Are there lessons for all from assassination of Benazir?
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has been perhaps one of the most tragic incident in recent history. This incident not only has weakened the cause of democracy but has also thrown Pakistan far into a zone of no return. While many have been trying to play down the entire incident as just the continuation of the Pakistani legacy of military coups and assassinations, this episode of the same has put the future of South Asia at a real crossroad. Now that the dust is settling down and things are relatively coming back to normalcy, are there important lessons and observations to be drawn from this tragic happening? Well, to start with, Benazir’s assassination once again brings forth an increasingly menacing trend of this era, i.e. nations are subject to more risk from within, than from outside.
For rest of the world, nothing could have been better than to see the gradual restoration of faith in democracy in hearts and minds of the average Pakistani and releasing him/her steadily from clutches of fundamentalism. It’s some elements within Pakistan, aided by global fundamentalism, which have given a death knell to restoration of democracy in Pakistan. In the same league, for an LTTE, it makes more sense to continue with mayhem than to find reasonable political solutions for the cause of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minorities and thereby putting Sri Lanka at risk more from within than outside.
The same is the case of Bangladesh which through its ascension as well as assertion of fundamentalism is increasingly proving that, once, it was rightly called East Pakistan. Today Bangladesh, and Nepal too has more threats from within than without. A wider scrutiny of Asia at large and even of Europe would vindicate that the same malaise is plaguing them too, be it IRA is UK, ETA in Spain or PKK in Turkey. For the whole of 20th century, nations put more resources to mitigate external threats. And in their quest to securing external boundaries, they literally undermined the problems germinating within. As a result internal security was always considered less of a priority than external security.
The trend is continuing even now with billions of dollars of budget being put to buy weapons for conventional wars whose probability is decreasing by the day while most nations are thoroughly ill-equipped to deal with an omnipresent virtual enemy. India in this case is no exception either. In fact the level of internal distrust that is prevailing in Pakistan is evident from the fact that the Musharraf regime had to involve the Scotland Yard to demonstrate its commitment for a fair investigation.
The other striking observation from the entire Benazir death saga has been the reaction in India. There was perhaps not a single soul in India which was not in grief and which didn’t share solidarity with the beleaguered Pakistan. The wrong-doings of Pakistan in the past didn’t come in the way of expressing shock and shedding tears for someone who, for an average Indian, was a little more than just another politician of a rogue Pakistan. There was an attachment much beyond that. Perhaps the virtual bondage of the umbilical chord cut in a hurry still having its presence felt. And it is perhaps because of this that it is not just a need but a necessity for India to see that Pakistan doesn’t collapse. In that case, when history would be written half a century from now, it would not be Pakistan but India’s brethren that collapsed, would be sculpted in history books.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has been perhaps one of the most tragic incident in recent history. This incident not only has weakened the cause of democracy but has also thrown Pakistan far into a zone of no return. While many have been trying to play down the entire incident as just the continuation of the Pakistani legacy of military coups and assassinations, this episode of the same has put the future of South Asia at a real crossroad. Now that the dust is settling down and things are relatively coming back to normalcy, are there important lessons and observations to be drawn from this tragic happening? Well, to start with, Benazir’s assassination once again brings forth an increasingly menacing trend of this era, i.e. nations are subject to more risk from within, than from outside.
For rest of the world, nothing could have been better than to see the gradual restoration of faith in democracy in hearts and minds of the average Pakistani and releasing him/her steadily from clutches of fundamentalism. It’s some elements within Pakistan, aided by global fundamentalism, which have given a death knell to restoration of democracy in Pakistan. In the same league, for an LTTE, it makes more sense to continue with mayhem than to find reasonable political solutions for the cause of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minorities and thereby putting Sri Lanka at risk more from within than outside.
The same is the case of Bangladesh which through its ascension as well as assertion of fundamentalism is increasingly proving that, once, it was rightly called East Pakistan. Today Bangladesh, and Nepal too has more threats from within than without. A wider scrutiny of Asia at large and even of Europe would vindicate that the same malaise is plaguing them too, be it IRA is UK, ETA in Spain or PKK in Turkey. For the whole of 20th century, nations put more resources to mitigate external threats. And in their quest to securing external boundaries, they literally undermined the problems germinating within. As a result internal security was always considered less of a priority than external security.
The trend is continuing even now with billions of dollars of budget being put to buy weapons for conventional wars whose probability is decreasing by the day while most nations are thoroughly ill-equipped to deal with an omnipresent virtual enemy. India in this case is no exception either. In fact the level of internal distrust that is prevailing in Pakistan is evident from the fact that the Musharraf regime had to involve the Scotland Yard to demonstrate its commitment for a fair investigation.
The other striking observation from the entire Benazir death saga has been the reaction in India. There was perhaps not a single soul in India which was not in grief and which didn’t share solidarity with the beleaguered Pakistan. The wrong-doings of Pakistan in the past didn’t come in the way of expressing shock and shedding tears for someone who, for an average Indian, was a little more than just another politician of a rogue Pakistan. There was an attachment much beyond that. Perhaps the virtual bondage of the umbilical chord cut in a hurry still having its presence felt. And it is perhaps because of this that it is not just a need but a necessity for India to see that Pakistan doesn’t collapse. In that case, when history would be written half a century from now, it would not be Pakistan but India’s brethren that collapsed, would be sculpted in history books.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
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from Linden Labs (in real world currency) for an additional fee that they call Tier. This could range from $5 a month up to $295 a month for an entire island which would be 65,536 square meters. You could also pay a one time flat tier of $1,675 instead of a monthly thing. Also, just like the real world, you could book your favourite plot of land for $30 if you don’t have the money and pay later. But interestingly, it does not end there. Just like our housing societies, you need to pay a monthly maintenance charge to Linden Labs. This is calculated on the amount you own. The more land you own, the more you pay. So, based on the current tier system, your starter 512 square meters would cost an additional $5 per month, 65,536 square meters of mainland will cost $195 and an island would cost $295 per month. You could also buy land from another resident or purchase it at a Land Auction. Pretty much like an eBay auction, land auctions are extremely popular in SL. What starts with $40 ends up selling at $2000 at the end of a week. In-world sources say that over 15 million square meters of land has been sold in Q1 2007. If I may draw a real world analogy, we are talking about a property boom very similar to what’s happening in India right now.
The first place I saw after that is called the Welcome area. It is the starting point for all newbie residents in the SL world. Originally, the Welcome area was in Natoma in 2002 which moved to an area called Ritch in 2003. Currently, SL has three welcome areas: the Ahern/Morris region, another in Lime/Plum and a newer one in the Waterhead region. Arriving at the Welcome area can be a bit disconcerting. You will see humans no doubt but also aliens, devils, vampires, furries, animals, insects, robots. You may even see a dragon. Usually there is a Linden or two patrolling the welcome area, available for advice. I learnt the hard way not to accept advice from strangers. Some folks will come and try to sell you strange items. Sell? How am I supposed to buy stuff in a virtual land? Well, this is where I learned that SL has its own currency called Linden dollars (L$). Premium accounts receive a weekly stipend (paid in Linden dollars). That’s one of the special features. And since the real world payment can be tendered in L$, there is an actual currency exchange rate of around L$ 270 to one US dollar. In-world currency exchanges and ATMs allow residents to change real world currencies to L$. It took me some time to come to terms with this fact – a virtual currency that has real value!
investing in any mutual fund the most important factor to look for is the investment objective of that particular fund and how well does it tally with an individual investor’s financial g oal. Once the same is established and the fund category is selected the investor should focus on the following key elements:
was as true for oil prices, which, besides defying gravity, have upset the budgetary calculations of millions of households across the world; not to mention bringing entire governments to their knees. When oil prices breached the $110 mark, analysts were of the opinion that prices would stabilise themselves as consumers would abstain from consumption as soon as they feel the pinch. Those analysts have been caught on the wrong barrel... er... foot, since oil prices are now touching $130, and a super spike to 200 is now considered possibile.
fetched when he went under the hammer; Andrew Symonds went for $1.35 million, while the others went for similar hi-flying, though under-a-million sums; Sony Entertainment Television-World Sports Group combine pocketed the 10-year telecast rights for IPL at a mind-numbing Rs.40 billion. And that’s just for starters. The Indian Premier League (IPL) has kicked off a nuclear chain reaction of sorts, with not only the incumbent businessmen (read: franchise owners like Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya, Shahrukh Khan, etc.) raring to make multi-million dollar profits, but even spawning off an entire list of ancillary industries that are betting on making more than just a quick buck off the ongoing IPL craze. Be it the advertising business, restaurants and eating joints, the sports goods & apparel industry, almost every related sector is grooving to the beats of India’s biggest sporting spectacle ever.
companies seem to have taken the statement too seriously as they chalk out massive plans to make a fortune from pharma retailing. Starting from Ambanis and other retail rajahs to pharma majors like Dabur, all are betting huge on the country’s most promising sector. But for them, it’s a recently developed penchant and even today, most pharma retail plans rotate around north India. So what about south India? Well, for them too, the storyline lacks no punch. And there is one hope that changed the direction of retail winds towards Kanyakumari; a young doctor from Hyderabad who felt the need to introduce organised retailing of medicines in south India. With such a mission and bucked up with his business knowledge (an MBA from Wharton School of Business), a fine summer morning saw Madhukar Gangadi rolling out MedPlus.
tycoon, Richard Branson launched Virgin Mobile services in India (in collaboration with Tata Teleservices), marketers and industry veterans left no opportunity unutilised to scoff at him. At a time when all existing operators are pursuing a similar strategy of getting as many subscribers as quickly as possible, Virgin shocked veterans by targeting the 550 million strong niche of Indian youth instead. Prasad Narasimhan, CFO, Virgin mobiles, shares, “We target youth as they talk twice as much and SMS thrice as much. They are also the first to adopt any value added service.” Branson has found his niche in the otherwise mass marketed wireless communication sector. He is catering to that segment within the mass which is likely to spend on data based mobile services (where the future of telecom services lies) and drive big moolah into his bank account. With half a dozen more telecom players to debut in the Indian landscape, aiming at a niche audience can actually prove to be the winning strategy, given that the mass strategy has already been deployed and won by the likes of Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone and BSNL in any case.