F E A T U R E S

Learning to Survive In Canada

THE lure of Canada for citizens from the developing countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other countries has no limits. All means, legitimate or illegitimate are invented and used to be in the West, the land of honey and milk. But once here, coping with the changed atmosphere is not easy. Some leave the countries like Canada in utter frustration and dejection. Others try to cope with the situation, sometime success and sometimes fail. It is fact, majority stay put like their ancestors who started migrating to North America out of India in early 20th century.  Professor Surinder Singh Sodhi, a retired professor of clinical psychology from Dallhousie University discuses these strains and stresses.

“It is a well-known fact that every newcomer to Canada passes through a series of stages that lead to his growth and “adjustment” to the new culture.  Sociologists have attempted to document these stages as follows:

Mourning

The first stage is mourning.  While passing through this stage, a newcomer exhibits the same symptoms that we see in people who have lost a family member. He likes to sleep most of the time, cries easily, and longs to go back to his original homeland. He becomes an enigma to the family that has brought him over to Canada and sometimes labels like useless, lazy, and good-for-nothing are used to describe his behaviour.

It is very important that a gradual exposure and feeling of acceptance be promoted at this stage and the newcomer be allowed to take his time rather than be force to rush to rise up to the expectations of the host family.  Interpersonal interactions at this stage can have a permanent scar on the individuals, which in later years do not lead to the development of conducive gamily relationship.

The period of mourning for different individuals varies.  Some sensitive individuals, even after 20 years of stay, can still at times regress and feel the uselessness and powerlessness of their existence in their adopted culture. They do not hesitate to admit that the pain of existence has been successfully repressed by creating various illusions that help them to tide over the crisis. They often fell that they have sole their souls for a few “gold coins”.

Becoming

The problem develops when “instant rich” gets mystified by the outward glamour and compare their colonized attitudes with those who have become painfully aware of the problems of “becoming” in a hostile environment.  Canadian-born children add confusion to the psyche, value structure, ethical and moral operational style of the first generation immigrants. The feeling that the old set of rules and values are no longer functional and viable gives parents sleepless nights and existential anxiety. It becomes a question of “to be or not to be” one of them.

The socio-political climate of the adopted country is usually not open to receive inputs from the outsiders.  New immigrants are welcomed to participate in the political parties but their contribution is usually limited to adding “colour” to the group.  Major power decisions are usually handled by the Anglo-Saxon core of the organization.  A person with a radical frame of mind feels the falseness of the whole exercise and after pretending for a while about his ideological commitments usually leaves the political arena or is pushed out. Gradually he starts accepting the “Liberal Ideology.”  He also starts noticing that rocking the boat by raising issues is not the response that gets reinforced in the Canadian context.  Even though he is affluent, that still does not give him an opening to satisfy his power motive.

Money Means Power

Because money does give control over some people, some immigrants sublimate their power need by making more of it.  The craze for making more money takes “Type A” person to the jungle of interest rates, mortgages and rent controls. He may find that life has become so complex that he has not time left for family and children.  Recently a father who is deep in apartment business asked his 12 year old son whether he would help him collect the rents when he grows up.  The son replied, “Do you think I am as crazy as you are?”

Powerlessness apathy, and a feeling of non belongingness, which are general characteristics of the adopted culture, hit more to the newcomers because they are not used to experiencing them back home.  A sense of loneliness in a crowd develops.  If the newcomer has strong family ties he can survive the cause of loneliness that springs from the group. But if the family is not providing positive strokes, the going can be very rough.  It could lead to serious emotional and psychosomatic problems.

‘Need Deficit’ People

There is another kind of mystified first generation immigrant that one meets either in social gatherings or work situations.  I would call him a ‘need deficit’ person.  He usually does not like anybody; has a deep rooted inferiority complex which he usually tries to compensate by presenting superior behaviour.  He is capable of developing short term relationship which is very brittle. They break as the source of gratification dries up. In the drama of socialization in which the immigrant has no choice but to participate because of boredom, the ‘need deficit’ person usually comes through as a villain and hence makes life bitter bet interesting by providing the ongoing arousal jags.  Religiously speaking, he is usually a fanatic and used intimidation to gain his point.  The compounded effect of loneliness can lead to the experience of mild depression.  In other words, after 10 to 20 years of chasing the rainbow, the individual comes back a full circle—instead of mourning he starts experiencing depressive behaviour. It appears that the vital source of energy has left his body.  He is just marking his time till “the train comes”.

Illusion and Reality

It is possible to seek reality by carefully looking at what appears to be an illusion.  Our existence in the Canadian context can be compared to a group of shipwrecked people, voluntarily put on a hostile island.  The dual realities that we have acquired are not also helpful in making our life comfortable.  A bit of egocentric behaviour producing a false sense of achievement (money job, friends, and apartment buildings) might help some.  Getting involved in the socio-political and religious activities of the community might help others. Reading books (preferably spiritual) that one never bothered to study back home might satisfy the “self” of some.  Finally, through meditation and other de-automatization exercises some might attempt to reduce the distance between self and the “Ultimate Self.”

It must be admitted that even though we have moved from India to Canada (a comfort zone) we still owe a cultural debt to the country of our origin.  Besides buying friendship of some relatives by sending money to them when they write to us, we should start projects like schools, water supply and heath centers in India and stay involved.

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China Breaks Rank With Traditional Globalization
By Sawraj Singh

THE just concluded National People’s Congress gave a clear signal to the Western countries that their conclusion that China has adopted Western-style capitalism was pre-mature. China made it clear that its priorities are fundamentally different from the economic-only traditional globalization of the West. Coming soon after a fruitless trip of President Bush to South America, this is a clear indication that a vast majority of people of the world has discarded the decadent Western capitalism. This is going to quicken the decline of the west and accelerate the process of the end of Western domination.

In his concluding speech at  the National People’s Congress, Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao made it clear that now the priority of the Chinese state is the welfare of the Chinese people. In spite of the sham slogans of humanism and democracy, the fundamental priority of Western capitalism remains generation of profit. Breaking away from this golden Western capitalistic principle, Wen Jia Bao said that social harmony, rather than economic development is now China’s number one priority. Wen Jia Bao said that economic development should be balanced by social development.

Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao said that China is going to work for social equality and reduce disparities in Chinese society. There are gaps between the rich and the poor, between the urban and rural areas, and between coastal areas and the interior. He said that China wants to provide decent education and healthcare for all citizens. Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao also discussed issues of corruption, regional ties, and fears over China’s military build-up. He promised more reforms to fight corruption, especially at the highest official levels. He talked about his upcoming visit to Japan in April. He said that this will be an ice-thawing trip. China and Japan seem determined to end the period of tension between the two countries. He wanted to reassure the global community that China remains committed to the principles of peaceful coexistence and they should not worry about China’s military build-up, which remains primarily for the defensive purposes.

The property law is mainly intended to protect homeowners and prevent land seizures. We have seen that land seizures by big corporations have become a serious  problem in India. The tax legislation that ended the preferential treatment to the foreign companies and increased their tax to 25% was intended to take China away from an export-oriented economy that was based on manufacturing cheap goods. It was made clear that instead of supplying these goods to the rest of the world, especially the Western capitalist countries, China now intends to focus more on the needs of its own people. It was emphasized that China now wants a sustainable development rather than a pure economic growth. Adopting progressive employment policies, narrowing income gaps, and building social security networks, are the top priorities now.

The fundamental issue facing the global community now is to find an alternative to the present economic-only globalization, which is the highest stage of Western capitalism. This has done tremendous harm to the world and has brought us close to disaster. Whether the Chinese policies are in accordance to traditional Marxism is not as important as the issue that is there a step toward evolving an alternative to the present globalization? Hugo Chavez, President Putin, and the Islamic world have all joined in criticizing the Western capitalistic globalization. Some have called it “Devil,” others have called it “Satan,” and still others have called it “hypocritical.” All of them want an alternate globalization. Now China, so far considered a big beneficiary of the present globalization, has joined in criticizing the Western capitalistic globalization and seems to have become an advocate of an alternate globalization.

[Dr. Sawraj Singh is Chairman of Washington State Network For Human Rights]

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Biofuels Boom Spurring Deforestation
Gobind Thukral writes from Toronto

MORE than two-thirds of the world's large cities face threat of being swamped by rising sea levels. Millions of people are at risk of being inundated by flooding and intense storms.

In all, 634 million people live in the threatened coastal areas worldwide or those lying at less than 33 feet above sea level. Their number is growing. This is no doomsayer’s prediction. Several studies conducted in recent years present a very distressing picture. Manmade global warming is causing sea levels to rise and flood about 100 million people each year by 2080.  Two biggest cities in North America, Los Angeles and New York as well as Mumbai and Karachi are at risk of a combination of sea-level rise and violent storms. By 2090, under a worst-case scenario, mega floods that normally would hit North America once every 100 years could occur as frequently as every 3-4 years.

Asia is particularly vulnerable, the study said. The five nations with the largest total population living in endangered coastal areas are all in Asia: China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia.

More than 180 countries have populations in low-elevation coastal zones, and about 70 percent of those have urban areas of more than 5 million people that are under threat. Among them: Tokyo; New York; Mumbai, India; Shanghai, China; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Dhaka, Bangladesh. 75 percent of all people living in vulnerable areas are in Asia, with poorer nations most at risk. Between 1994 and 2004, about one-third of the world's 1,562 flood disasters occurred in Asia, with half of the total 120,000 people killed by floods living in that region. More than 200,000 people were killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

Yet what is being done to check these impending disasters? Very little.  Look at one such area. Every day nearly 40,000 hectares of forest vanish thanks to our growing hunger for timber, pulp and paper.  Now ironically under pressure from environmentalists and some sensible governments, the new policy of using biofuels and carbon credits to protect the environment is   proving equally disastrous.

The paradox is that the eagerness to slow climate change by using biofuels and planting millions of trees for carbon credits is leading to more deforestation. Deforestation puts far more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire world's fleet of cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships combined. And that is making climate change worse.

In countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil, biofuels are rapidly becoming the main cause of deforestation. Rich forests are being cut to plant palm trees which can help produce biodiesel.  Doze of daily haze caused by burning of forests in Indonesia is causing a major health hazard across five countries. Oil from African palm trees is considered to be one of the best and cheapest sources of biodiesel and energy companies are investing billions of dollars into acquiring or developing oil-palm plantations in many developing countries. Vast tracts of forest in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries have been cleared to grow oil palms. Oil palm has become the world's number one fruit crop, well ahead of bananas.

Biodiesel offers many environmental benefits over diesel from petroleum, including reductions in air pollutants, but the enormous global thirst means millions more hectares could be converted into monocultures of oil palm.  And more palm oil we use for biodiesel, less we get for cooking our food. We depend heavily on this oil in India.

United Nation’s report on the World's Forests 2007 reports that globally, net forest loss is 20,000 hectares per day. However, that number includes plantation forests, which masks the actual extent of tropical deforestation, about 40,000 hectares per day.  Half a million hectare per year deforestation of Mexico is covered by the increase of forests in America.  Governments often hide the truth by fudging forest records. For example Canada has claimed no net change in its forests for 15 years despite being the largest producer of pulp and paper. It is running away from the harsh reality. My extensive travels for more than a month in Canada revealed large areas either without forests or with trees, which are no more than 10 to 15 years old.  The current debate in the Canadian parliament also does not focus on this degradation of forests. It is more about millions to spend here and there.

Plantation forests are nothing like natural or native forests. More akin to a field of maize, plantation forests are hostile environments to nearly every animal, bird and even insects. Such forests have been shown to have a negative impact on the water cycle because non-native, fast-growing trees use high volumes of water. Pesticides are also commonly used to suppress competing growth from other plants and to prevent disease outbreaks, also impacting water quality. Man-made forests are a tremendous disaster for biodiversity and local people.

Ethanol is another major biofuel, which is made from maize, sugar cane or other crops. As prices for biofuels climb, more land is cleared to grow the crops. American farmers are switching from soy to maize to meet the ethanol demand. That is pushing up soy prices, which is driving the conversion of the Amazon rainforest into soy.

It is true about the carbon credit market where anyone not meeting the standards for clean air buys carbon credit from others. This multi-billion-euro European carbon market does not permit the use of reforestation projects for carbon credits. But there has been a tremendous surge in private companies offering such credits for tree planting projects. Very little of this money goes to small landholders. Plantation forests also contain much less carbon, as carbon content of plantation forests in some Asian tropical countries is only 45 percent of that in the respective natural forests.

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Legend of Bhagat Singh
Chaman Lal

IT was the  76th year of martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on 23rd March, 2007.Their martyrdom at the hands of the imperial Britain in the infamous Lahore jail had shaken the country. Indians got rid of their slave mentality and a do and die struggle brgan. From 28th September 2006, birth centenary programmes of Bhagat Singh had alsostarted nationally, somewhat at governmental level but more at the level of the people.

Memorial programmes on Bhagat Singh have gained momentum since, there have been lot of publication brought out in this period in Hindi, Punjabi, English and many other Indian languages, which continues uninterrupted till day. A proposal to set up Bhagat Singh Chair at J.N.U., New Delhi has been accepted by national programme implementation committee recently. Mooted by this author it was endorsed by Professors  Bipan Chandra, Prabhat Patnaik and  G.S.Bhalla among others. It was supported by many eminent scholars and political leaders like Prakash Karat, A.B.Bardhan and Shashi Bhushan.

It is clear that in the 150th year anniversary of first war of freedom struggle of 1857 and in the birth centenary year of Bhagat Singh, an emotion of patriotism is emerging afresh ,in the wake of U S neo imperialism becoming more aggressive and dangerous than old British imperialism. Reliving the nationalistic tradition in the whole country, a renaissance is taking place in the country, in which the image of Bhagat Singh is emerging  as supreme ideological symbol of resistance. At international level too, struggling people of the world against neo imperialism are looking to Bhagat Singh as symbol of resistance along with Che Guvera. This very year , a publisher from U K is bringing out collection of Bhagat Singh’s writings in English.

Bhagat Singh was always considered significant at national and international level, but this did not come into focus. The rare documents acquired by this author in this period, throw light on his significance. One of these document is Periyar’s editorial in his Tamil weekly ‘Kudai Aarsu’ in 22-29th March 1931 issue, immediately after Bhagat Singh and others execution. This was translated in English and published in ‘Modern Rationalist’ in November ‘o6 by followers of Periyar at my request, after more than 75 years of its first publication. It was E V Ramaswamy Naikar Periyar, who got ‘Why I am an Atheist’ of Bhagat Singh, translated in Tamil, as early as in 1934 by Comrade P Jeevanandan and published in booklet form. This booklet continues to be popular in Tamilnadu, even today, after so many editions have come out. This was perhaps first ever translation of this historic document in any Indian or other language, much earlier than even Punjabi translation. There were many creative writings in Tamil, after the execution of Bhagat Singh, which were proscribed by British authorities in those days.

Internationally also, the reports of execution of Bhagat Singh and disturbances in the country after that, were published in pro communist ‘Daily Worker’ from New York in USA. It is almost strange to know that the news of Bhagat Singh execution was published in ‘The Tribune ‘ of Lahore and ‘ Daily Worker’ of New York on the same day- 25th March 1931, in the age of slow communication channels as compared to today. Even Tribune from Lahore could not publish this report on 24th March, as the news of execution on 23rd March at 7 p.m. remained suppressed in media in Lahore itself, where the executions took place. ‘Daily Worker’ again carried report on Kanpur riots on 27th March 1931, which spread after these executions.

Five unpublished letters of Bhagat Singh have been found out in this period. Copies of four letters have been acquired from Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (Teenmurti), New Delhi. Fifth letter has been recovered from the exhibits of Lahore Conspiracy case.  The copies of all  these letters were gifted to this author by Malwinderjit Singh Waraich of Chandigarh, a dedicated writer and activist about revolutionary movements in India for national freedom. Three of these letters are in English, one in Punjabi and another in Urdu.

From these documents, one can better understand the ideological perspective of Bhagat Singh and the significance of his contribution to India’s freedom struggle.

[Chaman Lal is Professor, Centre of Indian Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi]

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