Iraq under Saddam and begining of my writing has a strange connection. During my days as a student in one of West Bengal's best residential schools, Ramakrishna Mision Vidyapith at Purulia, I started off writing my first article, and coincidentally on Gulf War - 1991. And evidently enough, Iraq and the Gulf area gets an extra attention.
While going through my daily dose of internet based news channels today morning (30/12), news of Saddam Hussein's execution was glaringly across all channels. Could not help but make my democratic self to write about this.
It actually makes me a little sad that Saddam has been executed and the reason is a flimsy "convicted for the Dujail killings and held responsible for the death of 148 Shias after an assassination attempt on his life in the 80s". What is surprising is George Bush Jr was so fond of his Iraqi Shiite brethren, that he spent billions of dollars and lives of atleast 3000 American soldiers to take revenge on their behalf. Not to forget the innumerable Iraqis who are being killed in a strange civil war, on a daily basis. And all of Mr Bush's claim of WMDs and support to the evil partnership has long since vanished into thin air. In fact one should ask Mr Bush, what would he have done if their was an assasination attempt on him or any of the US presidents? The twin tower bombings had Afghanistan razed and the ultimate egg on the face, Osama Bin Laden going around as free as spirit.
Iraq under Saddam was much more developing and liberal. The country had a appreciable economic growth, women had extensive freedom and law and order situation was eons better. Mr Bush Jr says, that the situation in Iraq is nowhere near improvement. Then what exactly did all his powers do for 4 years? Why did he exactly decide to attack a country which was cruising normally? And as claimed, if Saddam was conniving with Osama, why didnt he do that long back? And did Bush Jr take the reponsibility of ensuring their modicum of governance across the world? I have a nagging thought if all this had something to do with Bush Sr's snub on the eve of the Gulf War. But I would definitely make a caveat here: I am not at all saying that Saddam's brutality is condonable. But equally unacceptable is Bush's world policeman style of functioning.
Iraq continues to be in midst of a horrible civil strife and Osama continues to be elusive as ever, more so now. Lets see, which nation is next on Bush's scope! Iran, North Korea or somewhere else? Wat say people?
Friday, December 29, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Child Labour Laws - Is it a fallacy?
Something on Wednesday (27/12) night moved me immensely and I thought I should pen my thoughts and share with you.
Wednesday I had been to an invitation dinner party at US Club in Colaba and was returning by the 12:08 pm Virar slow. The co travellers were all in the dozing mode after a long day of work. At Dadar, a swarm of people got in, mostly daily wage workers (as I could gauge by their apperance and tools they were carrying). In the midst of this, a young frail boy of around 10 years also got into the train carrying 2 big shoe polish brushes and some shoe laces. He was the usual shoe shine boy. But what struck me about him was he was not dressed in the usual tatters that one can usually see on a shoeshine boy but a little near a average clothing mark. He started off by asking each of the passengers for a polish but none was in the mood. A gentleman opposite me appeared a little good natured and started searching for change. Unfortunately, he had none. The guy made a genuine effort. It was also apparent that the little shoeshine boy was feelling utterly miserable to pester the gentleman. And in feeble tone he started sobbing and saying that he hasn't have anything to eat. I was wearing a suede shoe and was disappoiinted in not being able to give him a opportunity to earn.
What touched me greatly was, here I was returning from a party from one of the plushest of Mumbai clubs, and here was a 10 year old crying for food. I took out a five rupee coin and profferred towards him to cater for a vada pav atleast. He was hesitant in accepting that. A prodded a little more and he hesitated a little more. But perhaps his extreme hunger and helplessness took the better of his dignity and he took it. What would have prompted him to such dejection? This triggered me to think the title of this blog.
In a recent move about a month back, the Govt of India banned child labour across the country. A great move if you consider the immense disadvantages of child abuse and child trafficking. But in our country, where a major chunk of our population is below the proverty line, a very large section of sundry jobs are catered to by underage workers. All of us at one point of time would have been served tea/snacks by the quintessential "chhotu" at one of the plethora of eating joints across the country. I have experienced this right from on the solitary path to Hemkund Sahib (at 16000 ft in the Himalayas) to Kanyakumari. These boys are not abused. They earn a livelihood. They support a family. I have spoken to lot of them and amazingly a huge number of them have that fire in their belly to do something and I am sure they will with their zeal.
However, the fact that now becomes significant is, this huge section of these "young" wage earners have been rendered jobless. How does these young "chhotus" cater for their livelyhood and food? Who looks after them?
It is a very "nice" thing to follow Western ethics and human rights, but it is an absolute failure if you do not have the infrastructure to support the people affected by the "rights". I feel we are actually breeding a huge sea of unemployed, uncared for and bitter youth for our tomorrow in these young boys. Did any of our Civil Servants - the babus, the mantris, think about what happens to these kids? Does anyone care? Isn't it a fallacy to usurp a livelihood and drive someone to chilling penury in an effort to have a "Labour Law"?
Send me your views if you feel I am getting it all mixed up!!!
Wednesday I had been to an invitation dinner party at US Club in Colaba and was returning by the 12:08 pm Virar slow. The co travellers were all in the dozing mode after a long day of work. At Dadar, a swarm of people got in, mostly daily wage workers (as I could gauge by their apperance and tools they were carrying). In the midst of this, a young frail boy of around 10 years also got into the train carrying 2 big shoe polish brushes and some shoe laces. He was the usual shoe shine boy. But what struck me about him was he was not dressed in the usual tatters that one can usually see on a shoeshine boy but a little near a average clothing mark. He started off by asking each of the passengers for a polish but none was in the mood. A gentleman opposite me appeared a little good natured and started searching for change. Unfortunately, he had none. The guy made a genuine effort. It was also apparent that the little shoeshine boy was feelling utterly miserable to pester the gentleman. And in feeble tone he started sobbing and saying that he hasn't have anything to eat. I was wearing a suede shoe and was disappoiinted in not being able to give him a opportunity to earn.
What touched me greatly was, here I was returning from a party from one of the plushest of Mumbai clubs, and here was a 10 year old crying for food. I took out a five rupee coin and profferred towards him to cater for a vada pav atleast. He was hesitant in accepting that. A prodded a little more and he hesitated a little more. But perhaps his extreme hunger and helplessness took the better of his dignity and he took it. What would have prompted him to such dejection? This triggered me to think the title of this blog.
In a recent move about a month back, the Govt of India banned child labour across the country. A great move if you consider the immense disadvantages of child abuse and child trafficking. But in our country, where a major chunk of our population is below the proverty line, a very large section of sundry jobs are catered to by underage workers. All of us at one point of time would have been served tea/snacks by the quintessential "chhotu" at one of the plethora of eating joints across the country. I have experienced this right from on the solitary path to Hemkund Sahib (at 16000 ft in the Himalayas) to Kanyakumari. These boys are not abused. They earn a livelihood. They support a family. I have spoken to lot of them and amazingly a huge number of them have that fire in their belly to do something and I am sure they will with their zeal.
However, the fact that now becomes significant is, this huge section of these "young" wage earners have been rendered jobless. How does these young "chhotus" cater for their livelyhood and food? Who looks after them?
It is a very "nice" thing to follow Western ethics and human rights, but it is an absolute failure if you do not have the infrastructure to support the people affected by the "rights". I feel we are actually breeding a huge sea of unemployed, uncared for and bitter youth for our tomorrow in these young boys. Did any of our Civil Servants - the babus, the mantris, think about what happens to these kids? Does anyone care? Isn't it a fallacy to usurp a livelihood and drive someone to chilling penury in an effort to have a "Labour Law"?
Send me your views if you feel I am getting it all mixed up!!!
Monday, December 25, 2006
The Day After Placements
The people who were always there!
The two guys who made the process so amazing - Prof Abbasali and Shyam Patel
The guys are all glee!!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Offers on the spot and away from it!!!
To my still remaining readers of this blogspace, I am extremely sorry for being a lazy bone and not updating this site for a long long time.
Thoughts have been flowing, but the mind somewhat wasn't much bent on sitting down to write. And writers block etc is a junk statement for someone who is not a writer.
So now that I got a few days respite from the pressure of the academia, and bored to the extremes with nothing much to do, I thought "why not write and revive this blog" and here I am writing and jabbering.
The last 2 months of our "late schooling" has been a hectic and stressful time due to the placements.
Placements in any B School is a crucial event and its an amazing experience. It is more so in a school of repute as the complexity rises exponentially. Ours was no different. The month preceeding the placement was one full of worries and constant consternations as to whether any company worth the name will come for us. Thereafter as the countdown changed from weeks into days, the mood was gradually pepperred with a dash of optimism. And the D Day was just an amazing experience. My co-participants were just gushing and the mobile phone lines were heavily loaded with information being passed to and sometimes consulted with, the waiting family, friends and guides!! If interested, one can read the full story on the institute's website http://www.spjimr.org/media/events/events_full_article.asp?evcode=100
And with the placement session being a huge success, the naysayers would probably attempt to reconcile their views about us and the one year program concept in general. This was also a thumping pat on the back of the participants, who forgot everything and worked incessantly for the success of each and every participant. And the incessant work was backed up by some excellent support from the professors whom we bugged no end as well as some of the industry contacts, whom we interacted with closely. I also feel, the success of a placement is not in the fact that one is placed and placed at a fat pay packet. It is perhaps more apt to say, that the placement is successful when a participant gets the company and role he or she wants to move to and succeed in. I am confident that this was visible in a huge majority for the PGDM Class of 2007. I suppose, I can say now PGDM ROCKS!!
Thoughts have been flowing, but the mind somewhat wasn't much bent on sitting down to write. And writers block etc is a junk statement for someone who is not a writer.
So now that I got a few days respite from the pressure of the academia, and bored to the extremes with nothing much to do, I thought "why not write and revive this blog" and here I am writing and jabbering.
The last 2 months of our "late schooling" has been a hectic and stressful time due to the placements.
Placements in any B School is a crucial event and its an amazing experience. It is more so in a school of repute as the complexity rises exponentially. Ours was no different. The month preceeding the placement was one full of worries and constant consternations as to whether any company worth the name will come for us. Thereafter as the countdown changed from weeks into days, the mood was gradually pepperred with a dash of optimism. And the D Day was just an amazing experience. My co-participants were just gushing and the mobile phone lines were heavily loaded with information being passed to and sometimes consulted with, the waiting family, friends and guides!! If interested, one can read the full story on the institute's website http://www.spjimr.org/media/events/events_full_article.asp?evcode=100
And with the placement session being a huge success, the naysayers would probably attempt to reconcile their views about us and the one year program concept in general. This was also a thumping pat on the back of the participants, who forgot everything and worked incessantly for the success of each and every participant. And the incessant work was backed up by some excellent support from the professors whom we bugged no end as well as some of the industry contacts, whom we interacted with closely. I also feel, the success of a placement is not in the fact that one is placed and placed at a fat pay packet. It is perhaps more apt to say, that the placement is successful when a participant gets the company and role he or she wants to move to and succeed in. I am confident that this was visible in a huge majority for the PGDM Class of 2007. I suppose, I can say now PGDM ROCKS!!
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