Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Climate Changers

The whole debate on climate change and who needs to take responsibility and do what continues to rage with no end in sight. The so called developed countries - mostly in the West - while promising a cut in emissions, have in the past demanded that the developing countries also do the same across the board. This is of course not exactly to the liking of the developing world.

For one, the rapid industrialization of the developing nations is an essential ingredient to their growth and to ensuring that hundreds of millions of people are able to climb out of the poverty hole. Cutting down on emissions would in essence mean fewer conventional industries, etc. - which would mean fewer jobs as well as much less wealth generated by the local consumption and the export of the products generated by these industries.

The second reason is of course, how did our climate get to this point? It would be safe to argue that until very recently the biggest polluters in this world were indeed the most industrialized and developed countries of the world, whose per capita contribution to climate change and global warming is staggering to say the least. It would only be fair that they take the burden of the major changes on themselves, since it was their rapid growth that brought us all here. To now deny the developing world their industrialization and growth, especially without adequate compensation of any sort, is/ would be hypocritical at best. Combined with the crimes of their ancestors during their colonial pasts (forcible occupation, subjugation, colonization and massive exploitation of the people and resources of several developing countries), it alarmingly creates the impression of a new form of repression.

It also hints at immaturity in trying to somehow maintain an extreme consumption based lifestyle that has brought us to this point while requiring the more populated developing world to bear the brunt of the problem. More alarmingly though, it points to a protectionism agenda in trying to maintain their industrialized economies as is and perhaps keep the rapidly gaining competition in particular from Asian nations from achieving parity and overtaking the developed world.

But, while there is some truth to all of the three perspectives outlined in the previous paragraph, the issue is not simply apportioning blame. The fact of the matter is that we are all in this together. Some more than others. But eventually, it will affect most, if not all people on this planet. More populous developing nations with several big cities surviving right by our ever rising seas are in the most danger. Expecting the West to help out before it becomes too late would be rather reactive and wishful thinking too I might add.

While I do believe that global initiatives for climate change action are extremely welcome, the fact that everyone has differing opinions on how to go about doing it and the fact that there are clearly two opposing viewpoints in the whole discussion means that very little is going to be done going forward multilaterally.

Instead of course, we must recognize that rapid industrialization, while improving the economies of many nations and bringing more of their population into prosperity, also brings with it a degradation in the quality of life in terms of health and well being, especially if the western model is to be followed. Smog is a daily feature in many big cities in the developing world (just as the megacities in the developed world). Health problems arising out of carbon emissions, as well as chemical affluents are not desirable on any level as it would add significantly to health costs in the long run and a significant degradation of life as we enjoy it.

Populations in the developing world are not ignorant of these issues, in fact they are probably far more concerned about it than developed countries are. After all, it is the air they breathe on a daily basis. They are also willing to pursue (and in many cases already acting on it them) several options going forward be it wind farming, massive solar energy generation initiatives, implementing high standards for emissions from vehicles and industries, adopting environmentally friendly planning and construction practices among others. In the future, you can expect them to continue to adopt these green options in greater numbers and with ever-increasing pace.

Furthermore, the economies of these countries will probably be boosted by the development and mass production of green technologies including manufacturing of next gen solar power cells, wind technology and the adoption of safer nuclear power production practices and safeguards.

As these populations start becoming more and more affluent, their focus will shift from livelihood to quality of life. Clean air and water, direct results of cleaner energy production, will be up next in their list of wants and demands.

Overall, I remain bullish about the ability of the developing world to make fundamental shifts in tackling climate change.

Moon water and "Red Mars"


The discovery of water on the moon now confirmed by several different moon missions, and most recently by a NASA probe deployed via the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan I moon orbiter, is astounding news. That news has been followed with the discovery of large quantities of water on Mars much closer to the equator than was previously thought (earlier the notion was that water in the form of ice was concentrated closer to the polar areas of Mars).

All this really means is that both the moon and Mars are now colonizable, perhaps more easily than earlier thought possible because of the ready availability of water. Coincidentally, this past year I have been reading the wonderful science fiction trilogy on Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson; namely the award winning "Red Mars", "Green Mars" and "Blue Mars", which deals with exactly that - the colonization and "terraforming" of Mars.

The first book in the series, "Red Mars" (full book link on google books?), which I highly recommend, deals with the eventual arrival of permanent human presence on Mars in the form of an early group of astronaut settlers sent to setup bases which include power generation, and mining units as well as green houses, and research labs. The scope of Red Mars is not just scientific and engineering centric - the first settlers, while being the best scientists and engineers, are also highly opinionated and have brought with them their beliefs and philosophies. All of this makes for a fascinating read.

The remaining two books continue on that theme. "Green Mars" explores the continuing efforts to settle Mars by building some sort of an atmosphere on it for human beings to breathe freely in, and the resistance to both the greening effort as well as the control exerted by and from Earth. Finally, "Blue Mars" (which I am halfway through and which is not as easy a read as "Red Mars" was but is nonetheless very illuminating) talks about the eventual reconciliation between Mars and Earth in the backdrop of catastrophic events and displacements on Earth and the need for sending large numbers of affected Earth people to a new life on Mars, and of course the continuing struggles of the Mars inhabitants.

Overall, if there's a minor niggle I have had, its the fact that the author does have a Western bias of sorts in the array of characters introduced and developed. But the bias is far less than several others I have read - names, places and beliefs from Eastern lands have been liberally referenced, very appropriately too I might add which reflects the authors knowledge of history and literature. But I find it strange that given the large numbers of Chinese and Indian scientists in particular active in several engineering and scientific domains, there are hardly any characters of those origins playing principal roles in the Mars trilogy.

Of course, since I am Indian in origin, I am for more Asian representation as prinicipal book characters. Which basically means countering the bias against, with a bias for - a convenient zero sum game, I agree.

Regardless, the authors deep knowledge of the sciences and literature, and very sound storytelling skills brought together by a sweeping, detailed vision of life on Mars is what stays with you. I wouldn't be surprised if future events though reflect in some fashion the ideas and vision displayed in "Red Mars". Fans of good fiction will enjoy this book immensely.

(Red Mars cover image courtesy Amazon.com)

Friday, September 25, 2009

Racism redux: Race in the mirror

Tehelka's latest edition has a series of stories/pieces on how racism is not something new to Indians - they are indeed old experienced hands at practicing it themselves.

These pieces are for the most part short in nature and are personal experiences and opinions expressed by individuals. For instance, in How to Draw Within the Margins, Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih talks about how people, particularly women, from the North Eastern Indian states are treated.

In another story, Navdeep Singh talks about how Indians in general perceive blacks, or being black or dark-skinned people. In particular, her generalization that:
"Most middle class Indians grow up with a sense that White > Indian > Black. (For some reason, East Asians aren’t competing)"
and
"...We often nominate ourselves as honorary white."
are quite telling summarizations.

Stories like these help construct a much broader picture of how prevalent racism is in Indian society and how there is very little done to address it.

(Older post on racism with an Indian twist.)

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Origins 06: Amar Chitra Katha

Origins 06: Amar Chitra Katha

Amar Chitra Katha (or "Immortal Picture Story" as translated by me from the Hindi title) or ACK is a graphic novel/comic book series started by Anant Pai (aka Uncle Pai) under the label India Book House (IBH). Early on, they were largely focused on ancient Indian mythology (as opposed to modern Indian mythology) - which is mostly Hindu in origin of course. But very soon, they expanded to include all stories pertinent to India including history, religion and folklore. The Wikipedia entry has more details - but of course.

These comics have been around for a while. They were a staple diet while I was growing up. My sister and I, being voracious readers, devoured them. As a result we grew up fat on Indian mythology and history. The fact that these books were well researched made them immensely educational as well.

Mythology is of course an extremely fascinating topic. Indian mythology, like other ancient mythology is extremely rich and you could spend years reading stories from it and yet still not know all of them. I was fascinated with it in my much younger days, like several other kids my age. Primarily because like the others I was a sucker for a good story. I wasn't old enough to find blonde haired princesses from foreign lands all that fascinating - not just yet (and no - I'm not referring to Paris Hilton or Pamela Anderson when I say that). Not that we didn't read about them and stuff. But Indian was where it was at.

When I was a kid growing up in Mumbai, we would travel to my father's hometown Elluru frequently where we would spend time with my grandparents and occasionally, some of our cousins too who would be visiting around the same time. In the evenings, around sunset just before dinner was served, us kids would sit on the steps leading up to the verendah outside the family home and my grandmother would sit down with us and tell us stories from Indian mythology. Those story sessions were fascinating.

As my sister and I grew older those trips to Elluru grew more infrequent (not entirely a bad thing as that meant we at least got to visit other places - sorry Dad!). ACK helped keep those stories alive and helped expand that knowledge-base considerably.

Of course, now that us kids of the ACK generation are older and stuff, we're all into interpretations and implications of those mythological stories. Part of the great Indian culture of discussion and argument as endorsed by Amartya Sen in his "The Argumentative Indian". But looking back, the basis for all that lay in that age when we were suckers for a good simple story, especially those rendered in ACK comics.

In summary, if you're a fan of mythology in general and want to learn about Indian mythology, you wouldn't do too badly if you picked up one of these.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Fake NHL Player Tweets: What does that remind you cricket fans of?

Apparently, people have been following fake tweets from tweeters who are pretending to be real NHL players.

Now what does that remind cricket fans of - especially those of the "Indian Player League" or IPL?

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Origins - Part 23: Vividh Bharati

Maybe I still carry a grudge with my parents for cutting (figuratively speaking) me from Cable TV in high school in India. Twice. Both before important end-of-school-year exams (10th Std. and 12th Std.). Their reasoning: I could never probably have enough entertainment. Now, with only the regular TV channels on (all 2 of them - both run by state-owned media) instead of the several other enticing stuff on Cable, they thought that I'd spend very little time in front of the TV and spend more time studying for those exams instead.

They were right - about the first part at least. However, the part that satellite TV would have played was instead taken over by radio - via an old transistor radio that my Dad had bought. That radio, about the dimensions of a decent-sized hardbound novel, was more than 10 years old at that time.

Circa 1991, radio broadcast in India was still state owned and operated, just as terrestrial TV broadcast in India was until a little over a decade ago. During those days, cable TV was actually Satellite TV, transmitted locally within neighborhoods via cable from the neighborhood satellite TV hub. These hubs consisted of huge satellite dish antennas from which overhead cable lines spawned out to buildings across the neighborhoods. Each building hub then had several connecting cables that went into people's homes via windows. This form of cable TV then consisted of channels from all around Asia, the more popular of which were those owned by Star TV - based in and broadcast from Hong Kong.

Prior to 91, India not only had nationalized TV and radio programming, they had also closed borders to stations broadcasting from outside India. All that changed in '91 when the country finally opened up its skies just as it had opened up its economy in response to an economic crisis of great magnitude. Star TV was the first foreign entrant into Indian skywaves, and had quickly started to become pretty popular among the city dwellers. My parents contemplated getting us hooked as well. However, wanting their good-for-nothing yours truly to somehow surprise them pleasantly by doing well in the 10th Std. public exams, they decided against it.

India's state owned radio broadcasting corporation was called All India Radio or simply AIR. At that time AIR broadcast mostly on Medium Wave (MW) and Short Wave (SW). While discussions on starting an AIR FM broadcast in India were on, with private entities allowed to broadcast segments of time, they still hadn't begun yet.

"Vividh Bharati", was the main entertainment feature of AIR, and was broadcast on MW. It carried a broad range of programs from music, to radio plays, etc. These soon became staples for me. Most of these programs were in Hindi. And since I was cooped in my room pretending like I was preparing for exams and stuff, the radio was almost a constant companion. It actually made practicing math problems a lot more pleasant.

So - over the course of a single day, I would end up listening to a whole bunch of old Hindi songs ("Bela ke Phool"), new Hindi songs, trailers of new Hindi movies, famous radio hosts like Ameen Sayani hosting the Hindi music countdown show "Cibaca Geet Mala" (originally the Binaca Geet Mala), request-a-song shows, entertainment shows like the Diamond Comics radio show on Sunday afternoons (I think), radio plays like "Hawa Mahal", and so many more that I can't recollect on the spot.

While I had always enjoyed Hindi music - both old and new, there's nothing like listening to them all the time to really learn about them. I can't imagine how else I would have been introduced to so much Hindi music in so little time.

Another favorite on radio was to listen to the BBC world service on Short Wave (SW). This was especially the case when Vividh Bharati service on state owned radio stopped around 11.35 p.m. on weekdays.

All this while, I remained a voracious reader of English fiction and an avid listener of Western pop and rock. You may think that those multitude of influences may have played a large role as well in me being screwed up, or having experience being screwed up, or whatever.

Cable TV was briefly hooked up in 1992-93 for about a year or so. However, as all Indian kids educated in India, I had to start preparing soon for the public end-of-year exams for the 12th Std. It was decided again, that for my own good, Cable TV would be disconnected once again. Obviously I was pissed like any rebel-without-a-cause teenager worth his salt. But I didn't panic. I had my fallback.

So - being an avid radio listener in general, and of Vividh Bharathi in particular, especially during those 4 years i.e. 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994 - probably ended up becoming a huge influence on me. Sure, all that reading, watching all that TV, MTV and getting hooked on to FM radio, were all pretty influential as well. But I think the one exerted by "All India Radio" has manifested itself in many ways; those that I recognize and those that I may never be able to.

Still not sure if I should stay mad at my parents for cutting me from Cable TV. Maybe it will be as they say:

"When you'll have kids one day - you'll know."



.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The Quick Gun Murugan is here

Shashanka Ghosh first created this memorable multi-layered character, a spoof on Old Westerns of the Clint Eastwood kind, and on boisterous Tamil and Telugu movies and their larger-than-life heroes, for a series of shorts/promos for "Channel [V]" in early 90's. Somewhere down the road he decided that "Quick Gun Murugan" (or "...Murugun", whatever), the "sambhar" cowboy as they're calling him now, deserves a larger feature-length movie for himself. That movie is now finally out - it released in India this past weekend and as I understand it has a mostly Hindi-English version, mostly Tamil-English version and a mostly Telugu-English version.

Trailer 1 is an international film circuit preview with mostly Tamil-English dialogues.




Trailer 2 is the mostly Hindi-English version.




Either ways, this does whet the appetite for the main course. I'll try and catch it sometime. I could use the laughs.