Introduction

During the Cold War, Latin America, Southern Africa and even the dynamic Southeast Asia hardly figured in international politics. Studies on the Cold War politics and the scramble for security in other parts of the world, particularly in the industrial West mostly overlooked the Third World countries and their quest for security. Even after the Cold War ended, Third World security predicaments remain because of the existence of a very complex balance of power that is often precariously balanced. The current phase of the globalisation, as Kenichi Ohmae (1990; 1993; 1996) puts it, has become a ‘borderless world’ where economic forces and free trade have become the main theme of international relations. In such a situation, the Third World countries often have to play awkward balancing acts. This article is therefore an attempt to look into this Third World security predicament at three analytical levels – the international system, the regional and state levels. This analysis is done using three important regional organisations in the Third World – ASEAN, MERCOSUR and SADC. This is an attempt to reveal how security politics and regional integration are interrelated and intertwined in the Third World. In the process, it will contribute to our understanding of how these regional organisations cope and deal with security issues with the current phase of globalisation.

What is security?

Security in international politics is a moot point, and it remains so to date. For a very long time, the traditional thinking had been that “the state is and should be about security, with emphasis on military and political security” (Buzan et al 1998:37). This notion of security has been prevalent since the Westphalian peace of 1648 where the concept of the nation state was created. This view became more important during the twentieth Century with the two World Wars and the consequent Cold War that lasted for almost five decades. Following the end of the Cold War, the scope of security in academic studies has been changed with many “wideners” who argued that the subject needed to embrace a more varied range of threats and move beyond the traditional emphasis on the military aspects of security for the state. Such changes in perception have created debates between those still subscribing to the traditional thinking and those who wanted to “widen” the definition of security so as to include other nonmilitary threats too.[1]

Security in the Third World

Since 1945, many of the most significant threats to state security have become internal rather than external, a shift which has profound consequences for international relations. As Holsti (1996: 15) writes, security between states in the Third World “has become increasingly dependent on security within those states.” For the Third World states, security does not simply refer to the external military threat dimension but also to the whole range of the state’s existence which includes internal security and nation building; secure systems of food, health, economy, trade and environment (Thomas 1987). The Third World states, like all states are concerned with their own security, internal and external. But as they are mostly poor, underdeveloped and postcolonial, Third World states inherited their colonial economies, political structures and security perceptions. Some are pre-modern and weak, characterised by low levels of sociopolitical cohesion and poorly developed structures of government. The securities of these states are therefore shaped by these characteristics. To the authoritarian governments of the Third World, security also means countering internal subversion and keeping internal order at any cost.

The next three sections will deal with security politics and regional integration in the Third World mostly through the different dimensions of security at three analytical levels – the international, regional and state levels. Where appropriate, the security dimensions will include the military, political, economic, societal and environmental sectors.[2] Besides these dimensions, security concerns are located in both the external and internal dimensions. As mentioned before, this analysis will be done looking at how the three regional organisations of ASEAN, MERCOSUR and SADC deal with security issues.

The International System

The Cold War Period

The politics of the Cold War had dominated the working of the international system for a major part of the second half of the twentieth century. It is interesting to note that while the Third World states were unimportant in the global balance of power and hardly figured in the security agendas of Western policy-makers, the prevailing bipolar system and the preoccupation of the Western powers with the spread of communism and its containment exacerbated conflicts in the Third World. While conflicts in the core and strategic areas of Europe and North America were avoided, the Cold War turned out to be a hot one in and for the Third World states where the superpowers played the game of international politics. The Vietnam War was the clearest result and example.

The intensity of the Vietnam War and the increasing involvement of the Soviet Union and the growing threat to regional security led ASEAN to adopt a nonaligned policy. The Vietnam War continued to strain members’ relationships and threaten regional security. Communist victories in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam worsened the situation. By 1976, ASEAN was forced to contemplate being an association with security as its predominant concern. Thus at the February 1976 Bali Summit Meeting, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and the Declaration of ASEAN Concord were signed. They agreed to “The right of every state to lead its national existence; free from external interference, subversion or coercion; non interference in the internal affairs of one another; settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful means; and the renunciation of the threat or use of force” (ASEAN 1976). The reunification of Vietnam, the worsening internal security problems and the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia led to another security dilemma for ASEAN during the mid-1970s. Negotiations followed during which time ASEAN’s importance as a regional organisation to settle disputes and maintain security was widely recognised. Vietnam withdrew from Cambodia in 1989 and the Vietnam War was concluded by the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement.

Meanwhile, the southern African security problem during the Cold War was exacerbated by the presence of apartheid South Africa, a regime which also adopted a strong anticommunist policy and came out harshly against any socialist orientations. Angola and Mozambique, having chosen this path, were particularly targeted. During the 1950s and more in the 1960s, the South African Defence Force (SADF) developed a national security doctrine (Total Strategy) stressing the psychological, social and economic means to target its enemies, in addition to the military means. The South African government established a framework for implementing policies which completely cut across all sectors of public life, called the National Security Management System. Louis Nel, then South African Deputy Foreign Minister, said in November 1982, “The Kremlin has actively supported the southern African Marxist-Leninist revolutionary movements in their quest for power in Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. The Kremlin is currently backing SWAPO, the South African ANC and the South African Communist Party who operate against SWA/Namibia and the Republic of South Africa, respectively” (Quoted in Hanlon 1986: 8). Using such words had two advantages – the policy of apartheid could be seen as communist-inspired and it demanded Western support as it was a bulwark against the communist onslaught (Hanlon 1986: 8).

The United States, being a great power, recognises Latin America as being under its sphere of influence. Beginning mostly with the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 when the US President James Monroe warned the European powers to keep out of the Americas, the US has, in effect, reserved the right to exert influence and interfere in Latin America. This has been a policy factor for the US as well as many Latin American countries for a long time. The Cold War also cut Latin American countries (LAC) from the possibility of relations with other regions. As a result, many of the countries of the region lessened their dependence on the superpowers. It was the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) that shaped much of the South American regionalism. This can be seen as an indirect opposition to the superpower hegemony. Contrary to Europe, this part of the world has been relatively peaceful until the 1960s when the Cold War became a hot one with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. While several interstate wars erupted after the 1960s, the real security problem for Latin America was the Cold War, with the countries of the region progressively becoming an American zone of influence. Since the 1960s, the United States had increasingly intervened militarily in its own backyard and installed puppet governments.

The Cold War also ushered a dangerous arms and nuclear race. In the face of such a threat, in 1971, a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) Declaration was signed by member states of ASEAN. This Declaration can be seen as a reaction to the emerging multipolarity of the region with the USSR, US, China and Japan as the principal powers influencing events in Southeast Asia. Likewise, through the Foz de Iguazu Declaration of November 1985, Brazil and Argentina declared that their nuclear programs were to be for peaceful purposes only. Such action on the part of Third World states can be seen as their desire to keep away from the Cold War politics of interferences and aggressions from the superpowers that destabilise the Third World regions.

Post-Cold War Period

The decline of the Soviet Union and the change in the bipolar world had more immediate effects for the Third World. It witnessed the emergence of the United States as the sole superpower which has become even more powerful with time.

Politically, the end of the Cold War resulted in the removal of support for many Third World states and movements. The collapse of the Soviet Union has discredited the alternative model and ideology represented by the Soviet Union. This in turn affected many movements and supports in many Third World states including members of ASEAN, MERCOSUR and SADC. Economically, it has also resulted in changes in the direction of trade and businesses. The military dimension also produces the same result of redirection of arms trade, transfers and dealings. The post Cold War world, epitomised by the great power influence of the US, its involvement in Third World problems and conflicts (Iraq, Afghanistan etc.), besides the complex web of international relations has and will continue to have an impact on Third World security and their regional integration processes. For the Third World countries, security concern has become more multifarious after the Cold War as it has become subject to more complex pulls and pressures.

Post-9/11 Period

The world entered into a new period of insecurity and threats after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the events that followed. Soon after, the United States launched a movement and led a coalition to remove the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The attacks also led to the introduction of “anti-terrorism” legislation in many countries including the United Kingdom, India, Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, China, Canada, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, Mauritius, Uganda and Zimbabwe. This has brought to a close the transitional phase that followed the end of the Cold War (Wenger and Zimmerman 2003: 1).

For a long time, states and regional organisations had ignored and did not regard terrorism as a priority. While this is true for most states, it is particularly more so in the Third World countries where poverty, diseases, domestic conflicts and hunger had been seen as the immediate issues to be addressed. But this threat had been becoming more a problem for every state mostly beginning from the bombings in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Casablanca in 1999, Bali bombings, attacks in Britain, Egypt, Yemen, Argentina in 1992 and 1994 and other threats and attacks in all parts of the world. Terrorism can no longer be treated as a Western concern. It has become an international security issue where regional organisation must provide a coherent response so that the integration process and inter and intra regional trade will not be hampered by such threats.

The Regional Level

When ASEAN was formed, despite their policy of nonalignment, some members still had official alignments with the US and Great Britain. The fact was that member countries were solely responsible for their own security. Thus, much of the political and strategic alliances with other countries took place outside ASEAN’s structures. After its establishment, ASEAN was seen by the communist bloc as nothing more than a “western-inspired military alliance directed against China and the Indo-Chinese states” (Dixon 1999: 118). True, during much of the Cold War and after, China has been viewed as a major security threat by ASEAN members, which is why most ASEAN states want to see the US remain as a regional power. Many of them feel that US disengagement will create a power vacuum that would be filled by either China or Japan. But ASEAN members’ relation with China has improved considerably since the end of the Cold War. This new relationship with China was reflected in the ASEAN Meeting of 1997. It was held in Beijing. This new understanding was because the ASEAN leaders began to recognise the political and economic benefits of closer ties with China easily outweigh any military risks.

The end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, the formation of the SADC and its attempt to reconcile differences between erstwhile states of divergent policies and regimes were significant developments for southern African security. At the Gaborone Summit of 1996 of the SADC heads of government and state, the SADC Organ on Politics, Defense and Security (OPDS) was launched. For the first time since the SADC was established, the region now had stable regional security architecture. The Inter-State Defense and Security Committee (ISDSC) which had been established in 1994 was incorporated into the newly found OPDS. In 2003, a Mutual Defence Pact was signed by SADC members. This was an official commitment by SADC to function as a collective defence organisation. While “International terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction… play as good as no role at all in the region” (Steinhilber 2006:11), the problem of HIV/AIDS is a big concern for all African states. This creates instability and as a result affects regional integration. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has been a major factor and issue that raises a big concern for southern African states at present. This problem is clearly reflected in the statement of Prega Ramsamy (2001: 35), the former Secretary-General of the SADC when he said that, “the [HIV/AIDS] pandemic continues to escalate in our Community. Available statistics indicate that the rates of infected people in the region could be as high as one in five in some member states. At least four member states have rates higher than 400 per 100,000 population indicating the magnitude of the problem.” The SADC members have committed themselves to collectively fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic in an urgent manner (SADC 2003).

Improved relations, the changed security agendas and the process of democratisation in Latin America since the late 1980s and early 1990s have led to a newly shared perception of a vision for Latin America. The Treaty of Asunción established MERCOSUR in March 1991. With the admission of Bolivia and Chile, MERCOSUR expanded to represent 230 million inhabitants, that is, 45 per cent of the population of Latin America. Though the countries of the southern cone do not face much external threats, closer economic ties and open borders often cause security problems for their neighbours. As the military has taken new tasks, the problem is whether a balance is maintained between member countries in matters of security responsibilities and management. Argentina and Brazil are also opposed to the idea of the institutionalisation of the conference of American defense ministers. This explicitly implies that they are against a continental security system. Though they explain that the countries of the continent are too different, it can also imply that the two most powerful states in the Southern Cone desire to wield their influence on other members of the MERCOSUR and on the functioning of the regional integration arrangement itself. Paraguay and Uruguay favour a joint manoeuvre and want an advisory body for this purpose because they are afraid that Argentina and Brazil could use their nuclear technology for their own ends despite nuclear treaties. Brazil is also said to have its own nuclear project. Chile meanwhile opted to have an autonomous defense policy. On the economic front, the MERCOSUR countries are yet to achieve security – the Brazilian Real devaluation of 1999 and other financial crises in Argentina and Brazil being cases in point. These crises have even led the MERCOSUR members to question its existence.

The State Level

An analysis of Third World security at the state level encounters enormous problems because of the vast dimensions of security and differences in the perceptions and conditions in these states. Security for these states always goes beyond the common issue of the state’s ability to protect its resources and borders and involves the dimensions of food, environment, economy, elites, society, culture and the legitimacy and survival of the states and regimes. In other words, the whole dimensions of military, political, economic, societal and environmental securities are all equally important for the Third World. In recent years, the problem of transnational crime, drug trafficking and terrorism have also added to the security dilemma of these states.

Firstly, the role played by the armed forces is vital for regimes and governments in ensuring and maintaining their sovereignty, ideology and legitimacy. This political role of the military in the Third World coupled with the weakness of government institutions have led armed groups and the paramilitary forces to gain more power and influence. In the case of Thailand, military coups after military coups have happened because of the extremely powerful political position that the military enjoyed. In Indonesia too, the longevity of regimes depended on controlling the military. The military has also been used to gain more power even illegitimately. This in turn leads to the use of more military might against opposition forces leading to the deaths of thousands. This type of military adventurism and use of the military is particularly widespread in Africa. For example, in August 1998, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia decided to take part in an intervention operation in the DRC to fight against rebel forces. This intervention happened based on the request of President Laurent Kabila who came to power through military force. In most parts of the world, the militarisation of these problems and the new role that the military began to play ironically led to more insecurity for the civilian population. Such roles as played by the military could bring them into contact with the civilian population and increase the chances of human rights violations. It could also bring them into direct confrontation with the people (Pion-Berlin 2000). But as a whole, the political role that the military played had immensely reduced since the process of democratisation began.

In addition to the secessionist movements, ethnic violence and internal unrest, the states of ASEAN are susceptible to economic crises and are economically unstable. Monetary security has not been achieved. For example, the Thai economy underwent a severe economic crisis during the 1970s and early 1980s that led the economy to the verge of collapse. Several reforms were initiated under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank through which the Thai economy slowly recovered. The Asian Crisis of the late 1990s also had severe effects on the economies of these states.

Environmentally, over exploitation of resources and the limited concern paid to the environment has now been the subject of international dispute and one in which regional organisations are now more involved. As the ECLA (2001) stated, “The environment has played an important role in the production of resource-based commodities as well as in the provision of food and other amenities for the population. Nevertheless, an integral relationship between economic and social development and the environment did not form the basis for development strategies and policies pursued in the Caribbean. Since the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations, the importance of environment to trade and development has become generally accepted. However, developing countries have been concerned about proposals to bring environment and labour standards within the purview of the WTO. This was part of the reason for the failure to launch a new round of trade negotiations in Seattle in 2000. Environmental issues were again on the agenda at the Doha Ministerial meeting in November 2001.”

Integration and Security

From what has been said above, security and its perception, for many of the Third World states continue to be the main source of strain for any regional integration movements. During the Cold War, the international system had created a condition that led to the emergence of internal strife and, sometimes, wars. Such ill effects destroyed the thin fabric that holds Third World countries in their endeavour to come together.

The very nature of the ASEAN Way of noninterference, multilateral consultations can also be modified to a more useful and practical way. Instead of ignoring the underlying problems and skirting the issues, they must be directly addressed. Of course, sovereignty of a member should be respected, but as a regional organisation, it is also its responsibility to effectively deal with a member’s problems in a constructive way. Linked to all of these is the problem that ASEAN regionalism faced. It lacked in capacity and resources. These limitations are augmented by charter constraints which accord a high priority to principles like sovereignty and noninterference. In such a situation, prospects for cooperation are further reduced. Even as ASEAN had “come to be regarded as one of the most successful experiments in regionalism in the developing world” (Acharya 1993: 3), ASEAN Way or ASEAN’s informal process of noninterference has come under severe criticism. Because of these reasons, some have commented that its “central purpose seemed to consist in concealing fundamental differences of view among its members under the guise of consensus and non-interference” and that “The ASEAN Way” did not deal with underlying tensions; it simply ignored them” (Jones and Smith 2002: 103, 108).

The Southern African scenario was quite different from that of ASEAN. For many years, the SADCC member states had faced the brunt of South Africa’s ‘Total Strategy’ of destabilisation and blackmail. From the 1990s, new hopes emerged within the region. But hope and reality often go their separate ways. Therefore, for the SADC to continue as a strong regional organisation, the SADC Organ on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation (OPDSC) should not be allowed to function as its predecessor, the OPDS. Members’ suspicion of each other can be removed through a series of confidence building measures, and the adoption of a system of shared leadership. For the OPDSC to be effective, it needs to adopt a concept of security that takes into account military, political, social, economic and environmental issues. Mutual suspicion still remains in southern Africa that led to diverse perception of security. Southern African states have not yet shared common values and visions too. An optimistic outcome that can be ascertained from the Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation and the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ (SIPO) is that the SADC seem to have abandoned the narrow view of security that was prevalent during the Cold War period. Its agenda now includes both the politico-military threats (inter-state war, internal war, large-scale human rights abuses, war crimes against humanity, genocide, coups d’état and other forms of illegal seizure of power, poor governance and abuse of power, dangers of instability accompanying political transition periods and attacks on democratic institutions) and non-military threats (food security, mass movements of refugees, illegal migrants, humanitarian and natural disasters, disease, poverty and underdevelopment and ecological degradation) (Hammerstad 2005: 7). Another major issue for southern Africa in recent times has been the problem of AIDS/HIV. Interaction and cooperation between people, individual, parties, leaders and government will help a great deal. It is now up to the states to gather pace and start the process of confidence building and cooperation in the military, political, social, economic and cultural fields.

By the 1990s, many of the erstwhile interstate conflicts in Latin America (Argentina-Chile, Peru-Ecuador, El Salvador-Honduras, Chile-Peru) had been diplomatically resolved. The policies of rapprochements followed both by Brazil and Argentina had also paid dividends leading to the eventual formation of MERCOSUR, one of the biggest economic groupings in the world, eventually representing 45% of the population of Latin America. Democratic institutions in Latin America being relatively new, they are weak in their structures paving the way for nonstate actors to wreak havoc (Steinhilber 2006: 7). The internal problems therefore include drugs trafficking, arms trafficking, organised crime, environment, natural disasters, social deprivation, transnational crime, guerrilla organisations, state dysfunction and counterrevolutionary violent activities that in many cases lead to militarisation and confrontations between groups. The key risk factors for Latin America after the Cold War are associated with lack of governance, instability, and weak democratic institutionalisation (Aravena 2004: 6). Let not the mere formation of MERCOSUR be the end. Instead of relying on mere rhetoric and ideologies, the member states must work collectively in a cooperative spirit and tackle these enormous problems head on.

As a whole, the regions of Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and South America have peculiar kinds of security concerns different from the Western idea of security. For them, security does not alone imply being safe from external threat and having a huge stockpile or arsenal; it also means being secured from internal subversion. It also means regime maintenance and continuance, secure systems of food, health, trade and development. All these problems are interlinked. These problems challenge the legitimacy of governments which in turn results in ineffective governments incapable of ensuring security for the people. But at the same time, no single organisation or model has managed to establish strong governance for these regions to achieve these goals satisfactorily. To create a new organisation to address these issues is out of the question. The existing ASEAN, SADC and MERCOSUR organisations can lead the way in improving relations while at the same time seeking ways to ensure security for the Third World states, provided that these organisations become more proactive and sincere in their activities.

END NOTES

[1] To read more on this, see Ullman (1983); Hirsch and Doyle (1977); Meadows et al (1972); Ruggie (1982); Walt (1991); Mearcheimer (1990); Ayoob (1997); Peterson and Sebenius (1992); Lynn-Jones and Miller (1995); Buzan (1991a); Buzan (1991b); Buzan et al (1998) and Wirtz (2002).

[2] This is derived from Buzan et al (1998)

REFERENCES

Acharya, Amitav (1993), A New Regional Order in South-East Asia: ASEAN in the Post-Cold War Era, Adelphi Paper 279, Oxford: Oxford University Press for International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Aravena, Francisco Rojas (2004), Security on the American Continent: Challenges, Perceptions and Concepts, Briefing Papers, May 2004, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Colombia.

ASEAN (1976), Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, Bali, 24 February 1976.

ASEAN (2002), Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, 2002.

Axworthy, Lloyd (1999), Human Security: Safety for People in a Changing World, Concept Paper, The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 29 April 1999 [Online: web] Accessed 13 July 2006, URL: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/foreignnp/HumanSecurity/secur-e.htm.

Ayoob, Mohammed (1997), “Defining Security: A Subaltern Realist Perspective,” in Keith Krause and Michael Williams (eds.) Critical Security Studies, Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.

Bearman, Sidney et al. (eds.) (2001), “The Americas”, Strategic Survey 2000-2001, London: IISS, 2001, pp. 55-94.

Buzan, Barry (1991a), People, States and Fears: An Agenda for International Security Studies in the Post Cold War Era, 2nd Edition, Boulder, Co.: Lynne Rienner.

Buzan, Barry (1991b), “New Patterns of Global Security in the 21st Century,” International Affairs, Vol. 67 (3), pp. 431-451.

Buzan, Barry, Ole Wæver and Jaap de Wilde (1998), Security: A New Framework for Analysis, Boulder, Co.: Lynne Rienner.

Dixon, Chris (1999), “Regional Integration in Southeast Asia”, in Jean Grugel and Wil Hout (eds) (1999), Regionalism Across the North-South Divide: State Strategies and Globalisation, London Routledge.

ECLA (2001), Trade, Environment and Development, Implications for Caribbean Countries, Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean, Report G.669, 2001.

Hammerstad, Anne (2005), “People, States and Regions,” in Anne Hammerstad (ed.) People, States and Regions: Building a collaborative security regime in Southern Africa, The South African Institute of International Affairs, pp. 1-21.

Hanlon, Joseph (1986), Beggar Your Neighbours, London: CIIR, James Currey.

Hirsch, F and Doyle M (1977), “Politisation in the World Economy: Necessary Conditions for an International Economic Order,” in F. Hirsh, Doyle M. and E. Morse (eds.) Alternatives to Monetary Disorder, New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 11-66.

Holsti, Kalevi J. (1996), The State, War and the State of War, University of British Columbia, Vancouver: Cambridge Studies in International Relations Series No. 51.

Jones, David M. and Michael C. R. Smith (2002) ‘ASEAN’s Immitation Community,’ Orbis, 93-109.

Lynn-Jones, Stephen and Sean Miller (1995), Global Dangers: Changing Dimensions of International Security, Cambridge, MA: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.

Malik, J. Mohan (1992), “Patterns of Conflict and the Security Environment in the Asia-Pacific Region: the Post-Cold War Era”, in Malik, J. Mohan et al. Asian Defence Policies: Great Powers and Regional Powers (Book I), Geelong, Deakin University Press, 1992, pp. 33-52.

Matthews, Jessica (1989), “Redefining Security” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 68 (2) pp. 162-177.

Meadows, D et al (1972), The Limits of Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Report on the Predicament of Mankind, New York: Potomac Associates.

Mearsheimer, John (1990), “Why We Will Soon Miss the Cold War,” The Atlantic Monthly, 226 (2), pp. 35-50.

Ohmae, Kenichi (1993) “The Rise of the Region State,” Foreign Affairs, Spring

Ohmae, Kenichi (1996) The End of the Nation State, New York: Touchstone

Ohmae, Kenichi (1990) The Borderless World, New York: Harper Collins

Peterson, Peter and James Sebenius (1992), “The Primacy of the Domestic Agenda,” in Graham Allison and Gregory Treverton (eds.) Rethinking America’s Security: Beyond Cold War to New World Order, New York: WW Norton and Co. pp. 57-93.

Pion-Berlin, David (2000), “Will Soldiers Follow? Economic Integration and Regional Security in the Southern Cone”, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 42 no. 1, Spring 2000, pp. 43-69.

Ramsamy, Prega (2001), “SADC: The Way Forward,” in Christopher Clapham, Gregg Mills, Anna Morner and Elizabeth Sidiropolous (eds.) Regional Integration in Southern Africa: Comparative Perspectives, Johannesburg: South African Institute of International Affairs.

Ruggie, J. G. (1982), “International Regimes, Transactions and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order,” International Organisation, Vol. 35 (2), pp. 379-415.

SADC (2003), SADC Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Maseru, Lesotho, 4 July 2003.

Steinhilber, Jochen (2006), “Bound to Cooperate? Security and Regional Cooperation,” Occasional Papers, September, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Thomas, Caroline (1987), In Search of Security: The Third World in International Relations, Boulder, Colorado: Rienner.

Ullman, Richard (1983), “Redefining Security” International Security, Vol. 8 (1) pp. 129-153.

Wæver, Ole et al (eds) (1993), Identity, Migration and the New Security Agenda in Europe, London: Pinter.

Walt, Stephen (1991), “The Renaissance of Security Studies,” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 35 (2), pp. 211-239.

Wenger, Andreas and Doron Zimmerman (2003), International Relations: From the Cold War to the Globalized World, Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

Wirtz, James (2002), “A New Agenda for Security and Strategy,” in John Baylis et al (eds.) Strategy in the Contemporary World: An Introduction to Strategic Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The author has a Ph. D. in International Politics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
His areas of interest are Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and Latin America and writes mainly on the politics of regional integration in these areas. He also writes on issues pertaining to South Asia, particularly on India’s Northeast.

{ 0 comments }

Top 5: You Might Be an Entrepreneur If…

by Librarian on January 25, 2010

“Our focus is now on entrepreneurship and innovation as opposed to industry attraction in the old-line sectors,” said Jeff Kaczmarek, president of the Economic Development Corporation in an interview with the New York Times. “In times of economic distress, it’s small business and entrepreneurs who lead the way out of these recessionary periods.”

As we discussed with our business and cultural trends, crisis equals opportunity. The paradigm is shifting and the call for innovative entrepreneurs to usher in a new era of change is here and now. As the unemployment rate increases and job postings shore-up, a new legion of entrepreneurs are emerging with a new way of thinking that stretches beyond the status quo.  For this week’s Top 5, we’ve compiled key characteristics that embody many of today’s entrepreneurs as they embark on the journey as small business leaders.

1. You Are a Forward Thinker As Obama calls on the innovation of entrepreneurs to dig our way out of the current economic crisis, it is the most forward yet practical thinkers that will emerge on top. The old ways of doing business has since past and we are in a transitional period that will usher in a new era of entrepreneurship—one that relies on new technologies and progressive thinking.

It doesn’t hurt to go against the grain either. When Sergey Brin and Larry Page were puttering around in their spare time to figure out how to create a scalable search engine, they didn’t look to the convention at the time—that being Yahoo!, which relied on man power. They thought, what if there were too many queries and humans could not facilitate them all? Thus, the legendary algorithm was born. Brin and Page were forward thinking enough to know search power couldn’t rely on human effort forever. The algorithm was the next evolutionary step. Scalability was possible and the rest is for the history books.

2. You Don’t Have a JobStarting a business when you’re struggling to find a job might not be the sanest idea. However, it’s a way to occupy your time, and motivate your passions to create something new and interesting. Typically, the most opportunistic time to start a small business is when you’re employed and have extra money to spend. Therefore, the unemployed have to stretch their budgets and set their sights on realistic goals. Low overhead is critical to stay afloat with a shoestring budget. Start simple…

To read more about entrepreneurship, go to Sparxoo, a digital marketing, branding and business development.

Sparxoo is a business blog that inspires breakthrough by tomorrow’s leaders. We are a strategy consulting firm with a pulse on marketing, branding, and development.

{ 0 comments }

About the systemic approach. The systemic approach is the direction of scientific knowledge and the methodology of social practice, which is based on the discussion of the objects in systems. it is used as an instrumentarium, which directs the research to the substantiating the wholeness of the object, discovers various contacts in it and gathers them into the total complex.

The systemic approach in its essence is the concrete principles of the dialectical materialism, in the bounds of which, we can discuss the investment process the series of those operations (the kinds of activities), which is fulfilled at the beginning capital (the preface of the process). It increases the value and conditions a definite result (the exit of the process). It is possible to learn the investing process from the position of the systemic approach, because the investment process is an economical system and it has a preface – the complex position of this system (investment surrounding) and exit – the changes of the entering investments into the economical system. The result of investing process got at the exit, defines the development of the economical system, in which the process is going on, and gives in it rise to the rates of the economical growth.

Ruling the investing process. The investment process is realized by ruling. It is discussed to be such a strategy, which guarantees achieve maximum effectiveness and it leads every kind of activity to the maximal growth of the economical system. Ruling consists of the following active cycles:

1.  the analyze of the current position of the investment process, in which consists of: the analyzes of the investment attractiveness and investment business, satisfaction of the requirements for investments of the economical system;

2.  definition of the showing of volume needed by the investments and of the investment attractiveness, to which this volume is conformed;

3.  Working out activities which provide needed position of the systems’ investment attractiveness;

4.  The changes of the incomes in the investments of the economical system, which is provoked by the changes of investment attractiveness;

5.  Changing of the parameters of economical system at the investors’ expenses, which exists in the changing of the rates of economical growth.

Permanent realization of this cycle improves the ruling system of the investment process and increases the defectiveness of functioning of the economical system.

The realization of the systemic approach is situated in the analyzing the investment process not only in the horizontal section (the ruling subject – investment attractiveness – investor – investment business – the volume of the investment – investment object – ruling subject), but also in the vertical one (the world comradeship – country – region – field – manufacture – physical person). Such discussion reduces the quantity of repeated activity of the ruling of investment process and gives the complex theoretical picture of the investment process.

For preparing and realizing effective investment policy it is important to define clearly and simply the criteria of estimating the investment situation formed in the country, economical fields and regions; also working out methodological apparatus adequate to the economical regalia and its successive usage.

The investment process (that is the process of realizing investments) has every feature of the system: there always is in it a subject (an investor), object (investment object), the connection between them (investment in the purpose of getting income) and surrounding, in which they exist (investment surrounding). It is characterized with a special structure and the opportunity of an exact identification between other economical process. It displays its features as a result of interaction with other systems, protects a definite conception and reflects the points of view, aims and values of the subject of the investment process. Connection is the system-forming factor, because it unites all other elements into one whole (pic. 1). the systemic approach gives an opportunity of exhaustive description of the investment process essence and defines fully its basic concept.

 

The investment process is defined by the formed interaction about situating investments between the investment subject and object for getting income, also the realized investing influence from the side of subject and ruling organs upon the object; and changing of the conditions of investment surrounding.

Place of the investment process in  the system of social relations. The investment process doesn’t exist itself and it is always involved into the sphere of following level, that is to say that it must be discussed in the bound of the total approach – discuss the system in the sphere of the interconnections with other systems. This gives us an opportunity of describing the place and role of the investment process as in the separate sphere of the activity and also in the system of the social relations. Every subject is oriented towards the development and always demands the supplementing of resource and changing this or that feature. The orientation towards the supplementing this deficit with own forces, slows the economical growth, because it demands from the subject to provide amused activities and wasting the time the its basic resources on this. In the conditions of specialization, the reducing of own forces makes the subject search for the object, the features of which give him an opportunity of of filling the existed deficit with a minimal investments. The need of investments appears, when the potential of the chosen object does not satisfy the necessary criteria and needs a kind of outer participation for its development. The possibility of the investment development occurs when the resources owned by the subject and its features give the opportunity of needed influence of the object upon the demanded features of the object.

At the moment of fulfilling the investment, investor makes contacts with the concrete object. Under the investors influence the features of the investment object changes and then these changed features in the face of investment income influences upon the investor, changes its features, including – filling the resource deficit. After finishing the investment process, the subject and object begin new existence; consequently, the investment process gives rise to the diffusion of the object and subjects’ features.

The dynamic of the social development is defined by the development of separate spheres of the activity. If the revolutionary sudden changes of this or that sphere of the activity gives stimulus to the unseen before growth, this gives rise to the natural chain reaction of the development of connected to these spheres. If the evolution development of the spheres of activities takes place, its dynamics, as a rule, is defined by the least developed abilities. When the investments and investment income have different subject consistence, that is if they belong to the different spheres of activities, the various investment processes make these spheres inter penetrative. According to this, the logical ruled changing of their development dynamics take place. This provokes the natural chain reaction of the development of the interconnected spheres. Consequently, the investment processes give opportunity of making and keeping natural chain reaction of the interconnected spheres of the activities. These processes appear to be the fastening factor for the social development.

Showing the connections between the basic categories of the investment process give the opportunity of establishing dependence of the investment volume to the factors and conditions of the investment domain, that is the investment surrounding formed in the region.

The picture 1.4 may elucidate basic structural elements of the investment surrounding and the connections between them, which are shown in literature.

                   

The interconnection of consisting comp

onents of the investment process. Such an approach reflects the most essential sides of the investment process, but doesn’t give us opportunity of taking in mind the influence of the current processes upon the investment surrounding and on the contrary – of the investment surrounding upon the investment process. That’s why we think important to discuss differently the interconnection of the consisting components of the investment process.

The investment attractiveness is a positive category in its context, and the investment risks participating in the process of forming this attractiveness – a negative one. That’s why it is important to turn the quantitative showings of the risks into the quantitative showings of the concept, which is essentially opposite to the concept of “the investment risk” during taking in mind the noncommercial investment risks, as a complex factor of the investment attractiveness. We must call such a concept (the antonym to the concept of the investment risk) “social-economical and economical security of the investors” or, in other words, investment security (consequently, on the macro-economical, regional, field and industrial level). The mentioned changing gives an opportunity of avoiding inter contrary influence upon the resulting showing – the investment attractiveness of two complex factors – the investment potential and noncommercial risks.

Exactly same way, every private factor of these generalized concepts have at the same positive quantitative [removed]with the help of the positive showing – for defining the final level of the field’s investment security), and also negative one (with the help of conceptually “negative” showing – for defining the final level of the noncommercial investment risks of the field).

The investment attractiveness of the social-economical system (SES) is defined the position of the investment potential and the level of the investment risk. The investment assets existed in the region – the real development of the investment business in the SES – is characterized with the intensity of the investments. It its turn, it is defined by the past, current and future investment assets. The past investment asset characterizes the intensity of the investments invested before and gives an opportunity of defining their future profitability, the quantity of the presumable competitor and the most profitable sphere for the capital-investment. The current asset of the investment defines the level of the system’s economical development and gives the opportunity for predicting the volumes of the additional investments and their possible profitability, also to define the position occupied by the investor in the market in the future. Future (expected) investment asset is the oriental for planning whole investment process: from the definition of future volume of the investments till ruling the investment surrounding of the SES – for getting the needed income flow of the capital. Analyzing of these three consisting components of the investment business gives the investor information about the level of competition ability at the SES investment market, also the tendencies of its development and the activities for reducing market.

The wholeness of the investment attractiveness and investment business makes the investment surrounding for the country, region, field, corporation (existed in the manufacture). Though it is important also to reflect reverse connection, that is the influence of the investment surrounding upon the investment business. For example, the current position of the investment surrounding defines the investor’s ideas and his/her activities towards future investments. Improving investment surrounding in the current period gives the stimulus to the development of the competition held between the investors for getting the rights for investment. Also it gives the stimulus to the competition held at the commodity and service market, which helps the lowing of the prices and raising the quality of the production. Parallel to these, the inflow of the investment resources takes place, which gives an opportunity for rational and effective distribution of the existed resources to the ruling organs of the regional development. It reduces the disproportion in the regional development, improves the living social conditions in the region, helps the development of the infrastructure and communications, changes the situation in the investment surrounding according to the demands of development of the regional economy.

The interconnection and subordination between the participating categories of the investment process is represented by the scheme shown in the pic. 1.5.

Taking in mind the peculiarities of the investment process, it mustn’t only be based on the usage of administrative-regulating activities, but also the usage of those economical models, which prove the necessity of this or that activity.

 

1.6. Subject – matter of investment process and its main stages

According to the said above, the investment process is the successiveness of the stages, motions and operations of the investment business provision. The concrete flow of this process depends on the investment object. Consequently, the division of the investment process into the stages is provoked by the kinds of the investments. We speak, of course about the real and financial investments.

The investment process consists of two main stages; they are (1) making decision about the investments and (2) Realization and exploitation of the investments. It is adopted to divide the first stage into several separate phases (under types), which characterize the real and also financial investments. The quantity of these phases may be different, but three of them are the most typical: a) underlining the goals of the investments; b) definition of the investment direction and c) selecting the concrete object of the investments.

Goals and directions of the investment. In the process of getting decision about the investments different goals are defined and reflected. The ascending goals are the formal ones, which are in the future used as the criteria of selecting investments.  The formal goals come from the strategical firmness of the investment.

Working out the strategical direction of the investment business is connected with the defining equality of this or that form of the investments on the concrete stage of the perspective period and also with the definition of the direction of investment business including its branch consisting part. The priority selection of the investment forms at this or that stage by the investor is provoked by a number of inner and outer factors.

The functional direction is the most important from the inner factors, those are the basic kinds of the investor’s (manufacture, organization) activities. For example, basic direction of the investment businesses for the institutional investors is investments into the securities. The manufactures of the real sector of the economy, which perform the industrial activities, give priority, as a rule, to the investments into the material and nonmaterial assets.

The financial investment is realized mostly in the form of the manufactures’ (as concurrent, so partner ones) participation in ruling purchasing shared securities, or in the form of temporal placement of free money sources for speculative goals.

From other inner factors important role in selecting the investment direction is played by the strategical direction of the operational activity, size of the manufacture (organization), the stage of the investor’s vital cycle and others.

From the manufactures and organizations of the real sector of economy the growth of financial investments characterizes, as a rule, large-scale industries, which have more opportunity of finding the sources of placing funds into the investments, and those manufactures, which are at the stage of the so-called “ripeness”. More extended form of investments at the earlier stages is the investments in the material and nonmaterial assets.

Among those outer factors, which make an essential influence upon selecting the investment forms the most important are the rate of inflation and the percent rate formed at the financial market.

The formal goals may be the aspiration for increasing profit, widening the scales of the manufacture (activity), obtaining power and prestige in the society; also, solving the social-ecological problems, keeping and increasing the working places and so on.

These goals are not often defined distinctly, are not coordinated according to the priorities or are not verified at the subject of the ability of their realization. That’s why, it’s necessary to point out the real goal of the investments from the formal goals by establishing concrete purposed showings. For example, the formal goal – increasing profit – must be concretized in a number of showings, for which the definition of the achievement quality will be possible. Concretely, it may be the middle quantity of the profit for several years or the showing of net profit, or those other showings, which characterize the earned profit from the investment.

Formal goals of the investments make the decision of defining problems about investment directions easier. Mutual connected, independent and alternative (inter excluding) investments may also be among them.

Main stages of the investment process. According to the formation of investment portfolio, the investment process becomes importantly easier at the expense of reducing its stages. In the foreign literature dedicated to this problem, they differ following stages of the investment process:

1.  Selection of the investment policy;

2.  analyzes of the investment market;

3.  re-inspecting the portfolio of the securities;

4.  estimating the investment effectiveness.

At the first stage they define the investment goals and the volume of the necessary sources for its realization, also the quality of risk and profitability for every financial instrument. Selecting those financial assets of the potential kind, which may be included into the portfolio, fulfills this stage.

At the second stage, they concretize the rate of value of the securities’ separate kinds on the foundation of marketing conjuncture formed at the concrete moment and provide the prediction of the share rates’ dynamic of the concrete firm. Such kind of approach is called technical analyze. Basing on the got data they conduct fundamental analyzes. Its essence is analyzing the brought value of all those cash money flows, which is expected to get by the owner of the financial asset.

Third stage of the investment includes selecting concrete assets for the investors, also defining the optimal proportions between the assets in the bounds of investment capital. The bases of it are selection, selection during the operations and the diversification of risk according to total profile.

The fourth stage concerns the periodical estimation of the current portfolio according to the changing the investor’s goals and its deviation from the optimal portfolio. After this selling of the part of purchased securities and buying new ones become possible.

At the last stage they provide periodical estimation of the factual profitability and the level of risk and their comparing with the existed standards.

Main participants of the investment process and their functions. To the circle of main participants of the investments belong: state, regional and local organs of the government, manufactures and physical persons: they can participate in the process of investments from the side of demand and delivering.

In the conditions of the market economy the circle of the participants of investment process is importantly widened. The web of commercial banks, credit-commercial organizations, investment funds of companies and insuring companies have appeared, which make independently the investment decisions. But still, the state and governmental regional and local organs define their participation in the process of investments. It is represented by holding investment competitions, by selection and proving the investment projects, by licensing and quoting the production, and also by defining the quantity of the percent  rate and taxation. The financial activities of the state, the organs of regional and local government as from the demanding, so the delivering side, influences essentially upon the behavior of the financial institutes and market.

Main distributor of money at the financial market is the population, because it gives much more to the investment process, then takes. Of course, it will not be said about the organs and manufactures of the executing government.

The researches of the foreign scientists U. Sharp, G. Alexander and G. Bailey show, that wholly the state and manufactures are net consumers of the money sources, that is that they use more sources then give. More concretely, many large-scale companies for realizing their long termed aims need enormous quantities of money for building factories, buying furniture, working out new products and so on. Besides, by realization active and difficult strategies of ruling cash cash masses, they appear to be main purchasers of securities. Such a situation is created on the side of the state, regional and local governmental organs, the activities of which is connected with the capital investments and guaranteeing current expenses.

The organs of executive government fill the insufficiency of the money sources by producing debt commitments and obligations, and companies by producing shares and other securities.

 

The factors defining the consistence of investment project participants and fulfilled functions. The consistence of the investment project participants and fulfilled functions provided by them, are defined by the following factors:

-    the specifics of investment project, its volume, technological hardness and so on;

-    compatibility of functions by the participants of the investment project during the realization of the project;

-    financial status of the customer, who increases or reduces the influxing the financial structures in the realization of the investment project;

-    providing the customer with the best material resources, building materials, techniques, furniture and so on;

-    selection of the type of ruling the investment project (traditional or progressive).

 

Basic participants of the investment project. In the ruling the investment projects with the traditional type they differ its following basic participants: sponsors, constructor, distributor of the furniture, the consultant of insurers, legal adviser, the consultants of the taxation and financial branch, creditors and others.

Let’s discuss them in more details.

In a wide understanding, a sponsor is a guarantor; a physical or juridical person, who finances an economical project or a registration of social activities. Also, an orderer, an organizer of a large-scale project or arranger sponsor may be as commercial, so noncommercial structure.

As to the sponsor, as the participant of an investment process, we may call it an orderer, organizer, who connects then activities of every participant of a project, arranges discussions, analyses commercial suggestions of the constructors of financial structures or distributors, realizes marketing researches and selection of the financial partners. In the separate occasions, it becomes responsible for fulfilling such functions of the constructing engineering, as engineer-consulting service, projecting-construction and analytical-calculating works, preparing a technical-economical substantiation, organization and ruling of the manufacture, working out recommendations in the sphere of production realization. These reduce the quantity of the investment process participants.

Project-construction and construction organizations or individuals act the role of a constructor, that is the provider of the work. The constructor can involve other persons in the process of fulfilling the order, who become the sub-renters, and the constructor him/herself becomes the general renter. He appears to be the main fulfiller of the constructive lease agreement and is responsible the before the orderer for the fulfillment total complex of activities established in the agreement.

Distributor of the furniture represents the filial, foster companies or those other firms, which have signed at distributing furniture and providing services. If the manufacture registers an agreement with an orderer for a complex distribution of materials, building techniques and furniture to many of firms, it becomes the general distributor and answers for the whole distribution.

The insuring consultant is invited for displaying the insuring risk and estimating the quality of the project’s safety, also, for working out the appropriate recommendations. The juris-consult provides the preparations of the juridical documentation around the project, discusses wholly agreements and contracts.

The consultant of the branch of taxation questions analyzes the taxation situation existed in the country for realizing the project and also the taxation obligations of every participant, makes recommendations for minimization the taxes.

Financial consultant provides the selection of financial, credit and calculation conditions by combination of the alternative variant for the realization of the project. In the case of influxing foreign investors into the project, he must bring it to the appropriation with the existed international standards. This will make easier the status of the potential investors and creditors.

Creditors, as the participants of the investment process, lend money in different terms and conditions. Under these conditions, the creditor has a right of demanding from the debtor to return credit or fulfill other obligations. A state, bank, manufacture or a physical person, investment funds and others may be the creditors.

A traditional form of ruling the investment project, in the time of which the orderer carries out him/herself the functions of ruling, has several defects. First is that the most part of the orderers is not competent enough in every question connected with the project. It makes the level of the risk stronger during getting the ruling decision that gives rise to a number of expenses. Second one is that, the successful ruling, according to the experiences, requests the leader’s systematic participation in the investment process, because the orderer is not always able to do it. And third, this form of ruling the project is characterized by the comparative dispersion of phases and stages as in the time, so in organizing. All these gives rise to the additional problems in the provision of the s’ agreement of its every participant.

Overcoming the mentioned imperfection happens at the moment of moving to the progressive form of the investment project ruling. Its essence is that the leader (manager) of the project becomes the basic figure in the organization and ruling the investment businesses. This may be a construction or construction-projecting organizations’ especially prepared high-qualified specialist or an experienced leader. He/she provides a general ruling of the project including finances, personnel and the construction works.

 

1.7. Planning and selection of objects of investment process

 

The definition of re process of investment planning.  The final phase of the first stage of the investment process is the selection of concrete objects of the investment, which is fulfilled in the process of planning investments.

They, as a rule, call the process of investment planning the process of forming such a portfolio (investment program) of the projects, which may be discussed as one of the alternative and mostly desired variant for achieving the investment object. Mostly using the mathematical models, which have no ability at all of reflecting every factor of the investment business, provides the planning of investment. That’s why the results of modeling don’t provide making such straight decisions, which would be the guarantee for the achieving the set object. The manufacture’s operative management basing on the results of planning and taking in mind other non-formalized factors provides getting the final decisions about those concrete objects of the investment, which must be included into the investment program of the manufacture.

The investment model is called such a mathematical model, with the help of which it is possible to estimate the effectiveness and resulting of the investments, as towards the set objects, so towards the sources for reaching it.

We must take into account the fact, that the real investments together with achieving the set objects cease quantitative changes as in the material-technical, so in the financial spheres. As to the financial investments, they are separated and touch mostly upon the financial side of the manufacture’s activities.

The investment business also may be isolated (separated) and interconnected. In the first case, in the process of investment business they discuss only alternative variant. Mutual connected investment planning also takes in mind the alternatives of getting decisions in the spheres of financing and organization. So the subject of isolated planning is working out the investment program. In the second case, the aim of the planning is industrial sphere wholly.

Any planning means distinctive period, during which the fulfillment and realization (exploitation) took place. This period is always reduced. It must be mentioned that the subject of investment planning terms is always conflicting. Basic question of the discussion is the ability of correcting the decisions under the influence of the phenomenon happened after finishing the planning section. Though this is a just demand the definition of the future investment decisions’ influence is possible only after these investments are realized.

Periods of the investment planning. In the process of investment planning, they divide the terms of planning into the intervals, which are called periods. The realizing decisions of one period are belonged to the beginning of end of the appropriate period. It’s important that this is not reflected at the conceptual side of the investment decisions and influences only the numbering of the period. Got results from the realization of the investments are expressed by the taxes, which are divided into delivery (for example, paying off the other industrial subjects by the investor) and incomes (for example, paid fee to the investor by other industrial subject).

The total sum of the payment during the concrete period equals to the sum of the realized delivery and incomes. If their balance is positive – that is the income overcomes the delivery or on the contrary.

The quantity of those periods during which the income-delivery of the sums takes place, is called either the term of the investment exploitation (in the case of the real investments), or the term of action (in the case of financial investments). This portion of time is either defined beforehand, or discussed as alternating quantity (at the time of getting investment decisions). The freed invested sources are called commonly disinvestments.

In the system of investment planning, the goal of the capital investment in this or that period of time may be the growth of property, increasing the income flow, making the investment profitableness higher and other showings, which characterize the ability of getting prolonged profit.

In the investment models of the planning, the volume of capital investment may change in the definite period of time, for which the plan is working out. During getting decisions, the priority is given to those projects, which guarantee the incomes from the realization of the investment in shorter time. Combination of the payments flow in this or that period of time is realized by the discount method.

Isolated planning of the investments. The isolated planning of investments is realized during the given budget toward the separate investment objects or the separate investment programs. The term of the investment (investment projects) exploitation may be discussed as a alternating or fixed parameters. The market of capital may be improved and also not improved. The separation of these markets is carried out by usage of distinctions between the percent rates of deposits and credits. Number of limitations of the financial resources in the isolated planning system may be belonged to any period of planning.

 

 

1.9. Interconnected planning of investments

Interconnected investment planning. The interconnected investment planning is realized in tight relations with planning the industry-financial activities. This relation is based on the complex formation of the cash flow taking in mind the fact, that like every activity the realization of every investment project needs the financial provision. This means that in the process of realization of the investment program, it is important to balance its financial parameters with the industrial and financial parameters of the manufacture, also, taking in mind the possible reductions. We mean, firstly the potential of own investment resources, the possibility of influxing loan capital, necessity of branch and regional diversification of the investment businesses, also, provision of effective balancing of inner balance, that is profitability, risk and liquidity of investment businesses.

The system of interconnection planning means the existence of many criteria during the selection of investment projects. It is based on ranging the goals and aims of the investment businesses in the system of the goals of business leading, according to either time, or meaning.

The differentiation of the criteria of investment projects’ selection takes place, as a rule, in the section of concrete forms of independent, inter-exclusive (alternative), and interconnected investment projects. Ranging of the goals requests the raging of criteria too. Usually, they use criteria of the net brought values and inner percent rate (inner profitableness) mentioned above, as basic criteria.

During the interconnected investment planning the system of reduction concerns basic and additional reductions. Basic reductions are the most important criteria of the selection. For example, if established basic criteria of the selection of investment projects are the showing of the project’s net brought value, the basic reductions may represent concrete meanings of the following showings: inner percent rate, the total risk level of the project, the terms of repurchasing the investment project and so on.

The additional reductions may be: the level of diversification of risk at the expense of regional and branch consistence; the value of the borrowed capital; the terms of realization of the investment projects; the size of the total volume of investment resources; the volume of the production and realization of the product and so on.

The realization of real projects. The concept of the second and third phases is essentially different from the real and financial investments, and it is stipulated by the peculiarity of their realization.

In the modern conditions the real investment is the foundation of investment businesses of the most manufactures. The realization of the real investment is characterized with a number of peculiarities; we can separate following ones:

1.  the real investments are straightly connected with the basic activity of the manufacture, the widening of the assortment of the production and improving its quality with the help of involving the achievements of the scientific-technical progress. In other words, investment business and real investment processes are connected and condition each-other;

2.  the real investments, relatively to the financial investments, are followed by bigger economical risks, which, in its turn, means the ability of providing higher profitableness relatively with the financial investments. Economical risks are connected with the peculiarity of the technological processes, factors of the material wearing out and so on;

3.  Real investments are less liquid relatively with the financial ones. The reason for this is a tight purpose of most of the investments in the real industry and very often absence of the abilities of alternative industrial usage. That’s why it is extremely difficult to compensate mistakes made during getting decisions about real investments.

The forms of realization real investments. Real investments are realized differently by the investments in the in the basic capital, capital investments in the turnover assets and investment in nonmaterial assets. The realization of the capital-investment, in its turn, happens in several forms and, firstly, it is building of new manufactures, reconstruction of the existed ones, modernization, technical re-equipment, and also, purchasing total prosperity complexes.

Purchasing total prosperity complexes is the prerogative of the largest companies with such a policy, which is directed towards increasing its influence at different markets. Real investments of this kind guarantee growth of the total value of the manufacture’s assets, which is conditioned by the growth of abilities of financial potential and joint usage of the system of materials, reducing the level of the manufacture expenses and so on.

New building, usually, is connected with the investments in such modern manufactures, which increases the labour production and satisfies the request of the ecological security, also, means the building of new objects.

Reconstruction in the most cases requests moving to the modern technologies of the industry taking in mind the achievements of scientific-technical progress. As a rule, it is connected with the involving of the resource economizing technologies, moving of the production to the modern standards of the quality and so on. The reconstruction may touch upon the building of new objects.

Modernization mostly is connected with bringing to conformity the active part of the basic funds to the modern requests of realization the technological processes.

Technical re-equipment touches upon the changing and purchasing new furniture, mechanisms and basic complexes of the technical system for effective realization of the technological processes. It is not always possible to put a sharp boundary between technical re-equipment and modernization.

Investments in the turnover assets as a rule, serves for widening the turnover funds used by the manufacture. In the most cases it is realized following the capital-investment realization and this essentially is the result of realization capital-investments.

Investments in nonmaterial assets generally mean innovational investments and realized in two basic forms:

Most part of the real investment forms and kinds – the turnover assets, excluding the innovations of separate kind of the furniture, mechanisms and so on, – are realized in the face of real investments having appropriate business-plans.6 In the business-plans of the investment projects together with the traditional section the subjects of providing the needed level of liquidity of the real investment objects and minimizing the level of investment risks must be worked out and shown.

Organization of the investment project realization. For preparing the organization and realization of every needed plan documents, as a rule the leader is appointed. The most important plan documents are the calendar plans of the projects and their capital budgets.

The calendar plans are made for definite period of time – year, quarter, month or decade. The data of terms and volume of the realization the separate kinds of activities foreseen by the investment project are represented in them. The terms and character of the activities define the quality of detailing the calendar plans.

Fulfillment of the calendar plan is straightly connected with financing the activities of the investment project. For this purpose, the financial plan is worked out, which, usually is called “the capital budget of the investment project”.  The volumes, terms and sources of the financing any kind of activities considered by the project in the section of separate phase of the calendar plan are substantiated and established in it.

Capital budget consists of two sections: capital expenses of the projects and influxing the needed sources for its realization. The capital expenses are the specified estimation of initial volume of the investment expenses taking into account the reserve of those financial sources, which are needed for recovering unexpected expenses according to the calendar plan.

The section of the “source influx” of the capital budget is the specification of volume of the investment needed resources for the project realization in the section of own sources of the investor, influxed sharing capital, leasing, banking credits and so on.

The synchrony of the income of the sources and the volume of investment expenses must be provided in the capital budget for realizing the works foreseen in the calendar plan.

Briefly about the investment risks. An important element of the project’s calendar plans and systems of sustaining capital budget taking into account the factors of the investment risk and working out the activities for their neutralization. The investment risk, as a rule, is discussed in the prism of possibility for getting unprofitable financial result. The forms of its displaying may be loosing the planned investment income or shortage for vagueness in the realization of investment projects. The investment project risk is a complex concept and units those various kind of risks, which are connected with the realization of investment projects.

Every stage of the realization of investments is characterized specific kinds of risks. That’s why estimation of whole risk of the project is provided on the foundation of aggregated facts according to the separate stages.

The realization of any investment project is in its essence a unique phenomenon for even one-typed projects. This circumstance makes the individual approach necessary, taking into account the specific information, which is connected with objective and subjective factors of occurring risks during the realization of the investment processes. The long is term of the project realization; the bigger is the vagueness of final results of its realization and, consequently – level of the risk.

We mist take into account the planned size of the cash incomes to get from the investment project depends on future status of appropriate segment of commodity market and effectiveness of commercial activity of the manufacture. It means that the investment risks are greatly conditioned by the commercial risks of a manufacture. In other words, there is a straight connection between the length of the vital cycle of the project and level of the investment-projecting risk. The completeness and trustworthy of the gathered information about every stage of the project’s realization, the level of qualification of the investing management defines greatly the substantiation of taking into account the various factors of the different types of risks.

The kinds of investment risks.Let’s name the basic kinds of the risks of investment projecting taking into account the specific conditions in Georgia.

The risk of inability of paying is in important connection with fulfillment of state obligations of the partners in the business, also, lowering the level of liquidity of the turnover sources.

The risk of financial provision of the project is connected with the late influx of the investment resources from the separate sources, the danger of incomplete financing because of increasing the value of the capital, which is needed for the realization of the project. It is in a straight correlation with the risks of inability of paying and inflation.

The risk of financial infirmity of the manufacture. It is characterized by the flow of invested own and borrowed capital and the incomes conditioned by the investment project and unbalancing of the flow of payments. This risk, together with the risk of the inability of paying is one of the most provoking reasons for bankruptcy of the manufacture.

The risk of inflation is connected with the possibility of devaluation of the expected incomes from the investment project and raising the value of capital expenses expressed by the nominal price. In the modern conditions the risk of inflation has permanent character and touches upon most parts of the operations of the project’s realization. Solving the problem of its taking into account and softening neutralizes this permanency.

The percent risk is related with the risk of inflation. It has own specific in Georgia, which is conditioned by the peculiarity of formation of the financial market and its being not developed.

The marketing risk is the risk of getting incomplete income from the investments on the stage of the project’s realization conditioned by the active circumstances at the expense of the volume and exploitation of the realization. The long are the terms of the project’s realization, the higher is the possibility of this kind of risk.

The criminal risk is conditioned, at the first place, by the absence of the appropriate defense of the rights of the investor’s privacy that appears in the economic of our country the most often.

For neutralization of the possible negative results of the investment projecting risks various measures and arrangement are worked out, which are grouped into the inner and outer measures. Inner measures of the neutralization of the risks concern the foundation of the various insurance and financial funds (reserves) and working out such measures, which will suppress possibility of raising this or that risk. This may be refusing using the low-liquidated assets and the borrowed capital of the important volume, also the mechanism of transferring the risks following the separate operations to the partners.

Foundation of the insurance and financial funds means the reservation of one part of the investment resources for getting over those unexpected negative results, which are not related with the actions of personnel and contractors of the manufacture. Of course, wasting of the part of the own sources of a manufacture, or, more concretely, “freezing”, makes important getting the loan at the market of finances for filling it, that makes the dependence on the outer sources of financing the investment projects stronger.

The outer methods of the neutralizing the projecting risks, in the first place, is insuring the project risks of separate kinds and guaranteeing by the third person. The object of the insuring is the property of the manufacture, which is used in the process of investment process; the responsibility of the manufacture and its personnel towards the third persons; insurance of the participants of the investment project’s realization. The mechanism of guaranteeing is oriented firstly towards the protection of the investors’ rights in case of changing the investor’s conditions.

The peculiarities of realization the financial investment. For the manufactures, which are not institutional investors, the basic direction of the investment business is the realization of the real investments. Herewith, when the conjuncture of the financial market gives the ability of getting significantly higher level of profitability at the invested capital, then the operation activity at the commodity market (the formed situation at the market of securities in Russia in 1995-1996 is a good example of this). Also, in case of existence of temporary free financial resources, the manufactures actively invest sources into the high liquidate financial instruments. Except this, the manufactures invest own capital other manufactures’ regulation funds for diversification and ruling other companies and organizations.

From the economical point of view, the financial investments are such instruments, with the help of with the solving the strategical and operative problems of effective placement of the capital in the country and abroad. The financial investments are mostly realized in the manufactures in the time of having free money sources. They appear in the face of outer investments (except the occasions, when the manufactures expiate their own securities, for example shares).

The most part of the manufactures realize the financial investments for the purpose of getting additional investment income (speculative income) from the usage of the free money sources. The concrete choice of the concrete instruments of the financial investments is wide enough even in the conditions of already formed market.

The level of profitability received from producing the investments into this or that instrument is in the straight relation with the level of risk. Higher is profitability, the higher is the risk of financial set-back.

The portfolio of the financial instruments. In the purpose of getting the desired level of profitability of the financial investments and the diversification of risks, the enterprises (investors) purchase financial instruments with different levels of profitability and risk, that is, in other words, they create the portfolio of financial instruments of specific character.

For the changing character of the conjuncture of the financial market, the process of getting desired level of the profitableness requests permanent monitoring of the various instruments’ profitability, risk and liquidity and also making the appropriate ruling decisions related with changing the portfolio of finances; it means the reducing or increasing the share of this or that financial instruments. Such kind of correcting is called “the restructuring of the portfolio”. It is the basic concept of the financial instruments’ operative ruling in the manufactures.

Basic financial instruments of the speculative portfolio of the finances the shared and debt securities, also, deposits and the currency valuables. During the monitoring process, depending on the type of the financial instruments, they take into account and analyze a lot of factors, which influence upon the levels of their profitability, liquidity and risk. From the factors which negatively influence upon the profitability of the shared financial instruments, the most important are:

· growing the level of taxation of the emitenti manufactures’ investment profit;

· the conjuncture changing of the volume of emitenti companies’ selling (it especially touches upon the oil companies);

· reducing the level of dividends for reducing the volume of the profit;

· reducing the price of net assets of the emitenti manufactures;

· speculative games of the participants of stock market.

The growth of the percent middle rate at the market; increasing the level of inflation; increasing the level of taxation of emitenti manufacture’s investment profit; degradation of the level of financial firmness of the manufacture; degradation of the pay ability of emitenti manufacture belong to the factors, which reduce the level of liquidity of the debt securities. The level of registration rate of the central bank; the firmness of the national currency; financial stability of the institutions of the deposit kind; changing of the percent middle rate at the financial market make and essential influence upon the profitability, risk and liquidity of the cash instruments.

According to the results of the investment market monitoring, they display the separate instruments of the speculative investments and also the tendency of the levels of profitability, risk and liquidity of the whole portfolio. Based on the received information, they make decisions about the necessity of the portfolio restructuring and its direction.

The investment resources during realization of the financial and real investments are used as in the cash, so in the natural form. The formation of the investment resources of the manufactures is connected as with the manufacture itself, so with the processes of gathering and keeping, which take place in the whole country. The rates and scales of the keeping and gathering the investment capital are conditioned by the level of the country development and also the level of the population’s profitability.

The process of formatting the investment resources in the manufacture is permanently working in the face of the incomes received from the basic activities and the activities not for realization, also by taking loans and others. The concrete quantity of those sources, which are used either for the investments, or the consuming needs, are defined by the finance-industrial plan of the manufacture. it depends greatly upon the values of their influx, the growth of the manufacture’s capital and its structure. If a large portion belongs to the sources in the structure, then the abilities of loaning are reduced. At the same time, the value of additional resources influx increases because of increasing the credit risk.

In the system of effective planning of usage and analyses of the financial resources it is very important to point out those various groups of the investments, which differ in specifics and request the usage of the adequate methods of ruling. They differ several characteristical features, with the help of which the classification of the investment resources takes place. 

 

Lamara Qoqiauri

{ 0 comments }

E-PROCUREMENT: the difference between the Public Sector and the Private Sector

Introduction

There is a growing consensus that e-Procurement is the single most important area of development in procurement.

Within the public sector context e-Procurement has been widely embraced by governments seeking the administrative and cost reductions experienced in the private sector. As a result a number of ‘proven’ private sector e-Procurement solutions such as e-marketplaces, desktop purchasing systems, and tendering platforms have been employed by various public sector organizations.

However, public e-Procurement differs from the private sector in various aspects mainly because of its economic and social considerations. These differences result in a number of specific regulations and standards that have been developed for public e-Procurement.

Public vs. Private e-Procurement

Public e-Procurement

In a public sector context, e-Procurement is a collective term for a range of different technologies that can be used to automate the internal and external processes associated with the sourcing and ordering process of goods and services. Across the EU, e-Procurement is very much at an evolutionary stage. However, despite the variations in the adoption of e-Procurement across Member States, the trend towards its acceptance is strong, with the majority of national governments developing strategies to expedite the implementation of e-Procurement projects. This diversity of government implementations reflects the variety of commercially available technologies, business models, and product coding (classification) schemes.

It is clear that the public sector benefits from the use of e-Procurement solutions. Those benefits are both tangible and measurable with direct or indirect effect on cash flow such as price savings, and intangible such as cultural change and enabling e-Business into public sector.

However, public sector institutions have different objectives towards the implementation of e-Procurement and those cannot be seen simply as extensions of commercial e-Procurement applications because government institutions pursue a wide variety of goals due to their different nature. Within this context the political and legislative environment that public sector institutions operate requires conformity to a range of requirements that have little or nothing to do with economic output.

 Differences between private and public e-Procurement

Unlike procurement in the private sector, public sector procurement requires a bureaucratic procedure to be followed due to the nature of the institutions. A major characteristic of the public sector is the regulation of the procurement process by local, regional, national and international authorities. Regulation embraces “audit, accountability and compliance with national and international rules ensuring competition for supply and transparency in the award of contracts”. For example, public procurement in the UK must be consistent with EU procurement directives, which provide a framework of rules for the procurement activities. These rules prevent EU member states from distorting competition in public procurement and discriminating on a geographic or nationality basis. Moreover, they facilitate the achievement of value for money for the taxpayer as well as promoting the single European market. In addition, public procurers in the UK must also adhere to the government’s Value for Money (VfM) policy. This requires that procurement decisions must be based on an assessment of whole life cost and quality rather than lowest price alone.

The second priority of the public e-Procurement adoption refers to that of the social responsibility of government through sustainable procurement. Sustainable procurement relates all “policy-through-procurement” issues – where public procurement is seen as a lever to achieve wider policy objectives. These include environmental or “green” issues; the creation of job places and wealth in regeneration areas; opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Ethnic Minority Businesses (EMBs); fair trade and the inclusion of developing countries; adult basic skills; disability, race and gender equality; innovation; and the promotion of ongoing and contestable supplier markets. Policies aimed at meeting social objectives should be legal, transparent and effective within government. 

Undoubtedly government agendas are typically more extensive and complex than those of private organizations where efficiency, cost reduction and time savings are sufficient justifications for e-Procurement adoption. The significance of this reality means that one of the first challenges for an e-Procurement policy and standards framework is to recognize that within a public sector context e-Procurement is more complicated than in the private sector.

Public e-Procurement represents an on-line environment involving the complex interactivity of public-private, private-private and public-public sectors rather than just a simple interface between government buyers and private sellers. These considerations have the potential to substantially influence the development of government e-Procurement systems as well as its policies, legislation and standards roles. Within this context a main objective of government policy in relation to its interactions with the business and community sectors should be to seek to promote and enhance efficient and affordable connectivity and interoperability.

 Conclusion

A driving force for e-Government in general has been the idea of bringing successful private sector ICT solutions and respective business practice to the public sector in order to reduce costs and improve services.

This approach was also taken in public e-Procurement by employing e-marketplaces, desktop purchasing systems, and tendering platforms for conducting procurement processes. However, public e-Procurement differs from the private sector in various aspects mainly because of its economic and social responsibilities. These differences result in a number of specific policy and standards frameworks that have been developed for public e-Procurement.

 

Hitesh Patel is a Civil Servant.

A Registered Management of Risk Practitioner and a Full Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS).

Published several articles and working papers on the Foreign Currency Market, The International Financial System, the challanges of Globalisation and the International Political Economy.

Holder of several degrees: a MBA (from the University of Keele), post-graduate degrees in International Relations and International Political Economy (Cantab.), and other degrees in Business Management.

{ 0 comments }

Consumer Culture is a Threat to Progressive Change

by Librarian on January 23, 2010

Consumer Culture is a Threat to Progressive ChangeBy Punkerslut”…for what they purchase thus with their blood, they quickly waste on luxury, which among them is but of a poor and miserable form.”–Thomas More, Utopia,Book 2, Of Their Military Discipline There is no doubt that there is a great antagonism against consumer culture on the part of all Leftists, Socialists, Libertarians, Communists, and Anarchists — in short, every group that can be called a class of reformer or revolutionary.  Our reasoning is simple: there are things in life that have more value, meaning, and purpose than the manufactured products of a lifeless and mechanized society.  Those of us who are convinced of this truth thoroughly enough will do what we can to escape the tyranny that is produced in the corporate-dominated, consumer culture.  Many have escaped to the bosom of nature, taking a Thoreau-like approach to the question of “how should we live life?”  Some have adopted an extremely open and loving sexuality as a means achieving fulfillment in a world that’s too afraid to trust good will.  Others have traveled the path of the old psychedelic guru, ingesting mind-altering chemicals as though they were the nutrients necessary for a fully developed and mentally healthy psychology.  We are the artists who spit on artist organizations, the writers who mastermind brilliant ways to break grammar rules, the intoxicated friend at a party who admits what everyone is too afraid to say, the bombers of dams and the conceivers of boycotts; we are everything short of a complete and total revolution.  There’s a rag-tag, unregimented army of rebels, who are willing to spend their lives proving that absence of consumer culture doesn’t mean absence of all culture.  The development of real culture is only possible when the individual challenges their environment and makes demands on themselves to find the absolute and unadulterated truth — that is, real cultural revolution is only possible when the individual doubts what they are told. A fair definition of Consumer Culture would be: relying on the owners of industry to produce for the people the main subject of their lives, that is, producing a culture for the people that revolves around consuming the products of this economy.  The difficulty that many people have with this is that the interests of the ruling class are not quite the same as those of the ruled class.  Corporations, such as Starbucks, WalMart, Nike, Adidas, Macintosh, and Shell, all manufacture their products in countries that exploit the working class.  Many of the workers labor twelve to sixteen hour days in dirty, unclean factories, under threat of a violent military regime or the agonizing poverty created by Capitalist, Free Trade, and embargo policies of the United States and other nations.  To trust those who created such a global calamity would be a great mistake.  Trusting them to create culture for us, to create something beautiful, unique, and personally challenging to fill our lives — to trust them to complete this task is only to make ourselves the slaves to their media.  What concentrated economic powers have done to satisfy their interests has already been demonstrated.  To trust them to make for us the meaning of life would just mean that we’re subjecting ourselves to the mental shackles they so desperately wish to put on us.  The message they give to you dominates conversations, thoughts, secret dreams, and painful aspirations.  Social control is established in this means by Consumer Culture. One of the prime indicators of Consumer Culture is television.  Mega-corporations fight with each other over the will of the people, by developing newer and more captivating advertisements, by dumbing down plot lines for television shows so they capture more viewers, special interests get their views in and the public just follows along.  That is why television has become the daemon in the nightmares of every Freethinker.  The History Channel, which is hosted by an American corporation, rarely displays the United States government in any negative light.  The show Cops never shows a police officer failing to capture his victim.  The plot lines for most sitcoms revolve around things like money, romance, popularity, and other themes that easily capture attention but always fail to plant something meaningful.  Television programming has gone so far as to place advertisements as a part of the plot.  Here, in the living room of every family, there rests a machine that is constantly feeding ideas to a listening audience.  The plot lines, the themes, the ideals, the suggestions, hidden implications and subliminal advertising, all of it is to create a grasp of the way people think and act.  By their means of massive distribution, the media has molded the opinions of billions of people.  And who is it that holds the keys to this uninterrupted stream of suggestions to the public?  It is anyone who has the money.  That is the sole requirement that is necessary to reaching the minds of the public: who possesses the wealth. Consumer Culture will naturally incite a feeling of loathing and disgust when investigated by any independent thinker.  Moreover than its innate failure to produce meaning or purpose beyond our immediate atmosphere, it is a detriment to something else: progressive change.  This phrase progressive change is a very general term, meaning when society reforms, revolves, or adaptates to a new condition that is more beneficial to civilization.  While every person is always in a state of perpetual evolution, sometimes steering towards good, sometimes falling towards bad, always in flux — while we are always changing and progressing through life, the term progressive change here indicates a change in our customs, our laws, our culture, our ideals, our way of life, as it pertains to us collectively.  It is a matter of interrelation.  By indicating to my brothers and sisters what I believe should be the order by which we adhere to collectively, I am making a position on the matter of social progress.  How can we change the ways we interact in a way that increases our benefits of working together in a mutual and cooperative environment?  That is what progressive change means. Why Consumer Culture would be viewed by progressive revolutionaries as a threat is obvious.  By directing the attention and the awareness of the public on a lifestyle that requires playing by the rules of the system, social and political change stagnates.  The thoughts and ideas of the people in this society are focused on the issues that the corporations want them to be focused on.  Profit is the sole interest of those broadcasting the message of Consumer Culture; so one can only truly expect to see a constant barrage of suggestions and implications on how to behave, what to buy, how to treat other people, who to admire, and what to believe on the matter of government, economy, society, and culture.  All of these will be profit-driven.  What is the message that it brings?  It demands that people consume: a big car means that it’s easier to sleep at night, a stylish jacket will attract the attention of the opposite sex, absolute true love is only one phone call away, you can make a million in three and a half days by following this seven-step plan, peace of mind can be obtained with four easy payments, consume, consume, consume. The immediate interest of a true consumer, then, is a self-interest that can only be satisfied by the products of this corporate mechanism.  It is true that greed has become nature’s way ever since the dawn of the idea of property.  But our corporate system has greatly refined humanity’s taste for elegance, luxury, and pleasure.  In the Capitalist system, a person can get just about anything they want, so long as their pockets run deep enough.  Such wonderful and pleasant schemes befall sleeping minds.  The individual’s interests then are focused on getting the wealth necessary to satisfy their consumption; they will be more willing to steal, to take advantage of the misfortune of others, to befriend and betray, to manipulate and deceive, to exploit the good will of another for wealth.  All consumers serve this social order as employees and workers.  They all trade their hours and their strength to labor in exchange for the wealth necessary to keep up their lifestyle.  Consumer Culture’s effect then is to create division and disorder among the public, to let their blood and drain their strength.  And its secondary effect is to make it a goal for us to serve the financial dominion with our employment. Consumer Culture is bent on the competitive spirit.  It asks that people throw their strength and energy against each other in order to achieve and accomplish.  By seeking their satisfaction through the goods and services of their corporate overseers, the first goal will be to accumulate money to procure these substances.  The impulse of greed becomes second nature.  The person is always either engaged in some manipulation of their comrades or constantly under suspicion of the intentions of their siblings.  Targets of property crime generally tend not to be the most wealthy.  Those who steal from their fellow humans tend to be just as poor as their victims.  Consumer culture has tempted daemons, and they are coming out.  This system of free enterprise only asks individuals to seek and benefit from the misfortune of others.  In a negotiation, if the individual with the strongest need is usually at the whim of the other’s mercy.  In a situation where someone has a strong enough need, they will enter into an agreement regardless of the terms; this, in effect, creates a slavery of one in favor of the other.  So it has become the will and the nature of our Capitalist society to seek the misfortune of others. To make others need you so that you can satisfy your own self-interest at their slavery.  That was the original idea of Capitalism.  It was practiced by the coal barons who shut down their mines just to create an artificial winter in the cities, making the price go up along with profits.  It was an idea expanded upon by all of the companies that worked to dominate their industry, gnashing against each other in the competitive field of business.  And in its final state, this idea produces a way of life for people where they need the corporate product to satisfy their sense of meaning.  This is the way our social order has been organized since the existence of property.  But only with the emergence of Consumer Culture has it become so cutthroat in its tendency.  Everyone is praying for the misfortune of others, only so that the newly arising need of others would be the stepping stone to their wealth.  In such a world, all men and women are constantly seeking to exploit each other, never willing to trust, totally afraid to share, and certainly terrified of the idea of putting energy, will, and strength towards a collective effort. The first effect of Consumer Culture is apparent: it creates a lust for worldly possessions that makes individuals hurt each other.  Beyond this, it asks that, in order to satisfy the interest of the corporate product, we must exchange our labor and time.  Our desire for the products of these corporations was manufactured by the marketing and advertising industry, feeling that it could create a sense of willingness to trust, desire, and protect the corporate world and its relationship to us — that is, Consumer Culture.  In the United States, we labor forty hours a week to earn the money necessary to satisfy these wants.  A workday will consist of one to two hours preparation before work, to put on our uniform and eat.  Public transit could take up to an hour to get you to where you work.  Eight hours fly by.  Another hour to get home.  Twelve hours of the working class, blue-collar laborer are spent just for an eight hour payday.  The modern inconveniences leave us with three hours to ourselves before we dive in to unconsciousness like we were dying.  So much is sacrificed; we lose so much of our time, our energy and our strength in this mad rush to serve the corporate interest.  Millions of people are in debt, because their working lifestyle spoiled their patience and turned them in to mindless animals seeking to cure their pain — to cure it with the corporate product. The debt consolidation industry continues to reap its profits as payday loan stores pop up alongside funeral parlors and pawn shops in the ghettos.  It has always been the intention of the lords of industry to make the people need them — to force them into a situation where they would agree to the terms of any contract.  Consumer Culture is simply the sophistication of this method.  By controlling all forms of media and all information, corporations are capable of gaining more social control; and this is accomplished by making the people need the system more, by changing their attitudes.  With all of our time and efforts sacrificed to this monolithic beast, we have few moments to ourselves.  Those few moments are spent trying to kill the pain that came with this type of lifestyle.  We don’t read old books about philosophy and political theory.  We don’t admire the ideas of Locke, Machiavelli, and Bentham, nor do we appreciate the poetry of Shelley, the prose of Thoreau, or the written word of Paine.  Consumer Culture has buried the working public and it has left them with no way to get out and no chance to plan or plot for their escape.  When people are put into these type of oppressive situations, where so much must be given to live, where so many sacrifices are made to appease our constant inner turmoil, in this type of world situation, people will be bitter, cynical, and hopeless.  They will turn against each other with ferocity, sometimes to seek out vengeance or mastermind an exploitation; after living in this type of conditioned society, we seek to lessen our pain by causing the same misery on others.  And anyone who is capable of surviving without making the same sacrifices as us is instantly detested and hated, as though we were xenophobic to outsiders. Can you imagine trying to develop a revolutionary and progressive movement in this type of atmosphere in Consumer Culture?  If you asked your coworker to unionize with you, they might tell you that they can’t afford to go on strike because they’re still making payments on their new car.  Or they might have no idea what the principle of solidarity means, or what a true working class ethic might entail.  Eleven to twelve hours of their day is spent in either preparing or going to work or actually laboring.  What’s left over isn’t spent in intensive thought on social issues or matters of political justice.  The other three to four hours left over is used in a mad rush by the citizen to alleviate the pain that was built up over the day.  It’s the kind of pain that comes from doing thousands of mindless, repetitive tasks in a single day.  The kind of misery that boils from supervisors and managers treating demanding obedience and respect constantly.  It is the stress from customer service jobs and bruises that come from physical labor employment.  When work ends, people run from their place of employment, seeking refuge in some escapist, fantasy-inducing activity.  The next three to four hours used to help them forget what was necessary to get to this point of the day.  Drug addictions become favorite pastimes in this type of environment.  By teaching people to need and satisfy their needs, Corporate Culture turns people into self-destructive zombies who serve the interest of the wealthy class. Like a person inflicted with a burn wound, the employee released from his labor in capitalism seeks to relieve his pain immediately and quickly.  And the only cure for the suffering caused in this life is constantly advertised, on television, radio, buses, billboards, and a million other places where billions of eyes will be watching.  They cause our pains and then are quick to profit off of our headful of suffering.  To so control the lives of the common people, by forcing them into eight-hour daily slavery, by dominating their media with a pro-consumption message, by manufacturing these conditions that put chains on the wrists of every person — this is real tyranny.  Capitalism can produce nothing else, and this Consumer Culture is just the most refined and sophisticated form of wage-slavery in any post-industrial part of the world. They ask us to seek satisfaction in cooperation with each other in order to secure their interests.  That is the principle effect of Consumer Culture.  As Libertarian-Communists, Anarcho-Syndicalists, and Revolutionary Socialists, whatever name we decide to call ourselves, we must oppose Consumer Culture, and any other chains that the oppressors attempt to put on us and our people.

http://www.punkerslut.comPunkerslut,

Punkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has traveled all across the United States and has experience American life in the urban centers, as a homeless squatter and as a blue-collar, class worker. Since high school and early development, he has composed a variety of ideas on education, politics, and economy. His positions are ultra-leftist: politically an Anarchist, economically a Socialist, and culturally a Syndicalist. His writings are available through his website: www.punkerslut.com

{ 0 comments }

The term capitalism means the sovereignty of capital, a free and unrestricted economic system totally based on profit and where society is in competition within these criteria. There are three important elements in capitalism: individualism, competition, and profit-making. Individualism is important because people see themselves not as a part of society, but as “individuals” standing alone on their own two feet. “Capitalist society” is an arena where individuals compete with one another under very harsh and ruthless conditions just like that described by Darwin, where only the strong survive, where the weak and powerless are crushed and eliminated.

According to the logic capitalism is based on, every individual–and this can be a person, a company, or a nation–must only fight for its own development and advantage. In this war, the best producers survive, the weak and incompetent are eliminated and vanish. What is seen as worthy of attention is not human beings, but economic development, and goods. For which reason the capitalist mentality feels no ethical responsibility or conscience for the person whom it crushes underfoot and climbs on top of and who has to live in great difficulty. This is Darwinism put into total practice in society in an economic way.

By proposing that it was necessary to encourage competition in all areas of society, and announcing that it was necessary to provide no opportunities or support for the weak in any field, the foremost theoreticians of Social Darwinism prepared a “philosophical” and “scientific” support for capitalism.

In the view of Herbert Spencer, the main theorist of Social Darwinism, who introduced the principles of Darwinism to the life of society, if someone is poor then that is his mistake; nobody must help this person to rise. If someone is rich, even if he has acquired his wealth by immoral means, that is his competence. For this reason, the rich man survives, while the poor man disappears.

Social Darwinists used Darwin’s theory of evolution as a “scientific” comment on capitalist societies. As a result of this, human beings began to lose such concepts, which religion had brought with it, as mutual assistance, philanthropy, and co-operation, and instead of these virtues to give pride of place to selfishness, cunning, and opportunism.

In his article Darwin’s Three Mistakes, the evolutionary scientist Kenneth J. Hsü, reveals the Darwinist thoughts of America’s foremost capitalists:

Darwinism was also used in a defense of competitive individualism and its economic corollary of laissez-faire capitalism in England and in America. Andrew Carnegie wrote that the “law of competition, be it benign or not, is here; we cannot evade it.” Rockefeller went a step further when he claimed that “the growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest; it is merely the working out of a law of nature.”(1)

As has been seen from what has been explained so far, capitalism has dragged human beings to worship only money and the power that comes from money. This capitalist morality holds sway in almost all societies in our day. For this reason the poor, the helpless, and the crippled are denied charity, and are not looked out for or protected.

Today the reason for countries such as Ethiopia having drought affected areas and living in starvation is the dominance of this capitalist morality. While aid and support from many countries could save these hungry people, they are abandoned to starvation and poverty.

Another feature of capitalist society is the way it gives room to inequality within itself. In societies of this kind the divide between rich and poor grows ever wider, as the poor grow poorer, the wealth of the rich grows greater.

Throughout history there have always been societies where the poor and weak were trodden down, where only material things were important, and where selfishness, self-interest, and cheating were seen as the only way to become rich. But from the second half of the 19th century people with such views entered a very different period. For the last 150 years people and societies which possess this ruthless make-up have begun not to be condemned or criticized like the others. Behavior of this sort began at last to be accepted as a law of nature.

Robert E. D. Clark explains the situation this way:

Evolution, in short, gave the doer of evil a respite from his conscience. The most unscrupulous behaviour towards a competitor could not be rationalized; evil could be called good.(2)

As we have seen, lack of religion and the Darwinism which inspired it lay behind all the people, systems, and ideologies which have brought worry, difficulty, pain, and hopelessness to the world, particularly in the last 150 years. Those who thought that they could protect their own interests saw Darwinism as a savior for themselves.

They were not aware of it, but these people who thought they were preparing a great trap for all of mankind, actually prepared it for themselves. Because no matter how much they struggle to survive, there is actually one Judge, one Lord, and one Master, whether of themselves, of the whole world, of everything they try to possess. Allah is the one Judge and Power. The wealth, strength, and power which a human being thinks he gains by himself are actually given to him by Allah to try him. No matter how much he may believe that he is in an arena of struggle, in actual fact every human being is living a test set by Allah for himself. Allah reveals in a holy verse that he tries human beings by means of the opportunities he gives them:

We made everything on the earth adornment for it so that We could test them to see whose actions are the best. (Surat al-Kahf: 7)

Those who think that they have won what they possess as the result of a “fight for survival” will feel a heart-rending pain for which there is no compensation, and great sorrow when they come face to face with reality in the hereafter and see what an empty idea they followed:

The Companions of the Garden will call out to the Companions of the Fire, ‘We have found that what our Lord promised us is true. Have you found that what your Lord promised you is true?’ They will say, ‘Yes, we have!’ Between them a herald will proclaim: ‘May the curse of Allah be on the wrongdoers those who bar access to the Way of Allah, desiring to make it crooked, and reject the hereafter.’ …. The Companions of the Ramparts will call out to men they recognize by their mark, saying, ‘What you amassed was of no use to you, nor was your arrogance. (Surat al-A’raf: 44-5, 48)

As for those who have not been influenced by Darwinist-capitalist thinking and who have not forgotten the reason for their being in the world and the existence of Allah, they see other human beings as living things created by Allah. As Allah has ordered them, they always treat other human beings pleasantly, feel affection and compassion, and do everything that they possibly can to take away their difficulties and worries. They always speak the pleasantest words, look after the orphaned, help the sick and crippled, and protect and watch after them. People like this avoid sin and keep their duties to Allah as it is revealed in the Qur’an and are the most superior in Allah’s sight: they pay no attention to wealth, race, color, class, ideology, or philosophy. (For further information on the subject, see “Disasters Darwinism Brought to Humanity” by Harun Yahya)

Under the pen name of Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written some 250 works. His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations deal with the collapse of the Theory of Evolution. You can read, free of charge, all the books Adnan Oktar has written under the pen name Harun Yahya on these websites www.harunyahya.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, HARUN YAHYA

Born in Ankara in 1956, Adnan Oktar writes his books under the pen name of Harun Yahya. Ever since his university years, he has dedicated his life to telling of the existence and oneness of Almighty Allah, and to disseminating the moral values of the Qur’an. He has never wavered in the face of difficulties and despite oppression, still continues this intellectual struggle today exhibiting great patience and determination. For mor information pls visit: http://www.harunyahya.com/theauthor.php

{ 0 comments }

The Crusade against Slavery, 1830-1860,

by Librarian on January 22, 2010

Preface IN THE 1830’s and after the winds of reform shook the United States more furiously than ever they had since the Revolution. Not only were there more causes than before, but, in an era of “the rise of the common man,” they affected more people. In such an atmosphere of unrest, the status of the Negro, both enslaved and free, became an increasingly urgent and pre-eminent issue, and, in the end, divided the nation.

The abolition and reform movements were complex by nature, carrying emotional overtones, and associated with spectacular events. It was not possible to present disinterested analyses of their content and direction, either in their time or for a long time thereafter. The growth of free soil and the struggle to preserve the Union made reform seem less important, and confused the definition of abolition. In the post-Civil War period the reformers, once bound together by concern for the slave, by free speech, temperance, education, woman’s rights, and other causes, tended to separate, each to pursue his own specialty. This growing emphasis on “specialists” made it increasingly difficult to accept the fact that one could agitate for woman’s rights, and education, and the rights of the individual all at once–that many Americans had once done so. Hence, although there have been numerous biographies of pre-Civil War reformers, and monumental histories of woman’s rights, temperance, education, and other crusades, their relevance to each other has been less persistently sought. The central hub of reform–abolition–has received fragmented consideration, for the most part, in the interest of one or another major figure.

It has been too readily assumed that the “moral struggle” against slavery in the 1830’s became transformed, from 1840 to 1860, into a “political struggle” which diminished the value of the abolitionists. Whether true or false, the thesis requires re-examination. The present volume traces the relationship of antislavery to abolition, and probes their connection with the several reforms which dominated the period. It attempts to avoid merely mentioning names, to say nothing of name-calling. It seeks, rather, to discriminate among individuals and inquire into their purposes and worth. It endeavors to recapture a sense of the contemporary consequence which reformers enjoyed; and it may well be that such an attempt affects our judgment of their relevance to our own times.

The available materials are as numerous, as complex as our “densepack’d cities,” as broad as our “myriad fields.” The investigator who seeks to rise above the level of partisanship has a delicate task in seeking out representative materials intended to open inquiry, rather than to close it, while at the same time satisfying the reader’s right to know how the author feels about his own findings.

My appreciation is due Antioch College, the American Philosophical Society, and the Social Science Research Council, which, at strategic points, provided grants in aid of research and for related expenses. Antioch College’s fine library staff helped keep materials coming during the long preparation of the manuscript, and its excellent sabbatical policy enabled me to complete the work. Many more people than can be conveniently mentioned have given aid and comfort, suggestions and advice. Thanks are due, first, to my editors, Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, who gave this work the benefit of their long experience and understanding. Numerous persons read the manuscript in part, and many more influenced the formulation of passages and ideas. It is a pleasure to note, among my colleagues, Professors Bernard A. Weisberger of the University of Chicago, the late Robert S. Fletcher of Oberlin College, Harry R. Stevens of Ohio University, Wesley M. Gewehr, emeritus professor of history at the University of Maryland, Lawrence A. Cremin of Teachers College, Columbia University, C. Stanley Urban of Park College, Mary E. Young of Ohio State University, Dean Lloyd E. Worner of The Colorado College, and Bernard Mandel of Cleveland. Mr. Boyd B. Stutler of Charleston, West Virginia, not only gave freely from his great store of information about John Brown and related topics, but contributed a warm interest which was welcome during stonier stages of investigation. Librarians are friendly folks, and one is grateful to them as a class. Helpful beyond the strict call of duty were Mrs. Alene Lowe White of the Western Reserve Historical Society, Miss Lelia F. Holloway of the Oberlin College Library, and Miss Louise F. Kampf of The Colorado College, as well as Dr. Henry J. Caren, Associate Editor of the Ohio Historical Quarterly.

CHAPTER 1 The Challenge of Slavery THROUGHOUT the colonial period and after the American Revolution, slavery was accepted by most Americans as a normal and inevitable aspect of their affairs. True, it became more and more confined, as a working institution, to the southern states. True, also, relatively few Americans had a direct economic stake in its perpetuation. These few, however, included some of the most respected elements of society. They bought and sold slaves, rented them as laborers, and otherwise lived by money gained from their use. To no small degree, they involved in their fortunes non-slaveholding Northerners from whom they purchased goods and services and for whom they felt friendship. They enjoyed the good will of humbler classes of Southerners and Northerners who despised the Negro for his color or feared him as a possible competitor.

Click here to read the complete version of The Crusade against Slavery and get more sources on this subject at Questia.com.

Yet curiously enough, during the decades which preceded the reform era, slavery inspired not one notable literary or legal defense. Many influential leaders of society assumed that it must ultimately give way to a more democratic order. Others deplored its workings and sought to hasten its end. Their compassion sometimes extended to the Indian, as well, who had also been marked for enslavement, though he was less tractable than the black man. In New England, back in the seventeenth century, John Eliot, “apostle to the Indians,” had been stirred to his saintly labors of Indian conversion. In the South, the following century, Christian Priber, from Saxony, adopted the Cherokees in western Carolina; he died a prisoner of Oglethorpe, English reformer and founder of Georgia. 1 Among others, Samuel Sew. all, notable Massachusetts diarist and penitent judge of the Salem witchcraft hysteria, had been concerned over the right and wrong of slavery, and had undertaken to pay his own slave for services rendered. Theirs were literally voices crying in the wilderness.

It would later become a major assumption in American history that the frontier had fostered freedom. There is, indeed, persuasive evidence that the frontier encouraged the creation of democratic ideas and attitudes and helped push democratic leaders to the fore, but it did not, on the other hand, help to undermine slavery. The frontier tended to reflect the prejudices and expectations of those who settled it. It permitted them almost unbounded opportunity, so that practical and experimental, progressive and patently reactionary, modes of behavior flourished according to the strength of their sponsors. Cosmopolitan Cincinnati in Ohio and Mormon Nauvoo in Illinois, Natchez with its Old South ways and atheistic New Harmony in Indiana–all were made possible by the open terrain. 2 It was part of the tragedy of the South that its rapidly tightening social system should have so dominated its own frontier as not to have permitted a leavening process between the new areas being developed in the South and the original states. Western Virginia–hilly, with few slaves, with large numbers of poor whites and individualists–was not able to modify Old Virginia’s ways. Ultimately, they separated. 3

The American Revolution and the years following excited new expectations that slavery must soon dwindle in strength and prestige. Such actual plans for ending it as maintaining high tariffs on the slave trade, or permitting slaves to buy their own freedom, were impractical. 4 But the spirit of the times seemed to favor an expansion of civil and other liberties. Leading Southerners freely expressed abhorrence of the foreign slave trade and domestic slavery. Not a few rewarded loyal slaves with manumissions for services during the Revolutionary War. Dr. Samuel Hopkins, noted theologian and a disciple of the great Jonathan Edwards, expressed himself in behalf of the slave, and contributed a vital Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of the Africans ( 1776) to the Revolutionary debate. After the Revolution had been fought and won, it continued to influence the American imagination; identification with it would strengthen a demand for a specific reform. The Negro’s cause was seen as aided by his association with the Revolutionary effort, which was regarded as the most favorable era in Negro-white relations. In due course, antislavery views of the Revolutionary Fathers would be carefully collected and widely quoted. 5

But with the war over, popular interest in the slave declined. Abolitionist petitions to the first Federal Congress were, according to one caustic observer, received “with a sneer” by John Adams, presiding, and with hostility by distinguished senators. Such acts as Virginia’s, officially manumitting Negroes who had served the Revolution, did not contribute to a landslide of manumissions, although well into the nineties it was customary for slaveowners to manumit some of their faithful Negroes by will. 6

The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 made slavery profitable in cotton cultivation; thereafter, the southern leadship became more assertive in defense of its rights. Representative Northerners unequivocally expressed their antislavery sentiments, but they did not speak for a section united on the issue, nor were they themselves clear about what should be done. Sensibilities on the subject took time to form in the North. William Jay, soon to be one of the most distinguished of abolitionists, was proud of the career of his father, John Jay, and of the latter’s services as president of the pioneer Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves. His biography of the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court placed Jay’s ownership of slaves in a special category:

In the year 1798, being called upon by the United States marshal for an account of his taxable property, [ John Jay] accompanied a list of his slaves with the following observations:

“I purchase slaves, and manumit them at proper ages, and when their faithful services shall have afforded a reasonable retribution.”

As free servants became more common, he was gradually relieved from the necessity of purchasing slaves; and the last two which he manumitted he retained for many years in his family, at the customary wages. 7

Click here to read the complete version of The Crusade against Slavery and get more sources on this subject at Questia.com.

Thus, in this early period, antislavery leaders resorted to slaveowning for “humane” ends.

By 1825, North and South were clearly distinguishable in their attitude toward slavery, but not in their attitude toward the Negro. The celebrated visit of the Marquis de Lafayette, in that year, helped underscore how far the new nation had fallen from earlier expectations. The eminent Frenchman received an appeal from a publicspirited citizen to speak out against slavery, the latter having “a recollection of the notices in my early youth of thy generous efforts in the Cause of American liberty,” and being convinced that the General’s views would be received with enthusiasm. 8 But Lafayette himself was dismayed by the amount of anti-Negro prejudice he observed, in the North as well as in the South, and remarked that during the Revolution “black and white soldiers messed together without hesitation.” 9

Theodore Dwight and John Sergeant were typical of many Northerners who were sincerely antislavery in sentiment, but who inadvertently fell into the posture of mere sectionalists. Theodore Dwight, editor of the New York Daily Advertiser, not only favored the abolition of slavery; he denounced the flogging of soldiers, and cruelty toward Negroes, Indians, Eskimos, mental patients, and even lobsters. But besides being a reformer he was also an ardent Federalist, whose strictures on the virtues and vices of Thomas Jefferson were far from dispassionate. 10 John Sergeant was an outstanding Philadelphia lawyer and congressman who earned the denunciation of Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina as being “a distinguished advocate of the Missouri restriction, an acknowledged abolitionist.” There is no evidence, however, that Sergeant had any regard for Negroes as individuals or as a people. 11 Having little firsthand knowledge of slavery’s workings, such partisans failed to acquire the information which would have added sinews to their arguments opposing it. Of different mettle was Benjamin Lundy, greatest of the pioneer abolitionists, who noted in 1826 that the governor of South Carolina had recommended that the custom of burning slaves in capital cases be stopped. “Is it possible that this has not been done long ago?” Lundy asked. “Will the cruelties of slaveholders hence be denied, as they have, by slaveite editors?” 12

The majority of Lundy’s fellow Northerners remained indifferent to such practices; in fact, not a few of them were actively proslavery. The line between anti-Negro sentiment and proslavery feeling was sometimes shadowy, but Major Mordecai Manuel Noah, picturesque and popular Jacksonian, did not beat about the bush. Noah preached the rights of man, but also defended enslavement for the Negro. His point of view was shared by numerous elements throughout the North. 13

Daniel Webster, in his greatest peroration, pleading in 1830 for “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable,” observed that suspicion had been fostered in the South against the North for political reasons. The North was represented as “disposed to interfere with them in their own exclusive and peculiar concerns.” The charge was untrue, Webster averred: “Such interference has never been supposed to be within the power of government; nor has it been, in any way, attempted.” Many other Northerners adopted an equally virtuous stand regarding their willingness to live with slavery as a system. 14 Their insensitivity was a major challenge, not only to abolitionists, but to other antislavery partisans now coming to be frustrated in their hopes that southern spokesmen would support programs for freeing slaves. But as Theodore Parker was to point out in sermon after sermon, the supporter of the slave system would not let the North alone. Horace Greeley was one day to sum up the problem brilliantly:

“Why can’t you let Slavery alone?” was imperiously or querulously demanded at the North, throughout the long struggle preceding [the bombardment of Fort Sumter], by men who should have seen, but would not, that Slavery never left the North alone, nor thought of so doing. “Buy Louisiana for us!” said the slaveholders. “With pleasure.” “Now Florida!” “Certainly.” Next: “Violate your treaties with the Creeks and Cherokees; expel those tribes from the lands they have held from time immemorial, so as to let us expand our plantations.” “So said, so done.” “Now for Texas!” “You have it.” “Next, a third more of Mexico!” “Yours it is.” “Now, break the Missouri Compact, and let Slavery wrestle with Free Labor for the vast region consecrated by that Compact to Freedom!” “Very good. What next?” “Buy us Cuba, for One Hundred and Fifty Millions.” “We have tried; but Spain refuses to sell it.” “Then wrest it from her at all hazards!” And all this time, while Slavery was using the Union as her catspaw–dragging the Republic into iniquitous wars and enormous expenditures, and grasping empire after empire thereby–Northern men (or, more accurately, men at the North) were constantly asking why people living in the Free States could not let Slavery alone, mind their own business, and expend their surplus philanthropy on the poor at their own doors, rather than on the happy and contented slaves! 15

{ 0 comments }

Security, Climate And Technology

by Librarian on January 22, 2010

The world today depends on fossil fuels to meet over 80 percent of its energy needs, a simple fact of the way the industrial world has grown up. But dependence brings with it major challenges: rising demand because of economic growth and new consumers; the global distribution of resources; growing concerns about environmental impacts of energy production and use; and the timescales associated with transforming how we produce, deliver and consume energy.
All this places the United States and the world at an energy crossroads.
Meeting the world’s hunger for energy without fundamentally altering the global climate, increasing geopolitical tensions or causing serious economic dislocation begs for, indeed requires, new technology solutions.
There is, however, no simple or single technology option: In the coming decades we will need a host of new technologies to diversify our fuel mix and control greenhouse gas emissions, and at the same time not hinder economic growth.
The challenge is large but there is also good reason for optimism-largely fueled by a range of new technologies. Some are ready for deployment. Others, though promising, may be a decade away. And some, while more uncertain and higher risk, could have far-reaching impact.
But this optimism must be tempered with realism. The scale of the energy industry is enormous. Therefore, so must be the scale at which these technologies operate if they are to have a major effect. Scale also translates into time.
Policies will have to be thought through and aligned. Also, since both markets and environmental challenges are global, international cooperation must be integral to effective solutions.
Of special urgency is the risk of climate change from global warming. Using atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations before the industrial age as the baseline, a “business as usual” energy supply trajectory would nearly double those concentrations by mid-century, locking in average temperature increases of several degrees along with the expectation of severely disruptive impacts on human health and the environment. Such concentrations are thought by most engaged scientists to be at the upper limits of prudence.
Scenarios that address these challenges successfully, in response to policies that price carbon dioxide emissions, call for major advances in three key areas-energy efficiency, transportation fuels that are not petroleum-based and widespread electricity generation that yields little or no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Greatly enhanced energy efficiency provides both the best short-term opportunity for addressing the major energy challenges and an essential component of a long-term strategy-perhaps a 40 to 50 percent reduction in primary energy use compared to mid-century “business as usual” needs, without a major impact on GDP.
But how to get there? The technology pathways for efficiency involve buildings, vehicles and industrial processes. Two-thirds of U.S. electricity is used for residential and commercial buildings.
Improved lighting, HVAC, appliances, active energy management, cogeneration and energy-efficient design could dramatically reduce our power requirements. Also, new approaches such as passive ventilation and daylighting can both reduce energy use and improve comfort.
In addition, new designs for the coming “gigacities” can minimize both energy use and pollution. We can also achieve dramatic improvements in vehicle efficiency. Options include advanced engine design integrated with new approaches to fuel utilization, hybrids and plug-in hybrids, “lightweighting,” hydrogen and fuel cells, and others.
Hybrid technology appears ready in the next couple of decades, with further advances in battery technology, to deliver both very good overall efficiency and a considerable reduction in oil requirements. The second technology category includes technology options for alternative transportation fuels. This can include biofuels, conversion of coal or natural gas to liquid fuels, electricity and hydrogen.
Biofuels are currently receiving a great deal of attention, as they are renewable and strongly supported by the agricultural sector. Scientific and technological advances are needed to utilize agricultural and forest waste products and “designer” energy crops effectively and economically.
Such advances look quite promising over the next decade or two. Challenging issues also remain in the design of the appropriate infrastructure from field to fuel and of the regulatory structure for assuring fuel quality. And plug-in hybrids would lead to electricity
becoming a major transportation “fuel.”
For the third technology category-electricity production without significant carbon dioxide emissions-we have to think across a wide range of options: nuclear power; renewables, including wind, solar, geothermal and waves; and fossil-fuel use with carbon capture and geological storage.
Nuclear power provides about a sixth of the world’s electricity. Expansion will be based on evolutionary improvements of current technologies, such as passive safety systems and new construction techniques. More advanced technologies may include modular gas-cooled reactors for the midterm and possibly,for the long term, novel reactors and fuels that considerably mitigate waste management concerns.
Wind and solar renewables are expanding rapidly and demonstrating considerable cost reduction. Eventually, direct use of solar radiation appears the most promising energy option given the large amount of solar energy reaching the earth.
However, many scientific and technical advances are needed to realize massive deployment: new manufacturing techniques, new materials, new solar conversion processes and new storage technologies that enable use of a large-scale, intermittent energy supply.
Nevertheless,the competitiveness of solar technology in significant markets with high electricity prices is improving rapidly.
Coal can also be a “carbon-free” energy source if most of the produced carbon dioxide is captured and stored geologically. With current technology, this is expensive, but there is much promising research on new ways of converting coal to energy and less expensive carbon dioxide capture.
A major governmentled effort is needed to resolve remaining uncertainties, both technical and regulatory, around long-term geological carbon dioxide storage at large scale. This array of promising technologies-some ready today, others with an excellent prognosis in a decade or so, and still others as higher-risk candidates for “home runs”-offers an optimistic view of our capacity to deal with our energy needs.
However, as already observed, this optimism must take into account other realities. First is the issue of scale. For many of these technologies, overcoming key scientific and technical barriers is only part of the story. If biofuels were, for example, to replace half of current U.S. gasoline use, we would need about a hundred thousand square miles of land.
This raises issues not only of land use, but also of water resources, ecological stewardship, etc. As another illustration of scale: If all of the carbon dioxide emitted by U.S. coal plants today were compressed to a liquid for geological storage, its annual volume would be about 50 percent more than a year’s worth of U.S. oil consumption.
These system challenges reflect the enormous scale of the energy enterprise. They will be met only through a complex interplay of multiple technologies, not some “silver bullet.”
Second, policies that are synergistic with societal objectives are essential. U.S. energy policy does not currently incorporate societal imperatives such as oil security or climate change risks into energy prices, as it does for a variety of pollutants.
Instead, we face a complex and somewhat idiosyncratic set of incentives and subsidies that advance introduction of “winning” technologies. Also transforming the multi-trillion dollar energy business, with its vast, durable, and rather expensive infrastructure, takes time-about a half century for significant change.
Finally, these key energy challenges are global in nature and will need far more international cooperation than has been evidenced. Climate change risks clearly have global implications and require global solutions.
However, the global nature of the oil market similarly means that increased demand and security concerns of any region ripple through the world’s economies.
Energy represents one of this century’s grandest challenges:global in scale, powering economic growth, reducing poverty in developing countries, threatening to the environment and to human health, risking geopolitical conflict. Technology is a necessary but not sufficient enabler for resolving these problems.
The right mix of sustained research, technology investments and policies will, however, empower the nation’s scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs to respond to these challenges. Getting that mix right will also present an opportunity for building a sustainable energy future for the 21st century and, considering the inherently long lead times, well beyond.

Daniel Yergin, chairman of CERA, received the Pulitzer Prize for “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power” and the United States Energy Award for lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding. Vist CERA at http://cera.ecnext.com.

{ 0 comments }

CURRICULUM, PEDAGOGY AND EVALUATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR SC & ST CHILDREN

* Ramaiah Bheenaveni

This section firstly examines curriculum as a mediator of dominance and hegemony, exploring ideological issues in the selection and structuring of knowledge and in pedagogic practice. Secondly we focus on the issue of representation of subaltern groups, culture and ideologies. The concept of curriculum is used here to designate the experiences pupils have under the guidance of the school. Most issues in this area are predicated upon the assumption that appropriate school experiences can indeed make a significant difference to learning and lives of SC/ST children. Content of curriculum and internal operations are thus key issues that need to be addressed. Also very important are related areas of pedagogic methods, assessment and evaluation.

In India, curriculum and the content of education have been central to the processes of reproduction of caste, class, cultural and patriarchal domination-subordination. In post independence educational policy, modification of content supposedly aimed at indigenization resulted in Brahmanisation as a key defining feature of the curriculum. Brahmanisation has been evident in the emphasis on (1) ‘pure’ language, (2) literature and other “knowledge” of society, history, polity, religion and culture that is produced by higher castes which reflects Brahmanical world view and experiences and Brahmanical perspectives on Indian society, history and culture, and (3) high caste, cultural and religious symbols, linguistic and social competencies, modes of life and behaviour. Furthermore, the overarching stress has been on eulogizing mental as against manual labour. The heavily gendered nature of school curricular content was evident in that women’s specialised knowledge and skills systems found no place in it or in the general curricular discourse. Rather they were used for devaluation and stereotyping of the female sex in curriculum. Curriculum is thus urban elite male-centric and bereft of the country’s rich cultural diversity. There has been a corresponding devaluation of “lesser” dialects, cultures, traditions, and folklore of dalits and adivasis as also of peasantry.

The second defining feature of the curriculum on the other hand, was its ‘colonial’ character which privileged western modernization. The ideology however was adopted in truncated, superficial ways – the emphasis being on the incorporation of knowledge of Western science and technology, viz. that of the “hard Western sciences”, the English language and Western styles of life. The pursuance of liberal, democratic socialist values even though enshrined in the Indian constitution was largely notional in the curriculum.

Curricular structure and culture of the colonial model has remained unchanged. The defining features of the structure are: full time attendance of age specific groups in teacher supervised classrooms for the study of graded curricula. Full day schools, compulsory attendance, unconducively long time–span of classes and vacations, served as deterrents, being ill suited to educating SC/ST children, especially in the initial years when access was just being opened up and availed. Poor and SC/ST households depended on children for domestic work or other productive work whether or not to supplement household earnings. Today, things have changed substantially and large numbers of parents are prepared to forego children’s labour and send them to school. However school organisation and curricula have not been sensitive as yet to fundamentally different economic situations, life aims and social circumstances of children belonging to poorer strata households or communities in the shaping of the school structure. Culturally, school norms of attendance, discipline, homework, tests and exams, and cognitively ethnocentric demands of concentration on and memorisation of the content of the text by `rote’, all prove problematic for SC/ST children. Furthermore, the curriculum itself as a tool of cultural dominance and hegemony has an alienating and intimidating impact.

Curriculum and the Scheduled Castes:

For the Scheduled Castes who have sought education as a mechanism to transform as well as enter “mainstream” (read dominant) society, the central questions are of representation of their knowledge and culture and the critiquing of dominant knowledge and value systems of their lived reality and of social relationships based on dominance/subordination and exclusion. Dominant forms of inequality and hierarchy are made invisible in the discourse on common nationhood and common and equal citizenship, which the school curriculum propagates. But for the Scheduled Castes the heart of the matter is structural oppression, not cultural difference. Thus understandings of oppressive aspects of our traditional and contemporary structures, the historical construction of groups and communities are made invisible by the curriculum and not subjects of key curricular importance.

Krishna Kumar’s studies have focussed attention on how the dominant groups’ ideas about education and the educated get reflected in the curriculum. Following the curriculum, Indian texts uphold symbols of the traditional, male dominated feudal society and its obsolete cultural values and norms. However, that the value content of education is out of tune with the reality of the changing, dynamic India is a matter of choice – a choice consciously or unconsciously made by those selecting textbook material from the available body of literature and by those creating it. Worthwhile knowledge is that which is linked to the values and lifestyles of dominant groups.

Ilaiah has vividly described how knowledge and language are rooted in and structured around productive processes of lower castes and around socio-cultural surroundings of their habitat. This knowledge and skill based vocabulary, which is very highly developed, finds no place in the school curriculum. Nor do stories, music and songs, values, skills, knowledge, traditions, cultural and religious practices. Contemporary dalit literature is similarly disregarded. Lives, values and norms of upper caste Hindus which are strange and alienating for the lower castes, continue to be dominantly present. To quote from Ilaiah, “right from early school Upto College, our Telugu textbooks were packed with these Hindu stories. Kalidasa was as alien to us as the name of Shakespeare. The language of textbooks was not the one that our communities spoke. Even the basic words were different. Textbook Telugu was Brahmin Telugu, whereas we were used to a production-based communicative Telugu. It is not merely a difference of dialect; there is a difference in the very language itself”.

The dominance of epistemology and content of the politically powerful intellectual classes makes curricular knowledge ideologically loaded. While Gandhi, Tagore and Krishnamurti – all from the high castes – have received national attention as indigenous educational philosophers, education has not incorporated the anti-caste-patriarchy and anti-hegemonic discourses of Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar or Iyotheedas. Curriculum does not reflect upon the historical significance of caste, gender and tribe, nor of the challenges posed to it by dalit epistemology, knowledge and protest. This should have been done through literature and social science curricula.

Phule saw education as a potent weapon in the struggle for revolutionary social transformation. For him, the purpose and content of education were radically different from both Brahmanical and colonial models of education. His ideal was an education that would bring an awareness among lower castes of oppressive social relations and their hegemonic moral and belief systems that pervaded their consciousness…. an education that would instill western secular values, encourage critical thought and bring about mental emancipation. It would fulfil practical needs but would be broad based enough to inspire a social and cultural revolution from below. During the course of the long struggle of dalit liberation, Ambedkar developed an ideology that incorporated a critique and reinterpretation of India’s cultural heritage, a rich philosophy drawn from a wide range of social thought and an action programme which lay an equal stress on social and cultural revolution as it did on the economic and political one. Like Phule, he defined the purpose of education in terms of mental awakening and creation of a social and moral conscience. Education was also a means of overcoming inferior status and state of mind, of wresting power from the powerful. Thus, the Ambedkarian agenda for education included: (a) creation of capacities for rational and critical thinking, (b) socialization into a new humanistic culture and ideology, (c) development of capacities and qualities necessary for entry and leadership in modern avenues of work and politics, and (d) inculcation of self-respect and aspirations to respectable lifestyles in which demeaning traditional practices would have no place.

Clearly Phule-Ambedkarian ideology went way beyond narrow modernization and technocratic impulses. It gave pre-eminence to ideology and values, Western in origin but critically adapted towards emancipation of India’s downtrodden. Ilaiah, in fact, argues that these values are equally indigenous, constitutive of lived-in realities of dalit bahujans. Dalit and non-Brahman leaders drew on western philosophical traditions to build an ideology and praxis of revolutionary transformation of the Hindu social order. It aimed at establishing a socialist social order underpinned by a new morality, based on values of liberty, equality, fraternity and rationality.

School curriculum in India failed to reflect these expressions of new moral order. It does not need any great study to show that the national or state school curricula or teacher education curricula were never guided by these radical visions. The Scheduled Castes and their issues and problems have remained peripheral to the curriculum and their representation if at all has been weak and distorted.

Curriculum and the Scheduled Tribes:

Like the SC, curriculum does not acknowledge cultural rights of the Scheduled Tribes who are denied their own culture and history. School curriculum fails to take account of tribal cultures as autonomous knowledge systems with their own epistemology, transmission, innovation and power. Kundu gives the example of children being set to write essays on the circus, or being trained to write letters through mock missives to the police asking them to take action on disturbance by loudspeakers during exams. While adivasi children may know a great deal about animals, they are unlikely to have ever seen a circus; where the police are usually feared as oppressors and electricity is erratic, if at all available, enlisting police support in keeping noise decibels down is a most unlikely situation Not only are the knowledge and linguistic and /or cognitive abilities that Scheduled Tribe children possess ignored – e.g. the capacity to compose and sing spontaneously, to think in riddles and metaphors and their intimate knowledge of their environment – but schooling also actively encourages a sense of inferiority about Scheduled Tribe cultures. Like the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes rarely feature in textbooks, and when they do, it is usually in positions servile to upper caste characters; or as ‘strange’ and ‘backward’ exotica.

The ‘cultural discontinuity’ between school and home draws attention to the rigidity of school organization and the emphasis on discipline and punishment in contrast with socialization practices and the lives of children, as reasons for non-attendance. Sujatha cites the case of community schools in Andhra where there was closer interaction with parents, weekly holiday was in tune with the local weekly bazaar, and school holidays coincided with tribal festivals. The school was observed to show positive results.

The Language Question:

Despite several policy documents and a constitutional provision (350A) recognizing that linguistic minorities should be educated in their mother tongue at primary level, there is practically no education in Scheduled Tribe languages. This includes even those like Santhali, Bhili, Gondi or Oraon which are spoken by over a million people.

Although states in India were organized on linguistic grounds, political powerlessness of Scheduled Tribes prevented the formation of states based on tribal languages. They are confined to minority status within large states and are compelled to learn the state language in school. Primary teachers are predominantly from non-ST communities. And despite the pedagogic significance of initial instruction in the mother tongue, teachers do not bother to learn the tribal language even after several years of posting. The general picture at primary level is often one of mutual incomprehension between ST students and their non-ST teachers. Several studies have pointed to the significance of the language question at the primary levels.

Quite apart from the pedagogic problems this creates – such as destroying the child’s self esteem, and reducing the possibilities of successful learning in later years, the denigration of Scheduled Tribe languages amounts to denigration of Scheduled Tribe worldviews and knowledge. The education system with its insistence on a common language as a means of achieving a common nationhood has been instrumental in the destruction of tribal language, culture and identity. Even outside the school, educated youth often speak to each other in the language of the school, perhaps to mark themselves off from their ‘uneducated peers’.

Several languages, especially those spoken by small numbers, are dying out. Loss of a language means the loss of a certain way of knowing the world. Experiences of schooling of tribal children in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have revealed the displacement of Bundelkhandi, Gondi and Warli by Sanskritised Hindi, Telugu and Marathi respectively.

Depending on levels of cultural absorption and adaptation however, several Scheduled Tribes may not look to schools to teach in their home language. Indeed, for many Scheduled Tribe parents, the main advantage of schooling is that it gives access to the new languages, new occupations and a new life and enables interaction with the non-tribal world. But wherever Scheduled Tribes have been politically mobilised to celebrate Scheduled Tribe identity, they have been more clear and open in their demand for education in indigenous languages.

The Alienating Impact of School Regimen:

The school regimen of timing, discipline, hierarchy is especially alien to tribal children socialized in a world where individuality is respected from early on, and where parent-child interactions are relatively egalitarian. Kundu points out those testing procedures too are based on urban middle class values – the competitiveness and system of rewards that examinations represent is often culturally anomalous to Scheduled Tribe children who are brought up in an atmosphere of sharing. Furthermore, learning among ST children is usually intimately connected to the work process – children learn the names and medicinal uses of many plants and trees while accompanying their parents on foraging trips in the forest. When children are away at school, especially when they are sent to residential schools, they lose connection with this world of labour and their capacity to learn from it. Several studies have attested the alienating effects of language, school structure and ethos.

Implications of Recent Hindu Cultural Nationalist Influences on Curriculum

In the recent past a serious concern has been the ‘Hinduisation’ of the curriculum, its adverse implications for all children but most particularly to religious minorities and SC/ST. A deliberate policy move towards Hinduisation of the school which occurred at the behest of neo-right national government’s policy meant its specific framing within Vedic values and thought. However, even prior to that when there was no overt intent of curriculum or text to be grounded in dominant religious culture, the fact that most educational action teachers are Hindu made curriculum Hinduised. It influenced the manner in which annual days or other school events are celebrated. Breaking a coconut and lighting incense at the base of the flag pole on Republic or Independence Day is common practice. Additionally, distinctive Scheduled Tribe names are changed to standard Hindu names.

Reference:

1. Omvedt, Gail (1994): “Dalits and the Democratic Revolution”, Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit movement in Colonial India, New Delhi: Sage.

2. Ilaiah, Kancha (2001): “Dalitism vs. Brahmanism: The Epistemological Conflict in History”, in Shah, Ghanshyam (ed.) Dalit Identity and Politics: Cultural Subordination and the Dalit Challenge, Vol. 2, New Delhi: Sage Publications, pp. 108-128.

3. Sundar, Nandini (2002): “Indigenise, Nationalise and Spiritualise: An Agenda for Education?” in International Social Science Journal, 173, pp. 373-383.

4. Nambissan, Geetha (2004) : “Terms of Inclusion: Dalits and the Right to Education”, Paper presented at Seminar on Towards Quality Education for All: Issues and Challenges Beyond 86th Amendment at India International Centre, New Delhi, organized by CSD, New Delhi.

5. Sarangapani, Padma (2001): “Childhood, Growing Up and Learning: the Baigas of Northern Kawardha”, Report Submitted to the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, September.

6. Shah Ghanshyam (2000) : “Hope and Despair: A Study of Untouchability and Atrocities in Gujarat, in Beteille, Andre (ed.), Journal ofIndian School of Political Economy, Vol. XII, Nos. 3 & 4, pp. 459-472.

7. Singh, M. T. (1995): “A Review of Educational Programmes for Tribal Children in Rajasthan, Development Programmes for Children”, in Bedi, M.S. (ed.), Tribal Development in Rajasthan (with special reference to women and children) Jaipur: Himanshu Publications, pp. 162-170.

8. Thorat, S (2002): “Oppression and Denial: Dalit Discrimination in the 1990s”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXVII No. 6, pp. 572-577.

9. Velaskar, Padma (2004 – b) : “Structural Inequalities and Educational Inequalities: The case of the Dalits in Maharashtra”, Paper presented at Seminar on Towards Quality education for All: Issues and Challenges Beyond 86th Amendment at India International Centre, New Delhi, organized by CSD, New Delhi.

10. Velaskar, Padma & Abraham, Leena (1995): “Class, Culture and Curriculum: An Evaluation of the Abacus curriculum enrichment programme- A report, Mumbai, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, (mimeo).

{ 0 comments }

Agriculture in India: Issues and Challenges

by Librarian on January 21, 2010

AGRICULTURE IN INDIA: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

- Ramaiah Bheenaveni

- Dept. of Sociology,

- Osmania University,

- Hyderabad – 07.

“Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian Economy”- said Mahatma Gandhi five decades ago. Even today, as we enter the new millennium, the situation is still the same, with almost the entire economy being sustained by agriculture, which is the mainstay of the villages. Not only the economy, but also every one of us looks up to agriculture for our sustenance too.

Significance of Agriculture:

Although agriculture contributes only 21% of India’s GDP, its importance in the country’s economic, social, and political fabric goes well beyond this indicator. The rural areas are still home to some 72 percent of the India’s 1.1 billion people, a large number of whom are poor. Most of the rural poor depend on rain-fed agriculture and fragile forests for their livelihoods.

The sharp rise in foodgrain production during India’s Green Revolution of the 1970s enabled the country to achieve self-sufficiency in foodgrains and stave off the threat of famine. Agricultural intensification in the 1970s to 1980s saw an increased demand for rural labor that raised rural wages and, together with declining food prices, reduced rural poverty.

Sustained, although much slower, agricultural growth in the 1990s reduced rural poverty to 26.3 percent by 1999/00. Since then, however, the slowdown in agricultural growth has become a major cause for concern. India’s rice yields are one-third of China’s and about half of those in Vietnam and Indonesia. With the exception of sugarcane, potato and tea, the same is true for most other agricultural commodities.

The Government of India places high priority on reducing poverty by raising agricultural productivity. However, bold action from policymakers will be required to shift away from the existing subsidy-based regime that is no longer sustainable, to build a solid foundation for a highly productive, internationally competitive, and diversified agricultural sector.

Issues and Challenges

It is here the challenge arises considering the implementation of the technology at various levels in the Global community. The need of the hour is not application of the technology but the adoption of appropriate technology, which would suit the particular level of the global community. In India, the farming practices are too haphazard and non-scientific and hence need some forethought before implementing any new technology.

Applications of agricultural inputs at uniform rates across the field without due regard to in-field variations in soil fertility and crop conditions does not yield desirable results in terms of crop yield. The management of in-field variability in soil fertility and crop conditions for improving the crop production and minimizing the environmental impact is the crux of precision farming.

Thus, the information on spatial variability in soil fertility status and crop conditions is a pre-requisite for adoption of precision farming. Space technology including global positioning system (GPS) and GIS holds good promise in deriving information on soil attributes and crop yield, and allows monitoring seasonally- variable soil and crop characteristics, namely soil moisture, crop-phenology, growth, evapotranspiration, nutrient deficiency, crop disease, and weed and insect infestation, which, in turn, help in optimizing inputs and maximizing crop yield and income. Though widely adopted in developed countries, the adoption of precision farming in India is yet to take a firm ground primarily due to its unique pattern of land holdings, poor infrastructure, lack of farmers’ inclination to take risk, socio-economic and demographic conditions.

Factors Contribution to Decline of Agriculture:

Slow Down in Agricultural and Rural Non-Farm Growth: Both the poorest as well as the more prosperous ‘Green Revolution’ states of Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have recently witnessed a slow-down in agricultural growth and it ultimately lead for farmer’s suicide. Some of the factors hampering the revival of growth are:

• Poor composition of public expenditures: Public spending on agricultural subsidies is crowding out productivity-enhancing investments such as agricultural research and extension, as well as investments in rural infrastructure, and the health and education of the rural people. In 1999/2000, agricultural subsidies amounted to 3 percent of GDP and were over 7 times the public investments in the sector.

• Over-regulation of domestic agricultural trade: While economic and trade reforms in the 1990s helped to improve the incentive framework, over-regulation of domestic trade has increased costs, price risks and uncertainty, undermining the sector’s competitiveness.

• Government interventions in labor, land, and credit markets: More rapid growth of the rural non-farm sector is constrained by government interventions in factor markets — labor, land, and credit — and in output markets, such as the small-scale reservation of enterprises.

• Inadequate infrastructure and services in rural areas. Infrastructure is also a significant factor in the process of development but country like our rural Bharat has not posses the infrastructure such as roads, electricity, fertilizer and pesticides availability which caused the vulnerable damage to the growth of agriculture.

Weak Framework for Sustainable Water Management and Irrigation:

 Inequitable allocation of water: Many states lack the incentives, policy, regulatory, and institutional framework for the efficient, sustainable, and equitable allocation of water.

 Deteriorating irrigation infrastructure: Public spending in irrigation is spread over many uncompleted projects. In addition, existing infrastructure has rapidly deteriorated as operations and maintenance is given lower priority.

Inadequate Access to Land and Finance:

 Stringent land regulations discourage rural investments: While land distribution has become less skewed, land policy and regulations to increase security of tenure (including restrictions or bans on renting land or converting it to other uses) have had the unintended effect of reducing access by the landless and discouraging rural investments.

Computerization of land records has brought to light institutional weaknesses: State government initiatives to computerize land records have reduced transaction costs and increased transparency, but also brought to light institutional weaknesses.

Rural poor have little access to credit: While India has a wide network of rural finance institutions, many of the rural poor remain excluded, due to inefficiencies in the formal finance institutions, the weak regulatory framework, high transaction costs, and risks associated with lending to agriculture.

Weak Natural Resources Management: One quarter of India’s population depends on forests for at least part of their livelihoods.

A purely conservation approach to forests is ineffective: Experience in India shows that a purely conservation approach to natural resources management does not work effectively and does little to reduce poverty.

Weak resource rights for forest communities: The forest sector is also faced with weak resource rights and economic incentives for communities, an inefficient legal framework and participatory management, and poor access to markets.

Weak delivery of basic services in rural areas:

Low bureaucratic accountability and inefficient use of public funds: Despite large expenditures in rural development, a highly centralized bureaucracy with low accountability and inefficient use of public funds limit their impact on poverty. In 1992, India amended its Constitution to create three tiers of democratically elected rural local governments bringing governance down to the villages. However, the transfer of authority, funds, and functionaries to these local bodies is progressing slowly, in part due to political vested interests. The poor are not empowered to contribute to shaping public programs or to hold local governments accountable.

Measures Needed Areas:

1. Enhancing agricultural productivity, competitiveness, and rural growth

Enhancing productivity: Creating a more productive, internationally competitive and diversified agricultural sector would require a shift in public expenditures away from subsidies towards productivity enhancing investments. Second it will require removing the restrictions on domestic private trade to improve the investment climate and meet expanding market opportunities. Third, the agricultural research and extension systems need to be strengthened to improve access to productivity enhancing technologies. The diverse conditions across India suggest the importance of regionally differentiated strategies, with a strong focus on the lagging states.

Improving Water Resource and Irrigation/Drainage Management: Increase in multi-sectoral competition for water highlights the need to formulate water policies and unbundle water resources management from irrigation service delivery. Other key priorities include: (i) modernizing Irrigation and Drainage Departments to integrate the participation of farmers and other agencies in irrigation management; (ii) improving cost recovery; (iii) rationalizing public expenditures, with priority to completing schemes with the highest returns; and (iv) allocating sufficient resources for operations and maintenance for the sustainability of investments.

Strengthening rural non-farm sector growth: Rising incomes are fueling demand for higher-value fresh and processed agricultural products in domestic markets and globally, which open new opportunities for agricultural diversification to higher value products (e.g. horticulture, livestock), agro-processing and related services. The government needs to shift its role from direct intervention and overregulation to creating the enabling environment for private sector participation and competition for agribusiness and more broadly, the rural non-farm sector growth. Improving the rural investment climate includes removing trade controls, rationalizing labor regulations and the tax regime (i.e. adoption of the value added tax system), and improving access to credit and key infrastructure (e.g. roads, electricity, ports, markets).

2. Improving access to assets and sustainable natural resource use

Balancing poverty reduction and conservation priorities: Finding win-win combinations for conservation and poverty reduction will be critical to sustainable natural resource management. This will involve addressing legal, policy and institutional constraints to devolving resource rights, and transferring responsibilities to local communities.

Improving access to land: States can build on the growing consensus to reform land policy, particularly land tenancy policy and land administration system. States that do not have tenancy restrictions can provide useful lessons in this regard. Over the longer term, a more holistic approach to land administration policies, regulations and institutions is necessary to ensure tenure security, reduce costs, and ensure fairness and sustainability of the system.

Improving access to rural finance: It would require improving the performance of regional rural banks and rural credit cooperatives by enhancing regulatory oversight, removing government control and ownership, and strengthening the legal framework for loan recovery and the use of land as collateral. It would also involve creating an enabling environment for the development of micro-finance institutions in rural areas.

3. Strengthening institutions for the poor and promoting rural livelihood

Promoting Community-Based Rural Development: State Government efforts in scaling up livelihood and community-driven development approaches will be critical to build social capital in the poorest areas as well as to expand savings mobilization, promote productive investments, income generating opportunities and sustainable natural resource management. Direct support to self-help groups, village committees, user’s associations, savings and loans groups and others can provide the initial ’push’ to move organizations to higher level and access to new economic opportunities. Moreover, social mobilization and particularly the empowerment of women’s groups, through increased capacity for collective action will provide communities with greater “voice” and bargaining power in dealing with the private sector, markets and financial services.

Strengthening Accountability for Service Delivery: As decentralization efforts are pursued and local governments are given more prominence in the basic service delivery, the establishment of accountability mechanisms becomes critical. Local governments’ capacity to identify local priorities through participatory budgeting and planning needs to be strengthened. This, in turn, would improve the rural investment climate, facilitating the involvement of the private sector, creating employment opportunities and linkages between farm and non-form sectors

References:

1. Bottelier, Pieter What India (2007) : “Can Learn from China and Vice Versa”, China & World Economy, Volume 15, Number 3, May-June , pp. 52-69(18)

2. Schuh, G.E. (2002): Developing country interests in WTO agricultural policy. Political economy of international trade law: essays in honor of Robert E. Hudec / ed. by D.L.M. Kennedy and J.D. Southwick. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, p. 435-449

3. David Rindos (1984) : “The Origins of Agriculture: An Evolutionary Perspective”

Academic Press,

4. Kulshreshtha, S. (1996): “Indian agriculture and GATT and WTO: Some Reflections – India and WTO” : Udhayam Offset, Madras

5. Aggarwal G.C (1995) : “Fertilizer and irrigation management for energy conservation in crop production” : Fuel and Energy Abstracts, Volume 36, Number 5, , pp. 383-383(1), Elsevier Publisher

6. Society of American Foresters (1997) Agriculture and Forestry in China; Journal of Forestry, Volume 15, Number 8 – 1 December , pp. 1014-1016(3)

{ 0 comments }