The Derailment of Western Civilization - Does it need a bail-out?

This doesn't need no BAIL-OUT. That's a serious misdiagnosis of the real problem. It needs REHABILITATION.

The Western World - its leaders, proponents and denizens spread across the world need a proper treatment regime to return to normal life. In good measure, that calls for compassion. But, in proportion to the nature of their illness, it needs good doses of  censuring, punishment and even rude shocks to jolt them out of their delusions.

In the part of the world that I come from, though, they are still playing the old tunes. A powerful section of "educated" people in politics, media, business continue to be weak on their knees (or even salivating in their private rooms) over the lures and lucres of the western civilization. They are still talking about bail-outs. Pumping in more steroids to treat the addiction - further worsening the condition.

A Global Epidemic - filings from India

If you follow some of the most recent comments of the Indian Finance Minister, the Prime Minister, the Industry Clubs, Media and the coterie, they are still willing to bend and stoop lower and lower...until maybe the back starts hurting.

They still bravely but dishonestly hold that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong" - and continue to pander to the greed and addictive deprivation of a small section of affluent classes - called as the EMI class in various discussions and analysis - siphoning away money from development and social sector in the country and pushing large sections of people deeper into poverty, hunger and mal-nourishment, school-drop outs and loss of livelihood opportunities.

Drunken with his delusions, the Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram (seen in the picture, sitting on the dias - third from left - in a traditional white dress)  "evangelised" his countrymen with a new gospel in an important address last year in the Indian Parliament:

" Times have changed today. Today the only reason that matters is pragmatism. The only hard truth is development. We must become pragmatic, development-oriented and we must do all that is possible to attain high growth. High growth will lead us to prosperity in the long run. I am confident about my country. I am confident that within my lifetime, within the lifetime of most people here, we will abolish poverty, the abject poverty, as we have known it for 5,000 years. We may not become a rich country like Switzerland or Japan or we may not have that kind of income but the abject poverty, the kind of poverty that sends the children to dustbins, the kind of poverty which sends our women before dawn and after dusk to answer calls of nature, that kind of poverty will be abolished if we grow at eight per cent or nine per cent."
Source: www.parliamentofindia.nic.in/lsdeb/ls11/ses4/1520039704.htm

(To further assess how serious his affliction is, refer to Annexure on how he hallucinates and misrepresents facts out of their historical context)

Does he need a bail-out?

The answers are blowin' in the wind

If you wonder, why these poor people haven't just died-off bearing the brunt of 5000 years of poverty, as the Finance Minister seems to believe; how in spite of government apathy and extortion in recent times of stupendous GDP growth - to fuel the greed and addiction economy, a good number of them manage to happily survive, here is the answer:

Large sections of people in India and perhaps, in a number of other countries around the world have been doing all the while, what is being prescribed by the multi-billion dollar cottage industry of economic experts, self-help counsellors and soothsayers in the western world in face of the distress, disorder and frustration caused by the economic meltdown - to live within your means, to balance your books and to work with nature - and not against it. Over the centuries they have harbored powerful survival instincts and have evolved innovations and improvisations to adapt and tide over the multiple crises forced upon them by destruction and encroachment of their habitat.

They have certainly benefited from various government initiatives on poverty alleviation, education and health, women empowerment and employment generation. Hiding behind a maze of goverment files and blow-ups of their actual impact as posted in various media is the harsh reality. More people are poor and deprived today, than were even 5 years back based on realistic yardsticks as documented by the UNDP, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and scores of reports from various NGOs from the field.

This holds as well to a great extent for a significant but silent (or muted) section of the educated population - in India and so in most other countries - that continues to go with the tide so far and is still held together by traditional values. Many of them are speaking out and beginning to act in small ways. Hope lies in their ability to rise up to the occasion and turn the tide.

What holds hope?

A lurking possibility is that with more intensive efforts, they are able to sway international opinion and call for deep political reforms.

One, to allow every child - the right to vote through their natural or rightful guardian.

Two, political candidates must be screened and appraised on their competency for the job, based on systemic enquiry - to make obvious complex cause and effect relationships, transparency and effective communication. The scores must weight in good proportion with the popular vote for the final outcome.

In parallel,we need another set of reforms.

As the dust settles down over the tremors of the economic meltdown, the world must calmly and quietly decide to allow free movement of people across the world. The resulting cultural exchange will calm the nerves and prevent a much-dreaded psychological melt down and uncontrollable eruption of crime and fascist epidemics in much of the western world, as well as allow more judicious utilisation of infrastructure, universities, research and other well-evolved institutions in the advanced countries.

This is a Win-Win for all of us.

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. We are faced now with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late…We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: Too late.”

As we explore the Win-Win opportunity, we may well remember some timeless advice from Martin Luther King Jr., as quoted above, in another such time.


Annexure: Delusions and Derelictions of The Indian Finance Minister

Delusion #1: Reiterating his stance on His Economic Growth as an antidote to Poverty Eradication

Further to his address in the Indian Parliament, the Finance Minister reiterated his conviction in his new path to a group of agitators opposing an industrial project in his home state of Tamil Nadu:
“The path followed by us for the past 5,000 years didn’t help to eradicate poverty. But, the new path being followed has liberated crores of people from poverty. There are still crores of people to be set free from poverty. Following the new path is the only option.” http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/30/stories/2008063055200500.htm

Facts:

"The intellectual father of India’s freedom movement was a British MP of Indian origin - Dadabhai Naoroji. His seminal work on the British colonial loot of India cut away the legs of the Raj - and thereafter, the Raj could not stand. Statistical analyses by Angus Maddisson, Groningen University showed India with a world trade share of 25% for much of the 500 years during 1400-1900. India's loss of wealth is a recent phenomenon. This trend of increasing poverty was halted only with Indian independence and subsequent growth of the Indian economy.
India’s rapid economic decline in the first half of the 20th century is what Chidambaram refers to as the 5000 years of poverty."
Source: http://2ndrelook.blogspot.com/2007/10/chidambaram-says-he-wants-to-end-5000.html

Delusion#2: Emphasizing the historcial context for Reservation of seats on the basis of the caste system at a Seminar on Social Justice --> Below the belt politics to "secure" vote bank --> Justify his enlightenment path on His Economic Growth

"Everyone is saying Quota system is a new bear (karadi). This is wrong, Reservation is not a new bear (karadi) at all - it is a 5000-10000 year old bear (karadi)"

Facts:

"10,000 years ! Now, thats a first. The best we have heard so far is 4,000 years. So PC is really pushing the envelope here. The harappa civilization is only 3500-4800 years old. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harappa But who cares for facts and figures."

Source: http://realitycheck.wordpress.com/2006/06/09/a-5000-10000-year-old-issue-p-chidambaram/ The original source in Tamil is http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2006/06/09/pc.html