tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-147435132024-03-07T00:05:46.915-08:00Neutral ObserverVPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-82229437047934401912020-04-07T23:47:00.000-07:002020-04-14T22:00:02.309-07:00The fuss about government debt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, governments around the world have passed very large stimulus packages. Some of the numbers are: <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/stimulus-senate-action-coronavirus/index.html">\$2 trillion</a> in the US, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-japan/japan-set-to-announce-coronavirus-emergency-finalise-near-1-trillion-stimulus-idUSKBN21P067">\$990 billion</a> in Japan, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-german-parliament-passes-historic-aid-package/a-52908339">\$814 billion </a>in Germany. There has been little opposition to the measures, with much of the debate centering around which industries get bailouts, what segment of the population receives checks in the mail etc. This is in sharp contrast to the situation about a decade or so ago, when the financial crisis of 2008 and the so-called Great Recession that followed it prompted major interventions by governments.</div>
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<a name='more'></a><br />
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When the European debt crisis erupted in late 2009 and early 2010, with potential defaults by southern European countries like Greece and Italy, there was a strong reaction against deficit spending, and government austerity became a dominant theme. Politicians talked about "belt tightening" and "living within your means". They claimed that governments should manage their budgets just like individuals or households do. This analogy has a simplistic appeal, but is flawed because it ignores critical differences between households and governments as far as budgets are concerned:</div>
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<ul>
<li>Individuals and households have finite lifetimes, governments exist forever</li>
</ul>
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When people die, their debts have to be paid off or assumed by their heirs. If there is a chance that their assets will be insufficient to pay off their debts, creditors will have to write off debts. Governments, on the other hand, continue to exist beyond any human lifetimes. For a sovereign government, there is no date in the near or distant future when <i>all</i> debts have to be cleared. The US federal government has been in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt">debt continuously since 1790</a>, except for a brief period in 1835.</div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Individuals may lose their earning power through sickness or job loss, governments always retain their power to impose and collect taxes</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Sovereign national governments control their currency, and thus never have to default on debts in their own currency.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Governments own many assets whose value is not accurately known: land, forests, rivers, claims to territorial waters, intangible things like rights to usage of the electromagnetic spectrum, etc.</li>
</ul>
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These characteristics of sovereign governments mean that they can never go bankrupt. They may choose to default on debt in times of economic distress, as several governments do, but they remain going concerns because of their ability to raise revenues, either through taxation or sale of assets.</div>
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Politicians sometimes use the rhetorical technique of stressing how much of the national debt "every man, woman, and child" owes. This is misleading in several ways. As we noted above, there is no date when all of the debt is due. Secondly, it is not as if debt collectors are going to be knocking down your doors. Or, as a friend of mine put it colorfully, sovereign debt will not result in your kneecaps being smashed.</div>
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While you might be relieved at the presumptive risk to your kneecaps being low, the debts accumulated by various governments are large and impressive. Without accounting for the various stimulus packages described above, the US debt was \$23.9 trillion, as of April 6, 2020, a number that is updated daily to <a href="https://treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/current">heroically futile precision</a>. Numbers from other countries are no less impressive. China's debt is 65.6 trillion Yuan (estimated from <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/profile/CHN/WEO">IMF data </a>and the USD-Yuan exchange rate), the UK's is <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicspending/bulletins/ukgovernmentdebtanddeficitforeurostatmaast/september2019">£1.8 trillion</a>, Japan's is <a href="https://www.stat-search.boj.or.jp/ssi/cgi-bin/famecgi2?cgi=$nme_a000_en&lstSelection=PF02">¥1116.3 trillion</a>, India's is ₹140 trillion (using <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/GGXWDG_NGDP@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD/IND">IMF data for India</a> and a GDP of ₹204 trillion) . We clearly need a scale to make sensible comparisons between countries as well as over time. The most common measure chosen is the GDP, thus giving rise to the debt-to-GDP ratio. In terms of this ratio, the numbers for these countries are:<br />
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<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; table-layout: fixed; width: 0px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><colgroup><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Country"}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Country</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Debt to GDP"}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Debt to GDP</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Japan"}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Japan</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2.38}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">238%</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"US"}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">US</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1.08}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">108%</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"UK"}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">UK</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":0.85}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">85%</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"India"}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">India</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":0.69}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">69%</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"China"}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">China</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":0.61}" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">61%</td></tr>
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<b>Optimal debt ratio</b><br />
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There is no consensus on the optimal value for the debt-to-GDP ratio. In Europe, the treaty that set up the structure of the European Union (<a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/explainers/tell-me-more/html/25_years_maastricht.en.html">the Maastricht Treaty</a>) required member states to avoid excessive deficits and provided a reference value for the debt-to-GDP ratio of 60% (in addition to an annual deficit to be restricted to 3% of GDP). This was no theoretically derived number; it was apparently the median ratio at the time<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#fn1" id="ref1"> [1]</a>. The limit has been breached quite often by several countries within the EU, with no major consequences.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="325" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.google.com/publicdata/embed?ds=ds22a34krhq5p_&ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=gd_pc_gdp&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country_group&idim=country:de:fr:it:es:uk&ifdim=country_group&hl=en_US&dl=en_US&ind=false" width="400"></iframe><br />
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This issue jumped from academic and policy discussions into public consciousness in the aftermath of the recession that resulted from the financial crisis of 2008. An empirical study by two Harvard economists, Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, first published in 2010, claimed that high debt-to-GDP ratios, beyond 90%, were bad for economic growth<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#fn2" id="ref2"> [2].</a> This study was quoted by politicians such as Paul Ryan in the US, George Osborne in the UK, and EU economics commissioner Ollie Rehn, in support of their efforts to curb government spending and impose austerity measures. However, when University of Massachussetts, Amherst, graduate student Thomas Herndon tried to verify these conclusions, he failed. He later wrote a paper with two professors about the results <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#fn3" id="ref3"> [3]</a>. The abstract of the paper lays it out clearly:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We replicate Reinhart and Rogoff (2010a and 2010b) and find that coding errors,
selective exclusion of available data, and unconventional weighting of summary statistics
lead to serious errors that inaccurately represent the relationship between public debt
and GDP growth among 20 advanced economies in the post-war period. Our finding is
that when properly calculated, the average real GDP growth rate for countries carrying
a public-debt-to-GDP ratio of over 90 percent is actually 2.2 percent, not −0.1 percent
as published in Reinhart and Rogoff. That is, contrary to RR, average GDP growth
at public debt/GDP ratios over 90 percent is not dramatically different than when
debt/GDP ratios are lower.
We also show how the relationship between public debt and GDP growth varies
significantly by time period and country. Overall, the evidence we review contradicts
Reinhart and Rogoff’s claim to have identified an important stylized fact, that public
debt loads greater than 90 percent of GDP consistently reduce GDP growth.</blockquote>
This issue received an unusual amount of coverage in the media. Among others, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22223190">BBC provided a narrative</a>, while the New Yorker had a <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-reinhart-and-rogoff-controversy-a-summing-up">decent explanation</a> of the substantive issues. Reinhart and Rogoff called the issue an "academic kerfuffle", and the surrounding controversy doesn't seem to have changed their views on the matter. A Google search reveals that they are still writing op ed pieces in March 2020 warning about the dangers of high debt.<br />
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Apart from the refutation provided by Herndon and colleagues, we can also look at the historical track records of some major economies, as shown below.<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="225" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQGqmtKNeALIG2OaOdbLLiaTzfps1CEmPmMi97xWwuLycMZGcwPloP0AOUrMx6-Hxl2nyTnmohriQOJ/pubchart?oid=1608910867&format=interactive" width="404"></iframe><br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="225" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQGqmtKNeALIG2OaOdbLLiaTzfps1CEmPmMi97xWwuLycMZGcwPloP0AOUrMx6-Hxl2nyTnmohriQOJ/pubchart?oid=343492730&format=interactive" width="404"></iframe><br />
The UK has had a debt-to-GDP ratio above 100% for very long periods of time, both in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, for much of which it was the world's leading imperial and economic power. Japan had a large debt relative to GDP during the second world war and a discontinuity after its defeat and change of regime. In 1996, its debt-to-GDP ratio crossed 100% and is now inching close to 250%.<br />
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<b>Debt dynamics</b><br />
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While it's not clear what the limit on the debt-to-GDP ratio should be, the algebra of changes in debt over time is quite straightforward. Let $D_t$ be the debt in year $t$. This debt is the result of the previous year's debt $D_{t-1}$ plus the interest cost, minus the excess of revenues over expenses in the budget.</div>
\[\begin{eqnarray}<br />
D_t &=& D_{t-1} + r D_{t-1} - \big(Rev_t - Exp_t\big) \nonumber \\<br />
&=& (1+r) D_{t-1} - PB_t<br />
\end{eqnarray}<br />
\]<br />
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where the rate of interest on debt is $r$ and $PB_t$ denotes the so-called primary balance, the excess of revenues over expenses. When this number is positive, it helps reduce the debt and increases it otherwise. Dividing by GDP, we have</div>
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\[ \begin{eqnarray}<br />
\frac{D_t}{GDP_t} &=& (1+r) \frac{GDP_{t-1}}{GDP_t} \frac{D_{t-1}}{GDP_{t-1}} - \frac{PB_t}{GDP_t} \nonumber \\<br />
d_t &=& \frac{1+r}{1+g}d_{t-1} - pb_t<br />
\end{eqnarray}<br />
\]</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
where the lower case variable names refer to the debt and primary balance scaled by GDP, and $g$ is the growth rate of nominal GDP. This can be written in a slightly more useful way as<br />
\[<br />
d_t - d_{t-1} = \frac{r-g}{1+g} d_{t-1} - pb_t<br />
\]</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This equation shows that the debt-to-GDP ratio can be kept constant if the two terms on the right hand side are equal in magnitude. So, if the growth rate of nominal GDP is greater than the interest rate on debt, the government can have a primary deficit without affecting the debt-to-GDP ratio.</div>
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Let's plug in some numbers to get a sense of what is possible. For the US, the current debt-to-GDP ratio is 110%. Taking real GDP growth to be about 2% and inflation to be 2%, the nominal growth rate $g=4\%$. Currently, the US can borrow money for a fairly long term at astonishingly low rates. We can take $r=1.5\%$<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#fn4" id="ref4"> [4]</a>. If we keep the debt-to-GDP ratio fixed,</div>
\[<br />
pb_t = \frac{1.5\%-4\%}{104\%} 110\% = -2.6\%<br />
\]<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Since US GDP is about \$21.7 trillion, this means that the US can have a primary deficit of \$564 billion without affecting the debt-to-GDP ratio.</div>
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What would the effect of the stimulus package be? We will have to make an assumption of the impact of the outbreak on the economy. Let's assume that real GDP falls by 10% (for comparison, it fell by 2.75% in the 2008 recession). Then, assuming inflation of 2%, $g=-8\%$. This implies that GDP will fall to about \$20 trillion. Since debt will increase from \$24 trillion to \$26 trillion, the debt-to-GDP ratio will become 130%. High, but not cause for alarm. </div>
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<b>Other concerns</b><br />
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There are other concerns raised by people who think that high government debt is a bad thing. Among these are:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The crowding out effect</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The crowding out effect refers to the reduction in private investment in the economy in the presence of heavy government borrowing. The existence of this effect was debated by economists even back in the 1970s<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#fn5" id="ref5"> [5]</a>. The mechanism by which the crowding out is supposed to occur is an increase in interest rates. We can look at the empirical evidence to see if interest rates have increased with government debt. </div>
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" scrolling="no" src="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/graph-landing.php?g=qDSP&width=670&height=475" style="overflow: hidden;"></iframe></div>
<script src="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/js/embed.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br />
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The 10-year constant maturity yield is a benchmark for many rates in the economy and is a good proxy for medium term interest rates for private investment. As the plot shows, the relationship between government debt levels and the 10-year yield seems to be the exact opposite of what the crowding out effect would suggest. </div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The burden on future generations</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Advocates for limiting government debt often cast the debt as a moral issue, talking about how we are burdening our children and grand children. This is misleading on a couple of fronts. As mentioned above, there is no particular date when all of the debt (or any significant part of it) becomes due. Because the government can roll over debt or refinance it if interest rates are favorable, there is a fair amount of flexibility in debt management, so the burden can be spread out over a few generations. If the economic growth rate is larger than the interest rate on debt, the government can even reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio without increasing taxes.</div>
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Secondly, it is useful to remember that a significant part of the debt is held by the public either directly or through mutual fund or retirement account investments. In any generation, while everyone pays taxes, many people benefit from the interest paid on government debt. So it is never the case that an entire generation will have to bear the burden (however defined) of national debt. </div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Foreign holding of debt</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Every once in a while, alarms are raised in the US, about China holding a large amount of US debt. This list of <a href="https://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt?mod=article_inline">foreign holders of US Treasuries</a> shows that China and Japan trade places as the top two holders of US Treasury securities, to the tune of about \$1.1 trillion. These are large numbers, but they amount to about 4% each of total US debt. The fear expressed in the US is that China will start selling US Treasuries, thus causing bond prices to fall and yields to rise. If China does this at any significant scale it would reduce the value of its remaining holdings, resulting in major losses. Governments have done crazier things, but this does seem quite unlikely.</div>
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While the foreign holding of debt is not a major concern for the US or other major developed countries, it is a significant issue for low or middle income emerging countries. These countries often borrow internationally in foreign currencies, and then face major problems when the debt servicing costs rise. So it clearly makes sense for emerging countries to keep their external debt low.</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>High interest expense</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are plenty of news stories, articles, and opinion pieces highlighting the fact that the US government pays a lot in interest expense. This number was <a href="https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm">\$575 billion in 2019</a>, but about a quarter of it goes to other branches of government that hold Treasury securities. Nevertheless, it's a big number, so we scale it by GDP, and find that it amounts to 2%. As this <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYOIGDA188S">time series graph </a> shows, the interest expense was around 3% of GDP from 1985 to 1996. Of course, this is a consequence of the fact that even as the debt has risen, interest rates have fallen significantly over the last two decades. Nevertheless, the interest expense is not currently a cause for worry.</div>
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Again, it is worth highlighting that this argument does not apply to emerging countries, who face much higher interest rates, in addition to their debt being denominated in foreign currencies. For such economies, it makes a lot of sense to reduce external debt as much as feasible. One other good argument is that interest payments come at the cost of development expenditure for such things as education, health care, and infrastructure.</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Deficit spending on undesirable things</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is an important concern, but it is primarily a political and social debate. What is desirable varies according to individual judgment and political ideology. Conservatives in the US seek to reduce deficits by reducing welfare spending or entitlements, whereas those on the left would prefer to do that by progressive taxation of the wealthy, or by reducing the defense budget. Unfortunately, the algebra of debt dynamics, or the history of debt-to-GDP ratios and interest rates is of no help here.</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>An upper bound on the debt-to-GDP ratio</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Does all this mean that there is no limit on how much governments can borrow? The answer is no. We can derive one potential upper bound from a simple requirement: the interest payment should not exceed the government's total revenue. This means that<br />
\[ \begin{eqnarray}<br />
rD_{t-1} & \le& Rev_t \nonumber \\<br />
d_{t-1} &\le& \frac{(1+g)}{r}\bigg(\frac{Rev_t}{GDP_t}\bigg)<br />
\end{eqnarray}<br />
\]<br />
The bound depends on the growth rate of nominal GDP and the interest rate on debt, along with the share of GDP going to government revenue.<br />
<br />
To get an estimate of the bound in a terrible economic situation, let's take the case of Greece during it's debt crisis at the beginning of 2012. It's <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPMNACSCAB1GQEL#0">GDP had fallen by 8.6%</a> in 2011, inflation was <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?locations=GR">3.3%</a>, and in February 2012, the <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IRLTLT01GRM156N">yield on its 10-year bond</a> had risen to about 30%. The <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS?locations=GR&view=chart">government's revenue as a fraction of GDP</a> was about 45% in 2012. Plugging these numbers in, we get<br />
\[<br />
d_{t-1} \le \frac{1-5.3\%}{30\%} 45\% \approx 142\%<br />
\]<br />
It is worth emphasizing again that it is the economic disaster that results in this upper bound on the debt-to-GDP ratio, and not the other way round.<br />
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<b>References</b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#ref1" id="fn1"> [1] </a></span>Chowdhury, A. and Islam, I., "Is there an optimal debt-to-GDP ratio?", VOX CEPR Policy Portal, 2010. <a href="https://voxeu.org/debates/commentaries/there-optimal-debt-gdp-ratio">Link.</a><span style="text-align: justify;"></span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#ref2" id="fn2">[2]</a> Reinhart, C. M., and Rogoff, K. S., "Growth in a Time of Debt", NBER Working Paper number 15639, 2010. <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w15639">Link</a>.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#ref3" id="fn3">[3]</a> Herndon, T., Ash, M., Pollin, R., "Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? A Critique of Reinhart and Rogoff", Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachussetts, Amherst, 2013.<a href="https://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/working_papers_301-350/WP322.pdf"> Link</a>.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#ref4" id="fn4">[4]</a> This number is the 10-year zero coupon rate inferred from the yields of Treasury securities. <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/economic-policy/corp-bond-yield/Documents/tnc_18_22.xls">Source.</a></span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=rj&blogID=14743513#ref5" id="fn5">[5]</a> Carlson, K. M. and Spencer, R. W., "Crowding Out and Its Critics", Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 1975.<a href="https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/publications/review/75/12/Crowding_Dec1975.pdf"> Link</a>.</span></div>
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VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-317240350241330152020-01-27T00:48:00.001-08:002020-01-29T10:57:12.292-08:00Twenty-first century right-wing movements<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We live in interesting times, with multiple right-wing governments around the world. Among these are: the US, India, the UK, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, the Philippines, and Turkey.<br />
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Here are some characteristics that I have distilled from reading the news and watching events unfold. See if the right-wing movement you are thinking about has these features. </div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify;">Majoritarianism</li>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Hatred of minorities, immigrants</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Depicting majority group as victim and decrying its weakness</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Claiming minorities are particularly favored or pampered</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Fear of being outnumbered by immigration or by rapid population growth of minorities</li>
</ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Intimidation of and violence against minorities and opponents. Usage of state machinery for these purposes.</li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;">Virulent nationalism, constant invocation of external enemy and local fifth column.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Repeated public exaltation of military strength.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Veneration of a glorious past.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Sexual anxiety: fears of miscegenation, of women of the majority being enticed by minorities, dislike of LGBTQ people.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Heavy use of Propaganda. Reliance on short slogans, repetition of blatant lies, coded phrases and dog whistles.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Intolerance of dissent. Opponents described as anti-national or labeled traitors.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Pronounced anti-intellectualism, disregard for facts and data.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Reverence for authority, personality cult.</li>
</ol>
Please use comments to provide examples, as well as to suggest additions and changes to the list.<br />
<div>
<br />
<u>Update (January 28, 2020)</u>: Two additions suggested by my friend <a href="http://www.shunya.net/Text/Policy.htm">Namit Arora</a>:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="text-align: justify;">The need to radically rewrite history and find new national heroes and sources of pride. Equating history of nation with the sanitized history of one community while denigrating the history of other communities.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;">Emphasis on patriotism and various public tests of patriotism (or lack thereof).</span></li>
</ol>
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
</ol>
</div>
</div>
VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-47173857945499476432020-01-26T23:21:00.002-08:002020-01-31T12:37:26.998-08:00Original Fascism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Over the last decade, several countries around the world have elected right-wing governments. Opponents of these governments and concerned commentators have described the swing to the right as the rise of Fascism. I have often wondered whether this is an accurate description or hyperbolic alarmism on the part of liberal and left-leaning critics.<br />
<br /></div>
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A big difficulty to note upfront is that Fascism is notoriously hard to define precisely. Umberto Eco, the Italian philosopher and author (of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose">The Name of the Rose</a> fame), <a href="https://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf">in a 1995 essay on Fascism</a>, captures this well:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism, a collage of different philosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions. </blockquote>
George Orwell <a href="https://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc">noted,</a> as early as 1944, that the term had already been applied to conservatives, socialists, communists, Trotskyists, Catholics, war resisters, war supporters, and anti-imperial nationalists. Today, it retains that flexibility: the first insult that is hurled at anyone showing authoritarian tendencies is "fascist pig".<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
In order to use the phrase accurately, it seems worthwhile to explore the early history of the two cases that set the template: fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Fascism first arose in Italy, around the time of the first world war, and came to the world's attention in the 1920s, when the Nationalist Fascist Party rose to power. It emerged as an offshoot of socialist politics in Italy, but turned rabidly anti-socialist and anti-marxist. It's economic platform kept changing. The term itself arises from the Italian word <i>fascio, </i>used in Italy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for a political group or league of workers. The word means a bundle of sticks, ultimately from the Latin word <i>fasces. </i>The idea was that a bundle indicates strength in its unity.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In 1914, Benito Mussolini founded the <i>Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria</i> (League of Revolutionary Action), supporting Italian intervention in the first world war with the Italian nationalist goal of reclaiming lands with Italian speaking populations (such as Trieste and Dalmatia) from Austria-Hungary. In 1919, after the end of the war, the name was changed to <i>Fasci italiani di combattimento </i>(Italian league of combatants). The league gained the support of Italian war veterans, among them the <i>Arditi </i>(The Daring), shock troops used during the war. The black shirts worn by the Arditi were later adopted by Mussolini's paramilitary. In November 1921, the league was renamed the <i>Partito Nazionale Fascista </i>(National Fascist Party). This was the organization that helped Mussolini to power in 1922 after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_on_Rome">March on Rome</a>. Over the course of the next few years, Mussolini converted Italy into an ultra-nationalist, totalitarian and militaristic state, with himself as the dictator.<br />
<br /></div>
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In Germany, a related ideology emerged in the aftermath of the first world war. In January 1919, the <i>Deutsche Arbeiterpartei </i>(German Workers' Party) was founded by Anton Drexler. The party's views were ultra-nationalist: it opposed the Treaty of Versailles, it believed in the superiority of Germans as part of an Aryan master race, and it was strongly antisemitic. Even though it was a small party, with fewer than 60 members, the German army grew suspicious, and sent Adolf Hitler to infiltrate it. He attracted the attention of the party leaders with his oratory and soon joined them. In early 1920, he became chief of propaganda for the party. In February 1920, the party was renamed the <i>Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei</i> ("National Socialist German Workers' Party") or NSDAP. The term "Nazi" was a short form of of the German male name Ignatz and used as slang for a peasant, or clumsy person. Political opponents shortened a part of the party's name, <i>Nationalsozialistische</i>, to the derogatory "Nazi". Party members generally did not call themselves Nazis.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The party's program clearly laid out its major themes of extreme German nationalism and antisemitism. In 1921, Hitler became the sole and absolute leader of the party, and took the title of <i>Führer</i> ("leader"). In the same year, the paramilitary wing of the party, the <i>Sturmabteilung</i> ("Storm Detachment") or SA was formalized. It consisted of ex-soldiers and others used for protection at meetings as well as for violent attacks against other political parties and opponents. They wore brown uniforms, which led to them being called <i>Braunhemden</i>, or Brownshirts. In 1925, the <i>Schutzstaffel</i> ("Protection Squadron") or SS was established. The SA and SS were the organizations responsible for intimidation, violence, torture, murder, and eventually, genocide.<br />
<br />
Germany's economic problems during 1921 to 1923 coincided with increasing membership of the Nazi party. Hitler and his party decided to mount a coup, starting with Munich in Bavaria, with the hope that the army would support their takeover of power. This did not happen, and Hitler was arrested in the aftermath of the failed attempt. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but served only nine months before being released in December 1924. During his prison term, he wrote his book, <i>Mein Kampf</i> ("My Struggle").<br />
<br />
Over the next few years, the reconstituted Nazi party continued to grow significantly. It even participated in elections, but didn't do very well, getting only 2.6% of the vote in 1928. However, its vote share grew to 18.3% in 1930, its support rising due to the severe economic disruption caused by the Great Depression - from 1929 to 1933, nine million people were thrown out of work, and wages fell drastically. The Nazis blamed all of this on Jews and communists and promised economic revival and a return to German greatness. In the July 1932 elections, the Nazis won 37.4% of the vote. Since no party had obtained a majority, another round of elections were held in November 1932, with similar results. In January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. Following a fire at the <i>Reichstag</i> (Legislature) building in February 1933, the Nazis claimed that a communist conspiracy planned to overthrow the government. Hitler moved rapidly towards suspending civil liberties and dismantling any trace of democracy. The Enabling Act of March 1933 allowed him to rule via decree for four years. All other political parties were abolished in July 1933. After the President's death in August 1934, Hitler combined the offices of President and Chancellor, thus becoming both head of state and head of government.<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Both Fascism and Nazism led to aggressively expansionist military dictatorships. Today's right wing governments are unlike fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in those respects, but share other characteristics with the two primary exemplars of Fascism. I list some of these below:<br />
<ul>
<li>Extreme nationalism</li>
</ul>
Central to both Italian Fascism and Nazism was a belief in national glory. They justified their territorial claims and military adventures with a purported need for "living space", using the terms <i>spazio vitale </i> and <i>lebensraum</i> respectively.<br />
<ul>
<li>Group identification of enemies</li>
</ul>
The Nazis were rabidly antisemitic, and thought that the Jews were responsible for everything wrong with their world. The Italian fascists were not as rabid as the Nazis regarding the Jews, but they regarded all left-wing movements as their enemies. This had its roots in their belief that all socialist political movements opposed Italian intervention in World War I and Italian nationalism in general.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li>Employment of violence and intimidation</li>
</ul>
The fascists had their Blackshirts, the Nazis their Brownshirts. During the years 1920 to 1922, the fascists carried out thousands of acts of intimidation and violence, which included beatings, killings, and humiliations (see <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/how-italian-fascists-succeeded-in-taking-over-italy.html">this</a> for a brief, but vivid description). In Germany, the SA fought in the streets with political opponents, intimidated Jews, Roma, and any other groups described as “enemies of Germany.” In 1931, more than 8,000 people were injured or killed in political violence in Germany (more details about the SA<a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/brownshirt-violence-and-the-nazi-machine/"> here</a>).<br />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Veneration of a glorious past, strong sense of current decline, promise of revival</li>
</ul>
Italian Fascism saw an Italian empire as a successor of the Roman empire and Renaissance Italy. The Nazis believed that they descended from the master race of the Aryans, who, through migration, had been responsible for most cultures and civilizations, including the Greek, the Iranian, and Indian.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li>Extensive use of propaganda and a cult of the leader</li>
</ul>
Mussolini was glorified ceaselessly in fascist Italy, which made extensive use of propaganda. Among its slogans was <i>Mussolini ha sempre ragione</i> ("Mussolini is always right"). The Nazis used propaganda even more extensively, if anything. Hitler recognized its value in <i>Mein Kampf</i>: </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. ... All propaganda must be presented in a popular form ... The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward. </blockquote>
</div>
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VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-41800731515033459992020-01-02T21:50:00.002-08:002020-01-26T23:57:35.270-08:00IIT investigates Faiz<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Democratic India has had a long-standing tradition of court cases filed by individuals whose "religious sentiments" are hurt by various slights. In line with this tradition is the news from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, that a committee has been instituted to investigate whether one of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poems is "anti-Hindu".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As reported by various media outlets (for example, <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/faiz-ahmad-faizs-poem-of-defiance-is-anti-hindu-iit-kanpur-probes-2157266">here</a>) a complaint against a student march claimed that the Faiz <i>nazm (</i>poem) sung at the march was "anti-Hindu". The poem in question is known by its refrain, "Hum Dekehnge" (हम देखेंगे), and was composed by Faiz in 1979, in opposition to the fundamentalist dictatorship led by Zia Ul Haq in Pakistan. In 1986, a year or so after the death of Faiz, Iqbal Bano, a well-known ghazal singer, sang this song in a Lahore stadium in front of fifty thousand people. She wore a black sari as a mark of defiance against a ban on the sari imposed by the Zia government.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are many places on the web where you can find the whole <i>nazm. </i>The indispensable <a href="https://www.rekhta.org/">Rekhta</a> allows you to read it <a href="https://www.rekhta.org/nazms/va-yabqaa-vajh-o-rabbik-hum-dekhenge-ham-dekhenge-faiz-ahmad-faiz-nazms">in Roman script</a>. Via a dropdown, you can switch to Devanagari or Urdu script if you so wish. Of the translations available on the web, one of the better ones is <a href="https://ghazala.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/hum-dekhenge/">https://ghazala.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/hum-dekhenge/</a>:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #545454; line-height: 29.24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We shall Witness</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is certain that we too, shall witness</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">the day that has been promised</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">of which has been written on the slate of eternity</span></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 29.24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When the enormous mountains of tyranny</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">blow away like cotton.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Under our feet- the feet of the oppressed-</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">when the earth will pulsate deafeningly</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">and on the heads of our rulers</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">when lightning will strike.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 29.24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">From the abode of God</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When icons of falsehood will be taken out,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When we- the faithful- who have been barred out of sacred places</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">will be seated on high cushions</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When the crowns will be tossed,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When the thrones will be brought down.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 29.24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Only The name will survive</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who cannot be seen but is also present</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who is the spectacle and the beholder, both</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am the Truth- the cry will rise,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Which is I, as well as you</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And then God’s creation will rule</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Which is I, as well as you</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am having trouble seeing what is anti-Hindu about this.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe I should try and understand the reasoning of Vashi Mant Sharma, a faculty member at IIT Kanpur (some of whose fevered output can be seen <a href="http://agniveer.com/emotional-protecting-cows-fanatic-goraksha/">here</a>). According to <a href="https://www.livemint.com/education/news/at-iit-kanpur-protest-bares-old-faultlines-11577384544572.html">this livemint article</a>, Sharma filed a complaint with the institute's director:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: inherit;">Sharma said that the poem was communal: “Two lines in the poem, when literally translated from Urdu to English, read ‘When All Idols Will Be Removed…Only Allah’s Name Will Remain’," he wrote in the complaint.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #212121;">That was evidence, Sharma said, that the “gathering was orchestrated by certain nefarious elements and aimed at radicalizing innocent students, spreading hate against India, the faith of billions, and communally vitiating the atmosphere of the institute," he said.</span> </span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">OK, so let's look at the original lines.</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div data-l="11" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 337px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\2ymo" style="background: rgb(246 , 246 , 246); border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 11.5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">jab </span><span data-m="\1w0e" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 11.5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">arz-e-ḳhudā </span><span data-m="\12od" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 11.5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ke </span><span data-m="gWy+VTSFWD7fdCb+O3xXl8LIii2G347jjV89Ho9txK4=" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 11.5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ka.abe </span><span data-m="\1nr7" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">se </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\2owx" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 34.3333px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">sab </span><span data-m="\0ccv" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 34.3333px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">but </span><span data-m="\2nny" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 34.3333px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">uThvā.e </span><span data-m="\2cba" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">jā.eñge </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\233f" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ham </span><span data-m="\0ard" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ahl-e-safā </span><span data-m="\1nls" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">mardūd-e-haram </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="14" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 337px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\22kw" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">masnad </span><span data-m="\29c6" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">pe </span><span data-m="\28au" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">biThā.e </span><span data-m="\2cba" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">jā.eñge </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="15" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 337px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\2owx" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 33px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">sab </span><span data-m="\1vws" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 33px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">taaj </span><span data-m="\13ai" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 33px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">uchhāle </span><span data-m="\2cba" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">jā.eñge </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="16" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 337px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\2owx" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 36px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">sab </span><span data-m="\2ez0" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 36px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">taḳht </span><span data-m="\218u" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 36px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">girā.e </span><span data-m="\2cba" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">jā.eñge </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="17" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 337px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\1wg1" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">bas </span><span data-m="\1x0k" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">naam </span><span data-m="\1dvn" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">rahegā </span><span data-m="\0xms" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">allāh </span><span data-m="\1h5u" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">kā </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\2ymo" style="background: rgb(246 , 246 , 246); border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 17.25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">जब </span><span data-m="\1w0e" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 17.25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">अर्ज़-ए-ख़ुदा </span><span data-m="\12od" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 17.25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">के </span><span data-m="gWy+VTSFWD7fdCb+O3xXl8LIii2G347jjV89Ho9txK4=" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 17.25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">काबे </span><span data-m="\1nr7" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">से </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="12" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 292px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\2owx" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 40.3333px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">सब </span><span data-m="\0ccv" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 40.3333px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">बुत </span><span data-m="\2nny" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 40.3333px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">उठवाए </span><span data-m="\2cba" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">जाएँगे </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="13" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 292px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\233f" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">हम </span><span data-m="\0ard" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">अहल-ए-सफ़ा </span><span data-m="\1nls" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">मरदूद-ए-हरम </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="14" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 292px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\22kw" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 38px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">मसनद </span><span data-m="\29c6" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 38px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">पे </span><span data-m="\28au" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 38px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">बिठाए </span><span data-m="\2cba" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">जाएँगे </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="15" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 292px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\2owx" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 39.3333px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">सब </span><span data-m="\1vws" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 39.3333px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ताज </span><span data-m="\13ai" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 39.3333px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">उछाले </span><span data-m="\2cba" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">जाएँगे </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="16" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 292px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\2owx" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 38.6667px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">सब </span><span data-m="\2ez0" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 38.6667px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">तख़्त </span><span data-m="\218u" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 38.6667px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">गिराए </span><span data-m="\2cba" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">जाएँगे </span></span></div>
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<div data-l="17" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 292px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span data-m="\1wg1" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 21.75px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">बस </span><span data-m="\1x0k" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 21.75px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">नाम </span><span data-m="\1dvn" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 21.75px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">रहेगा </span><span data-m="\0xms" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 21.75px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">अल्लाह </span><span data-m="\1h5u" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">का</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks again to the wonderful <a href="https://www.rekhta.org/">Rekhta</a>, we can translate the verse word by word, phrase by phrase. Here is what that results in:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When, from the <i>Kaaba </i> of God's earth</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All idols will be lifted</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We, the pure people, those excluded from the sanctuary</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Will be seated on the cushioned throne</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All crowns will be tossed</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All thrones will be made to fall</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And only God's name will remain </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The <i>Kaaba</i> is the<span style="background-color: white;"> large cubical building inside the most important mosque in Mecca. It is considered to be the most sacred site in Islam.</span> As Shoaib Danyal <a href="https://scroll.in/article/948419/the-art-of-resistance-how-faizs-hum-dekhenge-has-battled-tyranny-across-time-and-place">explains</a>, the lines in this verse refer to an event in which, according to Islamic tradition, Muhammad had the idols (representing "false gods") in the <i>Kaaba </i> removed after his army conquered Mecca.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As I see it, there are two choices available to us: we can either interpret the lines literally or metaphorically. Metaphorical interpretations can vary widely, and reasonable people can disagree on what a poem really means. However, Sharma is interpreting the lines literally, so let's see if his conclusions follow from a literal interpretation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sharma chooses only lines 2 and 7 (numbering as in my literal translation of the verse). The missing lines are obscured by the convenient ellipsis, but it is more important that he chooses to exclude the first line of the verse, which explicitly mentions the <i>Kaaba. </i> Read this with the second line, and it is clear that the idols referred to are those from the <i>Kaaba</i><i style="font-weight: bold;">,</i> and so of pre-Islamic Arabic gods. Thus, it is totally illogical to connect the lines with "anti-Hindu" sentiment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I find it sad that people who lack basic logical rigor can still become faculty members at one of India's premier educational institutions. Sadder still, was that the deputy director of the institute tried to paper over this lunacy</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="backface-visibility: hidden; background-color: white; color: #212121; line-height: 28px; list-style-type: none; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 8px 20px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Agarwal, the deputy director, said the “students should not worry about anything unless they have something to hide". He hopes that the resolution of this controversy will make the students realise that different views must be appreciated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“It was insensitive to read the Faiz poem at that time and place. Different people can have different views that need to be respected. That is the sense we would like to bring to campus," Agarwal said.</span></div>
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VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-72656122908443994062020-01-02T16:39:00.000-08:002020-01-28T14:07:51.483-08:00Early America<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Once in a while, I hit the jackpot with my random browsing in public libraries. Recently, I chanced upon a book called The American Colonies by Alan Taylor, published in 2001.</div>
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<img alt="Front Cover" src="https://books.google.com/books/content?id=NPoAQRgkrOcC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE73_kM8fEedSDzyD1LFeCmujn8bG55bZoMji_HU0iG_i4WG823mLayuT7kda9CIotrkEGrf4NgR6XgycuvuO204qbfGwaqJz5FtYSBoPU7vc3eHKE6cGsUAdqVrKjo1-jGWDkW-h" /></div>
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This is a remarkable book, shorn of the usual triumphalism of books on American history. As the author says in the Introduction:</div>
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Until the 1960s most American historians assumed that "the colonists" meant English-speaking men confined to the Atlantic seaboard. Women were there as inconsequential helpmates. Indians were primitive peoples beyond the pale: unchanging objects of colonists' fears and aggressions. African slaves appeared as unfortunate aberrations in a fundamentally upbeat story of Englishmen becoming freer and more prosperous in an open land. The other colonies of rival empires -- Dutch, French, and Spanish -- were a hazy backdrop of hostility: backward threats to English America that alone spawned the American Revolution and the United States. ...</div>
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That narrow colonial cast and stage made for the fundamentally happy story of "American exceptionalism": the making of a new people, in a new land ... The story persists in our national culture and popular history because it offers an appealing simplification .... Moreover, not all of colonial America was English. Many native peoples encountered colonizers not as westward-bound Englishmen, but as Spanish heading north from Mexico, as Russians coming eastward from Siberia, or as French probing the Great Lakes and Mississippi river ...</div>
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To divide the peoples into three, into the racial and cultural categories of European, African, and Indian, only begins to reveal the human diversity of the colonial encounter. For each embraced an enormous variety of cultures and languages, For example, the eighteenth-century "British" colonists included substantial numbers of Welsh, Scots, Irish, Scots-Irish, Germans, Swedes, Finns, Dutch, and French Huguenots -- as well as the usual English suspects. .. Until lumped together in colonial slavery, the African conscripts varied even more widely in their ethnic identities, languages, and cultures. A very partial list of West African peoples includes Ashanti, Fulani, Ibo, Malagasy, Mandingo, and Yoruba. In general, their languages differed from one another more than English did from French or Spanish. Most diverse of all were the so-called Indians. Divided into hundreds of linguistically distinct peoples, the natives did not know that they were a common category until named and treated so by the colonial invaders.</blockquote>
<span style="text-align: justify;">This is already promising, given the willingness to present the complexity of the colonial encounter, which spanned the centuries starting with the voyages of Columbus in 1492, to at least the American revolution in 1776, if not the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_wars_of_independence" style="text-align: justify;">Latin American wars of independence</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> in the early nineteenth century. Every chapter in the book bristles with insights, and is aided by superb maps. The story of European expansionism in the 15th century is laid out with penetrating detail.</span><br />
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Popular literature reinforced the European longing for a new trade route to the fabled riches of the Far East. During the second half of the fifteenth century, the development of the printing press immensely lowered the cost and increased the volume of book publishing. ... By the end of the century, Europeans possessed twenty million copies of printed books. Readers especially delighted in vivid accounts of the wealth and power of India and China. These included the real travels of Marco Polo, an Italian merchant,as well as the pure fictions attributed to John de Mandeville. </blockquote>
The whole book is a great example of excellent history writing, including the wonderfully chosen maps. I recommend it highly. Read it, enjoy it, and spread the word.</div>
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VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-58267776094739574142014-02-23T15:32:00.002-08:002020-01-27T00:02:33.543-08:001984, 1993, 2002: Mass violence in India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Recently, there has been a bit of a flutter in the Indian media regarding an interview given by Rahul Gandhi, heir to the Nehru-Gandhi family legacy and potential prime ministerial candidate from the Congress party in the upcoming 2014 elections. At issue was a question put to him by the interviewer, asking him to compare two of the most horrendous episodes of collective violence in independent India.<br />
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The first of these happened in 1984, in the immediate aftermath of the October 31, 1984 assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, Rahul's grandmother, by her Sikh bodyguards. Over the next few days, Delhi saw large scale violence against Sikhs, with marauding mobs hunting them down and killing them brutally, sometimes by pouring kerosene or petrol on them and setting them aflame. Somewhere between 2500 and 3000 people were killed. Homes, shops, and Gurudwaras were burnt down. Many incidents of looting and rape were reported. The police stood by and watched. In some instances, they actually participated in the violence. Local leaders of the Congress party led these mobs and assisted them with lists of Sikh names and residences. <a href="http://www.unipune.ac.in/snc/cssh/HumanRights/04%20COMMUNAL%20RIOTS/B%20-%20ANTI%20-%20SIKH%20RIOTS/01%20-%20DELHI/a.pdf">There were reports</a> that the mobs were actually brought by bus to the various localities in Delhi. The leaders named most often as leading the mobs were Jagdish Tytler, H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, and Dharam Dass Shastri. Rahul's father Rajiv Gandhi, who was sworn in as prime minister on the day of the assassination itself, did not appear to be doing anything to control the violence. Home minister Narasimha Rao, a Congress party veteran later to become well known as a master of inaction, acted true to form, and did not do anything to curb the violence. There are persistent rumors that a decision to give rioters a free hand was taken at a meeting of Delhi Congress leaders which included Arun Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi's second cousin and right hand man at the time.</div>
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This pattern was followed in the Gujarat violence in 2002. The triggering incident was the death of 58 people, mostly Hindus, in a train fire at Godhra on February 27, 2002. The cause of the fire is not fully known, with independent enquiries calling it accidental and Hindu right wing reports labeling it an act of terrorism carried out by Muslims. For the next three days, Gujarat witnessed brutal violence against Muslims, with the eventual toll being about 2000 people killed. Many of the most terrible incidents took place in the city of Ahmedabad, in particular, at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naroda_Patiya_massacre">Naroda Patiya</a> and at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naroda_Patiya_massacre">Gulbarg Society</a>, where tens of people were hacked, raped, and burnt to death. The dead included a former member of parliament called Ehsan Jafri, whose attempts to seek help from the police and officials of the Gujarat government were all in vain. Many horrific incidents, including the searing of children with swords and spears, pulling out of foetuses from pregnant women's wombs, etc. were reported. The mobs were led by Maya Kodnani, a BJP legislator, and Babu Bajrangi, <a href="http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107After_killing.asp">a vicious, sadistic killer</a> who belonged to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. For several years afterwards, these two individuals remained free, with Kodnani even being elevated to the role of Women and Child Development minister in 2007. Only with the setting up of a special investigation team by the Supreme Court of India did the process of punishing those responsible gain momentum. Kodnani and Bajrangi were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in April 2012.</div>
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There have been repeated charges against Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, of having been responsible for the violence. Other than the inflammatory rhetoric typical of Hindu nationalist politicians, the main piece of evidence against Modi so far is the testimony of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjiv_Bhatt">senior police officer</a>, who claims that in a meeting on the day of the Godhra train burning incident, Modi told senior police officials to let Hindus "vent their anger". These claims have been contested, and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court of India has not believed them.</div>
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One major difference between Delhi 1984 and Gujarat 2002 is that the administrative and judicial machinery has managed to convict political leaders in the case of the Gujarat violence, albeit 10 years after the incident. For the Delhi violence, the pace of convictions has been glacially slow. As H.S. Phoolka <a href="http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262278">pointed out in 2009</a>, just over 20 people had been convicted in 25 years. This indicates that the perpetrators of the violence in Gujarat were not shielded as strongly by their political masters as their counterparts in Delhi were.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In today's political debate in India, these two incidents are inevitably linked together, mostly, but not solely by right-leaning outlets and opinion makers. There are indeed some difficult questions worth pondering: why is the Congress party, despite its professed secularism, any different from the avowedly Hindu nationalist BJP, as far as violence against minorities is concerned? Why is there such a benign view of Rajiv Gandhi, as opposed to Narendra Modi, who despite all the hype and whitewashing in the media, is seen more or less as a fascist?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mukul Kesavan, <a href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130726/jsp/opinion/story_17155627.jsp#.UwpmG_ldWLw">writing in the Telegraph</a>, differentiates between the two parties by saying that the Congress is opportunistically communal, while the BJP is opportunistically secular. This distinction has the merit of highlighting the patterns of behavior shown by the two parties, but leads to the dispiritng, if rather obvious, conclusion that there is precious little to hope for from either party. Amartya Sen has </span><a href="http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=821411"><span style="font-family: inherit;">echoed this line o</span>f thinking</a>, saying that the Congress has had no philosophy of killing Sikhs. The families of the Sikhs who died during the 1984 violence can justifiably find this to be irrelevant hairsplitting.<br />
As for the benign view of Rajiv Gandhi, there simply seem to be no accusations that he orchestrated the 1984 riots, the most common charge being his statement to the effect that <span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px;">"when a big tree falls, the earth beneath it is bound to shake". </span>Indeed, Khushwant Singh, <a href="http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?228338">writing about this in 2005</a>, says<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px;">I don't think Rajiv Gandhi was himself a party to the anti-Sikh pogrom. If he was guilty of anything, it was allowing it to go on for two days and nights till his mother's funeral was over.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px;"> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: start;">As <a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mani-shankar-aiyar-on-former-prime-minister-rajiv-gandhi-regime-and-death/1/138765.html">Mani Shankar Aiyar points out</a>, Rajiv Gandhi's statement about a big tree falling was made in a speech given about 15 days after the riots, and is generally used without providing the context of other things said in the speech. In addition, the actual quote seems to be "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 23.799999237060547px;">For some days, people thought that India was shaking. But there are always tremors when a great tree falls". A charitable view is that this was just pointing out to the world that India had survived a very troubled period. Nevertheless, it was a terrible choice of words, and can be interpreted as justifying the violence.</span></span></div>
The focus on 1984 and 2002 skips another major episode of violence, one that took place in Mumbai in late 1992 and early 1993, as a consequence of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demolition_of_Babri_Masjid">Babri Masjid demolition</a>. About 900 people, approximately two-thirds of them Muslims, were killed. The riots were followed by bomb blasts in March 1993, in which another 257 people, mostly Hindus, died. The Srikrishna commission, appointed to inquire into these incidents, clearly pointed out the role of the Shiv Sena, and its fascist leader Bal Thackeray in organising the violence. The commision's recommendations were never implemented. Rajdeep Sardesai, writing in 2013, <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/comment/rajdeepsardesai/an-inconvenient-truth/article1-1037500.aspx">describes what happened next</a>:<br />
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Within two years of the Mumbai violence, the BJP-Shiv Sena government came to power in Maharashtra for the first time by claiming to be 'protectors' of the majority community. Far from being questioned for inciting rioting, Thackeray became the 'remote control' of the new government.</div>
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The regime virtually threw the Srikrishna report into the Arabian Sea by describing it as one-sided and biased. The police officers who were named in the riots report were either let off and, in some instances, even promoted. The Congress-NCP government, which came to power in 1999, also chose not to act on the inquiry report.</div>
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None of the riot cases were pursued with any vigour and in only five has there been a conviction. The only Shiv Sena leader of any significance who was convicted was its former MP, Madhukar Sarpotdar, for making inflammatory speeches. He was sentenced to one year in jail but was immediately granted bail on a surety of just <span class="WebRupee" style="font-family: "myfont" , "myfont_ie";">Rs. </span>15,000.</div>
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The 1984 massacre was the basic template for other major incidents of mass violence in India in subsequent decades. These are all characterized by a similar pattern (i) some major incident takes place, which is seen as extreme provocation by Hindus in general (ii) brutal mob violence against a minority group, orchestrated by politicians, begins (iii) victims are systematically hunted down, with voter lists and addresses (iv) the police stand by, and often actively assist the marauding mobs (v) after two or three days, or after the deaths of a couple of thousand or so people, the violence is brought under control (vi) few people are prosecuted, witnesses are intimidated, and fewer people still are convicted and (vii) politicians go scot-free.</div>
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VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-31130615446407762222014-02-02T17:44:00.000-08:002014-02-23T15:54:21.761-08:00Economic snapshots<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There are several different ways in which we can view the relative economic performance of countries. A selection of graphs based on the <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators?cid=GPD_WDI">World Development Indicators (compiled by the World Bank)</a> reveals interesting patterns. All of this is made remarkably easy thanks to <a href="http://www.google.com/publicdata/directory">Google Public Data</a>.
The graphs tell interesting stories, but I have often been surprised at how different people interpret the same data, so I'll refrain from adding my commentary and see if readers come up with any interesting comments on the data, my selection of graphs, as well as my choice of countries for the graphs.
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VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-37237365590507759082012-01-22T19:34:00.000-08:002014-02-23T15:54:02.367-08:00War and Peace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;">It took me about one and a half months to read <i>War
and Peace</i>. Tolstoy's magnum opus, first published in the 1860s, has been acclaimed as one of the greatest novels ever
written, though the popular perception is that it is a very difficult book to finish reading. The length of the novel is clearly a huge
barrier to reading it, though unfamiliarity with the historical
context adds to the difficulties.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">To appreciate the book fully, it is useful to recall
the historical context. The story is set in the early nineteenth
century, spanning the period from 1805 to 1820. Its main characters
all come from the Russian nobility, and the narrative arc follows
their fortunes, set against the backdrop of the tumultuous events
surrounding Napoleon's invasion of Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">During the preceding century, Russia had emerged from
being a relatively isolated country to being one of the foremost
powers of Europe. During the reigns of Peter the Great (1696-1725)
and Catherine the Great (1762-1796), decisive turns had been made
towards Western European culture. Catherine the great considered
herself to be an Enlightenment figure, and corresponded with the
French philosophes such as Voltaire and Diderot. Diderot was present
at her court (and drew a salary) for some time during the 1770s. The
influence of the French language was so strong that it became the language
of the nobility, some of whose members could not speak Russian.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Alexander I, grandson of Catherine the Great, became Tsar of Russia in 1801. In 1805,
Russia went to war with Napoleon and lost at the famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Austerlitz">battle
of Austerlitz</a>. After more battles with Napoleon's armies in 1806
and 1807, the Treaty of Tilsit was signed and there was an uneasy peace for 5
years. Russia was reluctant to comply with the demands of Napoleon's Continental System, by which he attempted to impose a European trade embargo on Britain. The peace was ended by Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_invasion_of_Russia_1812">French invasion of Russia</a> began in June 1812, with over 400,000 troops. The Russians did not immediately give battle and kept withdrawing until they were in the vicinity of Moscow. The battle finally took place at the village of Borodino (near Moscow) in early September 1812, and tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides lost their lives. Though the French won the battle and went on to occupy Moscow, it was an incomplete and pyrrhic victory. Much of Moscow was set on fire, most likely on the orders of the city governor. This was a continuation of the scorched earth policy of the Russians. Tsar Alexander I refused to negotiate with Napoleon. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In October 1812, Napoleon began a retreat from Moscow. The retreat, by all accounts, was horrific. Supply lines, quite inadequate to begin with, were disrupted by Russian guerrilla attacks. The bitter Russian winter claimed many lives. Fodder for horses was scarce. Weak horses either died or were slaughtered for food by the starving soldiers. This led to the abandoning of cannons and wagons, further weakening the ability of the French army to fight the Russians. In early November, Napoleon learned of a coup attempt in Paris. He promptly abandoned the army and raced ahead to Paris. In the end, only about a tenth of the original troops actually made it back to France, all others having died or been taken prisoner by the Russians. Russian casualties were no less tragic. About two hundred thousand soldiers died, with the death toll of civilians perhaps just as large. Death and destruction on a massive scale were the results of Napoelon's Russian campaign.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Given this background, one can easily imagine why this period must have loomed large in the imagination of Russian intellectuals throughout the later parts of the nineteenth century. Tolstoy's decision to choose this period as the setting of <i>War and Peace</i> was determined ultimately by his realization of the central importance of this phase of his country's history.</span></div>
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<i>War and Peace</i> can be regarded as several books combined into one. In its most novel-like parts, it is an absorbing story of the fluctuating fortunes of its main characters, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova and her brother Nikolai, and Count Pierre Bezukhov. Struggling with their desires and aspirations, buffeted by the storms of dramatic historical events and by their own missteps, they try to make the best of their lives. On the other hand, viewed as historical fiction, the book is an unparalleled description of warfare in general and of the various battles of the Napoleonic campaigns in particular. </div>
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Parts of the book, the ones where Tolstoy tends to be repetitious, are devoted to military history, especially to debunking much of war strategy and the "great man" approach to history. These could easily be separated from the book to form a treatise on nineteenth century history writing. Tolstoy's emphasis on contingency in history and his debunking of Napoleon's greatness, or his much celebrated "military genius", are all quite persuasive. He is also very dismissive of the elaborate battle strategies of the generals and their adoration by (military) historians. His version of events relies more on the unexpected happenings in the thick of battle. However, his alternative explanations of Russian victories, which include waves of spirit sweeping through the Russians or the decline in morale among the French, are vague and dissatisfying.</div>
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Ultimately though, the parts of the book that I recall with pleasure are the characters and their lives and fortunes. Tolstoy devotes considerable time and space to develop many of the characters we meet in the book, even though not all of them are central to the main story line. In particular, I was surprised by how well etched the women characters were. Apart from his heroine, Natasha, he devotes considerable time to Maria Bolkonsky, Prince Andrei's deeply religious sister, Natasha's mother, the Countess Rostova , Natasha's poor cousin Sonya, and the old Princess Anna Mikhaylovna, who is so keen on promoting her son Boris Drubetskoy's career. This attention to the women characters was perhaps the influence of Tolstoy's own wife Sonia, who had a major role in the plot development, writing, and publication of <i>War and Peace</i>.</div>
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Tolstoy's great success lies in creating characters who are instantly recognizable, even by readers separated from early nineteenth century Russia by two hundred years. While they belong to the nobility, their striving is not uncommon. Natasha, the heroine, initially depicted as a spirited, if somewhat flighty young girl, ages and matures through the novel as circumstances and her own errors complicate her life. </div>
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The intelligent and ambitious Andrei Bolkonsky, whose wife dies in childbirth, is disillusioned by war and by his own life, after being injured in the battle of Austerlitz. He is revived by meeting Natasha and falling in love with her. During his absence, Natasha is swept off her feet by the sleazy Anatole Kuragin, and she breaks off her engagement with Andrei. Pierre Bezukhov, friend to Andrei and Natasha, informs her that Anatole is already married. Only much later is Natasha re-united with a dying Andrei. </div>
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Pierre is himself a complex character. Illegitimate son and fabulously wealthy heir, he struggles with his attempts to understand the meaning and purpose of his life. Maneuvred into a joyless marriage with Helene Kuragin, he joins the Freemasons, tries to make the lives of serfs easier, joins the army, and is taken prisoner. Ultimately, he finds wisdom in Platon Karatayev, a fellow prisoner and peasant. This is Tolstoy's tribute to the earthy wisdom of native Russians, as opposed to the sophisticated and convoluted thought of the French.</div>
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The version of War and Peace I read is a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/War-Peace-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/067003469X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327287296&sr=1-2">2005 Penguin Classics translation by Anthony Briggs</a>. The translation is remarkably easy to read. According to Briggs, the smooth flow of the writing is a characteristic of Tolstoy's Russian prose. The text is also accompanied by footnotes, appendices giving us a chapter-wise summary, brief explanations of the battles, schematic maps, and a <i>dramatis personae</i>. I have to confess that I have tended to look down upon such aids to the reader, but in this instance, found them extremely useful. In addition, there are two essays, one in the beginning by the historian Orlando Figes serving as an introduction and one at the end by the translator. I found Briggs' essay very interesting, since he carefully outlines and justifies his approach to translation. I had no quibbles with his thoughts on translation, but somehow I still found his choice of a British dialect to render nineteenth century colloquial Russian into English to be jarring.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Tolstoy himself was insistent that War and Peace
should not be regarded as a novel, and perhaps he was right. The
debate about whether certain works of literature fit into neat
categories or not is futile. I think it is easy to agree that War and Peace is a great work of literature. I have felt deeply enriched by reading it, and the fact that it can produce that feeling in a reader nearly one hundred and fifty years after it was written is a tribute to Tolstoy's genius. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
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VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-91213071364557347012009-02-15T11:30:00.000-08:002009-02-16T20:19:35.262-08:00The horrors of Sierra Leone<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs39kt9zMuLSaNobc47j8wl_-tUzK_YaaRont1dNoOisjp4WAhNQvP9tPJK4uxBWISbQ8A4uxlLZoOR2iEGh6l3RCXsgR5wHMEVGuS1mlRdklYMP1AYedcqbaeEoh8Pk5oW6VD/s1600-h/lwg_book_sm.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 165px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs39kt9zMuLSaNobc47j8wl_-tUzK_YaaRont1dNoOisjp4WAhNQvP9tPJK4uxBWISbQ8A4uxlLZoOR2iEGh6l3RCXsgR5wHMEVGuS1mlRdklYMP1AYedcqbaeEoh8Pk5oW6VD/s200/lwg_book_sm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303566492495081394" border="0" /></a>Ishmael Beah's book, <span style="font-style: italic;">A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, </span>recounts his experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone's civil war during the 1990s. He was twelve years old when the war engulfed him in 1993. He was away at a town called Mattru Jong with his brother and a few friends when his village was attacked by the rebel forces. Unable to return to his village, he was on the run for months. He had to eat whatever he could find in abandoned villages or rely on raw cassava and coconuts. When they reached occupied villages, he and his companions were often suspected of being killers, since both the rebels and the government troops were regularly recruiting children and turning them into killing machines. During those months, he endured horrors most of us can barely imagine. Beah saw a lot of the aftermath of rebel attacks, in addition to barely escaping them several times. Severed heads, hands chopped off, a baby shot while on her mother's back - these are some of the sights he chooses to mention. He keeps the descriptions to a minimum, but does not shy away from the blood, gore and horror.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="fullpost"><br />After a few months and several providential escapes, Beah finally made it to a village called Yele, held at the time by government forces. A few days of calm resulted. Those days were short-lived, since the government soldiers in the town were battling rebels. Soon, Beah and other boys were conscripted. They were given automatic weapons and very rudimentary training. They were pressed into battle almost immediately. Having already endured sustained fear, violence and death, the boys were barely cognizant of what they were doing. As Beah describes it, they were further desensitized by watching Rambo movies and doses of drugs - "white tablets", marijuana, and "brown brown" (supposedly a mixture of cocaine and gunpowder). The result was that they turned into deadly killers. The description leaves little doubt that the boys had no choice - they would be dead if they hadn't become killers themselves.<br /><br />After being a child soldier for about two years, Beah was turned over by his lieutenant to a UN program aiming to redeem children like him. What followed was a long and painful process of being weaned away from the violence and drugs. After almost one year, Beah's Uncle took him to live with him in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. He interviewed for a trip to be a representative at a UN conference in New York. There, he met a sympathetic American lady named Laura Simms, who was to later become his foster mother when he emigrated to the US.<br /><br />In May 1997, the war that Beah had left behind in the countryside came to Freetown. His Uncle died. Knowing that he could not take this any longer, in late 1997, he made his escape to Conakry, capital of the neighboring country of Guinea. His book ends there, but he made it to the US eventually. He finished high school and obtained a college degree. He is now a member of an advisory committee for children's rights for Human Rights Watch and regularly speaks out on issues concerning child soldiers.<br /><br />In the book, Beah is able to present the horror of the civil war graphically, without making it appear dramatic. Nevertheless, the descriptions are revolting. Much to my surprise, I found that I was able to stomach the violent episodes more easily as I progressed further into the book. Either I was getting inured, or my mind was prepared for the shock, having encountered similar shocks earlier. Perhaps that mechanism reflects, in a small way, how people in the middle of it all managed to cope without losing their minds.<br /><br />There is some <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-03-18/news/boy-soldier/full">controversy</a>, raised by Australian journalists, about how autobiographical the book is. Beah has strenuously defended his account of events. This may not be unlike what happened with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigoberta_Menchu">Rigoberta Menchu</a>. To me, it is not terribly relevant that Beah may have incorporated the experiences of others into what he claims to be an account of his own life. The horror that he and others endured needs to be told as a story. News accounts, reports by the UN, and human rights groups have also done a great deal to document the horros of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Somehow, a personal narrative such as the one written by Ishmael Beah brings home the reality in a much more powerful way.<br /><br />The civil war in Sierra Leone continued after Beah left the country in 1997. The capital Freetown experienced <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/news/1999/06/23/shocking-war-crimes-sierra-leone">terrible atrocities in 1999</a>. The war was symptomatic of the chaos of the post cold war decade, with all sorts of groups from around the world being involved. Among these were <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/oct99/sierra16.htm">mining companies, diamond traders, mercenaries and weapons dealers.</a> Indeed, the mercenaries and gunrunners were involved in other conflicts during the decade as well. The diamonds from Sierra Leone were used by the RUF rebels to buy weapons and supplies. In this, they were helped greatly by <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2963086.stm">Charles Taylor of Liberia</a>, who was a friend and sponsor of the RUF leader <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3110629.stm">Foday Sankoh</a>. For more than a decade, Taylor and Sankoh managed to make parts of West Africa a living hell for its people. Sankoh died before he could be tried and convicted, while <a href="http://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2007/05/31/sierra16027.htm">Taylor is being tried</a> by an international tribunal.<br /><br />Sierra Leone's civil war ended in 2002, and the country has <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29821&Cr=sierra+leone&Cr1=">seen peace for the last few years</a>. According to <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/stupub/ocreview/2007/09/14/arts/Beah_Shares_in_Multiple_Fo.html">this report</a>, Ishmael Beah managed to revisit Sierra Leone in 2006.<br /></div></span>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-41386906806667104952008-11-15T11:36:00.000-08:002008-11-24T19:46:09.372-08:00Understanding the financial crisis - Risky Assets<div style="text-align: justify;">In order to achieve returns, financial firms have to take risks. Over the last several years, securities firms and hedge funds have traded heavily in investments known as mortgage-backed securities. Let us try and understand how these instruments work.<br /><br />Mortgages are familiar to people the world over. Buyers take a loan in order to buy a home and pledge the home as collateral. They also agree to make regular payments of interest and/or principal on the loan. If they fail to make payments, they are considered to be in default and the lender can repossess the home. Now look at this transaction from the point of view of the lender. A loan is an asset for a lender, because it yields periodic cash flows. Just as other assets can be bought and sold, loans can be bought and sold as well. The widespread availability of home loans in the US has been facilitated by the existence of an excellent secondary market for loans.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />The secondary market in the US had its beginnings in the setting up of the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA or “<a href="http://www.fanniemae.com/aboutfm/index.jhtml;jsessionid=JGU1ALZ10RRWHJ2FECISFGQ?p=About+Fannie+Mae">Fannie Mae</a>”), the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA or “<a href="http://www.ginniemae.gov/about/about.asp?Section=About">Ginnie Mae</a>”), and the Federal Home Loan Corporation (“<a href="http://www.freddiemac.com/corporate/company_profile/faqs/index.html">Freddie Mac</a>”). These organizations have functioned quite well for decades, providing a secondary market for mortgage loans originated by banks and other depository institutions.<br /><br />The secondary markets have worked well due to the securitization of loans. The concept of securitization is quite clever. A pool of mortgage loans is assembled and claims to the cash flows generated by the pool are sold. These claims, or securities, are like bonds: there is a promised interest paid on the principal amount. Buyers of these securities are protected from losses by guarantees provided by the agencies, Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To understand the mechanism in some detail, let us borrow the following example from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_National_Mortgage_Association">Wikipedia article on Ginnie Mae</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>For example, a mortgage <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lender">lender</a> may sign up 100 home mortgages in which each buyer agreed to pay a fixed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest">interest</a> rate of 6% for a 30-year term. The lender (who must be an approved issuer of GNMA certificates) obtains a guarantee from the GNMA and then sells the entire pool of mortgages to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_%28finance%29">bond</a> dealer in the form of a "GNMA certificate". The bond dealer then sells GNMA mortgage-backed securities, paying 5.5% in this case, and backed by these mortgages, to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor">investors</a>. The original lender continues to collect payments from the home buyers, and forwards the money to a paying agent who pays the holders of the bonds. As these payments come in, the paying agent pays the principal which the home owners pay (or the amount that they are scheduled to pay, if some home owners fail to make the scheduled payment), and the 5.5% <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupon_%28bond%29">bond coupon</a> payments to the investors. The difference between the 6% interest rate paid by the home owner and the 5.5% interest rate received by the investors consists of two components. Part of it is a guarantee fee (which GNMA gets) and part is a "servicing" fee, meaning a fee for collecting the monthly payments and dealing with the homeowner. If a home buyer defaults on payments, GNMA pays the bond coupon, as well as the scheduled principal payment each month, until the property is foreclosed. If (as is often the case) there is a shortfall (meaning a loss) after a foreclosure, GNMA still makes a full payment to the investor. If a home buyer prematurely pays off all or part of his loan, that portion of the bond is retired, or "called", the investor is paid accordingly, and no longer earns interest on that proportion of his bond.<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The GNMA said in its 2003 annual report that over its history, it had guaranteed securities on the mortgages for over 30 million homes totaling over $2 trillion. It guaranteed $215.8 billion in these securities for the purchase or refinance of 2.4 million homes in 2003.</p></blockquote><br /><br />These arrangements, especially the guarantees provided by the agencies, allowed a vast market in mortgage-backed securities to develop. In fact, Fannie Mae guaranteed securities were bought even by foreign <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34314.pdf">governments such as China</a>.<br /><br />Before loans could be packaged into pools and obtain a guarantee from the agencies such as Fannie Mae, they had to meet certain criteria set by the agencies. These were basically designed to limit potential defaults and ranged from a limit on loan size, a minimum credit score for the borrower, documentation of income, a maximum loan-to-property-value ratio etc. There were always some loans that did not meet the criteria laid down by the agencies. These loans were securitized by private companies. The resulting securities are known as non-agency or private-label mortgage-backed securities or as residential asset-backed securities. These securities are based on pools of loans which had<br /></span><ul><li><span class="fullpost">high loan amounts, such as the ones common in California (known as jumbo loans),</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">were issued to borrowers who had good credit scores, but did not meet other criteria such as verifiable steady income levels (known as Alt-A or Alternative-A loans),</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">were issued to borrowers who had low credit scores (“subprime” loans).</span></li></ul><span class="fullpost">[In the US, creditworthiness for individuals is measured by a score which is calculated by consumer credit measuring companies. A “prime” borrower is generally one who has a credit score of 660 or higher and usually is able to borrow at the lowest prevailing interest rate at a given time. Hence the terminology of “subprime” borrowers and “subprime” mortgages].<br /><br />Starting in the early years of this decade, interest rates in the US have been at historic lows. In 2003 and 2004, individuals with good credit scores could get home loans for an annual interest rate of about 4.5%. Since many buyers tend to look at home buying purely in terms of the affordability of monthly payments rather than in terms of the size of the loan, the low interest rates meant that they could get bigger loans and bid up the prices of the houses in the market. What followed was a remarkable real estate boom.<br /><br />The boom was fuelled by the easy availability of credit, and it in turn justified further lending by the financial firms. Many people were able to obtain several loans in order to buy second and third homes as investments. Some of the most astounding loans made were the so-called “stated income” or the “no documentation” loans. This meant that in order to meet whatever minimal lending standards the lenders required, the borrower could invent any income level and claim any assets. This practice was rubber-stamped by mortgage brokers and lending institutions alike. Because securitization allowed lenders to offload loans, they had little incentive to make sure that good lending practices were being followed.<br /><br />You might justifiably ask why the buyers of mortgage-backed securities were not insisting on stricter lending standards. One major factor was that non-agency securities (the ones based on pools of Alt-A or subprime loans) were given good ratings by credit-rating agencies such as S&P, Moody's and Fitch. This was in turn possible because the non-agency sponsor would provide credit enhancements or buy insurance to guarantee that the principal would be paid back. In other words, inherently risky investments were dressed up to look acceptable by referring to dubious guarantees.<br /><br />This kind of game, if played by a few players at a low level, can go on for a while. However, when many firms start doing this, it sets up the system for a major failure.<br /></span><br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-58102678613267571072008-11-04T17:50:00.000-08:002008-11-23T18:10:25.744-08:00Understanding the financial crisis - Leverage<div style="text-align: justify;">The financial crisis currently sweeping the United States and much of the world for more than a year now has claimed many innocent victims. Many people unconnected with the crisis have suffered losses of 40-50 % on their investments. The magnitude of the crisis can be judged from the fact that governments around the world have had to intervene with massive infusions of money, with the $700 billion intervention by the US leading the pack. Many financial institutions and agencies from around the world are tangled up in this mess. Among these are banks in the UK, continental Europe and Asia, sovereign wealth funds from the middle east, Singapore and Korea and governments with large foreign exchange reserves, such as China. <br /><br />I have been frustrated by the reporting on this crisis, especially by the implication that the whole crisis is too complicated for anyone except the experts to understand. This I hold to be untrue. There is complexity, but most of it lies in the myriad linkages between participants in the world financial system. Part of it also arises from some unusually involved financial instruments. I believe however, that it is possible to get a pretty good grasp of the situation by abstracting those details. Thus, while you may not be able to predict which institution will fail next or which country will<span style=""> </span>be jolted by the still evolving crisis, you should be able to understand why this crisis is taking place at all. Secondly, when you hear competing assertions about this one thing or that other thing being responsible for the problems, you can make your own judgements. Finally, you should be able to see the pros and cons of the proposed intervention schemes.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><u>Leverage and its effects.</u><br />Let us first make up a model of how a financial firm works. Our firm starts with initial capital C. It then borrows money. Let us call the amount borrowed<span style=""> </span>D, for debt. It then buys assets, worth A. Initially,<span style=""> </span>C = A – D, or, owners' capital is the difference between assets and debt. After the initial stage, as the assets rise and fall in value, the difference between the assets and debt is referred to as owners' equity, E. So, in general, E = A – D.<span style=""> </span>If the value of assets goes down enough, E can become zero or negative. If this happens, we say that the firm is insolvent. If, as in good times, the value of assets goes up, E can be greater than C, which means that the owners' equity has increased through profits. <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--> All of this is simple enough. In fact, it applies to any entity, including households. What then is specific to financial firms ?<span style=""> </span>Financial firms borrow a lot of money relative to their capital.<span style=""> </span>This is known as leverage (or gearing). Leverage can be measured using<span style=""> </span>A/E, or the assets-to-equity ratio. Leverage has the property of magnifying returns. For our model<span style=""> </span>firm, the initial leverage is A/C.<span style=""> </span>After some time passes, the assets appreciate or depreciate, yielding a percentage return (profit or loss) R. From the firm's point of view, its initial investment was C = A/L. The firm's return, therefore is</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->Leveraged return = (Amount of return)/(Initial investment)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">= (R x A) / (A/L) = L x R</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--> So, if the leverage ratio is 5, an asset value appreciation of 10% becomes a spectacular return of 50% on the firm's investment. The unfortunate part of this is that any losses are also magnified. Continuing with our example, a leverage ratio of 5 means that the initial capital is only a fifth (or 20%) of the initial value of the assets. If the assets fall in value by 20%, the firm becomes insolvent<span style=""> </span>(the return is 5 x -20% or -100%). The creditors then take over the firm in order to try and recoup their money.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]-->[My example of a leverage ratio of 5 is somewhat deliberate. This leverage is common in homebuying, where the buyer makes a 20% down payment. It<span style=""> </span>is interesting to note that historically, real estate returns have been similar to stock returns. It is the leverage effect that makes homebuying such an enticing investment].</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--> This simple principle of magnifying returns through leverage is employed by many financial entities, from banks to hedge funds. The difference lies in the kinds of assets they purchase and in how they borrow money. Commercial banks “borrow” by inviting deposits.<span style=""> </span>Their assets (predominantly) consist of the loans they make to businesses, companies and individuals. The source of funds for insurance companies are policyholder premiums. Securities firms such<span style=""> </span>as Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers borrow from the capital markets by issuing securities<span style=""> </span>of their own. Many hedge funds borrow from banks or from<span style=""> </span>the established securities firms.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--> The creditors of<span style=""> </span>a firm see equity capital as a cushion against losses and thus a buffer before their money is at risk. When the assets fall significantly in value, creditors demand that the firm raise additional capital or turn over its assets. If a firm is unable to raise capital, it files for<span style=""> </span>bankruptcy in a court, seeking protection from creditors. Bankruptcy resolution takes a long time, and creditors inevitably lose a significant chunk of their money.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--> Banks and other financial institutions in the US have usually kept their leverage ratios at about 10. International standards usually specify a maximum leverage ratio for financial institutions of about 12. During the boom years, large securities firms in the US had much higher leverage ratios. In 2004, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which supervises these firms, approved a waiver for five large securities firms – Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns. They promptly took advantage of the waiver. Leverage ratios of 30 and more were not uncommon. At these levels of leverage, a fall in asset values of about 3 – 4 % makes a firm insolvent. It was a disaster waiting to happen.</p></span></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-47948923375331713622008-09-21T18:09:00.000-07:002008-09-22T00:27:38.250-07:00Sacred Games: a review<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Games-Novel-Vikram-Chandra/dp/0061130354">Sacred Games</a> is Vikram Chandra's third work of fiction, published in early 2007. It is a large novel, both physically as well as in scope and ambition. Judging by its 900 pages, it doesn't appear that the author was slacking off during the seven years that it took him to complete it . The book is set in turn-of -the-century Bombay and has as its central characters a mafia don, Ganesh Gaitonde, and a police inspector, Sartaj Singh. The broad plot could be straight out of a thousand thrillers: a nuclear device is about to be set off in Bombay. The intention is to make it appear to be the handiwork of Muslims, in order to ensure all manner of mayhem. The don Gaitonde has unwittingly helped in the importation of nuclear material, but panics after realizing this. He builds a bunker in the middle of Bombay to try and survive the nuclear explosions. For some reason, he then commits suicide, but not before tipping off the police inspector to his presence there. </div><div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">The book has the police procedural and popular detective fiction as its templates, but these are merely structural frames. Chandra's real skill is as a weaver of stories. Much of the book is devoted to the career of Ganesh Gaitonde, narrated in the first person: his rise from a small-time crook to a major don, his criminal exploits, his going international, his living on a yacht in Thailand, and his spiritual awakening and involvement with a guru. This narrative is interleaved with the present, where Sartaj Singh is involved in other police work. In addition, there are so-called “insets” in which Chandra brings in additional stories, of characters who impinge upon the lives of Gaitonde and Sartaj Singh. Here is where Chandra's remarkable skill as a teller of stories is revealed. In particular, his account of the traumas of Sartaj Singh's mother's family during the partition of India is very well done. This inset has little to do with the main plot, but adds immeasurably to the reader's experience. Indeed, this kind of loving attention is lavished upon almost all of the characters in the book. This is really what sets this book apart. Even if you are not particularly impressed with the detective work or titillated by the Pulp Fiction type of gangster narrative, you can soak in the warmth of knowing the characters intimately.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">The characters themselves are swept up by circumstances beyond their control. While their stories begin very far apart from each other, they are eventually linked with each other. In one inset, we are told about K. D. Yadav, the intelligence operative, who kills two people involved in the Naxalite movement in the late 1960s or early 1970s somewhere in eastern India. In another inset very late in the book, the son of one of these people recruits a struggling but educated Muslim youth called Adil. After a career as a revolutionary, Adil becomes disillusioned and escapes to Bombay, where he organizes small robberies. We then realize that this ties up with an encounter described earlier in the book, where Sartaj Singh's partner, constable Katekar, is killed. Sartaj Singh has to report upon his progress in the Gaitonde suicide investigation to Anjali Mathur, K. D. Yadav's protege in the intelligence establishment. This is but one of the intricate connections in the book. This common literary conceit, of stories tied together, runs the risk of becoming too obvious and predictable. Chandra's success can be gauged by the fact that the reader never loses interest in the characters or their stories. His dexterity at tying the various strands together is remarkable – the metaphor of a delicately woven carpet comes to mind.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">While Mumbai is the setting for much of the action in the book, this novel is not about the city. Nevertheless, it does capture much of the ambience and the lingo, down to the mandatory cussing in Hindi. As far as the cussing goes (and it does go quite far), one does not expect any less in a gangsters-and-policemen saga. I do think though that Chandra's experiment integrating Hindi cuss-words with English is largely successful. The words are not italicised, some of them are used in their verb forms, and the glossary at the end, while reasonable, is not exhaustive. Judging by reader reactions on Amazon.com, this does not seem to be much of a stumbling block for people unfamiliar with Hindi or with the Mumbai variant of it.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">Although the tale is told from several perspectives, Chandra is quite sympathetic to the enforcers of the law, be they lowly constables and police inspectors or the cloak-and-dagger types from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_and_Analysis_Wing">RAW</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_Bureau_%28India%29">IB</a>, India's spy agencies. The regular violence and the petty and middling corruption of the police are depicted in a very matter-of-fact manner. Yet, the policemen turn out to be quite competent, street smart, and on the whole, good guys. The intelligence agencies are shown to be on top of everything. These are the parts that strain credulity, but do not detract much from the book. As with most fiction, we have to allow the author his or her premises, and watch what he or she builds from them. Vikram Chandra builds a very readable novel, but what stays with the reader long after the lurid details are forgotten, are the embedded nuggets of the smaller stories.</p>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-73993870714682614562008-09-11T20:35:00.000-07:002008-09-11T21:00:42.619-07:00Prejudice in Pennsylvania<div style="text-align: justify;">Today, while driving home from the train station, I heard a segment on the radio that was interesting to begin with, but ended up being deeply disturbing. The segment was from All Things Considered, a tolerable evening program from <a href="http://www.npr.org/">NPR</a>. The segment aimed to investigate race consciousness in the upcoming US presidential election. For this, they assembled a set of potential voters in the town of York, Pennsylvania. Of the thirteen people, seven were whites. The voters discussed the race of the candidates, denying that it had anything to do with who they were going to vote for. A tally at the end showed that a mjaority of the white voters were planning to vote for McCain and that all the non-white voters (Blacks and Latinos) were going to vote for Obama.</div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> I will let the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94523754">transcript</a> tell its own tale:<br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><p>Leah Moreland, a widow and former factory worker, says she grew up on a farm and was very sheltered. </p> <p>"I really was totally unaware of prejudice," Moreland says.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">...............................................................................................</p> <p>Leah Moreland, the woman who said she grew up sheltered from prejudice, plans to vote for McCain. Party loyalty is also part of her decision. But her cultural compass also comes into play. She says her gut tells her not to trust Obama.</p> <p>"I look at Obama, and I have a question in my mind," she says. "Years ago, was he taken into the Muslim faith? And my concern is the only way you are no longer a Muslim is if you are dead, killed. So in my mind, he's still alive."</p> <p>Although Barack Obama has said repeatedly he is not a Muslim and has never been a Muslim, Moreland is still unconvinced. </p> <p>"There is something about him I don't trust," she says. "I don't care how good a speaker he is, I just can't trust him."</p> </blockquote> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">It staggers my mind that in such an ostensibly enlightened discussion about prejudice against Blacks, prejudice against Muslims is accepted so easily. Cultural compass indeed.<br /></p>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-1896701729310604182008-02-27T20:13:00.000-08:002008-02-27T20:57:00.090-08:00Small thrills<div style="text-align: justify;">As I grow older, I seem to get an unusual kick out of small discoveries - something I remember from my childhood. Maybe it is because I have become cynical about grand insights and world-changing ideas.<br /><br />Many years ago, I had heard <a href="http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/fUymgraU69.As1NMvHdW/">this song</a>, from the Hindi film <span style="font-style: italic;">Ek Musafir Ek Hasina. </span><span>The song is unremarkable, except for this refrain in Asha Bhonsle's voice:<br /></span><span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">zaban-e-yaar man turki, man turki namidanum </span> </blockquote></span><span>I never knew what it meant. It was clearly in some foreign language, but it nevertheless stuck in my head. Recently, I was reading a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Great-Mughals-History-Culture/dp/1861892519/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204174374&sr=1-5">book about the history and culture of the Mughals</a> by Annemarie Schimmel. Imagine my delight when I read that the strange sounding line was a lament first penned by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Khusro">Amir Khusro</a>, the great poet, musician and scholar who lived from 1253 to 1325 CE. He lived during the first century of Turkic rule in Delhi and its environs. Though his ancestors were of Turkic origin, he himself was unfamiliar with the Turkish language as it was spoken by the Turks in India at that time. He wrote this line in Persian, the literary language of northern India from the thirteenth through the eighteenth century. Translated, I believe it means:</span><br /><span><span style="font-style: italic;"><blockquote>The tongue of my friend is Turkish, but I know no Turkish.</blockquote></span></span><span>I have no idea why Shewan Rizvi, the lyricist, included this line in the Hindi film song. It has absolutely no connection that I can fathom with the rest of the song.</span><br /><br /><span>So, Amir Khusro wrote the line sometime in the 13th or early 14th century, Rizvi incorporated it into a ditty in 1962, I heard it for the first time in the 1980s, and finally discovered the meaning in 2008. Thanks to the internet, you can listen to <a href="http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/fUymgraU69.As1NMvHdW/">the song</a> (the audio is not great), read <a href="http://www.musicindiaonline.com/lr/17/2986/">the lyrics,</a> and speculate on the beauty of it all.</span><br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-33817132225108218572008-01-22T20:17:00.000-08:002008-02-03T21:07:46.417-08:00Just not cricket<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.cricketfundas.com/harbhajansingh30.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.cricketfundas.com/harbhajansingh30.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>In a recent cricket match played between India and Australia in Sydney, the Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh was accused of hurling a racist insult at Andrew Symonds, an Australian player who, I learnt recently, is of Caribbean descent. Symonds had been the subject of insulting taunts and <a href="http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/image/316217.html">gestures by some spectators</a> in the stadiums of India where the Australian team had toured a few months ago. On January 4, 2008, in the middle of a tense game situation in Sydney, there was an exchange between Symonds and Harbhajan, after which Symonds accused Harbhajan of calling him a 'monkey'. This was backed up by two of his Australian team-mates, Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke. Harbhajan Singh denied using any racist insults. The two umpires did not hear anything and the microphones attached to the stumps did not<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.cricketfundas.com/andrewsymonds21.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.cricketfundas.com/andrewsymonds21.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> pick up the insult either. Harbhajan's batting partner and cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar also said later that Harbhajan had not used any racist language. The matter was reported to the umpires, who eventually brought it to the attention of the off-field match referee. A hearing was held by the referee after the match was over; he found Harbhajan guilty as accused and handed out a three-match ban.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The ban unleashed a furore in India. The TV channels were outraged. Predictably, a few effigies were burnt for the benefit of the cameras. Websites were flooded with the outbursts of Indian cricket fans. Everybody and his uncle weighed in on the matter. The Indian cricket board, by far the wealthiest and most influential of such boards in the cricket playing countries, made threatening noises about calling off the tour if the ban were not lifted. An appeals process exists in cases such as these, so an appeal was filed. The international body that manages cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC), decided to postpone the appeal hearing till the end of the month in order to salvage the two remaining matches in the test series. On Tuesday, January 29th, the appeal was heard by a commissioner of the ICC who also happens to be a judge from New Zealand. He found that the charge was not proven. Harbhajan was however convicted of a lesser charge of using abusive language.<br /><br />This bare summary hardly does justice to the story. In order to get a fuller picture, we have to recall some background. Cricket is played extensively in very few countries - all of whom were formerly part of the British empire. Introduced by the British into the colonies of the empire, it was initially meant for and played by the elites. From the start of the 20th century, international games were run by the English and the Australians via a body called the ICC - the Imperial Cricket Conference. An Indian team, usually captained by a <span style="font-style: italic;">maharaja</span>, started playing international games in 1932. After the departure of the British, cricket steadily gained popularity in the countries of the subcontinent. Pakistan started playing international cricket soon after 1947, Sri Lanka did so in the 1980s, as did Bangladesh in the 1990s.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />The way that the game is played in India has no resemblance to the genteel version of it imagined fondly by the Victorians who played it and built up its mythology and cliches - cricket was 'a gentleman's game'; whatever was not fair was 'just not cricket'. Today, the game is played by large numbers of people in the streets of the subcontinent, most often with barely any equipment save for a bat and a ball and with scant regard for obscure rules, leave alone codes of behavior. Television has taken cricket to rural India as well. The game is easily understood, does not require great athleticism, and captivates people thanks to the many fluctuations in fortune during a typical game. In addition, since international contests are between national teams, there is a great deal of nationalist pride and posturing involved - India-Pakistan games during the 1980s and 1990s were more or less treated as wars by other means. All of this has led the sociologist Ashis Nandy to remark only half-jocularly that cricket is an Indian game accidentally invented by the British.<br /><br />In the last couple of decades or so, fuelled by the television revolution in India, cricket has meant big money. Players for the national cricket team sign lucrative advertising contracts and become stars in the process. Their record of successes in the game is mixed at best, but the celebrity-obsession of the 24-hour TV channels and most of the print media ensures that they are never out of the limelight. The Indian cricket team also carries the misplaced burden of national pride with it. This has been toned down a little bit in the last year or two, but the players do risk their effigies being burnt or their houses being attacked if they lose particularly badly.<br /><br />The rivalry between the Indian and Australian teams has been quite intense for the last several years. While the Indian team has many talented players, Australia has quite clearly been the best team in the world for many years. During the last decade, it has won the 1999, 2003 and 2007 world cup one-day cricket championships and has twice had long strings of victories (16 matches in a row) in the five-day version of the game. Yet, India has challenged this supremacy several times. The two long victory strings were broken by India. India was the losing finalist in the 2003 world cup. In 2007, India won the world championship in Twenty20 cricket - the newest, most exciting, and shortest form of the game. It beat Australia in the semi-finals.<br /><br />A tour of India by Australia in September-October 2007 saw a lot of bitterness. Verbal clashes between players on the field were magnified by the ugly behavior of spectators. Australia won the series of one-day games easily, but lost the only Twenty20 encounter, allowing India to claim that their victory in the world cup clash was not a fluke. It was during the course of this series that Symonds was called a monkey by some spectators. At first, the Indian board denied that such a thing could happen, but upon being confronted with photographic evidence from an enterprising Aussie journalist, belatedly issued condemnations and asked authorities to prosecute the culprits.<br /><br />The Australian team is notorious in cricketing circles for being utterly and completely obnoxious - several years ago, they elevated the dubious practice of 'sledging' to a regular feature of their game. Sledging refers to insults, abuse and harangues directed by a team's players against an opposing team's player on the field. This is supposed to unsettle the opponent and get him out - and it very often does. Over the years, other teams have also adopted this practice, leading to a great deal of unpleasantness. In the last year or so, some of the Indian cricketers are dishing it out just as well as they are receiving it - in fact, perhaps way more than necessary. Harbhajan Singh is one of them. In October 2007, after the bitter series with India, the Australian captain was <a href="http://www.hindu.com/2007/10/24/stories/2007102462442400.htm">surprised by this new found aggression </a>among the Indians, whom he called "fairly passive sort of people".<br /><br />All of this helps us understand why the reaction in India to one of their players being labeled a racist is so strong. The reaction that I see on the web, in user comments on Cricinfo (an encyclopedic cricket website) and, to take one example, on the Guardian's website, makes for interesting reading after you eliminate the obviously idiotic comments. I think that much of the difference in opinions comes from being unable to recognize that several things are simultaneously true:<br /><ul><li>Protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, Indians can be quite racist.<br /></li></ul>Just like any group of people, Indians are capable of enormous amounts of prejudice - on the basis of religion, caste, language, appearance, skin color and nationality. At one extreme, the horrendous mob violence unleashed against minorities every now and then in India is the ugliest manifestation of prejudice. At the other, on a relatively more harmless scale, is the preference for 'fair' skin and 'fairness' creams.<br /><br />The in-built prejudice is strong and does not evaporate with exposure to greater numbers of people of diverse appearance - I have met many Indians in the US who use the terms <span style="font-style: italic;">kallu</span> for black people and <span style="font-style: italic;">chinku</span> for Asian-Americans.<br /><br />Of course, this does not mean that all Indians are racists or that Harbhajan is a racist. On the contrary, I think that most Indians are actually very comfortable with differences and actually seek out and love diversity. And many of them are militantly anti-racist. Nevertheless, the point is that just because we are brown-skinned, or that a fair number of Indians are themselves dark-skinned, or that we have a legacy of fighting against colonialism/racism- does not mean that we are immune as a group to racism.<br /><ul><li> Australian cricket players have been obnoxious for many years.<br /></li></ul>A <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FETXPEmsoGM">famous incident</a> from 5 years ago, involving the now-retired Glenn McGrath sledging Ramnaresh Sarwan of the West Indies, showed that on-field provocation could spiral out of control. Cricket folk lore has added dialogue to the incident which remains unconfirmed, but is probably not far from the truth. Curiously, there was considerable support for McGrath in Australia, despite the fact that he started the whole thing with what was a patently offensive remark - even the Aussie Prime Minister <a href="http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/131308.html">jumped in</a> to defend McGrath.<br /><br />And just a few months before that, Australia's very own Darren Lehmann became the first player to be suspended for 5 games for a racist outburst in which he <a href="http://books.guardian.co.uk/summerreading2005/story/0,,1508821,00.html">reportedly</a> called Sri Lanka's players "black c***s".<br /><ul><li>The word 'monkey' may not be very offensive in India but carries strong racist overtones in the English speaking world.</li></ul>It is true, as many Indians have pointed out, that Indians often call their kids 'little monkey' fondly. In addition, Michael Holding, the great bowler of the 1980s and of Caribbean origin like Andrew Symonds, was <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=11f0f087-ad4e-44a8-9832-40070efd04f7&ParentID=d97d5121-0ac8-4ec9-af5a-c2c74ae3aee8&&Headline=We+all+come+from+monkeys%2c+so+where+is+the+racism%2c+asks+Holding">quite dismissive</a> of the term being racist. This means that context and intent are critical when deciding if something is racist. Nevertheless, I suspect that Harbhajan was aware that calling someone a 'monkey' was racially offensive - it had already caused controversy earlier. Also, he is familiar enough with English (as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fFP1UwRxSg">this interview</a> shows) to have realized that.<br />Even though context and intent are critical, the Indian team's counter-complaint against Brad Hogg (later withdrawn) calling them 'bastards' seems a bit disingenuous to me. Among the English-speaking urban crowd in India, from which a majority of its cricket players are still drawn, 'bastard' is used frequently. I remember it being used more or less as a filler among students when I was in college. On the other hand though, you could easily get roundly thrashed for calling someone '<span style="font-style: italic;">harami</span>' in Hindi.<br /><ul><li>There is one likely explanation that reconciles different versions of the event.</li></ul>Harbhajan Singh may very likely have said 'Teri Maan ki ****' - a common, though harsh, <span style="font-style: italic;"> gaali</span> (abusive phrase) in northern India, not unlike the 'Tu Madre' in Spanish. This could easily have been misheard by the Australians as 'monkey'. This is one explanation that squares with all the available evidence - nothing caught on the mikes, nothing heard by the umpires, the strong accusations of the Australians, and the vehement denials by Harbhajan. It is apparently also the <a href="http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ausvind/content/current/story/334196.html">version of events</a> given by Sachin Tendulkar in the appeal hearing.<br /><br />This swearing in Hindi and/or Punjabi is not uncommon on the cricket field - especially in India-Pakistan games. The generously provided voice-over for a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StDZ-xIXNKg&feature=related">video of this clash</a> between Gautam Gambhir of India and Shahid Afridi of Pakistan may have been imagined, but is very close to the truth, as the lip movements synchronize perfectly with very well-known <span style="font-style: italic;">gaali</span>s in India and Pakistan.<br /><br />The end result is that the Australian team and public are utterly convinced that Harbhajan did call Symonds a 'monkey' and then got away with a rap on the knuckles, thanks to the financial muscle of the Indian cricket board and the small-mindedness of the ICC and Australian boards. Most Indians are equally convinced that Harbhajan is being victimised, and is at most guilty of abuse under provocation. Adding to their sense of injustice is the fact that at the first hearing, the burden of proof was not demanded of the Australians by Mike Procter, a white, former South African player, who has generally been harsh on subcontinental players and lenient with Australians.<br /><br />What Harbhajan said to Symonds on that day will perhaps remain a mystery, but I am intrigued by how slippery the truth can be. Faced with imperfect knowledge, we imagine what must have happened. This imagination is overwhelmingly based on cultural steroetypes, our experiences in life and our perceptions of the people involved. <br /></span><br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-64351638503186288132007-10-19T14:10:00.000-07:002007-10-19T17:10:19.200-07:00The Pakistan puzzle<div style="text-align: justify;">On August 14th this year, Pakistan completed 60 years as an independent country. In these 60 years, the state of Pakistan has endured, but doubts about it still persist - it has been called a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4968668.stm">failed state</a> and a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/12/1076548157407.html?from=storyrhs">rogue state</a>. For its own people, the state has done precious little. Small groups of individuals, however, have enriched themselves. Constitutional democracy has yet to find a foothold in Pakistan. Indeed, the constitution itself has not found a foothold yet. The Pakistani state has fomented and supported insurgencies and terrorism, both of which now pose serious dangers to Pakistani society. Its rulers have flirted with Islamic fundamentalism to various degrees, with the ill effects on society becoming increasingly obvious in recent years.<br /><br />Is Pakistan really a failed state ? In what form do Pakistan's failures manifest themselves ? What are the reasons for these failures ? What are the possible remedies ? What are the criteria for defining <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4964934.stm">the failure of states</a>?<br /><br />While thinking about these issues, it struck me that it is far more interesting to analyze the politics of third world countries than it is to think about the historical provenance of liberal Western democracies. In third world countries, external manifestations of democracy such as elections are prominently visible. Political power though, is unevenly distributed. Rhetorical tributes to democracy are frequent. The structure of government looks like that of modern Western nations on paper but reality is quite different. Pakistan offers a good case study.<br /><br />Take for example the separation of powers between the three branches of government so dear to Western political theory. In Pakistan, there are four branches of government:<br /></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>The executive: the President (quite often) , the Prime minister (some times), or the Chief Martial Law Administrator (several times)<br /></li><li>The Army</li><li>The Judiciary</li><li>The Legislature</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">No matter what the current constitution says, this is the reality. Secondly, the powers are not always separated. The chief of the army has been the president several times. When the president or the prime minister is not from the army, he or she survives on the sufferance of the army. Thirdly, there are no checks and balances, since the legislature and the judiciary have proved to be rubber stamps for most of Pakistan's history - with the recent notable exception of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.<br /><br />Pakistan's politicians come from its land-owning elites (the Bhutto family) or its business classes (the Sharif clan). Their privileged background has unfortunately proved to be no guarantee against venality. Benazir ('the incomparable') is rumored to have stashed away more than a billion dollars in foreign bank accounts.<br /><br />Pakistan has had long stretches of military rule, during 1958-71 under Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan, from 1977 to 1988 under Zia ul-Haq and from 1999 until now under Pervez Musharraf. While all of these generals are clearly guilty of cornering all political power, they don't fit the standard stereotypes of despotic dictators. Under Ayub and Yahya Khan, while life may not have been a bed of roses, large scale tyranny was not the norm. Under Musharraf, the press has considerable freedom, with TV channels such as Geo TV being allowed almost as much freedom as the media enjoy in Western countries. In fact, this very freedom might ultimately prove to be Musharraf's undoing.<br /><br />The prospects for Pakistan's emergence as the secular state imagined by Jinnah were dealt a catastrophic blow under Zia ul-haq. Under his rule, the Pakistani state took a clear turn towards Islamic fundamentalism. Zia had already introduced medieval punishments (such as the chopping of hands for theft) in Pakistan by late 1978, before the Iranian revolution brought Ayatollah Khomeini and Sharia-based law to the world's attention. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the US decided to fight a proxy war. The recruits for this war were fundamentalist muslims, recruited from the madrasas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Saudis contributed generously to the founding and upkeep of the madrasas. The Americans provided the money for the weapons, to the tune of several billions of dollars. The money was funneled through the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence). Some of the weapons and money were also used to fund deadly insurgencies in India - in Punjab in the early 1980s and in Kashmir in the later part of the decade.<br /><br />Recently, the the judiciary in Pakistan has asserted itself against Musharraf. Musharraf's attempted dismissal of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry failed spectacularly. Chaudhry was reinstated by a panel of judges after months of public protest in many cities by lawyers. This protest was unusual and led many optimistic commentators to believe that civil society was finally confronting military rule. The reinstated Chaudhry is reversing the Musharraf regime's decisions with a vengeance. First, Javed Hashmi, an opposition leader who was arrested in 2003 for criticising the military was <a href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=27021">released</a>. Hashmi's appeal against his detention <a href="http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/aug-2007/4/index1.php">had been rejected</a> just a few months ago by a bench headed by Chaudhry. But that was before Chaudhry had been dismissed and reinstated. Since his reinstatement, Chaudhry has rediscovered judicial wisdom. Or maybe he is just getting back at Musharraf.<br /><br />The court moved<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span> with lightning speed to let Nawaz Sharif, the ex-prime minister who was deposed by Musharraf and exiled to Saudi Arabia, return to Pakistan. Nevertheless, Sharif was <a href="http://www.dawn.com.pk/2007/09/11/top1.htm">sent back to Saudi Arabia</a> upon landing at Lahore, amid high drama for a few hours. The whole idea of exile to Saudi Arabia has fascinating historical parallels: pre-modern Muslim rulers of the subcontinent often banished troublemakers to Arabia, with the offender being forced to proclaim that he was performing the religious duty of the Haj.<br /><br />Meanwhile, there have been persistent rumors of an understanding between Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf. Benazir is believed to have told Musharraf that he cannot be president and army chief simultaneously and that he should give up the army chief's post. This would seem to be a deal-breaker. If you want to hang on to power in Pakistan, the last thing you would do is abandon the army.<br /><br />Musharraf is under considerable pressure, no doubt. He <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6938926.stm">contemplated imposing an emergency</a> and suspending constitutional rights and the elections, but backed off. A couple of weeks ago, Musharraf passed an <a href="http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/06/top3.htm">ordinance</a> granting Benazir amnesty from corruption charges and <a href="http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/07/top1.htm">got himself elected president</a> by a pliant parliament. In what is a surprising move, he is promising to resign from the army chief's post, if his election as the president is not invalidated by the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, he did <a href="http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/03/top3.htm">reshuffle the army top brass</a> in anticipation of having to resign as army chief.<br /><br />If past history in Pakistan is any guide, many scenarios are possible from this point onwards, starting with legitimate elections and a civilian government, a clampdown and emergency rule by Musharraf, a coup by disaffected elements in the military or some compromise between Musharraf and Benazir.<br /><br />Whatever the outcome of these moves and countermoves, the Western world need not worry. Pakistan's military calls the shots with regard to all aspects of the state and while the basic players may change, it is the institution of the military that persists. And the military knows which side of its bread is buttered. Having been addicted to the millions of dollars in US aid and arms for years, the Pakistani military is unlikely to let anything contrary to US interests happen in Pakistan.<br /><br />The drama continues, with tragedy being added to political farce. Yesterday, Benazir made a triumphant return to Karachi, only to witness the <a href="http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/19/top1.htm">deaths of over a hundred people</a> when bombs went off in her procession.<br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-11142696363068622962007-08-04T22:40:00.000-07:002007-08-05T00:24:43.710-07:00Death of a Colonel<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_78wj9G_IBuIttWE4aWy-hHJADBpf3DdeZfyxtLLKUiyqaz6zUSu24i20DqlSrRAt6dlrmhV3WSNgl8qdrEn0BhSF67BSFAiJ1mYgt9Ip5ETQf5ldAZDVhw5pT5_0aJUFeEq/s1600-h/Col_Vasanth.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_78wj9G_IBuIttWE4aWy-hHJADBpf3DdeZfyxtLLKUiyqaz6zUSu24i20DqlSrRAt6dlrmhV3WSNgl8qdrEn0BhSF67BSFAiJ1mYgt9Ip5ETQf5ldAZDVhw5pT5_0aJUFeEq/s200/Col_Vasanth.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095098385220614146" border="0" /></a>Col. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Vasanth</span> V, commanding officer of the 9<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">th</span> Maratha light infantry battalion, died on Tuesday, July 31st. He was injured while battling a group of militants who were trying to cross the India-Pakistan Line of Control (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">LOC</span>) in the Uri sector in Kashmir.<br /><br />I had met Col. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Vasanth</span> briefly in 1991 when I was on vacation in India. He was a soft-spoken man with a good sense of humor. He had surprised me with his knowledge of obscure things by asking whether the culture of the Cajuns in Louisiana was still alive. I hadn't known about the Cajuns before coming to the US, and hadn't expected that someone in India would know about them. So I naturally asked him how he even knew of their existence. Though he couldn't recall exactly where he had read about them, he brushed off my surprise by saying "We used to read a lot of things, including the newspaper the samosas came wrapped in"! I could immediately sense a kindred soul, having been book and library-starved during my childhood. For some reason, that moment of resonance came back to me today, when I heard about his death.<br /><br />I have often wondered if the chaos of the world of political violence, either within countries or between them, is going to affect me directly. There are so many conflicts in the world that I must count myself incredibly fortunate never to have come within sniffing distance of any. This time though, the violence has come quite close. Col. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Vasanth</span> and I had only one degree of separation. He was a long-time colleague and a good friend of my brother.<br /><br />I wonder if the planners of violence like the generals and spy agencies pursuing "strategic depth" or "balance of power" ever pause to think of the misery they are inflicting upon people. Scratch that. It is quite obvious that they don't. For them, the <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">jihadi</span> </span>groups are pawns in a broader chess game.<br /><br />We read of the deaths of people in the news reports so often. Yet, when a person we know dies, we are forced to pause and reflect on the tragedy. Our own sorrows, frustrations and hassles start looking trivial by comparison. A death you reflect upon forces you to evaluate life again.<br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-84131605237317140662007-07-09T01:02:00.000-07:002007-07-09T01:10:09.911-07:00The tragedy of the Congo<div style="text-align: justify;">The history of European colonialism is replete with examples of extreme cruelty. The decimation of the American Indians in South America and the United States is but one example. What was done to the natives of Africa is no less barbarous. The British, the French and the Germans were all guilty of slaughtering native populations. Among the less well-known examples is what the Belgians and their King did to the people who lived in the Congo river basin.<br /><br />Adam Hochschild wrote a book in 1999 describing the rape of the Congo. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/King-Leopolds-Ghost-Heroism-Colonial/dp/0618001905/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-2543513-2728809?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183957426&sr=1-2"><span style="font-style: italic;">King Leopold's Ghost</span></a> is his attempt to document the atrocities of Belgian rule over the Congo, starting from about 1875 to 1908. Among other things, the book is a remarkable account of the chicanery of Belgium's monarch. However, its most disturbing aspects are the stark descriptions of the inhuman brutality of European rule. It is also startling in its revelation of the magnitude of the inhumanity - Hochschild estimates that nearly 10 million people died due to unnatural causes during the period ranging from the 1880s to about 1920. The Congo basically underwent a holocaust in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />It all started with European penetration of the interior of Africa through the famous geographical expeditions of Livingstone and others. The crowning glory of these expeditions was Henry Morton Stanley's charting the course of the Congo. Leopold II, the constitutional monarch of the small country of Belgium, was desperate for a colony. He found the ideal opportunity in the Congo. He swindled the Europeans into believing that he was merely heading an International Africa Association with philanthropic aims, among which were the laudable ones of bringing civilization and Christianity to the natives - aims that no one in Europe could find fault with.<br /><br />With Stanley acting as his agent, Leopold convinced European nations into accepting the "Congo Free State" as being a territory under his control. The European powers were more interested in carving up Africa than in ensuring legitimate government in the Congo. There was, in fact, no government to speak of. Leopold's soldiers, known as the Force Publique, unleashed a regime of extreme brutality. From the very beginning, forced labor was the order of the day, with the Congolese being led in gangs with chains around their necks. Brutal whippings with a hippopotamus-hide whip called the <span style="font-style: italic;">chicotte </span>were commonplace. Any resistance was met with the full force of European weaponry, with entire villages being burnt down for minor offenses.<br /><br />Leopold's goal was to exploit the Congo's natural wealth as much as possible. First, it was ivory. Then when the demand for rubber exploded in the 1890s, the Force Publique wreaked havoc. Villagers were assigned fixed quotas of rubber, to be collected from vines growing in the wild. Punishments for failing to meet one's quota were severe. In addition to the whipping, killing of children and rape were also used to terrorize the population. It was during this time that the innovation of chopping off hands began to be used widely. The casual, inhuman brutality was sustained by a monetary incentive. Leopold's soldiers were paid commissions by the pound for the rubber collected.<br /><br />The world was not entirely unaware of what was going on. Missionaries, among them African Americans like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Williams">George Washington Williams</a>, began writing about the barbarism starting in the 1890s. Unfortunately, this had no effect until the early years of the twentieth century, when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._D._Morel">E. D. Morel</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Casement">Roger Casement</a> in Britain highlighted the continuing cruelty in the Congo in a campaign that lasted several years. Finally, in 1908, the Belgian government took over the colony from Leopold. By that time rubber from plantations in Asia was plentiful and the easily available wild rubber in the Congo was nearly exhausted. Nevertheless, Belgian rule in the Congo lasted until 1960.<br /><br />Hochschild's book is a remarkable piece of investigative journalism and narrative history. There is still a strong desire in Belgium to suppress this history. Given the lack of historical material from the Congolese side, Belgium has had a monopoly on the history of the Congo Free State. Despite that monopoly, Hochschild's book is destined to become the preeminent history of Belgium's depredations in Africa.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the tragedy of the Congo has continued into our times. After independence from Belgium in 1960, the country has not known much peace or development. The nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba, a target of the CIA due to his "mad dog" ideas of wanting to use the country's resources for its people, was assassinated in early 1961 after being deposed in a coup. The coup leader, Joseph Mobutu, became president in 1965. Propped by the US as an anti-communist dictator, he renamed the country Zaire, stole several billions of dollars over the years and survived into the 1990s. In 1997, Mobutu fled from the Congo, to be replaced by the rebel leader Laurent Kabila. Kabila had sought assistance from Rwanda and Uganda to oust Mobutu, who agreed to help with the ostensible motive of breaking up the Hutu militias that had assembled in the Congo after the Rwandan genocide of 1994. After becoming president, Kabila tried to get rid of the Rwandan and Ugandan troops, but they refused to leave, having become addicted to the gold, diamonds and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan">coltan.</a> Kabila then enrolled Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe on his side, leading to a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,,969686,00.html">multinational war</a>.<br /><br />Laurent Kabila was assassinated in 2001 and was succeeded by his son Joseph. Joseph Kabila entered into a set of partially successful peace agreements, including one in 2003 that seems to have held. The neighbors' interest in the country has also declined along with the price of coltan. Most foreign troops seem to have withdrawn substantially, though Rwandan troops were reported in the eastern provinces in 2005 as well. There are <a href="http://www.theirc.org/news/democratic-republic-of-congo0646.html">estimates</a> that about 4 million people died as a result of the conflict.<br /><br />While the intensity of conflict has diminished somewhat since the 2003 peace agreement , there still are several well-armed militias in operation in the country, so the outbreak of wider war and conflict is always a distinct possibility. The cruelties perpetrated by the militias are beyond belief. As this <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article362215.ece">stomach-churning</a><a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article362215.ece"> account </a>reveals, the mineral wealth of the country has been the main motivation for many of the sponsors of the fighting.<br /></span><br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-88448499080653029792007-07-01T12:26:00.000-07:002007-07-01T12:52:11.662-07:00"Continue reading" in Blogger<div style="text-align: justify;">It is pretty amazing that Blogger doesn't have this as a feature yet. You can find various solutions on the web, all of them involving mucking around with HTML.<span class="fullpost"><br />I have found <a href="http://nofancyname.blogspot.com/2005/02/making-expandable-blog-posts-in.html">one solution that works</a> with what is known as a "classic template". Your mileage, as usual with all such things, will vary.</span><br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-84398697563253215612007-07-01T09:46:00.000-07:002007-07-01T09:55:49.437-07:00Infrequent posting<div style="text-align: justify;">For the last month or so, my blogging has been more infrequent than usual, which wasn't very frequent to begin with. Part of it was that I was a bit busy. The major reason though is that I have a new gig in a group <a href="http://blog.shunya.net">blog</a>. The group blog is run by my friend Shunya, though he has now given up his <span style="font-style: italic;">nom de plume</span> and blogs under his real name.<br /><br />The group blog has a fairly interesting set of contributors, so I invite you to check it out. I haven't decided what I will be doing with this one, but it is most likely that I will be cross-posting on both blogs.<br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-6644712807211197622007-05-11T20:06:00.000-07:002007-05-11T20:06:46.120-07:00Oil: a story in numbers and pictures<div style="text-align: left;">Price I paid at the pump for Regular Unleaded: $ 3.62 / gallon.<br /><br />Oil company profits (sources: <a href="http://finance.google.com/">Reuters</a> and firm financial reports):<br /><br /></div><table str="" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 377px; height: 170px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><col style="width: 79pt;" width="105"> <col style="width: 48pt;" span="5" width="64"> <tbody><tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt; width: 79pt; text-align: center;" height="17" width="105"><br /></td> <td colspan="5" class="xl24" style="width: 240pt; text-align: center;" width="320">$, billion</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" height="17">Company</td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" num="">2006</td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" num="">2005</td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" num="">2004</td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" num="">2003</td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" num="">2002</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Exxon</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">39.5</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">36.13</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">25.33</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">20.96</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">11.01</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Chevron</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="17.138000000000002">17.138</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="14.099">14.099</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="13.327999999999999">13.328</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">7.23</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="1.1319999999999999">1.132</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Conoco Phillips</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">15.55</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="13.529">13.529</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="8.1289999999999996">8.129</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="4.7350000000000003">4.735</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="0.69799999999999995">0.698</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">BP</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">22.29</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">22.63</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">17.26</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">12.62</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">6.87</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Royal Dutch Shell</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">26.31</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">26.26</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">18.18</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">12.31</td> <td style="text-align: center;" num="">9.66<br /></td> </tr> </tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><a href="http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/rwtcd.htm">The price of crude oil over the last 20+ years</a>:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBZq3PiBYVJzqXVpO9-IZtbWUJNI3seY0ntZr4egigTBEm0CfUBbskqFBtNLkGDkluOIqMRGlib3xc_KxIaqB5NTVaWoS7T2OXokWHgitW4uL59aumEorgbAzdtSYtS-wAbST4/s1600-h/crude_spot.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBZq3PiBYVJzqXVpO9-IZtbWUJNI3seY0ntZr4egigTBEm0CfUBbskqFBtNLkGDkluOIqMRGlib3xc_KxIaqB5NTVaWoS7T2OXokWHgitW4uL59aumEorgbAzdtSYtS-wAbST4/s200/crude_spot.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063159459107988434" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Vijay/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/reserves.xls">Who's got the stuff</a>:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvnYabfo64kQW1kGa6hTavxO7JJJhCHjjRBUaPoimDgpuZnMXfrogDG_dUdgkVUTHIcaoTxN0rBFE9LwApPySvqPXaKFF8vO0wqncsHI5GeW5Az7B54wIdTm0otS7WE3UNIr3/s1600-h/oil_reserves.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvnYabfo64kQW1kGa6hTavxO7JJJhCHjjRBUaPoimDgpuZnMXfrogDG_dUdgkVUTHIcaoTxN0rBFE9LwApPySvqPXaKFF8vO0wqncsHI5GeW5Az7B54wIdTm0otS7WE3UNIr3/s200/oil_reserves.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063499470193976338" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/RecentPetroleumConsumptionBarrelsperDay.xls">Who consumes it the most</a>:<br /></div><table str="" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 341px; height: 360px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><col style="width: 116pt;" width="154"> <col style="width: 214pt;" width="285"> <tbody><tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 116pt; text-align: center;" height="17" width="154">Region/Country</td> <td class="xl25" style="border-left: medium none; width: 214pt; text-align: center;" width="285">2004 Consumption<br />(million barrels per day)</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">United States</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="20.731150273223999">20.7</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl28" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" height="17">Europe</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="16.155666428415302">16.2</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">China</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="6.4374837726776004">6.4</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl28" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" height="17">Middle East</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="5.5943562037158516">5.6</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl28" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" height="17">Central & South America</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="5.3072377822295085">5.3</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Japan</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="5.2948059999999995">5.3</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl28" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" height="17">Eurasia</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="4.0469473355191301">4.0</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl28" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" height="17">Africa</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="2.7962440848852457">2.8</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Russia</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="2.7508138666666699">2.8</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Germany</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="2.6654808999999999">2.7</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">India</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="2.4296199999999999">2.4</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Canada</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="2.3017485999999998">2.3</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Korea, South</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="2.1551201999999998">2.2</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Brazil</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="2.0621478775956299">2.1</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">France</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="2.0065956000000003">2.0</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl26" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Mexico</td> <td class="xl27" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; text-align: center;" num="1.9959235000000002">2.0</td> </tr> </tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><a href="http://respectsacredland.org/no-us-bases/draft3.jpg">Military bases of the largest consumer,</a> in the region which has most of the stuff:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCrWX_p3xT_TjOu_mV6gBT1WVSa7I0VDOS5QR9QR34jZEEO9x-FtRw5KPx3vDWa7qosL6buZ-gEwTjsYD_lGHJMTeaMN4p3Zgy8vB63utOKZ4VN9-gvmLxy387ijPyRcL_8HR/s1600-h/US_bases.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCrWX_p3xT_TjOu_mV6gBT1WVSa7I0VDOS5QR9QR34jZEEO9x-FtRw5KPx3vDWa7qosL6buZ-gEwTjsYD_lGHJMTeaMN4p3Zgy8vB63utOKZ4VN9-gvmLxy387ijPyRcL_8HR/s200/US_bases.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063188437252334594" border="0" /></a></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-61649611990222525392007-04-15T18:59:00.000-07:002007-04-17T10:16:37.663-07:00Maximum Bombay<div style="text-align: justify;">Before I came to the US in 1989, I had been to Bombay only once, for four days. It rained the whole time. Buckets of water poured down in sheets. I was marooned on the IIT campus where I was staying. The only sights I saw were the campus buildings and those visible from the local train that took me to and from Dadar railway station. The much-celebrated city of dreams was a stranger to me when I was living in India.<br /><br />I have visited Bombay several times since then, staying for a week or ten days in New Bombay, where residents repeatedly tell you that it's much cleaner than Bombay. I took the local train to VT from the Vashi railway station on the harbour line several times. In the 1990s, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vashi_Railway_Station_IT_Park.jpg">Vashi</a> railway station, quite amazingly for an Indian railway station, used to be spotlessly clean. From there, the cleanliness went downhill on the one hour ride to VT. You couldn't avoid the horrors of Bombay even if you wanted to. About half way to VT, the slums begin to appear. For kilometers on end, shanties line the tracks. The rudimentary dwellings of mud, brick, tin and tarpaulin are barely a few yards away from the rushing trains. Mounds of garbage and open drains abound. The extent of the slums, the number of people who live there and the dire living conditions are overwhelming. There is no alternative but to block it out of your mind.<br /><br />I have been wary of the common stereotypes of slums, poverty and ugliness tagged on to the cities of India (and the rest of the country by extension). I used to live in the middle of the country, away from the cities, in a government-built township for employees of a public sector firm. While living in India, I had rarely encountered the dire poverty and sheer ugliness of the cities that travel writers described. Unfortunately, my visits to Bombay in the 1990s convinced me that there wasn't much exaggeration in these accounts.<br /><br />And then there is the other Bombay. A city of wealth. A city of glamour. A city of gangsters. People in the rest of India read about the outrageous lifestyles of the rich and the beautiful. With awe and fascination, they hear about the exploits of the dons of the underworld. Back in the 1980s, the now defunct <span style="font-style: italic;">Illustrated Weekly of India</span> featured regular reports on the dons - I recall in particular a picture of Varadarajan Mudaliar, a somewhat unlikely Tamil don, gazing out to sea.<br /> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEK_zmLHCIhiskFUe4HbMeeMbRx8yLbeaAfiFvJxlxVVSvmHaS8ghOJtD1uNz_eFn33ASfGC4K9KY7X3R335CIpEDTgmEEMMGLr9zqm0CvmhOnVeJ637TIGgxlP94mszZuLEHS/s1600-h/paperback_225.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEK_zmLHCIhiskFUe4HbMeeMbRx8yLbeaAfiFvJxlxVVSvmHaS8ghOJtD1uNz_eFn33ASfGC4K9KY7X3R335CIpEDTgmEEMMGLr9zqm0CvmhOnVeJ637TIGgxlP94mszZuLEHS/s200/paperback_225.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5054207822063905602" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.suketumehta.com/">Suketu Mehta</a>'s <span style="font-style: italic;">Maximum City</span> is an attempt to record and capture many of these aspects of the city. His book is unlike any other book featuring Bombay. It is not a work of fiction, but many parts of it are far more fascinating than fiction. It has been described as a travel narrative, but Mehta does not travel much. In as much as a city can be said to possess a character, Mehta exposes it. And what he exposes is not pretty.<br /><br />The book is peopled by a diverse cast of characters - along with the vicious murderers and political goons are gangsters and brutal cops, bar-room dancers, movie stars and directors. You have to keep telling yourself that all of this is real. Mehta spends a considerable amount of time with each of these people and soon we get to know them as well as it is possible to know any literary character. Many of these people are despicable. Others, like the bar-room dancer, are not wholly admirable either. Even someone Mehta paints with some sympathy, like the police commissioner Ajay Lal, comes across as a tyrant who lets his underlings do the dirty work for him. There is hope, however, in the form of the naive teenage runaway from Bihar, an aspiring poet with a delicate sensibility.<br /><br />What is remarkable in all of this is Mehta's ability to report things without pronouncing judgement. His powers of observation are acute, but he lets his characters do all the talking. But because he chooses what to write about and what to tell us, his voice is unmistakably present throughout. Mehta's stupendous achievement is thus ultimately journalistic. He shows us aspects of life and human behavior that we suspected all along did exist, but had no means of knowing anything about.<br /><br />Most of the book is set in the late 1990s. It seems to have been in production for many years, finally being published in 2004. I remember having read an early excerpt in <a href="http://www.granta.com/shop/product?product_id=203"><span style="font-style: italic;">Granta</span></a> back in 1997, in which he described a <span>Shiv Sena</span> goon's account of burning another human being alive. This is perhaps the most ghastly thing you will encounter in the book, but other depravities come close.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Maximum City</span> is a truly Dickensian book. It is unlikely to be surpassed as a picture of late 20th-century Bombay.<br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-59130294830008615402007-04-06T12:40:00.000-07:002007-04-16T18:23:44.455-07:00La Bataille d'Alger<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHs8x3bWLdXd2MCAIRGjSZQFfoQt4l8z43T7ufts_80Td0l4GeqgxXMVdVK5N-rKrg8uyoG3GH_9tmYERhq3X8eL2TWFxbf4GapFKScJbwuu2wxsMiVhCrSQ7beATpfqlhnHJW/s1600-h/TheBattleofAlgiers.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHs8x3bWLdXd2MCAIRGjSZQFfoQt4l8z43T7ufts_80Td0l4GeqgxXMVdVK5N-rKrg8uyoG3GH_9tmYERhq3X8eL2TWFxbf4GapFKScJbwuu2wxsMiVhCrSQ7beATpfqlhnHJW/s200/TheBattleofAlgiers.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5054201504167013154" border="0" /></a>The Pentagon, demonstrating unusual prescience, <a href="http://www.rialtopictures.com/eyes_xtras/battle_times.html">screened</a> this movie for its educational value in August 2003 for Americans about to descend into a morass of insurgency, counterinsurgency and civil war in Iraq. The historical parallel between Iraq today and Algeria in the 1950s is far from perfect, but a Western occupying power in a third world country facing violent uprisings was not all that uncommon in the 20th century. It is an enduring tragedy that Western powers continue to delude themselves about occupations.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The Battle of Algiers is a captivating film due to its historical authenticity. It is based on a book by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_Yacef">member</a> of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Front de Liberation Nationale</span> (FLN), who also acted in the film. [The FLN, in its pre-independence role, was a revolutionary organization fighting the French during the Algerian war of independence from 1954-1962.]<br /><br />The movie is fair in the sense that it depicts violence both by the insurgents as well as the French, though it seemed clear to me that the sympathies of the script are with the Algerians. The characters are well-etched, despite the shortness of the film. On the Algerian side, there is the organizer of the insurgency Jafar, the common criminal turned revolutionary Ali La Pointe, and the ideologue Ben M'Hidi explaining the goals of terrorism. The French response to the insurgency is articulated through the character of Colonel Mathieu. The scenes of his press conferences for the Parisian press are striking - especially when he tells them that the success of the counterinsurgency depends on the support of the press and the public back in France.<br /><br />The film is black and white, in conforming to the film-making canon that this somehow makes the narrative more authentic. I first encountered this belief when <span style="font-style: italic;">Schindler's List</span> was released, but I have found it difficult to agree with it. My argument is simply that reality happens in color, so a film aiming to be realistic ought to use color.<br /><br />In terms of technique, the quality of the film-making is quite good. The performances are controlled, the violence is no more gory than necessary, and the melodrama is kept to a minimum. The film has a very sure-footed script and screenplay and the viewer's interest does not flag.<br /><br />There are a couple of scenes of torture. The extent of the torture was probably underreported at the time and is consequently underplayed in the film. Despite this, in keeping with the great traditions of Western culture and support for free speech, this movie was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_algiers">banned</a> in France for five years and had its torture scenes deleted before being released in Britain and in the US.<br /><br />The French have only recently <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1108014.stm">begun to acknowledge</a> some of what went on during the Algerian war of independence. Unfortunately, the Algerians have not covered themselves in glory, either during the war of independence, or in the massacres of collaborators after it, or during the ensuing power struggles, or during the civil war of the 1990s. Adam Shatz covers the historical ground very well in a November 2002 essay in the New York Review of Books, reproduced <a href="http://www.algeria-watch.org/farticle/analyse/shatz_torture.htm">here</a>.<br /><br />The French connection with Algeria was extraordinarily brutal, going back to the 1840s, after their involvement in Algeria began with the initial capture of Algiers in 1830. From <a href="http://mondediplo.com/2001/06/11torture2">this article</a> in Le Monde Diplomatique, we learn that Alexis de Tocqueville, he of <span style="font-style: italic;">Democracy in America</span> fame, felt that the French were entitled to "ravage the country" in order to suppress the rebellion in the 1840s. The ravaging is estimated to have killed around 500,000 people out of a population of about 3 million.<br /></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-11463283107310165932007-03-29T20:55:00.000-07:002007-04-13T23:22:27.481-07:00Al Mamlakah<div style="text-align: justify;">I recently finished reading a book by As'ad Abukhalil about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (which has the resounding Arabic name <span style="line-height: 1.33em;"><i>Al-Mamlakah al-'Arabiyya as-Sa'ūdiyya)</i>. My knowledge of the middle east is sketchy and has been focused on Israel and Palestine, thanks to persistent arguments I had with Jewish and Israeli friends some years ago. I have been meaning to find out more about the other countries in the region and broad histories such as the popular one by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Concise-History-Middle-East/dp/0813342759/ref=sr_1_1/103-8470338-8407828?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175233857&sr=1-1">Arthur Goldschmidt</a> and the relatively obscure one by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Middle-East-Present-Yahya-Armajani/dp/0135815541/ref=sr_1_1/103-8470338-8407828?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175234234&sr=1-1">Yahya Armajani</a> helped a little. Abukhalil's book, titled '<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Saudi-Arabia-Royalty-Fundamentalism/dp/1583226109/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-8470338-8407828?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175234342&sr=1-1">The Battle for Saudi Arabia</a>' is more narrowly focused and is about the modern history of Saudi Arabia. Abukhalil, a professor of political science in the US, is a modern, progressive thinker. He has very little sympathy for the Saudi monarchy, the Wahabbiyah brand of Islam, or for the political setup of the kingdom. He makes no attempt to feign the air of neutrality so favored by academics. In fact, his blog, <a href="http://angryarab.blogspot.com/">Angry Arab</a>, says it all. It's a pity that its comments sections are destroyed by hateful bigots.</span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;">The book provides a short and succinct history and explains the connections between the monarchy and the religious establishment. In addition, it has many interesting bits of information. A family tree of the ruling clan helped me sort out the Sauds, the Faisals and the Fahds. As the note at the bottom of the tree states, it is incomplete, since Abd Al Aziz Ibn Saud, the founder of the modern kingdom, had 39 sons and many daughters. Abukhalil quotes a source to tell us that Abd Al Aziz married "no fewer than 135 virgins" and kept a large number of concubines, though he decided "to limit himself" to two new wives a year after some point. [ A chronic wed-better, as a joke I heard a long time ago had it. ] Apparently his son and successor, Saud, outdid him in the matter of progeny by fathering 53 sons and 54 daughters. </span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;">According to this Al Jazeera <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=13794">story</a>, the royal family has about 25,000 members, with thousands of princes though only 200 of them are considered influential. Abukhalil notes that one of the princes revealed to the New York Times in 2001 that the men in the royal family are given an annual salary of $180,000 for their entire lives. The family considers the entire kingdom and its resources to be its patrimony. A substantial chunk of the oil revenue is cornered by the princes.</span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;">The Saudi kingdom was established following World War I, thanks to much help from Britain over the years, whose strategic calculus at that time made it expedient for it to support Abd Al Aziz Ibn Saud. The discovery of oil in the 1930s allowed the pre-modern political arrangement to survive. The critical dependence of the world on oil allowed it to get stronger. Today, the monarchy is as entrenched as ever. Its military expenditure is of the order of $ 25 billion per year.</span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;">Today's Saudi Arabia has a strong fundamentalist culture, with harsh punishments, the oppression of women and the religious police enforcing virtue and preventing vice. There are hints of dissatisfaction and dissent, from tribal groups, the Shia minority, and from religious extremists. This does not get much world attention for various reasons. The media in Saudi Arabia are of course all officially controlled, but Abukhalil maintains that the Saudis have bought or co-opted most of the Arabic press and writers. Negative references to the monarchy or to Wahabbiyyah are apparently hard to find. No wonder Al Jazeera is banned in Saudi Arabia.</span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;">This book has helped me to think about the Arab world with some more clarity. I was aware that thinking of it as a monolith was a big mistake, but the ways of making distinctions was a bit unclear to me. Here is how I look at it now. The phrase "Arab world" is a poor description, since it merely refers to the vast area where people speak Arabic. The Arabian peninsula is quite distinct in its religious culture and in its social and political arrangements from the Levant (Syria and Lebanon) or from Egypt. Indeed, it is not similar to Iraq either. Even on the peninsula, Yemen is clearly quite different from Saudi Arabia. The Gulf kingdoms are similar to Saudi Arabia politically, in that they are monarchies supported by oil wealth, but their societies and cultures are much more relaxed. Dubai is looking more and more like Las Vegas on steroids, as I discovered during a brief stay in the UAE in December 2005.</span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.33em;">Just realizing (a) that most Saudi oilfields are in the east and (b) that the Gulf sheikhs all have very similar cosy political setups helps explain </span><span style="line-height: 1.33em;">why the US is keen and able to keep a big military foothold in the Persian Gulf. </span><span style="line-height: 1.33em;"> This also explains the membership of the Gulf Cooperation Council (which excludes Yemen), its fear of its big Shia neighbor from across the water and the <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/884C6F3B-846E-4E7B-A140-31D8828C2A0C.htm">recent report</a> of a defense spending binge, where it was claimed that member states had a "shopping list of arms worth more than $60 bn".</span></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14743513.post-62956341572106538892007-03-01T20:58:00.000-08:002007-03-01T23:33:18.506-08:00India's budget<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Until fairly recently, India's annual budget exercise used to be anticipated eagerly. The Indian government had a big role to play in the economy and the budget could often make life more (or less) unpleasant for millions of Indians. The impact of the budget on the economy is not as dramatic as it used to be, both in perception and reality. Reporting conventions though, have not changed very much: an arbitrary list of new taxes, sops, subsidies and measures are reported, with barely any context or overall picture. Here is an extract from such a list published under the headline "<a href="http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=454377">Highlights of Union Budget</a>":<br /></span><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >* <span style="font-size:100%;">Employee Stock Options brought under Fringe Benefit Tax</span></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >* Excise duty on petrol, diesel reduced from 8% to 6% </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >* Specific duty on cigarettes increased by 5%;</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >* Specific duty on beedis raised from Rs 7 to 11 per Thousand for non-machine made and from Rs 17 to 24 per Thousand for machine made </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >* Duty on pan-masala not containing tobacco reduced from 66 to 45 per cent </span></p><span style="font-size:100%;">You can of course go to the source of all the <a href="http://indiabudget.nic.in/">budget data for India</a> if you want more information. This very useful <a href="http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2007-08/bag/bag1.pdf">one-page summary</a> is the best place to find some overall context. The following table uses a little bit of additional data as well:<br /></span> <table str="" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 368px; height: 229px;" border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><col style="width: 84pt;" width="112"> <col style="width: 77pt;" width="103"> <col style="width: 67pt;" width="89"> <col style="width: 92pt;" width="122"> <tbody><tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 84pt; text-align: center;" height="17" width="112">(Rs., billion)</td> <td class="xl25" style="width: 77pt; text-align: center;" width="103">2005-06 (Actual)</td> <td class="xl25" style="width: 67pt; text-align: center;" width="89">2006-07 (Est.)</td> <td class="xl25" style="width: 92pt; text-align: center;" width="122">2007-08 (Budgeted)</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17"><br /></td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl25"><br /></td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl25"><br /></td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl25"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Receipts</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl26" num="3596.88" fmla="=5061.23-1464.35">3597</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl26" num="4293.09" fmla="=5816.37-1523.28">4293</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl26" num="5295.73" fmla="=6805.21-1509.48">5296</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Expenditure</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl26" num="5061.23">5061</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl26" num="5816.37">5816</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl26" num="6805.21">6805</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Deficit</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl26" num="1464.35" fmla="=B4-B3">1464</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl26" num="1523.28" fmla="=C4-C3">1523</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl26" num="1509.48" fmla="=D4-D3">1509</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17"><br /></td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl24"><br /></td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl24"><br /></td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl24"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Interest payments</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl24" num="">1326.3</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl24" num="">1461.92</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl24" num="">1589.95</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17"><br /></td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" class="xl27" num="0.26205092438004202" fmla="=B7/B4">26%</td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" class="xl27" num="0.25134577064388958" fmla="=C7/C4">25%</td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" class="xl27" num="0.23363716916891616" fmla="=D7/D4">23%</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17">Defence</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl24" num="" fmla="=486.25+330.75">817</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl24" num="" fmla="=515.42+344.58">860</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl24" num="" fmla="=540.78+419.22">960</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl24" style="height: 12.75pt; text-align: center;" height="17"><br /></td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" class="xl27" num="0.16142321135376184" fmla="=B9/B4">16%</td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" class="xl27" num="0.14785854407474078" fmla="=C9/C4">15%</td> <td style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" class="xl27" num="0.14106838730913521" fmla="=D9/D4">14%</td> </tr> </tbody></table>At an exchange rate of Rs. 45 to the US dollar, government expenditure in 2005-06 was $112 billion and the deficit was $33 billion (about 5.6% of GDP).<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">The big ticket items are interest payments and defense allocations. Interest payments account about 25% of the expenditure and defense for about 15%. About 90% of the deficit for 2005-2006 arose from interest payments. In fact, if projections turn out to be correct, the Indian government would experience a surplus in 2007-08 in the so-called "primary deficit"- the deficit if it did not have to make any interest payments.<br /><br />The scenario in which interest payments are insignificant is not as far-fetched and wishful as it might seem at first sight. India's total external debt is around $135 billion and its forex reserves are around $180 billion. If India decides to payoff its external debt (like Brazil and Argentina, who paid off some of theirs last year), it would make no difference to the net position, but it could save a substantial amount of money that goes annually to servicing this debt. Of course, there is the small matter of internal debt, but that is not such a bad thing, economically speaking.<br /><br />The size of the defense budget is large for an emerging country like India. A fair amount of it goes to assorted countries in the world among whom are Britain, France, Russia, Israel and somewhat surprisingly, the Czech republic. This has generated a constant stream of scandals, with <a href="http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fname=Middlemen%20%28F%29&fodname=20061030&sid=1">well-connected middlemen</a> and politicians skimming off large commissions. According to this newspaper <a href="http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/14456.html">report</a>, as many as 48 defense contracts are under investigation, with former defense minister George Fernandes being a target of at least one investigation. One ubiquitous <a href="http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fname=Middlemen%20%28F%29&fodname=20061030&sid=2">wheeler-dealer</a>, son a former Admiral and himself an ex-navy man, was the subject of income tax raids <a href="http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14399812">yesterday</a>.</span><p></p></div>VPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00621444359613533367noreply@blogger.com0