The Hug-Kiss Dilemma
Send us a comment to : feedback@southasiamail.comAnjuly Mathai
How to greet people. It’s a dilemma that has plagued me for long. Recently, my brother’s wedding got over and I got to meet hordes of people. While meeting each cousin, uncle or aunt, I wondered how to greet them. What is the proper code in these situations? Should I hug them or will a firm handshake suffice?
The latest trend is kissing on both cheeks (or is it one cheek?) – an art I have yet to master. Need I mention the confusion that ensues when I do my acrobatics to hug and kiss a relative at the same time?
Apparently, the tradition of greeting people is one that is demarcated by region. For example, my father is from the Cochin side of Kerala and my mother is from the Travancore side. I recently happened to see a letter written by him while he was engaged to my mother. Here’s a word-by-word extract. ‘By the by, is this hugging business a common thing in your family. I didn’t know what to do when your father came and hugged me as we were leaving.’
The hug seems to have been the ubiquitous mode of greeting until recently but the question is, has it outgrown its utility?
I have three suggestions to counter this problem. The first is to have your own signature mode of communication and stick to it. Nothing like a firm handshake or a confident hug to consolidate a relationship. Need I mention the popularity of Sonia Gandhi’s ‘wind shield wiper’ wave.
My second suggestion is to demarcate it by degree of relationship. Reserve a kiss for a first cousin, a hug for a second cousin and a handshake for a third cousin. For everyone else, keep a Colgate smile.
-Manorama
Critical And Creative Thinking!
Send us a comment to : feedback@southasiamail.comFr. Anand Muttungal
The creative thinking is intertwined with critical thinking. Encouraging creativity means a departure from society’s existing norms and values. The Latin word creatio was solely used to highlight the deeds of God. In the Renaissance Period people first recognized their own ability to create something new. While critical thinking is a free thinking within a self-guided format aimed at transforming the existing system for betterment. It is always seen that people who think critically make attempts to live rationally and reasonably, to help understand the inherently flawed nature of human thinking. It is believed that critical thinking leads to creative thinking.
They try to analyze, assess, and improve their thinking very often that help improve methods at all instances. They work ‘diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence in reason.’ ‘What makes critical thinkers is that their realization that no matter how skilled they are as thinkers, they can always improve their reasoning abilities and they will at times fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices, biases, distortions, uncritically accepted social rules and taboos, self-interest, and vested interest.’ They strive to improve the world in whatever ways they can and contribute to a more rational, civilized society. They deal with complex issues in a simple way.
Creative thinking is a mental and social process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts. It is the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new that has a value. Creative thinking is a thought processes or method used to generate divergent thinking for the same of making new idea for the better impact of the action. In creativity a person uses an imagination into best thoughts for practical solutions. The basic identity of a creative thinker is the high degree of self-confidence, unconventional thought patterns and curiosity to deal with a problem from an uncommon ankle. He/she questions old ways but finds new and better ones, which may not be always fitting to the present world we live in. A deep study will make us feel that one cannot be complete without the other.
We become used to a particular way of imagining, thinking, working and above all a strong believe system. Therefore critical thinking and creative thinking are not welcomed very often. The history of the world proves that the creative and critical thinking is mostly hampered in religious circle. There are a good number of them who interpret even most simple and straight forward thoughts in a most complex fashion. A deep analysis of such objections proves that those interpretations are aimed at protecting their vested interests. They smell threats because they feel that such progressive thoughts could challenge their unquestioned benefits that they enjoy from the defects of the system. Under the pretext of saving the system they gather like minded goons to support their hidden agenda. So any effort to improve the system is seen as collectively resisted. If we are looking for any transformation of society then we must work towards it. We must work towards creating awareness among the people about an alternative system. Creative and critical thinking is incomplete without an alternative system and a rationale for the need of it. It is the right time that very one hoping for a transformation joins the world of dreamers.
Your poor American cousin
Send us a comment to : feedback@southasiamail.comKevin Carmichael
Remember “My American Cousin”? Wayward big cousin Butch from California shows up at his aunt and uncle’s ranch in British Columbia in his fancy car, sending dreamy and bored little cousin Sandy into a tizzy.
The film is set in the 1950s and was released in 1985, but captures an enduring sentiment: The typical American is richer than the typical Canadian.
Four ways the U.S. economy is doing better than expected It’s time to rethink that notion. Your American cousin is now your poorer one.
International Monetary Fund estimates show Canada will generate about $51,147 of gross domestic product on a per capita basis in 2011, compared with about $48,147 per capita in the United States. (The figures are quoted in U.S. dollars and are unadjusted for inflation.) If the IMF forecasts prove true, it will be the first time Canada outstrips the U.S. in GDP per person in records dating back to 1980.
The milestone is more than a fun factoid to break the ice at holiday parties over the next week. It describes a shift in Canada’s quality of life – at least measured in terms of consumer choices. Canada’s relative wealth compared with the U.S. explains the rush of American retailers and food chains to the other side of their northern border.
“Canada is certainly one of our growth markets. Our business is very healthy up there,” Andrew Shehan, international chief operating officer of Atlanta-based Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, told The Globe’s Jeff Gray this week. “Compared with the U.S., your economy has weathered the recession much better.”
Fortune accounts for much of this shift. Canada has benefited greatly in recent years from the commodity boom. The U.S. economic bust means Canada would have gained in relative terms simply by standing still. In 2009, U.S. per capita GDP was $43,348 compared with $39,728 in Canada.
This shift in relative wealth might not be as recent at the IMF data suggests.
An excellent report published this week by Statistics Canada’s Ryan Macdonald shows Canada has exceeded the U.S. in terms of real GDP per capita and real Gross National Income per capita for much of the past decade. Of course, in terms of labour productivity, Canada trails badly.
Mr. Macdonald argues that perhaps too much is made of Canada’s weak productivity performance. Productivity matters because the more each worker produces, the wealthier the society. That’s especially important for economies that do little trading. But Canada trades.
“When nations trade, there are other routes that can raise living standards,” Mr. Macdonald writes. “Trading nations can transform their stock of assets (knowledge, capital, resources) into the goods and services they want to consume by exchanging them with other nations. If the terms at which one nation can trade with another improve, then that nation can transform its exports into a greater flow of imported goods and services, thereby increasing its living standards.”
Changes in terms of trade – essentially, the value of exports versus the value of imports – aren’t captured in productivity data. Therefore, Mr. Macdonald argues that productivity isn’t necessarily the best way to evaluate Canada’s living standards. He prefers gross national income, which he describes as a “measure of the purchasing power of the income that accrues to Canadians through the production process, regardless of where the production occurs.”
Between the second quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2011, U.S. GNI per capita grew 1.6 per cent. Canada’s rate of growth:
Celebrating the Yuletide Season
Send us a comment to : feedback@southasiamail.comSivaram Srikandath
Last week, we put up our Christmas tree at home in what has now become an annual ceremony. The tree has been with us for the past more than fifteen years. It is not very large, just about 5 feet tall; an artificial fir made of plastic, and filled with fiber-optic nodes that twinkle in a riot of colour when switched on. We bought it when our daughter was in school. I remember, she was very excited when we got it home. It used to be her responsibility to put the tree up, draping it with tinsel and adorning it with tiny trinkets and baubles that we, as a family, had collected over the years. And each year, once the tree was taken down, she would carefully wrap the ornaments to be stored away, like stardust to be rediscovered the following year.
Along with putting up the tree, my wife also decorates the house with various knick knacks that welcome the onset of the Christmas season. A wreath of artificial holly, with a cherub smiling innocently, adorns the front door of our home. Decorated candlesticks sit on brightly patterned place mats, adding a splash of colour to the living room, while the dining table is draped with a checked red and green table cloth. Flower vases are filled with mostly, red and green arrangements, and little porcelain figurines of angels and seraphim bedeck tabletops. There is a crystal wind chime that I particularly like, of the Mother Mary and an angel with gold tipped wings, that is hung near the doorway. Each time the door is opened and the breeze wafts in, it produces delicate, tinkling notes that create an ineffable refrain of absolute joy. I also bring out my collection of CDs of Christmas Carols. After all, this is the season to play them, and listen to the wonderful music of peace and goodwill to mankind
Yes, one can definitely feel the Yuletide spirit in the air.
However, as a child, growing up in a typically feudal Nair household in Kerala, I was not aware of the traditions, or rituals, of Christmas. Of course,I knew that it was a major celebration to look forward to. For, come December 25th, our close Christian friends would send us homemade plum cakes and platters of steaming chicken stew and lacy palappams, which we children would be eagerly waiting for. The palappams, made with a dash or two of real toddy, were soft and fluffy, almost fragrant; and would literally melt in our mouths, soaked as it were, in the delicately spiced, sweet coconut milk gravy of the stew. Even today, my taste buds tingle when reliving the memories of those Christmas repasts. But other than this I had not been exposed, either to Christmas trees, or to the traditions and history of the festivities surrounding the birth of the Son of God.
It was only when I went to graduate school in the US that celebrating Christmas became a part of my life as well. Our University would arrange for international students to be invited to local homes to join along in their Christmas festivities. And many local homes would happily host us. Often, we would be a motley group that included Indians, Nigerians, Chinese, Pakistanis and Palestinians. That really did not matter. What was worth cherishing was that while the snow fell gently outside, blanketing the earth in a pristine cover of innocence and purity, we would be inside, sitting around a glowing fireplace, sipping egg nog and singing carols, waiting eagerly for the wonderful Christmas dinner to follow. And at the witching hour of midnight, we would all gather under the Christmas tree, to open the gifts that our hosts would graciously keep for us. And as the festivities continued into the wee hours of the morning, we all became part of one large family sharing the true spirit of Christian fellowship.
Today, I try to relive those memories in my own way, by celebrating Christmas in my own manner, in my own home.
In the evening, when the lights on the Christmas tree begin twinkling, and the candles are lit, there is a warm intimate glow that suffuses the house. Outside, the night is dark, and one can glimpse a few twinkling stars through the canopy of trees that surrounds my house. There is a palpable sense of peace and beatitude, and I am reminded of the fact that it was on a night like this, centuries ago, that a new star rose over the skies of Bethlehem delivering a message of peace and joy to all of mankind.
And I think of my little daughter for whom we first purchased the Christmas tree. She has since finished school, left home, gone on to college; and after graduation began her career as a broadcast journalist in Delhi. She is no longer a little girl. Today, she is married and settled in Mumbai. But the tree has remained with us, reminding us of happy times, and of shared family moments. My daughter has a baby boy now, my grandson Raghav; and I wonder how long it will be before she buys him his Christmas tree, and the little fellow begins to decorate it with his own trinkets and baubles!
Some traditions are certainly worth cherishing, aren’t they ?(Manorama)
FDI in Retail without Enhanced Social Security will be Suicidal
Send us a comment to : feedback@southasiamail.comDr Rahul Pandey
A lot of well off and educated sections of our society are rooting for FDI in retail. There seems to be a disappointment among the middle/upper middle class consumers and the corporate world that the Government of India has put this policy on hold. There was an article published in The Telegraph on 5th December 2011 titled “How Bengal gains from FDI: Experiment that protected 6500 farmers from a curse.”
The article describes how in some districts of Bengal, Pepsico company has brought economic gain and security to several farmers, including the small ones, who have agreed to grow and sell a special grade of ‘Pepsi potatoes’ to the company. It reports that Pepsi buys potatoes through the vendors at a fixed price that is much higher than the wholesale price or prevailing local market price. These vendors are typically big traders, dealers or even big farmers. The article makes a point that the small farmers who sell ‘Pepsi potatoes’ to these vendors are better off than the former situation in which they were dependent on and exploited by the local “Mahajan”. Through this example the article makes the concluding point that FDI in retail will bring in more such economic benefit to many more such small farmers. The article, in a way, presents the best possible argument about how FDI in retail will benefit small farmers.
The article is of course written with half facts selected to suit its tenor. What is describes is not representative of what Pepsi or similar firms normally do. Pepsi (Frito Lay, in this case) does not deal directly with small farmers. As the article itself mentions, it deals with intermediaries or with large farmers to cut down its transaction costs. If at all some small farmers are at one end of this chain, they have to interface with bigger intermediaries, and get low price because of their poor bargaining position. Frito Lay does indulge in long term forward and fixed price procurement with big agricultural traders and agents. In the process Frito Lay reduces its long term risk and expected cost by weighing quantity and price fluctuations in the market. The big traders and agents in turn make margin by cutting into margins of those from whom they procure.
It is sometimes possible that the price a small farmer gets by selling his/her produce to Pepsi’s vendors (intermediary agents) is higher than the locally prevailing price. However, this situation seems to be temporary or an exception. On the supply side, small farmers – dependent on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and pumped irrigation, without having the scale of land to absorb those costs – are almost always less economical than large landowning farmers. On the demand side, companies like Pepsi are under perpetual competitive pressures to cut cost and standardize quality. FDI in retail will increase this pressure from the demand side. Such pressures from both demand and supply sides eventually force steady concentration of land in fewer hands, as this movement achieves economy of scale and standardization and can still yield positive margins for the large landowners. This is what has happened to many of high income countries. However this movement also eventually throws off many small farmers from their lands. Most of high income countries responded to this social challenge by providing new employment and skill upgrade opportunities and enhancing social security net.
There may also be a few cases where small farmers get better price because they have organised themselves into some kind of a cooperative. By forming cooperative they increase their bargaining power and gain access to scale related economies, for example, storage in godowns, bulk transport, and direct transaction with wholesalers or bulk sellers. “Cooperatives” is certainly a good way to reduce economic vulnerability of small players. However existence of cooperatives is not in the interest of big intermediary traders and agents as it cuts into the latter’s exploitative economic power.
If FDI in retail comes in then the Government must bear additional responsibility to protect interests of small farmers and small retailers (small shopkeepers and vendors). One way is to support them with (i) formation of cooperatives so that their bargaining position in the marketplace increases, and (ii) training in new skills and technologies so that they can increase operational efficiency and cut down their own transaction cost while simultaneously reaching out to larger sections of markets.
Of course social security like what is common in European countries and Japan is needed too. Experience of rich countries tells us that the more markets are opened up the more social security nets are required. So FDI policy must be introduced together with new and enhanced social security policy. The two policies need to go hand in hand. The former without the latter will spell socio-economic disaster for the large masses.
(The author writes for Citizen News Service (CNS) and is an entrepreneur who specializes in operations research model development, supply chain management, and energy and climate change policy. Formerly he has been a faculty member at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow. Currently he teaches supply chain management and operations strategy courses as a visiting professor at IIM Lucknow. He can be reached at website: www.citizen-news.org, email: rahulanjula@gmail.com)
US and the death penalty
Send us a comment to : feedback@southasiamail.comSome rotten structures stand for a long time, and then the lightest touch causes them to fall. Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber has given the rotten structure of the death penalty a nudge, and while it will not topple that structure, at the very least, one more piece is gone.
Mr. Kitzhaber has promised that no one will be executed in his state while he is governor. His term runs out in 2015. He is not commuting the sentences of the 37 people on death row. They could still happen after his term ends. He hopes state legislators will debate the death penalty before then.
Mr Kitzhaber, a medical doctor, brings deep personal conviction to this decision. Two men were executed during his two previous terms as governor between 1995 and 2003, with his consent. Those were “the most agonizing and difficult decisions I have made as governor,” and “I do not believe those executions made us safer; certainly I don’t believe they made us more noble as a society.” He says the death penalty is morally wrong and is applied in an arbitrary fashion: Some of those 37 people have done much the same things as people sentenced to life in prison. He made the decision now, because a man on death row who had killed his girlfriend’s mother and a prison inmate stood to be executed soon.
Oregon has been ambivalent toward the death penalty. In 1964, voters repealed it; in 1978, voters re-enacted it; in 1981, the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional; in 1984, voters brought it back.
Slowly, a trend is developing. Three states have abandoned the death penalty since 2007. The death penalty against mentally retarded people and young people under 18 has been banned by the U.S. Supreme Court. But 34 states (counting Oregon) still have the death penalty.
The structure is not yet on its last legs. No one knows how many pushes from people like Mr. Kitzhaber will bring it to its tipping point. Each push is worthy and necessary. Eventually, one last push will bring it down.
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