Ragu - Paper Article 1

ConfluenCe OCTOBER 2008

South Asian Perspectives

www.confluence.org.uk

CoVeR SToRY

SOUTH ASIAN FOOD BALANCE SHEETS - POSITIVE But serious problem of food insecurity at household level, says Dr.nimal Sanderatne South Asia has turned a food surplus region in recent decades. This situation changed somewhat in 2008 as a result of the increase in food consumption consequent on the rapid rise of per capita incomes, especially in India. Despite the global food crisis the overall food availability in the region remains reasonably satisfactory. Yet around 500 million persons in the region or around a third of its population are deemed food insecure. About 300 million people are malnourished. Ironically, all of these countries that have adequate supplies of food have significant proportions of their population that are food insecure and malnourished. This is the paradox that requires to be explained. Here I discuss the issues in food security of the region as a whole and in the five rice producing countries, Bangladesh, India, nepal, Pakistan and Sri lanka. The objectives are to discuss the extent, nature and causes of food insecurity in the region and the five selected countries. It suggests the directions that economic, social and agricultural policies should take to reduce food insecurity in them. Concept and Definition of Food Security A clear definition of food security is essential for a reasoned discussion on food security in South Asia. food security is the availability of an adequate supply of food,

which people can access to obtain their food needs at prices they can afford. These food needs have been generally defined as the basic requirements of food rather than the satisfaction of all food wants. It is generally limited to a staple or a few commodities such as rice or rice and wheat that provide adequate energy for an individual. food security is not synonymous with food self-sufficiency. Many developed countries such as england and Japan are not self-sufficient in food but are food secure, as they are able to import their requirements of food. food security is the capacity to obtain the required quantum of food, by producing the requirements or accessing them through imports, rather than the ability to produce all your food needs. for instance, India produces adequate food and is self-sufficient in food at the national level, yet she has serious problems of food security at regional and household levels. The food balance sheets of South Asian countries indicate that almost all of them have a positive balance. Yet a significant proportion of their populations have inadequate access to food. The availability of adequate food stocks does not necessarily ensure food security at regional or household levels. This is owing to people in regions or households being unable to access adequate food. This is the principal and germane issue in food security

in the rice producing countries of South Asia. The critical issue in South Asia is that of household food security. Households of certain low-income levels do not have access to adequate quantities of food. This issue is the foremost one for countries with a large proportion of population below the poverty line. It is a distributional issue of fundamental importance for South Asian countries. In several of his seminal studies on famines, hunger and equity, Amartya Sen, has brought out the important distinction between adequate supplies of food globally and nationally and the availability of food to particular categories of consumers. Senís central thesis is that while the overall food supply situation has a relationship to whether people have adequate food, it is not solely governed by the total food supply. The ëentitlementsí people have to exchange for food are just as important. People may not have adequate food to eat in a situation of large-scale famines, but some people may not have adequate food even when there is no overall shortage of food. Senís analysis of the Great Bengal famine, and the ethiopian, Sahel and Bangladesh famines, demonstrate that ìstarvation is a function of entitlements and not of food availability as suchî. He points out that some of the worst famines have taken place with ìno significant decline in

food availability per headî Sen asserts that socialist countries, as well as developed capitalist countries like Britain and America, have achieved food security through social security arrangements and systems of guaranteed employment at adequate wages. Regionally and within nations the poor distribution of incomes, or ëentitlementsí in Senís words, may lead to large segments of the population being unable to purchase their nutritional needs. This is the state of food security in South Asia that I will analyse. It is the fundamental problem that has to be addressed by South Asian countries. large segments of a countryís population may be denied their basic requirements of food, as they do not have a capacity to access their food needs. Therefore social interventions may be necessary to ensure that the poorest segments of a population receive adequate food. Such interventions require an economic and financial capacity on the part of governments. Additionally there is

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a need to have an effective administrative machinery that can ensure proper targeting. Both these factors are constraints in effective interventions to ensure food security of the poorest sections of the population in South Asian countries. The united nations rights approach to development defines food security as a right and is of the view that it must include a more varied diet and that the food basket should improve progressively with the development of the country. In accordance with this concept food security is not adequacy of one or two commodities that ensures adequate energy requirements and minimal nutrition but one that ensures an acceptable basket of basic commodities. In South Asian countries it should include other essentials like sugar, milk, dhal, vegetables and perhaps some minimal quantity of fish or meat that people in South Asian countries consume in line with their cultural practices. (un 2000 and fAo 1998) Continued on page 6

Confluence

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Editorially Speaking Human rights act – no hidden agenda Sixty years after the enactment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights why do some people still see the Human Rights act as not quite in the interests of this country? The Act has been the pet grouse of many a social activist, misguided and poorly informed unfortunately, that it has caused much avoidable misunderstanding. It has been perceived by some as legislation that does more harm than good and even as a ‘charter for terrorists and criminals’ The Human Rights Act is nothing of the sort – it is set up to protect everyone’s human rights, young and old, one’s neighbour and neighbour’s neighbour, and so the community at large. With today’s ever intrusive state machinery, it is the Human Rights Act that is the last bulwark against states showing increasingly totalitarian tendencies. Thankfully, we don’t live in such a state but it is best that we don’t take anything for granted in the current climate of uncertainty that pervades the political and economic firmament the world over. Human rights law has actually played a crucial role in protecting the rights of victims and others who have fallen prey to circumstances beyond their control. But human rights laws don’t give criminals an easy ride. The Act specifically says that those suspected of or convicted of crimes can be punished. It is a fact that the Human Rights Act requires serious offences like murder, terrorism, or rape to be investigated by the police and for the state to take practical steps to protect the vulnerable. The Human Rights act was devised by our elected politicians. The courts do not have vast powers under the act and our MPs still have the final say. The courts can only protect against abuse by Government and powerful public bodies. The Human Rights Act only protects 15 well established fundamental rights. Sadly there are countries where human rights violations remain a tragic reality. We must therefore set the example here in Britain so that we may look villainous governments in the eye. Subscribe to Confluence and have your copy delivered regularly at your doorstep: £10/- for UK subscribers and £15/ for overseas. Please address cheques to: Confluence Foundation, 57, Keston Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 6BT, UK Published by Confluence Foundation 57 Keston Road, Thornton Heath Surrey CR7 6BT Publisher/Editor: Joe Nathan (J.A. Sothinathan) Telephone: 020 8240 7959 email:[email protected] Designed by Teddy Valassidis [email protected] The views expressed by interviewees or contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect Confluence editorial policy. No part of this publication or part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publisher in writing

15th Virat Kavi Sammellan

from left to right Mira Kaushik of Akademi, High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, Anil Sharma, former Hindi and Cultiure Officer Indian High Commission, Divya Mathur Senior Programme Officer, Nehru Centre, London and Padmesh Gupta, Editor, Pravasi Times

A galaxy of eminent and acclaimed poets from the UK and India including Sri Kesharinath Tripathi, Dr Budhinath Misra, Alka Sinha, Aachary Saarathi ‘Roomi’, Sita Sagar and Anil Sharma participated in the 15th Virat Kavi Sammellan held at The Nehru Centre recently in collaboration with The UK Hindi Samiti under the auspices of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. The former Hindi and Culture Officer, Anil Sharma, was felicitated with the International Vatayan Award for poetry and his services towards promoting Hindi and Culture by HE Shri Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, High Commissioner of India,UK.. Three books of Aacharya Saarathi were also launched by Mr. Asif Ibrahim, Minister (Coordination) at the High Commission of India. The High Commissioner also honoured Shri Ved Mohla with the Hindi Sewa Samman for his services to education of youth in the UK and the Sanskriti Samman to the well known singer, Reena Bhardwaj.

MSDUK awards at gala ceremony in London MSDUK (Minority Supplier Development UK) held its first awards dinner celebrating and rewarding the achievements of British ethnic minority-owned businesses at London’s Hilton Waldorf on Thursday, September 25, 2008. Top executives from corporate companies, including PepsiCo, BT and JP Morgan, joined MPs and community business leaders to applaud the achievements of suppliers from Britain’s ethnic minorities. Five awards were presented with more than 250 guests in attendance. The MSDUK Awards ceremony was testimony to the mutually beneficial partnership between corporations that are the country’s leaders in supplier diversity and minority businesses. Garry Clancy, commercial director, PepsiCo UK and Ireland and chairperson of MSDUK’s board of directors, was keynote speaker of the evening. The Awards were hosted by the BBC Foreign correspondent, Navdip Dhariwal. Among other speakers at the landmark event were Harriet R Michel, president of the National Minority Suppliers Development Council (NSMDC), US, who has taken the message of promoting supplier diversity all over the world; Leicester East MP Keith Vaz and Sonita Alleyne OBE, CEO of the radio production company Something Else. The MSDUK Awards were presented in the following categories: Corporation of the Year: Enterprise Rent-A-Car Supplier of the Year - Open Category: Pumasource Supplier of the Year - HR, Recruitment and Training: Canary Wharf and City Supplier of the Year - Print, Media and Marketing:Star Direct Special Appreciation Award: EMDA (represented by Ian Harrison) Kapil Thakrar, one of the winners in the Supplier of the Year category emphasised that what marked his outfit as an ethnic minority business to win work from Dell was his ability to understand the requirements of the client and maintain flexibility which he could afford to do as a small business. Michelle Palmer, the entrepreneurial flair behind recruit-

Garry clancy (Commercial Director of PepsiCo, UK and Ireland) and Mayank Shah (Director of MSDUK). ment firm ‘Canary Wharf & City’ is another example of the fine partnership with MSDUK which gave her access to win blue chip clients such as JP Morgan, IBM and Enterprise Rent-a-car. Mayank Shah, Director of MSDUK, said: “These success stories show that being a small business is no barrier to growth. Corporate organisations have proved their commitment to supplier diversity and opened their doors to the best entrepreneurial talent.” Here & Now 365 media agency co-ordinated the event.

Confluence

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IMMIGRATION

Managed Migration: history and developments

a rejoinder to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith - Eddie D’ Sa Introduction Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s paper in Confluence (July 2008) covers current policies and proposals on Managed Migration – a saga that began about seven years ago. A whole gamut of laws on immigration and asylum have been enacted over the years, often accompanied by inflammatory pronouncements from politicians and the media. Her neutral, matter of fact tone belies the harshness of the laws and their implementation, drawing rebuke and criticism from Church leaders and human rights groups. Jacqui Smith also makes no direct reference to the racial minorities (Blacks, Asians, Middle Easterners) who have borne the full force of the legislation. In the 1980s, EU leaders had decided to halt Third World immigration permanently but had to make a U-turn. In the 1990s, the UN warned that western Europe was suffering from a growing demographic deficit. There were not enough native workers to keep the working age population stable and support the ageing population. An intake of some 1.6 million new migrants per year was needed to redress the balance. At the Tampere Summit (Oct 1999) in Finland, EU leaders decided on a switch from a zero migration policy to managed migration. This allows business to exploit cheap non-EU migrant labour while the state can save on health care and pensions. Jacqui Smith admits in her speech that migrants contribute financially more than the local born. “Last year (2007), immigration contributed roughly £6 bn (0.5%) to GDP growth.” But there is a downside. While business and the state gain, the staid native Brits feel sidelined by the new, vibrant cultures around them and also face more competition from overstretched social services (housing, welfare). Let us respond to some of the themes from Jacqui Smith’s speech. THEME 1: Immigration and politicians Jacqui Smith said that the migration issue is “vulnerable to exploitation for political ends”. That’s understating it. If there is any issue that can get the British people’s attention (apart from football and pop stars), it is immigration and asylum. The politicians have capitalised on this fear and pandered generously to bigotry. Way back at the General Election (1964), Peter Griffiths (Conservative) campaigned in Smethwick on the slo-

gan: “If you want a nigger neighbour, vote Labour.” The sitting Labour MP, Gordon-Walker, reassured the voters: “Labour favours continued control of immigration, stricter health checks and deportation of those convicted of criminal offences….” But Griffiths won. This was a turning point in British politics – playing the race card to win votes. The Tories passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 disallowing Commonwealth immigrants from entering Britain freely. Minister William Deedes admitted: “The Bill’s real purpose was to restrict the influx of coloured immigrants from the Caribbean and Indian subcontinent…” When Labour came into power in 1965, PM Harold Wilson did not repeal the Immigration Act but in fact reduced voucher numbers available for migrants. Said Richard Crossman: “Politically, fear of immigration is the most powerful force today. If we hadn’t done this, we would have faced certain electoral defeat in the West Midlands & South East.” “Restricting numbers is good for race relations” became the guiding principle for Labour’s policies. In 1968, Enoch Powell, former Conservative Minister, warned in an apocalyptic speech: “We must be mad, literally mad as

a nation, to permit the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents…” Opinion polls showed that up to 75% supported what Powell had said. His popularity drove the Labour government to rush through the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 regulating the entry of Asian British passport holders from Kenya by a strict quota system. Nevertheless, Labour lost the 1970 elections The new Tory PM, Edward Heath passed the Immigration Act 1971, removing the right of non-white Commonwealth citizens from settling in Britain. In 1972, Asians expelled from Uganda were reluctantly allowed in and in 1976 some 250 Asians from Malawi. Enoch Powell (1976) raged again about “the limitless increase in the coloured population in English cities.” Margaret Thatcher (1978), then opposition leader, warned that “the British people feared that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture.” Thatcher was ousted in 1990 but the Tories went on to win the 1992 elections. Five years later, New Labour triumphed under Tony Blair after he reassured media mogul Rupert Murdoch that he would promote pro-market policies. In 1999, Blair came down heavily on the asylum seekers. As

the Jewish Chronicle (4 June1999) put it: “Asylum seekers will not only lose social security, but also access to community care, housing and disability benefits…They are not entitled to work and their children will not be protected under the Children Act… They will have to live under a cashless voucher system and be dispersed to different parts of Britain, isolated from their families and community… These proposals will deliver a crushing blow to asylum seekers’ dignity…” But Tony Blair was not moved. In a leaked memo, he wrote: “Asylum and crime - these may appear unlinked to patriotism but they are: they are toughness issues and they reach deep into British instincts…We are perceived to be soft... we need to highlight removals.” (Independent, 31 July 2000). As Election 2005 drew near, Labour added a sixth pledge to the usual five—“Your country’s borders protected”, with promises on “ID cards and strict controls that work to combat asylum abuse and illegal immigration”. The move came in direct response to Tory promises of a “crackdown” on immigration. Piers Morgan, former editor of the Daily Mirror, wrote (Evening Standard 08Feb05)  “The (coming) election is shaping up to be the most repulsive I can remember; an election is being fought on who can be the most racist. We have hordes of lazy, dole-scrounging, ignorant, foul-mouthed, cheating, violent white English yobs without whom the country would be better off. But a campaign against “white trash wrecking their own country” would not win many votes  I am thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed of what passes for political debate. THEME 2: Asylum and the media Jacqui Smith put it mildly: “Media accounts can sometimes reinforce anxieties” she must be well aware of the horror stories spun by the tabloids on refugees. A casual visitor might be forgiven for thinking that the Brits are living in terror of foreign hordes forcing their way here or determined asylum seekers stalking the land. The word ‘immigrant’ is code for Third World people, not those from Australia, Canada or USA. The tabloids (like the Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express) have long demonised the non-white asylum seekers (especially if they are Muslim), stoking up fear and hatred in the native millions who feed on these tabloids. Nick Davies wrote that “the Daily

Mail is the most powerful paper in Britain. The government pays attention to it. PM Gordon Brown sent a special video message to Paul Dacre on his 10th anniversary as editor…”(New Statesman, 28Jan08) Home Secretary Blunkett was sent to greet him in person. Nick Davies added that the Mail distorts and fabricates the news and the Home Office is known to leak it items to prepare the public for forthcoming announcements. Blair commented in 2004: “The Daily Mail is an extraordinary product…Paul Dacre (editor) is accountable to no one. He has absolute and unaccountable power.” (Independent 17 June07) It’s only the former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, who had the guts to condemn the Daily Mail: “The Mail had continued to discriminate against minorities since the war, demonising first Irish immigrants and now asylum seekers.” (Guardian 15 Feb 05). Other tabloids are no better. Here are two examples: Daily Mail (10 Oct 1991) published an article: How can we stem the tide? “It is now abundantly clear that Western Europe faces the threat of a tidal wave of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Third World… These invaders having entered the EC by false pretences, seek to remain by claiming they are political refugees who deserve asylum. We must face the fact that they will lie, cheat, flout the law and pay criminal organizations to smuggle them into our countries, abusing the tradition of western liberalism.” Dover Express fulminated in an editorial: “Illegal immigration, asylum seekers, scum of the earth drug smugglers have targeted our beloved coastline. We are left with a nation’s human sewage and no cash to wash it down the drain”. (quoted by Socialist Worker 21 Aug 1999) For more examples of media smears, see Appendix. The awe in which the tabloids are held may explain why the Home Office will not rebuke them for their scare stories or the police charge them for telling lies and stirring up hate. Sir Herman Ouseley (CRE chair 1993-2000) raised this issue in the Guardian 10 April 04 “The home secretary, the opposition parties and the CRE have not challenged the tone set by newspapers, which daily describe people as “scroungers” and “scum”, “pouring in”, “flooding” and “swamping” a “Britain under siege”? Why have those who are responsible in law for promoting good race relations remained silent?” Continued on pages 4,5

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IMMIGRATION -

cont from page 3

THEME 3: Tougher legislation on immigration & asylum Let’s set the scene with earlier reports on ethnic relations: The Macpherson Report (1999) In 1993, black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered by racists in South London and this led to a public inquiry led by Sir William Macpherson. His report declared that “Racism exists within all organisations and institutions. It infiltrates the community and starts among the very young...”  But the rightwing press and politicians were furious about the charge of institutional racism and succeeded in getting most of Macpherson’s 70 recommendations shelved. The Parekh Report (2000) on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain  This seminal report affirmed that a multicultural society cannot be based on the history and achievements of one race (whites), one language group (English speakers), one ethnicity (Anglo-Saxon) or only one religion (Christianity). The state must treat all equally but with due recognition of cultural differences. It proposed three models to balance cohesion, equality & diversity. Again the rightwing media was up in arms, led by the Daily Telegraph which had also opposed the Macpherson Report. They fumed at the idea that Britishness had racist connotations, leading Home Secretary Jack Straw to disown the report, which he had sponsored in the first place. The Cantle Report (2001) The year 2001 was critically eventful: Blair’s New Labour won a second term in May 2001 and David Blunkett succeeded Jack Straw as Home Secretary a month later. There were two policyshifting events: civil disturbances by Asian youth in the English northern towns and the terror attacks on Sept 11 on the US. In the summer of 2001, Asian youths took to the streets of Oldham, Leeds, Burnley, Bradford and Stoke to defend their communities from racist violence. For example, in BRADFORD (7 July), fighting broke out between the racists, police and Asians. Rioting continued through the night resulting in 200 police officers being injured, two men stabbed and 36 arrested. The Home Office asked Professor Ted Cantle to make an official response. The Cantle Report (Dec 2001) was no doubt influenced by the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Instead of addressing the root cause of the unrest - institutional racism - the state introduced a distraction called community cohesion, whereby multiculturism and cultural diversity had to be contained and Muslims forcibly integrated into British values, taking language and

citizenship tests and taking an oath of allegiance. Meanwhile US President Bush threatened that “anyone not for us is against us” and launched his ‘War on Terror’. A culture of fear and suspicion was imposed on Britain and the EU, with constant warnings issued about security threats. *** Nationality, Immigration & Asylum Act (2002) Government began legislative action with the publication of the White paper Secure Borders, Safe Haven: integration with diversity in Britain in Feb 2002. Institutional racism, anti-racism and multiculturism were all taken off the agenda while integration and community cohesion became the new policy framework for minorities and migrants. A grim bill followed the White Paper with little discussion and only 74 MPs voting against it. Jacqui Smith had said that after the 1971 Immigration Act, “10 more Acts have been necessary”. The NIA Act was the fourth in 10 years. Here are its draconian provisions: - Citizenship Applicants (including spouses of British citizens) for citizenship are to face English language tests, have ‘sufficient knowledge about life in the UK’ and take an oath of allegiance. - Removal of Citizenship A citizen, including one born British, can be deprived of citizenship (unless this makes one stateless) if the person ‘has done anything seriously prejudicial to the wider interests of the UK’. Clearly the intended targets are British-born Muslim youth moved to violence by imperialist interventions. - Checks before travelling Airlines and carriers have to check details of passengers travelling to Britain to confirm they pose no security risk. There is no right of appeal for anyone refused boarding on the basis of an airline’s check. - Internal controls Anyone applying for a visa will be required to provide biometric data with their application, which will be stored on a central database. Detention

escort officers (mostly from private security firms) will be empowered to enter premises and search detainees before removal. Local authorities, Inland Revenue, Employers, Banks and building societies will all be obliged to assist the Home Office with information and checks. - Restrictions on asylum seekers All asylum seekers will start in an induction centre for up to two weeks. Those not detained will be subject to strict reporting and residence conditions. Destitute asylum seekers will not be allowed to stay with relatives or friends and receive a cash allowance as at present. Children will not be allowed to attend mainstream schools. Church leaders and other groups promptly attacked the harsh clauses, especially segregated education for refugee children. Dr Rowan Williams demanded an end to the detention without charge of 14 foreign nationals but Home Secretary Blunkett refused to back down. An anti-terror bill was also passed in 2003, approving suspects to be detained without trial for up to 14 days. According to the Guardian (Feb 3, 2004), the Labour peer Helena Kennedy QC described Mr Blunkett as a “shameless authoritarian” and compared him to Zimbabwe’s dictator, Robert Mugabe THEME 4: Managed migration: Border controls & a Points Based System Charles Clark became Home Secretary in Dec 2004 and in Feb 2005 (Election year) unveiled Labour’s 5-year strategy under the title: Controlling our borders: making migration work for Britain. The highly respected Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) commented: ”The main thrust of the strategy is a multi-pronged drive to ‘crack down’ on illegal entry and unlawful working; step up fast-tracking of asylum claims and detention; toughen removals policy and enhance surveillance before, on and after entry…Ever more intrusive systems of surveillance are being built into the existing databases. To ‘secure borders’, the strategy proposes to fin-

ger-print all visa appli­cants by 2008, to screen those travellers coming from ‘high risk’ areas for TB and to continue to deploy immigration officers in France and Belgium. New legislation is expected to abolish appeal rights for students; to demand financial bonds which can be forfeited; fixed penalty employer fines; and to extend car­riers’ liability penalties.” Jacqui Smith said: “We’ve signed the e-borders contract – a robust system that will count everyone in and out of Britain, so we know who is here, who should be allowed in and who refused… Now anyone applying for a visa will have their fingerprints taken…” It all smacks of the workings of a police state. Ms Smith also explained the Points Based System (PBS) set up for all economic migrants in five categories or tiers. It was first introduced in the 5-year strategy (2005), followed by a consultation and elaborated in the paper. “Making migration work for Britain” (March 2006). The PBS seems biased in favour of skilled workers and unskilled workers would only be allowed in from the expanded EU. Jacqui Smith explained the 5 tiers but made no mention of a vulnerable group - Migrant domestic workers (MDWs) - who fall outside the PBS categories. Current rules allow them to enter the UK and switch employers to prevent abusive practices. Now the Home Office intends to treat MDWs as business visitors – their stay will be restricted to six months with no right to change employers or to settlement. Many of these MDWs are poor women from South Asia and the Philippines working for the families of rich foreign nationals. Many of these non-EEA MDWs undertake caring tasks which cannot just be switched off at the end of six months because it would mean severing relationships built with members of their employers’ family such as children. Labour seems only interested in the economically “useful” to live here — as defined by big business. Concluding remarks All Home Secretaries ritually offer

vapid reassurances: “we will remain a haven for the oppressed and those legitimately seeking asylum…” and well worn platitudes like: “We can continue to celebrate difference - with tolerance, fairness and broadmindedness that is uniquely British.” But doesn’t it all sound contradictory and hypocritical, in the light of the harsh treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers over the years, and the failure to confront institutional racism, promote multiculturism and discipline the media? Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington, wrote in the Guardian (Feb 18, 2005) ”Immigration has always been synonymous with race in British political discourse. Likewise, asylum has been conflated with immigration. The asylum seeker has been transformed from a person deserving of pity into a tabloid hate figure.” For a supposedly Christian nation, it is sad that so little compassion and moral restraint has been exercised in dealing with intending migrants, especially from poor countries fleeing from poverty and repression. The JCWI noted that “the new Points-Based System (PBS) wishing to immigrate for work and study, is in danger of replicating the racial injustice which is a feature of our unjust society with its huge gaps in wealth and development. In this way the PBS is in danger of both defeating the UK Government’s objective of Making Poverty History and undermining a culture of nondiscrimination and equality in the UK.” (Ref 4 below). Many of the poorer countries are former colonies which Britain and the EU have exploited for their resources and labour over some centuries. Shouldn’t therefore the EU feel morally obliged to make some reparations via a more flexible migration policy? Instead the EU seems solely driven by the goal for economic dominance - if necessary, by making war and propping up client regimes, while claiming to champion democracy. Continued on pages 5

Confluence The Devi Rajab column

5

South African newsletter Monty Naicker: charming hero of the struggle

Devi Rajab Time is a great dispenser of justice. Though its wheels grind slowly, it eventually reaches its true destiny and takes its rightful place in history. At long last, the good deeds of Dr Monty Naicker, leader of the Natal Indian Congress have been acknowledged by his country. Despite the politicking between parties in favour of and against the idea of renaming streets after old political stalwarts, the general consensus of acknowledging great men and women who have contributed to the struggle for freedom cannot be disputed. Last week, Dr Kreesen Naicker received the City of Durban scroll from Mayor Obed Mlaba on behalf of his father, the late Mr Mogambary (Monty) Naicker. Had he been alive today, Monty Naicker would have shied away from such publicity.

Instead, he would have preferred to have been at home laughing and joking with close friends, over a drink or two. In many respects, Uncle Monty, as we all knew him, was a very unpretentious man who enjoyed the pleasures of simple things in life. A freshly cooked hot curry, a good book, a game of snooker, parties, the “thirukuthu” or six foot male folk dance, the company of young folk, but most of all he loved bragging about his son Kreesen, in a jovial way. It was his way of coping with the harshness of the struggle. According to his friend, the late Dr K Goonam, who studied with him in Edinburgh, whenever he arrived at a party, the sedateness of the atmosphere would disappear and there would be a sudden livening up of young and old. Looking around the room he would sidle up to the shyest old aunt and make some unexpected comment like, “Is your husband good to you?” His remark would sound odd in Tamil, as the language does not lend itself to frivolous banter. Then, as the music started playing, he would lift her off her feet and whirl her on to the dance floor, guiding her to keep rhythm with him, and whispering in her ear “Now your husband will be good to you.” Monty Naicker loved singing Tamil songs, interspersed with a creative smattering of Zulu. His repertoire consisted of no more than a few lines from three or four songs which he learnt at vernacular school. His personal friends

Immigration Statewatch.org noted (Ref 5): “When the west (USA & EU) stops exploiting Third World resources and markets, many people will not have to flee from poverty or seek work. And when they stop supporting pro-western authoritarian regimes, many fewer will have to flee from persecution.” Of course, it is true that Britain does not unilaterally make policies on managed migration, but rather has to submit to the decisions taken at EU Summits. For example, the e-borders that Jacqui Smith spoke of is an EU idea. The EU plans to go much further. It is currently developing a new 5-year strategy for justice, home affairs and security for 2009-2014. The proposals include the latest technologies of surveillance and closer cooperation with the US. In the words of the EU Council presidency:

were drawn both from the movement and the larger community. My father considered himself to be one of his closest friends, and together with others they established the famous Bellair club, partly to cushion themselves from the indignity of being constantly refused admission to hotels and restaurants and other public places. They purchased a rambling cottage on two acres of land and, there in between going to prison, directing political campaigns, and practicing medicine on a social welfare basis, he relaxed – dancing and playing bridge. The Naickers were very hospitable, and their home was the scene of many happy parties where the guests would mingle with the likes of Alan Paton, Chief Albert Luthuli, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, the Meers and other stalwarts in the movement. Everyone loved him, even the security police who squatted outside his watching his movements every hour of the day, taking down the number plates of his visitor’s cars. He spent much of his life in prison, but each time he came out his spirit was never crushed. He would jocularly raise the leg of his trouser pants and show us his wounds, which he received from doing hard labour. For him, going in and out of prison became a routine, as did his confrontation with the authorities. To our amusement he would claim that at least he was assured of a honeymoon each time he cam out of prison! His beautiful wife, Marie, gra-

ciously bore her hardship with uncomplaining dignity. I recall at the time that the story went that she had been raised by white nannies in De Aar, and knew no Tamil, except for the few swear words which she inadvertently learnt from her husband’s equally limited repertoire. But always resplendent in saris, she carried herself with great dignity throughout the 40 – odd years of her husband’s political struggles for the cause. As a political activist, Monty Naicker cut another picture. He was principled, unswerving and fearless, a fighter to the bitter end. When, as a young man in the 1930s, he formed the nationalist wing of the Congress movement, few in South Africa were thinking of a non-racial democratic future. Within a sort space of time he was able to mobilize the Indian community politically, and South Africa saw the return of the Gandhian spirit. Under the banner of the non – European united front, Mr Naicker brought radical Indians, Africans and coloureds together. The post war era brought Monty into conflict with Jan Smuts, who had helped to draft the United Nations Charter, but was not prepared to extend the principles of the charter to black South Africans in his own country. He led the passive resistance movement, in which over 2000 registers were imprisoned. Dr Naicker also played a crucial role in placing racism on the international agenda. He realized that unless South Africa’s racial

APPENDIX

OUR handouts” (Sun, 14 Mar 00) “Time to kick the scroungers out” (Sun, 17 Mar 00) “Refugees get flats with Jacuzzi, sunbeds and… a sauna” (Daily Star, 25 March 00) “Asylum seekers eat our donkeys” (D Star, 21Aug03) “Asylum seekers steal the Queen’s birds for barbecues” (Sun 4 July 03): The Daily Express in 2001, ran front page headlines for seven issues in a row: We can’t take anymore asylum seeker; Asylum: we’re being invaded; Refugees: run for your life; Labour U-turn to stop asylum mayhem; Asylum invasion reaches 12,000 a month; Asylum seekers: give us the true figures; Asylum invasion: judges to rule. Mail on Sunday (26 Jan 03) announced that disease is ‘the new

Monty Naicker practices were brought to the attention of the world, they would remain unpunished. Later, under the presidency of Albert Luthuli, that alliance began the bitter struggle against the government, eventually leading to the banning of the ANC, PAC and SACP. Monty Naicker was among the many brave men and women who were banned, and his voice of reason and understanding was muffled for 14 long years. Yet he remained a symbol of hope for all those dedicated to a non – racial democracy in South Africa. Surely we will all agree that his memory must live on in our midst. Viva Monty Naicker Avenue, Boulevard, Highway! Dr.Devi Rajab, a leading South African journalist can be reached at: [email protected]

cont from page 4

“Every object the individual uses, every transaction they make and almost everywhere they go will create a detailed digital record. This will generate a wealth of information for public security organisations, and create huge opportunities for more effective and productive public security efforts.” (Ref 5) References 1. CARF Bulletin Summer 2002 2. JCWI Bulletin, Spring/Summer 2002 3. JCWI 5-year plan on immigration, June 2005 4. JCWI critique of the Points based system, Nov 2006 5. Tony Bunyan: The Shape of Things to Come, www. statewatch.org, 10 Sept 2008

The media and asylum seekers The overwhelming majority of applicants are bogus. Most have entered this country illegally and only when arrested, they pose as terrified fugitives from tyranny… (Daily Mail 12 Dec 95) “Clamp them at Calais” (Sunday People, 24 Jan 1999) “Some supposed asylum seekers repay our generosity by cheating the benefit system … begging and thieving in town & city centres; and even setting up criminal networks” (Daily Mail, Mar 00) “Handouts to refugees are robbing the British poor” (Evening Standard, April 00) “We need deportations on a huge scale” (Sun, 9 Mar 00) “Beggars build mansions with

asylum peril that we cannot ignore… ‘We live in fear of foreigners bringing death to our land... It is not by allowing in terrorists that the Government’s policy of mass immigration, especially from the Third World, will claim most lives. It is through letting in too many germs.” The Sun (27 Jan 03) warned that immigrants had brought “alarming levels of infectious TB, Hepatitis B [and] incurable Aids’ to Britain.” It was running a petition calling on Tony Blair to ‘stop Britain becoming a soft touch for illegal asylum seekers’. With over 300,000 signatories, it claimed to be the biggest newspaper petition in history. Eddie D’Sa, a former academic, is a social activist and Secretary, Goan Welfare Association, UK

Confluence FOOD BALANCE SHEETS - cont from page 1

6

Food Supply and Availability at National Level The current food situation in South Asia is drastically different to that which prevailed up to the 1970s. In the 1970s and 1980s most South Asian countries were transformed from food deficit countries to food surplus countries. This was particularly so with respect to India and Pakistan the two biggest countries of South Asia that together contain over 80 per cent of the regionís population. India attained food grain sufficiency in the 1970s and has sustained it since. It has had adequate grain stocks to meet the year-to year fluctuations in production. In 2002 India had food grain stocks of over 60 million metric tons. Current grain stocks are estimated at around 30 million metric tons. Similarly Pakistan became an exporter of rice and reached selfsufficiency in wheat in the 1980ís. However in the 1990ís high population growth resulted in domestic demand for wheat exceeding domestic production resulting in the country becoming an importer of wheat once again. This situation was reversed by incentives for wheat production and Pakistan became a grain surplus country once again at the turn of the century. There has been a significant increase in food production in Bangladesh in the last few decades but the county suffers from year to year fluctuations owing to frequent floods and drought conditions. In contrast, Nepal that was a grain surplus country in the 1970ís turned an importer owing to high population growth and tardy progress in rice and wheat production. Sri Lanka was for many decades a food deficit country importing her requirements of rice, wheat flour, sugar, milk and other products. The situation with respect to rice production has changed significantly in recent years. The country has achieved near selfsufficiency in rice. This situation has been achieved owing to significant increases in rice production as well as a degree of substitution of imported wheat flour consumption for rice. Nevertheless, rice production in 2005 was adequate to meet domestic consumption needs and build a small rice stock, though there were also a 3 per cent of rice imports. A surplus of rice was realized in 2006. All five countries have exported some food, though the exports from Bangladesh. Nepal and Sri Lanka are insignificant. Besides,

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have imported a fair quantity of food in recent years. Nevertheless four of the five countries, with the exception of Bangladesh, had a positive food balance. They were able to meet their national food requirements by either production or imports. In the case of India and Pakistan the food balance was significant, while Sri Lanka and Nepal had small positive food balances. Bangladesh alone had a negative food balance. The availability of food grains has increased in the region and in all the constituent countries. In the region as a whole cereal availability has increased from 2330 kcals/day in the 1970ís to over 2400 kcals/ day in 2000. The highest availability of energy is in Pakistan, followed by India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh that had only 2120 kcals/per day in 2000. Nevertheless, the cereal availability in South Asia is the lowest among the regions of the world. Therefore the region as a whole and the five rice-producing countries have adequate food either due to adequate domestic production or through imports. They are for the most part food secure at the national level at current levels of food demand. India and Pakistan are self-sufficient in food. Sri Lanka though not self-sufficient in food, has a capacity to import her food needs through its export earnings. Bangladesh and Nepal are also food secure at national level though less secure than the other three countries. Nature and Extent of Food Insecurity However the improvements in national food availability observed above have not been matched by similar gains in food security at household levels. There has been little or no improvement in household food insecurity either in the region as a whole or in individual countries of South Asia. In fact the number of persons who are food insecure has increased in the last decade. About 500 million persons in South Asia live in poverty and 400 million persons or about 35-40 per cent of South Asiaís population are deemed as having inadequate food. All five selected countries of South Asia have an unacceptably large proportion of their populations malnourished. It is also observed that there is a high correlation between poverty, malnutrition and child malnutrition. The largest number, as well as the highest proportion of the mal-

nourished resides in India. About 40 per cent of Indian adults suffer from chronic energy deficiency and 225 million Indians are chronically undernourished. Pakistan too has 35 per cent of its population undernourished. Nepal has nearly one half of its population suffering from malnutrition. Over thirty per cent of Sri Lankaís population lack adequate food, with the proportion in rural areas and estate areas having higher levels of malnutrition. While South Asia has seen improvements in household food security, all five countries have a significant proportion of their households that are malnourished and the levels of child malnutrition are still unacceptably high. In all five countries the average figures of malnutrition mask regional variations. Rural areas have much higher rates of malnutrition than urban areas, though the numbers in the latter could be high. Disadvantaged groups, remote areas and conflictridden parts of these countries have much higher rates of food insecurity than the national averages suggest. Future Food Requirements in South Asia Food consumption in South Asia is expected to double in the next 25 years. This is a consequence of the increase in population and increases in per capita consumption with expected rising incomes in these countries. Population growth in the next two decades is an important deter-

minant of future food needs in South Asia. Although the rate of increase in population growth has declined in all countries, the absolute increase in population is large in each of them and the region as a whole. Even if we assume that per capita consumption of food does not increase, the food needs in the region would increase substantially as the absolute increase in population in the region is high. The population growth is faster in the first few years and decelerates later. Therefore the increase in food needs will flatten out in the later years. As per capita incomes rise the demand for several foods will rise progressively, if not exponentially. The projected increases in food needs are likely to be higher than the increase in population for several reasons. First the per capita consumption of food is likely to increase as the countryís levels of food consumption are relatively low, on the one hand, and per capita incomes are likely to be about two and a half times todayís income at the current rates of economic growth and population increase. There could also be changes in consumption patterns owing to the ageing of the population. In the next two decades there would be a progressive ageing of the population, especially in India and Sri Lanka, that would also have an effect on food consumption. This would offset some of the increases in per capita consumption, especially of cereals and sugar. The increase in per capita incomes would also lead to shifts in the con-

sumption patterns among the higher income groups. If the objective of food security were to be attained in South Asia, the availability of food at the national level would require increasing substantially. In the case of food deficit countries and any South Asian country that becomes a deficit country owing to the factors discussed, there are additional concerns. There are concerns about national food security in the future arising from a serious deterioration in the terms of trade, reduced international competitiveness for industrial exports and the global food situation. The prospect of oil prices rising further in the next two decades has accentuated this anxiety. These concerns imply a need to look at the future needs of food and the prospects for their domestic production. What these considerations imply is that rice production in these countries requires to be increased to ensure adequate supplies as it has a direct bearing on the supply and conditions of availability of rice to households. This in turn has a bearing on household accessibility to food. Owing to these reasons there is no room for complacency. There is a need to increase rice production through increases in productivity to feed the millions of new mouths that would be added to the population of South Asia in the coming decades. Dr.Nimal Sanderatne M.A., Ph.D was founder Chairman of the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), Sri Lanka. visit www.confluence.org.uk for the article in full

Confluence Confluence BUSINESS

7

Ban on short selling shares and stock market trends Ragu Dharmaratnam ACMA, MAAT Ever since 1609, when Isaac Le Maire, a Flemish merchant, encouraged a group of investors to push down the share price of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) short sellers have been blamed for almost every market decline. Even after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre there were rumours that Osama Bin Laden had shorted the market mainly financial and insurance sectors to his benefit, before the attack. What is short selling? Short selling is when an investor or a trader sells shares in a particular company in the hope that the prices will fall in the future. If an investor thinks that a particular company is going to make a poor trading statement or is going to announce poor trading results in future, they may sell shares in that company before the announcement is made and then buy the shares back at lower prices after the announcement and pocket the difference as profit. In this case if the price goes up after the announcement then the investor makes a loss. Short selling in the U.K markets can be exercised by two main methods such as Contract - For Difference (CFD) and Spread betting. Other methods such as Warrants and Options can also be used to short sell shares in the UK markets but they are not as popular as CFD’s and Spread betting. Spread betting / CFD Spread betting and CFD’s are the two main methods by which investors can short (sell) the shares. The main advantages of these methods are that there is no stamp duty to pay on dealing in shares and there is a saving of 0.5 pc. and being margin products you can buy £1000 worth of shares with a deposit of as little as £30 (3%). The main difference between Spread betting and CFD is that all the gains from trading via the spread betting method are tax free. Any one can short sell company shares and one does not have to be a financial or banking institution or a hedge fund. Financial Services Authority (FSA) and short selling Recently the FSA has banned investors and traders from opening new short positions on major banks,

investment and Insurance companies such as Barclays bank, HBOS, Lloyds TSB, Aviva PLC, Friends Provident, Prudential, and Close brothers to name a few. This ban will remain in force until January 16th . Other countries such as the U.S.A and Germany have also banned traders from short selling. Ban on short selling – can this help financial shares rally? According to many economic commentators short selling activity is one of the main reasons why banking and insurance sector shares have fallen in recent months and hence the reason for banning short selling in these shares. If this is correct then, banking shares such as those of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBOS) should not have dropped in value from £2.00 (on the date of the ban on short selling) to less than £1.00 within four weeks (see graph below). This now raises a doubt whether short selling in fact was responsible for recent heavy falls in share prices. There was a valid reason why financial stocks went down: mispriced securities on the balance sheets caused the problems and not short sellers alone. Short sellers were not responsible for the drop in the fed. funds rate nor for advice to clients to take out mortgages which they should not have. Ban of Short-selling shares – an unwise move? In the very short term one may say that a very large short selling of shares of a particular company may be detrimental as small private investors could be affected by this, but in the long term this will correct itself as the hedge funds or finance institutions which first sold these shares will have to close their books by buying back these shares and at that point of time the share price is bound to rise due to buying pressure.

Ragu Dharmaratnam I will argue that for the following reasons short selling is essential for the markets: It brings liquidity into the market. Hedge funds are among the biggest traders and liquidity providers in the market and by banning short selling you prevent these experts from selling shares first to buy them back later. Stock markets need both buyers and sellers. It must be allowed to function as a free efficient market, and by banning short sellers you are restricting one section of the traders that could affect the market equilibrium. “Someone has to sell shares for others to buy”. A large short selling of shares in a particular company can also serve as a warning signal to a company that they are not going in the right direction and could compel the company to take corrective action at a very early stage. Convertible bond funds have been hurt the most by the ban on short selling. Investors who buy convertible bonds (that is bonds that can be converted to stock at a certain price) usually short the same company’s stock as a hedge against a fall in the price. Due to the ban on short selling of certain types of shares this arbitrage function stood badly hit. Lehman brothers went bust; the U.S government was forced to rescue AIG. This was the result of poor management of the business model and not due to short sell-

ing, leading ultimately to central banks world wide such as the Federal Reserve, Bank of England, European Central Bank, and Bank of Japan injecting money into the banking system. The practice of short selling has for years been used as a hedging strategy aimed at protecting “long” investors - those who own stock in a particular company. The last time when short-selling was banned in the US in 1929 it did not have the desired effect and so I have my doubts it will work this time. Finally, it is not a good move to select only a few company shares that the hedge funds cannot short. For example FSA announced that Alliance Trust was one of the investment companies where traders cannot short sell shares but that led to traders targeting other investment companies such as ICAP and Man Group. Now short sellers are targeting property and construction sector companies as they are not on the banned list and this failure to ban these high beta sectors has exposed them to attack by short sellers. Lack of liquidity and lack of market confidence in the finance sector is the major problem now and banning short selling alone will not help to overcome the current crisis. Recession fears and the rescue package Can the temporary measures such as the US $700bn rescue package, the up to £400bn package by the UK government, and the coordinated effort by six countries to cut the interest rate at the same time remedy the recent fall in share prices? We will have to wait and see if it will work, but all these moves were taken very badly by the market and the share prices fell further as the markets thought them “panic moves”. It was Jim Rogers, who correctly predicted the commodities rally in 1999 who said that it is not a good idea to fight a recession and if one did and pumped money into the economy it would be nothing better than a quick fix leaving one worse off than the recession itself. I think he is right in so far as the temporary moves by the various governments around the world have failed to materialise.

In a recent interview with” Money Morning” Jim Rogers said “The U.S Financial crisis has cut so deep and the government has taken so much debt in misguided attempts to bail out companies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that the super crash is so likely that most Americans alive today will not be around by the time the last of this credit market mess is finally cleared away, if it ever is”. What is the future trend for share markets, currencies and commodities? DOW JONES: Dow Jones the world’s widely traded stock market index, has broken through a key15 year long trend line support level last month at 9950. What we are hoping now is Dow Jones to bounce back above this key 9950 level fairly soon otherwise this downtrend may continue for a while. Technical analysts may say Dow Jones is a buy above this 9950 level. One piece of good news for investors and traders is that the S&P 500, the US based world’s largest index that includes the top 500 companies in the US lost more in the weeks of October 2007, September 2001 and April 2000, than in the weeks of October 2008, and on all three occasions bounced back the following week; Also cyclically, we are (on 27th October 08) where we were at the crash of October1929, and October 1987, giving us hope that 27th October 08 reflected the lows for the stock market. GOLD Gold is the best investment to have during times of uncertainty such as the world is going through now. Gold was trading at just over $1000 an ounce in July 2008 and then dropped to $685 an ounce in October 2008 and had many commentators saying that the bull market for gold was over. At the time of writing, gold was trading at $710 an ounce and there is a possibility that gold prices may edge higher and hit $900 an ounce before the year end as November and December months are normally bullish months for gold. Continued on pages 14

8

ConfluenCe

front row dance and drama IN ITS OWN RIGHT - A festival of Asian art forms: INVASIAN at edinburgh fringe The great British pilgrimage each summer is to the north. 2008 saw a first at the edinburgh fringe: the INVASIAN festival sponsored predominantly by Incredible India, and produced by Club West. It was hosted in the Royal College of Surgeons’ Quincentenary Hall. Through the daily downpour, families, artists, companies, media, got into stampede mode for feasting their soul in the trough of culture. edinburgh is home of the world’s recognizably trail blazing, star making, profit shattering, destination that programmes art today that becomes the thought for tomorrow. The hype surrounding the festivals – fringe, International, Comedy, literature, Theatre, Dance, Jazz – makes a thriving industry for investors sponsoring the events, and for hotels, real estate rentals, theatres, employment for a wide range of production staff at the venues apart from the companies that bring their own. In a time when the economic current is looking east to India it seemed a significant gateway. The INVASIAN festival was a

programme of Asian performing arts ranging from Bollywood to Classical Bharatnatyam as direct influences from the subcontinent, and voices of the diaspora in the Asian theatre in england. Apart from this there were popular and serious representations of work from Korea and Hong Kong and Israel as well. Taking work to the edinburgh festivals is a high risk venture. The saying on the street goes: “You never go to make money at edinburgh, only a reputation and it best be a good one”. out of the 2000 shows that play simultaneously, one is lucky to get an audience at all! In a climate when arts funding is shrinking for subsidized theatre companies, this was a good idea as a platform for Asian work as an umbrella, put together somewhat indiscriminately, for diverse purposes, that had an interesting effect. firstly, the shuffling of commercial programmes like Taekwando placed at prime daytime slots, brought in family audiences with a sense of curiosity – not necessarily culture. But what was good was that it made the general public enter a venue that advertised a culturally specific programme, which they might otherwise have passed by. Secondly, the artists enlisted from diverse environments stretched the perception of Asianesses. This was evident from performers of diverse ethnicities displaying a professional commitment to Asian art forms integrated with British issues and concerns.

A vibrant example of this was Danceihayam (www.danceihayam. org), a Bharata natyam dance company based in edinburgh. Priya Shri Kumar as artistic director, chief choreographer & dancer with her multiracial team of dancers from Israel, Ireland, Malaysia, and Scotland created VISMAYAHA combining Krishna, Shiva and Devi narratives. They were spectacular in their combination of complex footwork, rhythms, including an exploration of Bharata natyam with music from the orkney-based Wrigley sisters and a finale to Celtic music. It was heartening to see the old stories, in traditional dance forms sending waves of excitement to new audiences. The discipline of Priya and her dancers signalled that true performance is about an immersion in the poetry of the moment; dance is a vehicle for that. from the south, or london, AKADeMI (www.akademi.co.uk) came DAReDeVAS. A powerful contemporisation of kathak with a multiracial cast of dancers. While these two organisations embedded the classical origins with a flair for integrating cross-cultural artists and styles, there were companies embarking on personal stories through traditional dance. Then comes the antithesis to dance : Theatre. Sayan Kent’s new work ANOTHER PARADISE, directed by Janet Steel of KAlI Theatre Company was a refreshing take on the ID card issue as a government intervention in the wake of identity fraud, citizenship, computer misreadings resulting in human mishaps, hackers, and the price of freedom. Sakuntala Ramanee’s performance was well poised between the surreal world of the play and the imminent reality of the chaos should this happen. The serious political nature of the work was well diffused by humour. It will be out on tour in April 2009. RIfCo Theatre company ( www. rifcoarts.com) more popularly known for Bollywood inspired musical theatre brought out a poignant work: IT AIN’T ALL BOLLYWOOD. This work featured a young Asian woman who locks herself into a panacea that Bollywood brings each time she has to encounter reality. And this is probably true of

Cleveland Watkiss creates a vocal suite of percussive, wind, and melodic sounds a lot of young Asian women whose dreams, and wedding parties, are fantasies of Bollywood, than facing cold reality. This two-hander paced itself with a hard working cast shaping a moving story. Straddling across the worlds of dance and theatre with its use of movement, music and improvised Storytelling was Vayu naidu Company’s (VnC) (www.vayunaiducompany.org.uk) re-telling of RAMAYANA with Ansuman Biswas on the Swiss Hang ; a musical instrument that combines melodic and percussive sounds. VnC’s new work BHAKTI & THE BLUES was with jazz singer Cleveland Watkiss. The former is the Hindu epic, the selection of stories are derived from unfamiliar folk, and tribal origins rendered in english. BHAKTI & THE BLUES is an intercultural meeting of the meaning of encountering the infinity of love across times of political oppression and human hardship. VnC’s poems, and selection of Devi and AfroAmerican stories were interwoven with Cleveland’s vocal suite that range from a trumpet to a djambe drum; it was where Indian storytelling met transatlantic Jazz and was ‘a serious side to the fringe’ (Glasgow Herald). The work that touched and combined technology with live performance as an installation theatre was ID by Hu nununMul enabling the audience to experience the alienation that every visitor and immigrant must experience when entering a country and not being fluent in the language. It was shortlisted for the Total Theatre

awards. The Chinese elvis (www. Chineseelvis.com) was another phenomenon that deserves mention. Paul Huw is no ordinary elvis sing alike. There is definitive political creed with his powerpoint on the Diverse elvis Spectrum done with the required irony, about identity. He states that the Chinese have not been embraced within the genre of Asian in england, as they are the singular minority emerging from Asia that does not play cricket. Through the comedy, some questions of what it means to be Asian are raised and looking at differences and similarities – particularly in the fascination with elvis. The Tourist Board of India – Incredible India! - sponsored this platform that gave the first visibility of Asian work at the edinburgh fringe. The Indian High Commissioner’s visit and affirmation gave it the stamp of approval for the future. (INVASIAN was produced by CluB WeST). Dr.Vayu Naidu - is a storyteller, writer, producer and Aristic Director of Vayu Naidu Company funded by the Arts Council England, whose intercultural work took her to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Now with Guys and St. Thomas’ Arts Charity as Artist in Residence at the New Cross Gate Satellite Unit, Vayu works across private, corporate and health sectors enabling people to envision change in their work place, stretching the frontiers of performance across art and life.

Confluence

9

E d w a r d L e a r H o t el The Edward Lear Hotel is an ideal location for visiting central London, only a 100 metre walk from Oxford Street. Just the right location for visitors to London’s tourist centre, and with discounted budget prices.

The Hotel is a former town-house typical of those once occupied by London’s wealthy elite and is the former home of the famous Victorian artist, Edward Lear who once taught Queen Victoria. Within easy walking distance of the theatre district, there are value-for-money prices for the bedrooms with a full range of choices to suit every need. Prices include full English breakfast, service and tax. Each room has cable TV with free satellite film and sports channels, tea/coffee, direct-dial phone, etc. We require a minimum of a two –night stay over the week-end and of a three – nights stay over New Year’s Eve. Rooms:31 Corina Heemskerk, Netherlands: Very clean very friendly staff, good location, good breakfast! Just at the beginning of Oxford Street and very close to Marble Arch. Good neighbourhood. For a London hotel, the room was excellent. It was spacious too.

28 – 30 Seymour S t r ee t, M a r b le A r c h , London W1H 7JB Where a 5 star service blends with old world charm

Branka Group, Las Vegas, USA: The history of the building, the excellent and charming dining room, the hospitality of the staff, comfortable bed, leave little to be desired. Robert, solo traveller,Siena, Italy: Staff at the reception helpful and friendly. The English breakfast is surprisingly good and rich given that the hotel has a ‘budgety’ feel to it Elite Group, Ferndale, USA: Almost everything and the food was good, staff friendly, location and price perfect

10

Confluence

POETRY RENDEZVOUS Poems by Sasenaraine Persaud

... And Sukrita Paul Kumar

LANTANA STRANGLING IXORA

DO NOT SAY GOODBYE

Pilgrim’s Progress

There were times in the morning we questioned the bloom of the previous evening, watering cana lilies, clearing the live oak acorns from our white wrought-iron bench

Lemon-green buds cover the tarmac.

Buried in the debris

spewing the romance,

Young maple leaves laugh

near the blind well

hidden snugly,

in the wind. This is not the way

in the jungle

to say goodbye; not in the pub

are a thousand tales

by a cold river, or a coffeehouse

How do ripe plantains smell? Like ripe bananas. You could laugh until after dinner. I will hold Radhakrishnan’s interpretations of the Upanishads until you snap on the ceiling fan

cozy and comforted by a dozen ears

nibbled by scurrying rats

And we swirl on the sheets of a different seeking scented like lilacs in a north-of-Toronto park or in the Arnold Arboretum. If you conjure a dead British poet with the same last name would you be wrong? American literature Or flowers in a Florida garden are all we need to know except if “papa” is hunting in the “Green Hills of Africa” or Buck is observing Chinese. You drift off into a naked sleep where snores sing

listening for tomorrow. Do not look back

and infected by amnesia

For a meeting and we barely have time to glance at the golden marigolds—left foot right foot brake and accelerate through amber lights impatient with ancient drivers gaping At dew on the St. Augustine grass and the aroused ficus leaves, a replica of Rama’s arrow tips, and we barely have time to see lantana strangling ixora.

STREET FAIR: BROOKLINE 300 They are dismantling the tents in the dusk. The steel poleframes clanging as they fall to the ground. We are still sitting on the tarmac under a few leaves yellowing in the September sun a folk artist singing, “This land is my land” and then, “Where have all the flowers gone—gone for graveyards everyone.” You are not supposed to cry for strangers, young men who have come back from the desert draped in red white and blue, but you do, quietly. The girl with the leashed gray-black cat—looking, like you, for a pickup—dancing (is she drunk?) like the Odissi and Kuchipudi dancers we just saw, accompanied by the Indian flautist (a doctor), the Indian veena player (another doctor), the mridangam player a scientist. For thirty minutes we are artists giving India to the world for free—and again at MIT in two months. It is all we have left. You have misnamed our numbers calling them Arabic Numerals; the windows operating system, not Bill Gates, an Indian scientist developed. You have taken our yoga, renaming it in the New York Times today, Christian Yoga and now Jewish Yoga right here in Boston we must ask The Master, Iyenger, what else can we give you Brookline? What else can we give you World?

in the tunnel built, as they say, from the bottom of the well

to this piped time; the one who talked too much, the one whose ears went out

Bits of tales peep out

to space, whose hair fell like a flaxen

as if sticking their tongues

Kaiteur; I’ve been there, I know

through fine slits

it all, Manhattan’s the world… Or

in the wrinkled surface

another head framed by the Charles,

of the heap

The flash of light,

hardening over time,

an end of the long night,

Concord grape eyes; we didn’t make that reading. Pretend, at least, we’re friends happy for each other; we will

to his majesty’s fort at Tughlagabad

with more and more

keep in touch, some separately; we will

thorny creepers and shrubs

become famous; I know no irony—I do

gripping the forest

slides down the spiral steps

not know “American,” or own a dictionary,

in a net

to kiss the mouth

in Georgetown English—eh!—South America

from which slip out

of the passage

we cuss you to your face. We take everything And a mouth that has taught us Kali’s secrets falls open to accommodate blocked passages or water the definition of a flower cluster or the naming of a southern plant: datura as prickly as that morning when the alarm failed to startle sexed sleep and you are hurried

of times immemorial

personally—even blossoms falling on your hair. How flows the Demerara, dear brother, still out to the Atlantic?

dead voices severed from their bodies, Compressed sighs

Touching the harmonium’s black keys, singing a dhun and stopping

at the other end, yielding fresh bodies

Do not say goodbye, until we’re gone.

THE BOARDING HOUSE

to the regal splendour

rising occasionally as white smoke and bouncing as cold echoes against the walls of the deep black pit

for the voices and softening the earth to impregnate her with a million more legends of love…

a Florida night in a Boston’s I couldn’t make out your melody was sweeter than any Demerara sugar. The closest we came to conversation: Are you off on holiday then? No. I’m finished.

Just Before Birth A canvas

before the cry

empty of colour

of anguish

So quickly? Yes. Goodbye? Yes.

a body

You toss that cabbage

kissed by death

head into your room. I do not know

I remain in half light, Listen to hidden songs

your name. I will forget these brown walls, snow-boots outside your door

A long silent wait

uncaredfor shoes. We crossed in the rain

of the foetus

Strain to hear the ebb and flow

floating in

Of tides and seas

barely recognizing each other’s umbrellas. I will never know you again. If we pass, it will be as strangers.

backwaters of existence

In the darkness ahead I read you

undefined

As the blind do.

Sasenarain Persaud is the author of eight books. His awards include the K.M.Hunter Foundation Award (Toronto) the Arthur Schomberg Award (New York) for his pioneering of yogic realism, and fellowships at the Universities of Miami and Boston.

Sukrita Paul Kumar is a poet and critic. She teaches literature at a Delhi University college.

Confluence

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The English Project and the English Language in India English belongs to the people who speak it, the people like you who are on the front line - Christopher Mulvey David Crystal’s Stories of English tells us that to tell the whole story of the English language is to tell many stories since every one of the hundred or more countries in which the English language now has a substantial presence has a particular story to tell. If there is a single story of English, it is like the story of a river, and in India when we think of rivers we think of the Ganges. The Ganges does not become the Ganges until six streams have become one but before the Ganges reaches the sea it divides into the unnumbered waterways of its great delta. The great flow of the Ganges provides an image of the great flow of the English language, and I want to focus on two streams. They are the ones that end in present-day England and present-day India. Legend tells us that the story of English in England began in 449 in a place then called Britannia with the landing of a band of warriors led by Hengst and Horsa coming from across the North Sea. However, it seems that Saxon people had been arriving in Britannia from at least 400, so Hengst and Horsa may have found a welcoming party who understood fairly well what they were saying. The story of English in India can be given an even more precise date, 31 December 1600. On that day, Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter creating the Company of Merchants of London Trading to the East Indies. (Port Cities) However, we can guess that, when those London traders reached the East Indies, they met Englishmen who were there before them. The upshot four hundred years later is that the language that people speak in London is now widely spoken in the city of Delhi. It is a remarkable fact of language that the sacred River Thames that flows into the North Sea has the same name as the sacred River Tamesa that flows into the Ganges. The Celtic word ‘Thames’ is derived from the same root as the Sanskrit word ‘Tamasa’, and both mean ‘dark river’. (Ellis, Hart) Celtic and Sanskrit like English are but three of the many ancient and modern languages that derive from that great mother of tongues, Indo-European. Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Pali and Punjabi are all tributaries with English, all owing their origins to the same source. The living Thames does not flow into the Ganges, but the linguistic Thames most certainly does, and English has been flowing into India for four hundred years. The English of India should not be thought to start around 1600. The English of India is as old as the English of England itself. A history of Indian English must start with the story of Germanic peoples crossing the North Sea to make their

homes in Britannia in the fifth century. I am not going to be able to tell the whole of that story, but I can discuss some salient points. For five hundred years in England, English evolved in a commonplace way. The main change was the uptake of Latin terms required by the conversion of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes to Christianity. That was not the first time that they had borrowed from Latin. They had arrived in England with many words learned from the soldiers of the Roman frontier. Butter, chalk, cheese, kettle, kitchen, mile, pepper, wall, and wine are just some of them. (Kemmer). The next change came from the influence of the Norse language spoken by Danish invaders in the eighth and ninth centuries, but the Danes settled down and became North Country men and women. Theirs was a Germanic language, and it blended nicely with the now fully merged speech of the former Angles, Saxons and Jutes. It was in 1066 that something linguistically profound began to take place. Invaders arrived in sufficient numbers with sufficient military power and they stayed for a sufficiently long time to bring about major changes in the grammar of English. These invaders produced a blend of Old English with Norman French. Grammatical gender was replaced by logical gender; most noun endings were lost; word order was affected. English ceased to be a normal Germanic language. The overall change was so great that ‘English first came into existence in roughly the form in which we know it today around 1350, when the influence of 300 years of

Norman French occupation had been assimilated into a basis of Germanic dialects.’ (Strevens 29) That level of impact of one language upon another is a linguistically rare event. Languages change their vocabularies easily; they change their pronunciations slowly; they change their grammars grudgingly. Remarkably, English having changed its grammar hugely by 1350 went on to change its pronunciation so that by 1450 English ceased to sound like a Germanic language. Within a hundred years, English acquired the range of diphthongs and strangulated vowels that make the language sound strange to speakers of both modern Italian and German. The change is called the Great Vowel Shift. Why it took place is not clear though it might be related to the great grammar shift of the previous three hundred years. By 1500, English had settled into its modern form. After that, the major change has been a vast increase in vocabulary. This, the lexicon of the language, began expanding in the Renaissance and has continued to do so ever since. The Oxford English Dictionary has over 500,000 head words (OED Online). The language is said to contain one million words, vastly more than anyone person can ever use or even know. However, the most commonly used words are still Germanic. The commonest of all is the word the, and most everyday words are Germanic - mother, father, love, food, drink, god (Using English) - the words for the things that matter. The year 1600, when English began to flow into the subcontinent of India, saw the beginnings of new forms of the

language and Indian English is the oldest World English after those of the British Isles. (Crystal, Guardian) Influences were two-way. English English began to take words from the languages of the subcontinent, and those old languages began the subtle transformation of the new language. In less than two hundred, English was beginning to compete with local languages. Anthea Gupta identifies 1774 as a key date because it was then that English became ‘the language of the Supreme Court in Calcutta’. (Gupta 189) Crucial as that date proved to be, the traders of the East India Company were by no means settled on the wisdom of using English in India. ‘Support was given to developing education in India in the Indian tradition. [The Company] established schools teaching Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic. Some of these schools were for Indians, while others [. . .] were for East India Company officers.’ (Gupta 188) Nonetheless, the fact that a trading company was concerning itself with education meant that it was having to involve itself with governing. So it was that in 1835, what Andrea Gupta calls ‘the infamous Minute of Lord Macaulay’ set English as the language of higher education, law and administration. (Gupta 190) It was not be until 1857 that Company rule was ended altogether, but only because the British East India Company became the Indian Civil Service. The Company became the Raj. And, for good and for ill, the language of the Raj was English. Today, there are, as a result of Macaulay’s Minute, 350,000,000

English speakers in India, making it the world’s greatest English-speaking nation. (Crystal, Guardian), outnumbering the English-speakers of the United Kingdom and the United States combined. So what kind of English are these 350,000,000 speakers speaking? What, to be local, is this Delhi English? Well, it seems that it is not the English of London or Washington. According to Jason Baldridge, it differs in phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax. Indian sounds different from British and American. It constructs its words differently. It has its own vocabulary. It has its own sentence structures. Baldridge tells us that Indians ‘shorten many words to create commonly used terms’ and from there they go on to make several changes and developments. The results can be strange for some one from London or Washington. In Indian English ‘enthusiasm is called enthu; as such, it can be used in new ways. One can say, “That guy has a lot of enthu.” While this is simply an abbreviation, enthu can also be used as an adjective where enthusiasm cannot, as in “He's a real enthu guy.” The same applies for fundamentals, which is shortened as fundas. “She knows her fundas.”’ In short, ‘the English which is spoken in India is different from that spoken in other regions of the world.’ (Baldridge) If Delhi’s English is different from the English of London and Washington, what are we to make of it? Can it be proper English? The first answer to that question is to note that the English of London and Washington differ in all the ways that Delhi English differs from both. The phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax of London and Washington are distinct. The second answer must come in the form of an American-style question: Can 350,000,000 Indian-English speakers be wrong? The best answer is given by India’s leading English-language scholar, Braj B. Kachru. In an article called ‘Models for Non-Native Englishes’, Kachru argues that speakers of Indian English must ‘develop an identity with the local model of English without feeling that it is a “deficient” model.’ (Kachru, ‘Models’ 67-68) Of course, English speakers in London and Washington should come to the same conclusion, but it is more important that the Englishspeakers in Delhi believe that they have their own valid norm for the speaking of English whatever Londoners and Washingtonians might think. After all, that is what the Americans have done. They have not looked to England for a norm since 1828 when Noah Webster Continued on p 12

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ConfluenCe

THE ENGLISH PROJECT - Cont from p11 published An American Dictionary of the English Language. As Kachru says no Webster has ‘come forward to defend a non-native model’. (Kachru, ‘Models’ 53). Kachru himself may yet prove to be the noah Webster of Indian english since he has written innumerable books and articles on the subject. I have sketched two stories of the english language and similar stories could be told of the englishes from Australia to Zimbabwe. Stories exist in time. linguists call that the diachronic dimension of language. linguists also talk about the extension of language through space. That is called the synchronic dimension. I have been talking about english english and Indian english as if they were single entities because it is easier to tell their stories that way. But, if we stop at any point in the last sixteen hundred years, we can see that it is not a story that we need but a survey, a survey of the forms a language takes at a given date. If we take only the aspect called dialect, we find that British english, that is the english spoken in the united Kingdom, comes in over 500 versions. A remarkable variety within such a small geographical space. But then dialects are generated by time and isolation, and english speakers have been in the united Kingdom for a long time and in isolated places. These accents vary socially as well as geographically, and class dialects are pronounced in england. I think they are very probably quite pronounced in India. By contrast, they are less significant in the united States, a country that despite its size and numbers demonstrates less regional variation than the united Kingdom. The American Mid-West was populated so rapidly, in a time of railroads and increasing communication, that the great majority of American people now speak the dialect known as General American - the dominant norm of the english language. A synchronic survey of the english language could be made at any point in its history, but it is perhaps most interesting to make it at the present. The spread of the language is a continuum so great that it might be that at its extremes it is becoming different languages. The creoles of Africa, the West Indies and the Pacific are at one extreme. Aukan, Bajan, Creola, Krio, Kwinti, Pijin, and Patwa (Ethnologue) are just some of the many versions of english that are so blended with elements of another language that many english speakers find them difficult to understand. But if on first encounter they are unintelligible, a little book study shows their relation to english, and written forms rapidly reveal meanings. You could pick them up readily enough if you were to find yourself talking exclusively with Bajan or Creola speakers for a month.

I have spoken of two stories, english english and Indian english; I have spoken of two dimensions, diachronic english and synchronic english; I need now speak of two forms, spoken and written english. They are profoundly different. The one is no more important than the other though linguists give the primacy to the spoken language. usually, the written language leads people to talk first about literature. english literature begins in the seventh and eight centuries with the hymns of Caedmon and the epic of Beowulf. I count these poems as the beginning of the literature of Indian english as well as the beginning of the literature of english english. The two literatures are distinct enough today although they are richly overlapped by writers of both countries. And they merge with writers like Rudyard Kipling and Salman Rusdie. But if literature comes first to mind when we talk about written english, we are all aware that the bulk of what is written is not literature and that has been true from the beginning since most ancient records have to do with butcher’s bills and laundry lists. The first evidence of written english appears on a thin medallion, found in Suffolk and dated to about 450. It has the words: ‘gægogæ mægæ medu’ inscribed upon it. They may mean ‘This she wolf is a reward to my kinsman.’ (Crystal, English Language 163-64) Part of the difficulty in reading the medallion lies in its battered condition; part in the fact that it is engraved in runic script. ‘Gægogæ mægæ medu’ is one of those extremes of english that captures the mystery of language; another extreme is the written language of today’s mobile phone, not a language with which I have any skill, but it is a recent manifestation of an extreme english. let me try to speak to you for a while in mobile text language, sometimes called ‘lingo’ or simple ‘txt’: ‘d gr8st booty of r heritage S d en lang, n itz r gr8st gft 2 d wrld. itz d lang of Shakespeare n d rap Rtst. itz d pasport 2 evry cn10nt.’ (Txt courtesy of nigel Hazelwood) It is rather too difficult to go on. let me translate into a plainer english and extend the statement: ‘The greatest treasure of our heritage is the english language, and it is our greatest gift to the World. It is the language of Shakespeare and the rap artist. It is the passport to every continent. Many countries are already setting up treasure houses to display their languages, but there is no place where the english language is fully presented to the public. english used to reach very few people at the beginning but 1600 years later it is reaching the world. Winchester will be the place to see that global story.’ That is a quotation from a press release of a charity called the english Project.

I am a trustee of the english Project, and we have a mission to deepen people’s understanding and knowledge of english, its history and continuing development so that english speakers of all kinds can better appreciate, use and enjoy the language. To do this we are setting up a living exhibition, an online world, an educational centre and a research foundation. The english Project will tell the story of how the tongue of those three ancient tribes is becoming the language of two billion people. our virtual site will be everywhere and our concrete site will be at Winchester, the ancient capital of england, one hundred kilometres from london. Winchester is the city of King Alfred the Great, the patron of english scholarship (Ackroyd 1.3.5). He is the first person we know to call the language ‘english’. (OED) He ordered his clerks to translate major latin texts into english. As a result, Winchester is the first place at which our language achieved a standard written form. (Crystal, Stories 52, 82). The project has the whole-hearted support of the BBC, the British Council, the British library, the english-Speaking union, and of my own university, that of Winchester. Much as I have spoken about the histories of World english, our exhibition will more concerned with the englishes of the present day and indeed of the future. The Trustees of the english Project see the english language as one of the greatest contributions of the British Isles to world culture. It is providing the medium of communication globally for politics, science, literature and commerce. The unfolding story of english is one of the most compelling narratives of our time, helping to shape the lives of some two billion people. The english Project’s reach is global; its artefacts are sounds; its focus is language; its target is the non-reader as well as the bibliophile; its audiences must be immersed, engaged and empowered; its scholarship must be the best. our first production is a book that we are launching on 16 october. It is Kitchen Tabl`e Lingo by the english Project: a book of home-made words. Written and edited by us it has a foreword by Melvyn Bragg and an Afterword by David Crystal. It introduces the english Project to the world: ‘our aim,’ we say in the Introduction, is to help english speakers across the globe become more aware of where the language has come from and how it continues to develop. underlying that mission is a strong belief that english belongs to the people who speak it. It’s not the dictionary-makers or academics who own the language, but the people like you who are on the front line day-in, day-out using and extending it. english is a great, inclusive inheritance

that all of us can enjoy. And Kitchen Table Lingo is a way of acknowledging publicly the fundamental contribution made by individuals who shape the language in their homes and workplaces to express new ideas and change the language so it works better (and more amusingly) for them. You can help the english Project in a very material way. Please go today to Amazon.co.uk and pre-order Kitchen Table Lingo. It only costs £5.99, and it will make us very happy. first, we will be happy because you will have such a good time reading it. Second, we will be happy because it will lead you to our website where you can make your own contribution to the next edition of Kitchen Table Lingo. Third, we will be happy because the more you buy the book, the further Kitchen Table Lingo gets bump up the Amazon charts. finally, we will be happy because the more books we will sell the sooner the english Project will go forward. The english Project has a mission, as I have already said, ‘to deepen people’s understanding and knowledge of english’. We believe that everyone can and should enjoy the riches of language and that the more people know about this language the more they will be empowered in their personal, social and productive lives. The english Project is new, but it is making its impact through its fresh and imaginative ideas. We are exploring new areas by engaging with ordinary english speakers across divides of education, geography and social background. The timing now is good; it is in fact ripe. The english Project will not be the first language museum. I have been to the Museum of the Portuguese language in San Paolo, and it is marvellous. language as a visitor attraction has already been tested in this world leader. The Germans, the Danes, and the Hungarians are all planning similar ventures. I should say that the english Project is highly entrepreneurial; we don’t expect to subsist on public funds. However, for our larger ambitions we do need significant pump-priming financial support. If the full potential of english Project is to be achieved then we need a major donor for our principal visitor centre in Winchester which we then want to see franchised around the english speaking world. Are you that donor? Isn’t it time that english was properly recognised and enjoyed to the full? How can you help that happen? Please visit the english Project Website at www.englishproject.org and register yourself as a supporter, and put in an Amazon advanced order for Kitchen Table Lingo today. Please help us with our fundraising and make the english Project known in India and become the Project’s ambassador there.

Christopher Mulvey is Emeritus Professor of English, at the University of Winchester. and Director, The English Project BIBLIOGRAPHY Ackroyd, Peter. Thames: Sacred River. 3 vols. Audiobook. Read by Simon Callow. Douglas: Random House, 2007. Baldridge, Jason. ‘linguistic and Social Characteristics of Indian english.’ language in India. ed. M. S. Thirumalai. www.languageinindia.com, 2002. Crystal, David. ‘The Subcontinent Raises Its Voice.’ The Guardian (19 november 2004): http://education.guardian.co.uk/ tefl/story/0,,1355064,00.html. Crystal, David. The English Language. london : Penguin, 1990. Crystal, David. The Stories of English. new York: overlook, 2005. ellis, Peter Berresford, ‘our Druid Cousins’, Hinduism Today. ( w w w. h i n d u i s m t o d a y. c o m / archives/2000/2/2000-2-16.shtml) Ethnologue. ‘Creoles and pidgins, english based.’ www.ethnologue.com. Gupta, Anthea fraser. 1996. “english and empire: Teaching english in nineteenth-Century India.” Learning English: development and diversity. ed. neil Mercer and others. london: Routledge, 1996. See 188-194. Hart, Ian. http://members.aol.com/ wwjohnston/thames.htm Hazelwood. neil. Lingo2Word. www. lingo2word.com. Kachru, Braj B. ‘Models for nonnative englishes’ in The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures. edited by Braj B Kachru. urbana: university of Illinois Press, 1992. 48-74. Kemmer, Suzanne. Loanwords. Rice university: www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/ Words/loanwords.html, 2007 OED. Online. Oxford English Dictionary. www.oed.com. OED. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary. 2 vols. oxford: oxford university Press, 1974. Port Cities. ‘The east India Company.’ www.portcities.org.uk. Strevens, Peter. ‘english as an International language’ in The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures. edited by Braj B. Kachru. urbana: university of Illinois Press, 1992. 27-47. Using English.com. www.usingenglish. com/reference/common-words/index. html, 2007.

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BOOK REVIEW Pure Lizard, Sujata Bhatt’s latest collection of poems Reviewed by Reginald Massey Pure Lizard (Carcanet, Manchester, 2008, £9.95. ISBN 978-1-85754-833-4) The title of this book requires some comment. Since Sujata Bhatt and I happen to hail from the same part of the world we have first hand experience of lizards which most Europeans probably do not. There are several kinds of lizard and they are not the most beautiful creatures on earth though Bhatt quite obviously finds them fascinating. Most people, even in India, are revolted by them. However, during the rainy season house lizards, geckos or chipkillis, do perform a useful service by snapping up midges and mosquitoes. Then there is the lizard known as the gir-gittain, a chameleon, which avoids detection by changing colour to camouflage itself. I rather suspect that Bhatt has this creature in mind and uses it as an amusing, telling, intriguing and interesting metaphor.

Most educated Indians (and there are 200 million of them, give or take a few million either way) are multilingual and multicultural. They possess multiple identities not because of cultural confusion or displaced identity but because their terms of reference are various and wide; they are globalists in the truest sense. They blend in easily with time and place and the local environment. This is, if I may coin a phrase, the gir-gittain syndrome. Bhatt, who has attained a certain reputation as a poet of international standing, is a prime example. Her mother tongue is Gujarati but her verse, sensitively and carefully crafted in English, has an uncanny grasp of the rhythms and nuances of English prosody. She is a poet who has made the world her oyster. Moreover, where she scores hugely is in her feeling for American language and literature as well her deep understanding of Continental, particularly German, thought. Most Indian writers of

the senior generation (among whom may be counted for example Khushwant Singh, Rushdie and Naipaul), are British in their ideas, discourses and expressions. They are children of Empire as am I. But Bhatt is different. She belongs to the new India. She was born, like Tarun Tejpal and many others of their ilk, well after the midnight hour when the world was asleep and India made her tryst with destiny. The collection is in four tranches: ‘A Hidden Truth’, ‘Telemann’s Frogs’, ‘Sad Walk’, and ‘Solo Piano’. And what a fabulous feast they make. She plunders the artistic heritage of the planet and transforms it all into the purest poetic experience. She interacts with the art of Paula Rego as well as the music of Glass and Telemann. I can quote poem after poem that moved me, pleasured me, richly satisfied my love of language and acute observation. I offer a short poem as a hors d’oeuvre :

What is Exotic (for Hasso Krull) Sweden is exotic – And so is all of Finland. Whortleberries certainly are. Estonia is exotic – And so is the Estonian word for lizard: sisalik. But the lizard herself is my sister – those hot afternoons when she comes indoors to hide – Now I didn’t know that Estonia had lizards but then one learns from the poets. A pity she did not create a powerful piece on the dreaded Komodo dragon of Indonesia, the largest living lizard. Bhatt possesses in full measure the Keatsian quality of negative capability, the ability to identify completely with one’s subject. Her verses deserve to be savoured with affection and respect. She is a lyric poet of the first rank.

Book cover Reginald Massey’s collected verses are in “Lament of a Lost Hero and Other Poems”. His latest book is “INDIA: Definitions and Clarifications”. Earlier this year he was Writerin-Residence at the Wolfsberg think tank in Switzerland.

For your bookshelf The Life and Death of Democracy John Keane John Keane’s The Life and Death of Democracy will inspire and shock its readers. Presenting the first grand history of democracy for well over a century, it poses along the way some tough and timely questions: can we really be sure that democracy had its origins in ancient Greece? How did democratic ideals and institutions come to have the shape they do today? Given all the recent fanfare about democracy promotion, why are many people now gripped by the feeling that a bad moon is rising over all the world’s democracies? Do they indeed have a future? Or is perhaps democracy fated to join the poor dodo and the forests of Easter Island in the land of extinction? The work of one of Britain’s leading political writers, a man whose work on democracy is of ‘world-wide importance’ (The Times), this is no mere antiquarian history. Stylishly written, this superb book confronts its readers with an entirely fresh and irreverent look at the past, present and

future of democracy. It unearths the beginnings of such precious institutions and ideals as government by public assembly, votes for women, the secret ballot, trial by jury and press freedom. The Life and Death of Democracy explains how and why democracy spread in modern times to Latin America, Africa and Asia. It tracks the changing, hotly disputed meanings of democracy; retells the best jokes about it; and describes quite a few of the extraordinary characters, many of them long forgotten, who dedicated their lives to building or defending democracy. The book proposes that we are now living in a new age of ‘monitory democracy’, explains why it is potentially the best form of government on earth – and why democracies everywhere are sleepwalking their way into deep trouble. ‘History is often said to be a catalogue of human sorrows, an unending story of bootlicking, a slaughterhouse of crimes. It is not always so. The mould of cruel servitude can be shattered,

as happened 2600 years ago, when Greeks living on the south-eastern fringes of Europe laid claim to an invention that now ranks in historical importance with the wheel, the printing press, the steam engine and the cloning of stem cells. Born of resistance to tyranny, their claimed invention at first caused no great stir. Few spotted its novelty. Some condemned it for bringing chaos into the world. Nobody predicted its universal appeal … The invention was a potent form of wishful thinking that is still with us today: the Greeks called it demokratia.’ John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Westminster and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Founder of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, his books include Global Civil Society (2004), Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts (1999) and the prize-winning Tom Paine: A Political Life (1995). He lives in London.

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BOOK REVIEW

Confluence

The Indian Family in Transition:a changing landscape

Reviewed by Dibyesh Anand Dasgupta, Sanjukta and Lal, Malashri (eds) (2007) The Indian Family in Transition: Reading Literary and Cultural Texts, New Delhi: Sage Publications Family is central to dominant as well as resistant notions of Indianness. More often than not, people derive their sense of identity through the institution of family. And yet, as the contributions in this book point out, there is nothing essentially democratic or benign about families. Family is a site of identity and belongingness as much as of difference and alienation. This collection of twenty three chapters reveals the multiple and interesting ways in which families are evolving in modern India and in Indian diaspora. It brings together ‘in a single volume, aspects of the contemporary Indian family in transition, by exploring and exposing how the Indian family needs to be re-defined’ (13). In this process of making real the putative ‘Indian family’ the book does not adequately challenge the fetishized concept of ‘Indian family’. While some chapters recognise that the two parts of the term – Indian and family – are open to interpretation, others offer simplistic notions of both. The strength of the book lies in moving away from a sociological analysis to a literary and cultural one. This offers an innovative take on the role of the imaginative and the imaginary as anthropological resource when it comes to studying families. However, to what extent do the literary and cultural representations (say the television programmes) reflect the every day lived experience of fam-

ily-based individuals? How does the aesthetic mediate and thereby demand a caution in assuming the literary to be anthropological? The book raises as many questions as it answers. This is not a criticism of the collection but a compliment. For a truly scholarly endeavour cannot but fail to provide authoritative answers. A weakness of the collection lies in focusing disproportionately on Hindu middle class urban families as the norm. The exception of Bhave’s chapter makes this focus on middle class even more conspicuous. Someone not familiar with India would get a sense of Hindu - India from this collection which hardly deals with the similarity and differences in the experiences of non-Hindu or mixed-religious households. Let me give an example. The first part is titled ‘Colonial Families: Re-visiting Tradition’ but Walsh’s chapter looks only at the customary Hindu family structure and the gender politics within it. The rest of the book is no different. The second part deals with patriarchal family structure and struggle for empowerment within it in different parts of India. Mukherjee offers education, economic self-reliance and collective action as the way forward while Lamb focuses on care of the aged and Aleaz highlights the communitarianism in the Naga families. Are educated and earning women less vulnerable and more empowered in India as Mukherjee claims? Are incidents of domestic violence or persistence of patriarchal norms through the practice of a wife taking the husband’s surname and treatment of woman’s career as secondary within the family a sign of empowerment? I think not. The contributions in the part three

At the book launch: Prof Malashri Lal (closest to camera) and Prof Sanjukta Das Gupta (seated extreme right) on literary representations, the most interesting chapters that constitute the bulk of the book, highlight the often contradictory ways in which modernity and family interact with each other. This part is followed by two chapters on the cinematic representation of family. I cannot but disagree with Chatterji here who uses extensive quotes from a few people to point out the ‘irresponsibility’ of live-in relationship and laments the legal sanction by a court in India of such pattern of living ‘against a backdrop of the USA lamenting its rising divorce rate’ (258). Why bring in the USA in this context? How are these two things related? Chatterji’s own sense of moral clarity about the superiority of Indian culture and its adherence to marriage comes out clearly in her next sentence: ‘a couple of generations of latch-key children in US do not know what the word “family” means and look to India as an illustration in monogamous relationships stabilized through marriage’ (258). Even though it might be intentional, but her stance on family

and marriage reminds one of rightwing conservatives in the West. Gulzhar’s chapter on the other hand shows the divided and multifaceted nature of Indian family. She makes a convincing argument about the use of ‘family card’ by the media to channelise audience’ emotions for their own purposes. Then there is part five ‘Memoir’ which gives us insights into the reminiscences of some contemporary writers, activists and commentators on how they have negotiated the flux within the family. This includes Meena Alexander, Vidya Bal, Nonda Chatterjee, Shashi Deshpande, Makarand Paranjape, and Uma Parameswaran. For those with interest in autobiographical sketches this part should be of some interest. The final chapter in the book is an interview of the editors with Amartya Sen. In their own words it is the ‘prestigious sixth part … [which] is not only a validation of our engagement and fitting finale to our endeavour …but it also makes us feel we have indeed located a turning point in Indian culture

in the twenty first century’ (29). I wonder what makes this more prestigious than others and how does the interview with Sen give the editors confidence in having captured a fundamental shift in India’s family structure? While most of the substantive chapters are interesting, the introduction should have avoided the gushing admiration of specific individuals (apart from Sen, there is the ‘eminent social scientist Andre Beteille’ 19) and use of many long quotes. Such unquestioning respect for specific individuals reminds one of hierarchical families and not critical scholarship. Overall, the book offers a worthy and diverse reading of Hindu middle class Indian family and puts the notion of family under scrutiny. But it does not offer much insight into the non-Hindu and non-middle class families and takes the qualifier ‘Indian’ to be given. Dr Dibyesh Anand is a Reader in International Relations at Westminster University, London.

Ban on short selling shares Continued from Page 7 CURRENCIES High interest yield currencies such as the New Zealand Dollar and the Australian Dollar were hit hard during the past few months against low yielding currencies such as the Japanese Yen and the US Dollar. The Australian Dollar was the hardest hit as the Central Bank of Australia also cut interest rates by a full one point in October when the market was expecting just a half point cut. The Australian Dollar lost nearly 40% in three months against the US Dollar and 50% against the Japanese Yen during the same period. When reacting, currency pairs tend to over react and the Aussie Dollar may start to pick up from here as the interest rate

differential between these two countries is still over 5 percent. Sterling / U.S Dollar exchange rate hit a six year low on the 24th October 08 at 1.5260,and this level is a 23 year uptrend technical level and therefore one hopes this level will be maintained in the long term unless the Bank of England cut their interest rates aggressively during the next few months.Sterling / Euro exchange rate has been trading sideways since March 08 between the levels 1.3000 and 1.2200. It will be interesting to watch which way this pair is going to break out and when it does, it may be a very violent move. CRUDE OIL Oil prices have dropped from $148

per barrel to $65 per barrel in three months (55% drop). According to technical analysts they were looking for the price to drop to $62 before prices start to push up higher and this price was hit on the 27th October 2008. The long term (seven year) trend for the oil price is still on an upward path so it will be incorrect to say that the bull market is over. (This seven year bull trend price target is coming in as $49) Conclusion Artificial methods such as banning short sellers, intervention by central banks around the world through injecting money into the economy, cutting interest rates and so on ( though the

U.S Federal Reserve cut interest rates aggressively from 5% to 1% the economy failed to pick up) may not work. Though the U.S Federal Reserve cut interest rates aggressively from 5% to 1% the economy failed to pick up. Free markets ought to be allowed to function without any artificial intervention. Recessions, a fall in house prices, redundancies, high levels of house re-possessions, and bankruptcies are part of the economic cycle and governments can take measures to control them but not eliminate them completely. One of the world’s best known investment gurus whom I admire greatly said recently: “what the US Treasury is trying to do is impossible, it is trying to avoid a hangover by remaining

permanently drunk”. The financier Bernard Baruch also famously said “A market without bears is like a nation without a free press” 2nd November 2008 Risk warning: Financial trading and spread betting, carry a high level of risk to your capital. You should speculate only with the money you can afford to lose. You may lose more than your original deposit or stake; therefore seek independent professional advice. The information set out above should not be regarded as tips; they are the writer’s forecasts based on certain assumptions.

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book review

Paradise Lost: a powerful and compelling debut novel Reviwed by Shelagh Goonewardene A Review of MOSQUITO by Roma Tearne Published by HarperPress, Great Britain 2007 Review by Shelagh Goonewardene This book belongs to the increasing number of novels written by expatriates which focus on the war which has now dominated over twenty-five years of Sri Lankan history. These years have witnessed the country’s decline from a once peaceful and relatively progressive and prosperous state to one that is featured on the Foreign Policy (FP) Failed States Index in the eyes of the international community. The expatriate novelist writes from a deep sense of concern for the country and its people and while he or she can maintain a certain detachment from events and the pressures they exert, there is often an involvement with the experiences and feelings of the individuals affected who become characters in their books viewed with both passion and compassion. In “Mosquito” Theo Samarajeeva, the chief protagonist, is a successful writer with an international reputation who has lived in Europe for many years and led a totally fulfilling life, until the sudden death of his beloved Italian wife Anna in a shocking and random accident shatters his life. Unable to cope, he instinctively makes for home, Sri Lanka, the land of his birth and upbringing just as a distressed animal would retreat to the safest haven he remembers in order to tend his wounds. There, he rents an isolated bungalow in an idyllic place on the beach and settles down to a quiet life. His only companion is Sugi, an elderly servant whom he hires to be his

cook, housekeeper and general handyman. Sugi is efficient at his duties but in addition he is very perceptive of the moods and needs of his ‘Sir’ and develops a close rapport with him which leads to a strong friendship between them. ‘He (Sugi) had seen in him (Mr Samarajeeva) the kind of person that no longer existed. Someone fine and just and clever…. Someone who had not been corrupted by the war.’ The third protagonist is Nulani Mendis, a young girl of seventeen who lives close by and has seen her father die in a petrol bomb explosion as he was too outspoken and defended the rights of Tamils. Her mother who is rendered distraught by his death has become totally obsessive in her love for her son Jim, and has nothing left to give Nulani who is mostly treated as an unpaid servant only useful for household duties. She leaves the girl mostly to her own devices, which include attending a convent school, whereas Jim is given every assistance to win a scholarship and leave for studies in England. Nulani is a naturally gifted artist who spends all her spare time sketching and painting with limited resources. She gradually ventures into Theo’s house since their paths often cross outside while walking on the beach and she begins drawing the decorative European objects that are displayed in his sitting room. While he works at his new book at his desk, she finds an unobtrusive spot on the veranda from where she can observe and draw him, eventually turning the sketches into paintings. This is the beginning of their relationship. In a parallel story, Vickram who also lives in the same small seaside town and goes to the same school as Dulani is

a young Tamil who was a child soldier rescued from the Tigers and placed in an orphanage. A sympathetic unmarried Sinhalese gentleman takes him into his home as his ward and leaves him in the care of his servant woman, Thercy who manages the household, while he leaves the country on an overseas work trip. Vickram is a strange, enigmatic boy who barely speaks after he was found hiding under a bed in his village home while government soldiers raped and then murdered his mother and sister. His father, in despair, had committed suicide not knowing that his son is still alive. Gerard a Tiger agent active in the town, gradually recognizes that Vickram is an ideal recruit for coopting and training for special missions executed by the separatists. The stories of Vickram and Dulani touch at various critical points and serve to illustrate aspects of what living in the fog of war means. Rohan, Theo’s closest friend who has also returned home with his Italian wife Giulia at about the same time as Theo, after most of his adult life in Europe, is a painter who has exhibited at international galleries. Theo introduces Nulani to them so that her talent may be assessed by him, and the presence of these two people who best understand both Theo and Dulani and the forces against them are essential to the development and eventual climax of the novel. The Sri Lankan abroad is subject to subtle changes in personality, character and outlook due to exposure to new cultures and the resulting transference of certain values and behaviors. Theo has no hesitation in placing himself in danger by openly confronting a ruthless man and his equally unscrupu-

book cover lous friends in the mistaken belief that a reasonable conversation will ensue instead of the violence that is visited on him when he is kidnapped and delivered to government forces. The motive for his kidnapping is their wish to use his ability as a writer who can produce useful propaganda which will whitewash their image and their actions to an international audience. Subsequently Theo is seized by a Tiger patrol in the jungle where the government forces have taken him and the tempo of the narrative becomes one of breathtaking speed, a pace that keeps the reader wholly involved and gripped by the story. The characters and their separate but interconnected dilemmas are those which have won the empathy of the reader completely. The writer’s attitude to government forces, Tigers and other paramilitaries, thugs with their own agendas and private armies is exactly the same for all of these exist and are purveyors of violence in various forms. It is this violence that has torn the fabric of society irreparably. The novel’s title conveys a host of meanings in this context. It is both a potent symbol and telling reality. The mosquito breeds in stagnant water and other

unhealthy swamp areas. If it is left without hindrance to propagate freely it brings both illness and death. The malarial mosquito is endemic to the country and played its part in the decay of the great ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polannaruwa. When, as is the situation now, the eradication of the mosquito is neglected or a low priority because of the concentration on the war and all it entails, the general population is very vulnerable. In the novel, we are constantly made aware, indirectly and directly of its nature and habitat. Nulani’s mother dies of malaria. The point that an expatriate never detaches herself or himself entirely from the native land is clearly and memorably etched by Tearne. The connections and the effects sustained are constantly felt in many different ways according to individual or family circumstances. The people of Sri Lanka are always present to us in our thoughts and feelings. As Sugi reflects to himself at one point. ‘Underneath the mess they (the people) had created for themselves, the land still had powerful ancient roots. It was still capable of healing. One day it would go back to what it had been before.’ Roma Tearne has written a compelling and powerful novel which also illustrates a remarkable depth and delicacy of sensibility Shelagh Goonewardene has written a book on Sri Lankan Theatre, ‘This Total Art’ (1994) with considerable experience of being an actor, director and critic in this area since the 1960s. She now writes book reviews and poetry, and has recently published her first book of poetry, “Poems to the Creator.” She now lives in Australia.

Confluence

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presents

A dazzling duet for London with

Shubha Mudgal & Bombay

Jayashri

live in concert Sun 7 December 2008, 7.30 Part of Southbank Centre’s ‘International Voices’ series southbank centre, london se1 8xx

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A concert duet never seen before in Europe, performed by two leading lights in Indian vocal music. Shubha Mudgal and Bombay Jayashri are stars in their respective fields of North and South Indian music, and have excelled in classical, folk and film music. They come together in a rare duet, or jugalbandhi, of classical music, presenting a unique fusion between the styles of North Indian and South Indian vocal music, accompanied by Sudhir Nayak on harmonium, Aneesh Pradhan on tabla, Embar Kannan on violin and Poongulum Subramanian on the mridangam. Promoted by Milapfest in association with Southbank Centre

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For further information please contact: Tel 0151 707 1111 • Email [email protected] Milapfest is Britain’s premier South Asian Arts Trust commissioning and touring high quality arts events thoughout the year. Look out for exciting events in your area - visit our website

www.milapfest.com Booking Information: Ticket prices £25, £20, £15 (50% off, limited availability)

Box office: 0871 663 2500 or online at www.southbankcentre.co.uk

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