Desicritics Category: Politics: Immigration

My Two Cents to Jason Kenney, Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism

Vijay Sappani — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:35:11 EST

Jason, You have done some good things with Immigration, but at the wrong time. I came to Canada as a student in 1999, when this country had dinosaur-like rules that made it extremely difficult for even the brightest to stay back. I had an executive job with UPS on my one year work permit and after that, the rules said that I need to go back to India to apply for my immigration and come back. Ridiculous as it may sound, that's what many of us went through and lost some bright potential immigrants to US, including many of my own batch mates.

The change was started by Joe Volpe and has been been slowly drifting in since then. Here are my thoughts to you on your new proposal.

"Canada is looking to Asia as well as India for potential students. Universities are happy to get them, he said, because foreign students are "a source of revenue" since they pay the highest tuition fees."

Jason, India is in Asia and I don't know what you mean by "Asia as well as India". Don't just look for students with deep pockets, but those with deep knowledge. If you want the best to stay in Canada then you need to bring the best. Foreign students are the best pool of potential immigrants to Canada (like me) and you want to attract those who will be "a source of intellect" and not just "a source of revenue"

The most important thing that you need when you go fishing is not the equipment, but to know where there is fish. Is Canada putting its resources in the right places in India, China or Russia. I don't think so. The most number of education and H-1B visas given by any US consulate is Chennai, India, where Canada has two people trade office. Get your priorities right and focus on Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi for international students. Learn from the Aussies, Americans, Brits and even New Zealand.

The tuition fees for International students are two- three times more than what Canadians pay. At a time of economic downturn around the world, it will be hard for many students to pay 10K plus in tuition fees per year. Make education affordable for International students, allow unlimited work time during studying. open work permit is great and helps students after graduation. You want to give a tuition fees break for the best and brightest, so that we can not only attract them, but convince them to stay back. Foreign students should be seen as a long term investment plan, not short term revenue gain.

Allow graduate and post graduate students from US schools to apply for work permits in their broad area of study in Canada. Some of the best students from India, China, Israel go to US for post graduate education and we should make it attractive and easy for them to work and immigrate to Canada. Tap them when they are in school in US.

Our points based system is not perfect and the time is now to can our existing system and come with a new model that suits the needs of Canada and our markets. Today, a MBA from Timbuktu is treated the same as a MBA from Harvard on the points system, but the market does not treat them the same. There is a lot, I can go on and on with my own experience in this country, but my wife just reminded me that its Sunday and get off the computer! So bye for now

Movie Review: Ramchand Pakistani

Aditi Nadkarni — Mon, 9 Feb 2009 01:03:04 EST

The name caught my attention. It is not every day that we hear the title of a revered Hindu god and Pakistan in the same sentence. I almost wondered why there hadn't be news of effigies being burnt in India based on the name of the film alone. Has the economy stolen effigy-burners of their job or were they just busy with the upcoming anti-Valentine's Day projects, I wondered. As I began to watch the movie, I was surprised that I had not heard much about this beautifully crafted story based on true events.

Ramchand Pakistani encompasses in a relatively simple plot serious issues such as social reform and border security and yet manages to engage us at times in the complex maze of a woman's emotions and then in the mixed humor that always accompanies a boy's coming of age. This is the story of Ramchand, an eight year old Hindu-Dalit Pakistani boy who strays across the border and into India at a time when relations between the two nations are strained by an ongoing war. His father runs after him like any parent would and the duo is immediately suspected of being spies or terrorists from across the border. They land in a prison in India where they are interrogated and every day their hopes of ever returning to their country slowly dwindle. Amidst this tragic tale of separation are the little stories of triumph and Ramchand's adventures.

As Ramchand grows up in a less than ideal environment, the film introduces us to some grim realities. Caste relations in India have formed the basis of historical injustice as well as current politically-charged events that grow volatile every now and then. In the rural areas the poor treatment of Dalits and the issue of untouchability lives on even as our nation plants a flag on the moon. In the cities we hardly think of these issues because they don't affect us and then a film like Ramchand Pakistani reminds us that we can grimace and fume at the mentions of our dirty underbelly but we cannot do away with the precious lives that this underbelly houses. Ramchand's identity represents irony at several levels. He is a Hindu Pakistani Dalit imprisoned in India, a pluralistic nation where Hindus make up the majority, Pakistanis the perceived enemy and Dalits, the "untouchable" lower castes who have for long borne injustice. We have found superficial answers in terms of reserved seats and quotas assigned for these deprived and oppressed classes. However, the rift formed by discrimination at a social and cultural level may take years to bridge or even longer if we refuse to even acknowledge it.

Just as the hopelessness of little Ramchand's circumstances grips us towards the intermission, the film captivates us with the most basic of human emotions. The woman, a mother and a wife, who was left behind by these two pilgrims, struggles with being separated from her spouse and longs for love. The boy grows up in a prison surrounded by the most diverse group one can imagine. Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshi all live as one big dysfunctional family, their lives occasionally punctuated with hope and despair alike.

A child in the dangerous world of adults always makes for a plot that keeps viewers on their toes. Being in a prison, little Ramchand is surrounded by adults whom society has deemed criminal and unacceptable. Knowing that the film is based on true events, I watched the film with constant questions of what would eventually happen to Ramchand and his father. Would they return to Pakistan and reunite with the woman who waited for so long to see her loved ones? Has she waited or has she moved on? Knowing that the film is based on true events, I anticipated the worst and yet was suprised by the film's ending.

Watching a film directed by a woman has always been very interesting for me. Female directors deal differently with humor and emotion in a film. Good female directors, I have noticed, are like deft chefs who balance flavor. They carefully toy with each sentimental nuance of the film, not letting one get ahead of the other. The humor is subtle and even tragedy is somewhat muted under shifting curtains of periodic triumph. The end result for a viewer can be either detached neutrality or a perfectly satisfying adventure infused with a gamut of emotions. Mehreen Jabbar, the New York based Pakistani director treats us to the latter. Cinematographer Sofian Khan compliments Jabbar's directorial genius by capturing the stark contrast of the pale scorched desert region with the richly colorful couture of the women. There are scenes within the film that seem out of an oil painting.

I will never quite fathom the politics and bureaucracy that tempers the otherwise untamed flight of art and so it is beyond my understanding why this film would not be Pakistan's submission for an Oscar this year. I must add, that the lack of an Oscar nomination and presumably inadequate publicity does not stop Ramchand Pakistani from being a deeply moving film.

My Name is Prerna and I am an Undocumented American

Prerna — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:35:24 EST

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

"You can no longer claim legal residency under the petition filed by your grandmother. You are over 21 now and aged-out under the I-130," said my latest attorney. I didn't quite understand what he meant, the fear and confusion hidden in my nervous laughter.

"You are joking, right? They didn't give me an F-1 visa to study here because my parents had filed for permanent residency and now you are telling me that I can't get the permanent residency for which my visa was initially rejected?" I tried to grapple with the logic of the law.

He shrugged, like it was no big deal. "You luckily have a 245-I and can get a Green Card in several years once your parents file for you again. Or you can just get married to a U.S. citizen," he offered.

"What? I have already waited a decade and marriage doesn't help me--I am gay," I answered, gyrating at the reminder of how another set of discriminatory laws worked against me.

"You can always get a marriage of convenience?" he shrugged.

I am writing this a day after International Migrants Day - In all seriousness, every day should be a day to celebrate migration but there is a story to the migration of my people that I have not blogged about.

My sister (29) and I (24) have both been in the United States for a decade. We have grown up American, we are both hard-working, hold advanced degrees, possess great English skills, and even look alike but there is a fundamental way in which we are different: she is a US citizen while I am undocumented; she has grown up legally in America, while I am an 'illegal alien.'

The 'attrition through enforcement' advocates often tell DREAM Act beneficiaries to go home to our countries. I want to know what that means:

Fiji: The country where I was born tells me that I am a colonizer, that I don't belong there.

India, Pakistan and Bangladesh: The countries of my ancestry predetermine me as a criminal even though I have never stepped foot anywhere in the Indian subcontinent.

The United States of America: The country where I have spent close to a decade, continues to demand a Green Card and a nine-digit number in order to accept me, regardless of the fact that the rest of my family comprises tax-paying citizens and legal permanent residents.

As a Pacific Islander of undocumented status, I am consistently relegated to a parenthetical and non-existent status in the legal-illegal immigration binary. While illegal presence is not a crime, since the tag of "illegal alien" comes with an assumption of criminality, I am wrongfully deemed a criminal. At the same time, I have had to challenge the additional presumption of foreignness based on language, the stigma of both gay and 'illegal' in the Indo-Fijian community, and stemming from that, cultural, economic and structural limits to inclusion in my home.

What is American? Who is an American? I hail from the Fiji Islands; My favorite food is Chinese; I root for Italy and Juventus when it comes to soccer; I am disappointed when India loses a major cricket tournament; I love Pakistani music with Jal as my most favorite band; I speak several dialects of Hindi, English, understand Urdu and am finally grappling with Spanish and French; the L-word is my favorite television show with Jennifer Beals as my biggest idol; I think Indian actress Anita Hassanandani is the most beautiful woman in the world; I love Maroon 5, Simple Plan, U2 and Kasabian; my best friends live in various parts of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom; the San Francisco Bay Area is my home and Chicago is my favorite city. My likes and dislikes know neither borders nor boundaries. And if my diversity of taste and pleasure-seeking avenues is not American, than I don't know what is.

With multitudes of identities in this world of constructed binaries and boundaries, I have multitudes of questions. What precisely is my home country? Where do I belong? Why am I being punished for something that was out of my control? Why does this country not consider me equal to the rest of my family? Why can't I use my postgraduate education to help my family, community and country in these tough economic times? Why can't I get married to adjust my status? How does deporting me help legal residents and U.S. citizens whom I help every single day?

I work 15-20 hours a day for pro-migrant, pro-LGBT civil rights reforms. This is not merely a job or a cause; it is about our lives. And I plan to stay here, attend law school, become a public interest lawyer, and serve my community. The federal bipartisan DREAM Act can help make this a reality for me and countless other students who are rendered stateless in the only country they know as home.

For weeks, I had been nicknamed the V for Vendetta for the DREAM Act movement. That phase is over - DreamActivist, the blog handle for Brave New Films, has now transformed into a rallying point for the United We DREAM coalition. I have lost an identity for myself, but we have gained momentum for the DREAM Act in 2009. Goodbye DreamActivist. Welcome DreamACTivist - United We DREAM.

So in the Harvey Milk fashion, I would like to begin by saying that my name is Prerna (meaning 'inspiration' in Hindi), and I want to recruit you in the fight for our limpid dreams.

There are many undocumented Desi students in the closet. Let's come together to bring them out of the shadows. If you know students that are undocumented in America, tell them to contact me.

admin@dreamactivist.org

Visit and even register at DreamActivist.org for more information and to receive updates on how you can help us in this struggle to achieve our DREAMs.

Terrorism All The Way

Abhinandan Mishra — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:22:26 EDT

The lull before the storm has never been so apt before. It was just few month back that Delhi witnessed serial bombings. Before a single word or thought condemning the blast could see the light of day, another serial bomb blast rocked the nation. This time it was Assam.

The familiar words expressing sympathy for the victims from the PM and the habitual statements from the intelligence department was handed out to the media. Nothing was different. Same words, same people, same response. The intelligence agency though came out with a 'revelation' that they had the prior knowledge of a possibility of such destructive activity being undertaken in Assam.

The only saving grace was that the intelligence guys did not blame the terrorist for not informing them about the exact spot where the bombs were planted. I can well imagine their helplessness as the alleged perpetrators had already crossed over to Bangladesh well before news of the dead and injured poured in.

It's time to be honestly blunt here. I cannot understand why India which prides itself being called as a regional 'super-nuclear-economic' power fails to reign in the lesser-insignificant neighbors like Bangladesh and Nepal.

Nepal and Bangladesh have now established themselves as a safe heaven and a launching pad for carrying out anti-Indian activities. Illegal immigrants continue to enter India and in due time they are converted into 'Indians' for obvious vote bank.

Diplomats and seasoned foreign experts say that acting tough against these two countries would alienate them and pave a way for China to come closer to these 'traditional friends' of India. This argument defies every logic. How can one to continue to overlook something such blatantly nefarious designs of our well-wishing neighbors?

Still, despite all the appeasing measures adopted by India, it's no secret that in recent years Nepal and Bangladesh have takes long strides that go to Beijing and not towards New Delhi.

Some years ago The Times of India carried a front page picture in which a BSF jawan who was killed by personnel of Bangladeshi rifles was shown being carried on a bamboo stick just like the old days when the hunters would proudly carry their kill exhibiting their strength. The jawans were killed by the BDR personnel after they resisted their attempt to help cattle thieves from stealing cattle and taking it to Bangladesh from the Indian side.

I had expected at least an economic embargo on Bangladesh for a limited period from our government for such a daring misadventure by them. Sadly I was proved wrong. If I remember correctly India could only manage a diplomatic rebuke. That was the price we paid for being a 'responsible- South Asian- giant'.

Now I have no hesitation in saying that the Indian nationalist freedom movement was perhaps the last magnificent show of India's political will. Will to stand against anarchy and tyranny.

The one thing that the arrest of Malegaon accused has done is that now the supporter of tougher anti-terrorism law will not be called 'anti-minority'. Terrorism has no religion. It never had.

Life has never been so cheap and vulnerable before. And the sad fact is that we have been blinded by the bright light of a 'resurgent economy' and a nuclear deal that has brought us international acclamation. Unfortunately that same very light has made us falsely believe that everything is vibrant and functioning.

The present government has repeatedly said that it is against taking a knee-jerk action. But for how long? And is it correct to term a legitimate action important for national security as knee jerk action?

Bring in a law which will stop the terrorists from killing children, men and women, suspend talks with the militant groups wherever they are, arrest the separatists be it the Kashmiri or the Assamese. Do something that goes beyond words on mike and on paper.

Conversions, Sham Marriages and Organ Donations

Vinod Joseph — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:00:53 EDT

I'm not sure which of the three is more distasteful. Is selling a kidney or other organ for money more disgusting (or sad) than contracting a sham marriage for financial gain? Is switching one's faith for money sadder than receiving money to marry someone whose only aim is to migrate to the UK or the USA?

Personally speaking, I would put organ donations for money on top of this list. It must be really painful to be in a position where one is forced to donate an organ, maybe a kidney, to earn some money. Mind you, in India the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 makes it illegal to donate an organ for money. This law is observed more in breach. Desperate men and women continue to donate their organs for money. As long as there are willing buyers and eager buyers, this trade will go on. Rather than try and prevent it, it would make sense for the authorities to merely make sure donors are not cheated when they donate an organ.

People get married for reasons that vary from love to a need to please one's parents to getting money or property. Some get married because it is the done thing. In most cases, it is a combination of some of these reasons. I assume more than a few marriages are entered into solely for monetary reasons. Therefore, it should be no surprise to know that there are many people, nationals of countries like the UK and USA which are high up on the migrants wish list, willing to enter into contracts of marriage with wannabe migrants solely for money. Detecting sham marriages is taken seriously in these countries. Last year, the UK even tried to make a law which required foreigners living in the UK (other than permanent residents) to seek special permission to marry, irrespective of the status of their partner. The House of Lords struck down this law, but migration authorities continue to have the right to delve into a marriage to see if it is a 'sham.'

In my opinion, as long as a person is legally entitled to marry, no one should have the right to question his or her reasons for getting married. Why is it acceptable to get married for a fat dowry in India or a farmhouse in Surrey, and unacceptable to marry with a view to facilitating a migrant's entry into one's home country? As long as both parties are legally entitled to marry, that is, they are of sound mind and not already married, it should be none of anyone's business.

People change their religion for various reasons. In my opinion, the most common reason in modern times is – love. I've known so many instances of people switching faith in order to get married. This usually happens when one party in a marriage comes from a very religious background and his or her family will be terribly unhappy if he or she marries someone from a different religion or sect. And so, the other party, when faced with the prospect of losing the love of one's life, agrees to switch faith. Despite so much controversy in India over conversions, no one has seriously challenged the right to convert for love.

Then there are conversions for social advancement. By social advancement, I don't just mean escaping the caste system. Unlike the British, the Portuguese and the Spanish considered conversion to be one of the goals of colonisation. Therefore, during the Portuguese rule in Goa, many conversions were achieved by force. But not all conversions were forced. There were many who wanted to be be on the side of the ruling class, with the expectation of various benefits. Something very similar must have happened during Arab/Mughal rule in India. Some of those who converted may have been forced. Many others must have converted for social advancement and other benefits.

In recent times, practically every religious community in India has indulged in conversions. Various Hindu sants have converted tribals and dalits to mainstream Hinduism and reconverted those Hindus who had converted to Christianity. Christian priests have continued their noble task of spreading the Word and Muslim preachers have not been far behind. Interestingly, the growing economic clout of the overseas Indian/Hindu community has meant that Hindu missionary activities outside India have gained momentum. One only has to walk past Oxford Circus in London to see a number of 'white' Hare Krishna devotees singing and dancing and preaching. The Hare Krishnas and various Hindu temples in the UK such as the Sri Mahalakshmi temple in East London, serve free food to the hungry and run schools. I believe this practice is followed in the USA, Canada, Australia etc. In the West, no one questions the right of the Hare Krishnas or other Hindu organisations to conduct these activities which are not much different from the activities of Christian missionary and Muslim organisations in India. Like Christian missionaries in India, Hare Krishnas face flak in some intolerant parts of the world such as Kazakhstan. When a local authority in Kazakhstan destroyed part of the Hare Krishna settlement outside Almaty, there was a global outcry, including from the West.

Usually the ones who are willing to convert for benefits are not particularly religious. Having converted to a new faith, they do display the outward signs of that religion and bring up their children in the new faith. Usually the new faith sticks, though it may take a generation or two to do so.

I don't think religious conversions can be or should be banned. The Indian Constitution gives every Indian the freedom to practice any faith of his or her choice. This obviously includes the freedom to convert to any religion for any reason whatsoever. It could be for the purpose of getting married to someone, it may be to gain nirvana or salvation, it may be to get a job or to escape the caste system. But it should be none of anybody else's business.

The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain

Vinod Joseph — Wed, 8 Oct 2008 16:31:42 EDT

Two young Conservative politicians in the UK, Douglas Carswell and Daniel Hannan have come up with a plan (the “Plan”) for what they call – “renewing Britain”. Daniel Douglas Carswell has been the Conservative MP for Harwich and Clacton since 2005. Hannan, a writer and journalist, is the Conservative Minister for European Parliament (MEP) for South East England since 1999. The plan put forth by Carswell and Hannan is set out in a 195 page document titled “The Plan: Twelve months to renew Britain” that can be either bought (for £10) or downloaded (for £5) online.

Bad Shape – In the eye of the beholder

The Plan is based on the assumption that the UK is in a bad shape. Like beauty, bad shape is also something that lies in the eye of the beholder. I remember when I started my first job in the UK, I was told (apologetically) by so many colleagues that the building which housed our offices was in a terrible shape. ‘Ghastly’ and ‘horrible’ were the adjectives most often used. Before coming to London a year before to do a one-year masters course at the London School of Economics, I had a four year stint in Mumbai during which time I had seen a lot of wobbly buildings with even more wobbly staircases and antique lifts. To my eye, I could find nothing wrong with my new office building. On the contrary, it looked unbelievably solid and sturdy. No, the problem I soon learnt, was not in the stability of the building, but in its aesthetics. Grey in colour, with no glass or other frills one sees in most modern buildings these days, it was clearly not intended to have people exclaim in admiration as they walked past. The same is the case with the UK, a very prosperous country by any standard, with nothing much seriously wrong with it.

What exactly is wrong in the UK?

Carswell and Hannan manage to find a lot wrong with the current state of affairs in the UK. But they are not just cribbers, they have a magic bullet solution for UK’s ailments.

“The British state is failing. It can’t deliver even the most basic services competently. We have the highest prisoner population in Europe, and one of the highest crime rates. Our schoolchildren compare dismally with similarly aged pupils in other countries and in previous generations. Our healthcare system is more likely to kill its charges than any other in the developed world. Our roads are choked, our railways crumbling, our airports unbearable. Our borders are, to all intents and purposes, wide open.”

Each of the statements made above by Carswell and Hannan is debatable. For example, the International Centre for Prison Studies says that Russia has the highest rate of prison population (635 per 100,000) in Europe. Scotland and England and Wales have the 17th and 18th highest rates in Europe. I guess that when Carswell and Hannan say “Europe”, they mean “Western Europe”. Even then, Spain has a higher rate than Scotland or England and Wales. Northern Ireland is 39th in Europe, lower than France or Germany with a prison population of 87 per 100,000. The United States of America, a source of inspiration to Carswell and Hannan in many respects, has the highest prisoner population in the world. If you look at the percentage of female prisoners within the prison population, England and Wales is at the 19th place, way below Norway, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The British health care is admittedly not as good as say, healthcare in various other European states, but then, as Carswell and Hannan admit in the Plan, such other states spend a lot more on healthcare than the UK. British road and rail infrastructure is indeed not as good as what you find in say, Germany, but then Germany has always had better roads even during the days of Winston Churchill.

The Plan

The Plan revolves around a series of legislative measures (which will not take more than 12 months) to reform Britain. Carswell and Hannan feel that MPs are too powerless and have too many perks. They want to clean up Westminster by pruning the amount of perks MPs get. The House of Commons will be reduced in size. The House of Lords is not really compatible with democracy, Carswell and Hannan opine, but do not want to tackle it as part of the Plan since it will require a lot more time than one year. Policing and prosecution decisions must be made by elected officials. Judges should not be allowed to make law as they have been doing of late. Parliament must reign supreme, in its pruned form. The UK must withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. English counties and cities should have all the powers that have been devolved to Scotland. Parents who send their children to private schools must be able to claim the per capita average being spent on them. Similarly, patients must be able to opt out of the NHS. There should be greater devolution of powers. Local governments must be given all the powers which have now been devolved to Scotland and the right to collect sufficient revenue to do many things on their own.

Small government

“To the size of a state there is a limit, as there is to plants, animals and implements, for they can none of them retain their facility when they are too large.” This quote from Aristotle finds place at the beginning of the Plan document. The main grouse espoused by Carswell and Hannan, which runs throughout the Plan, is that the UK was traditionally a small state with the bulk of its laws derived from customs and practices, but is no longer so. In the last few decades, especially as a result of the accession to the EU, the UK has come to become a state run by bureaucrats and quangos (Quasi Non-Governmental Organizations) not elected by the people. Britain has moved towards continental European values which prefer a neutral and supposedly impartial administrator to an elected politician who may have biases and prejudices. Carswell and Hannan don’t like bureaucrats or quangos who only help themselves and create more paper work for themselves. On top of it all, even bureaucrats or quangos will have their own prejudices, we are told. Carswell and Hannan don’t use the words ‘welfare state’, though it becomes clear that they do want the British welfare state to be rolled back.

After the recent turmoil in the financial markets, not many people will find the idea of a small government appealing. The question being asked now is why the independent regulators weren’t more vigilant. There isn’t much of a demand to do away with regulators despite their many lapses. However, Daniel Hannan has not changed his mind if this blog post of his is any indication.

To be fair to Carswell and Hannan, their idea of a small government is a lot more than financial deregulation. As explained in detail below, the Plan envisages a small government everywhere, especially at the local level.

Elected Sheriffs

Carswell and Hannan want the UK to emulate the US in various respects, one of which is the subservience of police chiefs and prosecution services to elected Sheriffs. Sir Ian Blair, the London Metropolitan Police Chief, is used as an example of how undemocratic and unaccountable a police chief can be. At the time of the Plan’s publication, Sir Ian Blair was clinging to power despite facing an enormous amount of criticism. His role during the 7 July bombing and the death of Jean Charles de Menezes left a lot to be desired. The London Assembly passed a resolution of no-confidence in Sir Ian Blair. The new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said that he would like Sir Blair to leave. Despite all this, Sir Blair stayed in power since he could only be fired by the Home Secretary (which happened recently after the Plan was published). Elected Sheriffs should also have the power to set local sentencing guidelines. This might mean that different towns or counties might have different approaches to the same offence. Shoplifting might attract a higher penalty in London than in Manchester. But that would be quite democratic. If the residents of London want to follow a particular approach to an offence, they should be free to do so, irrespective of what Manchester thinks.

I have some sympathy for this approach. You might argue that a nation as small as the UK should not try to emulate the US and end up with different laws in different parts of the country. If Carswell and Hannan have their way, illegal immigrants might, if caught in Barking, be flogged and deportated, whilst Argyllshire in Scotland might merely deport them. In the US, Texas enthusiastically enforces the death penalty whilst 13 states have abolished it. However, it cannot be denied that a much higher percentage of Texans support the death penalty than citizens of states where the death penalty has been abolished. If you believe that democracy should be subservient to the goal of moving the entire nation to a higher plane of values, you might not like this approach. However, what constitutes a ‘higher plane of values’ will always be debatable.

Human Rights Act

The UK is a signatory to the European Convention on Human rights and all UK laws are subject to the Human Rights Act 1998 framed under this convention. Laws made by the British Parliament can be overruled if they are found to violate the Human Rights Act. It is not unheard of in the UK to challenge laws and regulations on the ground that they breach human rights. Carswell and Hannan do not like the idea of judges using the Human Rights Act to override the will of the Parliament. They want the Human Rights Act to be scrapped. If the Plan were to be implemented, the UK will withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Illegal immigrants, minorities and to a lesser extent prisoners, rely on this law more than others since they have very few other rights. Carswell and Hannan cite the example of an illegal immigrant who in 1997 was able to overturn his deportation order on the grounds that he would not receive the same medical treatment in his home country as was available in the UK. The illegal immigrant relied on Article 3 of this convention which says that no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.’ I find this example a bit outdated since the UK now deports illegal immigrants who are ill and need urgent medical care. In the beginning of this year, media reported the case of a cancer-ridden Ghanaian woman who was deported from the UK and died soon after.

All the examples cited by Carswell and Hannan as examples of how courts have used the Human Rights Act to overturn the will of the Parliament involve illegal immigrants or prisoners or citizenship applications. I do have sympathy for the view that Judges should only interpret and should never make the law. However, if the Human Rights Act were to be scrapped, the most vulnerable section within British society will suffer the most.

Parliament must be supreme

Carswell and Hannan want a Reserve Powers Act to be enacted in order to guarantee the supremacy of the legislature against judicial activism. Carswell and Hannan find it intolerable that a national legislature might be subservient to an international body. For this reason, they oppose the International Criminal Court which can prosecute national leaders, a process which they rightly say may be misused. At least in theory, any political leader anywhere in the world, including from the UK, may be tried by the ICC. Carswell and Hannan go to the extent of saying that “the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunals have now become a law unto themselves, prosecuting some men for no better reason than that it was thought politically expedient to have inductees from all sides in a war.” The job of prosecuting national leaders must be left to national courts, they say.

Thankfully not many people in the world share this point of view. If they did, war criminals like Slobodan Milosevic would never have been brought to book.

Carswell and Hannan want the UK’s defence and foreign policy to be determined entirely by the Parliament with a lot more parliamentary oversight over diplomats. According to Carswell and Hannan, “British foreign policy is cocooned from the democratic process. It is conducted by highly qualified officials who, although often technically brilliant, have drifted away from the values of the rest of the country. Left to their own devices, diplomatists have evolved an approach to international relations that is elitist, managerialist, supra-nationalist, technocratic and contemptuous of ‘populism’.” Reading this, I was reminded of Republicans accusing Obama of elitism!

And look at what these elitist diplomats have got the UK into? They got the UK into the EU! What could be worse than that? Carswell and Hannan seem to hate the European Union more than anything else in the world.

Each and every real and perceived foreign policy mistake is blamed on elistist diplomats who follow their own ideology rather than the people’s dictates. Unlike the diplomats of yore, modern diplomats do not project British interests. Though experts, diplomats have as many prejudices and biases as anybody else. Currently, diplomatic appointments, the contracting of treaties and national defence, are all controlled by Downing Street under Crown Prerogative powers. This has allowed the Foreign Secretary to sign up to treaties such as the Maastricht Treaty without Parliamentary approval. Carswell and Hannan want all these powers to be transferred to the Parliament. Each time the Parliament is reconstituted, all treaties and diplomatic appointments must be reviewed and approved, else they will lapse. Even if this sounds like a good idea in theory, I doubt if this can be implemented in practice unless the MPs work all year around in the Parliament, something which doesn’t fit in with the Plan for a reduced House of Commons.

Gentlemen (or Lady) Members of Parliament

Carswell and Hannan want to prune the pay and perks which MPs get. MPs will meet only for a limited number of days in a year and will be ‘amateur’ politicians. In the sense that they will need to carry on a trade or profession of their own which will pay their bills. The only compensation they get will be for the days they need to spend in Parliament.

On paper this sounds good. But in practice this would generally prevent people without a great deal of inherited wealth from entering politics. In my opinion, it is not possible to be a part-time politician. Even if an MP does not have to spend all his/her time in Parliament, I doubt if it will be possible for the MP to hold a regular job. There will be exceptions for sure, but this proposal would take politicians to a situation similar to that of sportsmen in the days when sport was played (mainly by the wealthy) for glory rather than money.

Right to Opt-Out from State Schools and the NHS

Carswell and Hannan feel that schools in the UK are ‘failing due to too much government.’ They want the Danish system to be followed in the UK which would give parents who send their children to private schools the right to claim the per capita average being spent within the state system. In other words, the cost of sending children to private schools will come down. The net impact of such a move, in my opinion, would be to widen the rich-poor divide in the education system. The poorest children would continue to languish in state schools, whose quality would deteriorate even further.

Something similar is to be done with the NHS. Carswell and Hannan rightly say that the NHS is bloated and inefficient. Patients should have the freedom to seek services from a private health care provider and opt out of the NHS. Carswell and Hannan specifically recommend the health care system in Singapore where patients deposit money in a health care savings account (till the money reaches a critical limit) and pay their private health care providers from that account. Catastrophic insurance (of around £400 per annum) is also bought by everyone. The Plan rightly claims that the Singaporean system is even better than the system (of privately insured healthcare) in the United States.

Personally speaking, I would benefit if these suggestion were to be implemented. So would most middle-class residents in the UK. But these bits of the Plan have the potential to make British society a lot less egalitarian.

Devolution of power

Carswell and Hannan want local governments to be autonomous with all the powers which have now been devolved to Scotland. At present ninety per cent of all revenue collected in Britain goes to the Chancellor in Whitehall. This money is distributed by the Chancellor to various authorities and bodies. The net result is that local councils are quite powerless and good candidates are not interested in standing for elections at the council level.

The Plan proposes the scrapping of VAT and replacing it with a local sales tax (“LST”). Different regions will have different rates of LST. This will lead to tax competition between various regions. Local councils should also have the freedom to scrap council tax.

I can see a lot of merit in these suggestions. However, the consequences may involve a drastic fall in the amount of money being available with local councils in deprived areas. The Plan does mention a top-up for such areas, but I feel it is unlikely to be equal to the actual loss in revenue.

Social security is to be distributed at the local level. Carswell and Hannan rightly point out that local authorities are in a much better position to detect welfare fraud and determine parameters for entitlement. This is something I fully endorse as long as deprived areas as given a proportionately higher allotment to meet their welfare costs.

Cut down on red-tape

Carswell and Hannan want to repeal various Acts that provide the legal base for burdensome and costly regulation. The Plan lists 26 Acts which are to be repealed. These include laws framed under the EU Directives on Part-Time Work giving part-time workers equal access to pay, pensions, annual leave and training as full-time staff, Anti-Money Laundering Rules and the Hunting Act 2004 which outlaws hunting with dogs. As would be evident to anyone who reads the entire Plan, most of the laws which Carswell and Hannan want to repeal are social welfare legislation which conservatives have always hated. You might agree or disagree with Carswell and Hannan depending on which shade of the political spectrum you belong to.

The Plan proposes that all new pieces of legislation are to have a sunset clause that will ensure that enactments do not survive in perpetuity. I don’t agree. Some laws contain sunset clauses and these are usually the draconian anti-terrorism laws which curtail civil liberties. Otherwise laws are meant to make things better and ought to survive for perpetuity.

Alternatives to the EU

As mentioned earlier, Carswell and Hannan don’t like the European Union and they propose that the UK ought to withdraw from the EU and instead be a part of the European Free Trade Area (“EFTA”) just like Switzerland. Being in the EFTA would give the UK trade access to the European Market without having to tag along with the EU in matters such as labour policy or welfare measure or immigration. Carswell and Hannan point to countries such as Iceland and Switzerland which are not part of the EU and manage to remain prosperous. I guess Iceland was a prosperous country when the Plan was published. It is no longer so very prosperous at the moment.

I do agree that if ideologically most people in the UK differ from continental Europe, it makes little sense to be a part of the EU.

People’s Bills and Blocking Referendums

Carswell and Hannan recommend that citizens ought to be able to table bills in the Parliament if they collect sufficient signatures. The top 6 popular bills should be voted on by MPs. Similarly, if 20,000 people sign a petition to block a bill which has received its third reading, but before it receives Royal Assent, the bill should be blocked. If within a prescribed period a specified percentage of the electorate sign up to the petition, the bill should not become law.

These are good proposals and I would support them. Please read the Plan in full if you want to understand these proposals since the explanation I have given above is sketchy and may not give you an accurate picture of the proposals as contained in the Plan.

What’s the Position on Immigration?

One very important issue which has not been addressed in the Plan is that of migration. Thought not always discussed openly, migration has been one of the hottest issues in the Western world in this decade. Surprisingly, Carswell and Hannan don’t have much to say on this. There are a few mentions of reversing the flow of illegal migration, cracking down on illegal immigrants and the failures of the Migration Service. When discussing the drawbacks of being in the EU, it is said that the EU has prevented the UK from having an annual quota on immigrants. But a specific policy to tackle the perceived problem of immigration is missing. This is a glaring omission indeed.

Since the Plan is silent on this vital issue, I am tempted to infer what Carswell and Hannan might have in mind based on what they have said on other matters.

Switzerland has the most successful policy on migration in the whole of Europe. When I say “successful”, I mean success in controlling migration since controlling and reducing migrant inflows is the cornerstone of most migration policies, including that of the UK. How does Switzerland do this? To apply for Swiss citizenship, the applicant must have legally lived in Switzerland for at least 12 years. The final decision on a citizenship application is made by the local community where the applicant lives. The local community will interview the applicant and put his application to vote before citizenship is granted. Do Carswell and Hannan wish to implement the Swiss approach I wonder? It would fit in with the Plan which wants to devolve power to local communities. Currently, a person who has worked in the UK for five years will almost automatically obtain permanent residency. Permanent residents obtain citizenship (almost automatically) a year after becoming permanent residents. If the Swiss system were to be implemented in the UK, I would assume that the number of people who obtain British citizenship will be reduced to a trickle. Would members of one community or race find it more difficult to get citizenship than others? Possibly.

No foreigner has the right to migrate to another country. The visa stamped on a foreign passport is always a favour bestowed on the passport holder rather than an entitlement. Every country has the right to implement the most appropriate immigration policy. That being said, immigration is an emotional topic, especially during a recession when jobs are being lost and the economy feels pinched. It is very easy to cause scare mongering and get voters excited on this topic. Sometimes the scaremongering works, sometimes it doesn’t. I do wish Carswell and Hannan had not remained silent on this issue.

To Leave or Not To Leave

Cine Cynic — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 14:37:45 EDT

A year and a half ago, particularly inauspicious planetary positions conflicting with my time of birth have made me blurt out "Pune", in a choice of destination between Chennai and Pune. I should have stuck with my old and old-fashioned Tamil da's and dei's. Today, when a PMC bus conductor gives me a ticket, it becomes all the more painfully clear.

My grandma used to tell me in my childhood that nobody can cheat an educated man. She remains unhappy of not having "higher education", and I figure she will be unhappier if I told her that it didn't matter. I have what she considers "higher education" and am cheated daily by those who don't have them.

I fell in love with Pune when I reached here: the slightly sweet cuisine in the over-crowded restaurants, the vibrant art scene reverberating in the newspaper supplements, the trekking destinations all of which seem the same, the coldness of winters that forced new jerkins against my body, and the mysterious women wearing colorful masks outdoors.

I forgave the auto-driver who threatened me with dire consequences, the Pune drivers who have what is called "traffic nonsense", the pothole-ridden road which gave me my worst accident making me bed-ridden for months, and started calling the apartment I live in "home".

When I see the bus-ticket with Marathi letters and numerals, I'm reminded of my foreignness. The conductor doesn't reply to my enquiry about the ticket's cost, nor does he return change. I love the auto-drivers now, especially the eight-seater guys. Not only do I get a seat, free banter in Marathi or Hindi, and preferential stops, I also have an idea how much the journey is going to cost.

Not so with the buses. Yesterday it was six rupees, the day before only three. On most days, it is five. Today was a particularly bad day, so ten. I once asked a conductor about these rates, and he assured me that the rates were changed only that morning and suggested I walk towards the front, because my journey is only two bus-stops long. Who am I to argue that? He is in that line of business and is the most-informed.

You might wonder whether I don't have problems worse than PMC buses. Until recently, PMC harrassed residents in my area in the name of laying roads for the Commonwealth Youth Games. This lasted nine months. All they did was dig them, let people fall in this pothole and that, and finally fill them up with cement or tar, whatever they could lay their hands on. I hope they didn't bury anybody in the potholes.

Then there is MSEB. We have no power for hours, sometimes half-days at a stretch. First, they blamed rains. Then, the roads. Now, it varies from the price of the power to the absence of engineers. However, we now have power failures only for a couple of hours a day. Thank you, MSEB.

Had this been any other city, I would have filed complaints in the respective departments and written publishable rubbish to the newspaper editors. I know that might not be of much use, but it has the advantage of assuring me that I've done my duty. In Pune, thanks to a gentleman called Raj Thackeray, I keep mum and inaudibly mumble desperate nothings. It has been months since he and his sena have chased out thousands of blue-collared workers from the city. But I'm constantly reminded that I could be next, along with the other south Indian "immigrants" making a living here.

I am thankful for the feeling of a second-class citizen; there is a chance I might not have experienced that feeling in any other Indian city. The new city commissioner is especially strict, what with his first priority being to remove the masks off the women's faces. He wants as uniform tans as possible.

Now I must think if I should shift to Chennai, or even better, Hyderabad.

Book Review: Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies

Vinod Joseph — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:36:29 EDT

Amitav Ghosh's latest offering has made it to the Booker Prize short list. It’s a big book, slightly bigger than his recent books, the Hungry Tide and the Glass Palace, and is the first of a trilogy of books revolving around the Opium Wars.

The Opium Wars took place between Great Britain and China in the mid 19th century when Britain insisted on the right to export opium to China. Like the Glass Palace, it is a roving tale and its scope ranges from the opium fields of the upper Ganges to an opium factory to the South China Sea to an ex-slave ship, the Ibis, which sails from Calcutta with its hold-full of indentured labourers for the sugar plantations of Mareech (Mauritius).

Taking a cue from the likes of Vikram Chandra, Ghosh has littered his book with words from Bhojjpuri, Anglo-Indian slang and seamen's jargon without bothering to add a glossary. One gets to hear words such as Shaitan, Hurremzad, Kismet, Jadoo, BeeBee, Dufter, Afeemkhor, Cubber (Khabbar) quite often. A native of the sub-continent would understand these without much difficulty, but I am not sure how easily a non-native would. I read a review in the Guardian where the reviewer says he doesn't know where the ship is headed to, though Ghosh tells us on many occasions, right from the beginning, that the Ibis is headed to Mareech (Mauritius).

Once in a while, the vernacular is accompanied with the translation in English. When a Bhojpuri speaker says 'malik, paroséka gaōse áwat bani,' it is accompanied by 'From a nearby village.' I guess Ghosh doesn't expect many of his readers to know Bhojpuri. In any event, the net effect wasn't too bad, at least for me. One does get a feel of places and people better with all this vernacular and slang.

Ghosh's story involves many a 'white' character and whenever one writes about people other than one’s own, there’s a good possibility that someone will cry ‘Stereotype’. There's Zachary Reid, a mullato (who looks almost Kosher White) from Baltimore, Benjamin Barham, an unscrupulous British merchant and many others. I thought Ghosh has done a decent job in portraying these characters, but I read a few reviews which suggested otherwise.

There are a few things about this book that I did not like. At the beginning of the book, Deeti, a poor opium farmer's wife has a vision of the Ibis that would later take her to Mareech. I find that too farfetched for a book of this nature. Towards the end, one of the indentured men is being flogged on the Ibis and this victim (a low caste ex-wrestler of colossal strength) manages to snatch the whip and hit his assailant with a blow that rips off his head. Who does Ghosh think he is? Forget Hollywood, even a Bollywood stunt director would blush with embarrassment if asked to manufacture such a scene.

For me, the drawback in this book was that it had too much crammed into it. At many places in this book I got the feeling of being rushed along much faster than I wanted to be. If Ghosh had to do justice to all that he had covered in this book, he would have required twice as much space, but he might have produced something similar to A Suitable Boy which I think is the best ever book written by an Indian. But no, Ghosh doesn't have the time. He has collected a fair amount of research material which can’t be wasted and has to be crammed into the Sea of Poppies. Despite all this, Sea of Poppies is a good book. A very good book. But it falls short of being superb or brilliant.

Racism in Indian Schools in South Africa

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:50:28 EDT

Unfortunately schools are always the target for social policy. One of the places, where this was observable in horrible detail, was in apartheid South Africa. One had white-only schools, coloured-only schools, black-only schools and Indian-origin schools.

It's this last one which caused me to take a deeper look at a paper which crossed my in box. The paper is by Anthony Lemon, and is titled "Indian identities in the 'rainbow nation': Responses to transformation in South African schools".

But how did these Indian schools fare after apartheid ended?
I am not sure if there are any definite conclusions, but I am just going to comment on certain noteworthy observations that the author made.

During apartheid, despite being segregated and having lower amounts of comparative funding, Indian schools did equal to the white schools, both in terms of enrolment as well as educational attainment. Now that I found to be quite interesting and the author points to the unholy drive that Indian parents have towards educating their children as the reason behind this performance.
But post apartheid, when just looking at 5 schools in a tiny corner of South Africa, some very interesting aspects come up. The first is that while the teachers, staff and governing bodies want to open up their schools to more black students, the parents usually are not that interested. Apparently the prevailing view is, once you let lots of blacks into a school, Indians are less keen to go to that school. Seems like the governing body, teachers and staff are more liberal and inclusive compared to the normal parents.
Second, while almost no white students would go to an Indian school, some Indian students will go to a white school. But this is either statistically insignificant or because the parents live next to a white school and not because of an explicit desire. Also, most Indian schools are equal if not better than white schools.
On the other hand, black students will commute very long distances to get to Indian schools which are considered to be much better than black schools. In many cases, the travel costs are greater than the school fees, which is very thought-provoking indeed.
In many schools with an Indian majority before but now having an African majority, the teachers and staff are still predominantly Indian, mainly because African teachers are very difficult to getm, recruit and retain. But this is not as simple as it seems, as staff and teachers seem to be associated with their apartheid era racial attributes. So white teachers go to white schools, Indian teachers go to Indian schools, and so on and so forth.
But curiously, a pattern which seems to emerge is that Black teachers do not like to go the extra mile which Indian staff and teachers are famous for. For example, in a school, the principal is in school every day of the year, including weekends. Apparently this over the top dedication to teaching is not seen in Black teachers and thus they do not seem to last long in Indian schools.
Curiously, while Indian parents would be very heavily involved in the schools and with their children's education, that pattern does not seem to show up in black parents, because of poverty, long commute distance or other reasons.
But given that a huge amount of school funding comes from the parents, a paradoxical downside of opening up the Indian schools to Black students means a very big drop of school income. Given the current economic climate, this is hurting the Indian schools badly in terms of infrastructure development.
The United Kingdom seems to be siphoning out good teachers relating to physical sciences, biology, maths, speech and drama, languages and life orientation. They seem to be heading off for a better life and salaries.

Now this is what I found interesting and I quote the last line "Desegregation of former Indian schools, if sensitively managed, can make a significant contribution to that identity (Indian Identity within a rainbow nation) by gradually increasing understanding and acceptance of Indians by the black African majority".

So if I read this right, Indians are not accepted or understood well by black Africans and the feeling seems to be reciprocated solidly as shown by the school choices (albeit in a small sample). Racism seems to still be alive and kicking in a very saddening level in South Africa. But would it mean a race to the bottom in terms of inclusiveness or a race to the top in terms of merit? My sad prediction is the former, the balance of probability, looking at how public policy has been executed usually in that neck of the woods, usually means that when it comes to merit versus skin colour, the latter wins.

Technorati Tags: Schooling, Education, South Africa, affirmative Action, racism

Paranoia, Transformers, & the Free State

Harish C — Sat, 31 May 2008 05:46:40 EDT

Recently at the Heathrow airport, there was this incident of an airline traveler who was asked to change his t-shirt because it featured a Transformer robot carrying a gun -- a robot with a gun that apparently posed a threat to flight safety.

So the long list that includes safety razors and toothpicks (“Stop! Take this plane to Libya or…er…we’ll shave your brains off!!”) has been updated to include items as innocuous as T-Shirts and (heaven forbid!) chequered lungis.

Now seriously, how exactly do they rationalize adding printed tees into the list of items banned during air travel? What to they think? That mid-air, Megatron would metamorphose from the T-Shirt, hijacking them away in search of the Cube or would he demand destruction of all hard detergents? I am sure some bloke with a wild imagination and an overdose of Transformers can be blamed for it.

The actions of the free world (read the U.S.) since 9/11 have been predicable, disturbing and laced generously with paranoia. Patriot Acts and War for Democracies, Aggressive Diplomacy and extensive Bipolarization…Above all; the transformation of even mundane tasks that transverse across borders into something that makes even the seasoned partisan shudder. Let it be airline travel, visa interviews, IRC, Blogging or Freedom to wear a T-Shirt.

The fat cats fail to realize that what their actions based on an overzealous protectiveness is fulfilling the terrorists’ agenda more than their own. What they achieve with one tiny blast is realized tenfold or hundred fold (depending on the location, Indians shrug it off and Americans respond with fixing the third shotgun in their cars gun rack) by the seismic waves of restrictions, gagging, acts that inevitably follow. What they need is not blanket bombing of these into the unsuspecting populace. Indeed, it would well serve them to remember that even the actual blanket bombing was a ridiculous failure. They need to craft precision surgical strikes based on the strong core of intelligence gathering and extensive cooperation among the countries of the free world. Alas, the power-hungry politicos across the globe know that these do not work as well as their scare tactics in filling up their ballot boxes and hence try to disregard them.

Only Israel, secure in its Jewish nationalism and having (almost) selfless democratic machinery managed to do this successfully. Spiriting away Nazi war criminals from Argentina and demolishing the whole terror apparatus behind the Munich attacks using kidon teams. This resoluteness and ruthlessness, which Goda Meier possessed, needs to be imbibed in our leaders for them to react constructively.

Till then let us keep our Batman underwear and Shaktimaan Parle G biscuit packs at home while travelling.