The G-20 meets in November in Cannes this year. Heads up, People.
You know what the G-20 don't discuss?
Arms. Weapons of destruction, mass or otherwise. Mass means People, right?
The vast, enormously profitable arms sales from which military contractor elites in the Pentagon, the defence establishments in India and Pak and China, and every one of the G-20, make huge covert profits.
Manmohan will not be bringing up India's arms purchases either. He and India are part of that cynical, fairly covert, G-20 maneuver.
Why covert? Because G-20 has no charter and it's meetings are mainly closed-door. A great moment for democracy. You and I wont know what went down among the great ones. Happy with that Aam Log?
Arms profiteers don't have to actually exchange cash under the table to make a profit, right?
The US has been a war machine and economy since World War II. So are the UK, France.
India's economy as a post-colonial democracy will ultimately end up in the same sorry boom-and-bust so-called 'free market" imbroglio, if India, the world's largest economy, plays the same US game of a hidden arms-driven budget agenda, instead of a human development, social justice agenda.
India should chart a different course away from arms dependency on the G-3 and instead foster social justice collaboration with the Global South~South economies, example Brazil, Ghana, South Africa. That post-colonial option has the potential of India further developing the Gandhian pragmatic ideal, The Peoples' Ideal, of Ethical Democracy, now largely missing in corruption-ridden India.
Dr. Chithra KarunaKaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
-----------------------
G-20
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-20_major_economies
--------------------------------------------------------
BBC copyright
14 April 2011 Last updated at 09:18 ET
London G20 demo: Met Police 'kettling' not justified
Bishopsgate Climate Camp Demonstrators at the climate camp were kept in a tight police cordon for more than four hours
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
G20 policing tactics questioned
Met complaints rise over average
Warning over policing of protests
Two activists have won their case against policing of the G20 protests, as the High Court ruled police containment was "not justified".
The judges upheld Hannah McClure and Josh Moos's case that police used "violence" to control the Camp for Climate Action in London in April 2009.
There was "no reasonable" justification for "kettling" but police did not unlawfully try to clear the camp.
The Metropolitan Police said it would appeal against the court's judgement.
In response to this, Frances Wright, from the climate camp's legal team, said: "It is outrageous that public money is continuing to be used to defend the kettling of the climate camp for five hours.
"The police lost the argument in the media and public confidence dropped, two parliamentary committees were critical and now the court has agreed."
John Halford, counsel for the demonstrators, said: "The court has roundly condemned the unlawful and oppressive police response, exposing it as unacceptable in a democratic society."
The Met's decision to push protesters at the Bishopsgate camp was "not necessary or proportionate", the judges decided.
Three activists at the camp had challenged the legality of police using riot shields to land blows on protesters at the G20 demonstrations, known as "shield strikes".
Chris Abbott's case was dropped because he could not get legal aid, his lawyers said.
Sir Anthony May, the president of the Queen's Bench Division, and Mr Justice Sweeney rejected the complaint that the Met decided unlawfully to clear the climate camp before it was due to end.
Met officers "kettled" demonstrators for more than four hours on 1 April, the same day newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson died after being pushed down by a police officer in Royal Exchange.
Ruling in the case, the judges said: "There was at 7.07pm no reasonably apprehended breach of the peace, imminent or otherwise, within the Climate Camp itself sufficient to justify containment."
Metropolitan police officers on duty in the City of London during clashes between police and protesters at the time of the G20 summit The case challenged the use of riot shields to strike protesters
But the court heard that later in the evening there was a risk and police reaction was appropriate.
There had already been incidents at the Bishopsgate camp where bottles and coins and other items were thrown at the police lines, but the protest had been largely peaceful, the court heard.
"When the Royal Exchange protesters were dispersing from 7.25pm there was clearly a risk that some of them might head for the Climate Camp and the police were right to anticipate the risk and take appropriate steps to deal with it, if it materialised," the judges said.
They said the Met's decision to push protesters 15-person deep was not needed.
"We think that the police were right to have an eye to infiltration from Great St Helens Street and the street or alleyway opposite, but we are not persuaded that the pushing operation of a 15-person deep crowd to move them approximately 20-30m to the north and beyond these side roads was reasonably necessary.
"It follows that, in our judgement, the pushing operation from the south was not necessary or proportionate."
'Prevented violence'
On the use of shields the judges ruled: "The policy and training about the use of shields as it came over to us in the evidence appeared to be insufficient for individual circumstances.
"There needed to be clear-cut instructions as to whether shield strikes were ever justified, and, if so, when."
The judges said the Met had a duty to clear the road, "by force if necessary", but added: "If there were individual occasions when the force used may have been excessive, that is a matter for individual complaint, not for these judicial review proceedings."
A Met statement said the judgement recognised police concerns about the possibility of a breach of peace at the camp and officers believed "the Bishopsgate containment prevented further scenes of violence and criminal damage occurring on 1 April 2009".
The force said: "We have rigorously defended the claims against the MPS because at the heart of this case lies a vital public order policing tactic that prevents disorder and protects the public.
"It should be noted that the judgement relates to the individual circumstances of 1 April 2009 and not the use of containment at other events.
"Where necessary we will continue to use containment as a last resort to prevent serious disorder and violence.
"We will be appealing the Administrative Court's finding that the containment and pushing operations on the 1 April 2009 in Bishopsgate were not lawful."
More on This Story
Related Stories
G20 policing tactics questioned 14 APRIL 2011, LONDON
Met complaints rise over average 24 FEBRUARY 2011, LONDON
Warning over policing of protests 09 FEBRUARY 2011, UK
Met boss 'sorry' over false claim 25 JANUARY 2011, LONDON
'Covert Met officers at G20 demo' 19 JANUARY 2011, LONDON
Police 'kettle' tactic feels the heat 09 DECEMBER 2010, UK
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Frayed Fabric of South Asia-US Geopolitics
Frayed Fabric of South Asia-US Geopolitics
Both India and Pakistan governments have respectively dismissed as "false" "unfounded and totally baseless" The Times (London) April 23, 2011 report of "back channel" diplomacy.
The following news story appears to have been faked all the way up and down. Or not.
Because the story was allegedly faked, the question is Why? Actually the more productive line of inquiry would be, why did all the India and Pakistan media run with the news story, before checking whether it was fact?
Look, this is not about building a conspiracy theory. Instead, the story gained weight and credibility because it's really all about the drone-weary, terror-wary PEOPLE, the Aam Janata in India and Pakistan, hoping for some stability, some positive momentum, some hope to keep the positive feelings going, after the heady India double victory against a sporting Sri Lanka side and a fumbling Pakistan team in an unprecedented ALL South Asia 2011 World Cup Cricket Final.
The allegedly fake news report, excerpted from The Times of London states:
"Singh appointed an unofficial envoy to make contact with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's chief of the Army Staff who exercises de facto control over foreign policy"
"De facto control"? Really? Not so much.
The US controls Pak's foreign policy, which is shaped by the CIA acting in its own interest against various factions of the ISI.
The LeT is therefore funded both directly and indirectly by the USCIA.
The CIA dictates US Govt's Foreign policy, not the other way around.
[Most recent example, CIA operatives are and have long been in Libya]
That is the rocky, murky terrain of South Asia-US geopolitics that Manmohan Singh, born in Pakistan (!) has to negotiate. The tragedy of Partition becomes more real every day.
Further, the Times article states Manmohan sent "an unofficial envoy" to talk to Ashfaq Kayani and ISI chief Shuja Pasha.
I lived in Kolkata (then Calcutta) and saw the raped and pregnant Bengali Hindu women, broken but still survivors, enter the streets as brutalized refugees from Dacca (now Dhaka).
Kayani (b. 1952, same year as ISI head honcho Shuja Pasha) was commissioned, age 19, a highly impressionable age, in the year (1971) that the Pakistan Army was driven out of East Bengal under the leadership of Libertador Sheikh Mujb-ur-Rahman (BangaBandhu) and East Bengal became the sovereign nation-state of Bangladesh.
Q.Will Kayani or Pasha, ever forget that humiliating defeat and lost territory?
If we rely on the hard evidence of political psychology,
India will have to wait for bitter but pragmatic Kayani's and bitter but pragmatic Pasha's successors, successors born in a later generation, to see significant progress and change.
This defeat is why Pakistan will keep clamoring for Kashmir because of the psychological and political scars of a forever lost East Bengal. It's understandable but not tenable.
Pakistan now shrinks by the minute, its territory overrun by USCIA/NATO and its people droned from the air by the USCIA. The Raymond Davies CIA agent, who was set free by the PakISI, is only the latest predictable twiststory in PakISI/USCIA geopolitics.
See how complex and challenging our shared history with Pakistan is?
So long as the territory of Pakistan, not just the Af-Pak border, is owned and operated by the USCIA, India will continue to need to take ***baby steps*** towards dialogue, always watching our backs and looking over our shoulders.
No problem, India can keep doing that, we have become adept at watching the US operating in our region against both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
USCIA operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan go back to the early US-invented Cold War 1950's, just about the time Kayani and Pasha were born!
Pity and empathy for the people of Pakistan, our blood sisters and brothers, who are suffering, in propagandist/hate Hindu denial for the crimes committed against them by:
1) Pak/ISI,
2) in collusion with the USCIA
South Asia-US Geopolitics: Collective Memory Vs. Militarist Memory
To deepen the gravitas of South Asia-US geopolitics in 2011, let us note that Kayani and Pasha, both newly commissioned at age 19 in 1971, would even now, in 2011, gratefully remember 1)the US Seventh Fleet and 2)the CIA. How would they remember that?
The US Seventh Fleet, (specifically the TF 74, which included the nuclear-powered Enterprise and Gumard, destroyers and missile escorts ) was there when Pakistan needed them most, in 1971.
The USCIA was there again, after 9/11, when the US airlifted key CIA-directed ISI/Taliban operatives out of Kabul and Kandahar, before the US invasion of Afghanistan.
It can be gratifying (not to mention profitable) to be a dependent-client state. Kayani and Pasha can understandably appreciate that.
In 1971, at the height of Bangladesh’s war of Liberation, the United States Seventh Fleet conducted an incursion into the Bay of Bengal, to advance its own interest vis a vis Pakistan, its dependent-state client.
This is the same US Seventh Fleet that supported combat intelligence that divided the Koreas (1945) in the context of the US- invented Cold War against the Soviets. This is the same Seventh Fleet that provided the balltle support that napalmed little girls in VietNam (1972). Se how that Vietnam atrocity in 1972 is neatly juxtaposed with the Bay of Bengal incursion in 1971?
See how our current geopolitics is driven by collective memory of powerful militarists in a client dependent-state ?
To perform Development Journalism, Kayani and Pasha’s anti-people, geopolitical militarist memory needs to be outweighed and outmaneuvered by Aam Log Collective Social Justice memory, based on evidence, proof and personal experience of dislocation and dispossession from Swat to Sylhet.
South Asian Aam Log Collective Memory can prevail against Militarist Memory, so long as We the People, our activists, our media (even some of our governments and some of our armies some of the time), take effective ethical steps on that collective path, in the name of All South Asians for the sake of a Greater Collective Good (GCG). That’s pragmatic idealism with a calm, steely eye fixed on the geopolitics of the dependent-client state(s) in our region.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
[blog funded by CUNY]
www.facebook.com/chithra.karunakaran
www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
@EthicalDemocracy
http://Southasianidea.com
posts on "A People's General."
-----------------------
Rising Kashmir newspaper copyright
Manmohan in secret talks with Kayani: THE TIMES
London, April 23: India's Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh opened secret talks with Pakistan Army chief ten months ago to build on the cricket-inspired diplomatic thaw between the two countries, a media report said today.
“Singh appointed an unofficial envoy to make contact with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's chief of the Army Staff who exercises de facto control over foreign policy," The Times reported. It said the talks, through a back channel, have encouraged the UK and US believe that the countries competition for influence in Afghanistan could be better managed during efforts to start a peace process.
Earlier also, there were reports that India has asked its envoy in Pakistan to open channels of communication with Pakistani army chief General Pervez Kayani as well as ISI chief Shuja Pasha.
"We have given the green signal.
As a new season of Indo-Pak engagement bursts upon the sub-continent, there is a realization that India's efforts to talk is incomplete because there is no communication with the Pakistani army — effectively the real power centre. The diplomatic outreach to General Kayani is under the rubric of engaging all stakeholders so as not to attract extra attention, but it's a special effort by India,” sources in Indian government had said.
The visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to watch the semi-final match between India and Pakistan in the cricket World Cup last month has sparked hope of a diplomatic thaw between the two neighbouring countries.
Kayani visited Kabul this week to meet members of the High Peace Council, a body set up by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to build contacts with Taliban groups. The army chief was accompanied by General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
-----
-------------
The Times (London) copyright
The Times (London) April 23, 2011
Restart of cricket relations leads to secret India-Pakistan diplomatic drive
Francis Elliott and Tom Coghlan
• The Times
• Published: 23 April 2011
• Asia
[Full text obtained through LexisNexis]
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 42
LENGTH: 440 words
The Prime Minister of India has opened secret talks with the head of Pakistan's military to build on the cricket-inspired diplomatic thaw between the rivals.
appointed an unofficial envoy to make contact with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's Chief of the Army Staff who exercises de facto control over foreign policy, about ten months ago, The Times has learnt.
The talks, through a back channel, have encouraged London and Washington to believe that the countries' competition for influence in Afghanistan could be better managed during efforts to start a peace process.
General Kayani visited Kabul this week to meet members of the High Peace Council, a body set up by President Karzai, to build contacts with Taleban groups. General Kayani was accompanied by General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Delhi, which in the past would have condemned the visit as Pakistani "meddling", remained silent - providing the latest evidence of rapprochement being driven by the US, after the Cricket World Cup semi-final between the two nations.
Cricketing ties, severed in the wake of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, have been restored and a series of three one-day games will take place to coincide with a visit to Islamabad by Mr Singh.
The settling of a disputed border at Sir Creek in the south, and the demilitarisation of the Siachen glacier in the north, are also being used to create an impression of diplomatic momentum.
Genuine progress, however, requires the co-operation of Pakistan's military, which India has long accused of fostering militant groups to fight a proxy war in Kashmir. For its part, Pakistan accuses India of promoting separatists in the province of Baluchistan and seeking undue influence in Afghanistan as a counterbalance to its neighbour. It questions the need for India to maintain four consulates in Afghanistan, two of them close to its borders in Kandahar and Jalalabad.
Pakistan insists that it must insure against a possible collapse of Afghanistan into civil war, by retaining proxies within the country. It is pressing the US to open talks with figures from the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, as it seeks to influence the future Afghan government.
Despite US pressure and Mr Singh's commitment there remain other substantial obstacles to a lasting thaw. Access for Indian investigators to the suspected conspirators behind the Mumbai attacks, who are detained in Pakistan, remains a sticking point.
Although it will allow the investigators to travel, Islamabad said that they may interview only the interrogators, not the suspects.
-------------------------------------------
Rising Kashmir copyright
News report 2 days later:
‘Kayani did not contact Singh’
Islamabad, April 25: Pakistan Army Monday dismissed as unfounded and totally baseless a media report that its powerful chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh through a "secret envoy and back channel".
A spokesperson of the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) denied the news item which appeared in The Times of London on April 23 and called it "unfounded and totally baseless".
The paper had reported that Singh had appointed an "unofficial envoy" to make contact with Kayani, "who exercises de facto control over Pakistan's foreign policy".
The talks, through a back channel, have encouraged the UK and US believe that the countries' competition for influence in Afghanistan could be better managed during efforts to start a peace process, the media report had said.
The prime minister's office in New Delhi had yesterday termed as 'false' the report that Singh had contacted Kayani before the Mohali meeting between prime ministers of the two countries.
------------------------------------
Both India and Pakistan governments have respectively dismissed as "false" "unfounded and totally baseless" The Times (London) April 23, 2011 report of "back channel" diplomacy.
The following news story appears to have been faked all the way up and down. Or not.
Because the story was allegedly faked, the question is Why? Actually the more productive line of inquiry would be, why did all the India and Pakistan media run with the news story, before checking whether it was fact?
Look, this is not about building a conspiracy theory. Instead, the story gained weight and credibility because it's really all about the drone-weary, terror-wary PEOPLE, the Aam Janata in India and Pakistan, hoping for some stability, some positive momentum, some hope to keep the positive feelings going, after the heady India double victory against a sporting Sri Lanka side and a fumbling Pakistan team in an unprecedented ALL South Asia 2011 World Cup Cricket Final.
The allegedly fake news report, excerpted from The Times of London states:
"Singh appointed an unofficial envoy to make contact with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's chief of the Army Staff who exercises de facto control over foreign policy"
"De facto control"? Really? Not so much.
The US controls Pak's foreign policy, which is shaped by the CIA acting in its own interest against various factions of the ISI.
The LeT is therefore funded both directly and indirectly by the USCIA.
The CIA dictates US Govt's Foreign policy, not the other way around.
[Most recent example, CIA operatives are and have long been in Libya]
That is the rocky, murky terrain of South Asia-US geopolitics that Manmohan Singh, born in Pakistan (!) has to negotiate. The tragedy of Partition becomes more real every day.
Further, the Times article states Manmohan sent "an unofficial envoy" to talk to Ashfaq Kayani and ISI chief Shuja Pasha.
I lived in Kolkata (then Calcutta) and saw the raped and pregnant Bengali Hindu women, broken but still survivors, enter the streets as brutalized refugees from Dacca (now Dhaka).
Kayani (b. 1952, same year as ISI head honcho Shuja Pasha) was commissioned, age 19, a highly impressionable age, in the year (1971) that the Pakistan Army was driven out of East Bengal under the leadership of Libertador Sheikh Mujb-ur-Rahman (BangaBandhu) and East Bengal became the sovereign nation-state of Bangladesh.
Q.Will Kayani or Pasha, ever forget that humiliating defeat and lost territory?
If we rely on the hard evidence of political psychology,
India will have to wait for bitter but pragmatic Kayani's and bitter but pragmatic Pasha's successors, successors born in a later generation, to see significant progress and change.
This defeat is why Pakistan will keep clamoring for Kashmir because of the psychological and political scars of a forever lost East Bengal. It's understandable but not tenable.
Pakistan now shrinks by the minute, its territory overrun by USCIA/NATO and its people droned from the air by the USCIA. The Raymond Davies CIA agent, who was set free by the PakISI, is only the latest predictable twiststory in PakISI/USCIA geopolitics.
See how complex and challenging our shared history with Pakistan is?
So long as the territory of Pakistan, not just the Af-Pak border, is owned and operated by the USCIA, India will continue to need to take ***baby steps*** towards dialogue, always watching our backs and looking over our shoulders.
No problem, India can keep doing that, we have become adept at watching the US operating in our region against both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
USCIA operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan go back to the early US-invented Cold War 1950's, just about the time Kayani and Pasha were born!
Pity and empathy for the people of Pakistan, our blood sisters and brothers, who are suffering, in propagandist/hate Hindu denial for the crimes committed against them by:
1) Pak/ISI,
2) in collusion with the USCIA
South Asia-US Geopolitics: Collective Memory Vs. Militarist Memory
To deepen the gravitas of South Asia-US geopolitics in 2011, let us note that Kayani and Pasha, both newly commissioned at age 19 in 1971, would even now, in 2011, gratefully remember 1)the US Seventh Fleet and 2)the CIA. How would they remember that?
The US Seventh Fleet, (specifically the TF 74, which included the nuclear-powered Enterprise and Gumard, destroyers and missile escorts ) was there when Pakistan needed them most, in 1971.
The USCIA was there again, after 9/11, when the US airlifted key CIA-directed ISI/Taliban operatives out of Kabul and Kandahar, before the US invasion of Afghanistan.
It can be gratifying (not to mention profitable) to be a dependent-client state. Kayani and Pasha can understandably appreciate that.
In 1971, at the height of Bangladesh’s war of Liberation, the United States Seventh Fleet conducted an incursion into the Bay of Bengal, to advance its own interest vis a vis Pakistan, its dependent-state client.
This is the same US Seventh Fleet that supported combat intelligence that divided the Koreas (1945) in the context of the US- invented Cold War against the Soviets. This is the same Seventh Fleet that provided the balltle support that napalmed little girls in VietNam (1972). Se how that Vietnam atrocity in 1972 is neatly juxtaposed with the Bay of Bengal incursion in 1971?
See how our current geopolitics is driven by collective memory of powerful militarists in a client dependent-state ?
To perform Development Journalism, Kayani and Pasha’s anti-people, geopolitical militarist memory needs to be outweighed and outmaneuvered by Aam Log Collective Social Justice memory, based on evidence, proof and personal experience of dislocation and dispossession from Swat to Sylhet.
South Asian Aam Log Collective Memory can prevail against Militarist Memory, so long as We the People, our activists, our media (even some of our governments and some of our armies some of the time), take effective ethical steps on that collective path, in the name of All South Asians for the sake of a Greater Collective Good (GCG). That’s pragmatic idealism with a calm, steely eye fixed on the geopolitics of the dependent-client state(s) in our region.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
[blog funded by CUNY]
www.facebook.com/chithra.karunakaran
www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
@EthicalDemocracy
http://Southasianidea.com
posts on "A People's General."
-----------------------
Rising Kashmir newspaper copyright
Manmohan in secret talks with Kayani: THE TIMES
London, April 23: India's Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh opened secret talks with Pakistan Army chief ten months ago to build on the cricket-inspired diplomatic thaw between the two countries, a media report said today.
“Singh appointed an unofficial envoy to make contact with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's chief of the Army Staff who exercises de facto control over foreign policy," The Times reported. It said the talks, through a back channel, have encouraged the UK and US believe that the countries competition for influence in Afghanistan could be better managed during efforts to start a peace process.
Earlier also, there were reports that India has asked its envoy in Pakistan to open channels of communication with Pakistani army chief General Pervez Kayani as well as ISI chief Shuja Pasha.
"We have given the green signal.
As a new season of Indo-Pak engagement bursts upon the sub-continent, there is a realization that India's efforts to talk is incomplete because there is no communication with the Pakistani army — effectively the real power centre. The diplomatic outreach to General Kayani is under the rubric of engaging all stakeholders so as not to attract extra attention, but it's a special effort by India,” sources in Indian government had said.
The visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to watch the semi-final match between India and Pakistan in the cricket World Cup last month has sparked hope of a diplomatic thaw between the two neighbouring countries.
Kayani visited Kabul this week to meet members of the High Peace Council, a body set up by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to build contacts with Taliban groups. The army chief was accompanied by General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
-----
-------------
The Times (London) copyright
The Times (London) April 23, 2011
Restart of cricket relations leads to secret India-Pakistan diplomatic drive
Francis Elliott and Tom Coghlan
• The Times
• Published: 23 April 2011
• Asia
[Full text obtained through LexisNexis]
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 42
LENGTH: 440 words
The Prime Minister of India has opened secret talks with the head of Pakistan's military to build on the cricket-inspired diplomatic thaw between the rivals.
appointed an unofficial envoy to make contact with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's Chief of the Army Staff who exercises de facto control over foreign policy, about ten months ago, The Times has learnt.
The talks, through a back channel, have encouraged London and Washington to believe that the countries' competition for influence in Afghanistan could be better managed during efforts to start a peace process.
General Kayani visited Kabul this week to meet members of the High Peace Council, a body set up by President Karzai, to build contacts with Taleban groups. General Kayani was accompanied by General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Delhi, which in the past would have condemned the visit as Pakistani "meddling", remained silent - providing the latest evidence of rapprochement being driven by the US, after the Cricket World Cup semi-final between the two nations.
Cricketing ties, severed in the wake of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, have been restored and a series of three one-day games will take place to coincide with a visit to Islamabad by Mr Singh.
The settling of a disputed border at Sir Creek in the south, and the demilitarisation of the Siachen glacier in the north, are also being used to create an impression of diplomatic momentum.
Genuine progress, however, requires the co-operation of Pakistan's military, which India has long accused of fostering militant groups to fight a proxy war in Kashmir. For its part, Pakistan accuses India of promoting separatists in the province of Baluchistan and seeking undue influence in Afghanistan as a counterbalance to its neighbour. It questions the need for India to maintain four consulates in Afghanistan, two of them close to its borders in Kandahar and Jalalabad.
Pakistan insists that it must insure against a possible collapse of Afghanistan into civil war, by retaining proxies within the country. It is pressing the US to open talks with figures from the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, as it seeks to influence the future Afghan government.
Despite US pressure and Mr Singh's commitment there remain other substantial obstacles to a lasting thaw. Access for Indian investigators to the suspected conspirators behind the Mumbai attacks, who are detained in Pakistan, remains a sticking point.
Although it will allow the investigators to travel, Islamabad said that they may interview only the interrogators, not the suspects.
-------------------------------------------
Rising Kashmir copyright
News report 2 days later:
‘Kayani did not contact Singh’
Islamabad, April 25: Pakistan Army Monday dismissed as unfounded and totally baseless a media report that its powerful chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh through a "secret envoy and back channel".
A spokesperson of the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) denied the news item which appeared in The Times of London on April 23 and called it "unfounded and totally baseless".
The paper had reported that Singh had appointed an "unofficial envoy" to make contact with Kayani, "who exercises de facto control over Pakistan's foreign policy".
The talks, through a back channel, have encouraged the UK and US believe that the countries' competition for influence in Afghanistan could be better managed during efforts to start a peace process, the media report had said.
The prime minister's office in New Delhi had yesterday termed as 'false' the report that Singh had contacted Kayani before the Mohali meeting between prime ministers of the two countries.
------------------------------------
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Cyberbullying, Sexual Orientation & Suicide
Indicted Rutgers student Dharun Ravi and criminologist Sameer Hinduja are both "overzealous", Clementi is the Victim
A printed quote (has to be verified) supposedly from Hinduja:
“I understand the prosecutor wants to send a clear message, and that this case has and will continue to receive the national spotlight,” says Sameer Hinduja, a criminologist at Florida Atlantic University and the codirector of the Cyberbullying Research Center. “But pursuit of such charges is, in my opinion, incredibly overzealous.”
Really, should this guy, this criminal criminologist Hinduja be co-director of such a sensitive, presumably human-rights-justice-oriented group?
There are two "overzealous" actors in this sad, horrific real life-death narrative.
1. If anyone is overzealous it is Dharun Ravi, the Rutgers student who spied on Clementi's most private moments, broadcast words and images about Clementi's most private and personal identity.
I am wondering what parenting and which siblings and peers Ravi had that partly influenced his criminal and inhuman actions against Clementi. Ravi is of course entirely responsible for his own criminal acts. Let him do the time.
2. Sameer Hinduja, the co-director no less, of the Cyberbullying Research Center is "overzealous" in whitewashing Dharun Ravi's criminal intent and acts.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
@EthicalDemocrac
------
Daily Beast copyright
story by Jessica Bennett on Yahoo (did she get her quotes right?)
Should Tyler Clementi's Bully Be Charged With a Hate Crime?
Email
Print
Jessica Bennett – Fri Apr 22, 11:22 am ET
NEW YORK – Should Tyler Clementi's Bully Be Charged With a Hate Crime?Tyler Clementi's roommate—who broadcast the gay teen's sexual encounter with a man, leading to his suicide—could get 10 years in prison. Jessica Bennett on cyberbullying's new price.
It was perhaps the most brutal example of a private moment gone public. A shy 18-year-old, an accomplished violinist, learns a month into the school year that his college roommate has been spying, via a computer webcam, on his sexual relations with another young man. This student is not openly gay, nor does he know how many of his peers have viewed the recording. So it’s easy to imagine that Tyler Clementi was assuming the worst when, two days later, on September 21, the Rutgers freshman jumped 202 feet to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
Clementi’s death set off an immediate firestorm. Gay rights groups, devastated by the latest in a string of recent teen suicides, called for his roommate, Dharun Ravi—along with Ravi's alleged accomplice, Molly Wei—to be charged with hate crimes. Schools and law enforcement agencies began tearing through legislation to prevent bullying in the future. “Bullied to Death,” quickly becoming the year's most-discussed social crisis, was the talk of cable news shows all over the country.
On Wednesday, the case made headlines yet again when a Middlesex, New Jersey grand jury issued a 15-count indictment against Ravi, adding bias intimidation to the previous charges of privacy invasion—essentially, alleging that Ravi’s act rises to the level of hate crime because Clementi was gay. "The criminal case is about the line between acceptable conduct and unacceptable conduct... particularly in this era of electronic media," the attorney for the family of Clementi told Reuters. (Neither he nor Ravi’s attorney returned request for comment.) In order to prove the claim in court, prosecutors will have to show that Ravi’s motivation for the act was spurred by Clementi’s sexual orientation, and was not simply a nasty college prank gone terribly wrong. If convicted, the 19-year-old could face up to 10 years in prison.
Experts say the case has entered new legal territory—a hate crime charge for what has become, rationally or not, every parent’s worst fear: cyberbullying. New Jersey passed one of the strictest anti-bullying laws in the nation in the months following Clementi’s death, and 45 states now have such policies on their books. We now know that 1 in 5 students is harassed each year, along with a shocking 9 in 10 gay teens, according to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. Kids who are bullied are five times more likely to be depressed, and nearly 160,000 of them skip school each day, fearful of their peers. The problem is epidemic.
But as painful as Clementi's story is to hear about—and as much as the indictment has been applauded by some activists—there are legal experts who question whether the punishment fits the crime. Today’s world of cyberbullying is no doubt more potent than the bullying of yore. With smart phones and social media following kids wherever they go, the end of the school day no longer marks a reprieve from the taunts and torment bullies dole out. But most cases of this kind are infinitely more complicated than the public discourse makes them out to be. “People are thirsty for these quick fixes,” says Samuel Goldberg, a former New York prosecutor and legal analyst. “It was a horrible thing that happened, there’s no question. But I think people’s knee-jerk reaction is to simply throw the book at these kids.”
"Pursuit of such charges is, in my opinion, incredibly overzealous.”
Which brings us to the story of Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old Massachusetts girl who brought bullying into the national spotlight early last year. Prince killed herself in January 2010, after suffering months of alleged verbal torment by her high school peers. Five of those former peers, all minors, have been indicted on felony charges that range from stalking and harassment to violation of civil rights; like Ravi, they face up to 10 years in prison. A sixth defendant, now 19, faces charges of statutory rape related to consensual sex with Prince when he was a senior. Each of these students was forced to drop out of school, many put off hopes of graduation, and one lost a football scholarship to college.
The public was quick to indict on their own in Prince’s case, long before the facts were in. As more details emerged, however, we learned that Prince had tried to kill herself before, was on medication for depression, and was struggling with her parents’ separation. As Goldberg put it at the time, “What happened until innocent until proven guilty? It's politically incorrect to even suggest that. These cases are very high-profile, but very few people know all the facts involved.”
Prince and Clementi’s cases have brought long-overdue attention to the bullying issue. But they have also shown that efforts to solve bullying problems through crusading prosecution can do more harm than good. Ravi and Wei were both over 18 when their crime was committed, but they were still teens. There is longstanding research to show that law is not a deterrent to young people, who often respond emotionally to their surroundings. Ultimately, labeling teens "criminals," say criminologists, will only make it harder for them to engage with society when they return. “I understand the prosecutor wants to send a clear message, and that this case has and will continue to receive the national spotlight,” says Sameer Hinduja, a criminologist at Florida Atlantic University and the codirector of the Cyberbullying Research Center. “But pursuit of such charges is, in my opinion, incredibly overzealous.”
Under the glare of a national spotlight, nobody would dare argue that Ravi’s crime go unpunished. But there are certainly details that have yet to make their way into the public eye. For one: Ravi’s attorney’s insistence that the images of Clementi—while widely reported to have been “live-streamed”—were never in fact transmitted beyond a single computer belonging to Ravi’s alleged accomplice.
Whatever the outcome, Ravi's and Wei's punishments will rightly continue. “They’re going to have to cope with the proverbial blood on their hands for the rest of their lives,” says Hinduja. Whether that's good enough will be decided in court.
Jessica Bennett is a Newsweek senior writer covering society, youth culture and gender. Her special reports, multimedia packages and original Web video have been honored by the New York Press Club, the Newswomen's Club of New York and GLAAD, among other organizations. Follow her on Twitter.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
A printed quote (has to be verified) supposedly from Hinduja:
“I understand the prosecutor wants to send a clear message, and that this case has and will continue to receive the national spotlight,” says Sameer Hinduja, a criminologist at Florida Atlantic University and the codirector of the Cyberbullying Research Center. “But pursuit of such charges is, in my opinion, incredibly overzealous.”
Really, should this guy, this criminal criminologist Hinduja be co-director of such a sensitive, presumably human-rights-justice-oriented group?
There are two "overzealous" actors in this sad, horrific real life-death narrative.
1. If anyone is overzealous it is Dharun Ravi, the Rutgers student who spied on Clementi's most private moments, broadcast words and images about Clementi's most private and personal identity.
I am wondering what parenting and which siblings and peers Ravi had that partly influenced his criminal and inhuman actions against Clementi. Ravi is of course entirely responsible for his own criminal acts. Let him do the time.
2. Sameer Hinduja, the co-director no less, of the Cyberbullying Research Center is "overzealous" in whitewashing Dharun Ravi's criminal intent and acts.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
@EthicalDemocrac
------
Daily Beast copyright
story by Jessica Bennett on Yahoo (did she get her quotes right?)
Should Tyler Clementi's Bully Be Charged With a Hate Crime?
Jessica Bennett – Fri Apr 22, 11:22 am ET
NEW YORK – Should Tyler Clementi's Bully Be Charged With a Hate Crime?Tyler Clementi's roommate—who broadcast the gay teen's sexual encounter with a man, leading to his suicide—could get 10 years in prison. Jessica Bennett on cyberbullying's new price.
It was perhaps the most brutal example of a private moment gone public. A shy 18-year-old, an accomplished violinist, learns a month into the school year that his college roommate has been spying, via a computer webcam, on his sexual relations with another young man. This student is not openly gay, nor does he know how many of his peers have viewed the recording. So it’s easy to imagine that Tyler Clementi was assuming the worst when, two days later, on September 21, the Rutgers freshman jumped 202 feet to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
Clementi’s death set off an immediate firestorm. Gay rights groups, devastated by the latest in a string of recent teen suicides, called for his roommate, Dharun Ravi—along with Ravi's alleged accomplice, Molly Wei—to be charged with hate crimes. Schools and law enforcement agencies began tearing through legislation to prevent bullying in the future. “Bullied to Death,” quickly becoming the year's most-discussed social crisis, was the talk of cable news shows all over the country.
On Wednesday, the case made headlines yet again when a Middlesex, New Jersey grand jury issued a 15-count indictment against Ravi, adding bias intimidation to the previous charges of privacy invasion—essentially, alleging that Ravi’s act rises to the level of hate crime because Clementi was gay. "The criminal case is about the line between acceptable conduct and unacceptable conduct... particularly in this era of electronic media," the attorney for the family of Clementi told Reuters. (Neither he nor Ravi’s attorney returned request for comment.) In order to prove the claim in court, prosecutors will have to show that Ravi’s motivation for the act was spurred by Clementi’s sexual orientation, and was not simply a nasty college prank gone terribly wrong. If convicted, the 19-year-old could face up to 10 years in prison.
Experts say the case has entered new legal territory—a hate crime charge for what has become, rationally or not, every parent’s worst fear: cyberbullying. New Jersey passed one of the strictest anti-bullying laws in the nation in the months following Clementi’s death, and 45 states now have such policies on their books. We now know that 1 in 5 students is harassed each year, along with a shocking 9 in 10 gay teens, according to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. Kids who are bullied are five times more likely to be depressed, and nearly 160,000 of them skip school each day, fearful of their peers. The problem is epidemic.
But as painful as Clementi's story is to hear about—and as much as the indictment has been applauded by some activists—there are legal experts who question whether the punishment fits the crime. Today’s world of cyberbullying is no doubt more potent than the bullying of yore. With smart phones and social media following kids wherever they go, the end of the school day no longer marks a reprieve from the taunts and torment bullies dole out. But most cases of this kind are infinitely more complicated than the public discourse makes them out to be. “People are thirsty for these quick fixes,” says Samuel Goldberg, a former New York prosecutor and legal analyst. “It was a horrible thing that happened, there’s no question. But I think people’s knee-jerk reaction is to simply throw the book at these kids.”
"Pursuit of such charges is, in my opinion, incredibly overzealous.”
Which brings us to the story of Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old Massachusetts girl who brought bullying into the national spotlight early last year. Prince killed herself in January 2010, after suffering months of alleged verbal torment by her high school peers. Five of those former peers, all minors, have been indicted on felony charges that range from stalking and harassment to violation of civil rights; like Ravi, they face up to 10 years in prison. A sixth defendant, now 19, faces charges of statutory rape related to consensual sex with Prince when he was a senior. Each of these students was forced to drop out of school, many put off hopes of graduation, and one lost a football scholarship to college.
The public was quick to indict on their own in Prince’s case, long before the facts were in. As more details emerged, however, we learned that Prince had tried to kill herself before, was on medication for depression, and was struggling with her parents’ separation. As Goldberg put it at the time, “What happened until innocent until proven guilty? It's politically incorrect to even suggest that. These cases are very high-profile, but very few people know all the facts involved.”
Prince and Clementi’s cases have brought long-overdue attention to the bullying issue. But they have also shown that efforts to solve bullying problems through crusading prosecution can do more harm than good. Ravi and Wei were both over 18 when their crime was committed, but they were still teens. There is longstanding research to show that law is not a deterrent to young people, who often respond emotionally to their surroundings. Ultimately, labeling teens "criminals," say criminologists, will only make it harder for them to engage with society when they return. “I understand the prosecutor wants to send a clear message, and that this case has and will continue to receive the national spotlight,” says Sameer Hinduja, a criminologist at Florida Atlantic University and the codirector of the Cyberbullying Research Center. “But pursuit of such charges is, in my opinion, incredibly overzealous.”
Under the glare of a national spotlight, nobody would dare argue that Ravi’s crime go unpunished. But there are certainly details that have yet to make their way into the public eye. For one: Ravi’s attorney’s insistence that the images of Clementi—while widely reported to have been “live-streamed”—were never in fact transmitted beyond a single computer belonging to Ravi’s alleged accomplice.
Whatever the outcome, Ravi's and Wei's punishments will rightly continue. “They’re going to have to cope with the proverbial blood on their hands for the rest of their lives,” says Hinduja. Whether that's good enough will be decided in court.
Jessica Bennett is a Newsweek senior writer covering society, youth culture and gender. Her special reports, multimedia packages and original Web video have been honored by the New York Press Club, the Newswomen's Club of New York and GLAAD, among other organizations. Follow her on Twitter.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Constructing Grounded Conversations In Ethical Democracy
please read this Blog entry from the bottom up (scroll down)
------------------------------
Chithra KarunaKaran says:
April 22, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Dear Respected Abbas Akhtar,
I agree with you about the General’s soft power approach to win friends and influence people. It’s very appealing.
However, I also want to be ***extremely wary*** of any institutionalized power (aka Army, legislators, courts) of the sovereign democratic Nation-state that can and will usurp the People’s Power.
I have met and worked with Aam Koshur every day in the Valley, ordinary people like you and me. We care about our friends and neighbors and are peaceful in our daily activities.
I want such people to lead civil society, not a general.
The enormous resources now used by the Army can instead be diverted to the People.
Our fiscal resources are finite, not infinite. Why should the Army command such massive resources? The resources are PUBLIC WEALTH, these resources belong to Aam Koshur.
Abbas Akhtar, you said:
“We must strengthen his hands to strengthen the hands of Awam”
I respectfully disagree.
Instead I say, We must strengthen Awam, so that the Army can be kept, in check, as a purely protective force on our border, not on our streets and not in our homes.
I would never accept an explanation of “mistaken identity” if my son was the target of an Army sting operation.
I wonder if Hasnain’s own son would be the target of a “mistaken identity.”
Of course not.
Only a poor woman’s despairing, disempowered son, who never received social justice opportunities, would be the target of “mistaken identity” by the Army.
People’s Power, supported by the government, and by the uniform Rule of Law is what we are all trying to build throughout our fragile and corruption-ridden democracy. Our democracy is a work in progress.
Power resides in the People. Our people are finding that they do have power and they are using that power, slowly but surely. The power of knowledge, information, discussion, non-violence to demand their rights to human dignity, free from the manipulation of unelected as elected politicians and free from state-sponsored violence.
Let us strengthen Our People Power, (not our army) by giving our People education, healthcare, housing and employment opportunities. They are enormously capable of speaking in their own voice to demand their rights and perform their responsibilities.
People’s Hearts are Not Weapons. My heart is not my weapon. Our hearts feel emotions based on experience in our daily lives and through memory of past experiences.
Our Brains and Minds are not owned by the sovereign Nation-State or by any Army.
We are each capable of thinking independently and making our own choices, for the Greater Collective Good.
The People want social, economic and civil justice opportunities. That is the basis of our Power.
No general can give it to us, because People already have the Power.
So, Power to the People and let the Army take its direction from the People, not the other way around.
Thanks for your kind response. I appreciate it.
Chithra
Reply
Chithra KarunaKaran says:
April 22, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Abbas Akhtar I quoted you but the quote was deleted because I used carets. Something is wrong with the format, it does not allow the use of carets:
Here’s the quote I disagreed with, from your reply:
“We must strengthen his hands to strengthen the hands of Awam”
Reply
Abbas Akhtar says:
April 23, 2011 at 5:59 am
Dear Dr KarunaKaran
The insurgency in Kashmir needs to be studied from the concepts of Conflict Initiation, Conflict Stabilization, Conflict Termination and Conflict Resolution. To be able to intellectually engage at all these levels the US COIN doctrines in Afghanistan are relying heavily on the Indian experience. Power and Love are two important instruments of managing terror unleashed by Pakistan. They are laundering money to seduce our youth towards gun running, drugs and terror.
The administrative machinery in Kashmir is now on the same page to counter this menace. If army goes to the barracks, these divisive forces will get a boost. It is with this backdrop that Gen Hasnain is turning the tide of popular support in Kashmir.
You may read this http://www.geopolitics.in/jan2011.aspx
Reply
Chithra KarunaKaran says:
April 23, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Dear Respected Abbas Mukhtar,
Hope you still got my main point about PEOPLE POWER.
We need all stakeholders involved in the process, including Kashmiris across the LoC.
The geopolitical ‘seema’ has not succeeded in piercing a painful line across our hearts!
We still feel Kashmiriyat.
The Army, no matter which country, is a “vested interest” not necessarily a “stakeholder”. Having Force is not the same thing as having a stake.
I have love for General Hasnain and especially for my Fauj, but I also understand that coercive Force is their attribute.
Coercive Force is NOT the attribute of People Power. I am committed to that.
Because civil society is relatively weak in Kashmir (compared to Kerala, Tamil Nadu or West Bengal), it is easy to see PEOPLE in the great state of J&k ceding (giving up) their power to the Army and seeking guidance from it.
It is a mistake the create a “Kashmir Exception” in the Indian nation-state and say the Army belongs there.
The Army does not belong there, except at the border, to protect the sovereign nation-state. ***I reject AFSPA outright***.
Also Abbas, you have not directly addressed my enormously important point that VAST RESOURCES are expended on the Army in J&K.
Those same vast resources could feed, clothe and educate every woman, child and man, on BOTH sides of the LoC!!!
I know they are MY sisters, brothers and children.
As one who has lived taught in the US and in many parts of the world for 35 years, I am fortunate to be able to make a comparative analysis between democratic models.
If you have lived only in one place it is impossible to do so.
I would not want India to follow the US Militarist Capitalist Democratic Model. In this model people have broad freedoms and protected individual liberties.
But that is not the same as having a society built on ethical practices of local and global Social Justice.
The Indian sovereign democratic nation-state model is ***attempting***, not yet succeeding, to be built on Social Justice.
The Gandhian model of Ethical Democracy, I am happy to note, has guided the national leaders of Indian geopolitics for six decades, though it is not explicitly stated. In contrast, the US nation-state is expansionist, opportunist, exceptionalist and triumphalist.
It is the antithesis of the Indian nation-state model.
People Power in Kashmir fits the Indian model, not the US model. If the Army gains the upper hand, it will be closer to the US model.
Which one do you want?
Every Aam Koshur I have lived with and met and served wants the Indian ethical democratic model. It is equally Gandhian and Koranic, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian & Indigenous pantheistic Human Ethics.
Now in 2011, we are Winning Hearts and Minds through civic engagement, including right here on this discursive template and in the schools, hospitals, shops and streets of the Valley and everywhere in India.
Satyameva Jayate — To Truth goes the Victory. Not to you or to me, but to Truth itself.
Dr. Chithra KarunaKaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice [blog now funded by CUNY]
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/chithra.karunakaran
@EthicalDemocrac
http://www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
Reply
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbas Akhtar says:
April 22, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Dear Dr KarunaKaran
I am deply impressed with your judgement that awam is The Force. Having seen General Hasnain work on the same theme such as Heart as the Weapon and “Awam aur Jawan, aman hai Muqam” We the youth of Kashmir are truly inspired by the General and his approach to empower the people of Kashmir. We must strengthen his hands to strengthen the hands of Awam. Its been a long time since we have come across a person who genuinely cares about the awam and we are grateful for that
------------------------------------------------------------
Chithra KarunaKaran says:
April 22, 2011 at 3:03 pm
A People’s General must PROVE his Awami credentials
General Hasnain bears a beautiful, poetic name. Hope he lives up to it.
Muzamil Jaleel’s analysis in “A People’s General” is a valuable critical assessment of the modern face of the Army, with its unified strategy at confidence-building through community outreach.
General Hasnain is the human face of the modern Indian army, operating in a border state that has faced both prolonged infiltration and internal separatism. That is a dual challenge that cannot be minimized.
The sovereign multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious post-colonial democratic Indian secular state is an unprecedented work in progress. Compare India with Brazil, South Africa and Ghana, not with China or Pakistan.
Of the latter two, both of whom are unpredictable, expansionist opportunist neighbors, one is totalitarian but prosperous, the other is US-owned, unstable and terror-prone.
We the People are part of that ongoing work in progress of Indian Democracy, flawed and unequal as it presently is. But the huge voter turnout in the panchayat elections gives us hope. Civil discussion gives us hope. Propserity and stability give us hope.
General Hasnain also gives us hope. That work of democracy never ends. Vigilant public participation is the price of Democracy.
We the People are ones we have been waiting for. General Hasnain is trying to be one among us. The Fauj is trying to be one among us. They are men who have mothers, sisters and wives, daughters and sons. To dehumanize ordinary soldiers is to misconstrue their potential role. General Hasnain understands this potential to build a People’s Army.
But We the People, the Awaam, the Aaam Koshur ***cannot rely solely on rank and title and medals. We certain cannot rely on force.
We want to see the security forces at the border, ***not in our streets***, and we want civilian peace groups, example grassroots NGO’s and multiple associations of teachers, students, farmers, carpenters, shawlmakers, engineers, doctors, merchants, working in partnership with government and the courts to ensure swift justice for victims and swift justice against perpetrators, in our communities and our localities.
We need education, healthcare and employment opportunities which are the bedrock of a prosperous and therefore peaceful civil society.
That does not come from General Hasnain or the army or the police. It comes from us, facilitated by a civilian government and non-governmental grassroots groups, not the army.
Having volunteered in education for four years in Jammu, Valley and Ladakh I find our greatest leaders are our Awam, our People.
We are the Force, We are the Power.
Not the Army.
The Army, including General Hasnain, have Force but they are not The Force.
Dr. Chithra KarunaKaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
http://www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
http://www.facebook.com/chithra.karunakaran
@EthicalDemocrac
Never follow me! Engage in Social Justice locally, globally.
--------------
A People’s General
April 17, 2011 by Team SAI
Filed under internal security
11 Comments
The first Muslim officer to command the Army in Kashmir in two decades, Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain is attempting to bridge the divide between the Army and the people with his “heart as weapon” doctrine, reports MUZAMIL JALEEL.
This story first appeared in Indian Express 16 April 2011
ASSALAMUALIKUM. Mera naam Ata Hasnain hai.” This is how Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain, General Officer Commanding of the Army’s 15 Corps, begins his interaction with villagers in the Valley. The first Muslim officer to command the Army in Kashmir after Lt General M K Zaki, who led the force at the outset of militancy two decades ago, Hasnain took over in December 2010. He plays down his background, insisting he wants to be seen as nothing more than an officer of the Indian Army. But his name itself has set the tone for his new and challenging agenda in Kashmir, where religion and the scars of Partition form a compulsory backdrop of the political narrative.
“My heart is my weapon,” says Hasnain as he travels across the Valley to interact with villagers. “Times have changed and the Army cannot limit its role to military operations. We have to look at security in much more comprehensive terms.”
Laying out his agenda at a public interaction, Hasnain says his objective is to practise “an entirely humane” approach with a long-term perspective. “I think my force should not be seen as one with arms everywhere. Our main weapon is our heart. And that is the weapon we will carry around in our efforts to bring stability to the state all over again,” he says.
His aim, he emphasises, is “to look at how the Army can assist the state government in reaching out to the people and putting a balm on the many wounds that may have occurred over a period of time”.
Hasnain’s new “heart as weapon” doctrine and style of functioning have, in fact, changed the very contours of Army’s rules of engagement in Kashmir, a place where the uniform has generally been viewed with fear. Hasnain is trying to erase this psychological barrier and begin a conversation with the “awam (people)”: a difficult and arduous journey in a landscape where spools of barbed wire divide the troops and the people in both physical as well as psychological terms.
Hasnain’s understanding of the intricacies of Kashmiri culture, and religious and political sensitivities, and the willingness to look beyond the statistics of “kills” and suc cess of encounters, has provided the top military commander in Kashmir with the essential ammunition to launch a successful public relations exercise. The challenge, however, lies in the manner in which he will deal with larger and contentious issues, like the speedy investigation into allegations of serious human rights abuses, demands of withdrawal from civilian areas, and the repeal of controversial laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
At a recent public interaction programme in north Kashmir’s Handwara town, Hasnain, whose family originally belongs to Lucknow, further demystifies his new doctrine. “There is no solution for any problem by military means,” he says. “The Army in the Valley is carrying out the job of stabilising the situation. We are here to create a stable environment. We are ensuring that the local population remains with us. This can only be done through reaching out and engaging with the people.” He insisted that the Army was maintaining utmost restraint while conducting its counter insurgency operations in the Valley
“We have carried out all our recent operations in Sopore, Shopian and Tral areas without any collateral damage. We are making sure that even the houses where militants are hiding are not destroyed. People have started reposing their confidence in the army.”
Reaching out in Handwara THE Handwara meeting was important because Manzoor Ahmad Magray, a 21-year-old student from adjoining Chowgul village, was killed by troops who had laid a night ambush for militants on February 4 this year. Since this was the first such incident after Hasnain took charge, it became a litmus test on the ground for his new approach. Hasnain had reacted immediately, expressing regret for the loss of life and then ordering a court of inquiry.
“It was an unfortunate case of mistaken identity,” he says at the awami sunwai (public hearing. “We have publicly regretted this death and the Army has already completed its court of inquiry. I think the State administration too has completed its inquiry. We will make it public soon.” He said he ordered a modification in the Army’s standard operating procedure soon after the incident. “We are making sure that our troops never fire without sufficient warning,” he says.
Hasnain had invited Magray’s father for the meeting too. “We cannot bring back your child but I promise, we will ensure that justice is done,” he told him. Magray’s younger brother Dawood Ahmad Magray has already been adopted by the Army and admitted to its Pahalgam Boarding School.
Though Hasnain’s approach did calm the situation from taking a volatile turn, it is yet to be seen as to how the promise of justice is served. During his tenure as the Army’s top commander in Kashmir, Hasnain’s “heart is my weapon” doctrine will be always pitted against the scepticism that has pervaded civil ian engagement with the Army in Kashmir for the last two decades.
Hasnain has inherited a legacy of public mistrust, unaddressed issues, and unanswered questions, which will confront him as he attempts to go beyond military victories. Even the fate of inquiries into major incidents of fake encounters is yet to be known: Pathribal in 2000, Handwara in 2007, and an incident of fake surrender in 2005, when more than 50 villagers from Budgam district were kept illegally confined for six months before being made to `surrender’. Though he stresses that a Kashmir solution cannot be achieved through military means alone, it is yet to be seen as to how the army will react to any forward movement towards a political resolution.
Putting `awam’ first Hasnain, however, has made some important beginnings. His intent was known when he changed the Army’s main slogan from “Jawan aur awaam, aman hai muqam” (jawan and people, peace is the destination) to “Awam aur jawan, aman hai muqam”, thus putting people first. Hasnain also deleted `Operation’ from Operation Sadbhavana so that the “people don’t look at Army’s developmental works as part of their military operations”. This symbolic beginning was followed by a string of new measures with an emphasis on better public relations.
He started the “Ji Jinab” campaign, which aims at making jawans more courteous towards people. “I talk to the troops and explain the importance of showing respect to the people,” he says at the tea after the public interaction. “We have to be firm but respectful. Ji Jinab means exactly that.”
The Army has also launched a programme to teach Kashmiri to officers. “We want better communication with the people. We are here for the service of the people and we want that sentiment to reach the people,” he said.
Hasnain began his public interaction tours from volatile neighbourhoods and has already visited Shopian in south Kashmir, and Palhalan and Sopore in north Kashmir to “directly talk to the people”. The response has been interesting, especially as villagers come with a bagful of complaints that primarily revolve around problems with local governance. Aware of the sensitive relationship between the Army and the civilian administration, Hasnain is always accompanied by senior officials of the District Administration.
In Handwara, the public meeting was held at the conference hall of the J&K Government’s Environment and Forest Department and Hasnain was accompanied by local MP Sharief-ud-Din Shariq, deputy commissioner of Kupwara, and senior army and police officers.
Ajaz Ahmad Sofi, president of Handwara’s Traders’ Federation, told Hasnain that it was for the first time in two decades that a corps commander had visited the town and held a public interaction. He sought Hasnain’s intervention to ease the Army’s night blockade of the road connecting the town with the Rajwar area. Hasnain responded by issuing orders to lift the barricade immediately.
Advocate Nazir Ahmad too has a complaint. “Since 1947, our village is without road and electricity.” Ghulam Mohammad Mir, who introduces himself as a local People’s Democratic Party leader, highlights the issues of misgovernance in Handwara. Mir also requests Hasnain to absorb more Kashmiri youth, especially from Kupwara and Handwara, in the Army. Hasnain responds by saying that the Army has sent 30 youths from north Kashmir to Chandigarh for coaching.
Mushtaq Ahmad, a government school teacher, has come from Sarmarg village with a complaint about the construction of a road link in his area under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in 2005. “The contractor used substandard material. We informed government officials several times but they never took our complaints seriously. Please help us”.
Hasnain’s reaction to complaints against administrative problems is guarded. He has a good rapport with the state government and he seems cautious to avoid stepping into their domain.
Asked to comment on the recent statement of J&K DGP Kuldeep Khoda that militancy was down by 45 percent in the state, he says, “Yes, there is a drop in militancy. But we never see a decline through the prism of statistics.
We look at the overall atmosphere.”
Hasnain, however, doesn’t think militancy is over yet. “As long as there are camps, there is a threat. The camps are still intact and filled with militants. The next two weeks will be important for us,” he says.
“But the Army is strong enough to prevent the infiltration as we have developed a good mechanism to stop the infiltration from across the LoC.”
On the question of why the Army hesitates to operate in Maoist-hit states while it was keen to `stabilise’ Kashmir, he says there is no comparison between the two situations. “The Maoist problem is totally an internal problem and Kashmir is an existential threat,” he says. “It (Kashmir), however, needs to be tackled carefully”.
------------------------------
Chithra KarunaKaran says:
April 22, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Dear Respected Abbas Akhtar,
I agree with you about the General’s soft power approach to win friends and influence people. It’s very appealing.
However, I also want to be ***extremely wary*** of any institutionalized power (aka Army, legislators, courts) of the sovereign democratic Nation-state that can and will usurp the People’s Power.
I have met and worked with Aam Koshur every day in the Valley, ordinary people like you and me. We care about our friends and neighbors and are peaceful in our daily activities.
I want such people to lead civil society, not a general.
The enormous resources now used by the Army can instead be diverted to the People.
Our fiscal resources are finite, not infinite. Why should the Army command such massive resources? The resources are PUBLIC WEALTH, these resources belong to Aam Koshur.
Abbas Akhtar, you said:
“We must strengthen his hands to strengthen the hands of Awam”
I respectfully disagree.
Instead I say, We must strengthen Awam, so that the Army can be kept, in check, as a purely protective force on our border, not on our streets and not in our homes.
I would never accept an explanation of “mistaken identity” if my son was the target of an Army sting operation.
I wonder if Hasnain’s own son would be the target of a “mistaken identity.”
Of course not.
Only a poor woman’s despairing, disempowered son, who never received social justice opportunities, would be the target of “mistaken identity” by the Army.
People’s Power, supported by the government, and by the uniform Rule of Law is what we are all trying to build throughout our fragile and corruption-ridden democracy. Our democracy is a work in progress.
Power resides in the People. Our people are finding that they do have power and they are using that power, slowly but surely. The power of knowledge, information, discussion, non-violence to demand their rights to human dignity, free from the manipulation of unelected as elected politicians and free from state-sponsored violence.
Let us strengthen Our People Power, (not our army) by giving our People education, healthcare, housing and employment opportunities. They are enormously capable of speaking in their own voice to demand their rights and perform their responsibilities.
People’s Hearts are Not Weapons. My heart is not my weapon. Our hearts feel emotions based on experience in our daily lives and through memory of past experiences.
Our Brains and Minds are not owned by the sovereign Nation-State or by any Army.
We are each capable of thinking independently and making our own choices, for the Greater Collective Good.
The People want social, economic and civil justice opportunities. That is the basis of our Power.
No general can give it to us, because People already have the Power.
So, Power to the People and let the Army take its direction from the People, not the other way around.
Thanks for your kind response. I appreciate it.
Chithra
Reply
Chithra KarunaKaran says:
April 22, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Abbas Akhtar I quoted you but the quote was deleted because I used carets. Something is wrong with the format, it does not allow the use of carets:
Here’s the quote I disagreed with, from your reply:
“We must strengthen his hands to strengthen the hands of Awam”
Reply
Abbas Akhtar says:
April 23, 2011 at 5:59 am
Dear Dr KarunaKaran
The insurgency in Kashmir needs to be studied from the concepts of Conflict Initiation, Conflict Stabilization, Conflict Termination and Conflict Resolution. To be able to intellectually engage at all these levels the US COIN doctrines in Afghanistan are relying heavily on the Indian experience. Power and Love are two important instruments of managing terror unleashed by Pakistan. They are laundering money to seduce our youth towards gun running, drugs and terror.
The administrative machinery in Kashmir is now on the same page to counter this menace. If army goes to the barracks, these divisive forces will get a boost. It is with this backdrop that Gen Hasnain is turning the tide of popular support in Kashmir.
You may read this http://www.geopolitics.in/jan2011.aspx
Reply
Chithra KarunaKaran says:
April 23, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Dear Respected Abbas Mukhtar,
Hope you still got my main point about PEOPLE POWER.
We need all stakeholders involved in the process, including Kashmiris across the LoC.
The geopolitical ‘seema’ has not succeeded in piercing a painful line across our hearts!
We still feel Kashmiriyat.
The Army, no matter which country, is a “vested interest” not necessarily a “stakeholder”. Having Force is not the same thing as having a stake.
I have love for General Hasnain and especially for my Fauj, but I also understand that coercive Force is their attribute.
Coercive Force is NOT the attribute of People Power. I am committed to that.
Because civil society is relatively weak in Kashmir (compared to Kerala, Tamil Nadu or West Bengal), it is easy to see PEOPLE in the great state of J&k ceding (giving up) their power to the Army and seeking guidance from it.
It is a mistake the create a “Kashmir Exception” in the Indian nation-state and say the Army belongs there.
The Army does not belong there, except at the border, to protect the sovereign nation-state. ***I reject AFSPA outright***.
Also Abbas, you have not directly addressed my enormously important point that VAST RESOURCES are expended on the Army in J&K.
Those same vast resources could feed, clothe and educate every woman, child and man, on BOTH sides of the LoC!!!
I know they are MY sisters, brothers and children.
As one who has lived taught in the US and in many parts of the world for 35 years, I am fortunate to be able to make a comparative analysis between democratic models.
If you have lived only in one place it is impossible to do so.
I would not want India to follow the US Militarist Capitalist Democratic Model. In this model people have broad freedoms and protected individual liberties.
But that is not the same as having a society built on ethical practices of local and global Social Justice.
The Indian sovereign democratic nation-state model is ***attempting***, not yet succeeding, to be built on Social Justice.
The Gandhian model of Ethical Democracy, I am happy to note, has guided the national leaders of Indian geopolitics for six decades, though it is not explicitly stated. In contrast, the US nation-state is expansionist, opportunist, exceptionalist and triumphalist.
It is the antithesis of the Indian nation-state model.
People Power in Kashmir fits the Indian model, not the US model. If the Army gains the upper hand, it will be closer to the US model.
Which one do you want?
Every Aam Koshur I have lived with and met and served wants the Indian ethical democratic model. It is equally Gandhian and Koranic, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian & Indigenous pantheistic Human Ethics.
Now in 2011, we are Winning Hearts and Minds through civic engagement, including right here on this discursive template and in the schools, hospitals, shops and streets of the Valley and everywhere in India.
Satyameva Jayate — To Truth goes the Victory. Not to you or to me, but to Truth itself.
Dr. Chithra KarunaKaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice [blog now funded by CUNY]
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/chithra.karunakaran
@EthicalDemocrac
http://www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
Reply
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbas Akhtar says:
April 22, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Dear Dr KarunaKaran
I am deply impressed with your judgement that awam is The Force. Having seen General Hasnain work on the same theme such as Heart as the Weapon and “Awam aur Jawan, aman hai Muqam” We the youth of Kashmir are truly inspired by the General and his approach to empower the people of Kashmir. We must strengthen his hands to strengthen the hands of Awam. Its been a long time since we have come across a person who genuinely cares about the awam and we are grateful for that
------------------------------------------------------------
Chithra KarunaKaran says:
April 22, 2011 at 3:03 pm
A People’s General must PROVE his Awami credentials
General Hasnain bears a beautiful, poetic name. Hope he lives up to it.
Muzamil Jaleel’s analysis in “A People’s General” is a valuable critical assessment of the modern face of the Army, with its unified strategy at confidence-building through community outreach.
General Hasnain is the human face of the modern Indian army, operating in a border state that has faced both prolonged infiltration and internal separatism. That is a dual challenge that cannot be minimized.
The sovereign multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious post-colonial democratic Indian secular state is an unprecedented work in progress. Compare India with Brazil, South Africa and Ghana, not with China or Pakistan.
Of the latter two, both of whom are unpredictable, expansionist opportunist neighbors, one is totalitarian but prosperous, the other is US-owned, unstable and terror-prone.
We the People are part of that ongoing work in progress of Indian Democracy, flawed and unequal as it presently is. But the huge voter turnout in the panchayat elections gives us hope. Civil discussion gives us hope. Propserity and stability give us hope.
General Hasnain also gives us hope. That work of democracy never ends. Vigilant public participation is the price of Democracy.
We the People are ones we have been waiting for. General Hasnain is trying to be one among us. The Fauj is trying to be one among us. They are men who have mothers, sisters and wives, daughters and sons. To dehumanize ordinary soldiers is to misconstrue their potential role. General Hasnain understands this potential to build a People’s Army.
But We the People, the Awaam, the Aaam Koshur ***cannot rely solely on rank and title and medals. We certain cannot rely on force.
We want to see the security forces at the border, ***not in our streets***, and we want civilian peace groups, example grassroots NGO’s and multiple associations of teachers, students, farmers, carpenters, shawlmakers, engineers, doctors, merchants, working in partnership with government and the courts to ensure swift justice for victims and swift justice against perpetrators, in our communities and our localities.
We need education, healthcare and employment opportunities which are the bedrock of a prosperous and therefore peaceful civil society.
That does not come from General Hasnain or the army or the police. It comes from us, facilitated by a civilian government and non-governmental grassroots groups, not the army.
Having volunteered in education for four years in Jammu, Valley and Ladakh I find our greatest leaders are our Awam, our People.
We are the Force, We are the Power.
Not the Army.
The Army, including General Hasnain, have Force but they are not The Force.
Dr. Chithra KarunaKaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
http://www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
http://www.facebook.com/chithra.karunakaran
@EthicalDemocrac
Never follow me! Engage in Social Justice locally, globally.
--------------
A People’s General
April 17, 2011 by Team SAI
Filed under internal security
11 Comments
The first Muslim officer to command the Army in Kashmir in two decades, Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain is attempting to bridge the divide between the Army and the people with his “heart as weapon” doctrine, reports MUZAMIL JALEEL.
This story first appeared in Indian Express 16 April 2011
ASSALAMUALIKUM. Mera naam Ata Hasnain hai.” This is how Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain, General Officer Commanding of the Army’s 15 Corps, begins his interaction with villagers in the Valley. The first Muslim officer to command the Army in Kashmir after Lt General M K Zaki, who led the force at the outset of militancy two decades ago, Hasnain took over in December 2010. He plays down his background, insisting he wants to be seen as nothing more than an officer of the Indian Army. But his name itself has set the tone for his new and challenging agenda in Kashmir, where religion and the scars of Partition form a compulsory backdrop of the political narrative.
“My heart is my weapon,” says Hasnain as he travels across the Valley to interact with villagers. “Times have changed and the Army cannot limit its role to military operations. We have to look at security in much more comprehensive terms.”
Laying out his agenda at a public interaction, Hasnain says his objective is to practise “an entirely humane” approach with a long-term perspective. “I think my force should not be seen as one with arms everywhere. Our main weapon is our heart. And that is the weapon we will carry around in our efforts to bring stability to the state all over again,” he says.
His aim, he emphasises, is “to look at how the Army can assist the state government in reaching out to the people and putting a balm on the many wounds that may have occurred over a period of time”.
Hasnain’s new “heart as weapon” doctrine and style of functioning have, in fact, changed the very contours of Army’s rules of engagement in Kashmir, a place where the uniform has generally been viewed with fear. Hasnain is trying to erase this psychological barrier and begin a conversation with the “awam (people)”: a difficult and arduous journey in a landscape where spools of barbed wire divide the troops and the people in both physical as well as psychological terms.
Hasnain’s understanding of the intricacies of Kashmiri culture, and religious and political sensitivities, and the willingness to look beyond the statistics of “kills” and suc cess of encounters, has provided the top military commander in Kashmir with the essential ammunition to launch a successful public relations exercise. The challenge, however, lies in the manner in which he will deal with larger and contentious issues, like the speedy investigation into allegations of serious human rights abuses, demands of withdrawal from civilian areas, and the repeal of controversial laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
At a recent public interaction programme in north Kashmir’s Handwara town, Hasnain, whose family originally belongs to Lucknow, further demystifies his new doctrine. “There is no solution for any problem by military means,” he says. “The Army in the Valley is carrying out the job of stabilising the situation. We are here to create a stable environment. We are ensuring that the local population remains with us. This can only be done through reaching out and engaging with the people.” He insisted that the Army was maintaining utmost restraint while conducting its counter insurgency operations in the Valley
“We have carried out all our recent operations in Sopore, Shopian and Tral areas without any collateral damage. We are making sure that even the houses where militants are hiding are not destroyed. People have started reposing their confidence in the army.”
Reaching out in Handwara THE Handwara meeting was important because Manzoor Ahmad Magray, a 21-year-old student from adjoining Chowgul village, was killed by troops who had laid a night ambush for militants on February 4 this year. Since this was the first such incident after Hasnain took charge, it became a litmus test on the ground for his new approach. Hasnain had reacted immediately, expressing regret for the loss of life and then ordering a court of inquiry.
“It was an unfortunate case of mistaken identity,” he says at the awami sunwai (public hearing. “We have publicly regretted this death and the Army has already completed its court of inquiry. I think the State administration too has completed its inquiry. We will make it public soon.” He said he ordered a modification in the Army’s standard operating procedure soon after the incident. “We are making sure that our troops never fire without sufficient warning,” he says.
Hasnain had invited Magray’s father for the meeting too. “We cannot bring back your child but I promise, we will ensure that justice is done,” he told him. Magray’s younger brother Dawood Ahmad Magray has already been adopted by the Army and admitted to its Pahalgam Boarding School.
Though Hasnain’s approach did calm the situation from taking a volatile turn, it is yet to be seen as to how the promise of justice is served. During his tenure as the Army’s top commander in Kashmir, Hasnain’s “heart is my weapon” doctrine will be always pitted against the scepticism that has pervaded civil ian engagement with the Army in Kashmir for the last two decades.
Hasnain has inherited a legacy of public mistrust, unaddressed issues, and unanswered questions, which will confront him as he attempts to go beyond military victories. Even the fate of inquiries into major incidents of fake encounters is yet to be known: Pathribal in 2000, Handwara in 2007, and an incident of fake surrender in 2005, when more than 50 villagers from Budgam district were kept illegally confined for six months before being made to `surrender’. Though he stresses that a Kashmir solution cannot be achieved through military means alone, it is yet to be seen as to how the army will react to any forward movement towards a political resolution.
Putting `awam’ first Hasnain, however, has made some important beginnings. His intent was known when he changed the Army’s main slogan from “Jawan aur awaam, aman hai muqam” (jawan and people, peace is the destination) to “Awam aur jawan, aman hai muqam”, thus putting people first. Hasnain also deleted `Operation’ from Operation Sadbhavana so that the “people don’t look at Army’s developmental works as part of their military operations”. This symbolic beginning was followed by a string of new measures with an emphasis on better public relations.
He started the “Ji Jinab” campaign, which aims at making jawans more courteous towards people. “I talk to the troops and explain the importance of showing respect to the people,” he says at the tea after the public interaction. “We have to be firm but respectful. Ji Jinab means exactly that.”
The Army has also launched a programme to teach Kashmiri to officers. “We want better communication with the people. We are here for the service of the people and we want that sentiment to reach the people,” he said.
Hasnain began his public interaction tours from volatile neighbourhoods and has already visited Shopian in south Kashmir, and Palhalan and Sopore in north Kashmir to “directly talk to the people”. The response has been interesting, especially as villagers come with a bagful of complaints that primarily revolve around problems with local governance. Aware of the sensitive relationship between the Army and the civilian administration, Hasnain is always accompanied by senior officials of the District Administration.
In Handwara, the public meeting was held at the conference hall of the J&K Government’s Environment and Forest Department and Hasnain was accompanied by local MP Sharief-ud-Din Shariq, deputy commissioner of Kupwara, and senior army and police officers.
Ajaz Ahmad Sofi, president of Handwara’s Traders’ Federation, told Hasnain that it was for the first time in two decades that a corps commander had visited the town and held a public interaction. He sought Hasnain’s intervention to ease the Army’s night blockade of the road connecting the town with the Rajwar area. Hasnain responded by issuing orders to lift the barricade immediately.
Advocate Nazir Ahmad too has a complaint. “Since 1947, our village is without road and electricity.” Ghulam Mohammad Mir, who introduces himself as a local People’s Democratic Party leader, highlights the issues of misgovernance in Handwara. Mir also requests Hasnain to absorb more Kashmiri youth, especially from Kupwara and Handwara, in the Army. Hasnain responds by saying that the Army has sent 30 youths from north Kashmir to Chandigarh for coaching.
Mushtaq Ahmad, a government school teacher, has come from Sarmarg village with a complaint about the construction of a road link in his area under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in 2005. “The contractor used substandard material. We informed government officials several times but they never took our complaints seriously. Please help us”.
Hasnain’s reaction to complaints against administrative problems is guarded. He has a good rapport with the state government and he seems cautious to avoid stepping into their domain.
Asked to comment on the recent statement of J&K DGP Kuldeep Khoda that militancy was down by 45 percent in the state, he says, “Yes, there is a drop in militancy. But we never see a decline through the prism of statistics.
We look at the overall atmosphere.”
Hasnain, however, doesn’t think militancy is over yet. “As long as there are camps, there is a threat. The camps are still intact and filled with militants. The next two weeks will be important for us,” he says.
“But the Army is strong enough to prevent the infiltration as we have developed a good mechanism to stop the infiltration from across the LoC.”
On the question of why the Army hesitates to operate in Maoist-hit states while it was keen to `stabilise’ Kashmir, he says there is no comparison between the two situations. “The Maoist problem is totally an internal problem and Kashmir is an existential threat,” he says. “It (Kashmir), however, needs to be tackled carefully”.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Obama, Why Drag "The Third World" into US Eection 2012?
Watch how the mainstream US media reports it and headlines it, without critical explanation and without critical reasoning (scroll way way below, my comment which follows right here)
I say:
Obama claims Republicans are wanting to turn the US into "a Third World" Country! in a re-election fundraiser at his political base in Chicago. Most working people (that's the majority of ALL voters) in Wisconsin and Ohio and everywhere else, are already keenly aware that their elected Republican leaders are proving to be not worthy of their vote and recalls are being vigorously pursued.
Do you see how DISRESPECTFUL the US Govt and the American People are, to buy into this demeaning language and this politically expedient, self-serving line of reasoning? Has the "Third World" done anything to engineer the sorry mess the US economy is in?
The Third World is a concept that only partially describes the post-colonial, sovereign, non-aligned nations, designating PEOPLES whose ancestral lands were occupied and who were colonized, until those very Peoples drove the exploitative colonizers out! That is the Third World, President Obama. Your Kenyan father and Indonesian half-sister were born there remember? You lived briefly in the Third World, remember? Your CIA operatives and Armed Forces are occupying, droning and killing in The Third World, remember?
Why diss us in the Third World to make your point against some, not all,ethically challenged Republicans, to grab a cheap headline in your re-election campaign? Leave us out. Please.
The US media is part and parcel of the US Govt. The US media is post-embedded since 2003 following the US invasion of Iraq. The US media will accept such characterizations from the Government, without examination and will repeat, not report such quotes, from the US President, no less. There will be NO copy in any US media along these lines:
"The Third World, referred to by the US President roughly connotes all countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America that were occupied, plundered and enslaved, until these peoples drove out the white colonizers and set themselves free between the 1940s and 1960s."
Malcolm X and MLK would likely be cringing in their graves at Obama's statement.
Malcolm celebrated the Third World and the Bandung Conference 1955 in his speeches. Malcolm X was a Free Speech internationalist, whereas in the US he is regarded even by Blacks as a Black leader and by whites as a violent Black leader. Martin Luther King before his murder, began to refer to the race struggle as a struggle for justice within the larger struggle for freedom worldwide. Where does Obama stand in the line of succession?
Obama is almost as ahistorical as Condolezza Rice when she came to New Delhi and lectured India's elected parliamentary leaders on the supposed limitations of the Non-Aligned Movement(NAM).
Obama's audience at the Navy Pier fundraiser included large numbers of Black folk, who are part of the Third World of the US, yes or no? The minorities who have been marginalized and who have a history of enslavement dispossession dislocation. Yeah, since Obama's election we all became post-racial. Yeah right
The US Government's superpower ignorance, US exceptionalism, US supremacism are at an all time high:( just, just when the US economy is in the toilet, the US economy is in fact, in grave decline. You cant have it both ways. The Global South is eating your jobs, because the market economy must ensure profits, so chase cheap labor from Nigeria to Nam. I agree with the inevitable principle of free markets == but they have to be tweaked, sometimes aggressively, to deliver The Greater Collective Good (GCG)
Global South sovereign nation-states, please do not roll out the Red carpet for Obama anytime soon. Yes, Barack, Schumer, Boxer, Murray are preferable to Boehner, Ryan, Walker, Kasich but The Third World has not tanked the US economy.
Send a letter of protest against such intentionally pejorative descriptions of the Global South, to Obama at www.whitehouse.gov
South~South.
------------------
AGP copyright
Republicans will make US 'Third World' nation: Obama
AFP on Yahoo!
Republicans will make US a Third World;= country: Obama AFP – President Barack Obama reads a note given to him by a young girl upon arrival at O?Hare International …
Exclusive: President Obama says he won't write off Texas in 2012 election Play Video Barack Obama Video:Exclusive: President Obama says he won't write off Texas in 2012 election KENS 5 - TV San Antonio
Trump on Obama, Healthcare and Abortion Play Video Barack Obama Video:Trump on Obama, Healthcare and Abortion ABC News
President Obama and the Social Compact Play Video Barack Obama Video:President Obama and the Social Compact FOX News
by Mira Oberman – Fri Apr 15, 12:57 am ET
CHICAGO (AFP) – US President Barack Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
The attack came a day after Obama savaged Republican budget plans and unveiled his $4-trillion deficit reduction drive that aims to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to preserve key social services.
The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical to the 2012 campaign and Obama sought to frame it as a "stark choice" between investing in the future or watching the country fall apart.
"Under their vision, we can't invest in roads and bridges and broadband and high-speed rail," Obama told a select group of the Democratic faithful at the second of three fundraising events in his hometown of Chicago.
"I mean, we would be a nation of potholes, and our airports would be worse than places that we thought -- that we used to call the Third World, but who are now investing in infrastructure."
[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]
Republicans plans to shrink the reach of government is "not a vision that's impelled by the numbers" but a "choice" to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the rich rather than ask those who've been "blessed" to "give a little more."
Obama said his vision is of an ambitious, compassionate, and caring America "where we're living within our means but we're still investing in our future."
"If we apply some practical common sense to this, we can solve our fiscal challenges and still have the America that we believe in," Obama told supporters at Chicago's N9ne restaurant.
"That's what this budget debate is going to be about. And that's what the 2012 campaign is going to be about."
The events in Chicago were Obama's first fundraisers since he officially launched his bid for a second term on April 4 and were expected to raise about two million dollars.
Analysts predict Obama -- who raised a record $750 million ahead of the 2008 election -- will build a billion-dollar war chest this time around.
Money won't be enough to win, senior advisor and 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe told a crowd of 2,300 supporters gathered in a ballroom at Navy Pier ahead of Obama's speech.
"If only the people who normally vote in presidential elections vote in this election it will be too close," Plouffe said as he urged supporters to get more people involved in the campaign.
"You've got to get these people to get involved and to vote so we can make sure that we succeed in this election."
Obama established his 2012 campaign headquarters in Chicago, the first time a presidential reelection campaign was not based in Washington.
He told supporters it was so the campaign would be "rooted in your hopes and rooted in your dreams" instead of influenced by Washington pundits and powerbrokers.
Obama reminded the cheering crowd of the sense of hope and possibility they felt when they celebrated his election as the first African American US president in Chicago's Grant Park.
"And yet, even as we celebrated -- you remember what I said back then? I said our work wasn't ending, our work was just beginning," Obama said.
"We've still got business to do. We are not finished.
"We've got to reclaim the American dream for all Americans. That's the change we still believe in."
Barring a dramatic turn, no major adversary from within his party is likely to challenge Obama, who turns 50 in August.
As for who might run against him from the Republican Party's ranks, uncertainty reigns.
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney have taken the first official steps toward candidacy, while conservative former House speaker Newt Gingrich and even real estate mogul Donald Trump have hinted at challenging for the Republican nomination.
In less than a month, the 64-year-old Trump has jumped from 10 to 19 percent support among Republican voters, tying with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, according to a CNN poll released this week.
Republican officials worry that the crowded field of possible White House hopefuls could end up helping Obama, who could be vulnerable as the US economy sputters its way out of its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
---
Republicans will make US 'Third World' nation: Obama
President Barack Obama reads a note given to him by a young girl upon arrival at O?Hare International Airport. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
President Barack Obama reads a note given to him by a young girl upon arrival at O?Hare International Airport. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
President Barack Obama speaks to supporters during a fundraiser at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
President Barack Obama speaks to supporters during a fundraiser at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
Supporters listen as President Barack Obama speaks at a fundraiser in Chicago. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
Supporters listen as President Barack Obama speaks at a fundraiser in Chicago. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
AFP - US President Barack Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
The attack came a day after Obama savaged Republican budget plans and unveiled his $4-trillion deficit reduction drive that aims to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to preserve key social services.
The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical to the 2012 campaign and Obama sought to frame it as a "stark choice" between investing in the future or watching the country fall apart.
"Under their vision, we can't invest in roads and bridges and broadband and high-speed rail," Obama told a select group of the Democratic faithful at the second of three fundraising events in his hometown of Chicago.
"I mean, we would be a nation of potholes, and our airports would be worse than places that we thought -- that we used to call the Third World, but who are now investing in infrastructure."
Republicans plans to shrink the reach of government is "not a vision that's impelled by the numbers" but a "choice" to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the rich rather than ask those who've been "blessed" to "give a little more."
Obama said his vision is of an ambitious, compassionate, and caring America "where we're living within our means but we're still investing in our future."
"If we apply some practical common sense to this, we can solve our fiscal challenges and still have the America that we believe in," Obama told supporters at Chicago's N9ne restaurant.
"That's what this budget debate is going to be about. And that's what the 2012 campaign is going to be about."
The events in Chicago were Obama's first fundraisers since he officially launched his bid for a second term on April 4 and were expected to raise about two million dollars.
Analysts predict Obama -- who raised a record $750 million ahead of the 2008 election -- will build a billion-dollar war chest this time around.
Money won't be enough to win, senior advisor and 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe told a crowd of 2,300 supporters gathered in a ballroom at Navy Pier ahead of Obama's speech.
"If only the people who normally vote in presidential elections vote in this election it will be too close," Plouffe said as he urged supporters to get more people involved in the campaign.
"You've got to get these people to get involved and to vote so we can make sure that we succeed in this election."
Obama established his 2012 campaign headquarters in Chicago, the first time a presidential reelection campaign was not based in Washington.
He told supporters it was so the campaign would be "rooted in your hopes and rooted in your dreams" instead of influenced by Washington pundits and powerbrokers.
Obama reminded the cheering crowd of the sense of hope and possibility they felt when they celebrated his election as the first African American US president in Chicago's Grant Park.
"And yet, even as we celebrated -- you remember what I said back then? I said our work wasn't ending, our work was just beginning," Obama said.
"We've still got business to do. We are not finished.
"We've got to reclaim the American dream for all Americans. That's the change we still believe in."
Barring a dramatic turn, no major adversary from within his party is likely to challenge Obama, who turns 50 in August.
As for who might run against him from the Republican Party's ranks, uncertainty reigns.
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney have taken the first official steps toward candidacy, while conservative former House speaker Newt Gingrich and even real estate mogul Donald Trump have hinted at challenging for the Republican nomination.
In less than a month, the 64-year-old Trump has jumped from 10 to 19 percent support among Republican voters, tying with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, according to a CNN poll released this week.
Republican officials worry that the crowded field of possible White House hopefuls could end up helping Obama, who could be vulnerable as the US economy sputters its way out of its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
---
Washington Times copyright
EDITORIAL: Obama’s Third World America
Big Government deficit spending undermines U.S. competitiveness
126 Comments and 72 Reactions|Tweet|Share|Print|Email|More
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Washington Times
6:02 p.m., Friday, April 15, 2011
MugshotPresident Barack Obama is interviewed by The Associated Press, Friday, April 15, 2011, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Politics
Barack Obama
India
President Obama warns Republican policies will turn America into a Third World country. Look who’s talking.
On a campaign fundraising trip to Chicago, Mr. Obama quipped that under the proposed Republican budget plan, “we would be a nation of potholes, and our airports would be worse than places that we thought - that we used to call the Third World, but who are now investing in infrastructure.” He failed to elaborate on which developing countries he thinks should be models for the United States, but his policies have secured America’s status as part of the declining world.
Mr. Obama has approached the presidency less as a traditional American chief executive and more as a developing world populist. The 2009 stimulus program was taken directly from this playbook, using deficit spending to distribute favors to his union supporters and cronies in the form of public-works projects and other handouts. It was a spectacular failure at creating the promised number of jobs but succeeded in Mr. Obama’s core mission to “spread the wealth around.”
Mr. Obama has accepted what he sees as the inevitability of American economic decline. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he declared, “we can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.” He has yet to explain why he thinks the American people need to ask permission from other countries to maintain a high standard of living.
During the president’s trip to India in November 2010, he said that for most of his lifetime, “the U.S. was such an enormously dominant economic power … that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms.” In his view, however, Mr. Obama is overseeing the end times for U.S. economic dominance. Rising economies in China, India, Russia, Brazil and elsewhere will, he says, “keep America on its toes.” Meanwhile, these same countries just finished a conference in China exploring new ways to put America flat on its back.
Mr. Obama is making our enemies’ job easier. He has increased economic regulation, pursued energy policies that stifle exploration and production at home while promoting it abroad, and has shown a general contempt for free-market principles that made the U.S. economy great. Plus, given Mr. Obama’s astonishingly lax immigration policies, America won’t have to wait long to become a Third World country because the Third World is coming here.
The debt accrued on Mr. Obama’s watch is the centerpiece of the forces that are driving the United States to global pauperhood. In 2008, gross public debt was 69 percent of the gross domestic product. This year it will pass 100 percent. Mr. Obama’s debt has stifled economic productivity and has driven the country to the point where only 66 percent of men had jobs last year, the lowest figure on record.
Were it not for Mr. Obama’s drunken-sailor-style spending, facilitated by Democratic supermajorities in both houses of Congress during his first two years, the United States wouldn’t be in this fix. Still, the president’s answer to economic crisis is to heap on more debt. It’s this crippling tax-and-spend Obama creed that’s bringing America to the brink of Third World inferiority.
© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
I say:
Obama claims Republicans are wanting to turn the US into "a Third World" Country! in a re-election fundraiser at his political base in Chicago. Most working people (that's the majority of ALL voters) in Wisconsin and Ohio and everywhere else, are already keenly aware that their elected Republican leaders are proving to be not worthy of their vote and recalls are being vigorously pursued.
Do you see how DISRESPECTFUL the US Govt and the American People are, to buy into this demeaning language and this politically expedient, self-serving line of reasoning? Has the "Third World" done anything to engineer the sorry mess the US economy is in?
The Third World is a concept that only partially describes the post-colonial, sovereign, non-aligned nations, designating PEOPLES whose ancestral lands were occupied and who were colonized, until those very Peoples drove the exploitative colonizers out! That is the Third World, President Obama. Your Kenyan father and Indonesian half-sister were born there remember? You lived briefly in the Third World, remember? Your CIA operatives and Armed Forces are occupying, droning and killing in The Third World, remember?
Why diss us in the Third World to make your point against some, not all,ethically challenged Republicans, to grab a cheap headline in your re-election campaign? Leave us out. Please.
The US media is part and parcel of the US Govt. The US media is post-embedded since 2003 following the US invasion of Iraq. The US media will accept such characterizations from the Government, without examination and will repeat, not report such quotes, from the US President, no less. There will be NO copy in any US media along these lines:
"The Third World, referred to by the US President roughly connotes all countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America that were occupied, plundered and enslaved, until these peoples drove out the white colonizers and set themselves free between the 1940s and 1960s."
Malcolm X and MLK would likely be cringing in their graves at Obama's statement.
Malcolm celebrated the Third World and the Bandung Conference 1955 in his speeches. Malcolm X was a Free Speech internationalist, whereas in the US he is regarded even by Blacks as a Black leader and by whites as a violent Black leader. Martin Luther King before his murder, began to refer to the race struggle as a struggle for justice within the larger struggle for freedom worldwide. Where does Obama stand in the line of succession?
Obama is almost as ahistorical as Condolezza Rice when she came to New Delhi and lectured India's elected parliamentary leaders on the supposed limitations of the Non-Aligned Movement(NAM).
Obama's audience at the Navy Pier fundraiser included large numbers of Black folk, who are part of the Third World of the US, yes or no? The minorities who have been marginalized and who have a history of enslavement dispossession dislocation. Yeah, since Obama's election we all became post-racial. Yeah right
The US Government's superpower ignorance, US exceptionalism, US supremacism are at an all time high:( just, just when the US economy is in the toilet, the US economy is in fact, in grave decline. You cant have it both ways. The Global South is eating your jobs, because the market economy must ensure profits, so chase cheap labor from Nigeria to Nam. I agree with the inevitable principle of free markets == but they have to be tweaked, sometimes aggressively, to deliver The Greater Collective Good (GCG)
Global South sovereign nation-states, please do not roll out the Red carpet for Obama anytime soon. Yes, Barack, Schumer, Boxer, Murray are preferable to Boehner, Ryan, Walker, Kasich but The Third World has not tanked the US economy.
Send a letter of protest against such intentionally pejorative descriptions of the Global South, to Obama at www.whitehouse.gov
South~South.
------------------
AGP copyright
Republicans will make US 'Third World' nation: Obama
AFP on Yahoo!
Republicans will make US a Third World;= country: Obama AFP – President Barack Obama reads a note given to him by a young girl upon arrival at O?Hare International …
Exclusive: President Obama says he won't write off Texas in 2012 election Play Video Barack Obama Video:Exclusive: President Obama says he won't write off Texas in 2012 election KENS 5 - TV San Antonio
Trump on Obama, Healthcare and Abortion Play Video Barack Obama Video:Trump on Obama, Healthcare and Abortion ABC News
President Obama and the Social Compact Play Video Barack Obama Video:President Obama and the Social Compact FOX News
by Mira Oberman – Fri Apr 15, 12:57 am ET
CHICAGO (AFP) – US President Barack Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
The attack came a day after Obama savaged Republican budget plans and unveiled his $4-trillion deficit reduction drive that aims to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to preserve key social services.
The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical to the 2012 campaign and Obama sought to frame it as a "stark choice" between investing in the future or watching the country fall apart.
"Under their vision, we can't invest in roads and bridges and broadband and high-speed rail," Obama told a select group of the Democratic faithful at the second of three fundraising events in his hometown of Chicago.
"I mean, we would be a nation of potholes, and our airports would be worse than places that we thought -- that we used to call the Third World, but who are now investing in infrastructure."
[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]
Republicans plans to shrink the reach of government is "not a vision that's impelled by the numbers" but a "choice" to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the rich rather than ask those who've been "blessed" to "give a little more."
Obama said his vision is of an ambitious, compassionate, and caring America "where we're living within our means but we're still investing in our future."
"If we apply some practical common sense to this, we can solve our fiscal challenges and still have the America that we believe in," Obama told supporters at Chicago's N9ne restaurant.
"That's what this budget debate is going to be about. And that's what the 2012 campaign is going to be about."
The events in Chicago were Obama's first fundraisers since he officially launched his bid for a second term on April 4 and were expected to raise about two million dollars.
Analysts predict Obama -- who raised a record $750 million ahead of the 2008 election -- will build a billion-dollar war chest this time around.
Money won't be enough to win, senior advisor and 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe told a crowd of 2,300 supporters gathered in a ballroom at Navy Pier ahead of Obama's speech.
"If only the people who normally vote in presidential elections vote in this election it will be too close," Plouffe said as he urged supporters to get more people involved in the campaign.
"You've got to get these people to get involved and to vote so we can make sure that we succeed in this election."
Obama established his 2012 campaign headquarters in Chicago, the first time a presidential reelection campaign was not based in Washington.
He told supporters it was so the campaign would be "rooted in your hopes and rooted in your dreams" instead of influenced by Washington pundits and powerbrokers.
Obama reminded the cheering crowd of the sense of hope and possibility they felt when they celebrated his election as the first African American US president in Chicago's Grant Park.
"And yet, even as we celebrated -- you remember what I said back then? I said our work wasn't ending, our work was just beginning," Obama said.
"We've still got business to do. We are not finished.
"We've got to reclaim the American dream for all Americans. That's the change we still believe in."
Barring a dramatic turn, no major adversary from within his party is likely to challenge Obama, who turns 50 in August.
As for who might run against him from the Republican Party's ranks, uncertainty reigns.
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney have taken the first official steps toward candidacy, while conservative former House speaker Newt Gingrich and even real estate mogul Donald Trump have hinted at challenging for the Republican nomination.
In less than a month, the 64-year-old Trump has jumped from 10 to 19 percent support among Republican voters, tying with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, according to a CNN poll released this week.
Republican officials worry that the crowded field of possible White House hopefuls could end up helping Obama, who could be vulnerable as the US economy sputters its way out of its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
---
Republicans will make US 'Third World' nation: Obama
President Barack Obama reads a note given to him by a young girl upon arrival at O?Hare International Airport. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
President Barack Obama reads a note given to him by a young girl upon arrival at O?Hare International Airport. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
President Barack Obama speaks to supporters during a fundraiser at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
President Barack Obama speaks to supporters during a fundraiser at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
Supporters listen as President Barack Obama speaks at a fundraiser in Chicago. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
Supporters listen as President Barack Obama speaks at a fundraiser in Chicago. Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
AFP - US President Barack Obama accused Republicans of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.
The attack came a day after Obama savaged Republican budget plans and unveiled his $4-trillion deficit reduction drive that aims to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to preserve key social services.
The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical to the 2012 campaign and Obama sought to frame it as a "stark choice" between investing in the future or watching the country fall apart.
"Under their vision, we can't invest in roads and bridges and broadband and high-speed rail," Obama told a select group of the Democratic faithful at the second of three fundraising events in his hometown of Chicago.
"I mean, we would be a nation of potholes, and our airports would be worse than places that we thought -- that we used to call the Third World, but who are now investing in infrastructure."
Republicans plans to shrink the reach of government is "not a vision that's impelled by the numbers" but a "choice" to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the rich rather than ask those who've been "blessed" to "give a little more."
Obama said his vision is of an ambitious, compassionate, and caring America "where we're living within our means but we're still investing in our future."
"If we apply some practical common sense to this, we can solve our fiscal challenges and still have the America that we believe in," Obama told supporters at Chicago's N9ne restaurant.
"That's what this budget debate is going to be about. And that's what the 2012 campaign is going to be about."
The events in Chicago were Obama's first fundraisers since he officially launched his bid for a second term on April 4 and were expected to raise about two million dollars.
Analysts predict Obama -- who raised a record $750 million ahead of the 2008 election -- will build a billion-dollar war chest this time around.
Money won't be enough to win, senior advisor and 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe told a crowd of 2,300 supporters gathered in a ballroom at Navy Pier ahead of Obama's speech.
"If only the people who normally vote in presidential elections vote in this election it will be too close," Plouffe said as he urged supporters to get more people involved in the campaign.
"You've got to get these people to get involved and to vote so we can make sure that we succeed in this election."
Obama established his 2012 campaign headquarters in Chicago, the first time a presidential reelection campaign was not based in Washington.
He told supporters it was so the campaign would be "rooted in your hopes and rooted in your dreams" instead of influenced by Washington pundits and powerbrokers.
Obama reminded the cheering crowd of the sense of hope and possibility they felt when they celebrated his election as the first African American US president in Chicago's Grant Park.
"And yet, even as we celebrated -- you remember what I said back then? I said our work wasn't ending, our work was just beginning," Obama said.
"We've still got business to do. We are not finished.
"We've got to reclaim the American dream for all Americans. That's the change we still believe in."
Barring a dramatic turn, no major adversary from within his party is likely to challenge Obama, who turns 50 in August.
As for who might run against him from the Republican Party's ranks, uncertainty reigns.
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney have taken the first official steps toward candidacy, while conservative former House speaker Newt Gingrich and even real estate mogul Donald Trump have hinted at challenging for the Republican nomination.
In less than a month, the 64-year-old Trump has jumped from 10 to 19 percent support among Republican voters, tying with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, according to a CNN poll released this week.
Republican officials worry that the crowded field of possible White House hopefuls could end up helping Obama, who could be vulnerable as the US economy sputters its way out of its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
---
Washington Times copyright
EDITORIAL: Obama’s Third World America
Big Government deficit spending undermines U.S. competitiveness
126 Comments and 72 Reactions|Tweet|Share|Print|Email|More
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Washington Times
6:02 p.m., Friday, April 15, 2011
MugshotPresident Barack Obama is interviewed by The Associated Press, Friday, April 15, 2011, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Politics
Barack Obama
India
President Obama warns Republican policies will turn America into a Third World country. Look who’s talking.
On a campaign fundraising trip to Chicago, Mr. Obama quipped that under the proposed Republican budget plan, “we would be a nation of potholes, and our airports would be worse than places that we thought - that we used to call the Third World, but who are now investing in infrastructure.” He failed to elaborate on which developing countries he thinks should be models for the United States, but his policies have secured America’s status as part of the declining world.
Mr. Obama has approached the presidency less as a traditional American chief executive and more as a developing world populist. The 2009 stimulus program was taken directly from this playbook, using deficit spending to distribute favors to his union supporters and cronies in the form of public-works projects and other handouts. It was a spectacular failure at creating the promised number of jobs but succeeded in Mr. Obama’s core mission to “spread the wealth around.”
Mr. Obama has accepted what he sees as the inevitability of American economic decline. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he declared, “we can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.” He has yet to explain why he thinks the American people need to ask permission from other countries to maintain a high standard of living.
During the president’s trip to India in November 2010, he said that for most of his lifetime, “the U.S. was such an enormously dominant economic power … that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms.” In his view, however, Mr. Obama is overseeing the end times for U.S. economic dominance. Rising economies in China, India, Russia, Brazil and elsewhere will, he says, “keep America on its toes.” Meanwhile, these same countries just finished a conference in China exploring new ways to put America flat on its back.
Mr. Obama is making our enemies’ job easier. He has increased economic regulation, pursued energy policies that stifle exploration and production at home while promoting it abroad, and has shown a general contempt for free-market principles that made the U.S. economy great. Plus, given Mr. Obama’s astonishingly lax immigration policies, America won’t have to wait long to become a Third World country because the Third World is coming here.
The debt accrued on Mr. Obama’s watch is the centerpiece of the forces that are driving the United States to global pauperhood. In 2008, gross public debt was 69 percent of the gross domestic product. This year it will pass 100 percent. Mr. Obama’s debt has stifled economic productivity and has driven the country to the point where only 66 percent of men had jobs last year, the lowest figure on record.
Were it not for Mr. Obama’s drunken-sailor-style spending, facilitated by Democratic supermajorities in both houses of Congress during his first two years, the United States wouldn’t be in this fix. Still, the president’s answer to economic crisis is to heap on more debt. It’s this crippling tax-and-spend Obama creed that’s bringing America to the brink of Third World inferiority.
© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Suicide du jour: Discontent, Death & Democracy
Pick a day any day.
Today not far from Kabul a suicider killed himself and 9 others.
That makes 10. All were equally valuable humans with potential.
All were men.
All were clothed in some variation of uniform.
All were clothed to convey a 'message', perform some act of 'service' which included murder.
Death was the intended objective of all who died and death was the result.
Like the rest of US and NATO media, the Reuters story and headline (see below) is constructed to convey a sense that some of the dead were more valued than others. Valuable to whom? The 'foreign' (quote from story) white, male even though they are the invaders and occupiers, while also being soldiers born of mothers and possibly having sisters.
The 4 Afghan soldiers are presented and implied as less valuable, male, brown, the 'locals' the ones in need of being led by the 'foreign' white, now also as dead as the ones they led. The suicide 'attacker' is constructed as faceless, nameless and perhaps he deserves to be (perhaps not), for his act of death, an act he shared with all the others he killed.
The Taliban, created by the USCIA during the US-invented Cold War with the USSR, claimed responsibility for the deaths.
I'll keep working on this blog entry for a while
------------------------------------------------------------------
Reuters copyright
Suicide attack kills 5 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan
Reuters
Email
Print
Afghan blast kills nine troops AFP – Map locating Jalalabad in Afghanistan.A Taliban suicide bomber wearing an army uniform killed five foreign …
Afghanistan Slideshow:Afghanistan
Raw Video: Blast kills 5 NATO, 4 Afghan troops Play Video Afghanistan Video:Raw Video: Blast kills 5 NATO, 4 Afghan troops AP
AP Exclusive: Obama on Libya, Afghanistan, Gitmo Play Video Afghanistan Video:AP Exclusive: Obama on Libya, Afghanistan, Gitmo AP
By Rafiq Sherzad – 1 hr 49 mins ago
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber in an Afghan army uniform killed five foreign and four Afghan soldiers on Saturday at a sprawling desert base in the east of the country, the highest toll on NATO-led troops in a single attack for several months.
Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said it was investigating whether the attacker was an insurgent disguised in a fake uniform, or the latest in a string of "rogue" members of the Afghan security forces who have turned on their colleagues and mentors.
On Friday, a suicide bomber in police uniform evaded tight security in police Headquarters in Kandahar city and killed Khan Mohammad Mujahid, provincial police chief of Kandahar.
The latest attack was inside one of the biggest military installations in increasingly volatile east Afghanistan, home to the 201st Corps of the Afghan army, Afghan officials say.
The NATO-led coalition said it happened on a neighboring foreign base, during a meeting. The two are located close together in the Gamberi desert, a remote area that stretches between Laghman and Nangarhar provinces.
"Our reporting indicates there was a meeting taking place and that is when the attack happened," said Major Tim James, spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
The attack highlights the pressure the U.S. and NATO troops face as they rapidly train Afghan security forces to pave the way for critical security handover which begins later this year, in the face of a spiraling insurgency.
Over 120 foreign soldiers have died this year in Afghanistan, but this is the deadliest single incident since December last year, when a suicide car bomber killed six NATO and two Afghan troops in Kandahar province.
ROGUE ATTACKERS?
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in an email statement, saying 12 foreign troops and 14 Afghan soldiers were killed. The group frequently exaggerates casualty figures.
He said the bomber was from central Daikondi province, had enlisted with the Afghan army a month ago and detonated his explosives at a meeting between Afghan and foreign troops.
The Defense Ministry declined immediate comment on whether the attacker was a real soldier, saying it was investigating.
The uniform does not prove conclusively that he was a soldier because Afghan security force outfits are readily available in markets across the country -- although their sale is technically illegal.
Despite tighter vetting began by Afghan authorities for recruits, there are worries about the Taliban's ability to infiltrate the Afghan security forces.
Western forces in Afghanistan have begun to train counter-intelligence agents to help root them out.
U.S. Lieutenant General William Caldwell, head of the U.S. and NATO training mission in Afghanistan, said earlier this week 222 agents had been trained since the program began last summer, and there was a target of 445 agents by the end of the year.
(Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Today not far from Kabul a suicider killed himself and 9 others.
That makes 10. All were equally valuable humans with potential.
All were men.
All were clothed in some variation of uniform.
All were clothed to convey a 'message', perform some act of 'service' which included murder.
Death was the intended objective of all who died and death was the result.
Like the rest of US and NATO media, the Reuters story and headline (see below) is constructed to convey a sense that some of the dead were more valued than others. Valuable to whom? The 'foreign' (quote from story) white, male even though they are the invaders and occupiers, while also being soldiers born of mothers and possibly having sisters.
The 4 Afghan soldiers are presented and implied as less valuable, male, brown, the 'locals' the ones in need of being led by the 'foreign' white, now also as dead as the ones they led. The suicide 'attacker' is constructed as faceless, nameless and perhaps he deserves to be (perhaps not), for his act of death, an act he shared with all the others he killed.
The Taliban, created by the USCIA during the US-invented Cold War with the USSR, claimed responsibility for the deaths.
I'll keep working on this blog entry for a while
------------------------------------------------------------------
Reuters copyright
Suicide attack kills 5 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan
Reuters
Afghan blast kills nine troops AFP – Map locating Jalalabad in Afghanistan.A Taliban suicide bomber wearing an army uniform killed five foreign …
Afghanistan Slideshow:Afghanistan
Raw Video: Blast kills 5 NATO, 4 Afghan troops Play Video Afghanistan Video:Raw Video: Blast kills 5 NATO, 4 Afghan troops AP
AP Exclusive: Obama on Libya, Afghanistan, Gitmo Play Video Afghanistan Video:AP Exclusive: Obama on Libya, Afghanistan, Gitmo AP
By Rafiq Sherzad – 1 hr 49 mins ago
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber in an Afghan army uniform killed five foreign and four Afghan soldiers on Saturday at a sprawling desert base in the east of the country, the highest toll on NATO-led troops in a single attack for several months.
Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said it was investigating whether the attacker was an insurgent disguised in a fake uniform, or the latest in a string of "rogue" members of the Afghan security forces who have turned on their colleagues and mentors.
On Friday, a suicide bomber in police uniform evaded tight security in police Headquarters in Kandahar city and killed Khan Mohammad Mujahid, provincial police chief of Kandahar.
The latest attack was inside one of the biggest military installations in increasingly volatile east Afghanistan, home to the 201st Corps of the Afghan army, Afghan officials say.
The NATO-led coalition said it happened on a neighboring foreign base, during a meeting. The two are located close together in the Gamberi desert, a remote area that stretches between Laghman and Nangarhar provinces.
"Our reporting indicates there was a meeting taking place and that is when the attack happened," said Major Tim James, spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
The attack highlights the pressure the U.S. and NATO troops face as they rapidly train Afghan security forces to pave the way for critical security handover which begins later this year, in the face of a spiraling insurgency.
Over 120 foreign soldiers have died this year in Afghanistan, but this is the deadliest single incident since December last year, when a suicide car bomber killed six NATO and two Afghan troops in Kandahar province.
ROGUE ATTACKERS?
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in an email statement, saying 12 foreign troops and 14 Afghan soldiers were killed. The group frequently exaggerates casualty figures.
He said the bomber was from central Daikondi province, had enlisted with the Afghan army a month ago and detonated his explosives at a meeting between Afghan and foreign troops.
The Defense Ministry declined immediate comment on whether the attacker was a real soldier, saying it was investigating.
The uniform does not prove conclusively that he was a soldier because Afghan security force outfits are readily available in markets across the country -- although their sale is technically illegal.
Despite tighter vetting began by Afghan authorities for recruits, there are worries about the Taliban's ability to infiltrate the Afghan security forces.
Western forces in Afghanistan have begun to train counter-intelligence agents to help root them out.
U.S. Lieutenant General William Caldwell, head of the U.S. and NATO training mission in Afghanistan, said earlier this week 222 agents had been trained since the program began last summer, and there was a target of 445 agents by the end of the year.
(Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Friday, April 8, 2011
HDI Rankings of Facebook "Democracy Movement" Nation-states
All I've done here is take the UN Human Development Index, (developed by Mahbub-ul-Huq of Pakistan and Amartya Sen of India), HDI 2010 rankings and bolded the ones that apply to the Facebook West Asia and Africa Arab "Democracy Movement" Nation States -- Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya. Persons who are interested might ask questions about the HDI rankings and how these might relate to civil society development within the geopolitical constraints faced by these nation-states. [ I have to come back to keep working on this for my own understanding of HDI and Social Justice/Greater Collective Good - GCG- concepts. Still haven't been able to find an economist to help me with an index for the GCG].
At this time I simply don't have enough evidence, aside from these UNDP rankings, to gauge what civil society development trajectories might look like in the case of each Arab nation-state currently engaged in "democracy movements".
Having said that, it is difficult to fathom how slipping CIA operatives into Libya plus airstrikes by NATO can hold the key to civil society development and social justice thru access to education, healthcare, housing, jobs.
Below is a list of all countries by Human Development Index as included in a United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report released on 4 November 2010, compiled on the basis of estimates for 2010. It covers 168 UN member states (out of 192) and Hong Kong, China. 24 UN member states are not included due to lack of data. The average HDI of regions of the World and groups of countries are also included for comparison.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq[2] and Indian economist Amartya Sen[citation needed].
Countries fall into four broad human development categories, each of which comprises 42 countries (except for the second category, comprising 43 countries).[3] The divisions are:
Division comprising:
Very high 42 countries
High 43 countries
Medium 42 countries
Low 42 countries
Due to the new methodology adopted in 2010 HD Report, its HDI figures appear lower than the HDI figures in previous reports.
Starting in the report for 2007, the first category is referred to as developed countries, and the last three are all grouped in developing countries. The original "high human development" category has been split into two as above in the report for 2007.
Some older groupings (high/medium/low income countries) have been removed that were based on the gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita, and have been replaced by another index based on the gross national income (GNI) in purchasing power parity per capita.
Contents
[hide]
1 Complete list of countries
1.1 Very high human development (developed countries)
1.2 High human development (developing countries)
1.3 Medium human development (developing countries)
1.4 Low human development (developing countries)
2 List of countries by continent
2.1 Africa
2.2 Americas
2.3 Asia & Oceania
2.4 Europe
3 List of countries by non-continental region
3.1 Arab states
3.2 European Union
3.3 East Asia and the Pacific
3.4 Latin America
3.5 Middle East and North Africa
4 HDI by regions & groups
5 Countries missing from latest report
5.1 UN member states (latest UNDP data)
5.2 Non-UN members (not calculated by the UNDP)
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links
[edit] Complete list of countries
increase = increase.
steady = steady.
decrease = decrease.
Similar HDI values in the current list do not lead to ranking ties, since the HDI rank is actually determined using HDI values to the sixth decimal point.
This revision of the index was released on 4 November 2010 and estimates the HDI of countries for 2010.
The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed (up or down) relative to the revised estimates for 2007, released on 5 October 2009.
[edit] Very high human development (developed countries)
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
1 steady Norway 0.938 increase 0.001
2 steady Australia 0.937 increase 0.002
3 increase (17) New Zealand 0.907 increase 0.003
4 increase (9) United States 0.902 increase 0.003
5 steady Ireland 0.895 increase 0.001
6 increase (13) Liechtenstein 0.891 increase 0.002
7 decrease (1) Netherlands 0.890 increase 0.002
8 decrease (4) Canada 0.888 increase 0.002
9 decrease (2) Sweden 0.885 increase 0.001
10 increase (12) Germany 0.885 increase 0.002
11 decrease (1) Japan 0.884 increase 0.003
12 increase (14) South Korea 0.877 increase 0.005
13 decrease (4) Switzerland 0.874 increase 0.002
14 decrease (6) France 0.872 increase 0.003
15 increase (12) Israel 0.872 increase 0.001
16 decrease (4) Finland 0.871 increase 0.002
17 decrease (14) Iceland 0.869 steady
18 decrease (1) Belgium 0.867 increase 0.002
19 decrease (3) Denmark 0.866 increase 0.002
20 decrease (5) Spain 0.863 increase 0.002
21 increase (3) Hong Kong 0.862 increase 0.005
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
22 increase (3) Greece 0.855 increase 0.002
23 decrease (5) Italy 0.854 increase 0.003
24 decrease (13) Luxembourg 0.852 increase 0.002
25 decrease (11) Austria 0.851 increase 0.002
26 decrease (5) United Kingdom 0.849 increase 0.002
27 decrease (5) Singapore 0.846 increase 0.005
28 increase (8) Czech Republic 0.841 steady
29 steady Slovenia 0.828 increase 0.002
30 increase (2) Andorra 0.824 increase 0.002
31 increase (11) Slovakia 0.818 increase 0.003
32 increase (3) United Arab Emirates 0.815 increase 0.003
33 increase (5) Malta 0.815 increase 0.002
34 increase (6) Estonia 0.812 increase 0.003
35 decrease (3) Cyprus 0.810 increase 0.001
36 increase (7) Hungary 0.805 increase 0.002
37 decrease (7) Brunei 0.805 increase 0.001
38 decrease (5) Qatar 0.803 increase 0.005
39 steady Bahrain 0.801 increase 0.003
40 decrease (6) Portugal 0.795 increase 0.004
41 steady Poland 0.795 increase 0.004
42 decrease (5) Barbados 0.788 increase 0.001
[edit] High human development (developing countries)
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
43 increase (9) Bahamas 0.784 increase 0.001
44 increase (2) Lithuania 0.783 increase 0.001
45 decrease (1) Chile 0.783 increase 0.004
46 increase (3) Argentina 0.775 increase 0.003
47 decrease (16) Kuwait 0.771 increase 0.002
48 steady Latvia 0.769 steady
49 increase (16) Montenegro 0.769 increase 0.001
50 increase (13) Romania 0.767 increase 0.003
51 decrease (6) Croatia 0.767 increase 0.002
52 decrease (2) Uruguay 0.765 increase 0.005
53 increase (2) Libya 0.755 increase 0.006
54 increase (6) Panama 0.755 increase 0.004
55 increase (4) Saudi Arabia 0.752 increase 0.004
56 decrease (3) Mexico 0.750 increase 0.005
57 increase (9) Malaysia 0.744 increase 0.005
58 increase (3) Bulgaria 0.743 increase 0.002
59 increase (5) Trinidad and Tobago 0.736 increase 0.004
60 increase (7) Serbia 0.735 increase 0.002
61 increase (7) Belarus 0.732 increase 0.003
62 decrease (8) Costa Rica 0.725 increase 0.002
63 increase (15) Peru 0.723 increase 0.005
64 increase (6) Albania 0.719 increase 0.003
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
65 increase (6) Russia 0.719 increase 0.005
66 increase (16) Kazakhstan 0.714 increase 0.003
67 increase (19) Azerbaijan 0.713 increase 0.003
68 increase (8) Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.710 increase 0.001
69 increase (16) Ukraine 0.710 increase 0.004
70 increase (18) Iran 0.702 increase 0.005
71 increase (1) Macedonia 0.701 increase 0.004
72 increase (9) Mauritius 0.701 increase 0.004
73 increase (2) Brazil 0.699 increase 0.006
74 increase (15) Georgia 0.698 increase 0.003
75 decrease (17) Venezuela 0.696 steady
76 increase (8) Armenia 0.695 increase 0.002
77 increase (3) Ecuador 0.695 increase 0.003
78 increase (15) Belize 0.694 steady
79 decrease (2) Colombia 0.689 increase 0.004
80 increase (20) Jamaica 0.688 increase 0.002
81 increase (17) Tunisia 0.683 increase 0.006
82 increase (14) Jordan 0.681 increase 0.004
83 decrease (4) Turkey 0.679 increase 0.005
84 increase (20) Algeria 0.677 increase 0.006
85 increase (14) Tonga 0.677 increase 0.002
[edit] Medium human development (developing countries)
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
86 increase (2) Fiji 0.669 increase 0.002
87 decrease (1) Turkmenistan 0.669 increase 0.007
88 decrease (1) Dominican Republic 0.663 increase 0.003
89 increase (2) China 0.663 increase 0.008
90 decrease (1) El Salvador 0.659 increase 0.004
91 increase (2) Sri Lanka 0.658 increase 0.005
92 increase (7) Thailand 0.654 increase 0.006
93 decrease (3) Gabon 0.648 increase 0.006
94 increase (2) Suriname 0.646 increase 0.003
95 increase (2) Bolivia 0.643 increase 0.006
96 decrease (1) Paraguay 0.640 increase 0.006
97 increase (1) Philippines 0.638 increase 0.003
98 increase (2) Botswana 0.633 increase 0.006
99 decrease (5) Moldova 0.623 increase 0.003
100 decrease (8) Mongolia 0.622 increase 0.006
101 steady Egypt 0.620 increase 0.006
102 steady Uzbekistan 0.617 increase 0.005
103 steady Micronesia, Federated States of 0.614 increase 0.002
104 steady Guyana 0.611 increase 0.006
105 steady Namibia 0.606 increase 0.003
106 steady Honduras 0.604 increase 0.003
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
107 increase (2) Maldives 0.602 increase 0.007
108 decrease (1) Indonesia 0.600 increase 0.007
109 decrease (1) Kyrgyzstan 0.598 increase 0.004
110 steady South Africa 0.597 increase 0.003
111 steady Syria 0.589 increase 0.003
112 steady Tajikistan 0.580 increase 0.004
113 steady Vietnam 0.572 increase 0.006
114 steady Morocco 0.567 increase 0.005
115 increase (1) Nicaragua 0.565 increase 0.003
116 decrease (1) Guatemala 0.560 increase 0.004
117 steady Equatorial Guinea 0.538 increase 0.002
118 steady Cape Verde 0.534 increase 0.003
119 steady India 0.519 increase 0.007
120 steady Timor-Leste 0.502 increase 0.005
121 steady Swaziland 0.498 increase 0.006
122 increase (1) Laos 0.497 increase 0.007
123 decrease (1) Solomon Islands 0.494 increase 0.002
124 steady Cambodia 0.494 increase 0.005
125 increase (1) Pakistan 0.490 increase 0.003
126 decrease (1) Congo 0.489 increase 0.006
127 steady São Tomé and Príncipe 0.488 increase 0.003
[edit] Low human development (developing countries)
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
128 increase (1) Kenya 0.470 increase 0.006
129 decrease (1) Bangladesh 0.469 increase 0.006
130 steady Ghana 0.467 increase 0.004
131 steady Cameroon 0.460 increase 0.004
132 increase (1) Burma 0.451 increase 0.007
133 decrease (1) Yemen 0.439 increase 0.008
134 steady Benin 0.435 increase 0.003
135 steady Madagascar 0.435 decrease 0.001
136 steady Mauritania 0.433 increase 0.004
137 steady Papua New Guinea 0.431 increase 0.005
138 steady Nepal 0.428 increase 0.005
139 steady Togo 0.428 increase 0.003
140 increase (1) Comoros 0.428 increase 0.002
141 increase (1) Lesotho 0.427 increase 0.004
142 decrease (2) Nigeria 0.423 increase 0.004
143 steady Uganda 0.422 increase 0.006
144 steady Senegal 0.411 increase 0.003
145 steady Haiti 0.404 decrease 0.006
146 increase (2) Angola 0.403 increase 0.004
147 steady Djibouti 0.402 increase 0.003
148 decrease (2) Tanzania 0.398 increase 0.006
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
149 steady Côte d'Ivoire 0.397 increase 0.003
150 steady Zambia 0.395 increase 0.008
151 steady Gambia 0.390 increase 0.005
152 increase (2) Rwanda 0.385 increase 0.006
153 decrease (1) Malawi 0.385 increase 0.009
154 decrease (1) Sudan 0.379 increase 0.004
155 steady Afghanistan 0.349 increase 0.007
156 steady Guinea 0.340 increase 0.002
157 increase (1) Ethiopia 0.328 increase 0.004
158 decrease (1) Sierra Leone 0.317 increase 0.004
159 steady Central African Republic 0.315 increase 0.004
160 increase (1) Mali 0.309 increase 0.004
161 decrease (1) Burkina Faso 0.305 increase 0.002
162 steady Liberia 0.300 increase 0.006
163 steady Chad 0.295 increase 0.002
164 steady Guinea-Bissau 0.289 increase 0.003
165 steady Mozambique 0.284 increase 0.004
166 steady Burundi 0.282 increase 0.006
167 steady Niger 0.261 increase 0.003
168 steady Democratic Republic of Congo 0.239 increase 0.006
169 steady Zimbabwe 0.140 increase 0.022
[edit] List of countries by continent
[edit] Africa
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
High human development
1 Libya 0.755
2 Mauritius 0.701
3 Tunisia 0.683
4 Algeria 0.677
Medium human development
5 Gabon 0.648
6 Botswana 0.633
7 Egypt 0.620
8 Namibia 0.606
9 South Africa 0.597
10 Morocco 0.567
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Zimbabwe 0.140
2 Democratic Republic of the Congo 0.239
3 Niger 0.261
4 Burundi 0.282
5 Mozambique 0.284
6 Guinea-Bissau 0.289
7 Chad 0.295
8 Liberia 0.300
9 Burkina Faso 0.305
10 Mali 0.309
[edit] Americas
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 United States 0.902
2 Canada 0.888
3 Barbados 0.788
High human development
4 Bahamas 0.784
5 Chile 0.783
6 Argentina 0.775
7 Uruguay 0.765
8 Panama 0.755
9 Mexico 0.750
10 Trinidad and Tobago 0.736
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Haiti 0.404
Medium human development
2 Guatemala 0.560
3 Nicaragua 0.565
4 Honduras 0.604
5 Guyana 0.611
6 Paraguay 0.640
7 Bolivia 0.643
8 Suriname 0.646
9 El Salvador 0.659
10 Dominican Republic 0.663
[edit] Asia & Oceania
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Australia 0.937
2 New Zealand 0.907
3 Japan 0.884
4 South Korea 0.877
5 Israel 0.872
6 Hong Kong 0.862
7 Singapore 0.846
8 United Arab Emirates 0.815
9 Cyprus 0.810
10 Brunei 0.805
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Afghanistan 0.349
2 Nepal 0.428
3 Papua New Guinea 0.431
4 Yemen 0.439
5 Myanmar 0.451
6 Bangladesh 0.469
Medium human development
7 Pakistan 0.490
8 Cambodia 0.494
9 Solomon Islands 0.494
10 Laos 0.497
[edit] Europe
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Norway 0.938
2 Ireland 0.895
3 Liechtenstein 0.891
4 Netherlands 0.890
5 Sweden 0.885
6 Germany 0.885
7 Switzerland 0.874
8 France 0.872
9 Finland 0.871
10 Iceland 0.869
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Medium human development
1 Moldova 0.623
High human development
2 Turkey 0.683
3 Armenia 0.695
4 Georgia 0.698
5 Macedonia 0.701
6 Ukraine 0.710
7 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.710
8 Azerbaijan 0.713
9 Kazakhstan 0.714
10 Russia 0.719[nb 1]
[edit] List of countries by non-continental region
[edit] Arab states
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 United Arab Emirates 0.815
2 Qatar 0.803
3 Bahrain 0.801
High human development
4 Kuwait 0.771
5 Libya 0.755
6 Saudi Arabia 0.752
7 Tunisia 0.683
8 Jordan 0.681
9 Algeria 0.677
Medium human development
10 Egypt 0.620
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Sudan 0.379
2 Djibouti 0.402
3 Comoros 0.428
4 Mauritania 0.433
5 Yemen 0.439
Medium human development
6 Morocco 0.567
7 Syria 0.589
8 Egypt 0.620
High human development
9 Algeria 0.677
10 Jordan 0.681
[edit] European Union
HDI (average of all members): 0.774
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Ireland 0.895
2 Netherlands 0.890
3 Sweden 0.885
4 Germany 0.885
5 France 0.872
6 Finland 0.871
7 Belgium 0.867
8 Denmark 0.866
9 Spain 0.863
10 Greece 0.855
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
High human development
1 Bulgaria 0.743
2 Romania 0.767
3 Latvia 0.769
4 Lithuania 0.783
Very high human development
5 Poland 0.795
6 Portugal 0.795
7 Hungary 0.805
8 Cyprus 0.810
9 Estonia 0.812
10 Malta 0.815
[edit] East Asia and the Pacific
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Australia 0.937
2 New Zealand 0.907
3 Japan 0.884
4 South Korea 0.877
5 Hong Kong 0.862
6 Singapore 0.846
7 Brunei 0.805
High human development
8 Malaysia 0.744
9 Tonga 0.677
Medium human development
10 Fiji 0.669
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Papua New Guinea 0.431
2 Myanmar 0.451
Medium human development
3 Cambodia 0.494
4 Solomon Islands 0.494
5 Laos 0.497
6 Timor-Leste 0.502
7 Vietnam 0.572
8 Indonesia 0.600
9 Micronesia, Federated States of 0.614
10 Mongolia 0.622
[edit] Latin America
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
High human development
1 Chile 0.783
2 Argentina 0.775
3 Uruguay 0.765
4 Panama 0.755
5 Mexico 0.750
6 Costa Rica 0.725
7 Peru 0.723
8 Brazil 0.699
9 Venezuela 0.696
10 Ecuador 0.695
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Haiti 0.404
Medium human development
2 Guatemala 0.560
3 Nicaragua 0.565
4 Honduras 0.604
5 Paraguay 0.640
6 Bolivia 0.643
7 El Salvador 0.659
8 Dominican Republic 0.663
High human development
9 Colombia 0.689
10 Belize 0.694
[edit] Middle East and North Africa
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Israel 0.872
2 United Arab Emirates 0.815
3 Cyprus 0.810
4 Qatar 0.803
5 Bahrain 0.801
High human development
6 Kuwait 0.771
7 Libya 0.755
8 Saudi Arabia 0.752
9 Iran 0.702
10 Tunisia 0.683
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Sudan 0.379
2 Yemen 0.439
Medium human development
3 Morocco 0.567
4 Syria 0.589
5 Egypt 0.620
High human development
6 Algeria 0.677
7 Turkey 0.679
8 Jordan 0.681
9 Tunisia 0.683
10 Iran 0.702
[edit] HDI by regions & groups
Region or Group 2010
estimates
for 2010
HDI[5] 2010
estimates
for 2009
HDI[5]
Very high human development
OECD Developed 0.879 increase 0.876
Very High Human Development 0.878 increase 0.875
Non-OECD Developed 0.844 increase 0.840
High human development
High Human Development 0.717 increase 0.712
Latin America and the Caribbean 0.704 increase 0.699
Europe and Central Asia 0.702 increase 0.698
Medium human development
East Asia and the Pacific 0.643 increase 0.636
World 0.624 increase 0.619
Medium Human Development 0.592 increase 0.586
Arab states 0.588 increase 0.583
South Asia 0.516 increase 0.510
Low human development
Low Human Development 0.393 increase 0.388
Sub-Saharan Africa 0.389 increase 0.384
Least developed countries 0.386 increase 0.382
[edit] Countries missing from latest report
[edit] UN member states (latest UNDP data)
Year Country HDI Rank Source
Publication Data
Very high human development
1997 N/A Monaco 0.946 N/A [citation needed]
1997 N/A San Marino 0.944 N/A [citation needed]
High human development
2009 2007 Antigua and Barbuda 0.868 47 [6]
2009 2007 Cuba 0.863 51 [6]
1998 N/A Palau 0.861 N/A [citation needed]
2009 2007 Oman 0.846 56 [6]
2009 2007 Seychelles 0.845 57 [6]
2009 2007 Saint Kitts and Nevis 0.838 62 [6]
2009 2007 Saint Lucia 0.821 69 [6]
2009 2007 Dominica 0.814 73 [6]
2009 2007 Grenada 0.813 74 [6]
2009 2007 Lebanon 0.803 83 [6]
Medium human development
2009 2007 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 0.772 91 [6]
2009 2007 Samoa 0.771 94 [6]
1998 1995 North Korea 0.766 75 [7]
2009 2007 Vanuatu 0.693 126 [6]
1998 N/A Nauru 0.663 N/A [citation needed]
2009 2007 Bhutan 0.619 132 [6]
2000 1998 Iraq 0.583 126 [8]
1998 N/A Tuvalu 0.583 N/A [citation needed]
1998 N/A Marshall Islands 0.563 N/A [citation needed]
1998 N/A Kiribati 0.515 N/A [citation needed]
Low human development
2009 2007 Eritrea 0.472 165 [6]
2001 2001 Somalia 0.384 161 [9][nb 2]
[edit] Non-UN members (not calculated by the UNDP)
Year Country or Territory HDI Rank Source
Publication Data
Very high human development
2010 2010 Republic of China (Taiwan) 0.868 18 [nb 3]
1998 N/A Puerto Rico 0.942 N/A [11]
2008 2005 Martinique 0.929 24 [12]
1998 N/A Greenland 0.927 N/A [13]
2008 2005 Guadeloupe 0.912 28 [12]
2010 2007 Macau 0.944 23 [14]
High human development
2008 2005 New Caledonia 0.878 34 [12]
2007 2004 Réunion 0.870 35 [12][15]
2008 2005 French Polynesia 0.864 42 [12]
2008 2005 French Guiana 0.862 43 [12]
Medium human development
2009 2007 Palestinian territoriesOccupied Palestinian Territories 0.737 110 [6]
2004 2003 Kosovo 0.734 N/A [16]
[edit] See also
Human Development Index
List of countries by Human Development Index/Former reports
List of countries by inequality-adjusted HDI
List of African countries by Human Development Index
List of Argentine provinces by Human Development Index
List of Australian states and territories by HDI
List of Brazilian states by Human Development Index
American Human Development Report
List of Chilean regions by Human Development Index
List of Chinese administrative divisions by Human Development Index
List of European countries by Human Development Index
List of Indian states by Human Development Index
List of Indonesian provinces by HDI
List of Mexican states by Human Development Index
List of Pakistani Districts by Human Development Index
List of Philippine provinces by Human Development Index
List of Russian federal subjects by HDI
List of Venezuelan states by human development index
Happy Planet Index
OSCE countries statistics
Satisfaction with Life Index
[edit] Notes
^ Human Development Index (HDI) - 2010 Rankings, United Nations Development Programme
^ "History of the Human Development Report". United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
^ Human development Report "Error: no |title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". United Nations Development Programme. p. 139. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/UN_Human_Development_Report_2010_1.PNG Human development Report. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x "2010 Human development Report". United Nations Development Programme. pp. 148–151. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
^ a b "2010 Human development Report". United Nations Development Programme. p. 151. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2009/
^ "The State of Human Development" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 1998. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
^ "Human Development Report 2000" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 2000. p. 163. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
^ "Human Development Report: Somalia 2001" (PDF). 2001. p. 198. Retrieved 26 March 2009.[dead link]
^ "2010中華民國人類發展指數 (HDI)" (in Chinese) (pdf). Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R.O.C.. 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
^ "Puerto Rico (United States)". United Nations Environment Programme. 2 March 1998. Retrieved 26 March 2009.. Note: Appears to be simply the United States's HDI published on the 1997 report[citation needed].
^ a b c d e f "Les défis de la croissance calédonienne, on page 13" (in French) (PDF). CEROM - INSEE. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
^ "Greenland (Denmark)". United Nations Environment Programme. 2 March 1998. Retrieved 26 March 2009.. Note: Appears to be simply Denmark's HDI published on the 1997 report[citation needed].
^ The UN did not calculate the HDI of Macau. The government of Macau calculates its own HDI. If it were included in the UN's HDI figures as of 2007, Macau would rank 23rd or 24th (tying either Singapore or Hong Kong). "Macao in Figures 2010" (in en). Statistics and Census Service, Macau SAR. 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
^ "L’Indice de Développement Humain : Une Évaluation pour la réunion" (in French) (PDF). Laboratoire d’Economie Appliquée au Développement (LEAD) Université du Sud Toulon-Var. Retrieved 2008-12-10.[dead link]
^ "Human Development Report - Kosovo 2004". UNDP. 2004. p. 14. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
[edit] References
^ See List of Russian federal subjects by HDI.
^ Somalia's last inclusion in the HDI ranking was in the 1996 report (1993 data).
^ The UN does not recognize Republic of China or Taiwan as a sovereign state. The HDI report includes Taiwan as part of China when calculating China's figures (see Political status of Taiwan). The ROC's government calculated its HDI to be 0.868, based on 2010 new methodology of UNDP for calculating 2010 HDIs.[10]
[edit] External links
Archive of previous global reports.
Human Development Index 2010 Report.
[show]v · d · eLists of countries by population statistics
[show]v · d · eLists of countries by quality of life rankings
Categories: Lists of countries | Human Development Index
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
At this time I simply don't have enough evidence, aside from these UNDP rankings, to gauge what civil society development trajectories might look like in the case of each Arab nation-state currently engaged in "democracy movements".
Having said that, it is difficult to fathom how slipping CIA operatives into Libya plus airstrikes by NATO can hold the key to civil society development and social justice thru access to education, healthcare, housing, jobs.
Below is a list of all countries by Human Development Index as included in a United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report released on 4 November 2010, compiled on the basis of estimates for 2010. It covers 168 UN member states (out of 192) and Hong Kong, China. 24 UN member states are not included due to lack of data. The average HDI of regions of the World and groups of countries are also included for comparison.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq[2] and Indian economist Amartya Sen[citation needed].
Countries fall into four broad human development categories, each of which comprises 42 countries (except for the second category, comprising 43 countries).[3] The divisions are:
Division comprising:
Very high 42 countries
High 43 countries
Medium 42 countries
Low 42 countries
Due to the new methodology adopted in 2010 HD Report, its HDI figures appear lower than the HDI figures in previous reports.
Starting in the report for 2007, the first category is referred to as developed countries, and the last three are all grouped in developing countries. The original "high human development" category has been split into two as above in the report for 2007.
Some older groupings (high/medium/low income countries) have been removed that were based on the gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita, and have been replaced by another index based on the gross national income (GNI) in purchasing power parity per capita.
Contents
[hide]
1 Complete list of countries
1.1 Very high human development (developed countries)
1.2 High human development (developing countries)
1.3 Medium human development (developing countries)
1.4 Low human development (developing countries)
2 List of countries by continent
2.1 Africa
2.2 Americas
2.3 Asia & Oceania
2.4 Europe
3 List of countries by non-continental region
3.1 Arab states
3.2 European Union
3.3 East Asia and the Pacific
3.4 Latin America
3.5 Middle East and North Africa
4 HDI by regions & groups
5 Countries missing from latest report
5.1 UN member states (latest UNDP data)
5.2 Non-UN members (not calculated by the UNDP)
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links
[edit] Complete list of countries
increase = increase.
steady = steady.
decrease = decrease.
Similar HDI values in the current list do not lead to ranking ties, since the HDI rank is actually determined using HDI values to the sixth decimal point.
This revision of the index was released on 4 November 2010 and estimates the HDI of countries for 2010.
The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed (up or down) relative to the revised estimates for 2007, released on 5 October 2009.
[edit] Very high human development (developed countries)
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
1 steady Norway 0.938 increase 0.001
2 steady Australia 0.937 increase 0.002
3 increase (17) New Zealand 0.907 increase 0.003
4 increase (9) United States 0.902 increase 0.003
5 steady Ireland 0.895 increase 0.001
6 increase (13) Liechtenstein 0.891 increase 0.002
7 decrease (1) Netherlands 0.890 increase 0.002
8 decrease (4) Canada 0.888 increase 0.002
9 decrease (2) Sweden 0.885 increase 0.001
10 increase (12) Germany 0.885 increase 0.002
11 decrease (1) Japan 0.884 increase 0.003
12 increase (14) South Korea 0.877 increase 0.005
13 decrease (4) Switzerland 0.874 increase 0.002
14 decrease (6) France 0.872 increase 0.003
15 increase (12) Israel 0.872 increase 0.001
16 decrease (4) Finland 0.871 increase 0.002
17 decrease (14) Iceland 0.869 steady
18 decrease (1) Belgium 0.867 increase 0.002
19 decrease (3) Denmark 0.866 increase 0.002
20 decrease (5) Spain 0.863 increase 0.002
21 increase (3) Hong Kong 0.862 increase 0.005
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
22 increase (3) Greece 0.855 increase 0.002
23 decrease (5) Italy 0.854 increase 0.003
24 decrease (13) Luxembourg 0.852 increase 0.002
25 decrease (11) Austria 0.851 increase 0.002
26 decrease (5) United Kingdom 0.849 increase 0.002
27 decrease (5) Singapore 0.846 increase 0.005
28 increase (8) Czech Republic 0.841 steady
29 steady Slovenia 0.828 increase 0.002
30 increase (2) Andorra 0.824 increase 0.002
31 increase (11) Slovakia 0.818 increase 0.003
32 increase (3) United Arab Emirates 0.815 increase 0.003
33 increase (5) Malta 0.815 increase 0.002
34 increase (6) Estonia 0.812 increase 0.003
35 decrease (3) Cyprus 0.810 increase 0.001
36 increase (7) Hungary 0.805 increase 0.002
37 decrease (7) Brunei 0.805 increase 0.001
38 decrease (5) Qatar 0.803 increase 0.005
39 steady Bahrain 0.801 increase 0.003
40 decrease (6) Portugal 0.795 increase 0.004
41 steady Poland 0.795 increase 0.004
42 decrease (5) Barbados 0.788 increase 0.001
[edit] High human development (developing countries)
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
43 increase (9) Bahamas 0.784 increase 0.001
44 increase (2) Lithuania 0.783 increase 0.001
45 decrease (1) Chile 0.783 increase 0.004
46 increase (3) Argentina 0.775 increase 0.003
47 decrease (16) Kuwait 0.771 increase 0.002
48 steady Latvia 0.769 steady
49 increase (16) Montenegro 0.769 increase 0.001
50 increase (13) Romania 0.767 increase 0.003
51 decrease (6) Croatia 0.767 increase 0.002
52 decrease (2) Uruguay 0.765 increase 0.005
53 increase (2) Libya 0.755 increase 0.006
54 increase (6) Panama 0.755 increase 0.004
55 increase (4) Saudi Arabia 0.752 increase 0.004
56 decrease (3) Mexico 0.750 increase 0.005
57 increase (9) Malaysia 0.744 increase 0.005
58 increase (3) Bulgaria 0.743 increase 0.002
59 increase (5) Trinidad and Tobago 0.736 increase 0.004
60 increase (7) Serbia 0.735 increase 0.002
61 increase (7) Belarus 0.732 increase 0.003
62 decrease (8) Costa Rica 0.725 increase 0.002
63 increase (15) Peru 0.723 increase 0.005
64 increase (6) Albania 0.719 increase 0.003
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
65 increase (6) Russia 0.719 increase 0.005
66 increase (16) Kazakhstan 0.714 increase 0.003
67 increase (19) Azerbaijan 0.713 increase 0.003
68 increase (8) Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.710 increase 0.001
69 increase (16) Ukraine 0.710 increase 0.004
70 increase (18) Iran 0.702 increase 0.005
71 increase (1) Macedonia 0.701 increase 0.004
72 increase (9) Mauritius 0.701 increase 0.004
73 increase (2) Brazil 0.699 increase 0.006
74 increase (15) Georgia 0.698 increase 0.003
75 decrease (17) Venezuela 0.696 steady
76 increase (8) Armenia 0.695 increase 0.002
77 increase (3) Ecuador 0.695 increase 0.003
78 increase (15) Belize 0.694 steady
79 decrease (2) Colombia 0.689 increase 0.004
80 increase (20) Jamaica 0.688 increase 0.002
81 increase (17) Tunisia 0.683 increase 0.006
82 increase (14) Jordan 0.681 increase 0.004
83 decrease (4) Turkey 0.679 increase 0.005
84 increase (20) Algeria 0.677 increase 0.006
85 increase (14) Tonga 0.677 increase 0.002
[edit] Medium human development (developing countries)
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
86 increase (2) Fiji 0.669 increase 0.002
87 decrease (1) Turkmenistan 0.669 increase 0.007
88 decrease (1) Dominican Republic 0.663 increase 0.003
89 increase (2) China 0.663 increase 0.008
90 decrease (1) El Salvador 0.659 increase 0.004
91 increase (2) Sri Lanka 0.658 increase 0.005
92 increase (7) Thailand 0.654 increase 0.006
93 decrease (3) Gabon 0.648 increase 0.006
94 increase (2) Suriname 0.646 increase 0.003
95 increase (2) Bolivia 0.643 increase 0.006
96 decrease (1) Paraguay 0.640 increase 0.006
97 increase (1) Philippines 0.638 increase 0.003
98 increase (2) Botswana 0.633 increase 0.006
99 decrease (5) Moldova 0.623 increase 0.003
100 decrease (8) Mongolia 0.622 increase 0.006
101 steady Egypt 0.620 increase 0.006
102 steady Uzbekistan 0.617 increase 0.005
103 steady Micronesia, Federated States of 0.614 increase 0.002
104 steady Guyana 0.611 increase 0.006
105 steady Namibia 0.606 increase 0.003
106 steady Honduras 0.604 increase 0.003
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
107 increase (2) Maldives 0.602 increase 0.007
108 decrease (1) Indonesia 0.600 increase 0.007
109 decrease (1) Kyrgyzstan 0.598 increase 0.004
110 steady South Africa 0.597 increase 0.003
111 steady Syria 0.589 increase 0.003
112 steady Tajikistan 0.580 increase 0.004
113 steady Vietnam 0.572 increase 0.006
114 steady Morocco 0.567 increase 0.005
115 increase (1) Nicaragua 0.565 increase 0.003
116 decrease (1) Guatemala 0.560 increase 0.004
117 steady Equatorial Guinea 0.538 increase 0.002
118 steady Cape Verde 0.534 increase 0.003
119 steady India 0.519 increase 0.007
120 steady Timor-Leste 0.502 increase 0.005
121 steady Swaziland 0.498 increase 0.006
122 increase (1) Laos 0.497 increase 0.007
123 decrease (1) Solomon Islands 0.494 increase 0.002
124 steady Cambodia 0.494 increase 0.005
125 increase (1) Pakistan 0.490 increase 0.003
126 decrease (1) Congo 0.489 increase 0.006
127 steady São Tomé and Príncipe 0.488 increase 0.003
[edit] Low human development (developing countries)
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
128 increase (1) Kenya 0.470 increase 0.006
129 decrease (1) Bangladesh 0.469 increase 0.006
130 steady Ghana 0.467 increase 0.004
131 steady Cameroon 0.460 increase 0.004
132 increase (1) Burma 0.451 increase 0.007
133 decrease (1) Yemen 0.439 increase 0.008
134 steady Benin 0.435 increase 0.003
135 steady Madagascar 0.435 decrease 0.001
136 steady Mauritania 0.433 increase 0.004
137 steady Papua New Guinea 0.431 increase 0.005
138 steady Nepal 0.428 increase 0.005
139 steady Togo 0.428 increase 0.003
140 increase (1) Comoros 0.428 increase 0.002
141 increase (1) Lesotho 0.427 increase 0.004
142 decrease (2) Nigeria 0.423 increase 0.004
143 steady Uganda 0.422 increase 0.006
144 steady Senegal 0.411 increase 0.003
145 steady Haiti 0.404 decrease 0.006
146 increase (2) Angola 0.403 increase 0.004
147 steady Djibouti 0.402 increase 0.003
148 decrease (2) Tanzania 0.398 increase 0.006
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to old 2009 values for 2007 New 2010 estimates for 2010
[4] Change compared to new 2010 estimates for 2009
[4]
149 steady Côte d'Ivoire 0.397 increase 0.003
150 steady Zambia 0.395 increase 0.008
151 steady Gambia 0.390 increase 0.005
152 increase (2) Rwanda 0.385 increase 0.006
153 decrease (1) Malawi 0.385 increase 0.009
154 decrease (1) Sudan 0.379 increase 0.004
155 steady Afghanistan 0.349 increase 0.007
156 steady Guinea 0.340 increase 0.002
157 increase (1) Ethiopia 0.328 increase 0.004
158 decrease (1) Sierra Leone 0.317 increase 0.004
159 steady Central African Republic 0.315 increase 0.004
160 increase (1) Mali 0.309 increase 0.004
161 decrease (1) Burkina Faso 0.305 increase 0.002
162 steady Liberia 0.300 increase 0.006
163 steady Chad 0.295 increase 0.002
164 steady Guinea-Bissau 0.289 increase 0.003
165 steady Mozambique 0.284 increase 0.004
166 steady Burundi 0.282 increase 0.006
167 steady Niger 0.261 increase 0.003
168 steady Democratic Republic of Congo 0.239 increase 0.006
169 steady Zimbabwe 0.140 increase 0.022
[edit] List of countries by continent
[edit] Africa
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
High human development
1 Libya 0.755
2 Mauritius 0.701
3 Tunisia 0.683
4 Algeria 0.677
Medium human development
5 Gabon 0.648
6 Botswana 0.633
7 Egypt 0.620
8 Namibia 0.606
9 South Africa 0.597
10 Morocco 0.567
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Zimbabwe 0.140
2 Democratic Republic of the Congo 0.239
3 Niger 0.261
4 Burundi 0.282
5 Mozambique 0.284
6 Guinea-Bissau 0.289
7 Chad 0.295
8 Liberia 0.300
9 Burkina Faso 0.305
10 Mali 0.309
[edit] Americas
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 United States 0.902
2 Canada 0.888
3 Barbados 0.788
High human development
4 Bahamas 0.784
5 Chile 0.783
6 Argentina 0.775
7 Uruguay 0.765
8 Panama 0.755
9 Mexico 0.750
10 Trinidad and Tobago 0.736
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Haiti 0.404
Medium human development
2 Guatemala 0.560
3 Nicaragua 0.565
4 Honduras 0.604
5 Guyana 0.611
6 Paraguay 0.640
7 Bolivia 0.643
8 Suriname 0.646
9 El Salvador 0.659
10 Dominican Republic 0.663
[edit] Asia & Oceania
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Australia 0.937
2 New Zealand 0.907
3 Japan 0.884
4 South Korea 0.877
5 Israel 0.872
6 Hong Kong 0.862
7 Singapore 0.846
8 United Arab Emirates 0.815
9 Cyprus 0.810
10 Brunei 0.805
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Afghanistan 0.349
2 Nepal 0.428
3 Papua New Guinea 0.431
4 Yemen 0.439
5 Myanmar 0.451
6 Bangladesh 0.469
Medium human development
7 Pakistan 0.490
8 Cambodia 0.494
9 Solomon Islands 0.494
10 Laos 0.497
[edit] Europe
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Norway 0.938
2 Ireland 0.895
3 Liechtenstein 0.891
4 Netherlands 0.890
5 Sweden 0.885
6 Germany 0.885
7 Switzerland 0.874
8 France 0.872
9 Finland 0.871
10 Iceland 0.869
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Medium human development
1 Moldova 0.623
High human development
2 Turkey 0.683
3 Armenia 0.695
4 Georgia 0.698
5 Macedonia 0.701
6 Ukraine 0.710
7 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.710
8 Azerbaijan 0.713
9 Kazakhstan 0.714
10 Russia 0.719[nb 1]
[edit] List of countries by non-continental region
[edit] Arab states
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 United Arab Emirates 0.815
2 Qatar 0.803
3 Bahrain 0.801
High human development
4 Kuwait 0.771
5 Libya 0.755
6 Saudi Arabia 0.752
7 Tunisia 0.683
8 Jordan 0.681
9 Algeria 0.677
Medium human development
10 Egypt 0.620
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Sudan 0.379
2 Djibouti 0.402
3 Comoros 0.428
4 Mauritania 0.433
5 Yemen 0.439
Medium human development
6 Morocco 0.567
7 Syria 0.589
8 Egypt 0.620
High human development
9 Algeria 0.677
10 Jordan 0.681
[edit] European Union
HDI (average of all members): 0.774
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Ireland 0.895
2 Netherlands 0.890
3 Sweden 0.885
4 Germany 0.885
5 France 0.872
6 Finland 0.871
7 Belgium 0.867
8 Denmark 0.866
9 Spain 0.863
10 Greece 0.855
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
High human development
1 Bulgaria 0.743
2 Romania 0.767
3 Latvia 0.769
4 Lithuania 0.783
Very high human development
5 Poland 0.795
6 Portugal 0.795
7 Hungary 0.805
8 Cyprus 0.810
9 Estonia 0.812
10 Malta 0.815
[edit] East Asia and the Pacific
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Australia 0.937
2 New Zealand 0.907
3 Japan 0.884
4 South Korea 0.877
5 Hong Kong 0.862
6 Singapore 0.846
7 Brunei 0.805
High human development
8 Malaysia 0.744
9 Tonga 0.677
Medium human development
10 Fiji 0.669
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Papua New Guinea 0.431
2 Myanmar 0.451
Medium human development
3 Cambodia 0.494
4 Solomon Islands 0.494
5 Laos 0.497
6 Timor-Leste 0.502
7 Vietnam 0.572
8 Indonesia 0.600
9 Micronesia, Federated States of 0.614
10 Mongolia 0.622
[edit] Latin America
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
High human development
1 Chile 0.783
2 Argentina 0.775
3 Uruguay 0.765
4 Panama 0.755
5 Mexico 0.750
6 Costa Rica 0.725
7 Peru 0.723
8 Brazil 0.699
9 Venezuela 0.696
10 Ecuador 0.695
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Haiti 0.404
Medium human development
2 Guatemala 0.560
3 Nicaragua 0.565
4 Honduras 0.604
5 Paraguay 0.640
6 Bolivia 0.643
7 El Salvador 0.659
8 Dominican Republic 0.663
High human development
9 Colombia 0.689
10 Belize 0.694
[edit] Middle East and North Africa
10 highest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Very high human development
1 Israel 0.872
2 United Arab Emirates 0.815
3 Cyprus 0.810
4 Qatar 0.803
5 Bahrain 0.801
High human development
6 Kuwait 0.771
7 Libya 0.755
8 Saudi Arabia 0.752
9 Iran 0.702
10 Tunisia 0.683
10 lowest HDIs
Rank Country HDI
New 2010 estimates for 2010
Low human development
1 Sudan 0.379
2 Yemen 0.439
Medium human development
3 Morocco 0.567
4 Syria 0.589
5 Egypt 0.620
High human development
6 Algeria 0.677
7 Turkey 0.679
8 Jordan 0.681
9 Tunisia 0.683
10 Iran 0.702
[edit] HDI by regions & groups
Region or Group 2010
estimates
for 2010
HDI[5] 2010
estimates
for 2009
HDI[5]
Very high human development
OECD Developed 0.879 increase 0.876
Very High Human Development 0.878 increase 0.875
Non-OECD Developed 0.844 increase 0.840
High human development
High Human Development 0.717 increase 0.712
Latin America and the Caribbean 0.704 increase 0.699
Europe and Central Asia 0.702 increase 0.698
Medium human development
East Asia and the Pacific 0.643 increase 0.636
World 0.624 increase 0.619
Medium Human Development 0.592 increase 0.586
Arab states 0.588 increase 0.583
South Asia 0.516 increase 0.510
Low human development
Low Human Development 0.393 increase 0.388
Sub-Saharan Africa 0.389 increase 0.384
Least developed countries 0.386 increase 0.382
[edit] Countries missing from latest report
[edit] UN member states (latest UNDP data)
Year Country HDI Rank Source
Publication Data
Very high human development
1997 N/A Monaco 0.946 N/A [citation needed]
1997 N/A San Marino 0.944 N/A [citation needed]
High human development
2009 2007 Antigua and Barbuda 0.868 47 [6]
2009 2007 Cuba 0.863 51 [6]
1998 N/A Palau 0.861 N/A [citation needed]
2009 2007 Oman 0.846 56 [6]
2009 2007 Seychelles 0.845 57 [6]
2009 2007 Saint Kitts and Nevis 0.838 62 [6]
2009 2007 Saint Lucia 0.821 69 [6]
2009 2007 Dominica 0.814 73 [6]
2009 2007 Grenada 0.813 74 [6]
2009 2007 Lebanon 0.803 83 [6]
Medium human development
2009 2007 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 0.772 91 [6]
2009 2007 Samoa 0.771 94 [6]
1998 1995 North Korea 0.766 75 [7]
2009 2007 Vanuatu 0.693 126 [6]
1998 N/A Nauru 0.663 N/A [citation needed]
2009 2007 Bhutan 0.619 132 [6]
2000 1998 Iraq 0.583 126 [8]
1998 N/A Tuvalu 0.583 N/A [citation needed]
1998 N/A Marshall Islands 0.563 N/A [citation needed]
1998 N/A Kiribati 0.515 N/A [citation needed]
Low human development
2009 2007 Eritrea 0.472 165 [6]
2001 2001 Somalia 0.384 161 [9][nb 2]
[edit] Non-UN members (not calculated by the UNDP)
Year Country or Territory HDI Rank Source
Publication Data
Very high human development
2010 2010 Republic of China (Taiwan) 0.868 18 [nb 3]
1998 N/A Puerto Rico 0.942 N/A [11]
2008 2005 Martinique 0.929 24 [12]
1998 N/A Greenland 0.927 N/A [13]
2008 2005 Guadeloupe 0.912 28 [12]
2010 2007 Macau 0.944 23 [14]
High human development
2008 2005 New Caledonia 0.878 34 [12]
2007 2004 Réunion 0.870 35 [12][15]
2008 2005 French Polynesia 0.864 42 [12]
2008 2005 French Guiana 0.862 43 [12]
Medium human development
2009 2007 Palestinian territoriesOccupied Palestinian Territories 0.737 110 [6]
2004 2003 Kosovo 0.734 N/A [16]
[edit] See also
Human Development Index
List of countries by Human Development Index/Former reports
List of countries by inequality-adjusted HDI
List of African countries by Human Development Index
List of Argentine provinces by Human Development Index
List of Australian states and territories by HDI
List of Brazilian states by Human Development Index
American Human Development Report
List of Chilean regions by Human Development Index
List of Chinese administrative divisions by Human Development Index
List of European countries by Human Development Index
List of Indian states by Human Development Index
List of Indonesian provinces by HDI
List of Mexican states by Human Development Index
List of Pakistani Districts by Human Development Index
List of Philippine provinces by Human Development Index
List of Russian federal subjects by HDI
List of Venezuelan states by human development index
Happy Planet Index
OSCE countries statistics
Satisfaction with Life Index
[edit] Notes
^ Human Development Index (HDI) - 2010 Rankings, United Nations Development Programme
^ "History of the Human Development Report". United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
^ Human development Report "Error: no |title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". United Nations Development Programme. p. 139. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/UN_Human_Development_Report_2010_1.PNG Human development Report. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x "2010 Human development Report". United Nations Development Programme. pp. 148–151. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
^ a b "2010 Human development Report". United Nations Development Programme. p. 151. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2009/
^ "The State of Human Development" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 1998. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
^ "Human Development Report 2000" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 2000. p. 163. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
^ "Human Development Report: Somalia 2001" (PDF). 2001. p. 198. Retrieved 26 March 2009.[dead link]
^ "2010中華民國人類發展指數 (HDI)" (in Chinese) (pdf). Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R.O.C.. 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
^ "Puerto Rico (United States)". United Nations Environment Programme. 2 March 1998. Retrieved 26 March 2009.. Note: Appears to be simply the United States's HDI published on the 1997 report[citation needed].
^ a b c d e f "Les défis de la croissance calédonienne, on page 13" (in French) (PDF). CEROM - INSEE. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
^ "Greenland (Denmark)". United Nations Environment Programme. 2 March 1998. Retrieved 26 March 2009.. Note: Appears to be simply Denmark's HDI published on the 1997 report[citation needed].
^ The UN did not calculate the HDI of Macau. The government of Macau calculates its own HDI. If it were included in the UN's HDI figures as of 2007, Macau would rank 23rd or 24th (tying either Singapore or Hong Kong). "Macao in Figures 2010" (in en). Statistics and Census Service, Macau SAR. 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
^ "L’Indice de Développement Humain : Une Évaluation pour la réunion" (in French) (PDF). Laboratoire d’Economie Appliquée au Développement (LEAD) Université du Sud Toulon-Var. Retrieved 2008-12-10.[dead link]
^ "Human Development Report - Kosovo 2004". UNDP. 2004. p. 14. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
[edit] References
^ See List of Russian federal subjects by HDI.
^ Somalia's last inclusion in the HDI ranking was in the 1996 report (1993 data).
^ The UN does not recognize Republic of China or Taiwan as a sovereign state. The HDI report includes Taiwan as part of China when calculating China's figures (see Political status of Taiwan). The ROC's government calculated its HDI to be 0.868, based on 2010 new methodology of UNDP for calculating 2010 HDIs.[10]
[edit] External links
Archive of previous global reports.
Human Development Index 2010 Report.
[show]v · d · eLists of countries by population statistics
[show]v · d · eLists of countries by quality of life rankings
Categories: Lists of countries | Human Development Index
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