The mental health of the in America is worsening. Oliver James, a media analyst cites the new disease Affluenza as the cause. James defines Affluenza as "a contagious, middle-class virus causing depression, anxiety, addiction and ennui'. If the virus of reason during modernity said, "god is dead", this virus says, "man is dead." Anxiety, depression boredom and deadness are its symptoms.
He argues that in present system of democracy means the right to vote for people who make you richer. Meaning the cause for the disease is in the society. Many poor Scandinavian socialist countries have good mental health.
James Hillman a couple of decades back argued with similar sentiment that human illness are caused in the violent individual conflicts between human desires to live and think in a rational ways and the requirement of the society that we live and think in ways that are absurd. And not by sexual repressions in childhood as believed by Freudian psychoanalytical school.
The most obvious and clear answer to this argument is that the mental condition is worsening because there are more psychologist in the country. Behaviors which were seen as normal sometime back are pathologised today. Is Affluenza a product of society awash with therapy?
Richard Easterling's research in 1974 shows that the happiness level of American's after the post war boom in 1945, and in 1974 remained the same. Experts at that time ridiculed his work. In 1900's the economist at Warwick University rediscovered his work. They found out that affluence had no-correlation with happiness level. Unemployment and lack of good life style didn't make people any happier. Andrew Oswal reviewing the book Affluenza on national review.com says "On one thing he is right. There is evidence that all is not well. Mental health in the UK is getting worse, according to an annual survey of 10,000 Britons analysed by myself and Nattavudh Powdthavee at the University of London" But points the cause of illness to the childhood poverty rather than the emotional maladjustment and misery because of affluence.
Easterling in his paper Is There an Iron Law of Happiness published in 1995 says that "although genetic factors help to explain individual differences at a point in time, survey evidence demonstrates that over the life cycle economic circumstances, family life, health and work are important in determining the course of happiness. However, life events do not necessarily dominate life cycle satisfaction in different domains and economic theories would benefit from following psychologist lead by incorporating goals and adaptation."
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The dream of walmartization
Wal-Mart which has been one of the favorite picks for anti-globalization campaigns, trade union agitators, environmentalist and feminist, is coming to India. Wal-Mart, is to launch it’s first cash and carry or whole sale shop by early 2009. Reports suggest that the first Wal-Mart will be in West Bandra in Mumbai. The retail giant was looking for a close to 100 per cent ownership as in China. But the Indian Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) guidelines prohibit foreign multi-brand operators. And single-brand operators are allowed 51 per cent stakes in the joint venture.
Dubbed as the “biggest retail launch in India”, Reliance has forayed into hypermart and business to business services with Reliance Fresh in 2006. Besides, Reliance would do anti-FDI lobbying to pre-empt the multinational’s entry into India’s retailing sector. To evade these problems, Wal-Mart has entered into a 50:50 joint venture agreement with Bharti Retail, the subsidiary of telecom major Bharti Enterprises.
The higher price of Indian goods and low design quality of its products, had made China a favourite sourcing destination. But, the gradual increase in cost of Chinese goods had made Wal-Mart to source more and more from India. Today, Wal-Mart sources goods worth INR 15,00 cores from India, most of which comes from the states of Punjab and Haryana. The joint venture above all, will serve to boosts its exports from India.
The idea is to open up Bharti Retail franchisees backed by Wal-Mart, simultaneously investing its capital in cash and carry stores, which will cater to the shopping instincts of the urban elites. The cash and carry facility will procure produce from manufacturers and farmers directly and will supply to local retailers as well as Bharati Retail. Wal-Mart which is the fourth largest employer of the world, has one of the best inventory system in gauging what consumers need; besides its costs cutting supply chain management and logistics. The GPS enabled trucks, minimal packing process are some of them. This technological support will build the MNCs presence in India, and serving the purpose of cost-effective retailing. Sunil Bharti Mittal, head of Bharti Enterprises is optimistic about opening 10 to 15 whole sale facilities in over seven years.
Wal-Mart had tough lessons in South Korean and Germany and it will not be looking for an immediate ‘walmartization’ of India. In fact its opening of its shops will be without much fanfare. The Bharti is planning to bring in the chain in phases.
The UPA government is careful to avoid any legislation that will trigger mom and pop shop agitations. With the left allies out of the picture the government has shown signs of easing up FDI regulations. The recent move is, the relaxing of curbs on overseas capital in key areas. Once the inward FDI norms are also relaxed, the Wal-Mart will be move closer to a more strategic alliance with Bharti. This would result in the voluptuous Wal-Mart Inc., controlling even the thermostats of Indian shops from its headquarters in Arkansas.
There had been appallingly shallow comments from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, supporting the joint venture that the coming of MacDonald and KFC has not affected the business of local chat shops. They have seem to forgotten the simple fact that a plate of samosa costs ten rupees, at the most and a McBurger a minimum of Rs. 35. And that one can’t get samosa chat in these Mcshops.
The press-release claims of the transnational agreement that, their cash and carry facilities will benefit local kirana shops, is a lie on face of common-sense. Besides the big-box cash and carry, the chain will also open Bharti retail shops. Coupled with its wholesale supply chain, it will effectively cut-down local competition.
.
Organized retail market which accounts only for four per cent of total Indian market, is expected to touch 22 per cent by 2010. Wal-Mart with its effective supply management chain will “organize” India’s retailing market in a more dramatic way than Reliance Fresh has done in two years. Indian local retailers are bound to be displaced.
The cause developmental problems need not be necessarily pinpointed at the policy of the ruling government; it is most often traced to the policy of preceding government.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spoken in length about the no-nonsense in opening to globalization during recent ASSOCHAM conference. But, in the present scenario, when the ruling coalition approaching its end of tenure, it is not in the pragmatism of Mr. Singh to be proactive when it comes
Dubbed as the “biggest retail launch in India”, Reliance has forayed into hypermart and business to business services with Reliance Fresh in 2006. Besides, Reliance would do anti-FDI lobbying to pre-empt the multinational’s entry into India’s retailing sector. To evade these problems, Wal-Mart has entered into a 50:50 joint venture agreement with Bharti Retail, the subsidiary of telecom major Bharti Enterprises.
The higher price of Indian goods and low design quality of its products, had made China a favourite sourcing destination. But, the gradual increase in cost of Chinese goods had made Wal-Mart to source more and more from India. Today, Wal-Mart sources goods worth INR 15,00 cores from India, most of which comes from the states of Punjab and Haryana. The joint venture above all, will serve to boosts its exports from India.
The idea is to open up Bharti Retail franchisees backed by Wal-Mart, simultaneously investing its capital in cash and carry stores, which will cater to the shopping instincts of the urban elites. The cash and carry facility will procure produce from manufacturers and farmers directly and will supply to local retailers as well as Bharati Retail. Wal-Mart which is the fourth largest employer of the world, has one of the best inventory system in gauging what consumers need; besides its costs cutting supply chain management and logistics. The GPS enabled trucks, minimal packing process are some of them. This technological support will build the MNCs presence in India, and serving the purpose of cost-effective retailing. Sunil Bharti Mittal, head of Bharti Enterprises is optimistic about opening 10 to 15 whole sale facilities in over seven years.
Wal-Mart had tough lessons in South Korean and Germany and it will not be looking for an immediate ‘walmartization’ of India. In fact its opening of its shops will be without much fanfare. The Bharti is planning to bring in the chain in phases.
The UPA government is careful to avoid any legislation that will trigger mom and pop shop agitations. With the left allies out of the picture the government has shown signs of easing up FDI regulations. The recent move is, the relaxing of curbs on overseas capital in key areas. Once the inward FDI norms are also relaxed, the Wal-Mart will be move closer to a more strategic alliance with Bharti. This would result in the voluptuous Wal-Mart Inc., controlling even the thermostats of Indian shops from its headquarters in Arkansas.
There had been appallingly shallow comments from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, supporting the joint venture that the coming of MacDonald and KFC has not affected the business of local chat shops. They have seem to forgotten the simple fact that a plate of samosa costs ten rupees, at the most and a McBurger a minimum of Rs. 35. And that one can’t get samosa chat in these Mcshops.
The press-release claims of the transnational agreement that, their cash and carry facilities will benefit local kirana shops, is a lie on face of common-sense. Besides the big-box cash and carry, the chain will also open Bharti retail shops. Coupled with its wholesale supply chain, it will effectively cut-down local competition.
.
Organized retail market which accounts only for four per cent of total Indian market, is expected to touch 22 per cent by 2010. Wal-Mart with its effective supply management chain will “organize” India’s retailing market in a more dramatic way than Reliance Fresh has done in two years. Indian local retailers are bound to be displaced.
The cause developmental problems need not be necessarily pinpointed at the policy of the ruling government; it is most often traced to the policy of preceding government.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spoken in length about the no-nonsense in opening to globalization during recent ASSOCHAM conference. But, in the present scenario, when the ruling coalition approaching its end of tenure, it is not in the pragmatism of Mr. Singh to be proactive when it comes
Smokes of prejudice rising in Khandamal
The Sangh Parivar, seems to be muddled up with words like christians, maoist, american culture, ten commandments, congress, world vision and bible. Behind the tepid pronunciation of the Kandhamal violence as “regrettable” lies vague and malleable dogma. The typical Hindutva sentiment is that American are sending in money through organizations like world Vision and alluring poor dalits to convert to Christianity. All this coordinated by one single person (probably George Bush). Congress,(the Indian National Congress) and UPA government is facilitating this. And Maoist and Christians have link-up and conduct joint operations for conversion. People who have converted to Christianity will naturally have allegiance to America as Christianity originated in America and most Americans are Christians. And CPI (M) CPI-ML and Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army are almost same things with headquarters in China. (Prakah Karat must be chief of its operation in India, or is it Sitaram Yechuri?)
Today as I write this fresh violence has broken out in Khandamal. The Hindus are apparently avenging the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswat, on August 23rd, who had been spear heading anti-conversion movement since 1960s. All the Christian quarters have condemned the murder of the seer and one week after the murder CPI-Maoist claimed responsibility for the murder. Azad, spokesperson of the CPI-Maoist, in an interview to an Oriya daily, said, "We killed Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati to avenge his villainous role in Kandhmal". Azad said ever since the December 2007 riots in Kandhmal, Laxmanananda and VHP Secretary General Pravin Togadia portrayed Christians as Maoists and attempted to defeat the revolutionary movement. "Laxmanananda was taking the lead in Hindu fascist activities", Azad said.The Maoist are concerned about diluting its revolutionary credentials among masses by comparing the party to christian missonary work. A few days later a press release warned the VHP of more punishments if it continued its persecution of minorities. Further it called Swami Laxmananand “a rabid anti-Christian ideologue and persecutor of innocent Christians.” After all these the Sangh Parivar likes to believe that Christian missionaries committed the murder.
The Sangh Parivar’s obstinate adherence to this has only one logical conclusion. It is arousing religious sentiments, to gain grass root level workers in view of the forth coming elections. the Shiv Sena and Maharahtra Navinirman Sena(MNS) are not doing any thing different in Mumbai, in the name of Marathi sentiments by picking up Bollywood stars as their targets. By accusing Radhakanta Nayak, a Congress Rajaya Sabha MP and a dalit Christian who heads World Vision in Orissa for backing the murder attempt o Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, in 2007 reveals the outfit’s political inclination. Soon after the murder locals caught the “murderer”, Pradesh Kumar Das, an employee of World Vision and handed him over to police.
Four days later World Vision in a response to the comments made by RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav on CNN-IBN condemned the murder and made it clear that two of their employees were apprehended by a mob and later rescued by the police were trying to flee to Bhubaneshwar because of rumors regarding impending violence as in 2007. The police verified their identity and purpose before they let them go.
Much energy on the inter community dialogue was wasted arguing for and against these misunderstandings. Christian arguments were along the lines that “conversion” is not a challenge to the majority community and that the percentage of Christians actually dropped from 2.8 in 1961 to 2.3 in 2001.Christians also need to do their share of introspection. I personally have heard about conversion in which the missionaries take advantage of the ignorance of tribals. I heard from a missionary himself that in certain areas the tribals are converted just by the change of name of them and their gods. These efforts to increase the Christian population should stop altogether, though all the churches are unequivocal officially that no such means should be employed for conversion
Anti-conversion laws
Presently the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Arunanchal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and recently Gujrat, has anti-conversion laws. The spirit behind the acts was that conversion would affect the harmony of society and disturb the public order and status quo. These Acts define the terms “government”, “conversion”, “indigenous faith”, “force”, “fraud” and “inducements” By late 1960s it had become clear that the purpose of anti-conversion laws were to keep the dalits within the fold of Hinduism. It is a cognizable offence to convert to any religion other than Hinduism. But re-conversion is not an offence. The Act remains dubious as it says that propagation of religion is not an offence but conversion is. The Acts maintains that Article 25 (1) of the Fundamental Rights does not give the right to expose the tenets of ones religion to convert another person. At the same time a person has the right to choose the religion according to his free will. But propagation of the religion if it results in conversion will amount to infringement on the free choice of an individual.
The Act in practice negates the Fundamental Rights of a citizen not because of the vague definition of the terms “force”, “fraud” and “inducements” etc. But because of the the narrow legal premise on which it is based. The assumption underlying the Act is that coversion happens only through external influence and the person converted has no role in conversion. Further it makes it mandatory for the person converting to produce his reason for conversion before the district magistrate. The Distict Magistate who is empowered to pass judgement on people facilitating conversion and passes judgement on the subjective reason of the person converted. In Madhya Pradesh two priest and a nun were sentenced to imprisonment in August 2002 following charges of forced conversion. But repeated appleals to senior police officials that the conversion was voluntary fell on deaf ears.
Communalism is such a prevalent in India that it is intertwined with politics The Hindutva outfits are just the favourite whipping boy of the media. The Meenakshipuram mass conversion of dalits to Islam in 1981 and has reportedly resulted in the then ruling party Congress(I) to issue notice to all the states to pass anti-conversion laws. It may be maintained that the notice was issued because of the give-us-benefits-or we-will-convert attitude of dalits, it points to the inseparability of India politics and religion.
The smoke of prejudice is so thick against the backdrop of continuing violence that there are no constructive dialogues remain possible.
Today as I write this fresh violence has broken out in Khandamal. The Hindus are apparently avenging the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswat, on August 23rd, who had been spear heading anti-conversion movement since 1960s. All the Christian quarters have condemned the murder of the seer and one week after the murder CPI-Maoist claimed responsibility for the murder. Azad, spokesperson of the CPI-Maoist, in an interview to an Oriya daily, said, "We killed Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati to avenge his villainous role in Kandhmal". Azad said ever since the December 2007 riots in Kandhmal, Laxmanananda and VHP Secretary General Pravin Togadia portrayed Christians as Maoists and attempted to defeat the revolutionary movement. "Laxmanananda was taking the lead in Hindu fascist activities", Azad said.The Maoist are concerned about diluting its revolutionary credentials among masses by comparing the party to christian missonary work. A few days later a press release warned the VHP of more punishments if it continued its persecution of minorities. Further it called Swami Laxmananand “a rabid anti-Christian ideologue and persecutor of innocent Christians.” After all these the Sangh Parivar likes to believe that Christian missionaries committed the murder.
The Sangh Parivar’s obstinate adherence to this has only one logical conclusion. It is arousing religious sentiments, to gain grass root level workers in view of the forth coming elections. the Shiv Sena and Maharahtra Navinirman Sena(MNS) are not doing any thing different in Mumbai, in the name of Marathi sentiments by picking up Bollywood stars as their targets. By accusing Radhakanta Nayak, a Congress Rajaya Sabha MP and a dalit Christian who heads World Vision in Orissa for backing the murder attempt o Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, in 2007 reveals the outfit’s political inclination. Soon after the murder locals caught the “murderer”, Pradesh Kumar Das, an employee of World Vision and handed him over to police.
Four days later World Vision in a response to the comments made by RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav on CNN-IBN condemned the murder and made it clear that two of their employees were apprehended by a mob and later rescued by the police were trying to flee to Bhubaneshwar because of rumors regarding impending violence as in 2007. The police verified their identity and purpose before they let them go.
Much energy on the inter community dialogue was wasted arguing for and against these misunderstandings. Christian arguments were along the lines that “conversion” is not a challenge to the majority community and that the percentage of Christians actually dropped from 2.8 in 1961 to 2.3 in 2001.Christians also need to do their share of introspection. I personally have heard about conversion in which the missionaries take advantage of the ignorance of tribals. I heard from a missionary himself that in certain areas the tribals are converted just by the change of name of them and their gods. These efforts to increase the Christian population should stop altogether, though all the churches are unequivocal officially that no such means should be employed for conversion
Anti-conversion laws
Presently the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Arunanchal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and recently Gujrat, has anti-conversion laws. The spirit behind the acts was that conversion would affect the harmony of society and disturb the public order and status quo. These Acts define the terms “government”, “conversion”, “indigenous faith”, “force”, “fraud” and “inducements” By late 1960s it had become clear that the purpose of anti-conversion laws were to keep the dalits within the fold of Hinduism. It is a cognizable offence to convert to any religion other than Hinduism. But re-conversion is not an offence. The Act remains dubious as it says that propagation of religion is not an offence but conversion is. The Acts maintains that Article 25 (1) of the Fundamental Rights does not give the right to expose the tenets of ones religion to convert another person. At the same time a person has the right to choose the religion according to his free will. But propagation of the religion if it results in conversion will amount to infringement on the free choice of an individual.
The Act in practice negates the Fundamental Rights of a citizen not because of the vague definition of the terms “force”, “fraud” and “inducements” etc. But because of the the narrow legal premise on which it is based. The assumption underlying the Act is that coversion happens only through external influence and the person converted has no role in conversion. Further it makes it mandatory for the person converting to produce his reason for conversion before the district magistrate. The Distict Magistate who is empowered to pass judgement on people facilitating conversion and passes judgement on the subjective reason of the person converted. In Madhya Pradesh two priest and a nun were sentenced to imprisonment in August 2002 following charges of forced conversion. But repeated appleals to senior police officials that the conversion was voluntary fell on deaf ears.
Communalism is such a prevalent in India that it is intertwined with politics The Hindutva outfits are just the favourite whipping boy of the media. The Meenakshipuram mass conversion of dalits to Islam in 1981 and has reportedly resulted in the then ruling party Congress(I) to issue notice to all the states to pass anti-conversion laws. It may be maintained that the notice was issued because of the give-us-benefits-or we-will-convert attitude of dalits, it points to the inseparability of India politics and religion.
The smoke of prejudice is so thick against the backdrop of continuing violence that there are no constructive dialogues remain possible.
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