Issue 67 Vol III, July 15, 2008

T H I S  O U R  N O R T H  A M E R I C A

Another recycling fee to burden the Ontario consumers
Khushwant Singh writes from Toronto

ONTARIO government is slapping yet another form of fee for recycling electronics in the Province. The move comes at a time when the consumer confidence is lacking due to the already slow economy in the province. Last week the Ontario government signed a regulation which imposes per item fees on televisions and computers sold in Ontario for now and latter expanding to all other electronic items by next year.

Beginning April 1, 2009, manufacturers and importers will pay $10.07 for each new television sold, $2.14 for a laptop computer, $13.44 for a desktop computer, 12.03 for a monitor, $5.05 for a printer and 32 cents for a mouse or keyboard.

The fee is being imposed on the manufactures or importers, however, it has been left to them to decide whether to add the fee to the consumer’s bill at the retail level or absorb the new cost themselves. It seems it will ultimately end up biting the pockets of the end user consumers. The fees so collected will total up to $62 million during the first year. It is estimated that, within five years, 2,200,000 Tv’s and 4,000,000 desktop computers will be recycled in Ontario. Right now only 27% of this is being recycled.

On July 9, 2009, provincial Environment Minister John Gerretsen said a non-governmental agency set up by Waste Diversion Ontario would use the fees to administer some 650 drop-off and recycling facilities throughout the province.

"Government doesn't see a penny of this; it's not a tax, it's not a government fee," Gerretsen said. "It's an industry fee that will pay for the collection of the material that's out there and for the proper recycling."

Waste Diversion Ontario creates and runs recycling programs for the province. For the next phase it will establish fees for other electronics which include almost all other popular electronics such as Telephones, Cellphones, BlackBerrys and Pagers, Answering machines, Photocopiers, Scanners, Radios and Stereo’s etc.

The purpose of adding recycling fee is to force manufactures to create more environmentally friendly products.  As the manufactures turn to manufacture more eco friendly products such as by elimination lead and mercury from the products the recycling fees now imposed may drop in the future as the recycling costs reduce.

The provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan already have electronic recycling fees, all mostly higher than Ontario.

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The fourth dimension of the Indian Republic
Dr. Amrik Singh writes from Sacramento

A typical government consists of three branches-the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary, but India has the fourth branch as well. The framers of the Indian constitution could not visualize that the fourth branch will sprout to acquire its most dominant form. The country’s intelligence system has outgrown into the fourth organ of the government.

It has acquired gigantic powers that can force other three domains to toe its line. It derives its extra-constitutional authority by waving extreme version of patriotism and impending dangers to freedom. Having exclusive access to devious secrets, it overrides all other wings and even goes to the extent of playing McCarthyism to clear the path for its relentless march.

The fourth wing operates through the agency of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. It invests its energies most in the executive and makes it cross the constitutional boundaries at times. It can immobilize the judiciary and even interpret law for it. It can maneuver the parliament members to do their duties towards the nation-state. Though by definition, India being a multicultural country, cannot subscribe to the concept of the nation-state, the fourth wing however has all historical, sociological and psychological reasoning to justify its agenda and force the government to implement it. As a matter of fact, the country’s intelligence system is supposed to remain subordinated to the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature, but in the Indian context, it has become a colossal machine superimposed on three wings of the government. In sixty years of its functioning, it has established its independent credentials to be fairly considered as the fourth wing of the government. For our analysis we can name it as “Meta-surveillance.”

Hence, the government of India (Executive) in complicity with the fourth division, ‘Meta-surveillance’ exercises more authority than is granted to it by the constitution of India. Supreme Court (Judiciary) in most cases instead of protecting the constitution becomes an extended instrument of the arbitrary, ruthless and bigoted policies of the executive. Parliament (legislature) acts only to prop up the executive regardless of the fact, whether it follows the laws of the land or not. Parliament makes only those laws that are required by the executive to continue its unlimited power. The absolute authority enjoyed by the executive can make or mar any individuals, groups, institutions, state administrations and social organizations.

The intermediary role of the nation’s intelligence between the executive, judiciary and legislature requires a serious review of the intellectuals, lawyers, social activists and conscientious leaders. It has grown into a monolithic institution beyond the control of either wing of the government. It thrives on parading fears of the unknown to the republic of India, defense of the country, borders, individual life of leaders, and its functionaries. Sources reveal it receives huge unaccounted funds that it employs to inflict extrajudicial damage to the ones who are inimical to its interests. The Executive has strategic convenience to commit to the Meta-surveillance’s despotic authority and in return the Executive takes upon itself to run its affairs. In most western democracies, the intelligence is answerable to the legislature. The entire system is put under the scanner of lawmakers. The representatives of people discourage and openly question intelligence agencies’ extra-constitutional overtures.

The government of India’s recent ban on former spies to write books exemplifies how the fourth wing functions. Apprehending that the former spies can expose Meta-surveillance’s antidemocratic actions, it has become instrumental in making the government pass controversial gag orders. The stance of M.K.Dhar, the former joint director of IB who wrote books about the inner-functioning of intelligence unnerved the administrators of ‘Meta-surveillance’; they lobbied to pass gag orders against former spies in a deceitful way. To muzzle former spies’ reflective observations in writing books, an amendment has been enforced in Central Services and Pension Rules. Government by agreeing to take unconstitutional step has bowed to the unrestrained supremacy of the fourth sector now known as ‘Meta-surveillance’.

Meta-surveillance traces its origin to the colonial policies of the British Rule. It inherited a highly developed system of social engineering by playing one group against the other. It will promote ethnic, caste-related, religious, racial and regional identities not for the integration but for the division of people. British ruled over India for about two centuries through these divisive policies. But when Meta-surveillance provided extra-judicial strategies to the modern political parties, they couldn’t deny the secretive benefits. Meta-surveillance honed its skills with the four decades of Congress rule. It was due to its alliance with the Congress that it cut short regime of non-congress governments. But now it has spread its wings to take any party under its extra-constitutional umbrella.

Meta-surveillance can create atmosphere in which dastardly crimes not only look less painful but also necessary for the imagined nation state. Millions of crimes in the shape of communal riots were absorbed because Meta-surveillance is continuously at the ideological work to shape up imagined national consciousness. Killings of Sikhs, Muslims and Christians in the backdrop of imagined national consciousness look entirely unimportant to the three main wings of government; only because Meta-surveillance has created such an euphoria. That is why Politicians like Narendra Modi and Bal Thackeray successfully evade the constitutional scrutiny.

In the recent nuclear imbroglio, Meta-surveillance is engaged in creating circumstances for the passage of the US deal. The CBI’s affidavit in the Supreme Court for prosecuting UP Chief Minister Mayawati in 2003 Taj Corridor case  maybe the result of a bargain with Samajwadi leader Mulayam Singh Yadav for  support on the floor of the house. Grilling of Sumedh Singh Saini in disappearance of IAS officer’s son by CBI and then his getting relief in the Supreme Court all speak of politicization of criminal justice of the country. The dangling of sword (CBI charge-sheet) on the head of Gurmeet Ram Rahim on the one hand, and not arresting him and providing him Z Plus security on the other all maybe to keep him as an instrument of convenience.

Meta-surveillance is a free floating ruthless force that makes unscrupulous allies for its mission. It can make a coalition of criminals, gang rapists, molesters, drug addicts first by entangling them in cases, then promising them security so that they may render dark services. Political parties accept their usefulness for the obvious benefits at the poll.

Meta-surveillance became a force to reckon with because majority of elected officials shed their responsibility due to either ignorance of the constitution or lack of initiatives. The enormous development made during the last sixty years remained lopsided. Millions of slum dwellers, Dalits, farmers, and laborers continue to live in extreme inhuman conditions. Meta-surveillance maybe accused of distracting politicians’ attention from policy making that could have made citizens relish the fruit of freedom.

Asian countries with Buddhist background developed in a different way. Japan and China recorded a massive development the fruits of which have trickled down to the lowest of the lows. They subordinated their surveillance to the goals they wanted to achieve. But India subordinated its executive, legislature and judiciary to the undeclared agenda of the Meta-surveillance. The largest democracy is woefully trapped in its colonial past and voracious hunger of politicians. The decadence has touched the new pinnacle of injustice, exploitation and violations of human rights. The brand of politicians we see on the horizons belies any hope of resurgence.  Who will bell the cat, then?

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World Bank: Biofuels have pushed global food prices up

THESE are the  Biofuels that have forced global food prices up by 75% and not the developing countries like India and China as US President Bush would have the world believe.

According to a confidential World Bank report obtained  and published by the British daily, the Guardian this a damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The guardian wrote that “the figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.”

The Guardian has previously reported that a British study will state that plant fuels have played a "significant" part in pushing up food prices to record levels. "Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat."

Rising food prices have pushed 100 million people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank. These  have sparked riots from Bangladesh to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel prices as "the first real economic crisis of globalisation".

President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."

Even successive droughts in Australia, calculates the report, have had a marginal impact. Instead, it argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices.

Since April, all petrol and diesel in Britain has had to include 2.5% from biofuels. The EU has been considering raising that target to 10% by 2020, but is faced with mounting evidence that that will only push food prices higher.

"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period.

It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.

Other reviews of the food crisis looked at it over a much longer period, or have not linked these three factors, and so arrived at smaller estimates of the impact from biofuels. But the report author, Don Mitchell, is a senior economist at the Bank and has done a detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, which allows much closer examination of the link between biofuels and food supply.

The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact.

Supporters of biofuels argue that they are a greener alternative to relying on oil and other fossil fuels, but even that claim has been disputed by some experts, who argue that it does not apply to US production of ethanol from plants.

Three big problems loom over the world economy. In rich countries they cause grumbling and pressure on governments to act; in poor ones rioting and starvation. Some call them the three Fs: food, fuel and finance.

The three Fs are linked, of course. The financial crisis has hastened and sharpened the slowdown in the UK and elsewhere, and taken away the easy money that might have cushioned the blow of surging food and fuel prices. Expensive imported fuel has encouraged governments to use crops to feed cars; and that has forced up the price of food.

World's richest countries can do a lot to alleviate poverty in Africa, simply by giving money. In Rwanda, deaths from malaria are down by nearly two-thirds since the Gleneagles aid commitments of 2005, which translated into mass distribution of mosquito nets.

Stagflation shocks to continue

According to Economist Nouriel Roubini, the U.S. and global economy is facing the worst of the "stagflationary" shocks that led to the recessions of 1974-75 and 1980-82 together with the shocks (asset/credit booms gone bust) that led to the recessions of 1990-91 and 2001.

"A deadly cocktail mix: the 1973 & 1979 "Stagflation" meets the 1990 and 2001 "Asset/Credit Bust" with the result being an ugly U.S. recession and sharp global slowdown". He also argues that the recent financial market developments suggest that the hope that the worst was behind us in terms of the financial crisis was not warranted: as the economy contracts more and credit losses mount the financial crisis will get worse; and indeed now even equity markets are reflecting these concerns by heading back into bearish territory.

“The delusional complacency that the "worst is behind us" is rapidly melting away…and the risk of another run against systemically important broker dealers"

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