U.S. Is Bankrupt and This Is One Way That Counts

That's the question that's been bouncing around since economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff posed it in a paper for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in the current issue of its Review journal. Kotlikoff's thesis brings to mind images of the U.S. edifice teetering, like General Motors Corp., or imploding, like Enron Corp.

The bankruptcy thought is reverberating in envious Europe, since it fits in with the continent's preconceptions. The U.K.'s Daily Telegraph hyped the idea with the headline, ``U.S. `Could Be Going Bankrupt.'''

Kotlikoff's comparison of the U.S. to a failing company is too interesting to dismiss out of hand. The place to start is with the books, beginning with the liabilities.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_shlaes&sid=aWnQbdZ7RlIg

So Big and Healthy Grandpa Wouldn't Even Know You

Valentin Keller enlisted in an all-German unit of the Union Army in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1862. He was 26, a small, slender man, 5 feet 4 inches tall, who had just become a naturalized citizen. He listed his occupation as tailor.

A year later, Keller was honorably discharged, sick and broken. He had a lung ailment and was so crippled from arthritis in his hips that he could barely walk.

His pension record tells of his suffering. “His rheumatism is so that he is unable to walk without the aid of crutches and then only with great pain,” it says. His lungs and his joints never got better, and Keller never worked again.

He died at age 41 of “dropsy,” which probably meant that he had congestive heart failure, a condition not associated with his time in the Army. His 39-year-old wife, Otilia, died a month before him of what her death certificate said was “exhaustion.”

People of Valentin Keller’s era, like those before and after them, expected to develop chronic diseases by their 40’s or 50’s. Keller’s descendants had lung problems, they had heart problems, they had liver problems. They died in their 50’s or 60’s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/health/30age.html

Secularists try to rationalise terrorism

Why do Muslims feel the system is biased against them? Our society is divided into so many sections and everybody is angry about something or the other. Even a Dalit is angry about the way he’s treated. Why doesn’t he react in the same fashion?

 

A Hindutva Supporter

 

Igrew up in a small town in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa. After completing my school and college education there, I moved to Delhi. Mine was a typically apolitical, middle-class family. No one had ever been a member or actively supported any particular political party — they used to vote for Congress and later shifted to Biju Patnaik’s party.

 

As a schoolboy, I did not have any political leanings. But in class XI, I started attending RSS shakhas, simply because it was the ‘in’ thing and all my friends had joined. It was basically a reaction to the Emergency and since the ban had just been lifted, we were looking for an alternative ideology to the Congress.

 

When I joined JNU for my post-graduation in the ’80s, there was no ABVP on the campus. Communism seemed attractive for a while. I appreciated their discipline, commitment and anti-imperialist views. But that was then. The Nehruvian concept of secular India has become irrelevant now. Today, I am totally disillusioned by the so-called secularists and Leftists. I am all for Hindutva.

 

It angers me when secularists try to look for a cause and rationalise every terrorist act. Terrorism is terrorism, it cannot be condoned. They try to link the Mumbai blasts of 1993 to the Babri Masjid demolition and 7/11 to Gujarat. By doing this, they justify the acts of terrorists.

 

Minority appeasement policies of various political parties are the root cause of a lot of our problems. This has only harmed minorities (read Muslims), since they have not been able to integrate into the mainstream. Thanks to these policies, terrorists feel they can get away with anything. We come across as a soft state.

 

Theologically, there is a fundamental difference between Muslims and non-Muslims. The Muslims have problems of co-existence with most other communities. Examples abound all across the world: look at Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Pakistan. In Bangladesh, there is a systematic attack on symbols of Hinduism. All over the world, Hindus are considered moderate and accommodating people. If secularism and democracy has survived in India, it is only because of us.

 

Unfortunately, the voice of the moderate Muslim is not loud enough to be heard by even their own community. Their protests don’t seem to matter to anyone. No wonder it is the extremists’ leaders who have become politically relevant now. And why do they feel the system is biased against them?

 

Our society is divided into so many sections based on caste, ethnicity, state, and everybody is angry about something or the other. They don’t resort to violence to show their angst. Even a Dalit is angry about how he’s treated; why doesn’t he react the same way? Many houseowners may not be willing to rent out their premises to a Bihari, so why is it that only a Muslim feels victimised?

 

Can minorities in any other country behave in this fashion and get away with it? What happened in Gujarat was a response of the majority community to certain actions. If the majority does not react all the time, it comes across as soft. The message had to go across: every action can have an equal reaction.

 

— These are the views of a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, who spoke to Sujata Dutta Sachdeva.

Terror Trail on the Bangladesh Border

The detention of 11 persons from Maharashtra in Tripura after 7/11 has put the focus on the porous Bangla border. As evidence of rebel-ultra links grows, Sunday Times looks at a new terror corridor in N-E

By Keshav Pradhan /TNN

Malaya is a tiny frontier village, about 145 km north-east of Agartala, in West Tripura district. It overlooks the expanse of paddy fields in Bangladesh’s Moulvibazar district, which is a stronghold of jailed terror kingpin Aziz-ur-Rahman alias Banglabhai. Malaya may be Marxistdominated, but it is here that 11 Tabliq-i-Jamaat activists from Maharashtra were detained on July 13, to verify if they had any links with the blasts on Mumbai’s trains that killed about 180 people this month.

Their interrogation did not reveal anything objectionable, but it brought to light the absence of a strategy to counter the danger of Tripura turning into a terror conduit. Tripura shares a 856-km long border with Bangladesh, but only 608 km of that is fenced with wire, and that too in patches. In fact, it’s easier to walk into Bangladesh from Tripura than travel to Assam by car.

INTERNATIONAL LINKS

There’s enough evidence of crossborder links. There has reportedly been a rise in the number of international telephone calls in the frontier areas since the arrival of the 11 activists — from 54 calls in May and June, it rose to 70 in July in the Kamlapur-Mohanpur belt alone. Police claim that most of the calls were made to Bangladesh and Gulf nations. ‘‘There’s no way we can keep any track of calls made through Bangladesh’s Gramin phone which functions in our border districts,’’ says a police official based in Ambasa in Dhalai district. However, Tripura’s Jamiat Ulama (Hind) chief Mufti Tayebur Rahman sees no reason why the authorities should look at minorities with suspicion. He says, ‘‘We fought against Partition. We will hand over anybody who works against our country.’’

That is easier said than done. The tiny state is brutal territory. A journey along national highway 44, Tripura’s only link to the rest of the country, is dangerous and cumbersome. Much of this route zigzags through hills and lowlands that are ravaged by rebels who want Tripura’s ‘‘independence’’. Movement of civilian vehicles without police escort is prohibited. In a day, only three convoys, each with 200 to 300 vehicles, are allowed between 7.30 am and 2.30 pm.

Vehicles assemble at Chakmaghat, 45 km north-east of Agartala, to form the convoys. CRPF jeeps, equipped with light machineguns, lead them slowly along the 90-km stretch to Manu near the Assam border. Heavily armed CRPF, Assam Rifles and Tripura State Rifles men guard every bend of the highway.

RAVAGED STATE

Tripura’s villages have seen riots, massacres and ambushes by outfits like Tribal National Volunteers, National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and All Tripura Tigers Front (ATTF). While TNV is defunct, the other two are active and operate from Bangladeshi districts. ‘‘Tripura desperately needs special attention,’’ says state director-general of police G M Srivastav.

Says Dhanonjoy Reang, who founded NLFT in 1989, ‘‘We had our training in a foreign country. But I cannot tell you where.’’ The 48-year-old Baptist Christian surrendered along with 154 guerrillas in December 1991. Now head of Tripura Resurrection Army, he is preparing to begin a fast-untodeath to press for fulfilment of promises made by the state government at the time of the surrender. He says, ‘‘People take up arms only when they suffer from a strong sense of deprivation.’’

THE BANGLA CONNECTION

Security agencies say ATTF and NLFT have been conducting arms training camps at Satcherri (Habiganj district), Dalubari and Khasipunja (Moulvibazar district), Wadukpara, Sankachari, Panchari and Lowlang (Khagrachari district), Sylhet and Tarabon in Chittagong Hill Tracts, all in Bangladesh.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and United National Liberation Front (two Manipuri rebel outfits), the Hyniewtrep National Liberation Council, a Khasi outfit, and National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), also use Tripura as a passage to Bangladesh. The ATTF has ties with PLA and the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), while NLFT has links with NSCN and UNLF. Ulfa chief Paresh Baruah and NLFT chairman Bishwamohan Debbarma are believed to be holed up in Bangladesh.

Authorities fear that the rising tide of fundamentalism in Bangladesh might spill over into the minority-dominated frontier areas of Tripura and Assam’s Barak valley. They say many religious organisations in Bangladesh get funds from Gulf countries. ‘‘With western powers breathing down Pervez Musharraf ’s neck, the chances of ISI promoting Bangladesh-based anti-India elements are high,’’ says a Border Security Force official. ‘‘There is evidence of India’s underground rebels getting closer to Bangladeshi fundamentalists. This is the only way they can fulfil each others’ interests,’’ he adds.

Only 15% BE students job-fit

By Mathang Seshagiri/TNN

Bangalore: Raising serious doubts over the employability of engineering graduates in the state, results of the first-ever skills assessment test carried out by the Visvesvaraya Technological University and Meri-Trac showed that only 15% of students were fit to be employed.

 

Of the 4,400 final-year BE students from 89 colleges who took the skill assessment test in the first phase, only 39% of them could match the selection criteria in verbal ability. About 50% of the candidates failed the English communication test.

In all, only 29% met the selection criteria in all sections of the abilities test.

“As this is the first of such exercises, the results are very encouraging. There aren’t any non-bridgeable gaps. In fact, by introducing auxiliary courses in communication skills and English we could improve the employability of students. There’s a need for greater awareness and exposure among students on what the industry expects of them,’’ said Madan Padki, co-founder, MeriTrac, which designed the test based on industry expectations.

On the positive side, 63% of the candidates passed the analytical abilities test while 83% sailed through the attention to detail test. The conversion rate was better among Bangalore colleges (30%) when compared with colleges which is at 13%.

As a remedial measure, VTU has made Functional English a mandatory subject for BE students and is also beaming classes on soft skills via Edusat. “If you look at the results closely, you will see that students have done exceedingly well in terms of analytical skills and attention to detail. Verbal communication and English are the low areas. This is largely because 50% of the students come from rural areas where the medium of instruction is vernacular. We plan to set up language labs in all colleges from next year to focus on communication skills,’’ VTU vice-chancellor Balaveera Reddy said.

VTU will hold a job mela on July 30-31 for 1,000 candidates who have cleared the test. “Seven companies including Accenture, Tesco and SAP Labs, are looking to hire 600 graduates during the mela,’’ said Padki.