WASHINGTON:
Most people looking at Russia and China when Mao died in 1976 would have assumed that Russia was better positioned to become a major player in global technology industries.
The Soviet Union was a superpower with many of the requisites for development. Its literacy levels and enormous numbers of scientific, technical and other specialists with advanced education far surpassed China's overwhelmingly peasant society emerging from the chaos of the cultural revolution.
Yet since Mao's death it is China that has generated consistent high economic growth rates, fostering increasingly competitive industries and lifting a significant number of people out of poverty. China is an important global player in a growing number of technology industries and in the international economic system, things Russian leaders merely talk about.
Russian growth since August 1998 is attributable overwhelmingly to the ruble devaluation and increased oil prices. Despite the windfall oil revenues, Russia's growth rate since Vladimir Putin became president has been lower than most of the countries of the former Soviet Union.
What accounts for an outcome that contradicts most people's expectations?
Many analysts cite "initial conditions," but explanations based on large numbers of peasants not covered by social welfare systems, diasporas with capital to invest or beginning reform with agriculture do not withstand a comparative test. Other countries with similar conditions have not matched China's growth.
Others emphasize the stable environment provided by authoritarian leadership. But if government administration was the key, the state sector should be the basis for China's success rather than an anchor dragging on the economy.
The crucial difference, I believe, is the quality of China's and Russia's integration with the international economy. China has embraced economic globalization and integration; Russia remains wary and peripheral.
Russia's economy is open, but selling natural resources and arms generates few linkages leading to higher value-added production. Russia's economic integration is "thin." China's integration is "thick" - it involves linkages in technology chains and participation in entire product cycles. China joined the WTO in 2001; Russia has been a year or two away from membership since 1993, largely because so much of its economy is outside WTO's scope.
These differences influence internal politics. China's thick integration has fostered regional, sectoral and institutional interests that have defended and expanded the policies of reform and openness. Economic retrenchment was repeatedly abandoned because coalitions of entrepreneurs, officials and investors benefiting from openness helped pro-reform leaders to prevail. Russia's thin integration generates few forces to contest renewed administrative domination of the economy.
Chinese discourse portrays globalization as the great opportunity to overcome centuries of relative backwardness; Russian elites equate globalization with Americanization, often viewing it as a threat to Russia's future.
Why do Chinese elites embrace globalization while Russians question it? The answer, I believe, is found in the mutually reinforcing interaction of historical legacy with political and economic conditions.
Deng Xiaoping's policy of openness followed China's cultural revolution, so China began its reforms with neither a self-confident ruling elite nor a horde of policy intellectuals invested in the old system. The Communist Party remained in power but accepted new economic approaches.
In contrast, the Soviet cultural revolution of 1928-31 created a new elite that remained in power until the 1970s and bequeathed economic autarky and superpower myths to the next generation. Russia's elites are descended from the Stalinist party faction that explicitly rejected the West and internationalism. When Mikhail Gorbachev initiated perestroika, Russia considered itself a co-equal superpower. Not only do Russians have ambivalent attitudes toward the West; they think the West has nothing to teach them.
While both China and Russia have become major exporters, the nature of those exports differs markedly. China is a global manufacturing center, producing a mix of value-added products three times above what economists would expect.
Russia is a petrostate. In contrast to China's robust manufacturing sectors, finished goods represent less than 10 percent of Russian exports. Hydrocarbons and other natural resources account for an overwhelming share of both exports and state revenues.
Power devolved to the regions in both countries in the 1980s. In some areas of China, this resulted in rapid economic development. Regions and enterprises competed for capital and workers competed for jobs. China is a case where economic success derives from sometimes harsh competition.
When Russian regions were given the opportunity to establish free economic zones in the 1990s, they produced a flurry of special commercial privileges, tax evasion and black market schemes rather than industrial development. Now regional development depends on Kremlin approval and funding.
International linkages are helping China overtake Russia in education and scientific research. At China's National Conference on Science in 1978, Deng proclaimed that "one must learn from those who are most advanced before one can catch up with and surpass them." Russian leaders remain convinced that they have the best schools and best scientists in the world, and everyone else should learn from them. Four of China's top universities now hire almost exclusively from among Chinese with foreign Ph.Ds; Russian universities refuse to recognize foreign credentials.
China's embrace of globalization and resulting thick international economic integration have been the key to its emergence as a commercial and manufacturing power. Russian resistance to integration makes it less able to overcome resource dependence. When Russian leaders suggest that they need to emulate China's policies, they emphasize strong governmental control rather than the diverse and independent local and regional economic activity that accounts for China's early success.
China has not solved all its problems or discovered an optimal development model. Weaknesses are easily identified, particularly uneven development, weak property rights, safety standards, environmental damage and demographic shifts. Whether China can continue to grow despite these challenges is the question for the global economy. Russia's economic prospects are mainly of concern to commodities markets.
The character of integration with the international economy not only explains why China, and not Russia, has become a commercial and industrial power. It also has profound implications for their future development trajectories.
Both countries need greater societal involvement in political life. By generating diverse economic interests that at times can affect policy, China's thick international integration has created the potential for continued influence. Russia's thinner integration places fewer constraints on leaders who appear to be dizzy with petroleum.
Harley Balzer is a professor in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/24/news/edbalzar.php
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
€1 million Lamborghinis sell like hotcakes
रॉयटर्स
Thursday, September 13, २००७
What price exclusivity?
If you ask Lamborghini, €1 million should do it - before tax, of course।
In a bid to burnish its prestige, the Italian maker of the super luxury sports car unveiled the Reventón earlier this week at the Frankfurt International Motor Show - a very limited edition car that looks more like an arrow than anything on four wheels।
With the $1.4 million price tag, it is the most expensive car ever built. Needless to say, Lamborghini has already sold the 20 cars that it planned to build."As soon as the word got out, we sold out in four days," Stephan Winkelmann, the company's chief executive, said, adding that Lamborghini could have easily sold another 20.Most of the buyers were men from the United States, some of whom already own a Lamborghini, Winkelmann said.Lamborghini named the car after a bull that killed matador Felix Guzman in 1943.
Although it is based on its Murciélago LP640 model, Lamborghini's engineers took inspiration from a fighter jet and reworked the composite carbon fibre body to accentuate the sleekness and angular edges usually associated with its cars.The engine is the same as the LP640: a 12-cylinder rocket that can propel the car from zero to 100 kilometers per hour, or 60 miles per hour, in 3.4 seconds.By comparison, the coupe version of the LP640 costs a relatively more modest €219,600.
Lamborghini, which is run by Volkswagen's Audi division, will start making the Reventón in January and deliver them in October.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/13/business/auto.php
Thursday, September 13, २००७
What price exclusivity?
If you ask Lamborghini, €1 million should do it - before tax, of course।
In a bid to burnish its prestige, the Italian maker of the super luxury sports car unveiled the Reventón earlier this week at the Frankfurt International Motor Show - a very limited edition car that looks more like an arrow than anything on four wheels।
With the $1.4 million price tag, it is the most expensive car ever built. Needless to say, Lamborghini has already sold the 20 cars that it planned to build."As soon as the word got out, we sold out in four days," Stephan Winkelmann, the company's chief executive, said, adding that Lamborghini could have easily sold another 20.Most of the buyers were men from the United States, some of whom already own a Lamborghini, Winkelmann said.Lamborghini named the car after a bull that killed matador Felix Guzman in 1943.
Although it is based on its Murciélago LP640 model, Lamborghini's engineers took inspiration from a fighter jet and reworked the composite carbon fibre body to accentuate the sleekness and angular edges usually associated with its cars.The engine is the same as the LP640: a 12-cylinder rocket that can propel the car from zero to 100 kilometers per hour, or 60 miles per hour, in 3.4 seconds.By comparison, the coupe version of the LP640 costs a relatively more modest €219,600.
Lamborghini, which is run by Volkswagen's Audi division, will start making the Reventón in January and deliver them in October.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/13/business/auto.php
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Import Indian bridegrooms for Russian brides
Vladimir Radyuhin
New Russian magic mantra to reverse alarming fall in the country’s birth rate
MOSCOW: Desperate to reverse a steep decline in their numbers, Russians are coming up with some bold ideas on how to overcome Russia’s demographic crisis.
A Russian feminist has proposed a radical solution to the falling birth rate — importing Indian bridegrooms for Russian girls. Maria Arbatova, writer and TV moderator, who married an Indian businessman a few years ago “after 25 years of keeping marrying Russians”, thinks Indian men make ideal husbands.
“They are crazy about their family and children,” she said presenting her new book, ‘Tasting India’, here. “What is more, Indians, like Russians, are Indo-Europeans, and many Sanskrit and Russian words have the same roots.”
Indian bridegrooms can help ward off a Chinese demographic invasion in Russia, says the feminist: “If we do not balance off the Chinese with Indians, Africans or aliens, by 2050 China will annex Russia’s Siberia up to the Ural Mountains.”
Russia has a population of 142 million spread across a territory five times the size of India. Its population is shrinking at one-third of a million a year. Under a federal programme launched this year, women who give birth to a second or subsequent child are given certificates worth $10,000, which can be used for education, mortgage or pensions. Monthly support payments to young mothers have been raised from $28 to $60. Afraid that the Government measures are not enough, the Governor of Ulyanovsk has suggested his own way of getting Russian couples to have more babies.
This Wednesday, Ulyanovsk residents will enjoy an extra day off work that the Governor decreed to give them more time to produce babies. The holiday, officially called “Family Contact Day”, was quickly renamed by locals as “Day of Conception”. That day the people will be invited to join a festival, “I Love You”, while teams of gynaecologists, midwives and psychologists will fan out to all parts of the region to advise women on having babies.
September 12 has been chosen for the new holiday so that babies conceived that day may be born on June 12, Russia’s National Day. Couples who hit the target date win prizes, including refrigerators, TV sets and washing machines. The main prize is an Ulyanovsk-built all-terrain vehicle called Patriot.
© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2007091256220100.htm&date=2007/09/12/&prd=th&
New Russian magic mantra to reverse alarming fall in the country’s birth rate
MOSCOW: Desperate to reverse a steep decline in their numbers, Russians are coming up with some bold ideas on how to overcome Russia’s demographic crisis.
A Russian feminist has proposed a radical solution to the falling birth rate — importing Indian bridegrooms for Russian girls. Maria Arbatova, writer and TV moderator, who married an Indian businessman a few years ago “after 25 years of keeping marrying Russians”, thinks Indian men make ideal husbands.
“They are crazy about their family and children,” she said presenting her new book, ‘Tasting India’, here. “What is more, Indians, like Russians, are Indo-Europeans, and many Sanskrit and Russian words have the same roots.”
Indian bridegrooms can help ward off a Chinese demographic invasion in Russia, says the feminist: “If we do not balance off the Chinese with Indians, Africans or aliens, by 2050 China will annex Russia’s Siberia up to the Ural Mountains.”
Russia has a population of 142 million spread across a territory five times the size of India. Its population is shrinking at one-third of a million a year. Under a federal programme launched this year, women who give birth to a second or subsequent child are given certificates worth $10,000, which can be used for education, mortgage or pensions. Monthly support payments to young mothers have been raised from $28 to $60. Afraid that the Government measures are not enough, the Governor of Ulyanovsk has suggested his own way of getting Russian couples to have more babies.
This Wednesday, Ulyanovsk residents will enjoy an extra day off work that the Governor decreed to give them more time to produce babies. The holiday, officially called “Family Contact Day”, was quickly renamed by locals as “Day of Conception”. That day the people will be invited to join a festival, “I Love You”, while teams of gynaecologists, midwives and psychologists will fan out to all parts of the region to advise women on having babies.
September 12 has been chosen for the new holiday so that babies conceived that day may be born on June 12, Russia’s National Day. Couples who hit the target date win prizes, including refrigerators, TV sets and washing machines. The main prize is an Ulyanovsk-built all-terrain vehicle called Patriot.
© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2007091256220100.htm&date=2007/09/12/&prd=th&
Sunday, September 09, 2007
In Its Match With China, India Penalizes Its Own Team
In Its Match With China, India Penalizes Its Own Team
(from the New York times)
April 24, 2007Op-Ed ColumnistBy NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
KHAWASPUR, India
India is stirring after many centuries of torpor, and it has a chance of ending this century as the capital of the world, the most important nation on earth. You see up-and-coming cities like Hyderabad or Ahmedabad, and it’s easy to believe that India will eventually surpass China.
But here in rural Bihar state in northern India, there’s no economic miracle to be seen. And it’s difficult to see how India can emerge on top unless it takes advantage of its greatest untapped resource: its rural population.
The village of Khawaspur has no electricity. It has a school with 600 students, but — as is common in Indian state schools — many teachers show up only rarely. “We go to school, but the teachers don’t,” explained Doli, a second-grade girl.
On a typical day there will be just one or two teachers in the whole school, and the students learn next to nothing. “You have to bribe your way to be a teacher there,” explained Yogender Singh, who tutors children for payment.
No child I met in Khawaspur had ever been vaccinated for anything. And the local government hospital exists only in theory.
“There is a hospital,” said a villager named Muhammad Shaukat. “But there’s not even a door or a window. Forget about a doctor.”
That’s a common problem: the government pays for schools, clinics or vaccinations, but someone pockets the money and no education or health care materializes.
In a village in Gujarat that I visited on this trip, all the children were out of school because the teachers had decided to take a monthlong vacation. One sixth-grade student, Ramila, could not write her name, not even in Gujarati.
Another sixth grader, Janah, said that when it came time for exams, the teachers wrote the answers on the blackboard for students to copy so the exam results wouldn’t embarrass the school.
Then there’s the toll of malnutrition. India has more malnourished children than any country in the world and one of the highest rates of malnutrition, 30 to 47 percent, depending on who does the estimating.
Those malnourished children suffer permanent losses in I.Q. and cognition, and are easy prey for diseases. There is some evidence that widespread malnutrition lowers economic growth in affected countries by two to four percentage points a year.
So in the middle of this century, India will still be held back by its failure to educate, feed and vaccinate its children today. This failure will haunt India for many decades to come. Sure, China has many similar problems, with growing gaps between rich and poor and an interior that is being left far behind. But rural Chinese schools provide a basic education, including solid math and science skills.
India’s boom is real, and its overall growth rate puts India right at China’s heels. Its middle class is expanding, governance is improving, and the transformation is one of the most exciting things going on in the world today. The 21st century will belong to Asia, and young Americans need to study Asia, live in it and learn its languages.
But Indians refer to the “Bimaru” states — a play on the word “bimar,” which means “sick” in Hindi. The Bimaru states are Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and Orissa deserves a spot as well.
In the Bimaru states, there is no boom. “We see nothing here,” said Vidya Sagar Gupta, a businessman who once operated many factories in northern Bihar. Now he has closed most of
them down and is trying to sell his properties.
Electricity is unreliable, crime is growing, corruption is endless, the agricultural sector is in crisis, supplies are difficult to get, and criminal gangs and politics are so interwoven that it is difficult to foresee improvements, he says.
For anyone who wants to see this country succeed, a visit to rural India is a bitter disappointment. Ela Bhatt, who founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association, a union of poor women that now has nearly one million members, told me that India’s economy is profoundly limited: “It is like a car having one motorized tire, and the others are cart wheels.”
So in the great race of this century, the race to see which country will lead the world in 2100, I’m still betting on China for now. I’m having my kids learn Chinese, not Hindi (or Indian English, a remarkable language in its own right).
Until India’s economic boom becomes much more broadly based, and until Indian schools manage to teach their students, this country will continue to waste its precious brainpower and won’t achieve a fraction of what it should.
(from the New York times)
April 24, 2007Op-Ed ColumnistBy NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
KHAWASPUR, India
India is stirring after many centuries of torpor, and it has a chance of ending this century as the capital of the world, the most important nation on earth. You see up-and-coming cities like Hyderabad or Ahmedabad, and it’s easy to believe that India will eventually surpass China.
But here in rural Bihar state in northern India, there’s no economic miracle to be seen. And it’s difficult to see how India can emerge on top unless it takes advantage of its greatest untapped resource: its rural population.
The village of Khawaspur has no electricity. It has a school with 600 students, but — as is common in Indian state schools — many teachers show up only rarely. “We go to school, but the teachers don’t,” explained Doli, a second-grade girl.
On a typical day there will be just one or two teachers in the whole school, and the students learn next to nothing. “You have to bribe your way to be a teacher there,” explained Yogender Singh, who tutors children for payment.
No child I met in Khawaspur had ever been vaccinated for anything. And the local government hospital exists only in theory.
“There is a hospital,” said a villager named Muhammad Shaukat. “But there’s not even a door or a window. Forget about a doctor.”
That’s a common problem: the government pays for schools, clinics or vaccinations, but someone pockets the money and no education or health care materializes.
In a village in Gujarat that I visited on this trip, all the children were out of school because the teachers had decided to take a monthlong vacation. One sixth-grade student, Ramila, could not write her name, not even in Gujarati.
Another sixth grader, Janah, said that when it came time for exams, the teachers wrote the answers on the blackboard for students to copy so the exam results wouldn’t embarrass the school.
Then there’s the toll of malnutrition. India has more malnourished children than any country in the world and one of the highest rates of malnutrition, 30 to 47 percent, depending on who does the estimating.
Those malnourished children suffer permanent losses in I.Q. and cognition, and are easy prey for diseases. There is some evidence that widespread malnutrition lowers economic growth in affected countries by two to four percentage points a year.
So in the middle of this century, India will still be held back by its failure to educate, feed and vaccinate its children today. This failure will haunt India for many decades to come. Sure, China has many similar problems, with growing gaps between rich and poor and an interior that is being left far behind. But rural Chinese schools provide a basic education, including solid math and science skills.
India’s boom is real, and its overall growth rate puts India right at China’s heels. Its middle class is expanding, governance is improving, and the transformation is one of the most exciting things going on in the world today. The 21st century will belong to Asia, and young Americans need to study Asia, live in it and learn its languages.
But Indians refer to the “Bimaru” states — a play on the word “bimar,” which means “sick” in Hindi. The Bimaru states are Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and Orissa deserves a spot as well.
In the Bimaru states, there is no boom. “We see nothing here,” said Vidya Sagar Gupta, a businessman who once operated many factories in northern Bihar. Now he has closed most of
them down and is trying to sell his properties.
Electricity is unreliable, crime is growing, corruption is endless, the agricultural sector is in crisis, supplies are difficult to get, and criminal gangs and politics are so interwoven that it is difficult to foresee improvements, he says.
For anyone who wants to see this country succeed, a visit to rural India is a bitter disappointment. Ela Bhatt, who founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association, a union of poor women that now has nearly one million members, told me that India’s economy is profoundly limited: “It is like a car having one motorized tire, and the others are cart wheels.”
So in the great race of this century, the race to see which country will lead the world in 2100, I’m still betting on China for now. I’m having my kids learn Chinese, not Hindi (or Indian English, a remarkable language in its own right).
Until India’s economic boom becomes much more broadly based, and until Indian schools manage to teach their students, this country will continue to waste its precious brainpower and won’t achieve a fraction of what it should.
Our Achilles heel
MEN & IDEAS
Our Achilles heel
9 Sep 2007,
0239 hrs IST,
Gurcharan Das
A friend of mine, who hikes frequently in the Himalayas, showed me a solar torch the other day which gives light for seven hours before you need to recharge it in the sun. It has a hook for hanging and can light up a small room. My friend uses it for camping. But what a boon, i thought, for our 250,000 villages without electricity and the millions of school children who can't do homework at night and village women who fear walking after dark.
I googled the maker of the torch and discovered an inspiring story about how to be both a good and an effective human being. Mark Bent, an American, worked for 20 years in Africa and saw the waste behind government aid programs. He came home and invented what he calls the BoGo solar torch. BoGo means 'Buy One, Give One'. When you buy one flashlight for Rs 1,000, Mark gives one at half price to NGOs in Africa, who give it to villagers at a nominal price. Mark makes the torches in China to keep costs low. The story is remarkable not because Mark is a 'do-gooder' but because he has found an innovative and sustainable way to profit from the rich and benefit the poor.
Rich campers bring light to African villagers. I hope some NGO in India will google Mark and begin distributing these torches here. Now, why couldn't one of our boys or girls invent and market this lamp? The answer, of course, is our education system, which stifles all creativity through rote learning. It was modelled on the British system, but the British have moved on and reformed theirs, partly under American inspiration. But our kids are still stuck in a world of cramming and coaching classes.
The disease lies in the lack of autonomy. The ministry of HRD and its children, University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have a stranglehold. A college cannot decide what courses to teach, what fees to charge and what salaries to pay its professors. How could creativity emerge from this servitude? Creating new universities, as the PM proposes, is not the answer unless you give them autonomy. Forget creativity, Indian companies are frightened by the shortage of basic skills which is currently driving up salaries unhealthily. Of the 400,000 new engineers that graduate each year, roughly 100,000 have the skills to enter the job market. It is tragic that over 400,000 students strive for 6,000 IIT and IIM seats annually.
The answer, of course, is to increase the supply of good colleges. As it is, we lose 160,000 students to foreign universities and parents pay $3 billion in fees and costs. Indian 'edupreneurs' and foreign universities have repeatedly tried to start high quality campuses but the HRD ministry's 'licence raj' drives them away. AICTE even wants to close down the prestigious, private Indian School of Business which offers a better education than an IIM. The draft foreign universities bill doesn't provide autonomy either and ensures that no decent foreign university will enter India. Our education system is our Achilles heel and we will not spawn Mark Bents until we do a 1991 on HRD and unbind India's education. Meanwhile, I console myself in knowing that there are individuals like my friend, N S Raghavan, who is using part of his Infosys fortune to incubate entrepreneurs at the IIM Bangalore. He will make a difference and modest breakthroughs like Mark Bent's will contribute more to human happiness than either the massive aid programs of governments or the soul-killing mediocrity of our universities.
Our Achilles heel
9 Sep 2007,
0239 hrs IST,
Gurcharan Das
A friend of mine, who hikes frequently in the Himalayas, showed me a solar torch the other day which gives light for seven hours before you need to recharge it in the sun. It has a hook for hanging and can light up a small room. My friend uses it for camping. But what a boon, i thought, for our 250,000 villages without electricity and the millions of school children who can't do homework at night and village women who fear walking after dark.
I googled the maker of the torch and discovered an inspiring story about how to be both a good and an effective human being. Mark Bent, an American, worked for 20 years in Africa and saw the waste behind government aid programs. He came home and invented what he calls the BoGo solar torch. BoGo means 'Buy One, Give One'. When you buy one flashlight for Rs 1,000, Mark gives one at half price to NGOs in Africa, who give it to villagers at a nominal price. Mark makes the torches in China to keep costs low. The story is remarkable not because Mark is a 'do-gooder' but because he has found an innovative and sustainable way to profit from the rich and benefit the poor.
Rich campers bring light to African villagers. I hope some NGO in India will google Mark and begin distributing these torches here. Now, why couldn't one of our boys or girls invent and market this lamp? The answer, of course, is our education system, which stifles all creativity through rote learning. It was modelled on the British system, but the British have moved on and reformed theirs, partly under American inspiration. But our kids are still stuck in a world of cramming and coaching classes.
The disease lies in the lack of autonomy. The ministry of HRD and its children, University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have a stranglehold. A college cannot decide what courses to teach, what fees to charge and what salaries to pay its professors. How could creativity emerge from this servitude? Creating new universities, as the PM proposes, is not the answer unless you give them autonomy. Forget creativity, Indian companies are frightened by the shortage of basic skills which is currently driving up salaries unhealthily. Of the 400,000 new engineers that graduate each year, roughly 100,000 have the skills to enter the job market. It is tragic that over 400,000 students strive for 6,000 IIT and IIM seats annually.
The answer, of course, is to increase the supply of good colleges. As it is, we lose 160,000 students to foreign universities and parents pay $3 billion in fees and costs. Indian 'edupreneurs' and foreign universities have repeatedly tried to start high quality campuses but the HRD ministry's 'licence raj' drives them away. AICTE even wants to close down the prestigious, private Indian School of Business which offers a better education than an IIM. The draft foreign universities bill doesn't provide autonomy either and ensures that no decent foreign university will enter India. Our education system is our Achilles heel and we will not spawn Mark Bents until we do a 1991 on HRD and unbind India's education. Meanwhile, I console myself in knowing that there are individuals like my friend, N S Raghavan, who is using part of his Infosys fortune to incubate entrepreneurs at the IIM Bangalore. He will make a difference and modest breakthroughs like Mark Bent's will contribute more to human happiness than either the massive aid programs of governments or the soul-killing mediocrity of our universities.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Japan's subtle etiquette code
By Kumiko Makihara
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
TOKYO: Every day in Japan I face etiquette dilemmas.
My son returns from camp with another child's clothes. Do I ship them back dirty, which seems sort of mean, or do I launder them, which would cause the owner to lose face?
My neighbor tells me to leave my phone number in her letter box if I want to occasionally receive baked goods from her. It seems forward of me to leave her my number, but I don't want to ignore her request.
I'm in a crowded train, and my nose is running. Blowing is considered disgusting here, but the alternative is disgusting to me.
From the proper degree of a bow (15 to 45 degrees depending on occasion) to how a lady eats a rice cracker (broken by hand into bite size pieces with handkerchief on lap), a\ncomplex and subtle etiquette code dictates the proper way to do everything in Japan.
Japanese embrace the rules because following them assures there will be no offensive or embarrassing moments. My parents implanted the code into me from childhood, warning that I would be shunned if I didn't learn the protocol. But my reflexes are rusty from having lived abroad for many years.
Judging from the large section of manners books at my local bookstore, I'm not the only lost, rude soul. Increased social interaction and new technology like cellphones and computers have diversified scenarios giving rise to more rules and a big demand for the latest etiquette guides.
Last year, long-time former bureaucrat Mariko Bando set out to write a book on how professional women could maintain their emotional dignity in a male-dominated workplace, but her publishers urged her to cover etiquette tips like attire, manners and polite language. She complied, and "Dignity of a Woman" has become a best seller.
Manners books traditionally focused on "kan kon sou sai" - literally meaning the rites of coming of age - weddings, funerals and ancestor worship. Now they offer titles like "PTA Dictionary for Getting Along with Others and Writing Notes," which tells you how to inform the teacher that your child has to sit out gym class or how to wiggle out of committee duties. A letter-writing guide offers tips on composing an apology note to a store where you have shoplifted two packs of gum and some AA batteries, (express deep remorse even if the items are small) and declining an offer for a second hand piano (blame it on a scatterbrained child who now wants to take swimming instead).
It doesn't all end in this lifetime either. Funeral preparation books offer pointers on how to be well-regarded after death. Want to make a phone call? I found four books on the store shelf devoted exclusively to phone manners with tips like no walking and talking on a cellphone because the other party might detect a roughness of breath or hear your footsteps. If you buy the phone guide, you might need a language handbook, too, to guide you through the\nmaze of honorifics. I was recently tongue-tied with confusion on the phone with\nmy father's secretary when trying to tell her my father didn't need to call me\nback. I must use respectful forms when addressing her but humble language when referring to my father or myself.
There are plenty of\netiquette guides for foreign visitors, but it's probably most important to try to do as others do instead of flaunting what you think you may know. On several\noccasions I've seen foreigners striking wooden chopsticks against each other, smug that they know how to smooth off any splinters. That's actually a crass gesture. These people probably don't know that there are more than 30 faux pas chopsticks maneuvers each with their proper term like sucking and wandering.
A likely infraction that is a topic of much discussion these days is applying makeup on trains. It's become a common sight to see young women drawing their eyeliner and\nbrushing on mascara with great dexterity in crowded morning commuter trains. While critics say grooming is a private act that others don't wish to observe,"there are still no rules for anonymous situations," says Bando.
It doesn't all end in this lifetime either. Funeral preparation books offer pointers on how to be well-regarded after death.
Want to make a phone call? I found four books on the store shelf devoted exclusively to phone manners with tips like no walking and talking on a cellphone because the other party might detect a roughness of breath or hear your footsteps. If you buy the phone guide, you might need a language handbook, too, to guide you through the maze of honorifics. I was recently tongue-tied with confusion on the phone with my father's secretary when trying to tell her my father didn't need to call me back. I must use respectful forms when addressing her but humble language when referring to my father or myself.
There are plenty of etiquette guides for foreign visitors, but it's probably most important to try to do as others do instead of flaunting what you think you may know. On several occasions I've seen foreigners striking wooden chopsticks against each other, smug that they know how to smooth off any splinters. That's actually a crass gesture. These people probably don't know that there are more than 30 faux pas chopsticks maneuvers each with their proper term like sucking and wandering.
A likely infraction that is a topic of much discussion these days is applying makeup on trains. It's become a common sight to see young women drawing their eyeliner and brushing on mascara with great dexterity in crowded morning commuter trains. While critics say grooming is a private act that others don't wish to observe, "there are still no rules for anonymous situations," says Bando.
I'm still trying to get my bearings back, and my current strategy is to overcompensate. I laundered and ironed the scraggly camp clothes and took a gift with me when I presented my neighbor with my phone number. On the packed train, I dabbed my nose and swallowed the rest. All for the sake of politesse.
Kumiko Makihara is a freelance writer based in Tokyo.
By Kumiko Makihara
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
TOKYO: Every day in Japan I face etiquette dilemmas.
My son returns from camp with another child's clothes. Do I ship them back dirty, which seems sort of mean, or do I launder them, which would cause the owner to lose face?
My neighbor tells me to leave my phone number in her letter box if I want to occasionally receive baked goods from her. It seems forward of me to leave her my number, but I don't want to ignore her request.
I'm in a crowded train, and my nose is running. Blowing is considered disgusting here, but the alternative is disgusting to me.
From the proper degree of a bow (15 to 45 degrees depending on occasion) to how a lady eats a rice cracker (broken by hand into bite size pieces with handkerchief on lap), a\ncomplex and subtle etiquette code dictates the proper way to do everything in Japan.
Japanese embrace the rules because following them assures there will be no offensive or embarrassing moments. My parents implanted the code into me from childhood, warning that I would be shunned if I didn't learn the protocol. But my reflexes are rusty from having lived abroad for many years.
Judging from the large section of manners books at my local bookstore, I'm not the only lost, rude soul. Increased social interaction and new technology like cellphones and computers have diversified scenarios giving rise to more rules and a big demand for the latest etiquette guides.
Last year, long-time former bureaucrat Mariko Bando set out to write a book on how professional women could maintain their emotional dignity in a male-dominated workplace, but her publishers urged her to cover etiquette tips like attire, manners and polite language. She complied, and "Dignity of a Woman" has become a best seller.
Manners books traditionally focused on "kan kon sou sai" - literally meaning the rites of coming of age - weddings, funerals and ancestor worship. Now they offer titles like "PTA Dictionary for Getting Along with Others and Writing Notes," which tells you how to inform the teacher that your child has to sit out gym class or how to wiggle out of committee duties. A letter-writing guide offers tips on composing an apology note to a store where you have shoplifted two packs of gum and some AA batteries, (express deep remorse even if the items are small) and declining an offer for a second hand piano (blame it on a scatterbrained child who now wants to take swimming instead).
It doesn't all end in this lifetime either. Funeral preparation books offer pointers on how to be well-regarded after death. Want to make a phone call? I found four books on the store shelf devoted exclusively to phone manners with tips like no walking and talking on a cellphone because the other party might detect a roughness of breath or hear your footsteps. If you buy the phone guide, you might need a language handbook, too, to guide you through the\nmaze of honorifics. I was recently tongue-tied with confusion on the phone with\nmy father's secretary when trying to tell her my father didn't need to call me\nback. I must use respectful forms when addressing her but humble language when referring to my father or myself.
There are plenty of\netiquette guides for foreign visitors, but it's probably most important to try to do as others do instead of flaunting what you think you may know. On several\noccasions I've seen foreigners striking wooden chopsticks against each other, smug that they know how to smooth off any splinters. That's actually a crass gesture. These people probably don't know that there are more than 30 faux pas chopsticks maneuvers each with their proper term like sucking and wandering.
A likely infraction that is a topic of much discussion these days is applying makeup on trains. It's become a common sight to see young women drawing their eyeliner and\nbrushing on mascara with great dexterity in crowded morning commuter trains. While critics say grooming is a private act that others don't wish to observe,"there are still no rules for anonymous situations," says Bando.
It doesn't all end in this lifetime either. Funeral preparation books offer pointers on how to be well-regarded after death.
Want to make a phone call? I found four books on the store shelf devoted exclusively to phone manners with tips like no walking and talking on a cellphone because the other party might detect a roughness of breath or hear your footsteps. If you buy the phone guide, you might need a language handbook, too, to guide you through the maze of honorifics. I was recently tongue-tied with confusion on the phone with my father's secretary when trying to tell her my father didn't need to call me back. I must use respectful forms when addressing her but humble language when referring to my father or myself.
There are plenty of etiquette guides for foreign visitors, but it's probably most important to try to do as others do instead of flaunting what you think you may know. On several occasions I've seen foreigners striking wooden chopsticks against each other, smug that they know how to smooth off any splinters. That's actually a crass gesture. These people probably don't know that there are more than 30 faux pas chopsticks maneuvers each with their proper term like sucking and wandering.
A likely infraction that is a topic of much discussion these days is applying makeup on trains. It's become a common sight to see young women drawing their eyeliner and brushing on mascara with great dexterity in crowded morning commuter trains. While critics say grooming is a private act that others don't wish to observe, "there are still no rules for anonymous situations," says Bando.
I'm still trying to get my bearings back, and my current strategy is to overcompensate. I laundered and ironed the scraggly camp clothes and took a gift with me when I presented my neighbor with my phone number. On the packed train, I dabbed my nose and swallowed the rest. All for the sake of politesse.
Kumiko Makihara is a freelance writer based in Tokyo.
Poor Calcutta!
September 5, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Poor Calcutta
By CHITRITA BANERJI
Cambridge, Mass.
ONE morning in January 1997, I walked into my office at a nonprofit group here after a visit to my hometown, Calcutta. A very senior colleague, whom I would have, until then, characterized as being the “sensitive” sort, greeted me: “Welcome back. And how is everyone in Calcutta — still starving and being looked after by Mother Teresa?”
At first I thought this might be a bad attempt at humor, but I soon realized that my colleague was seriously inquiring about my city’s suffering humanity and its ministering angel — the only images Calcutta evoked for him and countless others in the West. When Mother Teresa died eight months later, 10 years ago today, foreign dignitaries and the Western news media descended on the city. The reports on the funeral portrayed a city filled with starving orphans, wretched slums and dying people abandoned on the streets, except for the fortunate ones rescued by Mother Teresa.
They described a city I didn’t recognize as the place where I had spent the first 20 years of my life. There was no mention of Calcutta’s beautiful buildings and educated middle class, or its history of religious tolerance and its vibrant literary and cultural life. Besides, other Indian cities also have their share of poverty, slums and destitution, as would be expected in a country where a third of the population lives on $1 a day — for example, more than half of Mumbai residents live in slums, far more than in Calcutta. Why were they not equally damned in the eyes of the world?
The answer was that none of them served for seven decades as the adopted home base for a saintly European crusader whose work could succeed only if it was disproportionately magnified. It was an instance of spin in which the news media colluded — voluntarily or not — with a religious figure who was as shrewd as any fund-raising politician, as is evident from the global expansion of her organization. For Calcutta natives like me, however, Mother Teresa’s charity also evoked the colonial past — she felt she knew what was best for the third world masses, whether it was condemning abortion or offering to convert those who were on the verge of death.
After the funeral, I comforted myself with the possibility that Mother Teresa’s death might redress the balance of perception. Calcutta, once called the second city of the British Empire, would again be seen as a pulsing metropolis of 14 million that has survived despite being twice slammed by huge influxes of refugees, once after the partition of 1947 and again during the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971. In the absence of a missionary who had never allowed her compassion to be de-linked from Catholic dogma, I hoped the world would recognize that Calcutta has not merely survived, it has battled tremendous odds without losing its soul.
Ten years and one beatification later, however, the relentless hagiography of the Catholic Church and the peculiar tunnel vision of the news media continue to equate Calcutta with the twinned entities of destitution and succor publicized by Mother Teresa. With cultish fervor, her organization, the Missionaries of Charity, promotes her as an icon of mercy. Meanwhile, countless unheralded local organizations work for the needy without the glamour of a Nobel Prize or of impending sainthood.
Charity need not be inconsistent with clarity. Calcutta is a modern Indian city where poverty and inequality coexist with measurably increasing prosperity, expanding opportunities, cautious optimism and, above all, pride in its unique character. Mother Teresa might have meant well, but she furthered her mission by robbing Calcutta of its richly nuanced identity while pretending to love it.
Chitrita Banerji is the author, most recently, of “Eating India: An Odyssey Into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/opinion/05banerji.html?_r=2&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print
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