|
|
Listen to the cries at the gates
S P Singh
Malta is thousands of
miles away from Punjab, somewhere along the icy Ionian Sea off
the Greek coast, but Punjab's youth will give their right arm to
reach the Godforsaken place, bribing petty officials, border
guards of many countries, vessel owners and who not. Now, news
comes that respectable young women from Punjab, coming from a
perfectly well settled family and with many blessings of the
Almighty, are ready to pose as wives of completely stranger
unscrupulous MPs and even pay whopping amounts of money to them
to be smuggled out of Indian shores for any spot in the western
hemisphere.
It is easy to go for a simplistic
explanation of a deep rooted phenomenon. It is tempting to say
that a better life awaits Indians or citizens of any other
country in the western regions, or that the land of opportunity
has always attracted people from a less endowed place.
But there are other issues involved. The
clichéd description of our planet is that it is becoming a
shrunken village. A global village. The liberalization and
globalization has weaved the planet's forces of politics and
economics in such a way that the sociological ramifications
stand jolted and people are finding ways to mesh with each other
in the new paradigm of collective survival. There are many
instruments which provide course correction during this
transition phase of the exercise. The dumping levies, the WTO,
the quota-setting meetings, the Uruguay to Doha milestones are
all examples of course correction mechanisms in an evolving new
economy.
Many other institutions, like law making,
the domain of human rights, the debate on global warming, the
fuel and energy hot spots are all on the table, and from
President George W Bush to could-have-been-president Al Gore,
from Noam Chomsky to the Earth-Flattening Thomas Friedman,
everyone is contributing his or her mite in the construction of
this new superstructured village.
But when in a village, the village paradigm
comes into play. In a global village, the goods and the
manufacturing sector cannot be treated better than the labor or
the service sector. But while goods are moving, money is moving,
the people in some lands of the lesser gods cannot.
Fortress Americana and Fortress Europe are
failing repeatedly to listen to the cries and shrieks of
hundreds dying at their gates, banging with all their might,
often suffering humiliation in their bid to prise open these
gates only to get a foothold. A wave of antipathy against the
very construct of immigrant is being detected by social
scientists in many regions in the west, and even the
immigrant-turned-native is doing his level best to keep the
gates shut.
This worked when we lived on a planet
called Earth. In a place called global village, such hindrances
will more and more seem akin to artificially-generated or
crafted untouchability. Of course, the argument that a
free-for-all will only lead to anarchy is pretty valid, but then
what it proves is that the better endowed must address many
questions about why many are managing so poorly. The era of
grants and aids and Salvation Army style help is over. It is
time to see if everyone is paying for the addition he is making
to the Ozone hole, if every one is an equal partner in the
world's energy resources, if everyone is getting the same
opportunity of legal protection, if every one's human rights are
guarded with similar zeal, and each new born child is not
discriminated because of the geographical location of his birth.
30 April,
2007
Print this article
|
|
Latest Columns |
|
| |
A Heritage Gone Bust
The row over the auction of a bust of
Maharaja Duleep Singh, the initial plans of the SGPC to
make efforts to buy the bust, the later opposition...more
Chohan wanted own country of the
purest, leaves behind merely sneers
Chandigarh: Half a century after he first entered the
Punjab Assembly after being elected from Tanda, Jagjit
Singh Chohan covered a remarkable distance in
politics...more
Shame-Sham: He was acting as president, is now acting president
Nine years earlier,
poor old Gurcharan Singh Tohra was so naive as to suggest that
the then Chief Minister and Akali Dal president Parkash Singh
Badal should appoint...more
All the Badals' men
Such distinctly
supreme wisdom surrounds Punjab's Chief Minister Prakash Singh
Badal now that he couldn't find anyone who could be...more
Panthic Move
Bluestar DC is Badal’s choice replacing man who blocked SYL
Political
masters have changed, and the babu minions were also expected to
be shuffled. Akali Dal president Prakash Singh Badal, whose...more
|
|
|
|
|
|
This Land of Ours |
|
| |
Discovery Time in Kalpana Chawla town
Doaba Has A Dream
—
It Is To Run
Away
Palahi – It Takes A Village And
Its Stories To Prove A Point
A Poor, Raped, Murdered Girl is Up
Against Wto, Fashion Shows |
|
|
|
|
|
Spice of Politics |
|
| |
Adjustments galore: IK Gujral's son,
Badal's sidekick et al all found adjustable
Panthic Move
Bluestar DC is Badal’s choice replacing man who blocked SYL
The saffron is spilling!
All The Pardhan Ji’s Men
Oye tu bahar nikal…
|
|
|
People - An
Off Tangent View |
|
| |
Chohan wanted own country of the
purest, leaves behind merely sneers
Play The Shehnai, a Bharat Ratna has
died!
Myth is the Man Mason, pick
pocket, story teller, painter, folk lore expert, and
then, `Professor Kazak'
|
|
|
|
|
|
Across Radcliffe |
|
| |
Pakistan
wants to trade? Fine, I have my half-brick! When can we
start?
Bindi goes with
burqa,
Sufi with
Kaanta laga
Cry Freedom, It’s Same-to-Same |
|
|
|
|
|
Ballot
Field |
|
| |
Akalis fought Cong, BJP won
Smooth, peaceful, meaningless, and 72
per cent
Chandigarh:
In the season of assassination of sanity, abuse masquerading
as election campaigning...more
Political revolution in Malwa
heartland as Bardhan clasps Daljit Bittu
The blazing
red banner formed an unmistakable background for a communist
stage, and with the hammer and sickle...more
|
|
|
|
|
|
Punjab's
Religio-Politics |
|
| |
Return to the word, the swords can
wait
His last wish: a visit to Golden
Temple
Polling In Badal Fiefdom:
Mirroring A Rear View
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cinema~Books~Life |
|
| |
A soul for ‘city of stones’
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
