Brazil Enters Currency War

With announcement of second stimulus dubbed as QE2 of $600 billion by the US’ Federal Reserve, Brazil’s entry into the so-called currency war, the term coined by the IMF director Dominique Strauss Khan. Brazil is the first country to criticize the move by the Federal Reserve, which stated that the second stimulus was aimed to stimulate the slowing GDP growth. It said it would implement the package over next eight years through buying government bonds.

Competitive Advantage

But, Brazil sees the Fed’s move as a step to devalue the Dollar to inflate the competitive advantage of the US’ exports over others. Brazil’s concern is that the money injected into the US’ economy would flow to the emerging market economies (EMEs) seeking higher returns, thereby pushing their currency values that would result into reducing the competitive advantage of exports from the EMEs.

China Cautious

China reacted cautiously on November 5 saying that it would not go on record for or against the Fed’s move, but said the debate highlighted the need for reforming the international financial system. It added it can understand the US concern of slow growth. Chinese central bank officials met regularly with their Fed counterparts, and the Americans gave detailed explanations for the monetary changes, the central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said on Friday.

Is Yemeni Girl Student Victim of Terrorist Bomb Plot?

Article first published as Is Yemeni Girl Student Victim of Terrorist Bomb Plot? on Blogcritics.

Arrest of Yemeni girl student aged in her early twenties sparked outrage among Yemeni student community. They believe the girl student was made a scapegoat in the plot. They protested against the arrest of the student and her mother in Sanaa University campus where the student, identified as Hanan Al-Samawi, is pursuing her 5-year engineering degree.

The accusation of Hanan’s colleagues that the she was made scapegoat seems credible for the following reasons.

1. Yemeni authorities said the student was a medical student, whereas the student is actually an engineering student in Sanaa University in Yemeni capital Sana’a.
2. Yemen police arrested the student after tracing through her telephone number left with Cargo Company. It is highly impossible that any bomb plotter would leave his/ her telephone number and ID cart when he/she sending bombs abroad with a view to blow up the aircraft in the air. It is quite illogical.
3. The neighbors of the students house in a poor area stated that the family is pious but never appeared that they could be a part of a terror plot.
4. Colleagues of the student say Hanan is not known to be a participant of any religious or political activities.
5. Though the cargo planes originated from Yemen, they stopped at more than one stops before reaching U.K. and Dubai where the bombs were uncovered.
6. Investigators are still attempting to retrace the routes of the cargo planes, which mean the originating points of the bomb plot are not credibly established.

Google’s Evil Intentions Become Visible as UK MPs Grill

Article first published as Google’s Evil Intentions Become Visible as U.K. MPs Grill on Blogcritics.

Google’s explanation about its wi-fi data collection that it collected erroneously the emails and passwords has been rejected by the UK MPs, during a two-hour parliamentary debate on privacy. Google has always maintained that the personal data in error because of code being mistakenly included in the street view software. This statement itself demonstrates that Google is not ready to accept what it has done.

Privacy Debate

That is why a Conservative MP Robert Halfon has stated, "I find it hard to believe that a company with the creative genius and originality of Google could map the personal wi-fi details, computer passwords and e-mail addresses of millions of people across the world and not know what it was doing." It is impossible to believe that Google did not know what it was doing, given Google’s leadership in cyber technology. It is pretending innocence to escape the consequences of its wrong doing.

Robert added, “My own feeling is that this data was of use to Google for commercial purposes and that is why it was done.” Yes, Robert was true about Google’s intentions. It has everything to with commercial interests. There could be more than that also, given the accusations from some quarters that CIA and Google are secretly related on intelligence issues, though the facts are yet to be established.

Google’s Denial

Google has a long history of denying the facts of its evil intentions. Google accepts its market leadership in communication technology but pretends innocence when it is confronted with the facts of its intentions over cyber dominance, that too through illegal methods.

India Succumbs to US Pressure, Accedes CSC Pact for Nuclear Liability

This article has appeared first on Technorati.com

As Obama visit to India is approaching, attempts to dilute nuclear damage liability bill passed by the Indian parliament are speeded up from the US side. India signed on October 27 an international treaty on civil nuclear liability under pressure from the US.

Domestic Law

Indian Parliament approved recently in August ‘nuclear damage liability bill’ with both ruling and opposition parties taking a unified stand supporting it. Though initial draft did not envisage any liability on suppliers of nuclear material and equipment, the final bill placed liability on suppliers too. However, there are several intermediary conditions to bring into effect the liability on the supplier countries or firms, while the bill places immediate liability of $320 million on the operator country i.e. India.

Imperial US

The US companies are averse to paying liabilities even though they supply substandard and damaged material and equipment due to which nuclear damages may occur. They fear that they will be forced to pay compensation as the US pressured BP to pay a whopping $32 billion for its oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. During deliberations between the ruling and opposition parties regarding passage of nuclear damage liability bill, the US companies lobbied heavily not to place any liability obligations on supplier countries, particularly the US and Japan. But the pressures did not work, as the Indian people were outraged against Bhopal gas leak judgment.

At the same time, the world witnessed two disastrous accidents on which the whole world has its attention, on what the outcome would be. One was the biggest ever oil spill in American history, in the offshore American west coast in Gulf of Mexico. The other one was that thirteen Chilean miners were not yet rescued from a collapsed mine whose videos and photos were published on every media on daily basis.

Germany’s Immigration Dilemma

Germany has been skeptical of its immigration policy recently as per the statement of the Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said, “Germany’s attempts to create multicultural society have failed.” One of her party colleagues said, “Multikulti is dead.” A board member of the German central bank Thilo Sarrazin went too far by saying, “Muslims have become burden to the German society.” He alleged that no immigrant group other than Muslims was so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state and crime. Interestingly, he received widespread support after his statement, and his book on the same subject received good readership.

Germany Chancellor said that her government needed skilled people to keep the German economy’s growth pace faster. At the same time, she cautioned against unskilled people as they come to Germany for social benefits. While Angela’s invitation to skilled people was economically oriented, her rejection of unskilled people was socially oriented. Maybe the Chancellor has to understand that the economic prizes are always associated with social costs in unequally developed societies. Inviting economic fruits but denying social costs is something equal to rejecting that a coin has two sides.

Urgent Need

A leading German demographer Reiner Klinghoiz, director of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, said Germany desperately needed immigrants and it should ease restrictions on immigration to provide the skilled workers, from engineers to computer experts to ensure the future economic success, as per Reuters. He informed that immigration to German had come to a virtual halt in the last two years.

Though Germany has three million unemployed, Mr Klinghoiz said Germany could not wait ten years for those on unemployment to become trained engineers. Klinghoiz said further that Germany had an annual influx of 200,000 immigrants but in the last two years had seen a net exodus of 15,000. Restrictions like language tests had stopped migrations from Turkey almost completely, he added. German Chamber of Industry and Commerce was quoted as saying Germany lacked about 400,000 skilled workers and it sought more immigration. (Here is a useful link)

Kudos to Arundhati, You are a Ray of Hope!

Article first published as Kudos to Arundhati, You are a Ray of Hope! on Technorati

Arundhati Roy deserves Kudos. She deserves accolades for her brave statement defying Indian state’s warning that she would face criminal charges, for her support to the national aspirations of the Kashmiri people. Arundhati Roy, a booker prizewinner, had been actively supporting social movements of the poor, ever since she came to limelight after winning booker prize in 1997.

Arundhati Roy and a leader of the Kashmir movement Syed Ali Shah Geelani were threatened with facing a case of sedition by the Delhi Police with support from Union Home Ministry. The legal opinion sought by the Union Home Minister favored registering a case against them under Section 124-A of Indian Penal Code that states, “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the State” can be sentenced to five year rigorous imprisonment.

Arundhati Roy spoke at a seminar on “Azadi (independence) – The Only Way” along with S A S Geelani and pro-Maoist writer Varavara Rao held on October 21 in Delhi. She said in her speech, “Kashmir has never been part of India.” She was true when her statement was taken in terms of the wishes of the people in Kashmir.

If not, why Shaik Abdullah was kept in jail for 17 years for asking the Nehru Government to implement its promise of ‘plebiscite’? Why the people of Kashmir had continuously been on warpath against Indian Government? Why the police, para-military and military forces had continuously been stationed in Kashmir? Why hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri youth had been killed by the Army since the eruption of freedom struggle in 1989? Why even women including housewives, students and employees are coming to streets to shout “Go India, go back”?

Defense Ties May Deepen During Obama Visit to India

Article first published as Currency War to the Fore in G20 Ministerial Meeting on Blogcritics.

The US President Barack Obama is visiting India in second week of November. He is bringing several business people along with him while coming to India. Along with lobbying for contracts of billions of dollars, Mr. Obama has aimed at convincing India to be its strategic military partner in the region to secure its interests.

Relations

The relations between India and the US have only been speeded up since 1990 when USSR, the cold war alley for India, collapsed and India began opening up of its market to foreign MNCs, under the stewardship of the then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The improvement of relations acquired faster pace in BJP’s coalition government except a brief period of sanctions regime after India’s 1998 nuclear tests under BJP rule, which was lifted in late 2001, maybe partly as a result of September 11 attacks. And that pace increased further in Congress’ coalition government.

Strategic Partnership

The Strategic Partnership Agreement was reached between India and the US in March 2000 while Bill Clinton was in office. The raising presence of China militarily as well as economically and somewhat, though not on full scale, economic resurgence of Russia necessitated then for the US to take the relations with India to the top level. The US needs a reliable partner that too a strategic partner, in the region to counterweight the increasingly assertive China.

After two devastating wars of Bush administration, this necessity was multiplied in terms of the interests of the US. America's new relationship with India has come as a broad security, political, technological, and economic arrangement on par with America's relationship with Europe or NATO. The US was even talking about sharing roles in joint space missions. The ex-president of the US, Bush and his first secretary of state, Collin Powel have once talked, back in 2004, of India’s common interests in securing their positions in sea lanes from the Persian Gulf to Malacca Islands. India has already been patrolling with its navy.

India Malaria Deaths Underreported –The Lancet

Article first published as India Malaria Deaths Underreported on Blogcritics.

British medical journal The Lancet published a report on Thursday, October 21, 2010, that concluded WHO estimates of malaria deaths in India are hugely underestimated. It said WHO numbers are misleadingly low. According to the World Health Organization, about 15,000 die of malaria (5,000 early child hood and 10,000 thereafter) die each year in India. Whereas the survey funded by the US National Institutes of Health, Canadian Institute of Health Research and Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute put the figure at as high as 205,000 each higher, nearly 13 times more estimates than that of ‘WHO.‘

Deaths at Home

The Lancet said most deaths in rural India take place at home rather than at health centers. So, it argues, most cases are undiagnosed due to absence of health personnel. The cases of malarial deaths reported by Indian government are centered primarily in a few states, called high-malaria states; Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and the states in the northeast India.

Malaria deaths in India are prevalent in tribal areas due to unavailability of health care facilities. With no lab test facilities and meager if not nil transport facilities force the tribal people remain at home leaving them untested for malaria fever. They get treatment from uncertified rural medical practitioners who offer general treatment for every fever case.

Andhra Pradesh Case

Andhra Pradesh, one of the four southern states is considered one of the wealth states in India. Five years back, the opposition leader and the leader of regional political party TDP, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, toured tribal areas in North and Central Andhra regions and brought to light how the tribal people villages were reeling under the wave of malaria fever that left unattended until then. A local vernacular daily “Andhra Jyothi” also published several reports of malaria deaths in interior regions that were left unreported.

India's Supreme Court Lashes Out at Government Wastage of Grain

Article first published as India's Supreme Court Lashes Out at Government Wastage of Grain on Technorati.

Supreme Court once again came heavily upon the attitude of the government towards wastage of grains outside the government warehouses even as millions of people are reeling under hunger and poverty. The court asked the central government to ensure no more waste of food grains and all the targeted beneficiaries are adequately supplied.

Court vs. Govt.

 

Justice Dalveer Bhandari, hearing the Public Interest Litigation filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), asked the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Prasaran, attending for the government, not to go by percentage regarding wastage of grain when Parasaran said the wastage was only 0.07 lakhs but not 0.7 lakhs. He also said he had figures for two states, Punjab & Haryana, viz. 67,539 tonnes almost ten times to that of national figure projected by the government. Even 7,000 tonnes wastage was huge that cannot be allowed, the other judge in the bench Justice Depak Verma added.

It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had asked the government for distribution of the grain kept outside the warehouses due to lack of space, to the poor as it was getting decayed. The agricultural minister Sharad Powar responded orally it was not possible, but agreed to look into the matter. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went further saying the courts couldn’t interfere in the policy decisions of the government, a comment refused by the apex court telling it did not ask their opinion and it only asked them to deal properly with the question of hungry poor and wastage of grain.

Welfare State System at Stake in European Austerity Measures

Article first published as Welfare State System at Stake in European Austerity Measures on Blogcritics.

As a result of austerity measures, proposed as part of the bailout package offered by the IMF and European Union, the workers throughout the European Countries are increasingly joining in strike actions. Ever since the Greece debt crisis surfaced, the European governments as well as financial analysts and economists talked and wrote about the need of maintaining fiscal discipline and reducing deficits and debts. The IMF has been the one that is pressurizing the European nations, particularly the countries under monitory union to implement austerity measures like spending cuts, jobs cuts and tax increases.

Greece to Hungary

When George Papandreou’s new socialist government came to power in Greece and revealed that the Greece’s budget deficit was actually 12.7 (again modified to 13.6 percent by Eurostat in April) percent of GDP, more than twice the previously published figure by the previous government, the market began to panic. Doubts rose whether Greece could meet its debt commitments in time.

The problem was aggravated with the top three credit rating agencies –Fitch, Moody’s and S&P- went on to threaten investors by downgrading sovereign debt ratings of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Hungary. By the end of April 2010, Greece’s government debt was downgraded to junk status. Weather the actual situation led to downgrading or downgrading prepared the ground for the so-called fiscal discipline measures remains a matter of concern.

Meanwhile a sense of urgency of fiscal consolidation was instilled through print, audio and visual media into the minds of the people. The markets and the people were so prepared by the frequent media news and analyses that everyone from common person to top investors began to believe that some drastic measures were inevitable.

Aid (Debt) Package

The run up for the announcement of the joint aid package by the EU and IMF for Greece as well as the Euro Zone was a big fiasco that equaled the stage plays scripted by the great “Bard of Avon.” Greece Prime Minister Papandreou repeatedly requested for a guarantee from the EU to prevent the rising sovereign debt costs. On one hand, Germany hesitated to announce any package; the reason said was that it feared it would have to bear major part of the aid package and that it would have to face severe opposition from its people. On the other hand, bond yields demanded by the investors to invest in Greece debt, peaked to more than 22 percent (on 2-year note) at one point.