‎”The top 1 per cent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 per cent live Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 per cent eventually do learn. Too Late.”-Joseph Stiglitz

The last time the world saw transnationalism in protest movements were during the breakup of USSR (in general the fall of institutionalized communism) and more recently in 2005 during the Orange Revolution in Kiev and in Georgia. The weather from the Arab Spring from Cairo and Tunis seems to have impacted Delhi and New York as well. It again is a confluence of elements all making its presence felt in political mobilization. It is the situational element at play.

It has been really interesting to observe the global scale of movements unprecedented across human history. People are more connected via the internet powered smart phones via social media apps. Photos, videos ans status messages can be updated with a flicker of a tab. The sociological dimensions of this are unprecedented as the notion of sovereignty is diluted although these movements are about reforming existing systems. The context is endemic graft in India to democracy in the Maghreb and people power in Zuccotti Park all reflect, the disillusionment with the status quo and a belief that  it is the people who can initiate a dent in the strong armor of capitalism.  The collusion of the governing elite with the deal street has taken it cognitively away from the inner-cities and main street.  Marx, who died 150 years back presciently predicted that the boom and bust cycles of capitalism lay the seeds of the downfall of this very system.

Occupy Wall Street along with the Tea Party movement on the Right are demonstrative of the inability of Capitol Hill to revolve issues which have exaggerated the  inequality gap to the extreme. Similar copy cat movements to Occupy Street are emerging in Montreal, Boston parts of Europe.  The Anna Hazare Agitation in India was a textbook example of middle class disgruntlement with graft.  The fruits of the event are still not visible, but have rung an alarm in the corridors of power in Delhi.

There is a common ethos to all these movements- they are not about power but about resistance to the injustices that common folk suffer each day against the big guys without any mechanism for economic redressal. Legal measure are expensive and take ages. Politicos are hand in glove with corporate interests almost acting as lobbyists. Its Empire of the Underdog striking back against the 1% which rule their destiny and in peaceful means. Gandhism at its finest.  Let all the workers of the world unite as Marx said is very apt as the underclass are awakening to their plight once again.

Intefada which in Arabic means resistance-uprising usually associated with Gaza and the West Bank is now a global phenomena, and movements are well back into the public sphere, asking for a change, peacefully.

This year’s Nobel Prize for peace was given to three amazing women; two from the West African Nation Liberia and one extraordinarily courageous lady from Yemen, the face of the Arab Spring in the strife hit country, where an extremist was droned a few days back.  There is a common strand, connecting the three women, they come from strife afflicted conflict areas and they advocate the virtues of human rights, development and democracy. This is a stamp of approval for Human rights in a huge way as was the Nobel was for Dr. Yunus for Microfinance.  Human Rights has often been area for Moral Entrepreneurs in the Third Sector- Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are the big players in this ‘ethical business’. If Environmental Stewardship can be institutionalized through ISO 14001 and there can be sustainable forestry standards, why can’t we ensure corporate stewardship for ethical behavior. Some elements of Sustainability reporting do incorporate social variables in their analysis as corporate social responsibility measures and initiatives. This does not go far enough by any measure.

Human Rights protection is crucial as large global companies are venturing out in to the far flung areas of the globe  to search for raw materials, manufacturing centers and markets.  Most of the mineral rich areas in India are heavily under forest cover and are dominated by indigenous groups (tribals) like the Santhals in states of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. Powerful global mining majors like POSCO, Jindals and the Vedantas have their projects stalled and delayed in this region because of native people movements.  The infamous case of ‘Blood Diamonds’ which was made into a film, which impacted diamond sales internationally gave way to the Kimberley Process for approving ethical, non conflict origin diamonds.

The iconic tech company Apple Inc. has been under the scanner for outsourcing its manufacturing to Foxconn in China, which has been accused for using child labor in manufacturing of their products.  High Street Fashion labels have been maligned too for getting their manufacturing done cheaply in third world sweatshops, and charging a bomb from the consumer.  The Sports Industry is another case in point. The list is endless. Human Rights violations seems to be a byproduct of the cowboy globalization. It is high time that industry reclaims the moral pedestal. Good human rights, make for excellent branding and hence better bottom line. Makes sense isn’t it ?

This is an emerging phenomena in the industrialized and the developing world, that the information highway is getting more decentralized and ‘democratized’ that the common man has more access to diverse streams of data in order to make an informed political choice. Elections come periodically and the official campaigning for the polls have a limited time period but online political campaigns begin away before. Twitter has started official political twitter accounts for the 2012 presidential polls. With the power of smart phones and facebook, twitter at a push of a tab; social media is transforming citizenry in a way not seen in decades.  Online forums like blogs are the platforms for independent commentators and citizen journalists. These are not checked for authenticity of data unlike the Lesbian Blogger in Damascus who eventually turned out to be a Brit guy!  More often than not, blogs are the only source for videos and other content to escape out of repressive regimes like North Korea and Burma or even Southern Thailand.

Arab Spring and how Social Media was used to organize protests from Tunis to Tahrir to Pearl Square is now a legend.  Some commentators like Malcolm Gladwell, have suggest that protest in the late 1980’s against the communists in the Eastern Bloc were aggregated and triggered in the absence of any technology; emphasis of message over medium. Thats a valid argument; but here is the difference- the flood of credible accessible content as a source of digital activism with real world impact is changing a dormant electorate and making it into an active group of people who dynamically influence policy. The Third Sector- the civil society has gained an amplified voice in this context.  As the world is more than ever living in smaller settlements in cities, with access to the information super-highway, legislative pre-process will be more than ever dynamic. The Corporate-Politician Complex Nexus is increasing being exposed with sting journalism and independent documentary film makers getting a platform to upload their films and getting popular virally.

Now the Medium is amending the message to be more popular. Gen Y does not watch TV anymore, or atleast it watches TV on the internet. Its changing citizenry to be a more active part of governing themselves. This change is for the better instead of depending on a cabal of wise men in the executive branch. Better feedback from Civil Society will make for effective socially constructed bottom up policy implementation.  The 2011 Singapore Parliamentary Polls are case in point of a opposition campaign completely dependent on Social Media for publicity and it did work in patches. The Anna Hazare movement was led by a army of social media volunteers, in order to mobilize the middle class (the author of this post did his tiny bit as well to spread the message), It will be interesting to notice how electoral democracy changes in the coming years in the onslaught of social media. The test case will be the 2012 US elections. More updates in this domain will be coming up.

Recently I have watched two documentaries which have shaken me up; the first one is Micheal Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story and Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, based on the book of the same name. During the Bush era years, there was a sentiment of absolute belief in the Free Market and a panacea for all ills. In retrospect, that hungho attitude ended with the 2008 recession and we are experiencing a double dip recession with a good probability that a ‘Great Stagnation’ is up ahead. During the Bush 43rd era- it was a perfect time for the Right, favorable allies in the UK, Germany and France along with the post 9/11 sentiment made the french fries  into the freedom fries for sometime. After the boom years of the 1990’s, people were upbeat about the potential of free market capitalism. The program of economic liberalization was on full swing through out the developing world although Russia and Latin America had bared the brunt of Chicago School madness in the past decade.

The left in France was pushed to a corner, things were perfect for the right.  Marxism was passe and had died down in the public narrative over the 1990’s. Since the recession in 2008, as Marx had said that in the Capitalistic system itself; there are seeds of its own destruction with the erroneous cycles of boom and bust. There was a protest sit-down on Wall Street the last week. Unthinkable a decade back.   The french left has good shot at the presidency next year.  Leftist ideas have finally found acceptance in the mainstream. Writers like Umair Haque have penned down aspects depicting why Marx is relevant in today’s context.    No ideology is bad or sacrosanct; ideas are only relevant to the ground on which it is applied and fact is Marx still matters 15o years since his death.

We have never lived in so much uncertain politico-economic times before. America is in deep financial mess and the political gridlock is not making things any better. People have lost faith in conventional political alternatives. The Tea Party movements with its constitutional conservatives do not really have any agenda apart from dismantling the superstructure installed by the Obama administration. Obama seems heading for defeat, even if I hate to admit it. Sarah Palin with Madam Michelle are the pin-up girl for the movement. The political stalemate has left America paralyzed from the middle. The Wall Street-White House nexus and the destruction of regulation-whether financial or environmental, will emerge into a textbook Perfect Political Storm. Well, Belgium has not had a government for a while too, the fact is Belgium is more of a transit hub with Brussels as the European capital and Antwerp being the diamond hub, that its own politics is too trivial to matter.  India has had deafeningly slow coalition governments in the Late 90’s and the emphasis was on political stability rather than governance. Democracy is a system, simply too ineffective for the developing world; the power is simply concentrated in one elite political clique, 300 odd families rule India fro Sansad to gram panchayat level. China with its single party centralized command is a well oiled army is a competent SWAT squad, too rapid for any democratic system.

Democracy ensures plurality of views, but paralyzes as well in case of a split mandate. The unholy Lib Dem-Conservative marriage of convenience does not do any good.  The Congress led Coalition in India has simply stopped governing after the Hazare fasts, and has resigned its fate at the ballot box two and a half years from now. There seems to be a deficit of trust in democracy as a system to deliver governance. The question which might be asked is whether autocratic regimes are better; i would say depends on the talent at the top. Winning elections does not make a bunch of charismatic men and women good administrators, government is a different ball-game. Revolution to get to the top, does not mean revolution in office. An effective orator does not make a effective leader. The Pirate Party in Berlin won 15% of the vote in local polls 🙂 An obscure entity winning votes, which is fresh in the arena 🙂

The Tea Party, The Hazare Maovement, The Pirate Party are all indications of a frustration with the present status quo. Career Politicians need to do better, if they do not want to be unemployed very soon.

There are some aspect of our lives which we do not like. may be we may have been bullied in school as a school kid for being obese, or teased to death because someone stammered or have been the butt of jokes in his or her social circle. These things truly kill a personality; the notion of the semi conscious, quasi-rational self. Respect in front of ones own eyes is crucial for being respected in the eyes of the world. All stunts to gain so called friends is only a temporary band-aid  on a serious predicament which can only be solved through fundamental changes which take time emotionally and physically.  Everyone wants to feel loved and wanted, I do too.. since I have been grossly overweight since I was a teenager &  this  does not make a person very confident in the notion of the self. Losing weight has been a struggle.  Life is not a popularity contest, but losing weight is primarily for a healthier self. The realization has come late, but well in time.

Life is cruel and social darwinism is at play in its full splendor. We have to fit enough not to be relegated to the next division. Life is for playing Large, and not for the loose change. The battle is in the mind, passion is the fuel and life;  the gladiatorial amphitheater. 

Fighting the inner demons is the hardest thing, its Spiritual Warfare at its pinnacle. The world is so fast, catching up and being at the top of one’s game for a long time is indeed a battle. A Sachin Tendulkar can play at the top of the game for two decades because He knew how to keep going and striving for the next goal. A Pete Sampras and  Rodger Federer are admirable material.  Failures are there, but how one handles it differentiates a winner from a yet to be winner.

The Losers Syndrome is addictive- a love for victim psychosis, a respect for bearing pain and humiliation and not fighting back all contribute to why we hate ourselves. At the end of the day, the people who matter will matter because of who we are and not because of what we do. Lets try to love ourselves truly, for once….

This topic seems to be very left of centre or even marxist in sentiment, but poverty alleviation has been reduced to mere sedentary rhetoric, such as Bijli Sadak Paani or Electricity Roads and Water Access or Jai Kisaan Jai Jawan, as in the 60’s and 70’s in India in political discourse. Poverty is a universal affliction across the world. Even America has a great quantum of poverty who live on stamps and handouts. Recession has worsened the scene gravely. Ever since liberalization in India happened in the early 1990’s, middle class has exploded to the public imagination, agriculture has taken a backseat- hardly any structural reforms have been carried out like the financial sector. 830 million in India still live under Rs. 20 per day as per the Arjun Sengupta report a couple of years back. Farmer suicides have been in the thousands in the last decade, while the Agriculture Minister of ‘Western Maharashtra’ state seems more interested in running a ten nation game from its headquarters from Dubai.  Onion exports have resumed while retail prices have gone through the roof, so much for the ‘Aam Admi’. Energy bills for the common man have exponentially increased impacting the poor, driving millions back into poverty and its problems.  Our priorities have been away from the heart of the common man. Rural Development, Agriculture and Power are the sectors which impact poverty levels the most in India.

The latest bombshell from the Federal administration in Delhi came when the Planning Commission- the agency which determines economic policy and development for 1.5 billion stomachs, put a paltry Rs. 32/day for urban areas for the definition of poverty assessment by the government. It is indeed a pathetic and preposterous metricization  of a human condition. How do you measure a human predicament? By all reports Rs. 32/day is a paltry sum, rather its inhuman. The same goes for the parameters of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. These are all fuzzy metrics, which do not have an impact on the ground apart from cool NGO Speak at swanky seminars.

We live in islands of prosperity around an ocean of despair. We are all heading towards an agglomeration of revolts from the Levant to Lima. The Mashreq Spring was set off due to the immolation of a vegetable vendor in Tunis. Poverty as historically known from the Bastelle revolt of 1789 to the 2011 revolt at the Pearl Square at Manama was triggered off by hunger.  Poverty should be brought back to the high table of decision making as it is emerging as a security threat for the future.

 

This is a hyphenated term which troubles me. Why does not thought necessarily translate into action? Do beliefs shape practices or does practices shape value systems. Are Structure and Agency reflexive truly? What is the missing link in the discourse, is it initiative, drive or sheer loss of control over our products of thought or alienation as Marx said that workers are alienation from the product, and as we are living in an post modern, anti meta narrative era, we are mind workers at the end of the day.  How do our value systems evolve, whether they attenuate or amplify are questions of significant importance. I understand, some people are action oriented in a naturally pre disposed fashion, and some like me are arm chair thinkers, need to have a spectacular cognitive clarity in order to take the right step. Excessive analysis does lead to paralysis of action, the threshold frequency for an idea to skip to the next energy level is the sheer passion to make it happen. Its often obsession that gets the idea across the finish line.

Often thought does not convert into meaningful meaning making out of the action due to the circumstances in the ‘Desert of the Real’.  What you have to do is what you have to do is my primer for many a decision i have taken. So whats your take, what comes first- the impulse of action or the train of thought?

We undergo a plethora of emotions, in our heads, minds and the obscure entity called the soul. Passion is the eternal source of energy , but pain is an emotion that connect all humankind. Pain is also felt by animals. The only difference is that we make meaning of the pain that we encounter. Pain is triggered by disappointments, fulfillment of our aspirations. Pain has a different shade of metaphor. Its physical pain caused by a disease or injury, emotional turmoil regarding personal matters, its complex at its best. There is no motivator like pain, it builds resolve like no other medicine, it gives immunity against events that trigger basic crisis.  It ignites a fire in the belly like no other thing can. Life would not be life sans pain. The greatest emotional scars are left by pain. Physical version of the pain leaves us crying for relief, the physical pain goes away, but the mental scar does not heal too quickly.

Managing pain is crucial, channelizing its momentum is the key. It can make us stronger or break us. I pray that every bout of physical pain or heartbreak heals and heralds a new start.

 

We have many emotions that we travel through time, during various phases in life. Sometimes, we want to feel wanted, many times we feel that we have found a soul mate, a person we have found resonance with, in terms of interests, perspectives and simply have a splendid time whenever we meet and catch up. Giving labels to relationships sometimes limits the purview of the landscape of emotions that we explore in our lives.  We feel that precious moments that are experienced wont come again, and want to feel the most of it an a singular moment. Live a life in a moment, in all the splendor that life has to offer.

Keeping Faith is tough, we ask multiple questions of ourselves; am i good enough, can i make it through, will i screw up bigtime… are all the million riyal questions that we ask of ourselves when we meet a person, opening  or a situation that we do not wish to lose, even at the cost of our lives. I pray hard for the Will of GOD to be established in my life.  Well, Faith as small as a mustard seed can move a mountain.  Every journey has a lesson, a key take-away that transforms our mundane existence for the better. Life is Beautiful in all its strange contours. Faith leads to prayer and that directs us to hope against hope for the worse off option to not be actualized.  There are a million different things going on in my life. These are opportunities, thoughts, people, ideas moving in and out at differential velocities according to the weights they carry in the scheme of life.  Life is short, keeping up the passion and the drive is the key to make the best of the window of opportunities which GOD presents us.

Faith, Prayer, Love and finally hope are the sides of the same square that define our lives. These all elements are invaluable in the journey called life. Its bewildering at times lah! Keeping Faith is hard, failing takes a pound of emotional flesh out of our psyche as dreams dont realize all the time. We are expected to perform at our epoch perennially. Work Life Balance is indeed an oxymoron. Either we do well in our career or have reasonably fulfilling non work related time.  Let us atleast try to fulfill our calling 🙂

I hope, I hope…..