Category: Labour and Social

New Work Rules for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Economy

Start ups are serious engines of economic progress. They hire in a recession and lend neighborhoods a good vibe. There are people investing their lives, and especially their youth on an idea. They are not places to get your pre MBA work ex. These are not places for folks with no risk appetite. The era of the public sector job in India is a relic of my Father’s generation. In this fourth industrial revolution era, one needs to re-skill and re-imagine the future as a perennial negotiation, and not an annual review activity. Stay healthy and save for a rainy day are good old school values to follow although investing in reskilling is to add value. Your job is to be replaced two financial years away if you are in consulting. Creative destruction at its neoliberal best.

Identity and Migration

Long before the refugee and the humanitarian crisis of the post Arab Spring countries demasking the so called empowered politics of the EU nations and the U.S.; the Indian Subcontinent had one in 1947, where millions died and mass migration occurred due to region based partition- Punjab and Bengal was severed. Identities were fortified into the refugee class ‘Bangal’ and the untouched landed ‘Ghoti’ in West Bengal.

This useless binary is still used to map ones antecedents. In short, migrants and their generations have to bear its scars long after the survival, as the identity affair is subconscious. Identity is used as a weapon to demoralize the migrant.

Media Response and Labor action in a deregulated economy?

I am aware that labor strikes are contrary to middle class sensibilities in India, and take them as relics of a pre 1991 India which everyone in the media is keen to relegate to the confines of history as if Reliance Jio launch is the stuff of history rather than an archaic national strike. Welfare protection in a deregulated economy where credit card is cool rather than a non existent medical insurance.

In an era where labor bargaining and protection is akin to foul language in our media and every day discourse, we have something a miss. In the papers and on the TV, the strike was dismissed as a failure in which unions that are a relic of the past were defeated. If we do not get paid for three months, like Kingfisher, or if a TV channel shuts down, where will these corporate EMI slaves run to for redressal ? Understand the politics behind the discourse, do not buy it at face value.

Langkawi Diaries: Nasi Lemak, Nepal and Migration

It was lovely speaking  earlier in the day to a Nepalese chef and staff from Pokhara in a restaurant in Langkawi who have worked in Mainland China/Punjabi by Nature in Cyber Hub\New Friends Colony in the National Capital Region, India. They spoke about remittances, fluctuating exchange rates and below par work with respect to their earlier work in India.

The Nepalese have a massive diasporic community in Malaysia, engaged in restaurant sector work. Migration phenomenon always intersects in a traveler’s life. Globalization which is necessary, and not necessarily evil.

Scale or Intellectual Independence: the funding holy grail for non profits

It is a well known fact that non profits and policy thinks alike generate funding from corporate sources to influence the discourse on ideas rather than the normative objective of independent research, which is often spewed about with zero conviction. Nothing is independent if the staffer bills are not paid and the rentals are due. Both the stakeholders are cannot claim to hold the moral ground than consultants and lobbyists.

The reputational capital is compromised; so why maintain the charade?

Fund raising always has strings attached. ‘Please read the T&C carefully’ one does not have to read The New York Times reportage  to be aware of this funder- grantee conflict of interest tangle. Just read out a grant call aloud to understand the politics of development. Oh yes, a grant needs to be filed to study it right?

The only way to retain independence is to self generate revenue or be self funded. The scale is then impacted. Impact should be an outcome and not an indicator. The moral entrepreneurs are no better than the real estate agent around your block.

Keep Knocking, Keep Building

Criticizing is an intellectually lazy activity. Building a project or a product which has impact is the hard part. The outlier will be considered not cool. Keep knocking and you will certainly build something of worth, if not a unicorn or any other measure of success. Build a community paper and a cultural space on the lines of Mohsin Malhar da of Banglar Kantha Singapore or take up projects which no one wants to touch.

An unlikely Social Justice Narrative : ‘Kabali’ Tales

Kabali is a film that tries to engage the minority Tamil diaspora issues in Malaysia, especially the former plantation worker community who are disenfranchised from the mainstream racial politics in Malaysia as they are the subaltern without education and jobs, driving them to the underbelly of crime in Malaysia. Rajnikanth acting as the gangster messiah of the Malaysian Tamil Hindu community, plays on stereotypes and the lowest common denominator emotion of the macha (colloquial Tamil for the friendly neighborhood boy ) in Port Klang. The Tamil Movie Industry with this gamble of picking up a diaspora topic for a megastar film starring Rajni Sarr, has moved on from Jaffna Tamil Politics of Mani Ratnam Cinema to a safer Malaysia which is a lucrative market for the industry.

I applaud the social justice driven dalit subaltern political impulse of Director Pa Ranjith which has got a huge megaphone for an outlet; the reason why Ambedkar wore suits vis-a-vis a Gandhi as a statement of resistance against subaltern nature of existence is the same reason why the character Kabali wears it as well. The structural inequalities of the Malaysian Indian Community are depicted, in that sense this film brings the issues to the Indian living room such as teen age pregnancies and crime. On the cinematic method side, Kabali is an excruciating slow film, with a smattering of Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin making it ‘Truly Malaysia’ story. A through and through film for the die-hard Rajni fan, it stood out for its flawed depiction of its minority politics than anything else. This film attempts to bridge labor activism with racial politics under a post-colonial cloud.

It is now time to watch Jagat, a smaller budget Malaysian Tamil Film (a rare effort by Director Sanjhey Kumar Perumal, who took a decade to make a film) on a similar theme, far less popular, due to the indie character of the film. Kabali has indeed brought the Malaysian Indian community more traction than any other creative initiative earlier. A very clever film which has balanced politics in a commercial warp, with the masala entertainer of a Rajni Film. A job very well implemented Mr. Ranjith.

Indian Media’s Poverty of Imagination

The recent media discourse on Kashmir and also the run up to the Punjab and UP Polls, fundamentally articulate that there are no apparent issues in India apart from Navjot Sidhu joining AAP and that Kashmir has issues because of one person who was killed. The Bundelkhand droughts was never covered in the same vain. And the release of Kabali is not a story of national importance, please get a life.

We seem to reside in the ‘Desert of the Real’ as Baudrillard had written about. No one seems to bother what are the real issues about which are such as speaking to the Kashmiri  who differ with your nationalist narrative, take a tough call on the drug menace in Punjab and the conversation about improving community led agriculture in Bundelkhand. Get Real, Media as it seems like every one else you are rotating on your own axis.

Why Social Justice work matters

In January 2015, I went on from being a petroleum industry consultant in Oman and India to a migration and health research lead position driving mini projects within a research program to bring issues of food security and migration experience issues with the Bangladeshi community in Singapore. This was my first formal brush with social justice activist leanings, as the earlier NGO/Social Innovation work I was leading was incremental rather than disruptive particularly in the area of communication and strategy. This experience in engaging with platforms such as AKM Mohsin’s Banglar Kantha and BoP Hub, led me to find out my strengths in working with communities. I just wish I had written more academically with my mentor Prof Mohan J Dutta at the National University of Singapore!

I hope to visit places in India and Singapore to meet peers and friends to take the conversation further whenever possible! Social Justice issues matter, as much as a check and balance mechanism in day to day life.