ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL

What is happening today in Delhi in the name of sealing is nothing short of robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is also part of the ugly face of globalization.

The reason why countries compete with each other to hold international games in their country is that it will attract lot of foreign, domestic as well as foreign institutional investment. This, in turn, will help in modernising and cleaning old urban areas. Airports will be modernized; new malls and buildings will come up in areas where none existed. Roads will be widened and new flyovers and underpasses will come up which will smoothen free flow of vehicular traffic. A number of five-star and three-star hotels and guesthouses will come up to accommodate hundreds and thousands of tourists who will participate in the international games. It will also result in the opening of a number of foreign restaurants and eateries to cater to the eating habits of foreign visitors and local residents. A number of companies will open shops in malls to sell branded goods and services. New jobs will be created and there will be great demand for skilled labour and qualified professionals such as architects, engineers, real-estate developers, financiers, money-changers, tour operators, and so on.

On the face of it, all these developments seem very hunky-dory. But in actual practice, it is plenty of evil disguised as good.

Globalization has helped hundreds of millions of people attain higher standards of living. It has benefited countries in seeking new markets for their exports and by bringing in lot of foreign investment. But for millions of people globalization has not worked. Many have actually been made worse off, as they have seen their jobs destroyed and their lives become more insecure. They have felt increasingly powerless against forces beyond their control. They have seen their democracies undermined, their cultures eroded.

This is not something new. It has already happened in the late nineties in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Latin American countries. At that time Singapore did not feel the brunt of it because most of its national savings were invested in American bonds and America was the country which benefited most from this crisis.

We are aghast because this is happening for the first time in India and we do not understand the realities of free-market economy.

What then is the solution?

The solution is very simple. Mahatma Gandhi once said that whenever you want to take a decision, imagine yourself looking at the face of the common man of India and ask yourself whether your decision will benefit such a person or not, and the answer to it will help you in arriving at the right decision.

KEY TO WORLD PEACE

The key to world peace lies in the formation of a World Federal Government.

The World Federal Government should ideally comprise the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, Americas, Australia & New Zealand, and rest of the world.

All members of the WFG should have an equal right to vote.

The Constitution of WFG should have democracy, rule of law, preservation of human rights, equality of opportunity and a secular approach towards social, economic and political ideologies and issues as its basic features.

It should have its own World Federal Army and World Federal Court.

Each continent of the world should have its own World Regional Government comprising Nation States within the continent and a Constitution, Army and Court similar to that of WFG.

In case there is a dispute between one region of the world and another, it should be solved by the WFG. Similarly, if there is a dispute between one Nation State and another within a particular region, it should be solved by the WRG of that particular region alone.

The same pattern should be adopted for States within a Nation State or City States like Singapore.

Special emphasis should be given to Local Self-Government within a State because it is primarily responsible for the welfare of the people at the grass-root level.

There should be strict division of duties and responsibilities among the various units of the WFG.

For example, the WFG should deal with only those issues which are of a global nature, such as world-peace, world environment, world travel, world communications, space research, world health care, world trade, world finance, world broadcasting, poverty alleviation, etc.

The WRG should deal with issues, which are normally dealt with by nation-States with special emphasis on those that relate to language, culture and way of life of the people of that particular region.

Each federating unit will maintain its own police and para military forces, and will be responsible for maintaining peaceful relations among its member States.

The Local Self Government organizations should concern themselves with the basic necessities of life, such as education, housing, job creation, health care, sanitation, water and electricity supply, transport, etc. and the most capable technical and experienced people should be put in charge of such organizations.

At the bottom level, the family should be considered as the basic unit of the WFG and
should be enabled to perform its duties in the most desirable manner.

I believe in this age of advanced technology, internet, television, cell phone, jet planes and bullet trains, we have got the means to lead a peaceful and satisfactory lifestyle, if only we are able to apply our minds in the right direction.

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Paradox of Our Time

The paradox of our time in history is
That we have taller buildings
But shorter tempers
Wider freeways
But narrow viewpoints
We spend more
But have less
We buy more
But enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families,
More conveniences
But less time
We have more degrees
But less sense
More knowledge
But less judgement
More experts
But less solutions
More medicines
But less wellness.

We have multiplied possessions
But reduced our values
We talk too much,
Love too seldom
And hate too often.

We have learned how to make a living
But not a life
We’ve added years to life,
Not life to years
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back
But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.

We’ve conquered outer space
But not inner space
We’ve cleaned up the air
But polluted the soul
We’ve split the atom
But not our prejudice
We have higher incomes
But lower morals
We’ve become long on quantity
But short on quality.

These are times of tall men
And short character
Steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the times of world peace
But domestic warfare
More leisure but less fun
More kinds of food but less nutrition.

These are the days of two incomes
But more divorces
Of fancier houses
But broken homes.
It is a time when there is much in the show window
And nothing in the stockroom.