Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

If one digs deep into the gold mine of sage advice one will come across an inspiring discovery. The war is made in the minds of human beings and can be avoided. Of course, we learn a lot about it from our great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Invariably lust and greed are two grounds leading to a combat. They can be overcome. Human beings have the inherent strength to do so. As American editor and essayist Norman Cousins one remarked: "War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can invent peace with justice." In modern times if we go through the experiences of military leaders and statesmen we will find them speaking of the horrors of war. Late United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower, for instance, ended up saying: "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." French leader Charles DeGualle, who was one of the most popular foreign leaders in this country, had come to the same conclusion: "War stirs in men's hearts the mud of their worst instincts. It puts a premium on violence, nourishes hatred, and gives free rein to cupidity. It crushes the weak, exalts the unworthy, and bolsters tyranny." Foremost German language satirist of the 20th century Karl Kraus could not have perhaps put it in a better way: "War is, at first, the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off." Having built a formidable reputation as "an iron lady" .....more

Soldiers bluff and bluster
Men, Matters, Memories

By M L Kotru

Key to Korean crisis

By Chandra Mohan

It was like a tragedy happening in front of hapless bystanders. When North Korea started giving sufficient hints that it was pursuing a nuclear weapons programme much of the world could do nothing more than to express its concerns. A week before its October 9 nuclear test, Pyongyang was more explicit in announcing that it was ready for testing a nuclear device. The indignation in many capitals, especially Washington, was more intense but . . .......more

Time: An infinite capital

By Dr Visheish Verma

Time is the most valuable resource we have. It is scarce, irreplacable rather than a renewable income.

While all of us same amount of time at our disposal to perform many activities, how is it that some accomplish much more than others ? Well there is ......more

EDITORIAL

War, a construct of
human mind

We in this country are very fortunate that we are exposed to these wise and mature voices. An open and democratic society gives us the benefit of listening to every word, debating it in detail and picking up the best. In sharp contrast, we find that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf continues to revel in false bravado. The manner in which he thumps his chest while talking about (mostly against) India is somewhat amazing. He shows a surprising ignorance about duties and demands of the highest civilian office that he occupies. It is possible that he is not aware of its protocol having usurped it by force. He takes pride in flaunting his thinly veiled army uniform in its place. Right now he is on an interview spree on television channels in his country. His sounds can only be provocative for New Delhi. How can one explain his remark: "India wants to keep its domination in the region and wants Pakistan to be weaker force. India should come out of its phobia of being a greater nation and should talk to us at an equal level." According to him there are "21 such places in India where violence continues. . . So, New Delhi should first correct its own matters and then talk to Pakistan." The thrust of his statement is that it is wrong for India to blame Pakistan for fomenting terrorism. His idea of solution of the Kashmir problem is to give the people of the State on both sides of the Line of Control "self governance" with "a joint management system." He maintains that it was wrong to withdraw the Pakistani forces from Kargil in 1999. His counter is: "India never withdrew from Siachen, so why should we have withdrawn from Kargil?" Clearly the General is suffering from hallucinations. Why should New Delhi pat itself on the back for gradually becoming a superpower when the world is already doing it? How can he deny Pakistan's role in violence in this country when on its own admission it is committed to providing "moral, political and diplomatic support" to "freedom struggles"? There may be "21" centres of trouble in India. Can he, however, cite one like Balochistan where his forces have knowingly killed a popular leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti much to the shock of his own political allies? How can "self governance" and an outside control go together? His justification of Pakistan's adventure in Kargil seven years later reveals that he has kept his sleeves rolled up all the time. His and his colleagues' real designs should also be apparent from their occasional references to South Asia becoming a nuclear flashpoint. Such hysteria is created for obvious reasons.

It will be too much to expect Gen Musharraf to follow Mahatma Gandhi. But what is manifestly clear is that he has not read great scientist Albert Einstein whose counsel is relevant for all ages: "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." There is also little possibility that he has seen what Nobel laureate and French statesman Aristide Briand has written: "The pens which write against disarmament are made with the same steel from which guns are made." What has been left unsaid but is noticeably implied is that it requires the nerves of steel to make a choice in favour of peace. The General can learn much more from the experiences of other global leaders and opinion makers. Irish essayist and nationalist Robert Lynd has warned long ago: "The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions." For our part we must thank the General for having religiously kept us on our toes. Time and again he has conveyed to us that we should not be complacent even after 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999, and the triumph over a "proxy war" in Punjab and this State. As a reciprocatory gesture we may well remind him about what English author William Ralph has observed: "A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it."

Soldiers bluff and bluster
Men, Matters, Memories

By M L Kotru

The Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan will pick up the broken threads of the ill-starred bilateral dialogue within a week or so of your reading this. That is if there is no last-minute hiccup given the fragility of the Governments headed by Dr Manmohan Singh and Gen Pervez Musharraf. Fragility of the UPA Government aside, it also has the unique distinction of working without a Foreign Minister for as long as one remembers. Manmohan Singh not being a Nehru, a Indira Gandhi, a Narasimha Rao or an AB Vajpayee does no way command the clout of these former Prime Ministers. Not for that matter does he have the necessary support even within his own party to say okay to any solution which he might consider the most viable. His counterpart, Gen. Musharraf had never mind his soldier's bluff and bluster- too is not the kind of free agent be professes to be, particularly when it comes to resolving as emotive an issue as Kashmir.

It is not just the right wing Islamist parties that will oppose any solution they believe not to be in the interests of their pan-Islamic goals, even the mainstream political parties such as the Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif or the People's Party of Benazir Bhutto would like to stall him in his pursuit of a solution. They would much rather that they did the honours, as representative political parties, if at all there is a way out of the festering dispute.

Having covered for my former paper, some 30-odd such Indo-Pak encounters, from Secretaries up the ladder to Foreign Ministers and the heads of Governments I may be a bit cynical about the entire process but do forgive me my cyniciem. Yes, do forgive me even for the observations I have made about the credibility of the two major principals, the Prime Minister of India and the Pakistani military dictator. Probably I am needlessly doubting their clout but, truth to tell, I doubt their capacity to sell even a reasonable solution to their respective peoples.

For one thing the General has more than once spelt out the outlines of his version of an ideal solution. For another, Manmohan Singh has spoken of out-of-the-box solutions which significantly, as he has said, would not entail any alteration of boundaries. What next ?

One good thing, though, is that both countries have apparently moved a wee bit from their previous rigid positions. UN resolutions and a plebiscite have more or less disappeared from the dialogue as had India's ‘‘the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the Union’’. This is an advance one is tempted to accept as a positive. The difficulty lies in translating some of the ‘‘positives’’ into reality.

Gen Musharraf says Siachen and Sir Creek can be overcome within a day. In other words the two obstinate obstacles can be removed as one go. Naturally, he seems to suggest, that this can happen only if the core issue of Kashmir is resolved. Why not get the two obstacles out of the way first. That would make Kashmir the only unresolved ‘‘core’’ issue and hence the focus of sustained attention in any further talks.

The General has already informed us that the Government in New Delhi is fully aware of the contours of the solutions on offer from the Pakistani side. All the more sensible therefore that peripheral issues like Siachen, Sir Creek and even Tulbul (Wullar) dam are sorted out before moving on to the main course on the menu. The Foreign Secretaries meeting in the second week of this month could well be used to give the required forward push to the on again off again bilateral dialogue.

I am not fully aware of the agenda for the Foreign Secretaries meeting but the Joint Mechanism for Terror mooted by the President and the Prime Minister in their Havana declaration is bound to figure prominently. Terrorism, cross-border terrorism to be precise, has become the bane of bilateral relations. Pakistani spokesman led by their military President himself have been the loudest in claiming that terrorist infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir from their side of the border has stopped.

Yet, day after day we have encounters on the LoC in which infiltrators are always involved. Even the Indian Army Chief, who at one point in time, had spoken of a drop in the number of infiltrators said in mid-October that the terrorist influx has shown a marked increase. The increasing number of deaths on the LoC would only seem to confirm it. And add to this the sharp increase in terrorist activities in the Valley. Bomb blasts, grenade attacks and even fidayeen attacks are showing no sign of decline. On the contrary the severity and the frequency of these are indigenous ‘‘freedom fighters’’ reveals a particular state of mind.

It is not good enough to be told that these are indigenous ‘‘freedom fighters’’. It is not unknown who directs them, who arms them and more important who motivates them. The mujahideen we are told may be coming from Pakistan-controlled Azad Kashmir. We are also told by serious Pakistani and foreign journalists of the continuing existence of terrorist training camps not just in Azad Kashmir but in Pakistan and its NWFP province. The Lashkar- Toiba chief Hafee, released by the Lahore High Court some two weeks ago, we are told, has suddenly turned into a social worker, the same man who in his recent utterances, long after the Lashkar was banned has been breathing fire and brimstone urging an intensified Jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. He is saying it from public platforms and his organization has redoubled its efforts to raise funds through public donations to reinforce the training camps and madrassas.

Gen. Musharraf would have you believe that the organizations like the one led by Hafee did a commendable job during the earthquake that ravaged the greater part of Azad Kashmir last year but a recent report by the BBC and some other humanitarian organizations from the affected areas seems to suggest little improvement in the conditions in which the quake victims of Azad Kashmir continue to live ! Where exactly does the Lashkar spend its money collected in the name of the quake victims. This is not denying the excellent work which several Pakistani organizations, including the Idhi Foundation, have been doing among the poor and the ill provided.

The Indian side at the Foreign Secretaries talks will have to prepare itself extremely well if it does not want to risk running into the same old Pakistani wall: give us the proof. This issue is going to come up in a big way if and when the Foreign Secretaries discuss the modalities of setting up the Joint Terror Mechanism. Unfortunately for the Indians our investigators have at their very best been shoddy in preparing their case. In recent days the Mumbai Police for instance has been busy patting itself on its back of so-called breakthroughs achieved by it. Many questions remain unanswered like why would an Indian suspect trained in bomb-making in Pakistan by ISI or the Lashkar need a Pakistani to be on hand when he embarks on his mission in Mumbai. Questions still remain on both the integrity and content of the suspects stories. Before producing evidence persuasive enough to shame Pakistan into acting against the Lashkar and ISI, our criminal investigators must learn to spend some more time in getting their act together.

Key to Korean crisis

By Chandra Mohan

The world did not know what to do except to become more livid with Kim. But the world was still far from being united in deciding what to do next to contain the 'rogue' state from continuing with its nuclear weapons programme the fruits of which could well reach multi-billion terror companies like the Al Qaeda. After a great deal of behind the scene manoeuvring that lasted almost a week, the UN security council finally managed to pass a 'unanimous' resolution on October 14 imposing sanctions on North Korea that included a clause that allows inspection of ocean-bound cargo to and from North Korea-a clause that China did not like but finally agreed to support to avoid being accused of sabotaging a strong and appropriate response to the North Korean nuclear test.

Since then China is said to be getting seriously into the act to try and restrain 'both sides' which in effect means the US on one side and North Korea on the other from doing anything that might make the situation in the Korean peninsula more serious than it already is. Admittedly, had China taken a more serious note of the nuclear ambitions of North Korea the latest international crisis might not have arisen. The problem is if China opposed North Korea's pursuit of its nuclear goal with nothing more than some proliferation platitudes, the US thought its bullying tactics would be enough to tame what is after all an impoverished third world nation.

The US has regarded North Korea-the Democratic Republic of North Korea-as a threat to its national security ever since it came into existence in 1950. The Stalinist type family that has been at the helm of affairs in Pyongyang for over half a century has certainly been hostile to Washington. There were brief interludes when the US talked to the North Koreans, raising hopes of an end to their mutual hostility. When that appeared unlikely, the US got tougher and tougher, leading to some stringent financial and trading sanctions against Pyongyang.

The fact of the matter is the rulers of North Korea were not ready to surrender before the US. They looked around and discovered that China was ready to meet some of their vital needs like food and energy aid-enough to prevent chances of a mass uprising. In due course of time, South Korea, otherwise a firmly pro-American neighbour also decided that it was not good to remain in perpetual tension with its northern neighbour. It adopted a 'sunshine' policy of engagement and discovered that the move enjoyed considerable domestic support. Add to this trade ties with Japan, howsoever limited, and the old links with the Russia, going back to the Soviet Union days, and the picture that emerges is that US-inspired sanctions did not exactly leave North Korea completely orphaned even though life for the ordinary people in the country was hard and millions reportedly died due to food shortages.

Of all these 'friends' and the neighbour, it is China which has been the real 'life-line' of North Korea, with its continuous supply of bare essentials. More than that, notwithstanding the coyness (is it shyness) of the West to acknowledge, China helped North Korea sharpen its military teeth. This is the reason why North Korea was able to develop an effective missile programme which it later bartered with Pakistan, under the aegis of the AQ Khan black-market, to acquire nuclear weapons technology. It was ironic that North Korea has emerged as some kind of a military power even as its population remains abysmally poor.

Without the Chinese props, the North Korean regime might well have collapsed long while ago. That, it is said, is exactly what Beijing doesn't want. A 'stable' North Korea is what it is interested in though, of late, Beijing has begun to say that it wants to see a 'denuclearised' Korea as well. Beijing even joined Washington in raising a loud chorus against the North Korean nuclear test but is not willing to use its influence to make North Korea renounce its nuclear policies.

One plausible reason why China does not want the North Korean regime to collapse may be the fear that would result in a huge influx of refugees into the northern region of the country, which are apparently yet to catch up with the prosperity noticeable in southern China. This is not a new concern though. It dates back to 1990 when it started erecting a fence on its North Korean borders. Given the health of the Chinese economy, it should be able to absorb the shock of refugees far more easily than poorer nations in the world have in the past. During the Bangladesh struggle for independence India was host to millions of refugees and the cost of feeding them was borne by the people of India, which was just another third world country in those days.

If the world is stuck with Kim, then the only way to ease the tension in the region would appear to be to bring him round to the negotiating table. For almost a year now, the six-nation talks have remained suspended after reaching a. The talks reached a deadlock mainly because Pyongyang insists that the US first lift its sanctions and the US demands an unequivocal assurance from North Korea that it will abrogate its nuclear programme. Pyongyang desires direct talks but Washington says no, no.

Though some hopes are generated that the stalled six-party talks would be resumed soon, the key to breaking the logjam seems to lie with China and to some extent South Korea. China has all along been refusing to use its full leverage on North Korea for fear that it would only make Kim more intransigent. Kim in any case is showing scant respect to even the Chinese.

In July this year, he defied the world and even friendly advice from China to go ahead with long-range missile tests. China expressed its anger by voting for a Security Council resolution that imposed weapons-related sanctions. But it continued its food and oil supplies to North Korea so that its people do not suffer 'difficulties'.

After North Korea's October 9 nuclear tests China again voted for the Security Council resolution against North Korea. But doubts persist if China would be sincere in adhering to the inspection clause. North Korea has declared that any forcible inspection of its shipping cargo would amount to an 'aggression'. If China is willing to inspect, as it says it is already doing, the cargo that is transported to and from North Korea through the land route, why is it reluctant to inspection of contraband coming in ships? China wants to remain North Korea's staunchest ally and friend and yet it wants the world to believe that it supports a sanctions regime against Kim Jon-Il. Such ambiguous approach is unlikely to make Kim change his ways-or his nuclear policy. (Syndicate Features)

Time: An infinite capital

By Dr Visheish Verma

Time is the most valuable resource we have. It is scarce, irreplacable rather than a renewable income.

While all of us same amount of time at our disposal to perform many activities, how is it that some accomplish much more than others ? Well there is nothing magical about it. All it requires is a little planning, in other words ‘Time Management’ as the name suggests. It is the effective use of time to fit in all activities one intends to do.

It is the third great discovery of early 1960s by Northcote Parkinson, after Newton's Law of Gravity and Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Physics. Parkinson's law in personal behaviour states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. The two differs from person to person but, it is applicable to all.

The law operates in this way ;

An elderly lady of leisure can spend the whole day in writing and despatching a post-card. She spends over one hour in hunting for spectacles, half an hour in searching out address, an hour and a quarter in composition and half an hour in deciding whether or not going to post the post-card. This total effort would occupy a busy man not more than 10 minutes. Time management is the effective use of time to fit in all activities that one intends to do.

Time flies and never returns.

The best way to make time is to beat the dead lines, Be ahead of the game of all times complete job as early as possible-- regardless of dead lines. By doing so, you keep the decks cleared for unanticipated assignments.

Time spent on travelling to and from can be used for thinking, reading making notes. Between the hours, put the minutes to work. As an aid to time saving Mahatma Gandhi used his train journey in third class compartments to write letters and articles. Abraham Lincoln wrote his speeches, notes and all other ideas as they occurred to him on small bits of papers. John F Kennedy studed speed reading a technique which enabled him to race through newspapers, books at the break neck speed of 1500 words a minute.

Time and tide wait for none, so goes an old adage. We live in a world which works 24 x 7 x 365, where speed of execution is of paramount importance. But alas very few people ever realise the importance of time and its management in our country, in particular going to work an hour or half later than the official time is a matter of pride. Infact people have stooped to such lows that they consider it their birth right to arrive late and make a mockery of the schedule. On the other hand, most of the countries are almost obsessed with time. Japan is one such nation. Here people will arrive for a lunch or dinner five minutes before the time given on the invitation card. The attitude of the Japanese towards time is reflected in their corporate functioning. Everything works as per schedule and everyone is confident that there will be no slippage. In all other industrially advanced societies time also has very high value and failure to adhere time schedule is rare. On the one hand in societies which are still largely agrarian the value attached to time and adherence to schedules is comparatively less. This attitude towards time has probably developed because for them time is a commodity which is surplus and so doesn't have value.

Value of time for students

Time is something to be invested not spent. Occasions are many when our students complain that their syllabus are vast and can't fit into time schedule. We find intelligent industrious students burning mid-night oil still in the end emerging not so creditably.

Effective time management requires a sense of balance among all the activities that one intends to do so as to accomplish the most in the given span of time. Ofcourse, perfect time management skills do not make one a perfect student nor does poor time management skill make another a failure. The main reason for managing time is to provide structure to one's life and in turn gain, peace of mind. To manage time effectively and thereby to save time judiciously, students are to be trained in the art of skillful listening, efficient reading, memory efficiency and effective communication etc. Hence there is need to lay special emphasis on ‘Time Management’ as an integal component of student services.

Like money, time is to be earned. It is earned by doing the basic currency of work with quickness and ease. Quickness and ease can be engineered by self analysis, self motivation and self propulsion. When work is done with quickness, some quantity of time called free time. This free time is to be again spent wisely.

‘‘Leisure time may be utilized in rest or relaxation. Rest should not be confused with sleep. While sleep is necessary to recharge or physical battery, it is the rest that recharges our mental battery.

Recreation on the other hand, restores and refreshes our strength. Rest is passive, recreation is active. Spending some time away from work, therefore improves a persons performance in one's work.