAKE – A MAN MADE MISERY
The highlight of a visit to Kashmir has to be an overnight stay at one of the gorgeous houseboats on Dal Lake. A tranquil and beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. The lake is fed by runoff from the Himalays. Several houseboats are moored around the lake.
But the world famous Dal Lake, one of the largest natural lakes in India is dying. In Srinagar, the lake is carrying the burden of several hamlets, floating gardens, hotels and lodges. Once heart wrenchingly beautiful, the lake today takes in the entire city’s sewage. Human refuse from the houseboats is discharged into the lake. As a result, the quality of the lake is deteriorating and its vast aquatic reserves is dangerously shrinking. The growth of a mysterious red weed during the last decade has further choked the lake.
Besides being a tourist attraction and a source of livelihood to hundreds of localities, the Dal lake has been a source of inspiration for many poets and painters. But the local people, who have observed the ecological damage over the years knows that the end of this beautiful lake is not very far. In not more than two decades the lake might be reduced to a dirty pond.
If we refer to the data, in 1200 A.D this lake was 75 sq km in area. By the 1980s the area reduced to 25 sq km, and today it has shrunk to merely 12 sq km. So the first question that comes to our mind is- How? Was the lake stroked with a geological bomb? What caused such serious degradation to this beautiful lake? The human settlements, water pollution, construction within and on the periphery of the lake, and continued agricultural activity (like the floating gardens), lead to the steady degradation of the lake.
Today 3,00,000 people are living in the catchment area and over 30,000 live on the lake. The floating garden , which provide 50 percent of the vegetables to the Kashmir Valley, is a major threat to the lake. Though beautiful, but it is a ticking time bomb. The debris and organic waste from these garden settles into the lake bed, making it shallow. The lake which was 17 feet a decade ago is now only 9 feet deep today. Shocked? I was too! Though the government is taking steps to conserve this lake, but not as concrete as it should be. (I saw in one of the news channel that the UPA government invested Rs. 9 cr. to buy MPs to protect the falling government. The ministers were displaying bundles of cash in the Parliament.) Politics apart!! Although the state administration has tried to relocate people from the lake to residential colonies, it has not met with any success. As these people were not provided any means of livelihood, they were forced to return back to the lake. In ancient time, some people were given right on the lake by the then kings. People have exploited this privilege and have brought up hotels and lodges by filling parts of the lake. Such construction has caused a serious ecological unbalance.
Above all, the city’s sewage is been continuously dumped into the lake- untreated! The city of Srinagar, one of the hot-spots of Indian Tourism, do not have a proper drainage and sewage system, till date. A recent report from the Directorate of Environment (Kashmir) stated that the disposal of sewage was one of the main factors behind the growth of algae in the lake. There came a red warning in August 1991, whereby a thick layer of red algal bloom Euglena rubra - appeared on the surface of the lake. The local fish population of Shizo thorax declined, and the faeces of warm-blooded animals contaminated the water. Surprisingly enough, the important water plant - Eurayle ferox - too disappeared from the lake due to the deteriorating water quality.
Revival of tourism has brought its own problem. During the peak months, the Dal lake is choked with plastic bags and coke cans. People litter around this majestic gift of nature to our country.
Dal lake pollution provides us with a classic example of how little we appreciate the beauty of nature. Dal lake-much visited, little understood-has become a pathetic sight. It no longer cleans the body; it only saps the body and sags the soul!
But the world famous Dal Lake, one of the largest natural lakes in India is dying. In Srinagar, the lake is carrying the burden of several hamlets, floating gardens, hotels and lodges. Once heart wrenchingly beautiful, the lake today takes in the entire city’s sewage. Human refuse from the houseboats is discharged into the lake. As a result, the quality of the lake is deteriorating and its vast aquatic reserves is dangerously shrinking. The growth of a mysterious red weed during the last decade has further choked the lake.
Besides being a tourist attraction and a source of livelihood to hundreds of localities, the Dal lake has been a source of inspiration for many poets and painters. But the local people, who have observed the ecological damage over the years knows that the end of this beautiful lake is not very far. In not more than two decades the lake might be reduced to a dirty pond.
If we refer to the data, in 1200 A.D this lake was 75 sq km in area. By the 1980s the area reduced to 25 sq km, and today it has shrunk to merely 12 sq km. So the first question that comes to our mind is- How? Was the lake stroked with a geological bomb? What caused such serious degradation to this beautiful lake? The human settlements, water pollution, construction within and on the periphery of the lake, and continued agricultural activity (like the floating gardens), lead to the steady degradation of the lake.
Today 3,00,000 people are living in the catchment area and over 30,000 live on the lake. The floating garden , which provide 50 percent of the vegetables to the Kashmir Valley, is a major threat to the lake. Though beautiful, but it is a ticking time bomb. The debris and organic waste from these garden settles into the lake bed, making it shallow. The lake which was 17 feet a decade ago is now only 9 feet deep today. Shocked? I was too! Though the government is taking steps to conserve this lake, but not as concrete as it should be. (I saw in one of the news channel that the UPA government invested Rs. 9 cr. to buy MPs to protect the falling government. The ministers were displaying bundles of cash in the Parliament.) Politics apart!! Although the state administration has tried to relocate people from the lake to residential colonies, it has not met with any success. As these people were not provided any means of livelihood, they were forced to return back to the lake. In ancient time, some people were given right on the lake by the then kings. People have exploited this privilege and have brought up hotels and lodges by filling parts of the lake. Such construction has caused a serious ecological unbalance.
Above all, the city’s sewage is been continuously dumped into the lake- untreated! The city of Srinagar, one of the hot-spots of Indian Tourism, do not have a proper drainage and sewage system, till date. A recent report from the Directorate of Environment (Kashmir) stated that the disposal of sewage was one of the main factors behind the growth of algae in the lake. There came a red warning in August 1991, whereby a thick layer of red algal bloom Euglena rubra - appeared on the surface of the lake. The local fish population of Shizo thorax declined, and the faeces of warm-blooded animals contaminated the water. Surprisingly enough, the important water plant - Eurayle ferox - too disappeared from the lake due to the deteriorating water quality.
Revival of tourism has brought its own problem. During the peak months, the Dal lake is choked with plastic bags and coke cans. People litter around this majestic gift of nature to our country.
Dal lake pollution provides us with a classic example of how little we appreciate the beauty of nature. Dal lake-much visited, little understood-has become a pathetic sight. It no longer cleans the body; it only saps the body and sags the soul!
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