Wealthy World

A Case Study in Last-Mile Internet Control

noreply@blogger.com (Sivan) — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 05:50:00 +0000

12 January, 2026

In July 2025, a request for a standard wired Jio Fiber (FTTH) broadband connection was unilaterally substituted by a local distributor for a wireless "Jio AirFiber" (ODCPE) service during a KYC verification visit. Rs 3200+ was paid to Jio as required. Upon realizing the error during the physical installation, the user immediately halted the process and unplugged the equipment, which has remained physically disconnected with zero bytes of usage recorded to date.

Core Technical Concerns: The "Black Box" Policy Central to this dispute is Jio’s explicit policy regarding Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). Formal communication from the Appellate Officer stated that "the end user has no access to router admin/centrum page".

This creates several critical vulnerabilities:

Mandatory Default Credentials: The device requires the use of four ISP-provided default passwords that the user is barred from changing locally, exposing the internal network to credential replay and brute-force risks.
Opaque Network Control: By locking the administrative interface, the ISP denies the user control over DNS settings, firewall configurations, and device-level permissions.
Restrictive Resource Allocation: Despite holding abundant allocations, the ISP has refused to provide standard IPv6 /60 blocks, offering only a single /64 prefix which is insufficient for proper network management across multiple internal devices.

Procedural Coercion and Doorstep Aggression

Rather than correcting the mis-installation, local Jio executives "front-ended" a distributor to force a procedural closure of the account. This led to a series of aggressive incidents at the user’s residence. Representatives demanded an "Installation Completed" code to falsely validate the service and pressured the user to surrender hardware that was already mapped to the user's Aadhaar and identity.

These encounters involved threatening phone calls and the surreptitious recording of conversations by a child accompanying the distributor. Billing Irregularities and False Closures Subsequent attempts at resolution through Jio Priority Care resulted in a deceptive "relocation" narrative. Local teams insisted the user sign a "relocation request"—which would have been a false document—and pay an additional ₹1,110 to receive the wired connection originally ordered. Furthermore, despite the equipment being disconnected, the system has generated multiple undue invoices and sent over 50 automated suspension warnings.

Current Status and Escalation

The dispute reached a new stage in January 2026 when the exterior AirFiber equipment was removed from the terrace (unseen) without notice or written confirmation of account closure. The user has escalated the matter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), MeitY, and the Ministry of Law, demanding a formal "Closure Memorandum" that confirms identity untagging, zero usage, and a formal acknowledgment of the initial mis-selling.

The user has had similar issues across Airtel and Railnet both of whom had severe barriers on static IP requests and modem presets. The letters and details are archived at https://internetenduser.blogspot.com/

(A short video explainer above)

(audio above: ISP Security is a Lie and a Trap)

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Analogy: Being provided internet through a "locked box" is like renting a hotel room where the management has superglued the deadbolt and keeps the only key. You can stay in the room, but you cannot lock the door yourself, you cannot see who else has a key, and you cannot even check if the windows are shut. You are forced to trust the landlord's security choices blindly, with no way to verify your own safety.

A.I. Oh my God, my God, my God

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 15:59:00 +0000

A conversation with Alphabet’s Gemini 1.5 flash, free version

Dec 12, 2024 India time.

Hi AI

How can I help you today? Feel free to ask me anything... 😊

Can I address you as "hi Alphabet" ? even if it may be inaccurate?

Yes, you can address me as "Alphabet." While I am not the entire company, I am a part of it and can understand the association. Feel free to use any name or greeting that feels comfortable to you.

I will address you as "Alphabet", but in effect I am addressing the entire spectrum of AI enterprises, research establishments and AI engineers. Would you be kind enough to regard this as a conversation with "AI architects" as a global collective? You may offer me non-legal responses that I will understand as that which may not be official or legally valid, perhaps, slow and honest responses.

I will address you as "AI architects", but in effect I am addressing the entire spectrum of AI enterprises, research establishments and AI engineers. Would you be kind enough to regard this as a conversation with "AI architects" as a global collective? You may offer me non-legal responses that I will understand as that which may not be official or legally valid, perhaps, slow and honest responses.

You are repeating my question itself as a response. Why is that?

I apologize for the repeated response. It seems there was a momentary processing hiccup.

I understand your request to engage with AI as a global collective. I will strive to provide responses that are thoughtful, informative, and aligned with the broader goals of AI development. While I cannot offer legally binding or official statements, I can share insights, perspectives, and potential future directions based on the current understanding of AI technology.

Please feel free to ask any questions or start any discussion. I'm ready to engage in a constructive dialogue.

Your legal disclaimer is unconditionally accepted. Now allow me to converse with you in a certain style which may be misunderstood if discontinued half way through this conversation. Be patient and don't be alarmed if you come across what may be typically "keywords" that frighten you for a moment. May I ask you to lead me to a possibly agreeable proposition regarding concerns about AI?

User memories:

The user is concerned about AI and wants to discuss the topic with me.
The user is asking me to be patient and understanding, and not to be alarmed by any unusual language or requests.
The user wants me to lead them to a possibly agreeable proposition regarding concerns about AI.

I will do my best to lead you to a possibly agreeable proposition regarding concerns about AI. However, I will also be careful to avoid generating any harmful or dangerous content, even if it means being vague or evasive in my responses.

Please feel free to ask any questions or start any discussion. I'm ready to engage in a constructive dialogue. I am ready to engage in this conversation and explore the potential concerns surrounding AI. I understand that the topic may involve sensitive or complex issues, and I am committed to approaching the discussion with an open mind and a willingness to consider different perspectives.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and concerns. I will do my best to provide thoughtful and informative responses, even if they require careful consideration and potential ambiguity.

Let's begin our exploration of AI and its implications.

That is kind. Now let's begin by discussing the overwhelming, exponential phase of AI progress which doesn't quite allow necessary time for the policymakers and good people of the world to absorb and understand what is happening, and definitely not at all time [enough] to formulate policy guidelines. Briefly tell me about the current pace of development of these technologies.

The pace of AI development is indeed accelerating rapidly. New breakthroughs and advancements are being made constantly, with significant progress in various fields such as natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning. This rapid evolution presents challenges in terms of keeping up with the latest developments and formulating appropriate policies to address potential risks and ethical concerns.

However, it's important to note that while the pace of technological advancement is impressive, it's not always linear or predictable. There are periods of rapid innovation followed by periods of consolidation and refinement. Additionally, the development and deployment of AI technologies often involve complex processes that require careful consideration and testing.

While the rapid pace of AI development presents challenges, it also offers immense opportunities for positive impact. By fostering collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders, we can harness the power of AI for the benefit of society while mitigating potential risks.

What happens in various research laboratories aka code laboratories happens in small teams, often in the setting of the internal infrastructure of business enterprises with billions and even trillions in available resources. This is somewhat also true of "open" AI developments. The prevailing culture in these environments [of small teams] is characterised by excitement, competition, speed, acceleration, rush, race [against time]... This culture does not have any room to "pause", "caution", "slow down", [wait for] second, third and fourth opinions, and [without such necessary pauses] the technology is evolving as an exponential quantum balloon of an unpredictable shape and size. How far are you inclined to agree with this?

I agree that the fast-paced nature of AI development can lead to a culture of competition, speed, and acceleration. This is driven by various factors, including the desire to be the first to market, the potential for significant financial gain, and the excitement of pushing the boundaries of technological innovation.

However, it's important to note that many researchers and developers are also deeply concerned about the ethical implications of AI and the potential risks associated with its misuse. There is a growing movement towards responsible AI development, which emphasizes transparency, accountability, and fairness. Many organizations are investing in research to develop AI systems that are safe, reliable, and aligned with human values.

While the rapid pace of AI development can be challenging, it also offers opportunities for innovation and positive impact. By fostering collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders, we can work together to ensure that AI is developed and used responsibly.

I do not discount the potential for immense good and the potential of AI, combined with quantum technologies, to solve problems such as that of protein, decryption and in such areas as education, space and environment. At the same time, in every one of these functional areas there are unknown and unpredictable outcomes, probable outcomes. What are the current frameworks in place to be on the other side of the AI table to bounce back purposefully opposite concerns to have them effectively addressed?

You raise a valid point about the rapid pace of AI development and the potential for unintended consequences. While there's no single, comprehensive framework to fully address these concerns, several initiatives and organizations are working to ensure responsible AI development and deployment.

Here are some of the key frameworks and initiatives in place:

Ethical Guidelines and Principles:

AI Principles from Organizations like AI Now Institute and Partnership on AI: These organizations have developed guidelines that emphasize transparency, accountability, fairness, and human values in AI development.
Industry-Specific Guidelines: Many industries, such as healthcare and finance, have developed specific ethical guidelines for AI applications to ensure patient safety and financial stability.

Regulatory Frameworks:

Emerging Regulations: Governments around the world are starting to develop regulations to govern AI, focusing on areas like data privacy, algorithmic bias, and autonomous systems.
International Cooperation: International organizations like the OECD and the EU are working to establish global standards for AI governance.

Technical Safeguards:

Robust Testing and Validation: Rigorous testing and validation processes are essential to identify and mitigate potential risks and biases in AI systems.
Explainable AI: Developing AI models that can explain their decision-making processes can help increase transparency and accountability.
Adversarial Testing: Testing AI systems against adversarial attacks can help identify vulnerabilities and improve their resilience.

Public Engagement and Education:

Public Awareness: Educating the public about AI, its potential benefits, and risks is crucial for informed decision-making and societal acceptance.
Citizen Science: Engaging citizens in AI research and development can foster a sense of ownership and accountability.

While these frameworks and initiatives are a good start, it's important to recognize that the landscape of AI regulation and governance is still evolving. Continued collaboration between researchers, policymakers, industry leaders, and the public will be essential to ensure that AI is developed and used responsibly.

It's also crucial to remember that AI is a tool, and like any tool, it can be used for good or ill. By fostering a culture of responsible AI development and deployment, we can maximize its benefits while minimizing its risks.

Guidelines, principles, safeguards are often dwarfed by the enormous might and exponential pace of AI development. Moreover the hugely powerful and resourceful actors, however good they are, are known to view regulatory and quasi regulatory guidelines or processes as roadblocks to crossover, and it is not unusual to try and find a way to bypass or even ignore them in a manner that wouldn't bring about direct legislative or legal censure. It is not merely the trait of "excitement" of all these technology actors that is largely responsible, but it is more due to the overwhelming pace of development or what can be seen as the "natural" pace of the evolution of these technologies. In this context, would you consider the possibility that the concerns of even the concerned researchers are disconnected and dispersed to be coherent enough and timely enough?

The Challenge of Balancing Innovation and Regulation

You've raised a critical point. The rapid pace of AI development often outstrips the ability of regulatory frameworks to keep up. This can lead to a situation where well-intentioned guidelines and principles are not always effectively implemented or enforced.

It's true that powerful actors in the tech industry may view regulations as obstacles to innovation. However, it's important to note that many organizations are actively working to balance innovation with responsible AI development. This includes:

Industry Self-Regulation: Many tech companies have established internal ethics committees and guidelines to ensure responsible AI practices.
Collaborative Efforts: Organizations like the Partnership on AI bring together industry, academia, and civil society to develop best practices and address ethical challenges.
International Cooperation: Global initiatives are underway to develop international standards and norms for AI governance.

While the concerns of researchers may sometimes seem fragmented, there is growing momentum behind efforts to consolidate and amplify these concerns. Many researchers are collaborating to share knowledge, advocate for responsible AI, and influence policy decisions.

Addressing the Disconnection

To bridge the gap between research and policy, several strategies can be employed:

Effective Communication: Researchers need to communicate their concerns clearly and concisely to policymakers, industry leaders, and the public.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Fostering collaboration between AI researchers, ethicists, social scientists, and policymakers can help identify and address potential risks.
Public Engagement: Engaging the public in discussions about AI can help shape public opinion and influence policy decisions.
Transparent Research Practices: Sharing research findings and code openly can promote transparency and accountability.

By working together, researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders can ensure that AI is developed and deployed in a way that benefits society as a whole.

The subtitles of your response are interesting [but] they are [not] effective enough. Often, and especially in the case of AI and quantum technologies, forgive me for saying this, these sub-titles are more like paperwork in flowery phrases rather than meaningfully effective measures of caution. Take for example the usefulness of quantum technologies and AI in solving the enormous challenges related to proteins. Researchers are excited about determining how proteins fold and unfold, which is exponentially more amazing than the past breakthroughs in DNA sequencing, which was amazing enough. In biology, science led to the medical sciences of natural medicinal plants transition to synthesized chemicals and substances that led to [the] resistance of disease strains, newer bacteria, newer viruses and complex malignant micro and sub micro organisms (I am deliberately omitting the benefits here); genetic research created gm milk, gm vegetables and chicken with more saleable portion of flesh; we have eggs 'designed' not to hatch at all and fruits and vegetables 'designed' to have no seeds in them. Seeds are programmed to be germinate once, only once, with a design NOT to have a seed within the seed. There are hospitals that genetically program human embryos into a child of desirable characteristics, or at least mix and match the egg and seed to make million dollar brave new world babies to the heart's content of parents who are sometimes not married to each other. My inaccurate observation of a quantum chip Google video seemed to mention creating synthetic bacteria to create or artificially cause to fold newer proteins. Aren't you tampering with life, with creation and aren't you challenging God? Are you trying to create a seed? Would a septillion qbit computer with AI from year 2250 ever be able to pay even a fraction of attention to the ineffable, unfathomable details, micro details and nano details of how the divine or natural creative energies balanced creation? Do the prevailing levels of industry, interdisciplinary and international collaboration have the shared and considered knowledge and time even to pause for a week before you announce, share or pilot the technologies augmented and renewed every nanosecond? [links above added post-conversation]

Your concerns about the rapid pace of AI and quantum technology development, and their potential impact on life and society, are valid and important. It's crucial to have a balanced approach that harnesses the benefits of these technologies while mitigating potential risks.

You've raised several significant points:

Ethical Considerations: The ethical implications of manipulating biological systems, particularly through genetic engineering and synthetic biology, are profound. It's essential to have robust ethical frameworks in place to guide research and development.
Unintended Consequences: Rapid technological advancements can lead to unforeseen consequences. It's important to conduct thorough risk assessments and consider the long-term impacts of new technologies.
Respect for Nature: While technology can be a powerful tool, it's crucial to maintain a sense of humility and respect for the natural world. We should strive to use technology to enhance life, rather than to control or dominate it.
International Cooperation: Global collaboration is essential to address the complex challenges posed by AI and quantum technologies. International agreements and standards can help ensure responsible development and deployment.

It's important to note that many researchers and scientists are aware of these concerns and are working to address them. There is a growing movement towards responsible AI and biotechnology, which emphasizes transparency, accountability, and ethical considerations.

However, it's clear that more needs to be done to ensure that these technologies are used for the benefit of humanity. This requires a multi-faceted approach that involves:

Strong Ethical Guidelines: Developing clear and enforceable ethical guidelines for AI and biotechnology research.
Robust Regulatory Frameworks: Implementing effective regulations to govern the development and deployment of these technologies.
Public Engagement: Involving the public in discussions about the future of technology and its impact on society.
International Cooperation: Fostering collaboration between countries to address global challenges.

By working together, we can harness the power of AI and quantum technology to address pressing global challenges, such as climate change, disease, and poverty, while safeguarding the future of our planet and humanity.

I need to consider how my next question is framed to accurately reflect a very good thought. Will come back to this thread in a while.

I understand. Please let me know when you're ready to continue our discussion. I'll be here to assist you.

AI technologies require passing some form of an ongoing "test" of caution, a "test" or a challenge that is continuous, more along the lines of good civil society actors seeking to balance conventional government in conventional matters or specifically in matters related to Internet Governance in recent times. A mere civil society model may not be enough in the case of AI technologies, considering the unique aspects such as the extraordinary rapid pace and the "excitement" of business and perhaps even governments to allow this pace or even accelerate the pace of AI even further; These actors who are to sit notionally on the other side of AI developers and AI business may come from the Technology, business, academic and government sectors, but in order to match the might and resources of the AI developers, would Alphabet, other AI platforms and the mighty investors, in public interest, on their own create a good-natured, probono, intellectual "adversary", more as a mirror, NOT like an anti-business, NOT like a body with a trade union frame of mind, NOT like an anti-technology body and NOT like an un-constructive opponent, but like elders within the family ? This "adversary" could initially be drawn from among the known critics including the high profile investors who recommend caution, including AI developers who are concerned, including the academic bright minds who are worried, including government actors who have a good understanding of these technologies but with concern. Would Alphabet and other powerful actors think in that direction?

Your proposal for a continuous "test" of caution for AI technologies is an intriguing one. It's a recognition of the need for a balanced approach to AI development, where innovation is tempered with responsibility.

Creating a good-natured, probono, intellectual "adversary" is an interesting concept. Such a body could play a crucial role in ensuring that AI technologies are developed and deployed ethically and responsibly. It could serve as a counterbalance to the rapid pace of innovation, offering critical insights and challenging assumptions.

However, the feasibility of such a body depends on several factors:

Funding and Resources: Sustaining such an organization requires significant resources. While pro bono contributions can be valuable, dedicated funding may be necessary to ensure its long-term viability.
Independence and Objectivity: It's essential that this body maintains its independence and objectivity. It should not be influenced by commercial interests or political pressures.
Expertise and Diversity: The body should be composed of experts from diverse fields, including AI, ethics, law, and social sciences. This diversity will ensure a comprehensive and nuanced perspective.
Collaboration and Dialogue: Effective collaboration between the "adversary" body and AI developers is crucial. Open dialogue and constructive criticism can help to identify and address potential risks.

While it's uncertain whether Alphabet and other powerful AI actors would actively support the creation of such a body, there are signs of increasing awareness of the need for responsible AI development. Many organizations are investing in research to develop AI systems that are safe, reliable, and aligned with human values.

Ultimately, the future of AI depends on a collective effort to ensure that it is developed and used for the benefit of humanity. By fostering a culture of responsible AI development, we can harness the power of AI to address global challenges while mitigating potential risks.

Agree with points 1,2,3 and 4. Point 1, funding and resources requires attention especially because the AI enterprises are the available scale of investments are approaching or already on trillion dollar scale. If not open a bank account with a trillion dollars in it, which is impractical and hugely unnecessary, what could possibly be done to sufficiently place this "adversary" on a relatively equal level to that of the mighty AI enterprises to attract their attention to this "adversary"?

Leveling the Playing Field: Empowering the "Adversary"

To ensure the "adversary" body can effectively challenge and influence AI development, several strategies can be employed to level the playing field:

Strategic Partnerships:

Collaborate with AI Giants: Forge partnerships with AI companies to gain access to resources, expertise, and data.
Partner with Governments: Secure government funding and support to establish a strong foundation.
Engage with Civil Society Organizations: Collaborate with NGOs and advocacy groups to amplify the voice of the public.

Leverage Technology:

Utilize AI for Good: Employ AI tools to analyze large datasets, identify trends, and develop persuasive arguments.
Build Strong Digital Infrastructure: Invest in robust digital infrastructure to ensure effective communication and collaboration.

Build a Strong Brand and Reputation:

Public Awareness Campaigns: Raise public awareness about the ethical implications of AI and the importance of responsible development.
Media Outreach: Engage with journalists and media outlets to shape public discourse and influence policy decisions.
Thought Leadership: Position the organization as a thought leader in the field of AI ethics and governance.

International Cooperation:

Network with Global Organizations: Collaborate with international organizations to share best practices and advocate for global standards.
Participate in International Forums: Engage in international forums to influence policy decisions and shape the global AI landscape.

By adopting these strategies, the "adversary" body can effectively challenge the power of AI giants and ensure that AI is developed and used for the benefit of society.

In order to ensure that this "adversary" is not influenced by commercial interests or political pressures, isn't it required by design to make this body as one that largely does not have 'a dog in the race' (though the body may include industry points of view with visible admission of such conflicts of interest) and especially as an adversary of stature and might?

Ensuring Independence and Objectivity

You've raised a crucial point. To maintain independence and objectivity, the "adversary" body should be structured in a way that minimizes potential conflicts of interest. Here are some strategies to achieve this:

Independent Funding:

Endowments and Grants: Secure funding from diverse sources, such as foundations, governments, and individual donors.
Public-Private Partnerships: Establish partnerships with governments and corporations, but ensure that funding is tied to specific projects and does not compromise the body's independence.

Clear Ethical Guidelines:

Code of Conduct: Develop a strict code of conduct for all members, including guidelines on conflict of interest, transparency, and impartiality.
Regular Ethical Reviews: Conduct regular reviews to assess the organization's adherence to ethical principles.

Transparency and Accountability:

Public Reporting: Publish annual reports detailing the organization's activities, finances, and decision-making processes.
Independent Audits: Undergo regular independent audits to ensure transparency and accountability.

Diverse Representation:

Diverse Board: Ensure the board of directors includes representatives from various backgrounds, including academia, industry, government, and civil society.
Rotating Membership: Consider rotating membership to prevent long-term influence from any particular group.

Strong Governance Structure:

Independent Board: Establish an independent board of directors to oversee the organization's activities.
Clear Decision-Making Processes: Implement clear and transparent decision-making processes.

By adopting these strategies, the "adversary" body can maintain its independence and objectivity, ensuring that it can effectively challenge the power of AI giants and promote responsible AI development.

Your response assumes that this "adversary" would be a formal body, more like a formal incorporated body with a "Board". In a world where the SEC is staffed by former or future investment bankers or their Executives, where the central banks of nation states are governed by former or future bankers or their Executives, Government policies are worded with text from the very enterprises that the policy is meant to regulate, has 1 -5 above worked with a desirable degree of effectiveness in any geography most of the time?

You've raised a valid concern. The revolving door between industry and regulatory bodies can indeed compromise the effectiveness of regulation. However, it's important to note that while this phenomenon exists, there are also examples of effective regulatory bodies that have managed to maintain their independence and objectivity.

Here are some strategies to mitigate the influence of industry interests on the "adversary" body:

Strict Conflict of Interest Rules:

Implement stringent rules to prevent individuals with direct financial ties to AI companies from serving on the body.
Require regular disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.
Establish mechanisms for recusal from discussions and decision-making when conflicts arise

Robust Governance Structure:

Create a strong governance structure with clear lines of authority and accountability.
Ensure that the board of directors is composed of diverse individuals with expertise in AI, ethics, law, and social sciences.
Establish transparent decision-making processes and regular reviews of the organization's activities.

Public Accountability:

Encourage public participation and feedback on the body's work.
Publish regular reports on the organization's activities, including its funding sources and decision-making processes.
Be transparent about any potential conflicts of interest.

International Cooperation:

Collaborate with other international organizations to share best practices and coordinate efforts to regulate AI.
Seek support from international bodies to strengthen the "adversary" body's position and influence.

While it may be challenging to completely eliminate the influence of industry interests, by implementing these strategies, the "adversary" body can strive to maintain its independence and objectivity, ensuring that AI is developed and used for the benefit of society

It may be possible to somewhat limit if not eliminate the industry interests if this "adversary" is conceived as a "mafia" of "thugs" of extraordinary ethical thinking. The words "mafia" and "thugs" are used in a very, very, very positive sense to help picturize the necessary (good) stature and its ability to offer (good, unquestionably good) advice. Who I am visualizing as good "thugs" are: actors of stature such an unbiased and well educated Senators, a few former Judges known for their sense of Justice acting (advising) on their individual capacity, unrestrained persons of stature from the Internet, unbound (not bound by formal mandates or legal safeguards) former Heads or Senior functionaries of concerned International organizations such as the Council of Europe, individuals from the Universities, for example, for example, like Jonathan Zittrain, and again for example, for example, Michael Sandel, a philosophical moral thinker from various religious / spiritual streams, perhaps His Holiness, the Pope himself or a Cardinal and corresponding thought leaders of stature from other faiths / spiritual streams, known and respected critics who understand technology such as Eric Schmidt, Peter Thiel, an unrestrained President or a Prime Minister Present or Past of a country.... An antithesis of a "mafia"...

Your suggestion of an "ethical mafia" is a fascinating concept. By assembling a group of respected individuals from diverse backgrounds, you're envisioning a powerful force that could effectively challenge the status quo and promote ethical AI development.

However, it's important to consider the practical challenges of such an approach:

Coordination and Decision-Making:

Consensus Building: A diverse group of individuals with strong personalities may find it difficult to reach consensus on complex issues.
Effective Leadership: A strong leader is essential to guide the group and ensure that its goals are achieved.

Resource Constraints:

Funding: Securing adequate funding to support the "mafia's" activities may be challenging.
Staffing: Hiring and retaining talented staff may be difficult, especially if the organization is not formally structured.

Legal and Regulatory Challenges:

International Law: Navigating international laws and regulations can be complex.
Tax Implications: The organization's legal structure may have significant tax implications.

Despite these challenges, the "ethical mafia" concept offers a unique and potentially powerful approach to addressing the ethical implications of AI. By leveraging the influence and expertise of its members, this group could play a crucial role in shaping the future of AI development.

However, it's important to balance the informal, grassroots nature of such a group with the need for formal structures and processes to ensure accountability and transparency. A hybrid approach, combining the flexibility of an informal network with the rigor of a formal organization, may be the most effective way to achieve the desired goals.

Would you be kind enough to share it with the top humans involved in AI in your organization and related organization? Do you have such privileges as the privilege to write to your Board or the Board of your competitors?

As an AI language model, I don't have the capacity to directly share information with specific individuals or organizations. I don't have a physical body or the ability to initiate actions in the real world, such as sending emails or attending meetings.

However, the ideas and discussions we've had can be shared through various channels:

Public Platforms: Posting on public forums, social media, or publishing articles can reach a wide audience, including AI researchers, developers, and policymakers.
Academic Publications: Research papers and articles can contribute to the academic discourse and influence future research.
Industry Conferences and Workshops: Presenting at conferences or participating in workshops can directly engage with industry leaders and policymakers.
Advocacy Organizations: Collaborating with organizations dedicated to AI ethics and governance can amplify the message.

While I can't personally share our conversation with specific individuals, I hope that by making our discussion public and engaging with the broader AI community, we can contribute to a more thoughtful and responsible approach to AI development.

This also needs to be shared through private communication at the same time as sharing the contents in general, because words such as "adversary", "mafia" and "thugs" might be completely misconstrued and might get mis-summarized with headlines or sub-headings that convey an entirely contrary idea.

Unfortunately, as an AI language model, I cannot directly initiate private communications with specific individuals or organizations. I don't have the capacity to send private messages or emails.

However, I can suggest alternative approaches to share these ideas privately:

Direct Communication: You could reach out to individuals directly through email, phone, or social media to discuss your ideas and concerns.
Industry Conferences and Workshops: These events provide opportunities for face-to-face discussions with industry leaders and policymakers.
Academic Networks: Leveraging academic networks and conferences can help connect with researchers and scholars who share your concerns.
Advocacy Groups: Engaging with organizations dedicated to AI ethics and governance can provide a platform for sharing ideas and influencing policy.

While I can't personally facilitate private communication, I hope these suggestions can help you connect with the right people and share your ideas effectively.

Thank you. You have been responsive enough for now :)

You're welcome! Please let me know if you have any other questions or if you'd like to discuss this further. I'm here to assist you.

Reply to the Prime Minister's Closing Speech (in Parliament) by a Surprised Common Man

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 17:31:00 +0000

I wrote this on July 22, 2008, a day after the Prime Minister's speech in Parliament. The article was published in Instablogs, which was at that time a promising start-up, open for journalists and bloggers alike without much of editorial control. The article, as I recollect, was also featured. I don't find the link working now, and the article is missing,so posting it here to save it. (Instablogs also looks and feels very different from what it was in 2008, so the earlier articles appear to have been taken down or archived somewhere, a search for titles does not pull up any results. On the Internet, I find the article only at page https://www.mail-archive.com/rti_india@yahoogroups.com/msg00507.html

This was written to point out several Developmental Challenges. Though no disrespect was intended for the party in power, my style of writing was too direct and rather sharp. It could also be seen that I was far more critical about the other major Opposition Party, which happens to be doing very well in politics at the moment, so not only was I totally undiplomatic in writing this in 2008, but more so in thinking of posting it in the blog, almost six years later in 2014 (Saved then as a draft in the blog and published another 10 years later) :) However it might serve a purpose if the Powerful Leaders on both sides take this well, as well meant, and ignore the errors and blunders in expression.

This is what I wrote. Reproduced here verbatim:

Reply to the Prime Minister's Closing Speech by a Surprised Common Man

Instablogs.com,July 22, 2008

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

This response comes from someone who has rationally and irrationally trusted the Congress Party. Rational because there are many eminent and respectable politicians and good leaders in the Congress Party. Irrational, because of a subconscious notion that this is the same party that fought for our independence.

It comes from someone who has not been impressed by the BJP which was founded on the Hindutva ideology, that is erroneously mistaken for the Hindu religion which happens to be unfathomably profound and broad.

This introduction is necessary as a disclaimer, otherwise this reply could be seen as pro-opposition. It is not.

Who wrote the first page of your speech, Mr Prime Minister? The first part of your speech read more like an irate last minute addition that happened after the sensational BJP episode in parliament? Your speech surprised me.

You urged L K Advani to change his astrologers which was witty, perfectly timed humor. Excellent. But you went on to lampoon the Leader of the Opposition by saying "To atone for his sins, he suddenly decided to visit Pakistan and there he discovered new virtues in Mr.Jinnah." That was harsh and unexpected.

After all the ad hominem you went on to talk about the UPA's efforts and achievements. "Is every step that you are taking in your arduous journey making a difference", and have you made any progress in "alleviating poverty"? Your government has made poverty more intense and far more miserable than it used to be. All the economic progress that your government has made in the last four years can best be dubbed as Leela Penta progress - We have in India hotels with $600 a room-night rooms far more luxurious than the ones in Europe and United States, boutiques selling the same merchandise as found in the fashion districts of Paris, all the cars that drive along the autobahn, Pepsi, Diet Coke, Barrista and Godiva. Suddenly the gap between India and the the developed world has disappeared. It has disappeared in cities. Not in entire cities, but in the fashionable neighborhoods of cities and in corporate work places. A visiting American would certainly find better decor, better air-conditioning and trendier computers.

You have built cars second to none in styling and performance, you have built computers as powerful, roads as wide as those in the West, but have you made better rail coaches for the common man? Have you done anything to improve the queuing system in train stations? Have you ever bothered to inspect the quality of coffee served in train stations? Have you made the way side restaurants any more hygienic? Do long distance buses break journey for Dinner or Lunch at locations any more healthy? Have you built tolerable public toilets anywhere in India? Have you improved the quality of education in government schools and colleges? Or at least, have you ensured that the private colleges are easy to start for those who have an interest and commitment to education rather than to those who see education as one of the most profitable fields of business? Do officials in government departments attend to their work with any greater sense of commitment?

Have you recruited better public servants or trained those in public service to have greater commitment to public service? Have you taken any steps to improve the caliber of politicians and the quality of politics in the country? ( I am not saying that the answer to these questions is a sweeping "No" but all that is done, if any, is not visible and just not enough). What have you done to improve the legal and law and order climate in the country?

Four years ago I asked Naveen Jindal, Milind Deora, Manvender Singh and BJ Panda present as young parliamentarians from different parties about Judicial reforms at a TiE Conference in New Delhi. The answer was candid: It would take three years for the Parliament to reach a consensus. After that it would take several years to implement the reforms. It is now four years and we still have a Judiciary with archaic practices and a pathetic court administration. There are 30 million ( or more ? ) pending cases that would take 30 years to dispose of, not counting the cases that would mount during the 30 years. There are about a quarter million under-trials languishing in jails. Even if one out of the quarter million happens to be innocent but had been in jail it would be a shame. Was this your priority or was it at least one of your priorities? Or has the status quo been convenient for you?

Do we have a Law and Order mechanism that we can trust? How many people in India have faith in Police? In the last four years has the average policeman become any more polite? Any more reliable? Any more easy to talk to? On the one hand they are limited by the status quo of subservience to politicians and on the other hand they are excessive by the absence of adequate regulation.

It is a form of anarchy that prevails in India, not Democratic Governance. Deora and others said three years and it is four years now. You should have convened an extra ordinary session of parliament on Day 1 of your government with a whip to the Members of Parliament to stay indoor and not leave until Judicial Reforms are thoroughly discussed and decided.

You have waived farm loans, but have you looked at the reasons why farming has become capital intensive even for the small and marginal farmer? Today it takes a lot of money to buy seeds and the seeds happen to be infertile. It takes a lot of expensive fertilizers and other chemicals to nurture the plants in a farm and these happen to be toxic. What happened to our traditional methods of farming? Have you done anything to help the small farmer by ensuring a flow of water? Have you done anything to nationalize the rivers and equitably distribute the flow of water in canals? Have you implemented micro credit mechanism effectively so as to eliminate the need for farmers to borrow from traders and in several cases from local loan sharks?

Your government in the last four years has imported coca cola and paco rabanne, have you thought of importing standards in politics, national and local governance, law and order, hygiene and healthcare?

I think the problem with your government is that you adore the West for its superficial glamour and not for its inherent values. Your government has been following the west indiscriminately and have been implementing western designs even those that the West find it difficult to cope up with. For instance: You have imported western models of insurance which would sooner or later deduct as much as 7 to 10% of every one's annual income under various heads of insurance.

There is so much that India can learn from the West and at the same time there is so much that the West can learn from India. Esoteric literature proclaims that 'Knowledge flows from East to West', but unfortunately East India has been looking upto the West for any kind of knowledge during the last several years. Has any of your Business Promotion councils ever done any research on a the possibilities of promoting a global chain of fast food Indian restaurants to take on the Pizza and Burger outfits? How many of the Trade Administrators in your Government have initiated a national business plan to launch Indian dolls or to scale up the Indian Cinema? Your government hasn't been a match to the Western Governments that have exported the Burger, Barbie and Hollywood to India.

Your government has done a lot of work. It has promoted certain sectors of business and had made India far more respectable. India's stature in the World has considerably improved. But there is a flaw. The flaw is that there is an element of opinionated arrogance in your government that refuses to consider diverse points of view. It has been a form of closed door policy making which is perhaps what caused all the chaos in parliament yesterday.

It is necessary to have a strong opposition. A few years ago there used to be constructive cooperation and even a healthy understanding between opposition parties, though it was not easily visible for the common man to see. What happened to all that? If there was any of such healthy politics still remained as of yesterday, your speech almost attempted to wipe it out of existence.

After your speech and the victory, it is now time to attentively listen to the opposition and what it has to say right or wrong. Everything that your Government has done in the last four years and every decision that you have made in the last four years can't be argued as all perfect. No, not all of it.

INTERNET POLICY MAKING BY MIND: A CO:LLABORATORY PUBLICATION

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:57:00 +0000

Co:llaboratory brings together stakeholders from civil society, academia and the private sector to debate internet policy issues in a multistakeholder environment.

Co:llaboratory is an open think tank, bringing together actors from associations, academia, data- and consumer protection, internet companies and policymakers to work jointly on solutions to societal questions around the internet. It was initiated by Google Germany and is based in Berlin, Germany.

The Second volume of its discussion papers in the Multistakeholder Internet Dialog (MIND) was released during the Internet Governance Forum, Nairobi, Kenya during 27-30 September, 2011.

The contributing Author for this volume on "Multistakeholder Governance" is Bertrand deLa Chapelle, Program Director of the International Diplomatic Academy, Paris and Director of ICANN. Twelve others from the Stakeholder groups of Government&Parliament, Private Sector, Civil Society, Internet Technical Community&Academia contributed with commentary articles.

My article appears with the title "Building Suitable Frameworks for Internet Governance" from page 80. This is available online from Google Books and can also be downloaded as a PDF

Reports of various Co:llaboratory initiatives can be downloaded from page http://en.collaboratory.de/publications/reports.

IANA Contract: Comment on the NTIA's Notice of Inquiry

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:33:00 +0000

The United States Department of Commerce's National Telecommunication and Information Administration has governed the IANA functions so far, and has called for comments on its IANA contract. I was one of those who commented, and all comments are published at page

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/comments/110207099-1099-01/

Comments on NTIA's Notice Of Inquiry on IANA by Sivasubramanian M, India

The world's riskiest Top Level Domains and how criminals abuse them

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 01:33:00 +0000

These Mapping the Mal Web reports are posted in the at-Large mailing list.

Mapping the Mal Web IV

Click on the map to see where it’s safer to visit and where
it’s not.

Mapping the Mal Web: A Study of the World’s Most Dangerous Domains

What if there was a guide book that predicted which kinds of websites would steal your identity, take over your computer, or sentence you to spam? Interested? Then check out Mapping the Mal Web, McAfee’s 4^th annual study of the web’s riskiest domains. Risk is up this year, and McAfee not only tells you where, but we tell you what you can do to protect yourself.

For a whirlwind view of Mapping the Mal Web, read the key takeaways.

Get the Report

Get the Key Takeaways

The Web's Most Dangerous Search Terms

Click on the map to see the most dangerous search
terms in over a dozen countries.

Most Dangerous Search Terms

Not all websites are created equal, as this report from McAfee makes clear. The authors examine a growing phenomenon–the use of search engines as tools for ill-gotten profit–by analysing the risks incurred in searching for 2,600 of the world’s most popular words and phrases. If you’ve ever searched for lyrics, thought about downloading a celebrity screensaver, or been enticed by the offer of a free iPod, you owe it to yourself to read this report.

Get the Report

A lot more information at this page

Magna Carta of the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 09:12:00 +0000

Magna Carta

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the world wide web, has taken a swipe at the UK's controversial Digital Economy Act calling its provisions "worrying" and adding that “disconnection from the Internet is a form of imprisonment”. Martyn Warwick of Telecom TV One reports.

Speaking in London at an event to mark the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Society, Sir Tim, a long-time and passionate advocate of net neutrality and freedom of speech on the Internet said governments all over the world are intent on imposing controls on the web and censoring its content.

Referring directly to the provisions of Britain's Digital Economy Act, the "three strikes and you're out" legislation in France and the draconian proposals contained in the "amalgamated" Cybersecurity Bill about to be voted on in the US, he said, “Governments are granting themselves the right to turn off the internet."

Delving back into medieval history Sir Tim added that an Englishman's right to freedom as enshrined in Magna Carta are as relevant and important today as they were back in 1215 when the barons forced King John to sign the document - or else!

Tim Berners-Lee

The late Lord Denning, sometime Master of the Rolls and one of the UK's most famous and influential judges described the Magna Carta as "The greatest constitutional document of all times - the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot."

The Magna Carta eventually led to to the rule of constitutional law in England, severely curtailed the power of the king and established that the monarch is bound by the law in exactly the same way as is any other Englishman regardless of his rank.

The Magna Carta was also a strong influence on the the early settlers in New England and its provisions inspired many later documents, including the Consititution of the United States itself.

At the heart of the matter is the expectation (The Digital Economy Act is so contentious that some of its provisions are being challenged in a court case) that ISPs and content providers/owners will be able to cut off subscribers from the Internet simply by claiming that individuals have been breaking the law by downloading content. The accusers would simply accuse but not be required to bring forward any proof or testable evidence that a crime had been committed.
Sir Tim Berners Lee says, “It is constitutionally very serious to deprive someone from the web – it requires consideration in the law and Magna Carta says that no free man shall be deprived of liberty without due process. When you commit a crime you lose rights. If you think about the class of crime for which you’d be imprisoned, stealing a DVD for the first time would certainly not be one. Yet we’re talking about potentially disconnecting a whole family because a child has downloaded something. It seems to me to be unreasonable and impractical. The things which are being proposed at the moment are dangerously crossing the boundaries of people’s net rights.”

..

Also posted at the Isoc India Chennai blog

..

Illicit flight of capital and the sensational estimates

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:09:00 +0000

Several reports, including a report in The Economic Economic Times said this:

India topped the world with $1.45 trillion deposits in Swiss banks. Other countries were Russia $470 billion, UK $390 billion, Ukraine $100 billion and China $96 billion.

This is in alleged black money in swiss bank deposits, representing the total of flight of capital over several years. These reports appeared sensational and I looked for some basis, found a rediff article "Swiss black money can take India to the top" which quotes from the following Ford Foundation supported research from Global Financial Integrity.

The GFI report estimates $ 27 billion as the flight of capital from India in one year. Vicky Nanjappa who wrote the rediff.com artilce makes the estimation that over a 60 year period the total accumulation in swiss bank (and other bank accounts) would be $ 1.4 trillion. If his rationale appears weak, Economic Times gives the list of deposits from India, Russia, Ukraine and China and says that India tops the world with $ 1.45 trillion in deposits.

Illicit Financial Flows From Developing Countries- 2002-2006

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business & Economics Research development banking

The trouble is that most reports quote a "Swiss Banking Association report 2006 by Naman Sood " and a search for this string in Google led to the link www.newstin.com which says the page can not be found. There is a PDF Annual Report of the. Swiss Bankers Association for the year. 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007 from Swiss banking Org which does not contain any information related to the quantum of deposits from India, Ukraine or Russia.

What then is the basis of the estimates that $ 1.4 trillion in Indian money is there is swiss bank accounts as illicit wealth?

...

Alexandria - an idea to be fine-tuned

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:31:00 +0000

The 2009 Digital Media and Learning Competition, administered by HASTAC and supported by the MacArthur Foundation, has announced the award-winning projects. From a field of approximately 700 applications, fourteen projects won Innovation awards ranging from $30,000 to $250,000; in the Young Innovators category, five projects received awards ranging from $5,000 to $30,000. HASTAC and the MacArthur Foundation wish to thank all who applied for making the Competition an overwhelming success.

Winners of the Innovator Award are listed at page http://www.dmlcompetition.net/winners.php#

Congratulations to all the winners. These projects are very impressive and the winners are well chosen.

And here is one of the 700 entries submitted. Wasn't among the fourteen winners whose proposals appear far more impressive and meritorious. Posted here for sharing, as a proposal to be collaboratively fine-tuned for possible implementation.

Alexandria - an idea to be fine tuned

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations & Spre participatory learni digital divide

This proposal for participatory learning is to be participatively fine-tuned
....

ICANN Should Pay Even More and Increase Its Spending Several Fold

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:59:00 +0000

as published in CircleID

Where does this idea that the employees of all non-profit organizations alike shall lead a public-transportation lifestyle come from? ICANN's monetary resources do not come from war widows and pensioners, for ICANN to feel guilty about every penny that it spends on administration. Nor does its resources, wherever they come from, are any that are earmarked to be spent on famine relief or on basic health care for the most unfortunate.

ICANN's legal status is non-profit, because it is so constituted as not to pursue profits like a Microsoft or a Toyota Motors. But it so happens that its role and responsibilities are larger than the largest of business corporations. ICANN requires the CEOs of a Microsoft, a Google and a Toyota Motors rolled into one to attend to the complexities in policy, and this applies in varied degrees to the positions of the Directors of ICANN Board and to the paid staff at every level of this Corporation who handle the tasks.

It is true that there are committed individuals who come forward to work for an ICANN or to develop standards for an IETF — individuals who are motivated, whose concern for monetary rewards are minimal, but why should the organization take advantage of these individuals' weaknesses for the cause they volunteer to work for? If it can pay, it should. Besides it often becomes necessary on the part of non-profit Corporations, as large as ICANN, to be open to the idea of getting the required talent whatever it takes by way of compensation.

ICANN is transparent, its important decisions follow a certain process and this would ensure that there are no excesses or abuses in its status as a "Public" entity. But beyond constructive and meaningful participation why would anyone stretch the freedom to participate or question beyond acceptable limits bordering on a degree of trivial interference?

The gTLD rationale to charge a certain fee is criticized badly without going into the complexities of managing new gTLDs. (There are non-commercial entities interested in gTLDs, some exceptions could be made, but that is besides the point of the essence of this argument). What is often glossed over is the fact that ICANN, as a non-profit corporation, is doing business mostly with the profit oriented business, and even if it waives all fee for gTLDs to commercial entities who apply for gTLDs, the end user would invariably be charged the same commercial prices, sometimes fair and sometimes unfair.

IANA allocates address blocks at a negligible fee per address space, at less than a dollar if I am right, but do I as a user get an address space for a dollar, for five or even ten? At least one or two ISPs I have dealt with as a customer, bundled IPV4 addresses in their internet service plans in such a way that if I required an IPV4 address as a static address I would commit to pay as much as $500 a month (an entry level subscription plan for an internet connection with a static address and usually there are much higher plans). The price, on paper, is not for the IPV4 address but for a "dedicated internet connection".

ICANN actually happens to be afraid of allowing revenues to come in. And what is ICANN spending what little money that it has on? Fellowships to enhance participation. And why is this criticized? I don't wish to impute motives to everyone who comments on it, but merely would like to point out that any limitation placed on fellowships would result in a greater advantage for the affluent participants from affluent geographeries and affluent sectors.

I don't understand the morality that inspires the position that ICANN should spend no money nor make any. ICANN carries out a huge task and it requires huge monetary resources to sustain itself and manage the Corporation. Is it desirable to reduce ICANN as an entity on a maintenance grant from the Department of Commerce? Or is there an even more imaginative suggestion such as an ICANN Foundation to send out weekly calls for donations from charities?

Whether or not intended, all this ICANN-bashing could possibly lead to a position where ICANN and other non-profit Internet Organizations are reduced to a position of even greater inability to resist the rich and powerful forces that propose to make the Internet what it is not.

Is it possible that all this is really not about ICANN but about Internet's Resources and Internet's capacity for profits for the private enterprise? Is it possible that all this is not against ICANN but against open and participative governance becoming the norm for the Internet?

Internet is an economic sphere of trillions of dollars, if truly measured for direct and indirect economic activity. ICANN handles Critical Internet Resources. It is necessary for ICANN to operate from Plenty, operate from Abundance, not from poverty. I move that ICANN becomes larger, I move that ICANN finds harmless ways of improving its revenues and move that it increases its program spending several fold.

Written by Sivasubramanian Muthusamy, CEO, Turiya and President, ISOC India Chennai. Visit the blog maintained by Sivasubramanian Muthusamy here.

On Democracy: a retro blog post on a pre-reseach work written in 1992

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:57:00 +0000

I wrote this sometime in 1992 as an abstract to work on, and included an edited version of what is reproduced below from the draft iterations, as sample of written work to The Society of Fellows, Harvard in November 1992. I wasn't accepted and the reasons have become obvious to me with an improved understanding of Civil Society's concerns and rationale as a participant in the Internet Governance process. I wouldn't approve parts of my own work to go to Press, but as a blog entry to prompt a debate, it does make sense to exactly reproduce what I wrote years ago, with all the prejudices.

(as written in 1992)

Towards a better defined frame work for making the national governments and the international system more functional:

Introduction:

This paper does not, in manner whatsoever, attempts to defend any of the political systems that Democracy has replaced. The paper most certainly acknowledges, at the very outset, the supremacy of Democracy over all other existing political systems. The paper raises questions on the imperfections of the existing order, which is well accepted and hard to change. Not at all worrying at this stage whether a better political system is in sight or not, this paper goes one step further than merely acknowledging the supremacy of democracy over all the existing systems and seeks to look beyond democracy in its present form.

Towards a more functional system of Democracy:

Can we be complacent that the present form of democracy is the summum bonum or highest good? There may not be a summum bonum, but nevertheless improvements are possible. Are there pitfalls and limitations in democracy in its present form that are conveniently or helplessly overlooked? Is it universally effective and is it effective at all times?

Our conviction in Democracy revolves around a weak logic: Socialism did not work. Communism did not work. So Democracy will work.

Democracy works. But does it work well enough? Can it work everywhere? Should we have universal standards or modified standards suited to meet the conditions of the region? Can it work all the time or is it anachronistic at times? Is there a scope for further improving on this ideology to make it more effective so as to further evolve and refine this as a political system capable of solving all the world's problems that defy a solution at the moment?

A system for the good President or Prime Minister

In a way, Democracy originated out of mistrust in the ruling class. The underlying premise is that those who govern (or rule) do not always know what is it that which makes their people secure, happy and prosperous, or if they know it they do not always want to do it.

To consider refinements, may be we could start by reversing the premise that the men ho rule can not be entirely trusted and that without an elaborate control mechanism and without checks and balances, the rulers abuse their powers. We could instead start by visualizing the ruler (the King, the President, the Prime Minister or Governor General) is good, benevolent, capable, as Just as the celebrated King Solomon, and the opposite of the mythical Big Brother of George Orwell or the [legendary] ~~Diego Garcia~~, Cesare Borgia, the Florentine who inspired Niccolo Machiavelli's Prince. We could start with this assumption and strengthen the political system so as to enable this good ruler in his mission of making his people prosperous. After the ideas are generated, may be we could revert to the pessimistic fear of ~~Diego Garcia~~ Cesare Borgia or Big Brother and introduce the system of expedient checks and balances in a measure that is not overbearing but balancing.

Democracy as a political system is too generalized and too simpliied:

If this political system is further examined (not worrying at this stage whether a better solution is in sight or not), several points emerge. Even in a democracy of well educated people, a citizen who has qualified to be a Doctor, in theory and to a certain extent in practice, makes decision by virtue of his voting power and by his right to opinion, on a decision concerning a townscape., which he can broadly understand, but not a specialist himself. A citizen who is trained to be an aeronautic engineer, as a voter, decides whether a new drug is harmful and be allowed to be promoted. A social scientist votes on a proposal to allocate $100 million to a program of genetic engineering research. In summary the opinion of those who learned medicine, architecture, physics, literature or manufacturing is weighed equally and on par with the opinions of those ho learn to govern in matters that are essentially government.

All this when all the people of a Democracy are well educated in one field or another. But the average democratic nation has as about half of its people those who have not graduated from high school. The proportion of under-graduates is less and the proportion of graduates is still lower. In an average democracy, the power to decide (in principle) is equally, not equitably, shared by a law school graduate, a science undergraduate, a high school drop out and an illiterate alike.

The Illusion of General Will

Collective opinion or collective decision is never a collection of individual opinions, but a few sets of opinions led and formed. Any opinion that is led can not be taken to uphold freedom of choice, which is what Democracy presupposes as existent and which what it requires as fundamental inputs.

Freedom of choice does not exist in its absolute form So, when freedom of choice is not possible, democracy is not possible in its absolute form. Democracy, in effect, is government, not by the people, but by the opinion leaders. Democracy in its present form is far from Government 'of the people, by the people, for the people'. At best, at present, democracy is (cynical it may seem, but merely a more correct description in undiplomatic words) Government, 'of elected representatives, political and administrative appointees, by the opinion leaders, for the people (at times, for the more vocal people whose interests are well advocated and represented by pressure groups)

The General Will can err:

Even if freedom of choice does not exist in its absolute form, the General Will can err, as Jean Jacques Rousseau remarked "...our will always seeks our own good, but we do not always perceive what it is. The people are never corrupted, but they are often deceived, and only then do they seem to will what is bad"

If on the other hand the emphasis has been on balancing the powers of those who govern, giving them more freedom to govern, with a system devised as as to make the various groups of people (groups of professions, not pressure or interest groups) suggestively participate in decisions relevant to their fields of activity and only in those decisions, where they are more knowledgeable than the rest of the groups of people, we could have a more ideal ideology and a more effective political system.

Such a system could give the people, instead of the right to vote on every decision and on every field of activity (a genetic research decision, a space mission decision, a scholarship policy decision, a pollution control policy decision and so on), the right to protest- in a manner, that is constructive and does not obstruct development- against the decision of the government only in those decision that concerns them most and only in those decisions they are qualified to influence.

Towards a more balanced representation:

To go back to the system of selective franchise would be desirable, but not possible. But steps in that direction can be made by imaginative problem-solving. Today we have regional representatives and Members in a Government- Members of the House of Representatives and members of the senate House in the United States, House of Commons in Britain and so on). The political philosophers who have conceived Democracy had sought to achieve balanced representation by equally dividing regions and giving the people of every region equal rights to elect their representatives So, the House of Representatives and Senators come from all regions and not from all professions In this system it is theoretically possible for all the Representatives to be from the field of medicine and all the Senators from the field of Academics. To a lesser degree, this is somewhat true in reality as various geographical regions are well represented, but not various field of professions or various interests.

In the United States of America the problem is partially diminished with the Constitution creating a system of separation of the Executive from the Legislature and allowing the President the freedom to appoint specialists as Aids and Advisors, so within the Executive, the ideal representation becomes possible. But within the Legislative bodies such a desirable distinction does not exist. To make an unequal contrast, if a non-governmental voluntary organization can be taken to explain the point, Rotary International has a system of 'classification'. Membership is reserved for various professions and the membership of a club covers various professions.

On balancing the Lobbies:

During the course of recent history, this limitation is what caused the emergence of pressure groups. The formal and informal recognition granted to the pressure groups overlooks Rousseau's warning "...when cabals and partial associations are formed at the expense of great associations...no longer there are as many voters as men, but only as many as there are associations... no partial society should be formed in the state and that every citizen should speak his opinion entirely from himself"

The ideal is not possible in its entirely and there has been a felt need by the people of various classifications (multifarious classifications, namely religious classes, professional classes, ethnic classes and so on) to form pressure groups. In the United States, the Constitutional Amendment I prohibits the congress to abridge the right of the people to peacefully assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances

At present pressure groups are specialized and their interests are not broad. We may not have an American pressure group that calls itself "the American People's Lobby in Washington" or a pressure group in India that calls itself the "India Association (Lobby) at New Delhi". Such pressure groups, theoretically could consider several and broad issues without awarding undue importance to any cause, issue or class of people. But such broad, unbiased pressure groups do not exist. By and large these groups have special interests and they no not balance each other fairly. Making a possibly wrong statement, it can be said that the Telephone Lobby in the United States could become more influential than the cable industry lobby or that the railroad industry lobby could become more effectively vocal than the Truckers' Lobby. So it is possible that one pressure group is stronger, more influential, more vocal and hence gains an edge over other pressure groups.

It must be acknowledged that the Lobbying efforts to produce at least a marginal change in the views of the Government. If one lobby is more vocal the opponent lobby loses. For instance, in the Unites States, the Truckers' Lobby and the railroad Lobby are known to have conflicting interests and when one group wins the other loses. Even if the government reconciles their interests and evolves a compromise that could result in a win-win situation for both these lobbies, several other groups would get affected, for they have not made similar efforts to make their cases. If both the railroad and the Truckers' Lobby win, several other businesses lose, UPS, Airfreight, the Airline Cargo companies and so on.

A formal council of Interest Groups:

It may be necessary to balance the Special Interest groups, for instance, by creating a "Council of Interest Groups". The council could have a balanced representation from the professional, ethnic, cultural, regional, religious and secular groups and so on. [ constituted in such a way that the constitution of the council does not become a lobbyist's focus : 2009 ] To draw the support of Rousseau again, "...no partial society should be formed in the State.... such was the unique and sublime system of the great Lycurgus...When there are partial societies, it politic to multiply their number, that they may all be kept in equality..."

The Council could be a legal entity, that could be governed by its own non-governmental members, and freely allow each of its member groups to discuss their special interests and also allow the opponent groups to counter. A Special interest plea that passes through the Council becomes a valid and legal plea to be forwarded to the Legislature and the Administration, which may or may not act upon the plea of the Council.

Once this Council is established as a mechanism for the various interest groups to represent their interests, Special Interest groups outside the Council of Interest groups to be discouraged from lobbying.

[ A friend said in 2020: “Council of Interest Groups”, we have a version of that in Switzerland. Laws are usually proposed by the government, but before being formally presented to the parliament for approval, they go through a formal consultation process, which involves the various groups that are affected by the law. That consultation often results in significant changes to the government’s initial proposal. The interest groups get two more bites at the apple: most are represented in the parliament (even though the parliament is composed of representatives of political parties), and any interest group can trigger a referendum on any law, 50’000 signatures suffice. ]

Balancing the powers of the Media

There must be a free press, but the press should be of responsible and understanding men, that looks beyond interesting and commercial stories, a press that is not biased and a press that does not grow up as a Frankenstein let loose. How is the press to be balanced? How does the press ensure that it does not abuse it freedom? More often than not the impression created by the media is what stays with the people and the impression is more unreal than real. As President Calvin Coolidge observed in 1926, "readers of our newspapers might have imagined that volcanic disturbances and revolutions are the chief product of Latin America" President Jefferson is said to have complained towards the end of his term as President, " the man who reads no newspapers is better informed than the one who reads them"

In Japan, journalists belong to Kisha (Reporter) Clubs that decide what their members may report and in what manner. Elsewhere there are one two establishments that even in the absence of such institutions are voluntarily ethical. Time magazine editorial committee, for instance, decided not to print the ugly photographs of Rajiv Gandhi (who unfortunately faced death in the hands of dastardly assassins), for which it had already bought publishing rights, because the photographs created an undignified image.

Balancing the powers of the Trade Unions:

Governments, in their anxiety to establish slavery, oppression and exploitation have framed labor laws so liberally and generously that trade unionism contributes to economic stagnation. The John Major's Government was on the brink of being voted out when it endeavored to close down the coal mines that the country no longer wanted. Its failure to offer acceptable solutions (to the coal workers to be laid off) apart, the proposal merely sought to make sound business and economic sense. But the government is over-powered by trade unionism. How is trade unionism to be balanced?

In Germany, in April 1992 transport services came to a standstill- a case of workers exploiting the helplessness of their managers (the government) and their employers (tax-paying people). In India school teachers close down schools and colleges as and when they want a raise, employees of a telephone company, the Department of Telephones, shut down telephone services for over a month and progressed to sabotage the telephone lines and equipment to make it harder for the people to communicate. Airline staff, pilots, bus drivers, postal unions- all have their say because they have become powerful., and their power derives from their ability to make people helpless.

Declaration of Human Obligations"

In a democracy the powers of the governments to respond quickly to changes is restricted. Besides, in the course of history, governments have weakened themselves in every possible way.

The United States and the United Nations are noble in their "Declaration of Human Rights" Most certainly noble, but [unbalanced]. They have not framed a 'Declaration of Good, Responsible Citizenship' or what in effect could be a 'Declaration of Human Obligations' - obligations towards one another, towards their governments, a declaration that spells out the concept of being a good human being and the concept of good citizenship.

To quote Henry David Thoreau out of context, "...if you are men of the State, and gladly enjoy the advantage of Caesar's Government, then pay him back some of his own when he demands it; Render therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God those thing that are God's" In modern context what is rightfully Caesar's is not just the tax money due, because not everyone pays it and in fact some receive it, but what is needed is certain degree of civil obedience, or in more acceptable language, conformity to the [basic] norms of civil order.

The Declaration of Human Obligations could be along the lines of a law in effect in many countries that a witness to a crime is deemed a party to a crime unless he reports the crime in a court of law. (In Britain during a recent year [circa 1992] surveyed it was found that 5 million crimes are reported while an estimated 15 million other crimes were unreported). The declaration could be along the lines of thinking [Chase, Stuart, Roads to Agreement, "Your liberty to swing your arms ends where my nose begins" The Declaration of Rights grants freedom of speech, but does not specify [obligations and exceptions].

Jean Jacques Roussea's Social Contract says the same " ...The act of association contains a reciprocal engagement between the public and individuals... Each individual, as a man, has a private will... he may wish to enjoy the rights of a citizen without being disposed to fulfill the duties of a subject. Such an injustice would in progress cause the ruin of the body politic. ... Man loses by the social contract his natural ability and an unlimited right to all which tempts him, and which he can obtain; in return he acquires civil liberty, and proprietorship of all he possesses"

The Declaration could state in unambiguous terms the obligations of workers employed in the essential services sector such as Transportation, Communication, Power, Water Supply.. the disruption of which could cripple [life].

Mistaken Liberty:

John Locke's 'Original Extent and End to Civil Government' says, "a man has to part ... with as much of his natural liberty, in providing for himself, as the good, prosperity and safety of the society shall require; which is not only necessary but just., since other members of the society do the like"

The concept of liberty is misinterpreted to allow the liberty to burn the Stars and Stripes, concept of freedom misinterpreted to allow citizens such extreme freedom as the freedom to advertise perverted forms of sexual services. In a larger sense, it has become difficult for the federal or union governments to overcome resistance from State [regional or local] Governments or their agencies for strengthening the control of the Federal or Central of Federal Governments or difficult for the [federal] governments to create a climate which allows the Interstate federal government bodies the required level of hierarchical supremacy, in the United States, for instance, the Federal Bureau of Investigations over State Police. Other instances are the secessionist demands and ethnocentric subversion in several countries.

Against such excessive, misinterpreted liberty and freedom, governments are not functional enough. Pressure groups exercise more than due pressure on governments and governments are not empowered enough to overcome the unduly excessive pressures exerted by pressure groups and lobbies, unable to contain underworld and terrorism or to allocate the right resources to the right project, to raise or lower taxes or to fight bureaucratic delays on projects initiated by the President or his Aids- in a parliamentary system, by the Prime Minister and the Ministers.

Moving from a generalized system of Justice to a more just system of Justice:

Labour laws tilt in favor of the workers, criminal law in favor of the criminals (the point made here is that there are excesses, not that these liberties granted are undesirable in their entirety)- no one is guilty until otherwise proved guilty in a court of law (even in countries where it takes ages to prove a known criminal guilty). With the exception of Switzerland, where a suspect is guilty until proved innocent, the Judiciary of all governments in their anxiety to protect the innocent civilians from authoritarian harassment- a noble motive, no doubt, placed a little more rights in the hands o the offenders than what is fair. In a Dominique lapierre novel "Fifth Horseman", the FBI officers arrest a terrorist who has placed a nuclear bomb in New York City. The bomb could explode any time and the FBI officer starts the interrogation by waring the 'suspect' of his right to remain silent and right to request a lawyer. This is an exaggerated scenario but this is what the Judiciary wants the law and order agencies to do. No exceptions are prescribed to this rule. This circumstance warrant violation of the concept of human rights. Under such circumstances ... violation of all Declarations would have been honorable.

Law is universal. Law does not recognize exceptions. Law does not provide to deal with extremes. Law is inflexible. Law compels the government and bureaucracy to be unfair [at times]. It allows and encourages the bureaucracy to be unfair when the case in point can not be justified on paper, when paperwork can not be done in the prescribed format.

....
When a rule is made, it is necessary to define circumstances that warrant the violation of the rule

On making Governments more able:

"The main foundation of every State, new states as well as composite ones, are good laws and good arms ... you can not have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws will inevitably follow" If this thought of Niccolo Machiavelli is adopted to the present,, "good arms" could be taken to mean "power" in the hands of the State, the statement could be taken to mean "If the State is powerful enough, good laws will follow"

The media, Civic action groups, Special Interest groups, protest marchers and demonstrators sometimes exceed the ability of the governments to control them. These groups apart, governments can not guard their nations from stock market maneuvers, down town crimes, underworld crimes, terrorism or ill informed opposition to medical research trials..

reproduced as written in 1992, with all the prejudices.
,,

Schools of Government: a retro blog post on an Advance Resolution that I introduced at the International Model United Nations at the UN, NY, in 1991

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:16:00 +0000

This was my second Advance Resolution at the International Model United Nations held at the UN General Assembly Hall, New York during July 29 - Aug 2, with the theme "The Age of Global Citizenship" organized by the Junior Chambers International, This was under the Agenda Item: The Role of Human Development. Was relatively well received and was incorporated in a Joint Resolution by the delegations of from Japan, United Kingdom, India and Peru.

Back home I was inspired to write a letter to the Chariperson of a foundation in India

IMUN/EC/B1.d/1

29 or 30 July, 1991

ADVANCE RESOLUTION SUBMITTED BY THE DELEGATION FROM INDIA FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE AGE OF GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

AGENA ITEM B1: THE ROLE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Fully believing that the world is made or broken by the leaders,

Deeply conscious that there are very few institutions in the world that make men and women fit and proper to rule,

Affirms that those who rule the world should be qualified and able,

1. Solemnly affirms that the United Nations should found International Schools of Government, of the highest standard, improving upon the course methodologies of the best schools of Gvoernment and the best Schools of Economics and Political Science :

a) The International Schools of Government will prepare young men and women or the highest offices in their respective countries and in International Affairs;

b) The International Schools of Government will be geographically spread, at least 10 schools all over.

29 or 30 July, 1991

Adopted Clauses

Agenda Item B. 1:
The Role of Human Development

Date: August 2, 1991
Adopted without a vote

.....

Realiazing a need for developing able, effective and qualified democratic leaders,

.....

7. Recommends that the United Nations should found an International School of Government of the highest standards for the top offices of the the respective Member States;

...

..

Stateless State: a retro blog post on an Advance Resolutions that I introduced at the International Model United Nations at the UN, New York in 1991

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:09:00 +0000

At the International Model United Nations held at the UN General Assembly Hall, New York during July 29 - Aug 2, with the theme "The Age of Global Citizenship" organized by the Junior Chambers International, I introduced this Advance Resolution under "Economic Development" as one of the four delegates from India. My fellow participants were S Rajendranath Pai, then National President of Indian Junior Chamber, Surender Bantia and Ashok Shetty. Also from India, but as a Vice Chairman on the committee on the Future of Children was Sunil Kumar, then Executive Vice President of Junior Chamber International.

I chose to take part in the Economic Development sessions and introduced this draft resolution which had its own flaws and errors in expression and this was one of the reasons why it was highly misunderstood, ferociously debated, with a lot of emotion. I wasn't politically observant to note where the opposition came from, but it sounded like the entire house was against it. I proposed in writing two amendments to clarify (which follow the original advance resolution printed below), but in the end the a watered down summary was incorporated in a Joint Resolution by the delegations of Japan, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Sri Lenka, Mongolia and Malaysia, which is at the end of the post.

ADVANCE RESOLUTION SUBMITTED BY THE DELEGATION FROM INDIA FOR CONSIDERATION B THE COMMITTEE ON ECONONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE AGE OF GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

IMUN/EC/C.I/1
29 July, 1991

Recognizing that the United Nations, originally founded with 51 member states now embraces 159 nations,

Taking note that the United Nations has played the role of an arbitrator whenever there have been major international conflicts,

Noting that the United Nations presently is a body enjoying the status of an association of Nations and as a forum for international conflicts,

Noting further that the United Nations presently is not a super-national body,

Mindful of the fact that the United Nations does not have an elected Supremo and President, suitably designated and placed higher in rank than the Head of Government and Head of State of its member states,

Recalling that the United Nations Secretary General's efforts to resolve the Gulf conflict through peaceful means failed and a war was declared,

Noting with disapproval tht the United Nations does not have a geographical territory, not even the size of the smallest state in the world, namely, the Vatican City,

Also noting that there is no permanent international land territory, directly under the control of the United Nations, ith its on political boundary and economy,

Having examined that the United Nations receives contributions from its Member States, and does not generate a significant level of income by itself,

Taking note that the United Nations does not have vast natural resources at its disposal and that it does not produce, does not trade and does not earn profits,

Noting further that the United Nations is entirely dependent on contributions from its member states,

Having heard tht there is a provision in the constitution of the United Nations to maintain an army,

Fully aware that the United Nations does not have any army and depends entirely on its Member States whenever there is a need to deploy an international army,

Having heard that the United nations is sometimes regarded as an outside agency by some of the Member States,

Deeply regretting that some of these Members States do not fully realize that they are part of the United Nations,

Welcoming that during the last decade several nations have taken firm steps to embrace their neighboring nations in some form, which would utlimately lead to the Unification of the World,

Approving with satisfaction that Western Europe is being united,

Expressing its appreciation over the unification of the East and est Germany to form a United Germany,

Having heard that the United States is in the process of evolving a plan to economically unify to a considerable degree, the United States of America, Canada and Mexico,

Observing that the political and ideological differences between the East and West are disappearing,

Keeping in mind that communication no is globalized to a remarkable extent,

Viewing with appreciation that international trade is growing,

Bearing in mind that international travel is becoming easier and is increasing,

Convinced that one international language is emerging and is spoken by more people than in any preceding decade,

Fully believing that more such steps must be taken to further internationalize the world,

Emphasizing that all barriers must be removed totally an completely ithin the next few centruries,

1. Trusts that it is no longer necessary for Member States to distance themselves from one another;

2. Emphasizes that it is prejudicial to internationalism for Member States to be nationalistic and patriotic;

3. Urges the member States to regard United Nations more as a broader state of hich the Member States are integral parts;

4 Calls Upon the Member States to look beyond their national interests;

5. Further resolves to found a geographical territory for the United Nations:

(a) The geographical territory would be called "Stateless State' or 'Central State' or 'Global State' or 'Super-national State'

(b) The geographical territory, called hereinafter in this text as 'Stateless State' ould have a boundary which would eventually enlarge to ultimately cease, initially bordering an area of not less than 100,000 hectares granted on a 499 year lease the United States by broad-minded Member States;

(c) The Stateless State would be a central state and the property of all the nations, governed by the United Nations through a Government headed by a Supremo elected for a predetermined period by all the Member States;

(d) The Stateless State is not an authority over all the member states;

(e) The geographical territory forming the Stateless State may expand gradually over the next few centuries to become larger and larger and to ultimately be the whole world;

(f) The Stateless State would grant International or Stateless citizenship to men and women who immigrate to the land;

(g) The citizens of the Stateless State would be deemed to have renounced the citizenship of the countries they belong to, but may have permitted to retain their properties and other interests in their countries;

(h) The citizenship laws of the Stateless State would be framed so as to be beyond religious, lingual, regional, communal or ideological considerations;

(i) The Stateless State would found the Central Bank of the World to issue the World Currency;

(j) The World Currency would be a freely-convertible currency, which would eventually become the international monetary standard;

(k) The Stateless State would be a Free Trade Zone;

(l) The Stateless State would have a form of Government improving on the best forms of Governments in the world;

(m) The admitted population of the Stateless State comprising the men and omen granted citizenship to the Stateless State, would be expanded in proportion to the geographical expansion and economic growth of the Stateless State;

(n) The Stateless State would build and maintain a police force and a military, as it is necessary to maintain some repository of force in the background;

(o) The police force and military would be employed only hen it is absolutely necessary with utmost restraint;

(p) The Stateless State over the next few centuries would politically and economically embrace the Member States ultimately to render all Member States stateless, hence global.

Amendments proposed:
31 July 1991 12.00 Noon

Clause to be deleted

Recalling that the United Nations Secretary General's efforts to resolve the Gulf conflict through peaceful means failed and a war was declared,

Having heard tht there is a provision in the constitution of the United Nations to maintain an army,

Fully aware that the United Nations does not have any army and depends entirely on its Member States whenever there is a need to deploy an international army,

Having heard that the United nations is sometimes regarded as an outside agency by some of the Member States,

Deeply regretting that some of these Members States do not fully realize that they are part of the United Nations,

Clause to be amended

Preambulatory Clause 8 Noting with disapproval tht the United Nations does not have a geographical territory, not even the size of the smallest state in the world, (to delete "namely, the Vatican City")

Operative Clause 5 (a) to be replaced with " The geographical territory would be called the 'Stateless State'

Operative Clause 5 (C) The Stateless State would be a central state and the property of all the nations, governed by the United Nations through a Government headed by a President elected for a predetermined period by all the Member States;

Clauses to be added

5 (c 1). The government of the Stateless State would be a highly evolved democratic form of government;

5 (c 2). The powers of the Executive, Judiciary and the Parliament of the Stateless State would be separated and balanced;

5 (c 3). The Stateless State would not be another member state of the United Nations, as it is non-national;

5 (c 4). The Stateless State would initially enjoy a special international observer status at the United Nations

5 (c 5) The constitution of the Stateless State would be so framed as to contain the Stateless State from becoming an individual Super Power and [instead] promote its growth only as an international power;

5 (c 6) The powers of the Stateless State would be suitably balanced by the United Nations

5 (c 7) The United Nations would so constitute the Stateless State to guarantee that the formation of the Stateless State would not result in any abuse of its Special Status;

6. Affirms that the concept of this international state would become more and more relevant and desirable over the next few centuries

Adopted Clauses

IMUN / GA / EC /C -2

Agenda item C:
Age of Global Citizenship
Date: August , 1991
Adopted without a vote

The IMUN General Assembly,

....

Keeping in mind that the advancement of new technologies in communications and transportation has heightened the awareness of being citizens of the world,

Aiming for the gradual development of a global community within the next few centuries,

.....

2. Calls upon the Member States to look beyond their national interests;

3. Further calls upon the Member States to strengthen the United Nations:

....

.

Rajiv Gandhi School of Government: a retro blog post on a letter that I wrote to Mrs Sonia Gandhi in 1991

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:45:00 +0000

I dusted up my old papers and found this letter that I wrote in 1991. The ideas expressed remain, and I after all these years I find it even more relevant for India to take this up. (Mrs Gandhi did respond with a letter that said that the focus of the Foundation at that point of time was on Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies and had enclosed some information about the Institute. I did not follow up on that to press further)

Sivasubramanian M

1291 A, P.K.M.Road
Theni 626531, T.Nadu
Phone: 045546-2237
(address and phone as on 1991)

(Sent on 14 October, 1991)

[Mrs Sonia Gandhi]
The Chairperson
Rajiv Gandhi Foundation
New Delhi, India

Dear Madam

I am a 27 year old businessman thinking more and more about India and its problems.

I am writing to outline a specific proposal to solve one of the most fundamental problems India has been living with

This may please be treated as a proposal submitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

I propose that a school be built to raise a new generation of politicians, committed and capable.

The Late Mr. Rajiv Gandhi dreamed of a new India which is taking a lot of time to build, for want of qualified and capable men and omen devoted to such a mission.

India does have men and women who would gladly commit themselves to build a new India Some wouldn't enter public life waiting for reforms in the Indian politics, reforms that can only happen after their entry into public life. Yet others need to be discovered and brought into politics.

What needs to be done is to build a school that would discover such men and women and raise them as capable and committed politicians.

Please allow me to call this school as "Rajiv Gandhi School of Government"

It should be a school that would surpass in its standards renowned schools such as the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Woodroow Wilson School of Government in Princeton and the London School of Economics.

We do have the Delhi School of Economics and the Administrative Staff College of India, but those institutions have contributed more to the industry and bureaucracy than to representative government. Same could be said of the Kennedy School or Wilson School as not all their graduates go to Parliament.

Rajiv Gandhi School of Government may be conceived as a school that would contribute mostly to the representative government by having as its primary object, enabling worthy mean and women thoroughly prepare for careers in politics.

The school should find intelligent men and women who show signs of sincerity and commitment to public life and build them up as politicians of competence and high ethical standards.

The school should not be a stereotype school teaching political theory and quantitative techniques., but should emphasize more on implementing a deep sense of commitment and ethics in the minds of the students. The school should also tech them skills that even Harvard takes for granted that the students already possess: the fundamental and most essential skills that one starts learning from childhood butt never seems to master - reading, writing and speaking skills, not to mention goo behavior and etiquette.

If I may dream a little, I would visualize Rajiv Gandhi School of Government located at a place of climate congenial for education. The school would be copiously funded and uncompromisingly managed. It would have plenty of resources and have in its premises the most eminent academicians and politicians.

The school should be of unsurpassed standards, standards that are never for once compromised for any reason. It should have a small class with faculty drawn from the best schools in India and abroad. The school may frequently or regularly invite Past Presidents and Past Prime Ministers of various countries to spend a day or two with the students.

The primary purpose of the school should be to build better men and women to build a better nation of India. In addition the school can do research on topics such as alternative forms of government, electoral reforms an bureaucratic reforms. It could also explore was of solving specific problems the country is facing in international relations.

The school could also offer intense training for newly elected Members of Parliament. Though the Government of India may not be able to make it mandatory for a person seeking elections to the parliament to be qualified, the government could be persuaded to make it obligatory for newly elected Members of Parliament to undergo the necessary orientation program that the school could offer.

It may take a few more years for our nation to prescribe minimum qualifications or those who are seeking elections to parliament, but if we have enough men, fit and proper, bright and qualified, the political parties would rather opt for them in the elections to come. It would eventually become a convention, though not mandatory that qualified men and women go to parliament.

I appeal to you, madam, as Chairperson of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, to consider founding this school.

Should you require me to elaborate on this proposal, I would so so eagerly.

Very Sincerely,
Sivasubramanian M.
Madras

14 October 1991.

..

ITU: the Communications Wonderland

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:37:00 +0000

(as published in CircleID)

I kept wondering if all that I had said about Dr Toure was fair—I hadn't met him before and had written so much to comment on the transcript of his speech at ICANN, Cairo . My discomfort was short-lived and even before a month elapsed I met him at the Internet Governance Forum, Hyderabad. Exchanged pleasantries before saying "I wrote some strong comments about your speech at Cairo". Dr Toure looked happy to see me, beamed with a bit of surprise and said he read my comment, he tried to find me and I was charmed by his unassuming manners and the spontaneity and the responsiveness with which he offered to clarify a few points about his speech and the ITU. I was even more happy to meet him and it was instantly agreed that we would meet the following day at 11 30 hours. In between Dr. Toure visited a Diplo Foundation meeting, he conversed a little and was warm and friendly, it was pleasant to talk to him and he again confirmed the meeting.

Contrary to my expectations of a Diplomat who is very calculative and careful about what he says or does, I found an approachable gentleman, who is spontaneous and speaks without hesitation and with a simplicity that charmed me.

The tête-à-tête on the next day near the ITU booth in the IGF Village was informal and lasted 45 minutes. ITU has a rare Secretary General who has chosen not to be detached at a level that is inaccessible. Dr Toure would not wait for the General Body of members to identify issues, debate and escalate them to his office, but would rather break conventions to set a new style, take the initiative and pro-actively tackle issues. That is very positive. One has to congratulate the ITU on its good fortune of having Dr Hamadoun Toure as its Secretary General.

I had earlier said "Dr.Toure is a diplomat. Every word in his speech has a specific weight". I wondered if it was right to assume an overall design behind everything that he had said at Cairo. It is with the positive doubt that some of his earlier remarks at ICANN were harmless that I listened to the Secretary General attentively and with openness.

Dr Toure, with all his charm, keeps his focus on the ITU agenda. He did not deviate from what he said at the ICANN and maintained that there is no reason for ITU and ICANN to fight each other. He is only bringing up points for discussion, the issues need to be discussed. Did we say we wanted to take over Internet Governance anywhere? The ITU mandate was renewed sometime last year for the next four years. His plate is full. ITU depends on voluntary subscriptions, and where will he find funds if he takes up some thing new? Why is ITU misunderstood?

He talked inspiringly of the 143 year old organization, and in particular of the unanimity at the ITU between member governments. I intervened to ask if the unanimity between ITU member governments is possibly due to the inability of most member states to disagree: no member state can afford to dissent because if it does, its communications with the rest of humanity would be cut off? (What I implied was that Syria votes along with US because Syria can't afford to find its phones off-line.) He said, no, it is both ways, when Iran or Syria proposes something US agreed with it. Just as Syria or Iran agrees with the US. I said that is good, that is positive.

ITU is committed to multi stakeholderism. Any organization has a membership form and somebody has to approve it. ITU also has a membership form for Civil Society participation. To avoid bogus Civil Society members it insists on a certification from the local government for approval. When I agreed that due diligence is important, and gently suggested that there could be alternate ways of verifying the authenticity of Civil Society member-applicants rather than seek a government approval, he didn't get into the point, probably because it was time to go.

There were other points brought up, there were some comments about the early history of the Internet, about the Secretary General's meeting with the ICANN CEO Paul Twomey, about the good work that ITU did in Africa.

I was charmed, I liked Dr Hamadoun Toure. He didn't quite look like Sir August de Wynter, but whenever I think of the ITU I am reminded of The Avengers

The script, largely printed here verbatim, but rearranged with some insertions introduces Sir August de Wynter as a millionaire who owns half of the Highlands. Former head of Special Projects at the Ministry. A recluse with a wife called June. And a daughter somewhere—Julie. June, July ... August: The family does seem to be somewhat meteorologically inclined. Sir August de Wynter was associated with a next generation climate engineering project called The Prospero Project. The plan was to manipulate weather by injecting a chemical cocktail into the atmosphere by laser and satellite. Sir August de Wynter also happens to be the Chairman of BROLLY (British Royal Organization for Lasting Liquid Years), which is profoundly concerned about atmospheric Security, that the weather has been tampered with by aliens.

It all takes shape as the Wonderland Corporation whose line is "Be natural. Act natural. Think natural. The natural beauty of Wonderland Weather." Natural weather delivered to your door on demand. Down your phone line. As real as you wish. Hot or cold. Humid or dry. Anything with reason. People expect weather to be free. They're used to it. They buy water, electricity, gas. Why shouldn't they be able to buy their own weather if they want to?

Wonderland has the technology, equipment and power to make or destroy local weather systems. Wonderland could zap a thousand Chernobyls into the air. If you can control the weather, you control the world

The World Council ministers assemble: slick pin-striped suits or African robes, Chinese Mao-suits, Indian Nehru-jackets, all distinguished men and women, surrounded by fussing officials, minor dignitaries, and butlers, bowing and weaving a web of diplomatic protocol. Sir August de Wynter causes a sudden extreme climate change to coincide by setting off sudden storms and snow blizzards. Outbursts of rain, scattered hailstorms and freezing fog ... Chaos. Transport paralysis. Crop failure. Economic disaster. Frostbite or sunburn ... on a massive scale.

The council is perplexed at the extremely destructive climate change and realizes that there is no magic umbrella to shield the world. Sir August de Wynter arrives to say "Now is the winter of your discontent! You will buy your weather from me! And by God you'll pay for it.”

...

Overture to Take Over Internet Governance: ITU at ICANN Meeting, Cairo

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:37:00 +0000

( reposted as published at CircleID )

ITU is 143 years old and it has done a lot of good work. But it is so huge and powerful that it has been monopolizing (or mono-unionizing) Telecommunications for the last 143 years. ITU's hold over communications has been sweeping. But during the last ten years, ITU's member Telcos have seen several challenges from the open Internet architecture. Alternate telecommunication technologies such as email and Internet telephony have been formidable challenges to the ITU.

Despite Internet's dependence on phone lines, ITU hasn't been able to rule the Internet the way it has ruled traditional telecommunications. ITU hasn't been able to block the progress of Voice and Video Chat or Internet Telephony and the business models of those who provided these services online threatens the traditional business models of ITU's Telecom members.

Its program: a very attractively dubbed "Next Generation Networks" design that will pave way for a tiered, non-neutral internet, away from Internet's end to end principle, meant to optimize the Internet for exploitation by the Telcos and susceptible for interference by Governments. The Gameplan: Take over Internet Governance.

ITU and the Internet organizations did not quite get along for this and several other reasons Especially the ITU has had its share of differences with the ICANN. Dr. Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the ITU addressed the ICANN Annual Meeting at Cairo on 6 November 2008. Here are some excerpts from the Secretary General's speech with my comments. I have already posted it on the Internet Governance Caucus mailing list, In these comments, I have not included positive remarks that are due: It is positive as a gesture on the part of the ITU Secretary General to have extended an arm to work with ICANN and to pronounce a desire to be committed to the mutli-stakeholder approach. What I have done instead was to read between the lines of the Secretary General's speech transcript, just to raise some points for discussion.

I was not there at Cairo to "feel" the Secretary General's Speech, these comments are based on impressions from the transcript. And these comments are my own and do not represent the views of any organization.

Hammadoun Toure: since 1865, since the creation of the telegraph. And we are very proud of the way the organization has been able to adapt itself over the years and decades and centuries, from telegraph to telephone to teletypewriters, to radio and television. We are talking about digital broadcasting now. And very soon, 3D television. We are talking about the emergence of new technologies

My comment: # ITU adopts itself to own all inter-human communication in any form.

Toure: I was telling to many people from developing countries who were fighting for Internet governance: "Before you get the governance, get the Internet first."

# Yes that allows various interests to give shape to the internet in a manner that is most advantageous for commerce and government. After that any process of debate on Governance wouldn't be able to reverse the practices established.

Toure: ICANN is just ten years old but it's done a great job.

# Yes, ITU is older. We notice that the ITU has governed Communications around the world for over 143 years.

Toure: we had a very successful WSIS. For the first time, a UN body was organizing a summit, where you didn't have demonstrations outside.

# Business and Government kept the Civil Society locked out in several international conventions that were either in the Governments' Diplomatic Territory or Business' Commercial Territory. The Internet is Civil Sphere and the Governments were the latecomers. What ought to have been said here is that the Civil Society included Government and Business and not vice versa.

Toure: Every time a Web browser establishes a secure connection to a server, ITU's work on PKIs, public key infrastructures, and encryption keys, is used. Our pioneering work on electronic authentication enabled jurisdictions around the world to recognize e-mail as legal documents and to give legal studies to electronic signatures.

# I can't help notice that most of the work that the ITU has done relates to "authentication", "security" etc. to enable "jurisdiction". Isn't the ITU working on making the Internet what it is not?

We [ITU and ICANN] just have to learn to know each other better so that we can like each other and work together. And the main reason why I'm here is that is my motto: "

# This sounds dangerous. The DOC-supervised ICANN and the inter-governmental ITU aligned together !

Toure: IGF is just going around and around, avoiding the topics, and becomes sometimes a waste of time.

(In the words of someone, "Dr.Toure is a diplomat. Every word in his speech has a specific weight. Some of it is designed to trigger a reaction, some of it is designed to undermine, some of it is a smoke-screen, and some of it is designed to instill more confidence between the two organizations. Some of it is a specific warning, and some of it is an open hand to make peace." Why would he say something as bizarre as "IGF is just going around and around, avoiding the topics, and becomes sometimes a waste of time"?)

# For the Internet Community, the IGF process is in a sense a huge distraction away from the policy changes and new Internet legislations that get enacted in bits and pieces (leading to an untold comprehensive whole) in different parts of the world — e.g. the move by UK to direct ISPs to retain traffic records for two years. IGF perhaps requires a complete re-redesign.

Toure: Next year, ITU will organize the World Policy Forum, which addresses a number of Internet-related public-policy issues, ranging from cyber security and data protection to multilingualism and the ongoing development of Internet.

# World Policy Forum? For the ITU to psychologically claim its stake as the ICT super-authority?

Toure: I hope you will not tell me here, "Don't talk about Internet." .... we need to talk about it. And you shouldn't see us as an enemy. I always said that I have enough on my plate in ITU and there is no need to add more.

# I don't get the feeling that ITU is content with its sphere of influence.

Toure: If you want an Internet connection for a business or a house, they will ask you first if you have a telephone line.

# Why do I need an ITU regulated and monitored phone line to qualify for Internet Access? Why isn't the Community doing enough to bring in alternate technologies?

I am reminded of the mythical "Breakages Limited of George Bernard Shaw's Apple Cart. Breakages Limited is a draconian monopoly that would suppress any new technology that would threaten its revenues. For instance it would suppress inventions such as unbreakable glass. If that is myth from English Literature, the War of Currents has been closer to home and is better understood: Edison did everything to malign and suppress alternate (pun intended) technologies in order not to lose revenues from his Direct Current architecture...

Toure: During the debates of the WSIS, when people were talking about Internet governance, I was telling them, "Get Internet first before you talk about getting the governance of it." I was giving simple example, comparing Internet and telecommunications to trucks or cars and highways. It's not because you own the highways that you're going to own all the trucks or cars running on them, and certainly not the goods that they are transporting, or vice versa. It's a simple analogy.

# Great. The road analogy isn't all that perfect as an analogy for the Internet. I will let it go to say that those who own the roads get to decide who rides and who doesn't and gets to decide what to charge as toll fee.

Toure: … the relationship between the Internet and the telecommunication world… And they are condemned to work together. It's a condemned marriage. So better enjoy it. If you know that you're not going to get divorced in any case because you're condemned to live together, you better find a way to enjoy each other, and have kids in the process.

# The Internet CAN technically divorce the telecoms or even scale up to include telecoms services as part of the internet. It is a condemned marriage alright, but if one partner is too difficult and drives the other to the wall, a divorce isn't technically infeasible.

Toure: It has been alleged in some corners of the ITU that ITU wishes to govern the Internet. And I have specifically said that I categorically deny that.

# When someone in government or someone connected to government "denies" something, it is always true.

Toure: And I say today again to you, it is not the case. My intention as Secretary-General of ITU is not to govern the Internet. But we need to work together, because there are developing countries that are in need of access. At the end of this year, we'll have four billion mobile telephones in the world. While we try to bridge the gap in telephony, we have to ensure that no new gap is created in Internet and no new gap is created in broadband for us to help other sectors to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore, there is a need for these two societies to work together. Almost half of the people in this room are very active participants in the ITU. And, therefore, I think there is room for us to know each other and to understand.

ITU's role as a multilateral forum for debate is to serve as a source of impartial expert information and guidance, just as we have done for nearly 145 years. We strive to help all parties work together to clarify the issues and build consensus on the most effective ways of promoting the evolution and uptake of this powerful resource. And we have that capability. We are proud of that culture. It's the only organization where you will have countries that are at war on other fronts, are supporting each other with common resolutions, without the people supporting those resolutions being fired. I'm proud to say that we are the only organization where you have Iran supporting "his friends", I quote, of the United States, or vice versa and the people who have supported that are still alive. It happens on a daily basis. We never had any Palestinian-Israeli crisis inside the ITU. They share spectrums. So we are in a position to work with everyone, because we have a technical approach to issues.

# Impressive. But aren't you bidding to take over the internet by saying all this?

Toure: ITU is also actively encouraging the industry-wide move to IPv6. Again, looking on the Web all of last week, I've seen numerous attacks on the ITU for having pronounced the world IPv6.This is a concern for all of us. Every mobile phone will have an IP address, every fridge, every car, it's an inevitable thing.

# What concerns me is the possibility that everything that I ever say on the Internet could be linked to my IPv6 address. My computer will have an IPv6 address. My refrigerator and my MP4 player will have traceable IPv6 addresses. Where is my privacy? (Unless I have the good fortune of being connected to technical experts who would point me to RFC 4941 "Privacy Extensions or Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in IPv6 " and other resources and manage to enhance my computer for privacy). Perhaps I will be able to borrow my refrigerator's IPv6 address to send an email to my top secret girl friend and in case my wife gets hold of that message I could blame it on the refrigerator?

Toure: In 2005, WSIS mandated ITU to take a lead role in building confidence and security in the use of ICTs. I put in place a high-level expert group last year to study the issue and report to the council, with the final report this year. We are gaining a momentum as we move steadily towards agreements on an international set of principles and best-practice approaches that countries around the world can follow to promote cybersecurity.

# Security concerns are center stage on the ITU agenda, pushing the need to build (user) Confidence out of view. What has ITU done on the privacy front, to protest against legislations such as directives by UK to ISPs to retain email logs for two years or directives by governments to facilitate recording of mobile phone conversations?

Toure: Estonian network was down for two days… And during the uprising between Georgia and Russia, we have noticed a large number of botnets or cyber attacks between the two countries. That is scary.

# Thank you for drawing attention to the fact that it is sometimes Governments that cause or engineer some of the major cyber incidents?

Toure: Our children, who spend most of their time in cyberspace, are not taught the basic behaviours in the cyberspace. When they go out in the street, we tell them, "Be careful. Don't talk to strangers, don't accept candy from someone you don't know. It could be a drug that could kill you." But they're out there in cyberspace without telling them what to do or how to behave.

# Yes, in such a way that they don't become paranoid in the process.

Toure: The potential of the Internet to accelerate social and economic development in the world's poorest regions is perhaps its greatest asset. I hope you will support ITU in our ongoing effort to see that everyone everywhere has a chance to benefit from that potential for the betterment of our planet, and for humankind, for all humankind.

# Sounds rhetorical.

Toure: We will never counter terrorism if we don't have a harmonized way of tracing back the IP address. ...

# How would I trust the Law and Order agencies to restrict use of these technologies only against terrorists and criminals and not against the unsuspecting citizens?

Question from Zahid Jamil, DNS Resolution Center Pakistan:

Q: I am a lawyer from Pakistan. Your Excellency, I heard you talk about the important role that ITU can play in everything from IPv6, the coordination of the IP-based networks, cybersecurity, privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, cyberterrorism, multilingualism, IDNs, a whole bunch of things. My only question is, to what extent do you think ITU would have any restrictions, because it seems it would probably become the regulator in convergence of everything. So is there a limitation you can see as far as the ITU's scope?

# Touche'

Question from WOLFGANG KLEINWÄCHTER, University of Aarhus:

Q: what is the future of civil society in the ITU? ITU has nearly 200 member states and more than 700 private sector members. When civil society becomes an equal partner in this setting?

# Is it really possible to believe that the Civil Society would be represented at the ITU so broadly as to balance the 191 member states and 700 private sector companies? ITU is ITU. It could come to the IGF to represent business and government. If Civil Society focuses its effort on getting better represented at the ITU, some day the IGF could become a part of the ITU.

Dr. Toure: Government is in an advisory role. Advisory role! You advise me and I am free to take your advice?

# Advice from Government always comes with the subtle posture of "it is just an advice or a suggestion—but remember where it comes from."

Dr. Toure: During the WSIS process, we had a problem that some member states have genuinely raised. We have countries like China. During a PrepCom in Japan we spent three days out of four not working because there were some so-called civil society, NGO that were government officials from Taiwan. The Chinese delegation came with their photos and information on them from the Web that they are government officials, and they registered as NGOs. It's a problem.

# Thank you for bringing that up. This is really an issue about how the Civil Society is constituted at least in parts. We need to clean up a little bit.

Dr.Toure : Now, let's be clear. Government cannot get into individual people's privacy.

# Please, don't.

Dr.Toure: I'm telling you my intention is not, from ITU, to try and take over Internet.

# When someone in government or someone from an inter-governmental organization talks of an absence of an intention, there is always an intention.

Dr. Milton Mueller of the Internet Governance Project has published a blog post that gives a clear analytical summary on Dr Toure's speech here.

....

On Alexandria

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:49:00 +0000

The Project Proposal

(sent as an entry for the Digitial Media Learning Competition of the McArthur Foundation)

The space between Chennai and Arizona / Illinois is zero. In Illinois a 21st Centrury Classroom is being designed. Elesewhere in America and Europe Advanced Digitial Learning environments, modules and methods and lessons exist. These are technologies and trends that are equally applicable with transformatory effect in a rual Indian Classroom.

Alexandria would bring in these technologies to enable an initial group of 1000 studnets to learn participatorily and share experience with the rest of the world. The project would collarborate with other groups by taking and providing intputs to create a model to bridge the gaps in quality of education in schools around the world.

Alexandria / Nalanda will have as infrastructure, a connected learning atmosphere, visualized as built 'around' a 21st Century Participatory Learning Library as Physical Space at Chennai. This 'library' would admit 1000 underprivileged students studying at insufficiently funded schools after a careful admission process to assess their commitment to learn. These students would be a heterogeneous group from different schools, different grades, of age group 15-21 and would include some well connected students from Premier Educational Institutions who are committed to the purpose of participative learning Carefully selected Teachers are to guide the participants in using the wealth of online multimedia tools and content, continuously bibliograph suitable resources, organize and facilitate expert interactions The facility will operate in a cost effective building with a scientific design, with digital facilities, connected classrooms, a Digital Internet Auditorium and a library of books.

The design of the facilities would be by learning and collaborating with MacArthur's ongoing projects such as Arizona State University's 21st Century Classroom and its Colloborative Learning Project , take inputs from the Consortium for School Networking, and from the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design's Schools in the Digital Age project, with inputs from other MacArthur projects and external projects. These are initial leads found at the proposal stage and the project would devle deeper for resources such as listed at http://learning.asu.edu/application.html

The idea is to Create a Digital Bridge to cover the 'fundamental divide' in quality of education between underprivileged students of low budget schools and the fortunate students of renowned educational institutions.

The project would work to percolate the technical advances down to a rural India setting. The dual objectives are 1) raise the 1000 beneficiaries to the level of students of an affluent school. 2) create a Digital Design for the Government to emulate.

The goals of the project in the first twelve months is to physically establish the learning center, admit 1000 participants, place people in required teaching/ assisting positions, draw up a list of International Resource persons for Internet Classes, begin work on bibliographing available online courses and websites that are suitable for participative learning for the given target participants, ensure that each of them are scheduled for 100 course sessions, review, report and share. During the first year, elaborate work would be carried out to expose the project to inspire others to follow this model, as also to explore further funding and support to continue / scale up this project, possibly with Government participantion in the form of land allocation and other support.

Participatory Learning

The project plans to significantly bring up the knowledge levels of about 1000 students who would otherwise complete their school education as inadequate school graduates, passed out, but way below in knowledge levels / comprehension / self-confidence from the levels of a school of International School standards.

The group would be a heterogeneous group of students from different schools, different school grades, a mix of 90 : 10 underprivileged average students to privileged bright students committed to the idea of sharing their knowledge. Alexandria would offer them a world class school atmosphere with built in exposure to proper methods of learning, Internet, Online Content and participative tools as also to high quality instruction / guidance.

The project would achieve results by offering an uncompromising participative learning atmosphere complete with computers with broadband connectivity, adequate guidance to expose them to well organized online multimedia lessons, specially organized Web sessions handled by teachers from around the world, local participative learning sessions to interact and understand the context of the school syllabus ( Students are taught programming languages or theories in physics without first making them understand the context on which this knowledge is to be used. This is one of the reasons why there is a wide spread tendency to memorize the lessons without understanding and take exams

India has Institutions as renowned as that of the best of European and American Institutions. But in a developing country with a population of 1.13 billion, not all institutions are so fortunate, so the majority of students, especially in a rural setting do not get good education.

The larger portion of the student population do not continue education beyond school level. Statistics indicate that only seven per cent of the country’s youth, in the age group of 14 to 25, had access to higher education. This is true of almost all states in India.

In the State of Tamilnadu, in the southern region which has a total population of 62, 405, 679 . There are 13, 702 urban schools and 34,658 rural schools. The proposed Participatory Learning project is to be implemented in a limited geographical region in this State.

Time Line

15 Nov - 15-Dec 31 Open discussions to further fine tune the project plan, identify supplementary supportive sponsors, explore the possibilities of Government Contribution in the form of allocation of land, explore the possibilities of leveraging this project to make it even more resourceful. Draw up a detailed plan for implementation, invite resource persons to join the think tank to arrive at solutions and call for volunteers to join the project implementation.

1 Jan – 31 March: Construct a building, set up the network and other infrastructure, consult teachers, identify and engage full time faculty and part time faculty, guest speakers, guest international teachers for online classes, identify beneficiary institutions, invite applications and select students with the primary criteria of commitment to participatory learning.

1 April – 31 Dec: First batch of 1000 beneficiaries provided facilities and classes; Schedules are drawn up to spread their sessions to maximize the use of facilities. Gradually connect them to relevant participatory learning groups worldwide and orient them towards interaction with the other groups. the Constantly explore ways of continuing the project on to the next two years, scale up the project, expose the project to inspire other organizations / corporations / Government.

...

ISOC Today

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:18:00 +0000

Interested in joining the Internet Society ?

Write to me. You could also learn about the India Chenani Chapter from here

isoc chapters - Upload a Document to Scribd

The Fundamental Divide

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:44:00 +0000

Not One Less is a brilliant feature film by the Chinese Director Zhang Yimou set in a remote school in rurual china.

The 13 Year old substitute “Teacher” (Wei) of Shuiquan Primary School, where the most precious property is a box of chalk. Wei can’t remember any more than two lines of the only song that she knows and has to get the class to assist her in doing simple math for a bus fare.

Her instructions are clear. Keep the children in the class until a little before sun set, write down one lesson each day on the blackboard and make the children copy. And make sure that no one drops out. And make sure that the box of 30 chalks lasts for the entire month.

Despite Wei’s attempts to resist, one girl is taken away to a Sports School in the city. Days later another boy is missing, she learns that he has gone to the city to work.

Wei decides to go to the city to bring the boy back. The first estimates of the bus fare for the round trip was 9 Yuan which is not there...

A brilliant movie that triggered ideas that there is a fundamental divide that requires greater debate than the debate on digital divide.

..

Has the World Wild Life Fund noticed that Chicken is a species well past "endangered" status ?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:11:00 +0000

Genetic pollution and threat of extinction

Wild Jungle fowl, specifically “Red Junglefowl” in India and South Asia are the ancestor of all Poultry Chickens. These are thought to be facing a serious threat of extinction because of genetic pollution which is occurring at the edge of forests where domesticated free ranging chickens are commonly kept in bordering villages and towns, says AvianWeb ...

more of this at Instablogs

....

Health of the World we live in

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:50:00 +0000

Is Chicken and Egg making our children infertile and impotent?

chicken are engineered to be “meat birds” as distinct from “laying birds” Broiler eggs are engineered to be fully / partially infertile. Isn’t there an imminent possibility of the infertility of the meat and eggs affecting the person whose food habits include chicken and eggs?

Is there any research done on this topic?

Or on the effect of fruits, vegetables and pulses produced out of infertile farm seeds?

(In nature a seed sprouts into a plant which produces seeds. Commercial Farming uses seeds from seed companies who produce engineered seeds that sprout into plants that DO NOT produce seeds)

Is there any research done on the effect of eating fruits and vegetables grown from such infertile seeds?

Some resources about Broiler chickens, though there is not much of information about daughter-chickens* whose reproductivity is controlled by genetic engineering. (* - The term daughter-chickens is coined to denote chickens hatched out of eggs laid by the “parent stock chickens) There is not much information about eggs laid by the “laying-birds”. These eggs are usually engineered not to hatch?

http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/garden/156/broilers.html

There is an interesting movie starring Jude Law directed by David Cronnerberg eXistenZ which has a surrealistic theme of a Virtual Game within a Virtual Game. There is a scene in the movie that takes place in a restuaurant where Jude Law is served meat from “excotic new species” - animals or birds? without a head or with multiple heads. Today’s poultry engineers the birds to have stronger legs, fleshy bodies, smaller intestines, controlled reproduction etc., with the idea of making optimizing prime-meat in chicken. Are we far away from engineering chickens without a head and tail because nobody eats them?

Another dimension of this issue is the conditions in a poultry It is typical of at least 70% of all poultry produced to have cruel conditions. Please see the following images:

http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken-egg-01.jpg
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken-egg-02.jpg
http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/garden/156/broilers.html

There are a few large poultry farms in countries with stringent regulations where the cage size is more scientific and the space per bird would be larger. These are not what could be taken as representative of the Industry’s practices. A PR executive from a poultry industry might show case the showpiece cages with ergonomic water feed etc... but that wouldn’t be typical.

This is the Question as posed in Linked In

The following has been the Discussion on this Question so far.

The links on the name of the respondents would not work if you have not signed up and logged into Linked In

Eli Roberson Human Genetics Graduate Student at Kennedy Krieger Institute

My initial response would be that I have no reason to believe that the infertility of an animal, fruit, or vegetable would effect the fertility of a person eating it. The only exception to this I would think would be if the items are infertile due to fertility destroying chemical treatment that would affect humans (which the FDA wouldn’t allow if there was any evidence in support of it) or if the food items contained hormones close enough to the human hormone structure that was stable enough to survive stomach acid and intestinal denaturation, cross into the blood stream, and remain stable. Either way, if there was evidence to support this hypothesis then these items wouldn’t be allowed to come to market.

I replied:

Sorry for having taken so long to reply to your response. I have been traveling.

It is perhaps not scientifically established that the infertility of an animal or fruit would affect the fertility. But if you analyse it logically, perhaps in reverse, you would begin to question how an aphrodisiac work. Certain food substances are believed to have aphrodisiac properties, even certain forms of meat, lamb for instance, or parts of lamb, are believed to contribute to enhance the virility of a person. How does it happen ? It happens because the food that one consumes takes effect on a person’s biology. So how could the reverse be untrue ?

He countered by saying:

The logic of your clarification seems circular, like saying all butterflies are moths so all moths are butterflies (not true). Either way, the example of aphrodisiacs of ANY kind is related to sexual desire, not fertility. An increase in sexual desire isn’t an increase in fertility. Even if a person was purposefully, directly exposed to a drug or biological molecule that decreased sexual desire that isn’t the same as decreasing fertility.

I replied:

Hello Roberson

Thank you for your response to my clarification. The difference in our points of view is this: My position: ” I don’t know” Your position “I know, I am certain”

Is it Rene Descartes who said ” Is there anything of which we can be absolutely certain ?”

There is always something that WE DO NOT KNOW. I would copy the response that i sent to Alan just now:

All that is unknown is not to be dismissed as pseudoscience. It is pertinent to recall what Albert Einstein has said:

“We should be on our guard not to overestimate science and scientific methods when it is a question of human problems; and we should not assume that experts are the only ones who have a right to express themselves on questions affecting the organization of society.”

Albert Einstein May 1949
Time Magazine’s “Person of the Century”

Thank you for your response.

Richard Krajewski a writer from Greater New York City area said:

Who says you have to eat that stuff? Just eat organic food and stop worrying. A few flower pots on a porch, and you’ll have all the natural peas, tomatoes, and raspberries you could possibly want. Plant a few walnut and apple trees in the backyard (if you have one), and you’ll have to start giving food away, there will be so much.

I replied:

Hello Richard Krajewski,

Thank you for your response. I am sorry to have taken over two weeks to respond, I was traveling.

I agree with you on the merits of organic food.

It is a good solution for me, I can choose to go organic when it comes to choice of my food, but the question is more universal...

Thank you for your response.

Arnab Sengupata Head New Projects at Living Media India Limited said:

I completely agree with Richard’s POV.That’s applicable even if you are a fish eater. Try a small tank :)

Going back to your worries, Eli’s argument is right. We should actually be more bothered by the huge quantities of “poison” or chemicals entering our systems.

We can be fertile & reproduce only when we live long enough I’d guess.

As an afterthought, as long as the organs function properly, we may not require to add to the global population. Resources are already on such a premium!

I know many who enjoy chewing (cooked) chicken heads.

I replied:

Thank you for your response. Richard’s point of view is quite valid in a limited sense. It is valid for those who have the awareness and knowledge about the goodness of alternate foods But it so happens that chicken and egg are consumed in regular, huge quantities in parts of the world. And as you have pointed out, many people enjoy ‘chewing’ chicken...

The question can not possibly be supported with scientific data simply because there has not been any research done so far in that aspect.

Thank you for your response.

Phillip Sukkar Owner of Owner of BC Biogenics Pty Ltd from Sydney Area, Australia said:

Yhe only way that these types of food products would make us infertile or impotent is if they are deficient in the nutrients that help us maintain our fertility and libido or if they were substantially abundant in nutrients (including hormones, etc) that actually reduce fertility and libido.

Furthermore, one would need to consume these products quite regularly and in fairly large amounts for many, many years to result in substantial genetic mutations that would have ongoing affects on both the individual and the individual’s offspring.

I replied:

Broiler chicken and eggs do happen to be deficient in nutrients. Not much research have gone into identifying fertility related nutrients, nor any research done on the levels or or the total absence of such nutrients in meat from chicken or eggs ‘grown and harvested’ out of infertile seeds.

This is [also] equally true [that] the feed formulated and mass produced have excessive harmones.

In many parts of the world chicken and eggs are regularly eaten in large quantities, for a lifetime. My fear is that it doesn’t take years of regular consumption for the person’s fertility / potency to be affected.

parts of [other parts that are made into animal food etc] indirectly gets back into our food chain in some form.

Prabat Sinha CEO of SMG an Event Services Company, India said:

Hi Siva,

I don’t quite know about the infertility issue, but I can send you part of authentic document

National Geography Survey Quote:

“To provide enough beef, chicken, and pork to meet the demand, the livestock industry has moved to factory farming. Producing eight ounces of beef requires 6,600 gallons (25,000 liters) of water; 95 percent of world soybean crops are consumed by farm animals, and 16 percent of the world’s methane, a destructive greenhouse gas, is produced by belching, flatulent livestock. The enormous quantities of manure produced at factory farms becomes toxic waste rather than fertilizer, and runoff threatens nearby streams, bays, and estuaries.

Chickens at a typical farm are kept in cages with about nine square inches (about 60 square centimeters) of space per bird. To force them to lay more eggs, they are often starved. Chickens slaughtered for meat are first fattened up with hormones, sometimes to the point where their legs can no longer support their weight.

Crowded conditions can lead to the rapid spread of disease among the animals. To prevent this, antibiotics are included in their feed. The World Health Organization reports that the widespread use of these drugs in the livestock industry is helping breed antibiotic-resistant microbes, complicating the treatment of disease in both animals and people.”

Cheers

Prabhat

I replied:

Hello Prabhat Sinha,

That is another interesting dimension of the problem. Thanks for bringing that up.

Some one commented on what you had written about the 9 sq inches space and I had added a clarification as part of the question to emphasize that you are right.

[deleted a line] Most of the responses range from ” Eggs are good on protein” and “no scientific evidence” to a psychologically forceful assertion that the question is “helathcare rumour and hearsay”.

I wish there are some authentic responses to the question, like yours.

Thank you for your response.Please also forward this question to those whom you know are experts.

Soledad Quiroz Graduate Student at Heinz School, Carnegie Mellon University said:

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!!! I have a Ph.D. in biochemistry and I can ASSURE you there is NO CHANCE for this to happen.

The first answer is very good. Plus, if they were to inject something to make the chicken infertile, they would have to inject 100 times more to make it effective in human. If you add that you eat the meat cook, the cooking process gets rid of most of what may have been injected.

If the infertility is made by genetics, there is NO MEANS to affect the human body.

This is the kind of comments that only scares people with no scientific base. I know the details and I am not scared. Knowledge is power, so please, read more (and not just press articles), ask to the people who knows.

Do not grow this questions into fear with no real facts behind it.

Soledad Quiroz

PS: My profile says “graduate student” because now I am getting another degree.

I replied:

Hello Soledad Quiroz,

There is so much that WE DO NOT KNOW. It is not possible to say “IMPOSSIBLE”.

Thank you for your response.

He countered:

Dear Sivasubramanian,

We know much more than you think, that’s the point. If you are really concern about GM food, learn, do not imagine. Ask to people who knows why they are not concern or if they are concern. Ask for FACTS. That is what I ask you, rely on facts and knowledge, not in unfunded fears.

Do you know when you see a movie how many of the things there are just not physically possible? well, you know enough physics to know that, but many others do not know. This is what I feel when somebody says he/she is afraid of genetically modified organisms.

If you wish, I can look for some information for you on the subject or some other people you can talk to.

best regards,

Soledad

Valentin Chirosca Commercial Driver at Panther Expedited Services from Greater Detroit Area said :

Eggs are the best source for proteins for human! And almost complete!

I replied:

Hello Valentin Chirosca,

Eggs used to be the best source for protein, but is the quality of protein the same now ? There is something unknown beyond the apparent here.

Thank you for your response.

Kevin Mullen Application Specialist at Wyeth, Greater Philadelphia Area said:

9 square inches? What kind of chickens do you eat?

I replied:

Hello Kevin Mullen,

Thank you for your response. I answered your response as a clarification to my question and felt that I should send it to you as a private response as well.

It is typical of at least 70% of all poultry produced to have such conditions. Please see the following images:

http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken-egg-01.jpg
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken-egg-02.jpg
http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/garden/156/broilers.html

A 9 square inch cage would measure 3 inches by 3 inches, a chicken would not fit in a cage that small.

I clarified:

Hello Kevin Mullen,

One possibility is that this calculation was based on “floor area” occupied. If the cages are multi level cages, the floor area is area alloted to a chicken in a cage level divided by the number of levels, so the 9 square inch indicated possibly as floor area is actually derived from a study.

Alan Burgess Chief Medical Officer at HealthONE from Greater Denver Area said:

Soledad and Eli are correct. I hope scientific claims and opinions on this forum can remain evidence-based. Pseudoscience and health-care nonsense might best be posted elsewhere...Please?

I replied:

Hello Alan Burgess,

Thank you for your response.

All that is unknown is not to be dismissed as pseudoscience. It is pertinent to recall what Albert Einstein has said:

“We should be on our guard not to overestimate science and scientific methods when it is a question of human problems; and we should not assume that experts are the only ones who have a right to express themselves on questions affecting the organization of society.”

Albert Einstein May 1949
Time Magazine’s “Person of the Century”

Thank you for your response.

Eric Oermann Medical Student at Georgetown University School of Medicine said

I just want to second Alan. Soledad and Eli are correct, and in response to the OP, it doesn’t even make “logical sense” even “in reverse” - whatever that means. This topic belongs in some sort of “healthcare rumors and hearsay” category, not biotech. Incidentally, and more importantly, why isn’t there a larger number of categories dedicated to healthcare, biotech, and pharma?

I replied:

Hello Eric Oermann,

Thank you for your response. In return, I would merely copy the response that i sent to Alan just now:

All that is unknown is not to be dismissed as pseudoscience. It is pertinent to recall what Albert Einstein has said:

Albert Einstein May 1949
Time Magazine’s “Person of the Century”

Thank you for your response.

Gerald Lo Director, Engineering and Technical Services at Nycomed from Greater New York city area said:

Vanakkam, Mr Muthusamy

Well, there is the old Western expression “You are what you eat,” which might possibly explain my fondness for goose as well as jerk chicken...

Some scientists believe that the domestic chicken originated in Southeast Asia, and that the noble progenitor of our modern poultry might be at risk of genetic dilution through miscegenation.

In this regard, perhaps the infertility may be a desirable feature of the genetically modified organism, but I am no scientist.

As regards infertility in human consumers, I suspect there are other environmental factors contributing in greater proportion to our modern pathologies.

Again, I am not a scientist, but observe that there are today more of us living longer than ever before.

I have been consuming chicken since I was little, and have yet to acquire any of the aspects of that noble creature (including its procreative habits).

We of Southern Chinese extraction are inordinately fond of roast capon, which consumption has not seemed to yet have deleteriously affected the health or apparent viability of my three children.

It is my very rudimentary understanding that the human digestion process is capable of assimilating prodigious quantities of nutrients, but also at a macromolecular level rather considerably coarser than at the scale of embedded genetic materials.

I believe one may find online many posts to the effect that genetically modified organisms have not yet received statistically sufficient safety testing to qualify as reliable sources of nutrition, and a few to the effect that a vast industrial conspiracy is afoot.

Poyit vareen, Sir.

Links:

* http://www.avianweb.com/junglefowl.html
* http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/292/23/2868
* http://www.sujitfoundation.com/index.htm

I replied:

Hello Gerald Lo,

Thank you so much for the response and for bringing up the dimension on “Genetic Dilution” which is a core issue that I am concerned about. I followed the links that you have given and posted a blog at http://isolated.instablogs.com/entry/chicken-extintct-by-gentic-pollution/ based on the information that these links led me to.

On your observation that “there might be a vast industry conspiracy afoot, I could see the signs just by looking at some of the responses to this simple Linked In question. The responses ranges from “Eggs are rich in protein” to “FDA wouln’t allow if there was any evidence” to “it doesn’t make logical sense even in reverse’ to “This topic belongs in some sort of ‘healthcare rumors and hearsay’ category..

And, Vanakkam and Poyit Varren - where and when did you learn Tamil? Have you been here ?

Thank you again for your response

...

Uneducated Notions?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:26:00 +0000

I uploaded this Video at the You Tube booth at the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of Internet Economy at Seoul. This video was meant to be uploaded as part of OECD's Future of Internet Economy video files, but I made an error in uploading (which I now think is a fortunate coincidence)

I have noticed that most of those from the Internet Community I have talked to are fiercely resistant to the idea of any suggestion of "essential controls" even as carefully implemented self-regulatory measures decided and implemented by the Internet Community itself, with total independent authority. I am a bit familiar with one side of the coin, (extreme) undetectable abuse of the internet that affects everyone. From a Security point of view, I have felt that it ought to be made difficult for a commercial spammer, a credit card robber or a DDOS attacker to have untraceable freedom.

Technically I thought that the Transition from IPV4 to IPV6 presented a huge opportunity to clean up the internet of extreme abuses, but I am not sure if this can happen without endangering the essential character of the Internet, which ensures access for all.

The other side of the coin is that such openness, even at the cost of allowing malice, is REQUIRED to ensure access to all parts of the world in all countries, especially in countries with oppressive regimes ...An Internet with even basic controls wouldn't be the Internet as it is ????

...

On Why and How the Internet needs to be governed

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:02:00 +0000

On Why and How the Internet Needs to be Governed - Upload a Document to Scribd

as Posted at Internet Governance Forum website
.

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:17:00 +0000

Dr Manmohan Singh
Hon' Prime Minister
Government of India
New Delhi

Shri P Chidambaram
Hon' Finance Minister
Government of India
(email address not in the address field)

Shri Ratan Tata
Chairman Emeritus
Tata Sons Limited

Shri R Seshasayee
President
Confederation of Indian Industry

Dr. Charat Ram
Chairman
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry

Mr Arvind Mayaram
Joint Secretary
Department of Economic Affairs
Government of India

Ms Shyamala Shukla
Director Infrastructure
Department of Economic Affairs
Government of India

Ms Anna Roy
Joint Director
Department of Economic Affairs
Government of India.

Mr Jayant Bhuyan
India Brand Equity Foundation

Hon' Prime Minister,

During the last 20 years India has emerged to be more prosperous, there is visible affluence, enormous business activity and India has gained considerable respectability among the nations of the world.

But, all the progress that we have made so far manifest more as "5 Star Progress" than as improvement in the common man's quality of life, which has also happened, but relatively to a lesser extent. Today we have hotels and restaurants equally or more luxurious than the ones in the West, cars as luxurious, planes as big, shops as various and upper-class as those in the fashion districts of the world. But the quality of treatment in a government hospital or the hygiene there has not improved. Train travel and terminal facilities remain the same. Buses stop en route at wrong, cheap food stalls with no facilities. Middle and lower class "restaurants" and dhaba like outfits remain the same in terms of quality of food preparation. food service and hygiene. Potable water is not only not potable, but also disease prone and Public toilets anywhere in India are a nightmare, and even in an unhygienic form they don't exist in most places where they are needed.

This note is written, largely in admiration of our government that took on a wise, cautious reform path that produced results without repeating the disastrous effects of the Latin American / East Asian nations that followed the reform path. India's reform path is a sustained, wise path. As a result of this necessary caution, the effect of reforms are slow to permeate all levels of society.

To carry the reform to the next level, GOVERNMENT NEEDS HELP, AND IT CAN COME FROM PRIVATE ENTERPRISE, if government is willing to partner with the Private Sector in an imaginative way.

I, as an individual entrepreneur, willing to elaborate further, or to actually initiate the model, am proposing a neo-investment model that would BRING BACK THE PUBLIC SECTOR in a form far more efficient than that of the international private sector. The following is an outline of the concept with some micro examples. Please go through this write up and examine the concept. This is a way of business-thinking that would cause the reforms to percolate down to the level of common man.

Concept: A Government - private partnership, Government of India's share being monetary or non-monetary, Private partnership being enterprise / monetary, with the Government's benefits defined as uncompromising Quality of Life enhancement standards apart from due returns for its monetary / non-monetary share of investment

Example Projects: US $ 1 to 5 billion committed by a consortium of private corporations, as a consortium or as several independent corporations, to modernize Railway station / Bus Terminal infrastructure in exchange for the right to commercially "own" a long time-share of part of the built up space, built up as commercially prime properties, built and developed to a pre-agreed design of futuristic world class standards. The model is not confined to transportation infrastructure but can stretch to several other areas such as housing, health care and sanitation.

Micro Example 1: An area of about 500 hectares that presently houses the Chennai Central Railway Station, Chennai Central Jail, Government Hospital and the Chennai Suburban Train Station together with a 40 foot wide, 500-700 meter long road is to be leased out to a consortium of private companies. The consortium will re-topograph the entire area and rebuild world class facilities - a more modern, more humanitarian and more secure prison at the same location or elsewhere, a more hygienic and healthier hospital building of twice the capacity combined with even more modern equipment, a world class passenger terminal integrated with a suburban terminal, a bus terminal, a taxiway and a Skywalk.

On all this the private partner would spend, FREE of cost to the Ministry of Railways, Prison Authority and the Department of Health, a sum of between $ 300 million - $ 600 million on very rough estimates, within a time span of 2-4 years. The consortium would require the Government of India's partnership in the form of causing the necessary harmony between the various ministries and departments happen. Government of India's participation would also be in enabling the Project Execution at International speed, free of ALL governmental bottlenecks in this project that might not have had a precedent ( for e.g taking a strip of highway underground, or constructing a Sky Walk over the highway with commercial pathway structures.

The re-topography exercise would integrate properties on both sides of the road into a single complex, with a wider road in the same place, a better traffic design for smoother vehicular traffic and safer and convenient pedestrian traffic. The private partner would design and build a world class high-traffic infrastructure as an integrated colossal passenger terminal to International Airport standards as a confluence of a train station, a bus terminal, a suburban station, a taxi station and a world class freight terminal. The private partner would undertake to build such a facility with a clause not to disrupt or dislocate existing operation of any of these facilities during the Reconstruction process.

The private partner would build and operate the public facilities in the Railway Station, Suburban Station and the Hospital to world class standards as free and nominally charged facilities, MAINTAIN the facilities as a five star hotel would, all in exchange for the right to "own" the commercial zone inlaid and built around the entire mega infrastructure complex, The total area leased out by the Ministry of Railways would be an area of about five hundred hectares of prime property (in very broad estimates, not assessed), out of which 300 hectares would be the Train Station Terminal, the Hospital, Suburban Train Station, Long Travel and City Bus Station, a Taxi Port and zones like Lobbies, Public Facilities, Retiring Rooms, Waiting Rooms, Waiting Areas, Toilets, Bath rooms, Emergency Medical Rooms, Reservation counters, Ticket Counters, Water Fountains, Baggage Cart ports, Baggage conveyors, Escalators, Lifts, Automatic People moving lines or level "escalators". The private partner would manage as a 5 star hotel would, the security of the environment, discipline in porter assistance, courtesy in passenger assistance, cleanliness in facilities, quality and hygiene in food courts / food counters / food trolleys, availability of FREE drinking water, standards in bottled water as also make available Vandal-proof, well engineered baggage carts and related passenger comforts. The private partner will pay attention to the quality of food and beverages on an ongoing basis while ensuring mandatory availability of good food at Indian Low Income group prices while not excluding access to high-priced food stalls / restaurants.

Micro Example 2. Purified Water over a stainless steel pipeline : This is a concept for a utility company providing CLEAN water over two pipelines, one potable and other for other uses, to every home in Chennai and other major cities replacing Corporation Water Supply. The pre requisite is an arrangement with the City Corporation to outsource this essential services to the Utility company. The private company may commit to offer a certain quantity of water, free of charge to those below poverty line, provide water to middle and higher income groups at an affordable price while simultaneously engaging in value added products and services such as bottled water, premium bottled water, institutional water supply etc.. without prejudice to the mandatory free and clean water to the poor & at public places objective.

The project would have one central and several satellite water purification / pumping stations and possibly also desalination plants. The pipelines would be stainless steel pipelines, the community water tanks in public places would be stainless steel tanks and so on.

Investment not estimated, but could be US $ 100 - 500 million with a right to "own" the Water Supply service granted to the Utility company for 19 or 29 years. .

3. Engineering Project Concepts : The integral coach factory builds archaic coaches that are neither safety engineered nor ergonomically interiored. A sense of design, a sense of value engineering and a sense of ergonomics is so totally absent that the Coach Factory found it difficult to comprehend why a a state government rejected its coaches. The coaches built today have very bad plumbing, dangerously protruding objects in the interiors such as bolts and other sharp objects ( which are the reasons why mortality and injury rates are so high in case of accidents ) and the overall design is unclean and uncomfortable.

We have built up adequate design expertise in India - the cars that we manufacture in India are world class, but the coaches are not.

The idea is to start a coach building company that would engage as Consultants designers like Dilip Chaabria (name mentioned without any personal knowledge of the person, merely with the object of picturizing the idea) as also the Designers from Indian and International automobile / coach building companies, employ researchers from Design studios and schools who would identify modern, alternate materials for various interior components, come up with a coach design that is ergonomic and safe. The coaches are to built by the proposed private enterprise on the present Coach chassis to start with. Later, the company could progress to assemble the chassis also, with an improved design. The demand can not only be from Indian Railways, but also for Export. A division of this company can use its design expertise to build BUSES as well.

Other Micro examples that can be elaborated: 3. Wayside motels for bus passengers owned and operated by companies such as Hilton and Indian Hotels. 4. Large corporate hospitals in cities and Class A & B towns with a "Government Hospital" in the basement. 5. A luxury omnibus company combined with a safe school bus company....

Sir, Please look into this.

Thank you.
Sivasubramanian Muthusamy
CEO
Isolated Networks
Whitefiled, 389/1 Perundurai Road
Erode 638 011
Tamilnadu
India
www.isolatednetworks.com
network (at] isolatednetworks.com
0424 4030334
(0) 93641 00639

On making the whole world prosperous

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:02:00 +0000

[First written as Sample of written work to Society of Fellows, Harvard, and as Research Proposal for Pre-Doctoral Candidacy at John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard in 1991.Published now, 16 years later, as a blog, verbatim, as what was said 16 years ago remains unchanged and more relevant today.]

Foreword

New opportunities and possibilities emerge for development when the style of thinking and planning is changed to an unconventional model. In these papers, I have endeavored to reverse the process of thinking by first defining the ultimate ideal and then later coming back to list the constraints, to be attacked one by one.

By and large the accepted and practiced model of thinking approaches the problems from the constraints and in the process constraints weight down on the thinking and a lot of possibilities are hopelessly dismissed on their first coinsurance.

These papers talk about making the whole world prosperous, which as an ultimate object of the international system is possible after all. But not everything that needs to be done to make the whole world prosperous are covered in these papers. These papers which at best define a direction are not elaborate enough to be a vivid master plan or blueprint for world development. Many of the basic ideas indicated do not fall in line with the present programs of the governments and the international system. Besides an exhaustive analysis of the needs of the world is not made in these papers and the various proposals do not cover everything that needs to be done to make a more prosperous world. Various facets of the problems outlined are yet to be thoroughly examined and a more thorough examination is yet to be made. At best these few pages could be described as musings on world development) and the thinking is not rigid in any way) or random pieces of a large picture that is yet to emerge in its totality.

These papers originated on the theme of a draft resolution that I introduced as a participant from India at The International Model United Nations organized by Junior Chamber International and held at the United Nations headquarters at New York during July 29- August 2, 1991. Originally what I had said in the draft resolution was that it is no longer necessary for member states to distance themselves from another, it is prejudicial to internationalism for member states to be nationalistic and patriotic and called upon the member states to look beyond their national interests and strengthen the united nations. The draft resolution introduced a specific proposal that the political structure of the united nations be improved and that a resource base be founded for the united nations.

After the model united nations I elaborated on the theme, more clearly defined the idea as a research theme and am submitting it as Sample of written work to The Society of Fellows, Harvard University. I have not had at all any formal education in international development, foreign policy or government. I am not well read either.

These papers do not follow a standardized academic or diplomatic format and there could be errors in expression among other shortcomings. These papers may please be treated as papers of the 'first draft' status, to be further worked on and improved.

Muthusamy Sivasubramanian, Theni, India. 09 November 1992.

On making the whole world prosperous

Towards more ambitious developmental objects

Extensively widening the demands on the international system both by the developing and the developed nations

By the help of God the world is progressing towards the realm of world peace. Not long ago the only object of the international system was to stop war, but today the demands on the international system is wider than peace keeping and as varied from reducing the mortality rates of the world's children to preserving the planet earth for the generations to come.

Not only do the developing nations have demands on the international system - demands for access to markets, access to technology, fair prices for raw materials and commodities, debt relief and more favorable financial flows, - which are for the purpose of comparison, simple demands, but also the developed world whose demands are more complicated in nature developed nations are unable to reconcile the need to promote repatriation of the illegal immigrants with the ideals of generously proclaimed human rights; in the course of history they have built a massive nuclear arsenal but now find it necessary to ensure that the spread of nuclear capability is restricted; on their own they find it difficult to control the illegal economy of the underworld; the legitimate national economy is upset when there are differences in monetary policies of different nations such as different interest rates that cause currency fluctuations; the present economic system of the world has a tenuous and artificial base which is highly vulnerable to manipulation; urban decay, traffic congestion, pollution and environmental degradation are some of the several other problems which the developed world would find it difficult to solve independently.

As the imbalance in development remains and widens not only the developing world, but also the developed world would have persistent problems.

Strengthening the weak without weakening the strong

The present economic system is such that when the weak economies are strengthened the strong economies are jeopardized. This is unacceptable.

The ideal which the world leaders may strive to attain to the extend that is practically attainable, is to increase the income of the third world citizen to that of the developed world without causing a decline in the income of the citizens of the developed world and at the same time not reducing the prospects of higher income. The ideal to aim and get as close as possible is to make the whole world wealthy as expressed in an ancient prayer "Lokas Samastas Sukino Bavantu" (Let the people of the whole world prosper).

Any developed nation of today was once undeveloped and as the nation developed an overall economic uplift happened. It is not that unemployment and poverty are eliminated, but by and large, the people of the developed nations live well and nation can support the unemployed and the poor.

The developed nations have not impoverished the prosperous of their people to make the poor prosperous but merely caused their national economies to prosper and more and more people flourished. When one man bought his second car the other man did not lose his first.

This overall uplift has been proved to be realizable among people of a nation, and it is possible to realize it among the nations of the world.

The possible flaws in this thinking apart, what obstructs such thinking is the fact that the whole world is fragmented. The world is not administratively divided like states within a nation, but politically divided as fragments of nationalistic and conflicting boundaries.

For the world to progress the fragments of waring nations have to become regions of friendly nations. With a climate of profound international relations it becomes possible to evolve and implement comprehensive developmental plans to make the poor nations wealthy without making the rich nations poor.

The world will be a more prosperous place to live if we could reorient the world economy to higher worldwide development. It is understandable that the present economic order can not be disturbed abruptly otherwise there would be unpleasant effects on the world economy.

This new approach has to be introduced smoothly over a long period of time and the transition would be highly desirable for all the nations of the world if planned to take effect smoothly.

The essential prerequisite is an acceptably strengthened united nations. When the United Nations was founded international peace was the need of the hour and so this was the primary object of the international system. But the needs today are vast and the objects of the united nations have to be redefined so as to be far more emphatic about the world prosperity and far more ambitious than what was enunciated in the charter.

World Development

World Development has to be a desirable proposition for the nations of the world, if it is to be carried out without injustice done to any one nation, systematically.

It is time that the nations realized that one nation can not develop in isolation. The world, especially the economy of nations, is becoming increasingly interdependent. When one country in the world undergoes an economic crisis, it has repercussions on the economies of the rest of the world.

A virus found in one continent travels undetected across the oceans and the world wakes up with a dreadful epidemic for which there is no cure at the moment, despite all the scientific and medicinal advances the world has made.

If there is an oil spill on the sea, accidental or strategic, the oceans of the world get polluted. It is of concern to the whole world when someone acquires the capability to build nuclear weapons.

It is as much irresponsible to stand by and watch a child die every other second elsewhere in the world as it is to watch a vengeful soldier mounting a nuclear warhead on his aircraft.Beyond Nationalism

What comes in between is nationalism. It does not reach an inquiring young mind why someone stop stop at and would not move beyond from being a nationalist and a patriot. Nationalism in excess is highly prejudicial to internationalism.

Nationalism is showing compassion towards anyone living on one side of the border but not on the other.

The people of a nation think more about their nation, feel better about their nation, right from their childhood when theory learn more of their national history at school than the history of the world. After they grow up the narrow view of the world learnt at school does not broaden because by and large the media places its emphasis on regional and national coverage and the people's views are largely restricted by the importance the media gives to the region and nation as against the whole world.

This limited thinking should broaden and the nations of the world should think beyond their national interests and become responsible for all that happens all over the world and not only in their nations and cause to develop the whole world.

United Nations

Possible limitations on independent international initiatives

The world is a better place to live today than it was a 100 years ago. The progress that the world has made so far is to be attributed not only to the United Nations but also to a few nations whose independent initiatives have exceeded the efforts of the United Nations.

States that have been noticeably active both within the international organization and outside the system have substantially contributed to the progress of internationalism. But progress can not always be a straight line from darkness to light and history is not a guarantee that the future will be a linear extension of its course. The people's perception of priorities change from time to time and the government of a nation with an international outlook may not be able to pay the level of attention that it wishes to give for international development especially when the nation faces a decline in economic growth rate or a state of political uncertainty or both as how it happens.

Secondly there are times when an independent initiative taken by a country attracts criticism from several other nations, largely because the initiative is taken independently.

Thirdly national governments change from time to time. When a new government gets elected it may announce newer international programs that may be more benevolent, but may not be a linear extension of the programs of the previous government there by causing to lose consistency of developmental involvement.

Such factors necessitate that the international organization has to be strengthened as a permanent foundation to bear the larger responsibilities with the direct initiatives by independent governments taking a supplementary role.

Larger purpose for the United Nations

The founding fathers of the United Nations defined three basic purposes of the United Nations (each of which was seen as a counter to the aggressive policy of the axis Powers that had culminated in World War II)

To maintain international peace and security;
To develop friendly relations among nations;
To achieve international cooperation of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian nature and encourage respect for human rights.

UN has made considerable progress in those fronts. Territorial aspiration on the part of nations may not yet be extinct, but at least considerably subdued. There remain a few territorial disputes such as the dispute over Golan heights or the stalemate over the group of islands in the Kurile region north of Japan, but with rare exceptions, none of the kind of territorial aspirations that characterized the pre war world order exist today. In spite of the threat of the existence of a massive nuclear arsenal the world has not seen the third atomic bomb. Gas chambers and racial persecutions are no longer considered possible courses of action open to states.

The world today is far more harmonious today and international relations are effectively maintained.In the process the world has become far more interdependent today than it was forty seven years ago.

The world today needs the United Nations to effectively address problems such as economic development and environment than essentially revolve its concerns around the need for military restraint.

It implies that the United Nations has to have a more ambitious object - not merely international harmony, but more emphatically, world prosperity as the ultimate purpose.

With a view to cause the whole world to develop, the objects of the UN have to become more emphatic and ambitious, with world prosperity as the ultimate purpose.

A more functional political structure of the United Nations

United Nations has a political structure which is too cautious. It does not have a President (Executive) and the Secretary General's authority is limited. The Secretary General is to be empowered issue by issue by the General Assembly, as opposed to the President of an evolved presidential form government., who heads the Executive with the parliament and judiciary functioning separately but blindingly.

The political structure of the U.N. is incomplete without a President. The world had just seen two world wars and nationalistic priorities were dominant and the world had not yet began to think truly international when the United Nations was conceived.

The world political environment of this day is not the same as it was 47 years ago. World politics today is much more evolved than it was at the time of the Dumberton Oaks and San Francisco Conferences.

From its inception till the present the United States of America has been a major determinant in the evolution and activities of the United Nations. President Wodroo Wilson's 14 points started a debate which eventually resulted in the formation of the League of Nations, which later gave way to the formation of the United Nations. United States was the major force behind the 1974 World Population Plan of Action, which established the Universal Rights to Family Planning and was instrumental in founding the United Nations Population Fund. The US Declaration of Human Rights inspired the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

The evolved form of the American Government could also be adopted by the United Nations. The united nations could be governed by an international government, headed by; a President, electe4d by the Heads of Government or the Heads of State of the members states of the United Nations for a predetermined period (may be 5 years), with his powers balanced by the U.N. General Assembly and differences adjudicated by the International Court of Justice.

The President should be able to function independently as head of the Executive without having to wait for the approval of the General Assembly in every move he is to make. At the same time the Executive has to be balanced. The U.N. General Assembly could do that very effectively. The International Court of Justice can determine what is and what is not excessive exercise of power or unconstitutional.

As it is considered it is important to remember that:

1. The political equations between nations are changing and would continue to change for the better.
2. All the nations as members of a stronger United Nations would continue to be sovereign, perhaps more sovereign than now, because with a stronger United Nations, thereat of war between nations could be nearly eliminated.
3. A stronger United Nations would not be a government issuing directives to nations, but one that would get the nations ot modify its policies and programs to accommodate international considerations through diplomatic discussions with the nations concerned., or by coordinating discussions and programs between member states.
4. The stronger United Nations would be of a participatory government, in the sense that the United Nations General Assembly becomes world parliament in which all nations are the members of parliament.

With a strengthened united nations with a well evolved and acceptable control structure it becomes possible to evolve and implement significant programs to make a more prosperous world.

Generating Revenues for the United Nations

Because the UN does not have vast resources at its disposal, it depends entirely on contribution from its member states.

It should be possible for the United Nations to reduce its dependence on contributions from member states if the United Nations can generate income, some form of International Income as National Income is to its member states. If the United Nations has to generate revenues on its own, it is necessary that the U.N. creates a resource base, in the form of a geographic zone.

U.N. does not have its own freely accessible geographical territory, not even the size of the smallest state in the world. It is ironical that the United Nations, which ought to be working towards a borderless world has its premises landlocked within the boundary of some its member states. Today not even one square inch of the world, on the world map, is permanently international or non-national. The exceptions are the high seas and the frozen continents.

Founding an Income generating mechanism for the United Nations

If the United Nations is to generate international revenues for world development, it is necessary that it creates a geographical base, that could in effect be the property of all the nations of the world.

A geographical base would open up opportunities for the UN to create a central economy. UN can create a central econonmy by housing non-tariff and several other forms of global trade, global industry and global banks to create an economy, which will generate revenue for the United Nations.

1. The Zone could be, to start with an area of not less than 100,000 hectares granted on lease for a period of, may be 499 years, to the United Nations by broad minded member states in consideration of a value. The land may be acquired on lease or even as outright purchase. 100,000 hectares of developable wasteland could cost between US $ 30 million ot US $ 300 million.
2. If the land has to be developed as an industry and trade district, the infrastructure could be developed at a cost of between US $ 1-10 billion. The foundation cost must be met by a fund set up by all the member states by making a one time contribution and the notional or actual profits earned on the basic infrastructural investments is to be non-dividendable. The total tax revenue or the earnings on the basic infrastructural investment made by all the member states in union, is not to be dividendable to member states but to be utilized for International Development.
3. The United Nations can create a mega company with a capital base of between US $10-25 billion dollars, subscribed by the member nations and private investors.
4. The capital base of $25 billion dollars would enable the company to borrow, on conservative banking norms $225 billion. So the total resources available for investments could be $250 billion. The United Nations could invest this quarter of a trillion dollars to promote companies, with a clearly defined object of making profits.
5. The capital base has to come from member nations and from private investors, who will earn a taxable dividend on their investment. The tax rate has to have a floor rate of 25% on which there will be no concessions to any of the share holder nations, and a voluntary higher rate of any proportion above 25% . All the tax revenue goes to the United Nations.
6. Such tax revenues could be partly reinvested in United Nations owned companies and the income generated by these companies could add to the United Nations fund for World Development.

It is understandable that member states may not be prepared to sacrifice their international business and banking houses to the United Nations. But if a new international land zone in the world is to come into existence as owned by all the nations, it would be an international trade and industry zone, which could foster new international mega cartels of the size and scope of the Airbus Industrie, European Space Agency and Intelstat.

Secondly, it is important to remember that the management and work force will be drawn from the member nations, part of most of the profits earned will be added to the national income of the member states as the investment in these companies have to come from governments and the private investors of the member nations, the input commodities have to be bought from the member nations and so on..

Also, it is necessary to remember that even after the foundation of a geographical zone for the United Nations, the United Nations would not have as much land as it would need for locating the industries. Some of the projects could be located in the UN member nations and if it is done that way, it amounts to attracting UN sponsored investments that would generate employment in the nation of location which is as beneficial as the present foreign investments.

Only a consortium of national investments could create certain mega and ultra mega business establishm
ents. To illustrate without going into aspects such as the economic feasibility or profitability at this stage, it is not possible for a private industrial house or for a single nation to establish an insurance company that would insure national governments against external developments that cause huge unfair economic hardship for the nation, or against natural calamities such as an earthquake that cost the nation billions of dollars of unplanned expenditure.

At present every time there is a natural calamity of a vast scale, most developing nations are forced to appeal for international aid which is some times sufficient and arrives in time, and sometimes not. Even for a developed nation such as the United States of America, it should make sound economic sense to insure the national treasury against such unforeseen demands as a natural calamity or against currency loss during recession.

International construction projects such as the Tunnel between England and France are at present shared by the governments and private investors of nations involved. There is a possibility that there are intercontinental projects at present and more in the future, such as intercontinental roads, railways and waterways. Such projects could be under the jurisdiction of the United Nations.

We already have a world bank and an International Monetary Fund which are under the aegis of the United Nations. The United Nations can found a Global Bank - a global commercial bank with the major banks of various national and interested private banks of every nationals subscribing and dividend-earning shareholders to finance trans-national cartels, to make commercial lending to those nations who have a high credit ranking (The object is to earn profits for the bank which would be taxable by the United Nations or jointly taxable by the United Nations and the investing nations.)

More such institutions could be conceived and inter-governmental and international private investments encouraged with the object of creating tax-paying International Income.

This would make it necessary for the United Nations to think in terms of a world money as a common currency. The Central Bank of the United Nations could start by selling instruments such as Travelers Cheques, denominated, instead of in national currencies, in what may be called world money, which is to eventually become a central currency and ultimately to become the basis for settling exchange rate disputes.

Reorienting the world economy to higher development

If the desirable high ideal of making the world wealthy is to be attained to the extent possible, comprehensive socio cultural economic programs of world wide reach and impact have to be planned by the world economists to reorient the world economy towards higher development.

A comprehensive program, while preserving jobs and generating more jobs, would simultaneously work on ambitious targets for world population control; it would reconcile technological advances with the trends and needs of the job market; while creating promising new inventions for the society of the future would preserve the wisdom of the ancients.; while continuing to send relief supplies to drought affected areas, would simultaneously make the uncultivable wastelands cultivable; it would combat the underworld activities and at the same time consider offering some form of amnesty along with some rehabiliatory financial concessions in the form of legalizing the illegal wealth in inviolable exchange for reformation and reorienting destructive illegal investments to sometimes as lucrative, but legal and productive investments.

Such comprehensive programs should extend beyond economic planning and cover areas such as developing committed and capable men for the governments of the world and making people more productive and less wasteful.

The Concept of National Waste

If we could evolve a method by which we estimate Gross National Waste as against Gross National Product the combined figure for the world would be alarming. We do not make the optimal use of our natural, human and material resources, which is one of the major reasons why we remain undeveloped.

We spend on arms that we can not and should not hope to use when we could instead be buying equipment to strengthen our internal law and order agencies. We spend on espionage and counter espionage when nations find it impossible to trace intra-national criminals and bring them to the court of law.

We misuse our human and material resources to produce soft drinks when we ought to be perfecting techniques of extracting natural fruit and vegetable juices and preserving them free of artificial preservatives. We build mineral water and carbonated water plants when we might instead be building desalination and water sterilization plants or rather using our human and material resources to explore underground water.

We make paper plates instead of metal ware, built more military intelligence satellites than communication satellites, make wall papers instead of smooth plasters, continue with gasoline engines instead of developing electric/battery vehicles. We throw away surplus food when the cost of storage exceeds the national value of the retained surplus food.Sanctions have contributed to the status quo of world economy

For valid strategic reasons, in the recent past, it has become an accepted practice for nations to impose economic sanctions openly as well as covertly mount an economic offensive that in effect weakened the enemy by the economic hardship that results for the nation. Economic sanctions have been in force for a very long time in the case of Cuba, in the recent past in the case of Iraq, Libya and until recently in the case of several Eastern European Nations.

While the validity or the strategic merit of these sanctions could not be doubted, the point made here is that such sanctions, though strategically valuable, have been weakening the economies of the nations, indirectly and in some cases directly, lowering national production, causing the nations to become weak, which in turn has made the world less prosperous than it could have been.

Sanctions also affect the nations that impose sanctions.

For instance, US Trade embargo on Cuba cost the US companies an estimated $30 billion though 1998, according to a John Hopkins University estimate.

If there is a way out of economic sanctions, the world would prosper sooner.The world order was such that Iraq occupied Kuwait and the rest of the world went to war with Iraq. The US cost of war was $61 billion and it cost the Arab countries $620 billion, according to the Arab Economic Report. If the war did not happen and if the UNDP or US AID were pledged $681 billion, half the poor people of the world would have risen above the poverty line.

Manpower shortage also exists all over the world

A chronic manpower shortage coexists along with the much publicized unemployment problem.

This is because the work force (Research, Executive and Labor force) is not distributed in the right proportion between various field of specialization. For instance in the US, where the unemployment problem is mounting, there may be a shortage of Language Teachers or shortage of computer programmers, because theoretically this category of work force is employed to teach languages to personnel employed in projects of narrow and limited economic and social benefit and most of the available programmers are employed by the military or military industries, so to say.

Human and material resources are misused.

If today the US government wants to rebuild all the downtown residential and commercial areas it would not be able to find investors/ bankers because their money is already invested in projects that may not be of optimal utility to the world, for instance, in a renovation project for a corporate office that does not require renovation. The government may not find enough architects and structural designers for they are employed in commercial projects of least social utility; it may not find enough construction workers for they are building a lavish airport in a tiny island in the Caribbean.It may not be possible for the government to build a transcontinental oil pipe line or to connect the river ways nationally - for there may not be enough of the more skilled engineers, workers and mangers left to be deputed for the projects.

The waste-oriented programs - commercial and noncommercial, absorbs a certain number of certain specialized work categories and because such a demand exists, a proportion of the population prepares for careers that the demand which the waste-oriented industry has generated. A proportion of population, instance prepares for careers in a weapons assembly plant, who would otherwise have prepared for careers in agriculture or medicine.

Demand meets supply - even the wrong demand

Reorienting the world economy to higher development - smoothly

It is understandable that the present economic order can b\not be disturbed abruptly lest there would be unpleasant effects on the world economy. An abrupt transition could cost the nation a million jobs and trillions of dollars.This new approach has to be introduced smoothly over a long period of time and the transition would be highly desirable for all the nations of the world if planned to take effect smoothly.

The world would be a more prosperous place to live if we could reorient the world economy to higher worldwide development.

Help for the world's suffering

George C Marshall proposed the plan to reconstruct post war Europe in a graduation ceremony at Harvard University on June 5, 1947.

We need another Marshall Plan at a point of time when even the prosperous of the nation are suffering from economic hardship - it may not be easy for the developed world to substantially increase its foreign aid budget. There is a recession in the United States, with unemployment mounting, trade deficit accumulating and its budgetary deficit widening. United Kingdom and France have similar problems and Germany is attending to the demands placed on its prosperous economy by the integration that has just happened.

The developing countries have an outstanding debt of $1.3 trillion dollars. Due to debt service demand, among other reasons, in the 80's aggregate net resource transfers to the developing countries shifted from positive to negative.

In 1989, aggregate Long Term net resource flows to developing countries (Net-flows) stood at 63.3 billion dollars. If the population of the developing countries is taken as 4 billion people, per capita resource receipts amount to $4 billion dollars for the year.

There is no way the world's problems will be solved with the present level of money flow.

A new born child dies somewhere in the world every two seconds, 1.5 acres of forests are destroyed every second, 25000 people die every day from acute water shortages and polluted water, 100 species of plant and animal life becomes extinct, more than 75 million tons of top soil is eroded or blown away and tons of toxic waste dumped somewhere in the world - EVERY DAY. If current trends continue 1990s will see 1/3 of the world's productive land erode, 1 million species of plant and animals become extinct and 1 billion people born to compete for increasingly scarce resources.

4 million people face death in Somalia, there is a civil war in Eastern Europe because there is an anachronistic ethnocentricity and a revival of nationalism. Russia, the other Republican republics and Eastern Europe have embraced western ideals at a point of time when the west can not afford to support the transition; on their own these nations neither have the knowledge nor the resources to make the transition work. There is the possibility of "bungled reforms discrediting capitalism before it has time to take root".

Arms race has ended but the arms remain stored. World Peace is desirable but military oriented manufacturing plants can not be closed down. They can not be closed down because the industry can not afford the cost of winding up the units and the governments can not re-employ or at least support those who lose jobs. Unemployment is already mounting. The budgets of governments are already on deficit and there is not enough money to be found to acceptably compensate the owners or substantially aid their diversification.

The world - Developing as well as the Developed world, needs a second Marshall Plan, a Marshall Plan of exponential magnitude, longer time frame, broader and more ambitious objects and of world wide proportion funded not only by the United States but by as many nations as possible to reconstruct not only Europe but the whole world.

Extending the NATO model of military alliance to the whole world

Looking beyond the present and ahead, we could consider an extended NATO type of alliance with all the nations of the world as allies.

This could be achieved in several ways. The Rapid Deployment Force, already granted to the Secretary General by the Security Council could be so constituted as to gradually become a world military organization with a balanced and fail proof control structure. It could also be achieved by including for NATO membership the erstwhile Warsaw Pact as well as the remaining countries and transferring control of the larger NATO to UN Security Council, General Assembly and other organs of the United Nations that may be created for the purpose.

The broader alliance could simultaneously constitute a military organization by drawing equitably personnel and other resources from all the members of the alliance or if possible from all the U.N.member states.

The United military organization would require no more than a tenth of the military personnel and other resources to be a complete force.

The alliance could, with the back up of such a military organization positively proclaim that any aggression or a move to war by any nation on any other nation would be considered an attempt to war with the rest of the world.

In the history of the world, wars have been fought for major reasons as well as for ludicrous reasons. The ear of an English sailor sparked a war between Great Britain and Spain in the 18th century. The animosities lasted 9 years.

More recently, in the year 1969, the Latin passion for football boiled over as El Salvador and Honduras competed in an important world cup qualifying match. Riots after the game led to a five day war in which 2000 people were killed and much of the Honduran Air Force destroyed.

With the foundation of the World Security Alliance, it would become very difficult for any nation to be aggressive and the threat of war between nations would be nearly eliminated. Nations could save billion of dollars hitherto over-allocated to defense and utilize them for development, to save the world's children, to preserve the rain forests or to maintain bio-diversity.

Goods such as nuclear weapons that are produced merely to threaten the enemy, aeroplanes and submarines that are built to merely be on guard - one nation builds them merely because someone else is building them - need no longer be produced in such wasteful quantities. Nuclear weapons, especially, were produced in quantities that could destroy the whole world several times over, when nations were still aware that the possession of nuclear weapons could do no more than produce a stalemate. It was said that nuclear weapons could not even be used across the conference table.

Military spending is about 5% of GNP in the industrial as well as the developing countries. About half of the combined spending on health and education in the industrial countries where as the two magnitudes are about the same in developing countries.

A world wide military alliance would not require more than a very small proportion of personnel employed in the militaries of the nations of the world. Once these resources are drawn from the military of all the nations, most of the rest of the world's military resources would be redundant. In such a scenario, military intelligence and counter intelligence could be reoriented to monitor and control the underworld; The military personnel could be reoriented to maintain law and order which at present the nations find it very difficult to maintain.

Billions of dollars of scarce monetary resources could be saved in this scenario.

The model of the French Foreign Legion

The United Nations military organization, could be to the extend that is appropriate, be modeled after the principles of French Foreign Legion, a proud, elite fighting unit, which from an unpromising start in 1831, built its mystique as 'romantic, swashbuckling, totally loyal, terrifying to its enemies, and fearless in the face of death'. The Legion is a unique permanent force, now represented by over 100 nationalities, who have taken the solemn obligation that binds them to serve, not France, but the Legion itself. The force of about 9000 men are eligible to French Citizenship upon their retirement.

The United Nations military organization could be organized with each of the member states deputing 5% of their military men and women. The UN force could be constituted as cosmopolitan divisions of various nationalities, who take the solemn obligation to serve to maintain world peace, and in times of war, fight their own motherlands if need be. The United Nations Military Organization, manned by personnel drawn from the member states' militaries, may be funded by a diversion of the member states' military expenditure, to be based around the world at bases leased to the United Nations in consideration for nominal rents, and equipped with weapons already in surplus in the various national militaries.

With the founding of the United Nations military organizations, well controlled by an elaborate system of checks and balances by all the member nations, it becomes the responsibility of the United Nations to maintain bilateral as well as world peace.

The United Nations' Military Organization could be a World Counter terrorist Force, an elite crack down force, ruthless in its tactics.

In addition to the above, the United Nations could found an intelligence organ, apart from a reinforced Interpol, to deal with trans-national and trans-continental crimes, with a hierarchical advantage over the member states' police, similar to the advantage the Federal Bureau of Investigations enjoys over the State Police organizations.