The Dark Side of Boom!

Picture this. 40-yearold Ramakanth has a dual existence. Employed in a foreign MNC in suburban Mumbai his days are defined by the delights of Free trade economy. A smart card controlled swanky office, video conferencing with clients across the globe this is something the best it gets Ramakanth for the middle class aspirations and his likes. But then MNC’ that employs him and his likes are here for the cost advantage which means he makes enough money but not enough to see him through the slum clusters that still lack basic sanitation and drinking water. Together with millions Ramakanth forms an almost 22 percent (quoting from Chennai based MS Swaminathan foundation) of urban India that still lives in slums that have no access to proper sanitation. So much for the GDP growth?


Picture this. India continues to grow as the preferred destination of medical tourism. Indian medical facilities are hailed as the most cost effective and reliable. And this notion has literally triggered an exodus from wealthy west to Indian cities in search of cure and care. But the rural India continues to grapple with a medical system that leaves much to be desired. Most of rural sides continue to face acute dearth of trained doctors forcing many a state government to make it mandatory service in the rural sector a pre-requisite for anyone hoping to acquire a medical degree from any state run college. But how many are listening? Especially when there will be no dearth of private colleges imparting medical education to those who can afford at costs beyond the reach of average.

Picture this. Harwinder Singh belongs to Punjab; a state that has effectively transformed from India’s bread basket to the basket case of India. Last year Harwinder debt ridden elder brother hanged himself adding to the figure of 20,000 farmers who have killed themselves for similar reasons in the past two decades. Some NGO estimate that Punjab’s farmers have collective debt of Rs10, 000 crore and over 4,000 of state’s farmers have had to sell of their lands to take up manual labour in the past five years. And when it comes to talking of plight of farmers in India’s Punjab mostly doesn’t even figure. To think what is it like to be farmer in interior Vidharba or say rural Andhra Pradesh that routinely make it to headlines on farmers’ suicides. AS cheap food imports and further market concessions tighten competition for home grown food government inaction and policies that apparently favour fertilizer and grain trading corporations at the cost of farmers, add to their woes. Statistics on India’s food security don’t help either. There has been a negative growth of growth of food output from 3.8% in 1980 to 0.5% now.

( more case studies to follow)

Ah Populism!

Ah populism! I am sure P Chidambaram didn’t fret much when it came to deciding that Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver for the farmers. For anyone who understands the dynamics of rural vote bank in this country of ours (I am sure Chidambaram and the UPA mandarins do) this would have been the easiest decision to make, especially if there is a Lok Sabha election next year.

And here’s a short story that explains my enlightenment in this front. While covering the electioneering in Tripura in northeastern India, I happened to meet Rakhal Das, farmer, in a rally of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

As I got chitchatting with Das, he confided that he was a former commie. He had been a staunch leftist till the Indo-Bangladesh border fence crisscrossed his tiny piece of land on the border. And almost half of his farm stuck on the other side of the fence rendering it almost useless for him.

Running pillar to post in native Tripura proved futile and his last hope laid in the Prime Minister of India and he managed to get a petition to the Prime Minister written that explained his plight and plot. “I have come to deliver a letter to Madam Sonia Gandhi” Das told me and added “I have heard that Sonia Madam stays in Delhi and knows the Prime Minister, I have come here to hand my petition to her and will request her to give it to the PM when she meets her”.

Rakhal Das sat beside me till Sonia Gandhi finished her speech and left Tripura in a chopper. Das never managed to hand that’ letter’ to her and went hopping mad. “This is insulting he fumed adding “they did not allow me to meet Sonia Madam and they have taken away my land”. And that instant Das made up his mind to not vote for PM’s party.


I am no analyst but I suspect there are such Rakhal Das all over India and his metamorphoses. Who believe that Sonia Gandhi could/ would take petitions from them and had it over to PM and their end their woes. As much Madam Gandhi would want to accept petitions from Rakhal Das’s of the world and take them to PM Manmohan Singh only if it were humanly possible.

And that’s why the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver makes sense before elections. It will pacify Rakhal Das and his likes till the polls. And I hope if voted to power this government or its replacement will look deeper into the plight of farmers. Explore reasons that make them borrow. Nationalized bank loans are just the tip of iceberg. There are grey markets loans, money lenders et al. In most cases it’s not the production but finding markets and lack of storage that makes farmers beg money as loans from every possible source. The minimum support price granted to farmers never reaches most in rural India.

I suspect farmers need more than loan waivers. They need assistance and support that will address the cause of their misery than just superficially attend to one manifestation of it.

And did I hear that banking sector stocks rocketed after the Rs 60,000 croe waiver was announced. I wonder how many farmers made money out of it ?

Focus Iran

This is an interesting blog i came across. Its called Inside Iran . The blogger lives in Iran and talks about his country and the supression of basic rights there. Quite a brave person I must say....given the tendency of Iranian regime to hang or atleast amputate legs of suspected dissenters. Also check this BBC documentary on an Iranian teenager . She was exceuted by the authorities because they considered her to be ' a woman of easy vitue'.This is part one of the docmentary that was shot undercover by the BBC crew inside Iran.

This and that!

The past few months have been rather queer. I have not been able to think of anything to write about. Toyed with different genres of writing. Had absolutely decided to write on Thing A and then thing B and then didn’t write at all. And if you were here some days back you would have probably noticed that pretty chick posted on this space. That was Emmanuel, who I came across in a movie and got hooked. However, those days are over and that post has been deleted. What happens to me these days is just talks. I just talk.. talk.. talk… to many people but mostly to the Zen master… who I believe is in a rather delirious these days given some prospective alliances in the horizon for him. Yes, I do realize that this space is increasingly becoming cryptic but I hope you all too realize that is a free service happening here and none of you have ever clicked on the google ads posted on the website. SO for now things will continue my way. Sample a few lines …For secrecy and to avoid libel.. only the initials are revealed….


Yours truly- hey, what do you think… I may join Mossad, the Israeli secret service!!! ( under the influence of Spielberg’s Munich)

SV (is a woman) – hey I think I look damn pretty today!!!!!

(End of conversation).
SB (is a guy): That woman is getting desperate she just added ‘hit on me’ application in face book
Note: SB wants to hit on as well.. he always has…

Yours truly: she should be jailed for this
SB: or at least whipped… I can’t believe it
SB: That woman mina on your list looks hot ... who is she?

(End of conversation)

Zen master: why did she refuse you? You were the only normal person she ever met in her life?

yours truly : ah well...

Zen master: But she is the kind who would want to go a Nude beach once in a year!!!

yours truly: ah well...

Zen master: but really she is like a Chimpanzee... but just might take to her for sheer amusement value...

( end of conversation)

Inside The Glass Palace!

The Present

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The first thought that possibly confronts any journalist looking to do stories from Myanmar is the question of getting inside. The ruling regime of Myanmar has effectively converted the nation into one of the world's most isolated places, where everyone is watched including visiting journalists.


So when trouble began in Myanmar in September this year, the first thing that the military regime did was curb the outflow of information. I watched keenly the international coverage that happened in those days in networks like CNN, Al Jazeera and the BBC. All that ever came out was running footage of Yangon streets and monks parading by the monasteries. Not enough to convey the real story but good enough to tell the world outside that there were many stories waiting to be told from that land....


Now back safely from there, I have only but the utmost respect for those who braved it all to send those pictures and footage. By November things had quieted down a bit in Myanmar but journalists were and are unwelcome. So when I approached the regime for a visa the first thing they wanted to know was if I was a journalist. For reasons obvious I told them... I was not and then crossed my fingers. It helped that I had a student visa from the UK stamped on my passport but what helped more was the definite 'stroke of luck' that got me in.


I reached the country armed with a small handheld camera; playing the stereotypical tourist. I must admit I was apprehensive and nervous. And there were reasons. A Japanese journalist was shot dead a month ago while covering the protests. And I learnt later that he had used the exactly the same modus operandi to get into the country.... Also, when I landed it was not the time of active protests, which means... as a journalist I did not have access to stories in plain sight. There were no monks out on the streets, there were no students agitating....all that prevailed was an eerie calm. I felt lost.


But within a few hours the tragedy of Burma started unfolding. One could see the pickets that have become a fixture of Yangon streets. Manned by army and police... these are the watch points for any suspicious activity. A little more time in the streets and it became clear there were plainclothes men with radios that relayed and scraped for information that had the slightest tinge of opposition to the junta and its military generals.....


It's not easy to shoot in Myanmar. People do not speak on politics. The minimum punishment for anyone who is caught speaking to a journalist is at least two years in the Juntas notorious hell holes. These are prisons where inmates are known to hunt rats for food. I learnt that just about anything could land one in jail. I heard about an army officer 'who had made the mistake of giving water to some monks who were protesting'. He was summarily dismissed and jailed. Needless to say that for offences perceived more severe by the junta... the punishment is often summary execution... where the suspect just 'disappears'. The list of those gone missing has been increasing ever since.


So when people refused to talk on camera I could understand. But I got the story nonetheless. The story was right there, the omnipresent fear in people's minds accentuated by their deadpan expressions, as if nothing was wrong with their country, revealed more than it concealed...

There were enough indications of this. I couldn't see monks around. Dressing up as a local, wearing a trademark Burmese lungi I sneaked into some monasteries where I discovered the strange absence of monks. Post the September uprising the generals had systematically targeted these monasteries. The monks who led the protests were either dead or in jail. The rest had fled for their lives. Some of the prominent monasteries had soldiers armed with automatic weapons surrounding them....So much for the rebellion, every picture of the protest that made its way to the international media was carefully examined, the participant identified and severely punished.


The famous Yangon University that was the cradle of Burmese nationalism propounded by the likes of Aung San does not exist in the true sense anymore. The junta has dispersed the erstwhile university to different parts of the country. There is a total ban on student assemblies. The junta thinks that this way dissent from enlightened minds can be curbed. But has it been successful? I think not. Wherever I went I met people simmering with anger. In streets, in hotels, in pagodas, they would come and talk to me. I was a foreigner and I could spread the word outside.


On several occasions I was questioned. Once when I had ventured precariously close to the house where Aung San Su Kyi is under house arrest. Second was when had gone to visit the National League for Democracy office in the heart of Yangon. Plainclothes operatives I found were following. For I realized I was a natural object of suspicion. A foreigner who went about filming randomly wasn't something they were comfortable with. But I was lucky that I was not arrested, deported or that they did not take my video tapes away.


The Sule Pagoda killings

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Contrary to the claims of the junta the number of people killed in the infamous Sule pagoda (Yangon's main square) firing is much higher. Eyewitnesses told me that at least a hundred protestors were killed that day alone. The military had blocked all exit points and fired at monks who were chanting in protest. Like at the Tiananmen Square in China, here too soldiers were drugged to weed out any remorse when they fired at unarmed monks and protestors.


What's up Burma?

--------------------

Myanmar to me is a country stuck in two eras. The hotel I stayed had the trappings of a five star. The floor below doubled as a night club that sold sex and drugs were easily available. Interestingly the night manager whom I befriended turned out to be policeman. His reasons were pretty simple he said "I have two young children and a wife to look after and the policing job isn't enough to sustain them.


Night clubs are just about everywhere. And I found that there were more prostitutes than there were customers. These girls had come from all over the country looking for livelihood. Unemployed, thousands of women look to prostitution for sustenance. The few I spoke to had parents and children waiting for food at home. Most of these women spoke only Burmese had never heard of HIV or AIDS. Myanmar's international isolation and continuing sanctions mean that little or no aid reaches the country. Also absent were major international aid organizations, otherwise active in other parts of the developing world. This has reportedly brought the country's HIV infection rates to epidemic proportions.


I found parallel economies all over. The official exchange rate at airport counters for a dollar is six kyat (pronounced chats) but black-market traders were willing to pay over 1300 kyat for a solitary dollar. It is extreme poverty that defines Myanmar's underbelly. Most people live with less than a dollar a day. Slums that exist amidst sewers, children rummaging through piles of garbage for food.


On the other side, fabulous wealth mocks the country's ever increasing misery. On the streets I saw cars that I had only seen in world metropolises like London and Paris. BMWs, Mercs ran past each other. Not everyone was suffering in Myanmar. These are people close to the junta. They have access to the country's gas projects; the trade in precious stone and the burgeoning narcotics and amphetamine businesses, often associated with the 'Golden Triangle'; the region that exports the major chunk of world's narcotics and synthetic drugs. Khun Sa, the notorious drug lord lived in Yangon under the regime's full protection till recently. All of Myanmar's night clubs, hotels, and resorts are for these privileged few. Even dental care, I found was out of the reach of an average citizen. The cost of root canal treatment in any Yangon clinic costs hundred of dollars. The average monthly salary of teacher employed in a government school is merely thirty dollars.


Winds of change

-----------------------


But there appears a glimmer of change. Under international pressure, the junta has finally agreed to talk to pro-democracy leader Aung San Su Kyi. This engagement has been imitated by others in the country. I got my hands on the first copies of local newspapers that published pictures of Su Kyi with the Junta's negotiator Aung Kyi. This would have been unthinkable even three months back. So is this the first move towards reconciliation and restoration of democracy in this battered country? Even in Myanmar, no one knows. Most assume the Junta is just buying time.

Back in a bit!

I am going to be off this space for a while but when I come back I should have interesting tales to tell. My only concern; this blog may sound a bit mainstream but what the heck!

These are photos