Depois de um tempo longe de um trabalho direto com processos, e também porque aqui na Espanha me parece que dá pra fazer bastante coisa, o anfitrião de aprendizagem sai da segunda linha e estou me juntando com uma turma por aqui para montar algumas intervenções em castellano.
Como o trabalho ficou super pop nos últimos [...]
Mi taller tuvo lugar en la Universidad Abierta Interamericana (gracias Daniel, Román y área de Extensión!) y participaron jóvenes de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Cuba, México y Panamá.
Durante más de tres horas charlamos sobre el rol que ocupa internet en la vida diaria de las organizaciones, el ciberactivsimo, blogs, fotologs, social bookmarking, rss, wikis, celulares, mapping, etc, etc... y vimos distintas herramientas online, incluyendo, claro, muchas de las herramientas que brinda TIG para jóvenes y organizaciones.
Como hubo tanta buena onda me quedé el resto del día (y de la noche) con l@s chic@s de TUNZA y GEO Juvenil participando del resto de talleres y charlas del encuentro.
Además, en un momento libre, hice un videíto sobre el taller en el que participaron tres delegados de Paraguay, México y Cuba (gracias Jorge, Paulina y Handy!!!). Cuentan qué hacen y su opinión acerca de las TICs en su participación social. El video lo grabé y lo edité íntegramente en mi celular N95.
Sure, I'm aware that this "advice" might be published somewhere.
Sure, I'm aware that this "advice" could be used for the Obama-Biden administration staff selection process, which I'm interested in, so I'll go with a first person narrative.
In 2000 I co-founded the Global Youth Action Network, with a dream, much like Obama's platform, of empowering greater youth participation in politics. I believe that when young people are given a voice, a place to stand, or a voice, and are inspired and unencumbered, they are capable of great things. Many have called young people the "world's greatest untapped resource."
My advice to the administration is to set in motion a series of structural and political "opportunities" that open the door for citizens, and especially young people, to "participate" in greater and greater ways.
I helped Brazil develop its national youth policies. One piece of legislation requests that all high schools in the country create environmental councils. Picture students organizing to be stewards of their school, working together to map its carbon footprint and reduce waste. It's inspiring a new generation of environmentalists. Another policy, created by earlier creative legislators, requests that all schools have student unions and elections. They encourage democratic participation early on. Another "innovative" idea, in the laboratory of social technologies, which is Brazil, is the "Participatory Budget." Picture a city setting aside 1% of its annual budget, each year, to projects determined by consensus-inspired, citizen-led decision-making processes. Imagine dozens of young people getting together to determine whether their town should invest in a job training center or a music recording studio. They learn from each other in the process, and realize that "job training" serves a greater community. I saw it happen and that kind of deliberative process created more trust, ensuring that the Job Training Center was very successful, with lots of participation, doing much more than your traditional center could ever do.
Brazil is just one of many countries in the world with innovative social technologies that bring people (especially young) together in new ways. 45 of the 46 countries in the Council of Europe have "National Youth Councils." They provide a platform for young people to engage in the democratic process and deliver their political recommendations to national legislatures. Dozens of countries around the world have "National Youth Service" programs where "conscription" doesn't mean serving the army, but serving communities instead. Malaysia has National Youth Awards which recognize the extraordinary contributions of young people to their communities each year. The honor inspires many to choose community participation over materialism. My friend in Viet Nam runs a radio show where young people talk about their solutions for the country's problems. Another friend manages a Latin American network of young people who read newspapers, identify mis-representations of youth, and youth issues, and then respond by writing editorials and educating journalists. Another friend in the Gambia brings truck loads of city youth into the countryside. They connect with the land, the produce, the origins of their food, and commit themselves to an organic, independent future. The global food security alarms that went off earlier this year were silent in his backyard.
The world has a lot of wisdom and ideas to offer us, here in the USA. Many of these programs don’t cost a penny. All we need is the idea, or the visibility, or the convener, or the wave of the legislative wand. Maybe it's coming?
The Bush administration looked out into the big unknown world with fear and suspicion. This new administration doesn't. I think we should create a Presidential Commission on Youth and Intergenerational Partnership. I'd be happy to share my vision of what it could be… but who's ear do I have? Yours? Email me: jonah@youthlink.org (www.bridgingnetwork.org)
I'm now living in the USA, near Washington, DC. I'm a dad. My son is almost four. I helped build the Leverage Alliance (a network of young philanthropists) and then the Bridging Network (www.bridgingnetwork.org) to consult on young philanthropy.
In July of 2007 I launched www.ezintouch.com to help people with contact management and email marketing and in September of 2007 I became the chief system geek at Distributive Networks (www.distributivenetworks.com) to be part of the team that developed the technology for Obama's text messaging platform.
Oh, I also just helped my Dad launch a bed and breakfast / vacation rental on his farm in Union, WV. Check out www.pynemountainfarm.com
Hace unas semanas mi mamá, Adriana Molinuevo, recibió el "Premio Padre Daniel de la Sierra" por su compromiso solidario en la Villa 21-24 del bajo Barracas :D
Mi mamá, que es mucho más participaholic que yo, creó hace siete años un centro comunitario en la villa, conocido como La Casita de los Niños Augusto Conte, en homenaje a ese militante de derechos humanos.
El premio recuerda al fallecido sacerdote Daniel de la Sierra, que se desempeñó en la parroquia de la villa 21-24, entre Barracas, Pompeya y Parque Patricios.
Todos los fines de semana van muchos chicos a La Casita de los Niños para jugar, tomar la leche, comer, hacer los deberes, etc, etc. Mi mamá siempre me pregunta en qué ando para ver si los chicos de La Casita pueden participar en alguno de los proyectos que coordino.
A muchos los conocí chiquitos y ya son adolescentes y siguen yendo a La Casita. El otro día mi mamá me contó que varios están terminando la secundaria y se están anotando en terciarios y en la universidad. Eso no tiene precio...
Como dijo el padre Pepe mientras entregaba el premio: "Chiche Gelblung tendría que venir a mostrar a estas personas solidarias y a estos chicos que están estudiando".
Lo de siempre: lo malo se muestra y lo bueno no. Menos mal que hay blogs para contarlo :)
Digital technologies like Internet, mobile phone and computers banged the world with a claim to work freely. Suddenly there was an air of borderless world. Its popularity and power stunned the world nations. Governments lost track of digital power. Their radar of censorship got blocked by Internet. Information was flowing freely from anywhere to everywhere.
At one point of time there was a global movement try to control the world affairs. What was started in Brazil under the banner of World Social Forum threatened to break the iron cages of Governments. Independent people’s power of the world was half visible. Awaken by such critical realities; some countries tightened their information control. The axe fell on the Internet. Simply certain websites which are anti-national and provoking people to react were blocked.
Technologies which were part of younger generation were slowly impacting the elder sections too. Lagging behind in techno knowledge, Governments constituted cyber cells both to spread its information and to track its rebels and anti-establishments messages in the cyberspace.
China qualifies to the number one spot in censoring and blocking websites. No other country has so powerfully dealt with the Internet power than China. Jonathan Zittrain and Ben Edelman in their study found that collected two hundred thousand website samples and found that about fifty thousand were unavailable at least one and nineteen thousand were unavailable twice. BBC, CNN, US Court System were blocked. Some websites were clever enough to copy past the information from the blocked sites were available. It is a matter of popularity of the free expression of China sites that matter most to the Government. Tibet and Taiwan searches in the Google yielded no information or pro China news. Such was the strength of Government control over internet in China.
The Amnesty International says that the Chinese users were cleverer than their government by using proxy servers. It is the same case in information controlling Iran. The network system got popular from the university campuses. Slowly the anti-establishment students started spreading their message through Internet. Having successfully crushed down the print medium which was spreading anti-government messages, the Internet power came as a great shock.
Despite several tortures and control mechanisms Internet seems to be penetrating right to the end of the Government and hitting hard with antagonistic messages. Naturally the state control seems to be partial rather than totally ruthless. Off late the Chinese authorities are sending proxy pictures with anti-China message and infecting it with virus deliberately. This comes on the top of the searches and threatens the surfers not to download it. This exercise is repeated to fill many search results with virus attached messages and images.
One never knows the time of total takeover of Internet by the Government. Its power can be enhanced and upgraded any time. If a techno person takes over the Government then he/she will apply own mind to control the information. Rarely one can see a liberal implementing his prophecies. With the increasing terror threats anyone in the government will be compelled to give it as an excuse while ordering information control.
It is crucial to separate information freedom and information menace. Naturally every government should allow the free flow of information. Keeping track of the terrorists and troublemakers is a must. Indeed internet should be used proactively by the Government to track terror operators and help public to live peacefully.
In the fast moving career world who got time for formal relationships? This question seems to be answered on the ground and evidences are ample to witness. If a man and woman are living together and enjoying sexual relationship without marriage then it can be termed as ‘live in relationship’. India is totally strange to this model of human relationship few decades back. The Western societies which are accustomed to live in relationships infected traditional nations with this social model. Although this is few in numbers live in relationships will grow in big strength in the future.
There are various reasons for the escalating live in relationships. One, both man and woman are working and earning. In the past women used to be at home managing family. Men worked and brought resources to sustain livelihood. Whatever tensions he had at work are soothed at home by wife and children. Family life gave calmness and guided him at times of crisis. Entry of women in professional and higher education fields compelled them to take employment. Most importantly the high cost consumer economy necessitates women to work. Although work emancipated from ignorance and boredom it has taken their peace of mind. With eight hours of tedious work at office, concentrating on family matters is extremely difficult. But most of the Indian women have managed to strike a balance between work and home.
Few can handle occupational hazards. Either they have to sacrifice work or family. Working in private firms can be challenging for family people. I know some my women staff gets censored every day for coming late. Either they cut sorry figure or inhale frustrations. One of the programme coordinators keep saying “my days are numbered”. For the past two years she continues to come late due to her engagement with her son’s education. Despite giving her Saturday off, she comes late at forty five minutes late everyday to office. With this disadvantage she keeps fighting with everyone. Rarely does she go home with a peace of mind. Naturally one can expect the consequences of her family life.
According to a national survey, 99 percent of the Indian women are married. The remaining one percent enters either live in relationship or remain spinsters. But the number of increasing live in relationships is increasing from the surface view. A study conducted by Public Action in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata says that two percent of the sample of 3000 young age people below 35 identified themselves as live in partners. The respondents mainly pointed out that there is no time for them to think about formal marriage system. They are afraid of registering marriage and filling divorce cases. Basically they are aware of the fragility of their marriage. Why to invite legal trouble by going for the marriage?
The high visibility of live in relationships has attracted the attention of courts. The Maharastra Government has extended the meaning of wife to one who is also living with a man for a long period of time. Justice. Mallimath Committee has recommended in 2003 that a woman who lived with a man for a reasonable period of time enjoys the legal rights of a wife. Is India getting ready for a large-scale live in relationships?
Wales participó en la Academia de Wikipedia, organizada por sus representantes locales, la Asociación Wikimedia Argentina.
"Jimbo" explicó las razones del éxito de su creación: “La gente participa como un hobby y se divierte haciéndolo”, afirmó. Y destacó: “Que una comunidad se reúna para hacer algo útil es una idea interesante”. También adelantó lo que se viene: la competencia con Google.
Seguí leyendo sobre la visita de Jimmy Wales en el artículo que escribí para ElArgentino.com
Y en exclusiva para el blog, posteo un videíto que grabé y edité íntegramente desde mi N95 :)
Change benefits Related to country: India About this category: Human Rights & Equity
An international organization working in the tsunami affected area gave a CD to give opinion about their research. It was about the miseries of affected children. In one of the moving episodes a dalit child of 11 years said ‘We elected our own community man to improve our lives. But he is improving his own wealth without concern for his community people. One or two poor among dalits who were elected to the public office on reserved ticket are enjoying their power rather doing positive things for the community”. This moved me to explore the correlation between power and change.
Who benefits from the change? This is a very trivial question to answer. It is also difficult to provide an absolute evidence for the change brought in by people who were given mandate. Is it just enough to elect a black as the President of USA to ensure total justice for all blacks? Whether the ascendancy of woman to the top executive position of a country necessarily empowers women in that country? These are few fundamental questions keep cropping up in the minds during the high voltage talk about empowerment of underprivileged communities by electing one among them to represent in the highest power drivers.
One there is change at the structural and functional levels. But the increasing power of information reached to all sections through 24x7 media makes change invisible. All the negative aspects are projected. Rarely positive aspects of society are highlighted. Result of this is the circulation of frustration.
Political and personal benefits occupy the centre stage of change advocacy. There is no genuineness in advocating change. The gap between the lip and heart is very vast. When it comes to lip talk there is a free flow of rhetoric. In heart beats there are more personal desires than community development thoughts.
In India we had a dalit as the deputy prime minister. Babu Jagjeevan Ram occupied prime positions from ministership to deputy prime ministership. Yet he was not able to bring out revolutionary changes in the perception of dalits and also the others perception of dalits. We had Indira Gandhi the omnipotent woman Prime Minister for nearly two decades. Yet women occupy the down bottom position in the social strata. We had K.R. Narayanan the first dalit President. Today we have dalit chief justice.
It is incorrect to raise this correlation of community person at the helm of affairs and their community development. Firstly they are limited by various permutations and combinations of the socio-political setup. Secondly, whether a dalit or woman or black or any underprivileged category person gets carried by the aura of power. He or she loses sight of community feelings and dons the mantle of power person. In this situation the focus of community development is lost.
For instance, for the past two decades railway ministers of the union come from Bihar. They favour their home state by increasing the number of trains and rail related factories. This burns the hearts of other state members of parliament. Kerala MPs always complain about the raw deal they get in the railway budget. They often accuse the monopoly of Bihar in railways concessions, opportunities and employment.
Both ways it is difficult for the community conscious power people to survive. If they work explicitly for community concerns they are branded as ‘community driven’ and if they don’t work their own people condemn them. A right balance that can bring true change in each one of the underprivileged person’s life can remove this dilemma.
Defeat is difficult to digest. But expressing explicitly in anguished form is not considered as sporty and public figure’s style. Elections in America always demonstrated the distinguished way of conceding defeat. John Mccain has lived up to the standard of defeated candidate in the USA’s presidential election. His cool, clam and assuring speech after the final ballot was counted tells the depth of American political culture. This one aspect of Western political culture mesmerizes both common man and politicians in the Indian subcontinent. I heard many people praising Mccain’s gesture of wishing Obama a bright political future and his support to strengthen America. Rarely political figures in India show such a courtesy to congratulate their opponents. Mudslinging is part of the political game played everyday in the Indian society.
A popular personality’s strength is tested during the time of defeat. In that sense Mccain’s stature has climbed few upper peaks after his defeat speech.
To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.
“In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.
This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.
I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.
But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.
A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.
America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.
Let there be no reason now ... Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.
Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.
Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.
These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.
I urge all Americans ... I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.
Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.
It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.
We fought — we fought as hard as we could. And though we feel short, the failure is mine, not yours.
I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama — whether they supported me or Senator Obama.
I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.
Americans never quit. We never surrender.
We never hide from history. We make history.
Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.”
This concession speech should inspire the public figures across nations to conduct themselves in dignified manner after electoral defeat. American can be the leader of a decent political culture which equips every public figure to work for the common cause without vitiating the atmosphere and pushing the people towards frustration.
Richard Stallman, fundador del movimiento de software libre, ofreció ayer una conferencia en la Cámara de Diputados de la Nación. Invitado por la Fundación Vía Libre, estuvo acompañado por legisladores que están trabajando en proyectos que regulan el uso de programas informáticos en el Estado.
Lo bueno de ser periodista es que pude estar entre los primeros en ingresar a la sala y acomodarme cerca de Stallman. Saqué un montón de fotos con mi flamante N95 y grabé un videíto que publico más abajo.
El auditorio estuvo compuesto predominantemente por gran cantidad de estudiantes universitarios y jóvenes interesados en la temática.
Stallman, notoriamente cansado, ofreció una disertación de más de dos horas, en un buen castellano y con un sorprendente sentido del humor, especialmente al referirse a Microsoft y al presidente estadounidense George W. Bush. Habló de libertades, desarrollo, economía y voto electrónico, entre otros temas.
Seguir leyendo mi artículo sobre la conferencia de Richard Stallman en ElArgentino.com
Mi videíto en el que Stallman hace una introducción al software libre:
Sunday newspapers are heavy in weight. Multiple pages of matrimonial columns are the big reason for this heavy Sunday editions. Almost all the English dailies carry 8 page matrimonial advertisements every Sunday. The Times of India and The Hindustan Times are the two prominent newspapers which add weight to these columns. Apart from bride and bridegroom information different sociological factors are in an ample display. To decode these factors one has to spend a lot of time in reading these columns. Normally we do not even look at matrimonial columns if there is no need for us to find a partner for life.
To understand whether caste is still an issue in the wedlock, a cursory look at the matrimonial columns is sufficient. All the newspapers classify brides and bridegrooms according to their castes. Otherwise it is difficult for the reader to scan the whole a lot of advertisements. In addition to the newspapers several matrimonial websites have cropped up. Bharat Matrimony.com, simplymarry.com, shadi.com, jeevansaathi.com, and many others. Everyday there is some innovations in these sites and good improvements have been made. In a fraction of seconds one can find a suitable partner according to his or her desires. The search engines have made it very easy. Type Bride, age 23-26, Height 160 cms, complexion, fair, Caste, Kayastha, City, Patna, you will get 210 matches. With these wide ranges of brides with photos one can choose the finest one. If you are premium member of the site which will cost you Rs.3000 you can directly access the bride’s contact number and strike a conversation in the chat rooms.
The advantage of the matrimonial sites over newspaper advertisements is that there are quick search results with multiple photos. Chatting is possible with the girl and a comfort level can be established prior to striking the final deal. In the fast paced life, finding a life partner is both easy and difficult. Easy because of the several technological aids and difficult due to the persistence of socio-religious factors in finalizing the marriage.
Caste and class should match the desires of the partner searching families. In India it is not the choice of the individual over life partner. But the entire family gets into the process. One of my friends told me that he had no choice than to accept what his parents and sister selected. In more than 45 bride search visits he was never allowed to open mouth by his enthusiastic family members. If mother likes, father dislikes the bride. If three of them agree then his sister disapproves the girl for very strong voice and overweight. For the past 6 years he is searching for suitable soulmate but in vain. The consolation his sister got the right groom during bride hunts for her brother.
Despite high progress in education and heavy urbanization, social factors matter most in selection of life partners. It may be not be the choice of the bride or groom but their family members insists on the suitable social matches. A Rajput boy will demand the same caste, higher income, convent educated girl with postgraduate degree who can stay at home and look after the family. These qualifications are mostly thrust by family members. One of the important reasons for such stagnation in attitudes of parents in selecting life partner for their children is the soap operas telecasted. “Kabhi Saas bhi bahu thi” serial showcases the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law and the consequence of home politics. Most of the mother-in-laws are popular patrons of these types of serials. Obviously the teleserials have impacted them and made them extremely cautious while choosing their bahus.
Most of the matrimonial columns are difficult to decode. To meet the stipulated space and spent less on the advertisement, people adopt strategies and abbreviations. It is difficult for new readers to understand these code languages. It took months of brain racking to find out what BHP, S.M, etc are. Nevertheless matrimonial columns are interesting sociological reservoirs.
Publico este "paso a paso" de la manera en que publicamos los programas de nuestro programa de radio "Al Fondo Hay Lugar" porque varios amigos con programas quieren también tener algo como lo que tenemos nosotros y no saben bien cómo.
Por supuesto que debe haber maneras mejores... pero esta fue la que me dio mejores resultados. Si conocés otra forma, contalo en los comentarios!
Ir a www.archive.org y registrarse. En este sitio cargaremos el archivo de audio en formato mp3
Una vez registrados, nos logueamos con usuario y contraseña.
Clickeamos en el botón "upload"
Te pide poner un título del material que vas a subir. Poné el que te parezca.
En descripción, ídem anterior.
Cargar el archivo y esperar sin cerrar la ventana/pestaña del navegador.
En ese sitio vamos a referenciar el archivo de audio una vez que esté subido a archive.org y obtendremos dos reproductores: uno que irá conformando el archivo cronológico de programas y otro reproductor individual de cada programa.
Ingresás con tu flamante usuario y contraseña.
Vas a "create a new channel". En la nueva página dejás marcado "standard channel". Ponés la descripción del canal (sería la del programa) y en location elegís un nombre del canal tipo "alfondohaylugar". Marcás "I have read and agree to the terms of service" y le das al botón "create my channel".
clickeas "My channels" en la parte de abajo de la página, bajo el título "Publish"
Clickeas en el canal que acabás de crear
En post title, poné el nombre del programa seguido del número de edición y la fecha de emisión (o lo que quieras como título)
En descripción, ponés lo que quieras sobre ese programa que vas a publicar.
Clickeás: ADD AUDIO y donde dice Audio for iPods, iTunes, Feed
Players, PSP, some phones and more MP3 Url * ponés el link del audio que cargaste en archive.org.
Ojo,Archive te da varios links, tenés que usar el que está bajo el título:VBR MP3 cuyo link termina en .mp3
En is this a song, dejás marcado el NO
En audio title poné: título del programa y opcionalmente fecha y número de programa
En tags: ponés palabras claves relacionadas con tu programa, separadas por comas
En rights: dejás marcado "share it" (o el que quieras)
Le das a "publish".
En ese momento, vas a http://bigcontact.com/reemplazarpornombredetuprograma
Vas a ver el reproductor individual del programa. Clickeá el botón "share" que tiene
el reproductor hacia la punta derecha. Ahí, clickeá COPY TO CLIPBOARD
(clickeás y listo, no esperes que pase nada)
Ahora, tenés que ir al blog de tu programa.
En el blog en Blogger clickeás "nueva entrada"
En título ponés: lo que quieras de título del posteo
En el cuerpo del posteo: lo que quieras poner.
Clickeas la pestaña "Edición de HTML"
Pegás el código que habías copiado del reproductor de BigContact
Recession is a reality in the current economic crisis. Corporate sector is clueless in managing the trouble. Job cuts, slashing of salary, reduction in allowances, shutting down units which do not give huge profits, and other ways are followed to ward off the sudden death situation. Common people too face the music with the shooting inflation. How Indians are coping up with this gloomy economic condition? Any scale down in celebrations? The initial results show no reduction in the size of the festivities. With diwali nearing most people are continuing their usual fireworks and gifts exchange. One has to wait and see whether the economic crisis has altered the spending. Last year Rs.500 crores worth of gifts was exchanged.
Shops are making all out efforts to woo the customers. The gold price is coming down from Rs.14,000 to Rs.12,000 per 24 karat 10 gms. Dhanteras – an occasion to buy gold is celebrated with fanfare by the jewelers. The purpose of flashy advertisements about Dhanetras is to tempt the customers to buy gold. Non stop louder advertisements in television channels pull the people towards gold buying. Slowly and steadily they are coming to buy. Investment in gold is attractive due to the slump in stock market and banking sector.
Generally festivals are ought to be celebrated even with borrowed money. Lay-offs and economic crisis are temporary phenomenon which does not tamper with the spirit of the people. One of the important reasons for such undeterred festive mood is that it is suppose to dump the worries and look for bright future. For instance diwali is a festival which welcomes Goddess of money – Lakshmi to home. If one does not have money due to the economic crisis, he or she borrows money and do the grand puja to worship Lakshmi. So that the Goddess becomes happy and showers all the prosperity to the worshipped home.
India has too many festivals. There is no stopping of any celebrations. Durga puja, vijayadashmi and diwali come in a month’s time. After two months, New Year and harvest festivals. In north India, Holi comes in March which is a gala event. Apart from these major festivals there are region specific ones which are equally attractive.
Added to the misery of economic crisis, terrorist attacks during festival seasons have slowed down the spirit of shoppers. Diwali season has been the prime target time for terrorists to plant bombs. The dense packed markets provide chance for terrorists to strike at their will. Continuous terrorist strikes have compelled police to erect more security barriers. The fallout is also on the shopkeepers. This year only 35 whole salers were given license to sell crackers in comparison to 250 last year in Delhi. Breaking all these barriers most of the people are shopping and inspiring others to face the grave situation with confidence.
What does the recession mean for Indians? It is not the one stop shock for all. Recession affects different people differently. Those who have good stock of savings and assets need to worry about this situation. Nearly 35% of the Indian population belongs to this category. Another 30% struggle for everyday living and festivals do not matter for them. The final 35% of the middle category may feel little difficult but not completely out. They are salary class people who get into the routine mode of get credit, enjoy now and pay later trend. Who is finally affected by the recession? Those who lost heavily in the stock market crash and lost jobs in the financial tsunami are ones who faces heat in the diwali season this year.
Still diamond –encrusted watches costing more than a million Euros, Armani scarves, Louis Vutton bags, Mont Blanc playing cards, Vertu phones, golf sets and many more exotic gifts are all doing rounds in the wish list of gift givers.
Recession will come and go. Festive spirit is permanent. It should not be bartered for temporary troubles. Live king size life and enjoy every bit of the festival. Pray to Goddess Lakshmi to crush the crisis and continue to pour wealth. Who knows will there be any gloom tomorrow?
The Supreme Court has thrown spanners at the only gala annual event of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University - student union elections. The stay order issued yesterday instantly outrages all those who have been part of the radical university. Cutting across ideological lines members of the university community feel deprived of an intellectual entertainment during the union elections. Debates, dharnas, campaigns, posters, pamphlets, public meetings and many more unique events are part of the election process. It is the only university where elections are conducted by students. For the past thirty and above years this process has been a quite smooth affair bearing few odd incidents.
J.M. Lyndgoh Committee appointed by the Supreme Court in its report last year proposed few sweeping changes in the conduct of student union elections all over the country. Violence, uncontrolled flow of money, muscle power, political influence and loss of academic character of the institutions during student union elections have influenced the committee to propose stringent measures. Restricting the age limit to 28, amount spent per candidate to Rs.5000, first class pass in all subjects with 80 percent attendance and no second term contest are some of the recommendations of the committee as criteria for students to contest their union elections.
All other universities in the country have either following these guidelines or not conducting student union elections. JNU which is known for questioning the questioner was trying to convince the Court about its unique nature of the elections. The university does not have attendance system. Students are encouraged to do self study and attending lectures are made optional. It is a successful experiment where self struggle breeds all round development. Students from extremely backward families without any basic advantage used the university and reached top positions in life later. Those who have observed such a successful social transformations engineered by JNU supports the university’s unique culture, tradition and ethos. But law and rule of the country cannot be JNU specific.
Knowing well the impact of the Lyndgoh committee report, enlightened student union members of JNU were lackadaisical when the report was accepted and put for implementation by the Supreme Court. I find this as the biggest mistake of JNU student union. Last year when the Supreme Court threatened to stay elections, JNUSU pleaded for course correction this year due to lack of time. After a year the circle is repeated. In the absence of strong record, Supreme Court will not vacate the stay. At best there can be few agreements to the Court order and few amendments can be made to the Lyndgoh’s committee report. There should be segregation between college and university union elections. The age limit can hiked to 35 instead of 28. Two terms can be allowed per candidate due to his/her long term stay in the campus (9 years). Without a give and take policy the stalemate will continue.
Controlling violence, protecting the campus from defacements, excess usage of money and restricting outsiders influence during student union elections are to be taken care by the student leaders. They need to be trained to follow rules and regulations. If students fail to follow law of the land there is no future for legal mechanisms. Instead of stopping the whole process, educating and improving responsibilities of students need to be carried out. Knowing the pros and cons of student life, Supreme Court’s magnanimity in handling student union elections will be highly productive. Not too much. Not too far can be the role play of the legal authority in campus matters.
