Well Known, Still a Shock

I WAS SAFE in my hometown in Kerala when Muslims were butchered in Modiland. Thanks to the Malayalam media, we received horrible descriptions of the genocidal State-sponsored crime of the deshi fascists. We knew that everything was pre-planned. We knew that the “protectors” themselves organised this genocide. We knew Modi would be re-elected in December 2002. We knew the victims of the genocide would not get justice. We knew that not even a single RSS supporter would change his or her political outlook and social view.
Yet I was shocked to see TEHELKA’s latest issue. I was shocked when I saw a VHP leaderproudly claim to have torn out the womb of a pregnant women after killing her. I lost control of my senses when he said that they did not spare even a single Muslim in Naroda Patiya, even though I already knew that that was what they had done. I cursed myself when I read about how Muslims were dumped in a well in Naroda Patiya and burned alive. I felt low again when I thought that I was also born in the same country where Modi is a ruler.
Where is one to look for a resolution?
Practically speaking, it is in the reproduction of the facts. The horror of a genocide that took place in front of us should haunt the collective conscience of secular Indians. The miseries of the poor of Gujarat should remain in our debates, in our public sphere, our media, our art, our literature, our cinema. A permanent reproduction of the facts. That should be the foundation of the anti-communal crusade of our generation. We should remind ourselves that we are the children of the killings.
When the Babri Masjid was demolished by the Hindutva fundamentalists, we failed to launch an all-out campaign against the perpetrators. Ten years later, they struck again, killing thousands of Muslims in Modiland. If we fail once again, we do not know what awaits us in 2012.

(Published in Tehelka November 17, 2007)

Manhood Defined

What makes Ernesto Che Guevara one of the most charismatic revolutionaries of the twentieth century? Unlike other leading Marxist leaders of last century such as Lenin and Mao, Che was neither a theoretician nor a supreme leader of any revolution. An Argentine-born doctor, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, was handpicked by Fidel Castro when the latter was preparing for the Moncado barrack attack. Ever since they met each other in Mexico, Che became a member of Fidel’s July 26^th movement and later the second commandant of the guerilla army that waged a successful war against American backed General Fulgencio Batista in Havana.

As many political scientists have pointed out, Che Guevara was a professional revolutionary. He subscribed to Fidel’s intellection of spreading revolution across Americas with his heart. “The duty of the revolutionary is to make the revolution,” so said Che describing his own eventful life of long battles. After winning the Sierra Maestra battle, we would find him fighting in the Congo. He was entrusted by Fidel to “liquidate the counter revolutionaries in order to save the

revolution”. He even quit Castro’s ruling team to join hands with the Bolivian guerillas, who were fighting the military dictatorship of Rene Barrientos. As noted British Marxist Tariq Ali observes, that single decision changed Che’s image and appeal altogether. As many of the other revolutionaries relinquished their revolutionary credentials after their respective triumphs, Che gave up power to build up a guerilla movement in Bolivian forests against Barrientos. Unlike in Sierra Maestra where he played second fiddle to Fidel, he was the supreme leader of Bolivian guerillas. But history hardly repeats. The heavy hands of Bolivian military generals crushed the rebellion and shot dead its 39-year-old leader on 8^th October 1967.

However, the death of Che Guevara was only the beginning of the story. Fidel Castro declared the year of 1967 as “the year of great revolutionaries”. Drawing inspiration from Che the students and youth across the Europe intensified the anti-war and anti-imperial movements. Che was the icon of the French students who led the May 1968 movement that caused the eventual collapse of the De Gaulle regime. Che became of charismatic larger than life figure, more popular than his own leader Fidel, not only in Cuba, but across the world. His challenge to American capitalism to “create two, three...many Vietnams” echoed in different parts of the world. He was largely considered as a symbol of romantic rebellion during the heydays of the Cold War.

However, the antithesis to this revolutionary appeal is ‘Brand Che’. Fidel Castro might have survived the fall of Soviet Union in the early 1990s. But the changing dynamics in the post-Cold war world order, transformed Che’s image. He once dared capitalism to create more Vietnams. But capitalism, understanding his mass appeal, incorporated him in its market economy as a brand name. Now Che is more a market tool than a revolutionary icon. A glamorous photograph of Che taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda Diaz on March 5, 1960, has become a favorite symbol for the neoliberal marketists as well as the Anti American leftists. The bearded face with long hair and eyes fixed at infinity is everywhere in today’s world. Its there on T-shirts, cigarettes, ice cream, socks, alcohols and even on the bodies of football stars. Recently a designer put Che on a bikini. American retailer giant Target has recently reported that its Che Guevara CD cases had topped last Christmas season in the country. “Che is a symbol of romantic idealism. His immortal image has a value which can be used by the market forces as well as for a larger social cause. The contemporary capitalism which is dominated by the media culture has taken Che Guevara’s image out of the context and made it as a brand. Now we witness the icon floating free in the market. But at the same time there are serious attempts to bring the icon back into its revolutionary origin, especially in Latin America,” A.K. Ramakrishnan, a professor of International Relations at Mahatma Gandhi University told B&E.

The “21^st century socialists” such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia seem to have undertaken this mission of liberating the revolutionary from the clutches of market capitalism. Chavez has already said that he wanted to create the guevarista “new man” across the continent. Time would show who would win in this strange battle waged in the name of a charismatic revolutionary.

(Published on Business & Economy, November 1, 2007)

Chikungunya In northern Italy

The recent outbreak of chikungunya, a tropical disease spread by mosquitoes, in the Italian province of Ravenna, has sparked an unusual debate among the scientists. Last month the Italian Health Ministry had officially confirmed the outbreak of chikungunya in the northern parts of the country. Acording to officials, more than 200 cases have so far been detected in Italy. One death was also reported. Sending alrm rings across the continent, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has warned that the debilitating tropical virus might sweep through the other European countries. Many experts blamed the changes in the temperature for the latest outbreak of the disease in Europe. According to Professor Antoine Flahault, the coordinator of French research on chikungunya, “Though the Tiger mosquitoes were present in Italy for several years, the increased temperatures and humidity make the climate more tropical and favour the proliferation of mosquitoes." The World Health Organisation officials have also underscored the same point. "We cannot say that the disease was caused by climate change, but the conditions in Italy are now suitable for the Tiger mosquito," said Dr Bettina Menne of the WHO about the outbreak. However, Professor Paul Reiter, the director of the Insects and Infectious Diseases Unit of the Paris-based Institut Pasteur, has come up with a different argument.

Prof. Reiter, who has also worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for over 20 years, has claimed in a recently published article that the WHO official’s statement is aimed at diverting attention from the real cause: “the increasing globalization of disease as a result of modern transportation.” He recalls an incident of finding tires that contained rainwater infested with Aedes albopictus (today’s Asian Tiger mosquito) in the US city of Houston two decades ago. He also discovered that the company which shipped scavenged tires to many Central American countries imported them from Japan. “The tiger arrived in Italy in the 1990s in tires from Atlanta, Georgia and is ubiquitous from the Alps to Naples,” says Prof. Reiter. Citing the endemics that gripped the tropical as well as the non tropical regions, he says, “the globalization of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases is nothing new and we can expect further surprises in the future.” Reiter’s arguments have raised many eyebrows as he lashes out at the alarmists of the global warming saying they are actually distorting scientific facts in order to fit their arguments.

(Published on Business&Economy on November 1, 2007)

Waiting For The Sport In Paris

"There could be sport - and not just in the rugby stadiums," said Bernard Thibault, the leader of France’s powerful communist-leaning CGT union, sending an alarm note to President Nicolas Sarkozy, who announced pension reforms last week. This sentence gives indication about the tough time lies ahead of the reform-minded president. Thibault’s warning could not be played down in a country like France where the unionized workforce could even bring down the government in the past in order to save the social security system. The showdown between the trade unions and the conservative President, Sarkozy hit a new high as the latter announced that he would bring an end to the so-called “special regimes” which offer retirement privileges for state workers. The “special regimes” that date back to the Second World War ensure special retirement privileges for certain state workers including bus and train drivers, miners, merchant sailors. According to the president, it’s the highest liability of the French state these days to sustain the costly social security policies. Promising to “modernize” France’s economic sector and to meet the European Union deadline of 2012 to balance the budget, Sarkozy sends out a tough message to the highly organized French workforce.

Given the history of French unionism, Sarkozy is out to play a risky game. Touching the holy cow of French revolution, the welfare state, has never been an easy task for any leader in France. Whenever the previous governments tried to axe the Special Regimes, they had been badly beaten by the workers. In 1995, workers paralysed the whole country and brought down the first government of Jacques Chirac when he tried to reform the pension scheme. The Socialists who suffered a setback in the last presidential elections have already upped the ante accusing Sarkozy of suffering from "small man syndrome". Referring to president’s reform plan, Benoît Hamon, a Socialist spokesman, said, "In psychoanalysis, this is what you call the syndrome of the small man who considers that everything he does is bigger than anything that has ever happened.

With Nicolas Sarkozy, all he does, all he touches, he considers it to be the greatest. In reality, we have never witnessed such a step backwards since the liberation - on the social issue, as well as on immigration."

So, the writing on the wall is clear. If Sarkozy is serious in bringing in reforms, he would have to strike a deal with the workers. If not, he should be prepared to face the ire of the most powerful workforce in the continent.

(Published on Business and Economy on 6 September 2007)