Issue 40 Vol II, May 31, 2007

C O M M E N T

Growing Possibilities of a Third World War
Dr. Sawraj Singh

FOR some time, tensions between the West and Russia and between the West and China have been growing rapidly. The West is also facing a humiliating defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel, after losing to the Hezbollah in Lebanon, is now facing tough opposition from Hamas and other Palestinians. Unfortunately, as the West’s crisis is deepening, instead of giving up its arrogance and adopting a more compromising attitude, the West is showing a tendency toward fascism. This attitude is increasing possibilities of a third world war. However, many people, including many intellectuals, are not taking seriously the possibility of a third world war.

Recently, in a summit in the Russian city of Samara, differences between Russia and the European Union came out openly. There was no joint statement in the beginning or in the end of the summit. Both Russia and the European Union openly criticized each other. Mr. Vladimir Putin accused the European Union of hypocrisy and double standards for their concerns about human rights. He said that they do not say anything when people of Russian descent are treated badly in the countries supported by the European Union. Even before the summit, Mr. Putin gave them a big jolt when Russia was able to gain control over the gas and oil resources of the central Asian countries. Russia will not hesitate to use oil and gas as instruments to tighten screws on Europe. A scenario of the Russian troops marching in Europe as they did in Hungary and Czechoslovakia is not an imaginary situation or a scene from a Hollywood movie, but a real possibility.

Tensions are also increasing in the relations between China and the USA. A high level Chinese trade delegation that just concluded its trip, did not accomplish much. The relations between the two countries remain strained. America is growing very concerned about the rise of China as a rival that is challenging the only superpower status of the United States. Now, China seems to be trying to match its military power with its economic power. America has openly expressed its concerns about China’s military power. China has embarked upon modernizing not just its conventional army, but also its nuclear capabilities, including missiles and submarines. China has now deployed nuclear missiles against every American city. America has bluntly warned China against attacking Taiwan and said that in such an eventuality, America will intervene on the side of Taiwan. The Chinese media has reacted very strongly to America’s criticism and warnings. China seems to be adopting a more and more defiant and assertive role.

In the Middle East, things are going very badly for the West and its closest ally, Israel. It is becoming increasingly clear that the West is going to face a humiliating defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year, one thousand American troops were killed in Iraq. In the month of May 2007, already more than 100 soldiers have been killed. The radical militant Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has come back to Iraq. He gave a call to oust the American troops and defeat Israel in the Mosque in Kufa, the holiest place for the Shia Muslims. He called upon the Sunni brothers to join hands with the Shias to free Iraq of the occupying troops. This situation can significantly increase the American casualties in Iraq because so far the Shias were helping the Americans against the Sunnis.

Iran remains defiant and is proceeding with the development of its nuclear program. Iran just made a claim that it has uncovered a secret network of American and Western spies. Many people believe that Iran has heavily infiltrated South America with militants who are ready to strike America in case of an American strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Many people also believe that after the Iraqi invasion, Iran has gained considerably in the Middle East.

Israel is going through equally hard times. It has not yet recovered from the defeat in Lebanon from Hezbollah and already another confrontation has started with Hamas. The outcome of this confrontation may not be any different than the showdown with Hezbollah. The Israeli victory of the Six Day war in 1967 now looks more like fiction than a real happening. No place in Israel is now safe from attack. The Palestinians just attacked Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, a very rare occurrence.

The western influence is at an all time low in Africa and South America, where the Chinese have gained tremendous influence. It is becoming increasingly clear that the outcome of a third world war will be much different than the two world wars. The West will not be able to win this war. It seems to have only two choices, give up its arrogance and accept a peaceful transition from a western-dominated world to a multipolar world, or mutually assured destruction.

[Sawraj Singh, M.D, F.I.C.S. is Chairman, Washington State Network for Human Rights]

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Punjab’s Small Farmers Cry for Help
Karanbir Shah

Punjab farmers can be categorized into two main segments. One is big farmers with larger land holdings say from 20 acres and above and small farmers with less than 10 acres who constitute 80 percent of the total Punjab peasantry. Small farmers only are prone to suicides because they are the ones who are under debt. This segment of farmers are the most hard working and can grow anything provided good quality seeds and fertilizers were provided to them at fair prices. Need of the hour is to prepare and equip these farmers to increase their income per acre but not to make them dependent on debt remittance packages.

These are the people who will be most effected under WTO agreement (GATT) i.e. General Agreement for Trade and Tariff. To save this class of farmers and to compete in the international market lot of hard work is required.

If any political party is really interested in improving the health of sick Punjab Agriculture sector then the following points are to be taken care of:

1 Improve the marketing infrastructure, system and survey for different agriculture  products. So that farmers can estimate the total cultivation to be made of any crop in a season and can decide that how many acres should be bought under the crop to get max profits.

2 MSP should be set for all the agriculture products rather than only for wheat and rice.

MSP stands for minimum support price for wheat and rice bur irony is that it is considered to be as Maximum support price. Actually MSP is set so that the produce should not be priced less than the minimum support price and there is no upper limit to it.

Some times buying is done in the mandis at price much less than the MSP for personal gains this exploitation of the small farmers need to be checked.

3 Ground water levels are depleting due to use of more water then actually require in order to produce more to increase the income per acre. This is due to failure of the concerned departments. Educate farmers for it and give them some practical solutions for the same.

4 Excess of manures, pesticides and insecticides are spoiling the health of our mother earth. But farmer is help less because otherwise he cannot get his crop matured well in time and late maturity will lead to lesser output and lesser rates hence more losses. Health of our motherland and losses of our farmers can be minimized by providing them organic pesticides and insecticides at controlled rates

5 Last but not the least invests more in the Research and Development (R&D) in the agriculture sector. The package should be demanded for R&D to develop new seeds producing quality and quantity both. Few agri-technocrates are working sincerely in the agriculture universities and “Kheti Khoj Kendra’s” specially established for the job but we have seen that mostly the university advises regarding different crops are irrational. Farmers of Punjab are learning with their own experiences.

Punjab agriculture was having the edge after 1978 when the Punjab farmers brought the green revolution but sorry to say that political parties came to power after that could not capitalize on that edge. Till 1980 when there was little rice production in states like Bihar and UP because of lack of water resources the governments of these states gradually developed the infrastructure for water supply for irrigation and now these states also started producing rice in good quantity.

Same way did Mr. Parkash Singh Badal for Malwa when he thrice became the CM of Punjab. He also constructed canals to the area where there was an acute shortage of water in the Malwa region of Punjab. When states like Bihar and UP were developing infrastructure for water resources and electricity, Punjab should have developed its research and development (R&D) section at the same pace.  Punjab must have attained the status of an export quality seed producing state instead of merely a quantity grain producing state. Punjab should have been known as a Laboratory for World agriculture Industry till today.

[The author is an engineer based at Qadian in Gurdaspur]

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Dr. Sawraj Singh Selected for “Glory of India” Award

The India International Friendship Society has selected Dr. Sawraj Singh for the “Glory of India” Award. This award will be presented at the Friendship Banquet, organized by the Society at the Crowne Plaza in London, England, on July 21, 2007. The purpose of the function in London is to promote Indo-British friendship. The India International Friendship Society wants to promote and forge greater unity and friendship between resident and non-resident Indians.

Dr. Sawraj Singh operates the Laser Clinic of Central Washington in Ellensburg, Washington. He is Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He writes for several English and Punjabi newspapers. Dr. Singh has written 19 books in English and Punjabi. Dr. Sawraj Singh is a frequent guest speaker at many religious, social, and academic gatherings. He has addressed many universities, colleges, and schools.

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Pakistan Press under Attack

Reporters without Borders have placed Pakistan at 157th place out of 168 countries it studied last year. Indeed the country is ranked higher than two other South Asian countries – Nepal (159) and Burma (164). However, it is no model for the Maldives (144), Sri Lanka (141), Bangladesh (137), and India (105) or even neighbour Afghanistan, with its greenhorn media (130).

If there is a press-freedoms model for South Asia, according to RSF that would be Bhutan (98), which rose an astounding 44 places in a single year due to the opening of the kingdom’s first (marginally) privately owned newspaper.

But position in Pakistan where since general Pervez Musharraf seized power in October 1999 , most independent newspapers have suffered at the hands of the army dictator for one reason or the other. One of the worst sufferers is Dawn besides host of small magazines and newspapers. Nevertheless, it should be clear that the press has struggled on and it has considerable freedom.

Dawn on its web edition n has published details why it has been so badly treated by the Pakistani establishment. We provide here some of these.

Hameed Haroon, the publisher of Karachi’s Dawn, has issued a public appeal for support against the Pakistani government’s actions against his newspaper, specifically the drastic reduction in government advertising. He writes online, “Of late, the government headed by President Musharraf has become increasingly intolerant towards criticism in the press and towards the publishing of news that reflects poorly on the performance of his government on security matters.”

Haroon maintains that the directives emanate mainly from President Pervez Musharraf’s office, and are activated by the newspaper’s independent reporting on two broad areas: the escalating developments in Balochistan and in North and South Waziristan, and the Pakistani government’s war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. “Also irksome have been the DAWN Group’s related attempts to monitor a recurring tendency toward covert militancy among responsible decision-makers in government,” Haroon notes. The publisher presents a complete dossier listing the continuing conflict between the DAWN Group and the Musharraf government since 2004. In the first phase, he writes, the government attempted to exert pressure through the proxy of the Sindh provincial government, which imposed a complete ban on advertising in the publications of the Group. This was followed by a comprehensive ban on government advertising imposed by Islamabad itself, “with intent to provoke the financial collapse of the DAWN Group.”

He has urged everyone to extend your help in this matter.

1. That the advertising ban by the Federal Government on the DAWN Group’s advertising is both unwarranted and unethical and a transparent mechanism to exert pressure on the newspaper group’s policies in contravention of the internationally accepted norms of objective news reporting.

2. That the decision to withhold a television broadcast license to the DAWN Group by the government is in violation of the judgments of the High Court of Sindh and the consent declarations made by PEMRA and the Federal Minister of Information in the Sindh High Court. Such right should be granted to other applying media groups as well on the same terms.

3. That the Government of Pakistan continue to submit its policies in Baluchistan and its agreements with the pro Taliban tribesmen of North & South Waziristan to the rigorous assessment of public and media scrutiny.

4. That the Government of Pakistan desists from abducting and arresting journalists in the judicious performance of their duties, and desists from physically attacking newspaper offices as has occurred in Islamabad.

Tailpiece: But then on May 25, 2007 President Musharraf surprised both the Dawn and the media watchers when he inaugurated the DawnNews television in Karachi. He described in the presence o the Dawn’s publishers and editors that the media as the country’s first line of defence and assured of unhindered support for the freedom of expression, but at the same time warned against the growing trend of sensationalisation, and said that repeated projection of gory incidents and violence on television was brutalising society.

A report in the DAWN said, “President Musharraf described it as a unique event. But at the same time he did not hesitate in taking full credit for the mushrooming of private television channels, saying that whatever freedom there was in the country it was only because of him. “I alone had insisted that we must give them freedom so that the media could hold everyone accountable,” he said while recalling the early years in power when he had framed the media policy.”

Gen Musharraf rejected the long-stated view of the journalist fraternity that the freedom of press in the country was the result of their campaign and persistent demand and said he was not aware of any such demand when he decided to ‘give this freedom’.

Earlier, in his welcome address Hameed Haroon, chief executive of the Dawn group of newspapers, presented the history and traditions followed by Dawn since its first publication 60 years ago by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

A change of heart for Mr Haroon, perhaps?

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