The Arab Renaissance

2011-10-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

Appropriated authority through individual tyrannical force or institutional usurpation can seem limitless. Yet those that appropriate it are eventually brought to justice and may have to deal with the same brute force.

Ironic, when that happens, they are either on the run or hiding in sewer holes begging for precious life, like Mummer Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein.

Yet something does not seem right when those that were once the subjects of appropriated authority, become a reflection of it whilst the perpetuator is being hunted down in the proverbial rat hole.

The images of Saddam Hussein rolling out his tongue at the command of his captors for examination and the images of Gaddafi in his last moments and especially lying on the floor without a wrap covering his wounds, are going to stay in my mind for a long time. It does not auger well for the civilised world to make a spectacle of death. I agree with those that refused the media access to the pictures of a wounded / dead Osama bin Laden. There must be dignity in death.

There is something barbaric about the way that global masses and global media reacted to the death of Gaddafi. As I watched the gloating spectacle of the last few minutes of Gaddafi’s death, I was struck by how little progress as a civilisation we have made. At least so it appeared at that moment. There was a feeling of being transported back in time. Those captor cries, that mad stampede and brutal jostling of a still hated tyrant now shaking with fear at his imminent death, mirrored the decadence that has crept into human values and civilisation.

That moment in time remains a testimony to the fact that the civilised world gunning for Gaddafi stooped to the same barbaric values as Gaddafi. At that moment in time there seemed to be little difference between Gaddafi and his captors. However just their cause, the captors came across as barbaric. Yet sitting in our homes and watching television, the brutal and the vicarious seems to enthral us.

The underlying message of the Arab Spring is being overshadowed by mob vengeance. There is much more to gloat about.

Its’ the wheel of life…some would argue. Ironic that it all gained momentum in Baghdad and Cairo. Was it not precisely these and other Middle East countries that were so instrumental in igniting the renaissance in Europe? Passing on learning and new ideas to a then stagnant Europe caught up in its dark middle ages. Today the wheel has just spun back… ..the Middle East, some parts of it caught up by rulers of the past has redeemed itself and hopefully will catch up with its glorious past.

So what does the Arab spring signify for me? It signifies the same old eternal struggle of mankind…Yet how important it is to keep having these renaissance moments in every civilisation.

Recently my son came back home and said he had been asked by his school to research the similarities between Renaissance and the Wall Street Occupation. At first I scratched my head and thought, one was a social awakening and the other an economic awakening…both awakenings of some sort....what else could be the similarities?

In my mind the similarities between the Arab Spring and the Renaissance seem far more and yet on deeper thought…all such movements have similarities….some lesser others greater.

My son put it in perspective and said it’s the feudal system mom. Ah! “it’s the cry against a social structure!”. Yet the Renaissance was more about the bringing about of change through awakening, I argued with my utterly unimpressed son. The renaissance was change ignited by learning and not just a fight against a strict social order. The change in the social order was brought about by the emergence of a new class or classes including the intellectuals and artists. Renaissance was the winds of change brought about by exposure to different civilisations. Is the Wall Street protest really that? I argued with my son, that the Wall Street protest is more a protest against government bails outs and the creation of a super rich class of paid employees by the financial system. It is a revolt by those that have been left on the fringes of upward social movement.

The common link is the awakening.

Yet, while projecting the awakening, the focus on the mobs exhilarating over a dead Gaddafi, is subjugating the finer sensibilities of the Arab awakening and letting the mob rule mentality steal the show. ..

What a coincidence that Wall Street protests followed the Arab Spring. Can we attribute one to the other! Perhaps! The Arab protest may have in some way inspired the Wall Street protests. The point I want to make is that however different the underlying causes of the ongoing Arab and the western movements… the method of bringing about change has been the same…..mass movements against perceived economic and social breakdown.

Ironically in the western world, Greece triggered the protests…and the revival of Greek learning was a great influencing factor in the Renaissance….

As the world population amasses over six billion, learning may not be rewarded the way it was in the past… perhaps there are more underlying lessons to be learnt from all that is happening around us. The fear is about another future renaissance being actually dominated by sheer mob mentality, in the absence of the tapering influence of knowledge on barbarity.

Poverty

2011-06-03T16:09:00.000-07:00

Wage negotiations, increasing government funding for sectors like health care and tough structural changes within the Canadian economy is making it difficult for governments to allocate social funding targeted at poverty removal.

We may still live in denial about growing poverty in Canada but statistics, however difficult to come by, paint a picture of marginalisation of some sections of Canadian society and an erosion of the Middle Class. Low wages is another factor contributing to poverty.
Into the future this segment is likely to increase in bulge devouring those that are impacted by permanent changes to the job market and the ability of governments to keep increasing minimum wages to match inflation. Increasing cost of food, speculation and most of all the vagaries of weather will each play its own role.
Average growth in Canadian incomes has been 1.3% each year, rising from $28,000 in 1981 to 39,914 in 2007. This many years has not even equalled inflation.
Meanwhile as recession, high energy costs continue to push people into bare subsistence levels; the nation still does not have an official government measure for poverty.
Here’s what Statistics Canada has to say: “Statistics Canada has clearly and consistently emphasized, since their publication began over 25 years ago, that the LICOs (Low Income Cut Offs) are quite different from measures of poverty. They reflect a consistent and well-defined methodology that identifies those who are substantially worse off than the average. In the absence of an accepted definition of poverty, these statistics have been used by many analysts who wanted to study the characteristics of the relatively worse off families in Canada.”.
What about the growing numbers of unemployed who don’t even make it in the LICO’s list? Many out there who are not even a blip on the radar of the official statistical grouping.
A few days back while interviewing Albertans on the impact of inflation, I was told the impact is just beginning to trickle down. Janice Melnychuk of Vibrant communities says, “People are going to have to choose between buying food and paying the house rent and this will complicate health issues and put burden on food banks. She says it is time for not just Alberta but the government of Canada to have a cohesive social policy”.
Small businesses are smarting under the impact of the recent recession as also inflation. A few grocery shops in Edmonton have had to close shop because it was difficult to pay for trucked food from the U.S and other countries.
An index of Canadian small business confidence fell to a six-month low in May as optimism, particularly in Ontario, slipped in the wake of high energy prices.

The question that keeps doing the rounds in my mind is when will there be talk about all inclusive economic strategies that lift people out of poverty, instead of social doles.” Social hand outs for a large percentage of the population are a clear indicator of the lack of economic progress of a society, however advanced. It is also reflective of a lack of planning in terms of preparing future generations for jobs of the future.
We want to be optimistic…who does not? Yet there is no sign that there is a plan to create more jobs over and above those that have been lost temporarily or forever due to structural changes in our economy. What is the incentive for small businesses or even large businesses to set up shop and bring back businesses that have been lost to other countries. Whenever I pick up the phone and dial customer service for existing telecoms services, I get transported to either the Philippines or India. This despite the fact that there are Canadians (refugees/ new Canadians) who may be desperate enough to work at lesser wages.Yet, we prefer to transfer these jobs to other countries and allow Canadians to fend poverty.
What is needed is not money kept aside for doles but economic policies specifically targeted at the poor. The doles can act as income suppliments.
The Human Resource Ministry needs to be pro-active and think of ways of re training Canadians to take up jobs which are parcelled out to temporary foreign workers. The excuse given out is that Canadians are either not willing or not trained enough in those jobs. Poverty and unemployment are also an outcome of the lack of imaginative thinking of those in charge of our planning.
With government spending on health occupying 12% of GDP and growing and debt, both individual and government weighing down on expenditure the scope for social responsibility of governments is pretty much restricted. Even in oil rich Alberta, gap between the incomes of the richest 20% and the poorest 20% of Albertans has increased by 62.9%. In 1999, the top 20% earned 14.5 times more than the lowest 20%. Alberta now has the highest after-tax in-come gap between rich and poor of any province.
Statistics show that Alberta now boasts the biggest gap between the rich and poor of any Canadian province.
Those that are proponents of a free market economy and minimal government intervention should be alarmed that under the Conservatives, government bulge increased to 3.6 million in the third quarter, up 0.3% from the 4th Q of 2010. Statistics Canada says, “Public sector employees represented 10.6% of the total Canadian population in the first quarter, unchanged during the last year. This proportion had been rising slowly since the first quarter of 2001 when it was 9.7%.The three levels of general government (federal, provincial and territorial, and local) accounted for 38.2% of total public sector employment in the first quarter. Educational institutions represented 29.5%, followed by health and social service institutions (23.5%) and government business enterprises (8.7%).
Meanwhile economic data does not look that promising. Exports between the year 2000 and 2010 period dipped down into negative territory, roughly about ten percent. Consumer spending at about 64% and government expenditure at nearly 25% is moving the economy. With a huge rise in personal and government debt this is likely to see halt and then the real impact of the recession shows.
Foreign investment of Canadian securities has slowed down and investment in Canadian bonds seems to have shown a marked downturn.
Foreign direct investment, that had seen a near 10% plunge in 2010 saw a slight growth in 2011 but remains a far cry from levels seen in 2007.

References:

Canadian poverty

RBC reports

Crisis of religion

2010-06-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

Another personal piece of writing. How I hate these but they act as a kind of catharsis. While doing a course on religion with the International Centre for Journalists, I realised how divisive religion still is. I also realised that I love my God, adore Him and yet I feel scared talking about religion. Why?
There are a myriad of reasons for this.

As I go through my journey in life I get more and more convinced that religion will be exploited and abused. My fear of religion may have been subconscious so far but now the urgency with which it seeps into my conscious being is perhaps the BP Oil spill rate - perhaps faster.

Why? Im Hindu, I am living in one of the most advanced countries in the west. Why fear? I was brought up in a Catholic environment-having studied all my life in privilaged private Catholic schools run by Irish nuns. I learned catechism and went to the church etc. I know Christianity as much as Hinduism. So why fear? What about the west should or is scaring people?

I can only say its the feeling more than the articulation of facts behind my fear that is important. Somehow we easteners - have an inherent intutive consciousness that could perhaps be a substitute for the over rationalisation in the western culture. I fear in over rationalisation we are either hiding something or are missing the simple links.

I guess being a kashmiri Pandit ( for the less initiated in Hinduism, it is the highest caste in the stratified Hindu world of class and religion ), I have always been more spiritual than religious. Hinduism in any case does talk about the essential spirit of being a Hindu as one who is a good Christian, a good Jew, and all the other religions ). Vivekananda is worth more than a read.

I guess India instead of rising up to its yogic and spiritual leadership potential just sunk into the quagmire of regional politics and the confusion of its own growth run amock. Now in a world dominated by economic and social chaos, religion may find it difficult to speak its own independent language. Religion as practised by some extreme groups from various religions is just helping those that want to create a human divide for specific political reasons. That is why it must be stopped. Protest must be silent as epitomised by Gandhi.

Kashmir, not just now but for ages has been one of the most turbulent places on earth. I guess that has to do with its combination of geopolitical, strategic placement on the physical contours of our earth as also with its breathtaking beauty. Majestic, untrammelled, beckoning, luring. Most of all the intellectual and academic contouring of its human masses.

Nestled deep inside me I guess is the fear of generations of Kashmiri pandits, hunted down and mowed to bare existential proportions as a race. As a child you are conditioned especially if your small dwindling numbers keep coming under attack. But as I grew up and was exposed to this as yet beautiful multicultural world of ours, the fear subsided till one day I paid the heavy price of defying ancestral knowledge and getting lured by all encompassing humanity into believeing that these were just old men's tales.

Being the daughter of a journalist with illustrious credentials, I was always wanting to outshine. I followed in the footsteps of my father and becamse a fearless outspoken critic of vested political, business, social interests. No one told me that journalists can no longer be fearless. I thought as any young journalist that no one could touch me. Uppercaste ruling elite Kashmiri Hindu woman, I tried to keep reaching beyond every limit. Little did I know that as I aimed for the stars in the sky, my gaze fixed upwards, was oblivious to movements on the ground.

As a reporter I started covering my birthplace and though it was business and political journalism, I knew I was a Hindu minority in a muslim state and had to be trail blazingly honest. Like every journalist my dream was to meet and interview all those "Islamic fundamentalists" who wanted complete seperation from India. Along the way I met and interviewed people from the establishment as well.

I cared a damn. It was a story and I had to get to speak to these men and understand their psyche. I interviewed many of them and many times felt the shadow of state presence. I cared a damn - I was a Hindu. I could not go wrong. India is a majority Hindu state. This arrogance cost me. Journalists I realised could no longer claim to be a brand apart from decisive politics practised by governments. They may have their own compulsions but I never understood those. I dont understand them even now.

While covering Kashmir I realised that political uprisings have roots in economic deprivation, marginalisation. Somewhere the political system had gone wrong and now it was all about the rift between Muslims and Hindus. Yet I kept on highlighting the battered state of the economy, the isolation of the government from its people, the casting aside by muslim politicians of their own muslim constituents. At the peak of elections, there was no face to the politician asking for votes. Thousands of expectant voters but politicians too scared to venture out. Yet the elections kept taking place.... and those that were the privelaged ... those that were in with the elite clique..... (nothing unique to India)..... kept winning. And underneath the surface the simmering kept getting intense till it had to burst one day. Perhaps the scenario was more complex as there were outside countries involved as well. Perhaps I'm being too simplistic, perhaps....

The one lesson, journalists themselves must beware of is aspersions being cast on them for reasons far from obvious. This new religious war is far too expensive for media as it is in its present day and form to win....
That breaks my heart. Nothing breaks my heart more than innocent victimisation. The machinery of journalism is worn and itself in the hands of those that run the other machinery. Im scared for journalism and I'm scared for democracy. That is why now more than ever we as journalists need to be cautious in reporting Islam or any other religious issue. Most of all we need to fight for openess.

A leaky dilemna

2010-06-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

What is playing out in the Gulf Of Mexico had been envisaged in a 2008 CRS report for members of the U.S congress. Titled 'Oil spills in U.S coastal waters, background governance and issues for Congress', the report warns that America may have lost its expertise and institutional knowledge to effectively respond to a major oil spill.

One of the sources of this conclusion perhaps was the 'After Action Report' by the U.S coast guard after completion of its 2004 Spill of National Significance (SONS) exercise. Here are some extracts from the report: 'Oil spill response personnel did not appear to have even a basic knowledge of the equipment required to support salvage or spill clean up operations.There was a shortgae of personnel with experience to fill key positions. Many middle level spill management staff had never worked a large spill and some had never been involved in an exercise. As a result some issues and complex processes unique to spill response were not effectively addressed."

The 2008 CRS report expresses concern about a possible increase in oil spills considering that oil production and import are expected to rise and with this the transportation of oil domestic or international to refineries and ultimately to the consumer. The report states that American pipelines remain a major source of worry. "American oil pipleine infrastructure is old and in some areas pipleines are operating well beyond their intended service life". Most of the U.S oil imports (55%) arrive via the Gulf Coast. Of the oil spills within the coast guard jurisdiction (marine and coastal area) nearly 50 per cet of the incidents and the volume spilled have been in the Gulf Of Mexico and its shoreline states. The Gulf must surely remain an area of special attention.

What is worrisome is the fact that coast guard data on recorded spills from facilities and pipelines does not match the actual numbers happening out there both on land and at sea.

The BP blow out must shine the spotlight on other seepages minor or major offshore or onshore like those from abandoned or orphan wells.Reports clearly indicate that operators may not have the required funds to properly shut down offshore oil platforms at the end of the facilities operating life or while idling. As with many onshore wells, this potential problem is exacerbated by the steady transfer of offshore leases from major oil companies to independents as production declines. Despite bonding requirements, public liability remains a concern.The General Accounting Office conducted a detailed study in 1993 examining offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. GAO’s estimates for the full cost of dismantling platforms and plugging wells under the OCS program ranged from $4.2 to $4.4 billion. Yet, surety bonds in place covered only 1.6 percent of this prospective liability. According to MMS, total offshore liability has since risen to approximately $5.5 billion, of which approximately $1 billion is covered by surety bonds.Although the coverage ratio has risen from 1.6 to 18 percent over the past years, the potential public exposure tops $4.5 billion.

The cost of coverage ranges from one to four percent of the bonded amount depending on factors like drilling equipment reseves left underneath the well, amount of collateral. However, the one percent cost applies only to financially strong operators with full collateral for the coverage. A two percent rate is the realistic minimum for the independents. There are fears that these firms will make up the bulk of the unfunded liability in the Gulf. Based on a premium rate of two to four percent, addressing the liability shortfall would cost existing producers $53 to $106 million per year.Currently, the federal taxpayer bears this liability.

How many of the existing abandoned/orphaned oil facilities are leaking oil into the water?

Some may argue smaller amounts of oil leaking into the Gulf should not be a cause of concern. Chronic low level exposure to oil contaminants can significantly affect the survival and reproductive success of marine birds and mammals. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have confirmed that oil pollution concentrates of as low as one part per billion could stunt pink salmon growth and cause other chronic health problems for the fish. The NMFS has also confirmed that the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill will continue to kill or damage future generations of pink salmon

Clearly government needs to have a fresh look at these and other related issues keeping in mind that even an international oil company like BP underplayed the possibility of an under water blow out,though such occurances are not out of the ordinary. More surprising that despite the oil pollution act of 1990 BP had no plans on how to respond to a worst case scenario though the act clearly states that the owner or operator of a vessel or facility must have these plans. Congress did not intend for every vessel to have on board all the personnel and equipment needed to respond to a worst case spill but vessels must have a plan and procedures to call upon, typically through a contractual relationship, the necessary equipment and personnel for reponding to a wrost case spill.

The act extended the role and scope of the National Contingency Plan, establishing a multi layered planning and response system to improve preparedness and response to spills in marine environments. Among other things the act also requred the President to establish procedures and standards for responsing to worst case oil spill scenarios.

Clearly there has been failure at more than one level.

Add to this the statistical knowledge sitting with government departments that in recent years annual spill volumes from offshore facilities in federal waters have increased and a vast majority of these spills have taken place in the Gulf Of Mexico.

And despite all the noise by the U.S state governors in the wake of the recent deep water spill, the precise volume and incident frequency in state waters is difficult to determine. Reportedly oil spills in state waters account for twice the oil discharges of activities in federal waters. Majority of the oil extraction operations are located in state waters off the coast of Louisiana and Texas.

Joe's and Mary's and senseless cities!

2010-05-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

As I walk the giant portals of the world's famous cities, decadence and a lack of coherence. Time’s passage through civilisation gets frozen in static images of repetitive models. Every city emulates standing towers reaching out heavenward, Progress marked by sameness. Lurking behind the iconic towers, the emblems of a growing divide, the shanty towns! These are 21st century cities divided into ghettos of colour, race or social stature. They walk a future not of amalgamation but further sub stratification. I am your ordinary man and do not ask me to shut up and go somewhere else with my woes. Even if I leave, you will see millions nay billions standing behind. Do you have the time and the energy and the resources to shoo us all away - strewn as we are across crowded global cities. As long as a few morsels go down our gullet there is a quiet. The hope of a better tomorrow always quietens the remonstrances of today. Now we see the city structure stuttering and so with nothing more to loose and being the first to lose more than anyone else, we rise up once again even amidst bellowing smoke and organised structure. It’s perhaps in your interest to not gamble the quiet away and however small keep the crumbs falling our way. We believe in capitalism and democracy more than you...we still have dreams to fulfill... wonder why we are not there as yet. you should be cynicalyou've seen it all. From New York to Dubai to Singapore it’s not just the growing divide that is a common binding thread. There’s something more... wait...first more of the same. Ah! It’s the same human developmental model shaping the world from the foothills of the Himalaya’s to the slopes of the Rockies. Here different is weird. It’s the Wal-Mart model, one size fits all. Yet there is a difference. It’s the difference of perception of who we are. Somehow this may shock a few westerners, but it’s time everyone evaluate the double standards in their own back yards. Are we attributing to each of our civilisations too much self worth? The belief in the superiority of the west overwhelming only in so far as those subjected to unfair stealthy double standards keep a hushed quiet,? In the East, open turbulence. In the east backwardation...In the west still a simmering underbelly belching out once in a while to keep itself from exploding. In the west the feeling that all that glitters is not gold. Behind the savvy lies the insecurity and greed. A city in the deep north! The silos look familiar or are they more insulated? No effort to hush the whispers. Looks and gestures encircling the lives of lesser mortals. No way to ever unleash untruths spun. The divide is deep. Fortressed walls making it hard to decipher the humming within the inner circle. Here what passes through the underbelly of the cities high life is revered, Who cares its second hand. It’s titillating .Cities decadent living off sordid details of some unknown’s personal life! Half truths spread by entrenched institutions that benefit from it all. And the more they spin the freedom mantra, the tighter the invisible grip on those that inhabit the fringe .But only the fool hardy will try to unmask the veil. Not just the men and women of colour, those that thought they could find true liberation from now left behind structured tyrannical institutions and those that already had been left behind within the city by generations of ostracism and neglect. Yet the vice like circle of buddies and power brokers and rule setters and institution gatekeepers share a secret. It’s the secret that no matter how close to them you stand, you can never decipher. Theirs is an impregnable world. Yet those that see the half smiles and the knowing glances fathom they are being trivialised. But here it’s not for them to act and question. For them it is to accept or die under the shadow of an ominous half truth that has already blanketed their lives. To be your own person here means you have to live beyond the circle, on the periphery. Here the divide is far greater than between the rich and poor. The more I push north, into the land of freedom for all, the worse the divide. The silos multiply in numbers and depth. Yet any whimpering any questioning by them that perceive themselves at the centre of the cities random talk are relegated to the la’la land. Hush no one fights the power structure .Never mind people friendly institutes meant to preserve the common man. There are common men there who have risen above their station and at no cost want to start once again from scratch. They are all one coherent whole and to fight one means fighting all. There is another facet to these cities. Those meant to keep the chaos at bay, those empowered to prevent the anarchy have mastered the blame game. But can those that were to guarantee smooth running and compliance be absolved. By their very essence corporations are meant to make profit and we know that as much as we know that governments are elected only to keep in check the inherent greed of corporations and if they fail they are more to be blamed because their charter is prevention. Yet as we talk of the government why do we construe just a political party. The government is much more. Parties are accountable, fearful of the electoral wrath and are sitting atop a permanent structure inherited year after year no matter what party wins its way to power. So the year after year layered government support structure remains faceless, nameless and blameless. Is that fair? The difference between the I that is part of the chaotic crowd and the I that is part of the ruling elite is a thin line. The I that is part of the chaotic crowd got pushed to the periphery because of his or her inability to play tag to those that formed the ruling elite. Before you earmark me left of centre or even left, pause and think. Is it fair that you and I and the countless numbers absolve ourselves of the blame by slinking away into the crowd and crying out for our rights when we were the ones who were in - charge? My apologies to those who may find this blog offensive. The purpose of this blog is to reach out to the finer aspects of human thought and sensibility. Attacking government and corporations is the latest fad. But look close, look deep and answer, 'who forms the government, who forms the corporations'. It’s the Joe’s and the Mary's - the you and I’s of the world.

Spill baby Spill

2010-05-02T22:44:00.000-07:00

Way back in 2000, the Pacific States Oil Spill Task Force sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation warning it of the threat of a major or even catastrophic spill in U.S waters. The letter cautioned the government that,"current capability to respond to such a spill warrants further consideration".

One of the recommendations of the task force was that 'the U.S Coast Guard (USCG) stress preparedness by emphasizing unannounced drills, performance standards in addition to planning standards and large scale regional, equipment deployment drills .'

Giving details of the risk assessment report, the letter spoke specifically of oil pollution from offshore exploration especially in deep waters, far from shore. "The further offshore, the more coastline will be impacted,' the report added. It said,"spill response planning for offshore platforms should be focused on those areas in the U.S. being aggressively leased and explored i.e, the Gulf Of Mexico and Alaska. The USCG should reevaluate the area plans for these regions to ensure that there is adequate response equipment and capability to deal with a blowout scenario".

Suggestions also included, a regional approach, the need to maintain a "trained cadre of personnel and raise, if necessary, the cap on the Oil Spill Response Fund. It also pointed out to the lack of organised, coordinated information collection effort across Federal Agency lines.

Like other studies before and after, this seems to have filled up void electronic spaces in government offices.

The current liability for a spill in the U.S rests with the responsible party. So the government can afford to absolve itself. However the same report had warned the government that "maintaining a viable capability within the private sector is becoming less cost effective in a business sense. The advisability of augmenting the government's role in marine salvage should be considered'.

So, what could have been a well planned and well practised response to a well envisaged emergency is turning out to be yet another exercise in learning. Cure through trial and error even as 210,000 gallons of oil gush into the Gulf of Mexico every day!

Imagine a hospital operation theatre and a surgeon trying to experiment with various surgical procedures even as the patient lies dying there. At the end of the day the legal rights of the surgeon may trump over those of the dead patient and the doctor may go Scot free.

In my opinion the U.S government is as responsible as the oil company B.P for this poor show of who's in charge and what needs to be done when push comes to shove.

Here are some more reasons why there should be frustration at the government response :

Too much ambition or perhaps greed for profit on the part of BP? After the Wall Street debacle, this is not much of a surprise. Yet after Exxon Valdez and Katrina, the government (and the government is huge though all the blame, going by press coverage and the propensity to ask questions like, "has the President spoken to the BP officials?, nestles on the shoulders of the President and not the respective departments) can offer little explanation as to why every time when catastrophe strikes it's caught off guard. Perhaps its time the US government start coming forward as the mammoth structure that it is and stop taking shelter, when disaster strikes under the White House umbrella.

Coming back to British Petroleum. The company, has a history of cost cutting especially in the area of maintenance. The 2007 Baker report into the Texas city blast questioned British Petroleum safety performance and its willingness to implement lessons learnt from previous serious accidents including the one in Grangemouth, Scotland in the year 2000. The panel emphasised that short term cost cuts were apparent in both cases. A report from the chemical safety and hazards investigation board (CSB) said that there was an iron clad case for pinning some of the responsibility on budget cuts. The report pointed out that between 1992 and 2000 there was an 84 per cent cut in maintenance spending at Texas city.

Keeping the task force report in mind and BP's track record and the fact that drilling in such deep waters is a recent exercise, extra precautions/inspections needed to be taken.

- Reportedly, drilling in the depths of Gulf of Mexico is a different game altogether than what BP is used to- having operated mostly in Alaska and North Sea. Both are relatively simple.

-The sheer geological complexity of Gulf of Mexico particularly around mobile salt and trapping and imaging problems created by the mobile salt make exploration difficult in the Gulf

An interview given a few years back talks of the ambitious plan of BP and how they saw an opportunity to transform the business. "Instead of sustaining production of 200,000 barrels of oil a day,we would potentially grow a business that could deliver 500,000 barrels a day". Deeper exploration pushed production levels and the target was to keep pushing for higher and higher daily production. Was the deep water horizon oil rig built with these additional capabilities? Of course now there are reports of accidents and how the rig, drilling the world's deepest offshore well, may have suffered a structural fault in one of the accidents.

Did any of the government departments bother to check the implications of all this?

David Rainey, exploration manager for BP in the deep water Gulf of Mexico in a March 2002 interview said, "one of the lessons we have learned about the Gulf of Mexico is never to take it for granted. It will continue to surprise us .. we are going to do our best to stay humble and avoid the trap of thinking we have all the answers.'

Little did he know at that time how prophetic these words would turn out.

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

2010-04-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Fact or Fiction? You Decide!

2010-04-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

As the night approaches its first preteen hour, I step out for a breath of fresh air. The thin silvery sliver in a well lit sky belies my dark mood. As is my wont, I try to find a dark corner to communicate. Difficult task- even the school playground is so well lit. There are so many lights everywhere, its difficult to hide. Yet I had to find a dark spot- just to mingle with the dark. Do you know why just an open school playground with a few lights would not do?

Perhaps its my disdain of electronic prying eyes! Perhaps its the human shadows always wanting to know, leaving no stone unturned to prowl even the deep dark recesses of dingy mundane human existence.

Strange that I should be writing this blog- Being a business journalist most of my life, I hate unfolding my personal thoughts except on scraps of paper tucked away in unkempt plastic bags in some dark corner of my house. By now you may have understood my relationship with the dark. The dark never betrays you or so I thought!

Anyway, coming back to my story. Eventually I decided to brace a bit of light and trace my steps back and forth in the school playground. What the hell - I could always duck the standing posts reflecting their ugly yellow halo ! That's precisely what I did. I squatted on the grass - just so that I diminished my physical stature and evaded the circumference of artificial human light.
Glued to my ears my faithful i-pod. Lethal combination of raw emotion, blocked senses and a gaze transfixed beyond the human world. I was safe now and could be myself- just myself and yes confident that I had evaded the relentless electronic eye.

My dear reader I am the sorts who has always learnt what is the simplest lesson for others, the most difficult way. Call it naivety or a lack of faithful comprehension of the complexities of modern world - I have many times fallen with a thud.
I am also getting convinced that there is the hunter and the hunted. The more you look and behave like a deer, the more hunted you are. Is it the deer's fault, I keep debating with myself? Never found the answer to that one.
Yes, indeed Im going to take up this battle with the God's but first I have to go through this life.

Ah! again I diverted. So coming back to my story. Suddenly, in- fact barely a few minutes into my squatting position I saw a helicopter hovering in the sky. I did not bother- why should I? Woe! I should have. In an instant the helicopter was descending and a flood of light from the front of the helicopter, seered the playground. It was as if a hundred thousand bulbs were flashing. I was mooted - thinking this must be a falling meteor. But just a minute back I thought I had seen the helicopter high up in the sky- how could it get converted to this ball of white light descending from the sky? I am normally brave but this was not normal. I ran for dear life and vow! the light followed me . Were these aliens ? Honest to God that flashed in my mind!!!! The other thought that flashed was perhaps it's a meteor or a huge star falling from the sky.

It is difficult to explain how low the helicopter was flying, how powerful the lights were and how dedicated they were in following me across the field. I felt like a trapped deer running from a thousand traps. I ran up a steep hillock and down and up and down and thought it was my imagination that the helicopter was following me. I must be mad to think that someone would be following an inconsequential me - and that too in a well known school playground.
After a minute I was convinced I was in Iraq and the horror of it all- that they may strike me from the sky !!! This could not be Edmonton. Some strange quirk of fate must have transposed me to Iraq or Afghanistan.

All this was passing through my mind in those two minutes which seemed like an eternity. So many emotions and scenarios flashed in my mind and I realised what it must be for thousands and thousands of poeple being haunted day in and day out by the helicopters of powerful nations in their own homeland. This could not be happening to me. This was a public place and I was doing what I do everyday- visiting the school park - albeit this once not walking but sitting on the grass and listening to music. It was not even eleven in the night. I was wondering whether I should - instead of running, fall flat on the ground. All survival techniques flashed through my mind! I wasnt sure what to do.

Suddenly I saw a similar flashlight on the ground and for a moment I thought it was another helicopter. However I realised it was a human being flashing a powerful beam of light on me. It took me sometime to realise it was perhaps the police and I was being told to lie down on the ground and show them both my hands. I was numb. I fell flat on the ground and showed up my hands. I was wondering if they would shoot me or perhaps taser me and once again my mind travelled to Iraq and Afghanistan and I thought of the humiliation of decent men and women who perhaps have to go through this many times over and sometimes many times over in the length and breadth of the same day.

The police officer came close and asked me why I was running. I told her I was scared. She was young and humane and beautiful and so polite. I was glad she was kind to me and explained that the helicopter in the sky belonged to the police and they were on some errand. That I should not run the next time as they would get the wrong signal. I did not mind her doing her job. Is that what its come to! Monitoring well lit parks at ten in the night. How safe is our city? This in a part of the city that is one of the safest- or so they say.

Im convinced no one can escape the electronic eye-its omnipresent!
One day perhaps I'd have mastered it enough to give it the slip. Sorry I wont share that secret lest Im tracked down!

Freedom, freedom, freedom. Ah freedom in a free land. Ah for an inch of truely free land. Is there any left? No wonder I seek the solace of darkness. But now I know better. Or do I? If its a choice between a dark solitary corner and a repeat of this experience, I'd rather choose the latter.
To watch the sky from a dark corner of the earth is truly the essence of my freedom! So what if I have to squat!

I told you I am naive or perhaps I love the freedom of defiance! But I promise you the next time I get into trouble, I will not ask for your sympathy. This once its surely mine.

Sovereign debt

2010-03-09T00:02:00.000-08:00

Nearly two hundred countries across the globe are spending borrowed money. Internal and external debt as a percentage of GDP is alarming. Consider that in the United Kingdom external debt alone stands at over 365 percent of GDP. With a snail speed annual GDP growth of less than a percentage point and a euro zone external trade deficit of 32.1 billion euros, it is not difficult to comprehend the debt trap that is building up on this front. The current economic global crisis appears small compared to what sovereign defaults could do. To put it in broader perspective, Iceland, Ireland, Germany and France have an external debt to GDP ratio of 998, 960, 185 and 237 percent respectively.

Add to that other debts like consumer debt. Grant Thornton research shows that the total outstanding UK consumer debt amassed through mortgages, loans and credit cards has increased by 7.3% to 1,444 billion pounds over the past year, up from 1,346 billion pounds in June 2007

Personal debt has forged ahead of UK GDP.

United States external debt stands at 95 percent of GDP and consumer debt is nearly 2 trillion. Additionally total household mortgage debt is nearly 7.8 trillion.

This does not include other debts like Implicit debt which in many countries is not even earmarked in government coffers.

One would expect structural changes to be enforced on these economies. Yet the IMF and rating agencies like Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s remain silent. Why then the double standards? Do we need new institutions with more objectivity and lesser association with the developed world? If the sovereign rating of these countries is downgraded who would lend them money and more importantly what rate of interest would they end up paying? What would be the impact on their top notch companies? High interest pay outs alone could have negative impacts on these governments and organisations.

Consider the recent example of Greece that issued a 5 billion euro bond. The Greek ten year bond yield is 6.6 percent compared with 3.2 per cent for the German bond. As more and more governments tap the open market to borrow, money will become even more expensive. In Europe alone, the Greek will be tapping the market soon for another 70 billion and the Spanish treasury needs to raise 76.8 billion Euros through debt issuance this year. Britain may follow soon and who knows who else. Yet instead of talking about the pressure this will put on borrowers, the higher cost of borrowing which is only going to get worse, Ms Angela Merkel of Germany spoke of oversubscription of the Greek bond as good news and a sign of confidence in the Greek nation. Perhaps the German and French banks who scooped up the issue will make a killing on it.

The increasing risk of Greece defaulting on its debt has pushed up the price to insure $10 million of Greek bonds 42% - from $282,000 in early January to more than 400,000 in February —there will be institutions that will profit from a default. Trading credit default swaps has already begun

Germany and France have called for a crackdown on what they see as speculators amplifying Greece's problem by short-selling CDS contracts based on the country's sovereign debt.

So what happened to the new financial framework that the G-8 was talking about?

Meanwhile the social uprising in Greece is an example of how difficult it will be to introduce economic reform and austerity measures in the developed world.

What happens if at some point in time future, governments cannot pay up? Will they be forced to sell off assets. There has been mention (by a prominent German at least) that Greece should sell its islands instead of tapping the debt market. That is telling !

Iceland referendum rejecting plans to repay Britain and Netherlands is an example of what could be yet another outcome.

Perhaps we need new caps on government borrowing. For instance a country debt to reserve ratio or a cap on borrowing.

Remember the mean restructuring of Latin American economies as also the Asian economies – tens of thousands were rendered jobless, tens of thousands more were thrust below the poverty line and governments in these countries were forced to hammer down much of the public sector to its last nails. Not to mention across the board structural changes before even a penny was handed out.

No such reform in the Euro zone economies or the United States!. The trend seems to be borrowing more and spending more and when it comes to job creation, a top U.S economist said the other day on CNN that she was certain that the next big employment wave was not sitting atop the Green economy. ” We do not know where the next set of jobs will come from”, she added. Scary that no one is actually in charge out there. Everything is chance and market dynamics. There is no thought process in determining future economies and yet we are funnelling billions into the economy to create jobs. Hope at least some jobs will outlast the recession.

So if no one is directing economic growth towards a particular path why spend money within and outside of the government in forecasting, risk management, project assessment etc. Let us just wait for things to happen themselves and in the process save public money.

The interview was an eye opener and a reminder that the world’s economic health needs better doctors. Needs diagnosis and cure and not just waiting for chance to get us ashore. Something has failed in a complete Laissez fare and perhaps its human morality.

Thank God the Yuan is undervalued. Imagine the repercussions on purchasing power of common people if the Yuan were to become stronger overnight! Who cares China has an artificial advantage. Thanks God their economy is doing well –giving us someone to do business with !

Whither India thy foreign policy?

2009-05-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

“It seemed I knew this earth too well to feel its heave and its revulsion
Expel my half ingested being from its twisted guts---

So wrote Dutch Burgher Jean Arasanayagam, married to a Hindu Tamil and left homeless in the 1983 attacks on Tamils in Sri Lanka.

She was prophetic-

"It's all happened before and will happen again

And we the onlookers

But now I'm in it

It's happened to me

At last history has meaning "

Two decades, some years later, over 70,000 had no time to feel the heave and revulsion of the earth they called home. They were completely ingested into a dark abysmal womb, blank eyed wondering why? Over 300,000 look on from behind barbed wires, history taking on meaning for them but the rest of us, onlookers, all flipping on to yet another chapter in history.

Yet brick by brick, year after year, generation after generation, those now dead and those relegated to a fenced destiny for who knows how long, reminded constantly that they are Tamils and must be punished for the sins of their brothers in race not even blood – built on the back of their hard labour, the mainstay of an economy they are now struggling to be again part of.
After Independence, income from plantation products – constituted more than 70 per cent of Sri Lankan export earnings. Many of the Tamils exported from India by their then colonial ruler Britain, to work on tea plantations bore the brunt.

Post independence many steps were taken by the Sri Lankan government that alienated the minority Tamils not least among them being the Ceylon Citizenship Act-1948. Other measures, to name but a few : changing the demographic balance in the east to favour the majority Sinhalese and making Sinhala the sole official language of the country.

This blog is not about evoking sympathy for the violence that some of the Tamils and especially the LTTE used to draw the attention of the world to their plight. India lost Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to that violence. He was awarded a gruesome death at the hands of the LTTE, for his efforts at brokering – through the Indo –Lanka accord, a power devolution treaty as also official status for Tamil language. However the treaty did not find favour with either the Tamils or the Sinhalese.

This piece is about being able to enter into a dialogue about the two sides of a coin. Excesses of the LTTE are no secret– but there is no smoke without fire. In 1983 when thirteen Sinhalese soldiers were killed, Sinhalese in the south went on a rampage and voter lists were used to systematically locate the homes of Tamils.

Today once again we stand mute, powerless to challenge China or even its satellite state Sri Lanka. The 1997 arms deal between Sri Lanka and China is no secret. That China has played a pivotal role in Sri Lanka's civil war must be acknowledged by those battering the Tamils genuine aspirations. Cessation apart(that is just not permissable) they must be given due recognition and place in Sri Lankan society and economy.

Hapless civilian populations being curtailed in refugee camps encircled by barbed wires -these are not the LTTE but people torn asunder. Fresh from the wounds of witnessing assault by both the LTTE and their own government, they await a tougher journey even as they mourn their dead ones.

And even those that have no sympathy for those that now cry isolated tears - watch out- we – all of us by our mute spectatorship are sowing the seeds of a problem that shall erupt –someday.
Consider the nearly three hundred thousand recently displaced people, mostly Tamils, living in abysmal conditions behind barbed wars. Not far away another nearly five million Afghan refugees biding their time in Pakistan and Iran. Add to these the nearly two million Pakistani refugees within Pakistan fleeing fighting in the SWAT valley.

Add to this the list of people displaced by climate change, floods, earthquakes and even poverty and hunger. Add refugees from conflict torn Africa and put the jigsaw together. It’s indeed a mind boggling man made problem being made more and more complex even as we speak.
My belief that the refugee issue, be it due to war, environmental displacement or bad governance and poverty, is going to be a major international issue is growing. So is the belief that the United Nations institutions looking into human rights and refugee issues need to be given more teeth. To my understanding the very structure of the International organisation acts as a speed –brake to its often lofty intentions. Backing from China and its growing number of satellite allies is more than enough to absolve in fact honour those that stand in the box.

This is reinforced by recent developments in Sri Lanka. Powerful backers of Sri Lanka like China have on Wednesday managed to defeat a resolution calling for investigations that the Tigers prevented civilians from leaving the conflict zone, and that government forces used heavy artillery on the densely populated conflict zone and killed rebels trying to surrender.

In-fact the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Wednesday a resolution which praised the government of Sri Lanka for its commitment to human rights, while condemning the Tamil Tiger rebels. The resolution, tabled by Sri Lanka itself and other nations, including China.
This, despite the fact that the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported aid groups are not being given complete access to the displaced persons camps.

Wonder where the United States is on all this. Perhaps it’s standing on loose moral ground, not having been able to bring to task violations of human rights in some parts of the world. In its absence, China has taken the high moral ground. Oh, it has its own backyard to protect --
The writing is loud and clear on the wall.

European countries, along with Canada, Chile and Mexico had backed a probe, and also urged Sri Lanka to fully open up refugee camps to international aid agencies. Even the International Committee of the Red Cross which usually does not criticise publically is complaining that the Sri Lanka government denied it access to the war zone in the final weeks of the conflict. The Red Cross has also been barred from visiting some refugee camps.

The world has no sympathy with the LTTE. However are we getting confused here between the displaced voiceless Tamils and the LTTE? Are we creating the right circumstances to create another LTTE from among the wounded and the pained?
An emboldened Sri Lanka has warned the world not to give shelter to fleeing Tamil refugees.

“War is an internal matter and does not warrant outside interference”, says China
Yet what makes me sad is the attitude of India in all this. India must speak out and let China know that this is no more just a Sri Lanka – China problem. Refugees are filtering into India and she is the country to be most impacted by the influx of the refugees. Not just now- thousands poured from Sri Lanka into its southern state of Tamil Nadu even way back in the 1980’s. Why are these Tamil refugees not being sent back to Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka says it is going to sort the refugee problem- going to rehabilitate them. How? With a fiscal imbalance and foreign currency reserves just enough to buy a month worth of imports, facing a balance of payment crisis, who in a global recession will give Sri Lanka the money to rebuild not just its own economy but also rebuild the battered northern and eastern provinces . Till then what happens to the refugees?
Perhaps here is where China will extend further support. A stretched IMF and a doubly stretched United States has left the field open for China. In fact China is Sri Lanka’s most important donor. Economic interests aside, strategic interests are playing a vital role here. China already has surveillance vessels in the Indian Ocean.
India wake up! You are hemmed in – flanked on all sides by problem States aligning around a powerful emerging superpower.

Defending Big Bad Oil

2009-05-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Something has been snapping inside of me. Perhaps this state of mind has been coming a year or two. Perhaps it took Canada to purge me of dirty idealism. I think I am getting cured silently but not gently.
One of my idealistic state of mind opinions was being opinionated about Platonic dilemmas such as the ideal "State of a State" and "Ideals of Ideal Corporations". Too bad, too sad it took me so many decades of life to understand the implicit reality of the state of States and Corporations and those that run them or inhabit them, including myself.

"It's the money stupid!"

No wonder - Now (ofcourse its never too late !)I can catch the pulse behind the whining.

As an energy journalist, I have raised many questions about big oil. I think I have reported the truth, based on interviews, research and visits to many oil producing countries. Today, I have added more perspective on my understanding of oil. I feel I have matured as an energy journalist.
I have been objective in my print and television reporting even as in my mind many competing questions have jostled for attention. Why did the oil companies behave the way they did, say in a country like Nigeria?. Why are many oil producing countries still struggling with poverty?
Initially my mind comprehended it all as part of the very nature of these big giant oil companies. Big bad oil!
When I shifted base from the Middle East to Canada I never thought I will have anything to do with energy. As destiny would have it, I got embroiled in the most controversial aspect of energy – environment and energy production.
I fought hard like many others,in making people understand, that environmental inputs need to be given a financial value as these are common resources. I fought hard to talk about a balance between environment and the economy. But the questions kept nagging me. Why do these companies not pay for the environmental resources they use?.
Perhaps the answer lies in concentrating harder on the other side of the coin.
What about governments? After all governments are the negotiators. Oil companies are doing what their mandate is – getting the best terms for their shareholders and squeezing governments for concessions. Are governments honing their negotiation skills?
An important lesson to learn is from neighbouring Alaska where oil tax at Prudhoe Bay is 25 per cent of the net profit of a barrel of oil when prices are at or below $52 and escalates as oil prices go up.
It’s not the oil industries problem if governments do not protect the rights of their people. The Ogoni tribe in Nigeria being one such example. That does not absolve these companies but it’s looking at both sides of an equation. If governments are not responsible for running countries and States to the best advantage of their people, why should corporations take all the blame?
After all it’s not as if they are forcing governments at gun point to give them concessions and put up with anything they do. Governments could have shown equal smartness and savvy in their maths and economics. My being purged of idealism as also understanding that there are more pieces to the puzzle, does not mean that in my mind I have absolved oil companies of all responsibility (not that my thinking matters to them. I’m not so naive). I am only involving the other players who get away - most of the time -scot free from all the criticism. People like me and you and the policy makers.
Yes, me and you dear reader. Some of you, I’m sure are policy makers and understand what I’m saying. We are culprits as well. I know many of you are going to dislike me- (Ill remind you, I have many enemies already - so be kind in judging me), for saying so.
They say that people deserve the government they get – obviously they choose it. I am beginning to understand that people also get the kind of economy they deserve. After all economies are shaped as much by government economic and foreign policy as they are by big business.
Let’s look at bad oil. They have merely taken advantage of a trend which no government – no NGO no think tank has had the power to change- namely the insatiable hunger for oil in this part of the world.
But for the exponential oil demand, that was in part fuelled by the automobile sector and its thrust to change buying patterns to create demand (easy bank credit, instalment payments etc. ironically pioneered by one of the giant US automobile manufacturers), these companies may have had a different history. The symbiotic relationship of these two sectors of our economy cannot be downplayed.
Consider that according to EIA statistics OECD accounts for almost two thirds of the worldwide daily consumption of oil. Within the OECD, U.S and Canada stand out at 3 gallons per day per capita consumption compared to 1.4 gallons for the rest of the OECD countries. For the non OECD countries the figure stands at an incredible low of 0.2. So if the world consumes around 76 million barrels of oil a day, U.S consumes 20 million barrels a day.
The story does not end here. In the United States in contrast to other regions of the world, about two thirds of oil is used for transportation. From around 2 billion barrels of oil per year in the 1980’s, United States oil consumption has increased to 8 billion barrels per year in 2008. Over half of this is imported.
Though transportation fuel accounts for much lesser consumption in Canada, the country’s total energy consumption of 9,540 petajoules in 2005 stood 25 per cent over 1999 levels. Emission growth at 25 per cent over and above 1999 levels matched the energy consumption.
Compare this to what was happening in the automobile industry. The sale of SUVs and big pick up trucks was in full swing in America, fanning the demand for more gasoline. In the 1990’s thanks to cheap Middle East oil the automobile sector thrived. As late as 2007, 16.09 million units were sold by automobile companies. Up until early 2000’s oil was just about $15 until it saw its 2007 six times increase.
My point is that till these companies had stakes in the Middle East, where cost of extraction is a pittance, the automobile industry thrived as consumers could fill up cheap. The oil companies did exactly what the consumers demanded. Spoilt consumers! Besides the automobile industry was the backbone of the economy. Pampered! So pampered that they did not brace up for two major risks that any auto company should- cheaper competition, higher commodity prices. Till foreign markets were not proliferated by the Japanese and Chinese and the Indian car makers, everything was okay.
No one thanked the oil companies then for making it so convenient for the automobile industry to flourish. No one questioned the massive growing imports. After all the automobile industry was thriving at the back of cheap oil. No one asked the oil companies to stop expanding into Middle East and other markets. In fact government foreign policy played an equally powerful role in the expansion of the oil companies, outside of the United States.
The staggering production-consumption deficit has added a major burden on US trade deficits. As oil prices increase the US deficit increases. Oil majors in their own way helped keep the deficit down. Now they have been thrown out by the nationalised oil companies of foreign countries where oil was cheap. Alberta is open but oil is expensive to extract here. Strangely enough, high oil prices helped Alberta to make oil extraction economical for oil companies used to a dollar per barrel oil extraction costs. What is forgotten is that because of these companies American consumers could get cheap oil from the Middle East. An additional advantage was the growth of the car industry in the Middle East.
Now these oil producing countries are going it alone and our majors here do not have much production assets –not much in cheap production areas atleast. Oil has shot up and cheaper car companies are ruling the roost.
It is ironic that expensive oil – of course coupled with cheap cars from Japan, Korea, China, India are tolling the death knell of the American automobile industry.
Expensive oil still has demand but cars that consume too much expensive oil are silently being hastened to their graveyards. Those who did not see it coming were just the automobile sector and the governments of the States where car production once thrived.
I have not even touched the other aspect – The return on equity and the wealth created for shareholders by these companies. Even as oil and gas output was declining in 2005 due to declines in production, return on equity for most of the seven major integrated oil companies was nearly four times. So while Exxon Mobil in 2005 had a 9.7 million dollar return on oil sales, return on equity was 32.5 million dollars. Occidental was an exception. Return on sales was 34.7 and return on equity was 35.1 million dollars. Return on sales despite diminishing production meant higher oil prices were making it possible.

With the drying up of oil revenues in Alberta, people – silent till now and enjoying the fruits of excessive government spending thanks to the oil revenue, have started whining. Everything seems wrong with the oil companies. So why were they silent till now? I still remember distinctly my first job as a senior producer in one of Edmonton’s upstart internet television companies. It lasted short, but the one lesson it taught me- people here loved their oil companies. Oil prices were touching the roof and so was Alberta economy. Journalists at least two years back and at least in that company were unwilling to look at issues like environment. You were a pariah if you spoke of environment. VOW!!!! Those very journalists cringing !! Oh may be they are missing the spoils and till energy prices are way up and they get the darn excessive spending spinning again- they are going to talk.
But now I have changed and I want to say that its not the Big bad oil that they need to bitch about but the fact that because of big bad oil they lived in an era of cheap oil and could buy a plethora of cars and SUV’s – damned be the rest of the world. Big bad oil sweated it out in these Middle Eastern countries and gave them cheap sustained oil for their big SUVs.
Well, why (and this is four fingers pointing at me) why do we always blame these oil companies. Yes, they are what they are polluting sometimes ruthless but these very companies have also provided much else --!!!!!
And so much for our economy being over dependent on oil revenues- have we even started talking of a game plan to encourage other sources of the economy to speed up and take over-big bad oil - albeit slowly?.

.

Ah Media!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-05-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

I can never forget that morning, years back, very early in my journey as a journalist when at an editorial meeting,I found myself defending the then new heir to India's most illustrious business empire - Tata group. It was a room full of twenty odd seasoned journalists, including my now iconic boss at CNBC-India and I was alone in articulating my confidence in Ratan Tata. Despite the odd looks and the sneer that conveyed-"you upstart, you will soon be sorry for this assessment", I stood my ground.

At that time- I think it was 1993, there was very little to back my assessment of the man -in fact to the contrary. Ratan Tata had not been successful at NELCO and had to sit over the liquidation of a struggling textile mill. Fodder enough to bait me to change my opinion by those that were relentless in their allegiance to the then upcoming, upstart extremely successful business house-Reliance Industries. I never regretted my fierce defense of a man who most of the Indian media had at that time, dubbed as the trigger to the downfall of the Tata's. That was then.

I did not have to wait very long to stand vindicated.

I always defended the House of Tata's with the simple explanation- it was founded and continued to do business on ethical grounds.

Reliance despite all its success had its flamboyance to cope with. It was born at a time when red tapism and bureaucracy strangulated free economy and India was still leaning left. Success in building a colossal empire despite such odds, was their justification of their arrogance and belief that money trumps over everything, conquers individual morality.

The nineties was also the decade in Indian journalism, when PR companies and their briefs/press releases and propaganda war downplaying their client's competitors played a tug of war with the minds of journalists. I can never forget the ITC (Imperial Tobacco company of India) story- how two competing PR firms fought their wars in public, going as far as distributing pamphlets to journalists, every day, while a shareholders battle raged on in Calcutta. Since the Indian company was fighting its foreign holding -BAT, the nationalistic card was played to its emotional heights - never mind the Indian CEO of that company was not above board.

Perhaps that was the decade when journalism changed from in depth analysis and investigation to what it is today-"bite rich" (as we call it). Frenzied journalists waiting hours to get a bite of the guys outside Parliament house or any news breaking locale! Perhaps all the angst about authentic journalism loosing its bite can be traced back to the advent of television journalism. Just thrust the mike to the face of the important politician- who also knew the value of television sound bites and made symbolic gestures like running to his car amidst all his security guys, even as journalists ran after him- pausing eventually but only after the on camera dramatic scene, added to his stature and to the reality news breaking story!!. The poor newspaper guys just following suite- thrusting their tape recorders somewhere in the crowd of blaring television lights and mikes. As long as you got that sound bite from the guy who mattered in that day's breaking story!!!. If you did not get the guy - just do stand ups outside the scene of action- saying the meeting is still on etc etc.

It was also the time that India saw the infiltration of media companies- private media and the scramble to get the story first.

My disenchantment with sections of the media - whatever part of the world I have worked in continues. Coverage of issues that are of pertinence are taking the back seat. Often, journalists are up in arms about trivial issues but do not want to talk about issues that really impact the shaping and destiny of our world. Also we are quick to judge- trial by media is a major issue. Combined strength of the media- on issues that they decide to gang up on - has weakened the best of political intentions.

A recent example that comes to mind is the media trial of Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla. It's surprising that what happened last May is being thrown up in the media with such vividness now. The timing is what can be questioned.

Also I think it is common knowledge that tens if not hundreds of foreign temporary workers are unwittingly finding themselves working illegally in not just Canada but many other parts of the world. Talking to charities, as I have been I'm told about the pitiable conditions of these workers who are currently out of jobs- some not even receiving Employment Insurance. What many are asking is:"why is the media not questioning the employers who are forsaking these workers after signing contracts with them, just because they do not need them any more? Why is no one highlighting at least one story - one example of what is happening to these poeple.

I have (perhaps I'm not aware) not seen any story probing this aspect of the plight of temporary foreign workers. I was told that even the contracts of these foreign temporary workers are different depending on the country they are hired from. So, those from Asia may not get the same preferential treatment in their contracts as some one say from Europe.

No body should think that I am propagating that Ms. Ruby Dhalla be absolved for doing precisely what she is supposed to do-protecting the vulnerable from exploitation (if indeed she is guilty of that). Sensationalising a story- even before it's been verified is also not fair.

Redefining Capitalism

2009-04-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

Perhaps some of the major crisis facing the world in the very near future will be as a result of inequity.

Yet efforts to wipe out poverty, hunger are branded "socialist".

We are heading into days when even if the Pope speaks of social inequity and a more balanced distribution of wealth, he will be chastised as a the spokesperson for socialism. Never mind that the constitution including that of the United States of America promises "general welfare" of all its citizens.

Are we encouraging vested interests who have redefined capitalism to include just their privilage to beg at the doors of government (as if government owns its own money) to keep them alive after they have played around with their companies and proved their incompetence by driving them to bankruptcy. A point in case is much of the auto industry.

Let us not forget that there is a real threat of socialism only because we are failing to realise that social inequity is the the breeding ground for socialism. In that case the threat in the near future is real, unless we move fast. These are unusual times even for capitalism. Mass layoffs across countries and across continents does not do service to capitalism. Traditionally capitalists have been conservative and reinvested capital wisely in expansion, build institutions that so define America to the outside world.

Enron style capitalism needs to be stymed. As long as a larger swathes of people are making money, capitalism is safe.

Is it time for governments and corporations to look at the consequences of mass layoffs and failed corporations?. Is it time to ask corporations to incorporate fundamental duties in their corporate constitution?. Fundamental duties towards a small group of shareholders is making corporations shortsighted and as a consequence endangering democarcy and capitalism.

Many pundits have alreay started talking about a new face corporate social responsibility- one that moves beyond corporate donations. That's old hat. Perhaps Microsoft can provide a valuable lesson to the corporate world about the new meaning of corporate responsibility. La Microsoft may be over reaching for the narrower vision of many corporates but in looking at social responsibility - one must understand that even there, money can be made - albeit smaller margins.

Similarly, corporate responsibility for oil companies could be the care of our common heritage, the enviornment. Again - if you are innovative there is money to be made even there.

Perhaps corporate culture needs to change. Perhaps what's ailing is the insides of these great big corporations which are being run like oligarchies. Medicority and not boldness is being rewarded. Talent is not always easy to fit into the narrow confines of conventional structures. Perhaps we need mavericks at the top to undersatnd and encourage mavericks at the lower rungs of Corporate America. As of now, corporations like governments have started rewarding faithfulness to the boss rather than an institution.

Is socialism the punching board for people who have a vested interest in not talking about improving not just the lot of those that are at the lowest rungs of the social structure but the many talented employees finding themselves throttled to obescience to the always correct boss?. If yes then that clashes with the concept of democracy as enshrined in our democratic constitutions. In countries like Ireland and India there is something called the "Directive principles". And to quote (Wikipedia):

"The directive principles ensure that the State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by promoting a social order in which social, economic and political justice is informed in all institutions of life. Also, the State shall work towards reducing economic inequity."

It is high time we talk of constitutional "welfare " as enshrined in our constitutions. Checks and balances in the United States constitution is precisely to strike a balance between authority and liberty. Authority should not be narrowed down to just governmnet authority but to corporate, institutional, individual authority as well. The right of an individual within a State, a Corporation is what I'm talking about.

Individual liberty includes creation of a national fabric that does not create a set of differential opportunities, allowing some to succeed and impeding the success of others. That philosophy impedes the long term success of a nation.

Yet propping up failed institutions and corporations run by those very people who are whipping up passions about the resurgence of Obama type socialism - is being turned a blind eye to. Wonder why there is silence on this issue? Why in a capitalist society should the government prop up an institution that has failed and is crumbling? In my opinion any kind of intervention by the government is socialism.

How wonderful it is to be rich and yet this very wonder remains a far off dream for millions- nay billions! The question is not whether it is capitalism vs socialism. The question is how do we make present day capitalism, rich enough to spread like a fungus.