de-constructing: De-constructing Ricardian

de-constructing: De-constructing Ricardian

de-constructing: BLOG OR WRITE?

de-constructing: BLOG OR WRITE?

de-constructing: Yes, France Will Win!

de-constructing: Yes, France Will Win!

de-constructing

de-constructing

HELP NEEDED!!!

Urgent!

As on 4th June 2006, 24,225 people died of poverty.

This piece of information is being delivered on the web via the site, www.povertyticker.com

Beyond letting the users download a screensaver/ticker, unfortunately the website is silent on any other information required.

I am trying more as to how, who, and on what basis is this website run. What parametres are being taken into account when one decides that an individual died of poverty? Questions like these and more are buzzing in my mind, and it would be of help if any one of you reading this can also help me in finding more about the website.

The website is "not" being run by UNDP. I e-mailed to their office and one of their representative (in Brazil) says that it is "definitely not an UNDP initiative".

I did personally e-mail some of my "socially conscious" journalist friends. But guess since most of them, rather all of them, are occupied with some other priorities, I failed to evoke a reply.

Whether the website development is grotesque or good is debatable and the point will be discussed in another post.

Hope this works.

Yes, France Will Win!

Much to the chagrin of non- French and to the disdain of all soccer enthusiasts, I believe that France, will be the winners at this year's world football championship in Germany.

This I believe is because it's clear for all to see. After all, they are among the top favourites. Has there ever been a world champion that was not among the top favourites? No, never.

But that's not all. The team has an ideal number of players: eleven. That is nether too many, nor too few. Personally I'd have nothing against ten players more. But as it is not allowed to play with ten, unless the person overseeing the play on the field forces one team to go ahead with it, so be it. French will win with eleven. Even if one of them is an old man called Zidane.

The ball used at this World Championships will be spherical in shape. That is a very decisive advantage for the winners at France'98, because it is learnt from Ministry level sources that the team has been secretly been training the players for months with just this kind of ball. Even the bald Zidane has got used to kicking it around, and he can do things with it that are going to amaze more than a few people.

A football pitch is comprised of a lawn. The French know this type of grass very well, because it grows abundantly in their latitude (plant in March then water regularly). The French media informs that even Zidane grows it in the gardens surrounding his manor.

On top of that, a game lasts 90 minutes. For a Frenchman that's nothing: they eat for two hours at breakfast, three in the evening and four at lunch. Zidane eats the whole time.

And finally, "football" is a typical French word deriving from the English "foot" and the English "ball". But "foot" is in fact much more French than English, because the French are the only people who call running "footing".

And no apologies even if any French fan's sentiments were hurt. Would be wonderful, if this could start a new wave of street protests or media uproar!

Is Sub-continet Near A Nuclear Flash point?

For all the talk about technology and globalization, basic governance remains a huge challenge for many states. And to the chagrin of champions of economic liberalisation, free-market economics and propogators of democracy, the recent survey of the phenomenon of state instability by the Fund for Peace, an independent research organization, would not be good reading.

With nuclear neighbour in Pakistan standing tall at 9th position, Burma at 18th, followed by Bangladesh and Nepal at 19 and 20th places respectively, it makes the policy wonks at Delhi jittery and a billion-strong country worried. And when the southern most neighbouring country, Sri Lanka too occupying a not-too comforting place (25th), one cannot hope for things going any worse. And the infamous club is finally joined by Bhutan (at 39th) and surprisingly, by China, which is at 57th position.

India is ranked at 93rd place in the total of 146 countries tabulated in the survey. As expected, Norway, Finland and Sweden are the safest while Sudan seems to be the most vulnerable, as it tops the list of failed states index for 2005. Democratic Republic of Congo and Cote d'Ivore are the other two African nations at 2nd and 3rd places, leaving the volatile Iraq to be contend with 4th rank. Robert Mugabe tries his best to take Zimbabwe to 5th place, leaving Chad and Somalia at 6 and 7th place respectively.

USA and France take 128 and 129 places. Full list can be viewed at http://www.fundforpeace.org/programs/fsi/fsindex2006.php

So why is it a worrisome thing for India when six of the top ten and 11 of the 20 vulnerable nations belong to the African continent? By all standards, it is well known that the sub-continent is not the most peaceful of places. Experts might scoff by even saying that its North and South Korea which are sharing and occupying the most militarised places on earth.

But try De-constructing, as always, and I conclude that it is the Asian sub-continent which is more closer to a flash point with three nuclear armed states. Nuclear diplomacy might have proved to be a deterrent in the cold-war era but in times of rogue states and terrorist's firing all cylinders, we are not very far from a Chernobyl like disaster.

Intriguingly, the world should also realise that in spite of all the talk of world economy doing well and the two rising power houses ofthe new globe -China and India- it is still basic governance and more importantly, political stability,which will drive the future of states. In fact, China, the new found poster-boy of advocates of growth, witnessed more than 87,000 peasant strikes and protests over land seizures last year, as well as mounting corruption and unemployment.

Using 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators, the survey ranked 146 states in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and societal dysfunction.

The category of a failed state has become part of the strategic vernacular, and it has many definitions. For the purposes of this index, a failing state is one in which the government does not have effective control of its territory, is not perceived as legitimate by a significant portion of its population, does not provide domestic security or basic public services to its citizens, and lacks a monopoly on the use of force.

Yes, so with our religion being not pessimism, our faith also should not be wavering too. Right?

Naah, i'm not i-Pod fan

Yes i just cannot be always hooked on to my i-Pod.

When people ask why I don’t have an i-Pod or its ilk, I usually give the flip answer that I don’t fancy walking or driving around with plugs in my ears, thus reducing awareness of my surroundings (shouts of “fore”, car horns etc).

Friends say I am nuts, a techno-neanderthal or just old, all of which may be true. And I do understand these wonderful little machines can transform your car radio and home stereo, are easy to use and sound fabulous.

My resistance is mostly because of a singular obsession, the way I like listening to music. Hear something that grabs me and I’ll play it, to the exclusion of all else, until something else comes along. There is nothing “random” about it.

How can i be expected to sleep into my self constructed world when so much of activity is going around?

Passing Away Of A Great Economist

One of the most respected economists of the last century, John Kenneth Galbraith died on Saturday of natural causes in a hospital in Cambridge, Mass. News inform that he was 97.

For the uninformed, John Galbraith was one of the most widely read authors in the history of economics; among his 33 books were "The Affluent Society" (where the economist writes as to how the consumer culture has gone wild and rich in goods but poor in the social services that make for community), "The Great Crash" (one among my favourites, where the revered author outlines the causes, repercussions of the 1929 US stock crash) and "American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power" (where John Galbraith debunks the myths about the free market economy).

Member of liberal school of economics, John Kenneth Galbraith was often viewed as the bellwether of the American institutionalist school of economics, commonly associated with Thorstein Veblen (another respected economist and author of brilliant book, "Theory of the Leisure Class" and his idea of conspicuous consumption).

A staunch supporter of issues like equitable distribution of wealth in society (as reflected in many of his writings), he advocated government intervention to solve these social problems.
A libran, this teacher, journalist, diplomat (He also served as the American ambassador to India in the early 1960s) and policy maker had a profound influence on an entire generation of economists, including our own Amartya Sen.

Galbraith was a Keynesian, inspired by the great British economist John Maynard Keynes, whose theories gained wide currency during the Great Depression. Keynesian economics argues for greater state intervention as it could smooth out the boom and bust cycles of capitalistic economies. This, debatable though, could be achieved by spending more to prime the economy and create jobs during bad times and raising taxes in boom times to build budget surpluses and check inflation. Ironically, Keynesian theory lost its gloss after the 1970s, when oil prices jumped (the Iranian revolution), and inflation jumped too, despite frantic state efforts to keep it under control.

And as expected, some of Galbraith's theories too lost its sheen and were discredited by the marketplace.Along with Paul A. Samuelson, Paul Krugman and Jagdish Bhagwati, John Kenneth Galbraith has helped non-economics students (like this writer) to break into the complex world of economics.

A social economist par-excellence. That is how John Kenneth Galbriath will always be remembered.

BLOG OR WRITE?

Grazing food at my road-side cafe on a lazy weekend afternoon. That's how i can live my simple life without a moment of humdrum. Oh, before i proceed further, this is just one of the occasional ramblings i am going to proceed with.

Sitting around the cafe this afternoon, pondering the many ways in which technology has contrived to screw up my otherwise placid existence, the talk of my journalist friend turned to the art of writing.

My business journalist friend at Indian Express shoots off by saying that there's a case to be made that the internet has actually helped improve the quality of writing in general. I, for a moment, lean in close to see if any alcohol was present on my friend's breath. Detecting nothing beyond the usual halitosis, I surmised that he was being serious.

"Go ahead," I said, though i must confess i did not have an alternative either.

"Since the easy access and limitless nature of the web allow one to expose yourself to tons of writing, both good and bad, the average educated person will define the best from the worst", said my friend, ignoring his cold arabian coffee and chocolate brownie, kept at arms length from me.

In other words, he implied that a swine will gravitate toward good writing and, as a result, improve his own skills as he increases his knowledge. I, as always, expressed skepticism.

Why did i do that? Looking longingly at the almond-eyed feline dusky, twenty-two something behind my friend, i tried De-constructing it, and in a moment came up with an argument, which later made me feel good about myself.I realised that only a relative few in our post-literate society can tell good writing from bad, whether it's online or in print. Then what's the point?

I have always been advised in vain that if I dream of becoming a good writer, I should not just pen down a few words everyday but write more, day and night. More than that, I should read good writing every day. This can be accomplished on the internet as easily as it can by reading a book or magazine. But if you're the sort who prefers the venerable The Times of India (as some of my friends call it so) to, say, The Hindu (though again i do not think it to be good enough but so be it), well, again, what's the point?

So my riposte to the cub business reporter was that while the internet may be a nifty vehicle for delivering one's polished prose and penetrating insights to an impatiently waiting world, it can not in any way help one become a better writer.

Moreover, the internet leads to all sorts of unsavory writing practices, like blogging. You know, as some of my tech-savvy friends, to my horror, call it the 'journal of the 21st century'.

But i believe that blogging is not private, but very public. And very few blogs involve the kind of introspection that characterizes a serious journal. Most blogging is sheer exhibitionism, either the self-absorbed ramblings of an individual blogger (please excuse this one) or the corporate site that exists for the sole purpose of making money (again, please).

And also let's be fair and balanced like the BBC news. Of the 27 million blogs, only a handful are good enough to be read. Its like looking for a precious few needles in a mighty big haystack.

The parting dialogue from my side. Trying to surmise my friend's present favourite character, Truman Capote, i concluded that had the guy been alive today he might have been moved to say, "That's not writing. That's blogging."

LIBERAL IRAN

Iran may be in a stand-off with the west over its nuclear ambitions but one of the biggest issues gripping Tehran is whether women should be allowed to attend football matches. Some of Iran’s most senior clerics issued rulings this week condemning a decision by the President, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, allowing women to sit in the stands at top matches.

A ban has been in place since the 1979 Islamic revolution but it has come under pressure as football fever has grown after Iran qualified for this summer’s World Cup in Germany. Women are also prevented from watching wrestling but have been allowed into basketball matches, which attract small crowds.

Worth mentioning that in the 1998 World Cup Iran beat the US, a feat that still inspires national pride. In fact, Ahmadi-Nejad is said to have trained with the national team and was an accomplished striker at school.His populist move has confused both fundamentalists and reformists who had regarded him as socially conservative.

He was elected last June on a promise to restore the values of the Islamic revolution and redistribute oil wealth.The president has instructed sporting authorities to build special areas in stadiums where women and families could sit safely.

Some supporters of the decision said the presence of women at games could calm boisterous all-male crowds.But the reform has met strong opposition from parts of the religious establishment. The so-called conservatives question the presence of women in the stadiums by countering that when everybody is at home comfortably watching the games, why should it be necessary for women and families to be in the unsafe atmosphere of stadiums?

But getting lost in this debate is the central theme of 1979 revolution. De-constructing the uprising's ideology and one finds that the 1979 revolution sought to encourage women’s participation in public life.

Are the conservatives listening?