Economy under siege

Some of the home truths bitter to swallow!

What legacy are we gonna leave for the future generation if we are incapable of resolving the anecdotic ills that are afflicting our society? This bad and battered lot we shall all overcome if we fully acknowledge it as just a bad patch we’ve got to get thru’ by all means.

How clumsy of me to consider things so lightly while around me everything is the grumpy sort! Remarks of this nature remind me what an economist Friedrich Hayek had once pronounced, “Economy needs to go thru’ the crisis, time to time, to develop.”

The outlines of “New Green Deal” of President Barack Obama make us bounce back to get to brass tacks. That means perseverance but this fall with tact and fully perfected technique and a combination of proven know-how and cutting-edge technology without swerving from the forefront of minds and developments as well as the epitomized need to pick our brains about the natural and renewable resources that mother-nature has put at our disposal.

Without going into paeans of praise for anybody’s pick ‘n’ mix I’ve in mind to make you all other bloggers participate and at the same time put the spotlight on this issue where I think of giving a piece of my mind pertaining to often brought out and heated rhetoric that lambasted everybody until now about Nepal’s moot case of being a buffer state between two Asian giants. Once and for all, I beg to state to cease setting the tongue wagging.

Above all, as you all know it for sure, nowadays we can participate virtually thru’ the computer games in some sort of an open air debate or more precisely as an ‘avatar’ or ‘double’ in an ‘aparté’ or ‘in an aside’ non-stop group conversation. I beg of you to participate in a yogic transcendental discipline that some of the previously initiated persons perform very often with success. As you might know it for sure, there are 9 dimensions, we can take it for one of them which travels even faster than light (velocity of light = 300.000 km/s), that is our imagination!

Hence, once for awhile my experience made me travel thru’ my imagination all the way from Europe to Nepal, more precisely in the disguise of a heron, ‘cause this particular bird is one of the most intelligent and one of the greatest voyagers, so as to meet and contemplate with other herons on the ongoing world situations; they travelled all the way back from Orissa (India), Phnom Phen (Cambodia), Seoul (Korea) and Petersburg (Russia). Meanwhile, let us tag all of them as follows: HEurope, HIndia, HCambodia, HKorea and HRussia. A peek-sneak into this unusual get-together that took place at a paddy field of the valley of Kathmandu shall provide you with some excerpts here below:

HEurope anticipated, “Diru so, Khaba dugurey?”

HIndia snapped, “Hi, you speak Tibetan? Then added, “Nga khang la dugurey.”

(HE, “Come here, where are you going?” HI, “I’m going home.”)

HE, “I just took the jet stream over the Pamir, had a stop over near about Kailash Parbat then I made a dive thru’ the snowy mountains to land over here this morning.”

“It’s not that cold out here compared to the place I hail up from.” HKorea added.

“Winter is the best season to visit Kathmandu valley as it enjoys sort of a microclimate of around min. 4°C and max. 18°C.” HCambodia retorted.

HK proceeded further, “I flew over vast China from north to south to come here. This country is awful badly hit by the current economic meltdown. So many people are jobless and they are desperately trudging back to their villages.”

HC replied, “Chinese did a big mistake by putting too many eggs in only one basket of exportation. Their cheap goods replaced all household goods of current requirements like wearing clothes, shoes, kitchenware, toys, televisions, hardware of the rich countries, even the staple food putting millions of people out of job. Because of the economic slump nothing is left in the kitty. Those ancient consumers are unable to pay even for the daily needs. Who profited out of this? Erstwhile, only the financially well to do people with hunk of dough could profit of life by paying luxurious hotels, private jet, sumptuous limousine and crusade in luxurious boats etc.. ”

HI continued, “Chinese should now orient their economy towards their own consumers, by means of the increase of the purchasing power and by evaluating their currency. Out of 1.2 billion souls only about 300 millions are liable to gain and improve their living standard.

A family of three brothers where the youngest brother was adopted by another family ‘cause there was not enough to eat for everybody at home. After Deng’s proclamation of 1978 two brothers started a small business of quail farming, ‘cause they do not eat too much of cereals, became millionaires and now all three brothers are millionaires with several other activities touching Information Technology (IT). This is one of the success stories of Chinese capitalism.”

HE changed the topic, “HI, I heard that India also has her own Bernard Madoff, you know the guy who ripped off many people thru’ his ponzy scheme?”

HI was almost excited, “Yep, I’m in the know about that crook, B. Ramalinga Raju, one time founder of “Satyam Computer Services” in Andra Pradesh. From scratch he bluffed his way thru’ and conned the clients out by announcing great profits, such as, instead of US$ 12.5 million he’d put on the balance sheet US$ 136 million. But he got caught red handed in time, and taken into custody.”

HK prolonged, “I heard South Korea is investing almost US$ 12 billion in Orissa to build a Steel factory. Plus they have bought millions of hectares of land in Madagascar to grow rice. This is thought to be the greatest foreign investment in India so far.”

HE nodded, “You are right. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has borrowed millions of hectares of land from Pakistan to grow wheat. Also, Laxmi Mittal wants to invest for the extraction of Iron Ore in Orissa. But he’s having a tough time with the local peasants who do not want to evacuate the place ‘cause those parcels of land are their lifeline inheritance and this tycoon is facing a great many troubles all over Europe where he got established thanks to the hedge funds and some connivance with the local barons. As there are not enough sales of vehicles for the time being, he can’t sell his products to the car makers.”

HC inquired, “ HRussia you say nothing. Why are you so broody?”

“No”, HR said with a glare. “I’m furious about the behavior of Putin. He’s deliberately putting a stop to the gas supply to Europe ‘cause he can’t possibly force Ukraine to kneel down before his bumpkinlike behavior of a Mujik who flexes his muscles all day long and people are shivering with cold in half of Europe. If the EU pulls out its assets from the Russian societies and bourse there will be nothing left for Russia but their swollen eyes to lament and cry.”

HE became sarcastic, “ HI, do you think it is wise enough to put VAT of 140% to the European wines and other imports if India wants to play in the 1st. division of great powers? Why Indians want to export their products to the Western countries without reciprocity? They can’t afford to maintain the barriers very long.”

HI almost scolded, “The ruling Congress is flanked in their fragile coalition by the communists which are deep rooted in Agriculture in West Bengal, Kerala and Bihar etc. Congress does not want to run into clash with the reticent communist allies by opening the market too broadly. Communists in India play still the role of the scarecrow against the foreign investment.”

HC followed on, “Lately, I saw many Chinese workers who are doing offshore digging for fuel deposits around the Bay of Campong Som in the Gulf of Thailand. They have a great chance to discover Carbohydrate deposits over there. And also the Chinese investment in Cambodia has more than tippled as they are very busy with the construction of the infrastructure and new properties.

I flew over the Mekong River following the route taken by Alexandra David-Neel from the ancient Cochin China via Laos to enter secretly into Tibet in 1924 as the first Western woman to have succeeded to enter into this country via Jelep-la and Nathu-la passes of Sikkim. I was so much impressed by such a feat and endeavor of a frail looking lady and now what I hear is China is very keen to change the course of the Brahmaputra River from the eastern part of Tibet to the Chinese Yangtze River.”

HR started flogging, “China is insatiable and the more we advance the more she has become picky despite the population seems to be very amicable and kind. But the national leaders behave exactly like a ruthless anaconda towards the Tibetan lamas and human right backers. They are callous to those who are dependent on them. Their behavior toward all other countries is all based on egoism and bragging. How far could they last in their permanent menace and intimidation? What they do is nothing more than a pie in the sky.

When China shall let Burma to develop democratically then we could count on her, otherwise there is no way out.”

HE staggered, “I want to emphasize that Nepal is regarded as a country between an anaconda on the north side and a boa constrictor on the south side. With anaconda there is no chance of any approach if not get engulfed right away. With boa constrictor we can manage as long as he gets his feed.”

HE seemed pensive, “I’ve a question that I’m wondering when I flew over the Kailash Parbat I saw all those poor Tibetan peasants in rags kowtowing to their Buddha for days and days to please him thru’ due submission. I don’t think that the real Buddhism teaches that sort of physical sufferings. I therefore request the Dalai Lama and his entourage to promulgate a law in order to ban such inhuman practices in the 21st. century and tell them it is useless to suffer physically. Gautam Buddha never said that he was God. Only by acquiring wisdom one could probably attain to Nirvana, not otherwise.

Also why the current Dalai Lama did undertake nothing to put a stop to the expulsion of thousand and thousand of the Nepalese origin population from Bhutan ‘cause it is no secret for anybody that the King of Bhutan listens to and obeys everything what the Dalai Lama says? And shame on Buddhism that Bhutan is the only country amongst all to practice polyandry!”

HI nodded, “I agree with you. More over, those people like the incumbent PM Pushpa Dahal a.k.a. “Prachanda” of Nepal think that by performing a “belly dance” before Hu Jintao they could make the Chinese government more flexible toward their country must not cherish illusions, that Hu Jintao shall never be enticed by Prachanda’s ‘ample cleavage’; ‘cause that canny guy knows pretty well as to how many chest hairs Prachanda has at close-up. And he does not want a prosperous democracy bordering Tibet.”

HC felt the absurdity of the situation, “Anyway, Nepal can stay independent as long as the sovereignty of India is not put under threat. It could hurt the Nepalese patriots if they’re jingoists but the home truths are often bitter to swallow.”

HE grinned from ear to ear, “The US President has so many things to do at home that the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton shall apply so called ‘smart power’ in all its range vis-à-vis China and some other bellicose countries.

Point of fact, smart power is, according to the professor Joseph S. Nye Jr. of Howard University, the combination of hard and soft power. Soft power of a country is made of its culture to be attractive to others, values that mean to believe in social justice and rule of law and foreign policies are quite a vast subject. It takes time for the free nations headed by the USA under the guidance of the Obama administration to underline the silver lining aspect and the superiority of democratic institutions in face of a hideous and implacable blackout about the basic human rights.

Last but not least, needless to say that the Obama administration is expected to be the spearhead to enhance democracy, peace and prosperity all over the planet and at the same time the impact of the soft power combined with the hard one ought to stimulate inspirations for smart strategies.

The peace in the Middle-East between Israel and Palestine is imminent under this new administration.”

HE became ready for departure, “OK guys, it’s such a hectic journey meeting you all and to have shared all together some of our reflections. We have all long way to go. HK and HC mind out for H5N1 virus of bird’s flu. Even in the eastern part of Nepal at Jhapa they have traced it out. Altogether about 250 people died since the beginning of the century, and in the north of China recently a woman died too. It’s one of the most dangerous diseases, ‘cause of the frequent mutation of the virus H5N1.

Here goes my twitter! B’Bye.”

HC, HR, HK, and HI all twittered, “Ciao, great minds think alike. Ta muchly.”

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