Sam says: Let's redefine Human Development

Prof. Alex asks the class to introduce themselves and tell the class more about their countries. Sam and Simmi are very excited to tell about their countries.

Simmi: I am Simmi. I am from Norway. I worked for World Bank for 7 years. My country has a very high Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.968.

Sam: I am Sam. I am from India. I worked for a grass root NGO for 6 years. My country has a low HDI of 0.619

Prof. Alex: Can any one of you explain, what is HDI for the understanding of the class

Simmi (Jumps in): The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index combining normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita for countries worldwide. It is claimed as a standard means of measuring human development as per UNDP.

Alex: Thanks Simmi

Simmi continues…: The basic use of HDI is to rank countries by level of "human development", which usually also implies to determine whether a country is a developed, developing, or underdeveloped country.

Sam: But…….what about happiness, what about suicide rates, what about family cohesiveness, what about problems created because of over consumption and what about per capita CO2 emissions. Does HDI account for these?

Sam continues: Western societies create labels and cram them up the media pipes and bombard us with those labels of third world, poor, bad living conditions, dirty, uncouth. I agree we have garbage lying around in our cities. But that's not all that describes a society. We are helpful, tolerant, childish, innocent, religious, historical, festive, traditional, hierarchical... long list. So much more than a 40%-of-their-population-earns-less-than-a-dollar society.

Sam continues: Let’s redefine the HDI today. Let’s include the positive measures like family cohesiveness per capita, happiness per capita, spiritual development per capita in HDI. Let’s include the negative measures like suicide rates per capita, money used for arms per capita, CO2 emissions per capita in our measures of HDI. Let’s redefine our narrow limits of rationality and correctness. Let’s be free from the set boundaries of political and academic correctness and achieve the greater heights of real human development.

With a sense of revolution in the head, Sam wakes up. It was a nice dream and Sam is looking forward to making it a reality.

Sam in "Human Rights" Lecture....

In this town of animals and birds, the most ‘in thing’ these days is to learn about the debates happening in the human society. They wonder all the time that what are human beings studying and researching in their universities these days ? Today Prof. Simmi, the lamb will take the lecture on “Human Rights” and the best student of the class, Sam, the chicken is all ready with his questions.

Simmi: Morning Students ! These days human beings are talking a lot about Human Rights. They say - Human rights refers to the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.

Sam: Wow ! that’s Nice…

Sam: But why is this topic so ‘in’ these days ?

Simmi: mmm....That’s lil difficult to say, but it seems they are divided between North and the South OR you can say Developed and Developing. So the developed countries have exploited the people and environment enough to develop themselves and now they wanna dump the concept of human rights to the whole mankind to feel good and to wash off their sins.

Sam: Wow ! that’s clever…

Simmi: Lots of international laws are passed for the universal achievement of human rights.

Sam: Wow ! How inclusive…

Sam: But what about the women, lower caste people, physically and mentally handicapped people ? Are they also included in these human rights ?

Simmi: Yes they are. It’s for everyone irrespective of caste, creed, sex and physical or mental status.

Sam: Wow ! How Just !

Sam: But then why are we NOT included in this ? They beat us, kill us and eat us all the time?

Simmi: My Dear, That’s why it’s called “Human” Rights. They know how to play with the language.

Sam: Shit ! That’s mean

Simmi: Let them learn to at least respect each other. And then we can expect anything else from them.

Sam: Ok...Let’s Wait

Let me fly....

With mixed and confused feelings I boarded the flight from Bangalore, India. In last 8 years I flew many times from Bangalore as an IT & Business Consultant. So why am I anxious this time? British Airways is a reliable airline, they serve decent food. ..So what is it that’s troubling me?

After spending 8 years in the corporate world I am going back to the classrooms as a student. I am making a paradigm shift from the corporate sector to the development sector and going to pursue my MA in Governance and Development in IDS, University of Sussex. Will I be able to adjust, behave and mold myself as a student? With all these mixed feelings I landed in Heathrow airport and from then on it’s a different life…..

The first week started with some introductory sessions on Banking, Security, Union, Career services etc…some informative, some repetitive. Later in the week we were greeted and addressed by International office, Vice Chancellor and his team. It gave me a feeling of being important and helped me to get into the student mode a little quicker. Then came the vibrant Fresher’s fair to lighten the environment further on a nice sunny day. The week concluded with a grand party for the international students at Brighton Dome, where we got the opportunity to meet city’s mayor and many more students. By now I have started trying my amateur cooking, hands on laundry and other daily chores.

Just before writing these thoughts I have finished one of my course readings. Without notice, without effort, I am already a student…..tracking timetables, running from one lecture room to other, taking notes, meeting professors and new students and remembering loads of new names of fellow student from various nationalities.

I am enjoying being a student after 8 years. I am experiencing that university offers various means of expression. Academics, social clubs, sports clubs, theater groups, student union….there is so much to do in this one year. I am feeling as if I got wings after eight years of captivity in a corporate jail.

Let me fly…and enjoy my flight.

Who's the biggest terrorist...?

Country is shaken by the back to back bomb blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

People are already ready with solutions. “Ban SIMI” says one. Others say bring back some strong law like POTA. Some are blaming it on SIMI, Indian Mujahudeen OR HUJI, some on the current national ruling party and rest on the lack of a common federal intelligence agency.

So who’s the biggest terrorist group…SIMI, HUJI, Indian Mujahudeen OR some one else…?

Let’s move little away from the terror strikes. Lets talk about India in general, a country with 70% of its population living in villages and 60 % of its population earning their bread through agriculture. Govt. marks lots of funds in the budget year after year for the welfare of the farmers. But the daily news paper headings about the farmers committing suicides say the plight of the farmers aloud.

If not farming then what will they do….? Govt. says we will give you guaranteed jobs for 100 days in a year through National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). Crores being marked for the rural employment guarantee scheme, but again the official machinery is found to be too greedy for the goddess Laxmi.

So where are all the funds going ? It’s going in the foreign education of the kids of our Netas, Europe holiday trips of bureaucrats and rest all in their safe bank accounts across the globe. So they are enjoying life over the miseries, plight and dead bodies of thousands and thousands of their own countrymen.

So who’s the biggest terrorist group…SIMI, HUJI, Indian Mujahudeen or our politicians and other government officials…?

Now let’s move to environment. India enjoys a very low per capita CO2 emission of 1.67 tones/capita. But the reality is that a relatively small wealthy class of 1% of the population in the country is hiding behind a huge proportion of 823 million poor people for the CO2 emissions. In an upper-middle-class house five air-conditioners hum to the tune of eight kilowatts of power which is enough to light two villages. Their driver picks up a fifteen rupee loaf of bread by driving a 3000 cc Pajero to the local market, using up two litres of fossil fuel that took three million years to form deep below the earth crust.

Upper and middle class are not ready to reduce their CO2 emissions, and by that they are not only contributing to global warming, but also denying the hundreds of millions of poor in the country, access to development. Moreover the climate change is threatening the poor communities with economic devastation in the form of floods, droughts and ruined harvests.

Upper and middle class are earning more money to pollute the environment more. Their aspirations are giving birth to shopping malls in every corner of all the big and medium cities, which are hungry energy guzzlers and produce tones of packaging waste. They are moving from two wheelers to cars, cars to bigger cars. With more earnings their cars just get bigger and more fuel inefficient and they move further away from the concept of public transport. Metropolitan cities are given preference over villages while doing electricity load shedding so that the riches can enjoy their air conditioners and other energy hungry gadgets, when a loan ridden farmer is waiting to run his irrigation equipment.

So who’s the biggest terrorist group…SIMI, HUJI, Indian Mujahudeen, our politicians and other government officials or you and me?

.

Technology is all about helping people...

I think technology is all about helping people. Every segment of the social sector is a technology consumer. From planning the logistics of feeding thousands of refugees, to delivering vaccines, to providing education, to creating job opportunities or to advocating for human rights, technology tools are used to improve the outcomes and often directly deliver the social benefit. So many motivated people like you are reading this issue of Sattva and getting connected to the social sector…All thanks to technology.

We should be bold enough to confess that technology has generated tremendous wealth and lots of opportunities for many of us. People are earning unheard salaries in IT and the related offshoots of technology. For those of us who have achieved financial success, there is frequently a need to give back. As a group, technology entrepreneurs are just beginning to explore their interests in the larger society. In the last decade, a formerly apolitical community has been exercising its increasing muscle. The great example that Indian IT companies Wipro Technologies, TCS, Satyam, Infosys etc. set with their philanthropic commitments sets the stage for increased involvement by the high technology entrepreneurs in society's larger issues.

However I feel technology development is not driven to maximize all of society's goals. Applications that make money get built, while applications that don't make money don't get built. Bridging the gap between the possible and the profitable in socially beneficial applications of technology is critical, and it's an important effort that requires the attention of the technology community. The first is the decision to go after only consumers at the top of the economic pyramid. Intellectual property-based technology companies calculate their economic returns on the basis of pricing decisions, essentially on what prices they deem the market will bear.

I believe that the model of social enterprise helps address the above said market failures. Social enterprises are hybrid organisations with two bottom lines: social and financial. By having a social bottom line, these businesses choose to serve the underserved, even when these communities may not offer a significant financial return. I believe that increased investment in technology that directly supports the social sector will offer strong results for society. The social sector lags the for-profit sector in adopting technology tools that could significantly enhance the effectiveness of the sector. With an incremental investment equal to one or two percent of the current funding flowing to the philanthropic sector, it seems clear that the sector could become five to ten percent more effective with the same amount of resources.

I am really impressed with one of the amazing initiative of social entrepreneurship using technology in the field of Micro Finance. Mohd. Yonus gave the world the great mantra of micro finance in the form of Grameen Bank but Rangde.org used the concept of micro finance, mixed it with technology to connect the India that is economically progressing rapidly and the India that has been ignored. Rang De is an initiative to make low cost microcredit a reality. By enabling individuals to become online Social Investors, Rang De hopes to bring microcredit and online lending to the forefront. RangDe is trying to create a sustainable alternative to charity by promoting online lending as a way of life. We are at a critical intersection in the evolution of technology and social enterprise. Working together, the technology, nonprofit, philanthropic and prospective user communities can ensure far-reaching success in the long-term effort to fulfill the social potential of technology.

Now is the time to together move confidently toward that future.

Pls Papa....

Simmi: Sam, Are you educated ?
Sam: Of course I am..

Simmi: Do you love your family.... your wife....your little girl... ?
Sam: Hey what type of questions is that...Of course I do

Simmi: Do you wanna die soon ?
Sam: Why in the hell I wanna die soon...

....It was a bad dream. Sam woke up with a heavy head. His soul (Simmi) was a lil nasty today in the dreams. But why did Simmi ask these stupid questions..Anyways it was a dream. Sam had to start his day. Sam lit a Marlboro classic from the classy case his uncle gave him last Sunday and started planning the whole day. A long list of appointments, meetings and conferences was waiting for him.

The day was long. Some short smoking breaks were the only oases he found in the dessert of meetings and appointments. With a slow and heavy gait he walked back home. But a sweet hug from his little 8 year old kid was just like a liter of redbull for him....

Kid: Papa, teacher gave me 5 stars today
Sam: Wow...That's great ! But for what ?

Kid: For the essay homework......
Kid: Shall I read it for you ?
Sam: Ya sure sure..sure...

Kid: ..."Pls Papa"
Sam: What ?

Kid: That was the title of the homework that teacher gave..

Kid: My papa is a big man. He works in a big office. Papa's car is red.
My papa has a laptop. Papa's laptop also has "Tom and Jerry" inside it. mmmm....then..a..a...aaa

Sam: Ya ya go ahead sweetheart...

Kid: But I don't' like papa's cigarette box. It shows the photo of dirty dirty lungs. Teacher says cigarette is bad for papa's health, for mummy's health and also for my health. But may be papa's teacher didn't tell him this. Papa, pls stop smoking cigarette. I promise I will give you my chocolates. I will not eat all the chocolates alone. I promise I will not ask for more toys. I will daily brush my teeth. Pls Papa...

With a choked heart Sam went to sleep and Simmi started again....Are you educated ? ...Do you love your family.. your wife....your little girl... ?...Do you wanna die soon ?

Simmi prays to GOD

Sam was somehow not feeling good today. He didn't like this smaller cell, which he has to share with many others. He didn't know any one in the cell and there was little place to move around. He was born in a small cell and was in a cell through out his life. He used to think often..."Am I supposed to be always in a cell or did I do something very wrong to earn a place here......".

He loves the man in red, who gives him food every day. But today no one gave him food. "Hello oooo...anyone there ???.....I am hungry...." Sam yells....

Aha here ends the wait. The man in red arrives. But hey...No....No....plssss...where are you taking me...Its hurting me...Ok I will not yell for food...

Leave me...hey this place is stinking....why there is blood around....mmmmm...Am I going to be killed ??? No...he will not kill me....he feeds me everyday...

And then..the next moment..with a thud sound Sam's head is chopped....oooooooo....skinned is pealed off, then the hands...the legs....

Sam loved himself very much...His soul (Simmi) will not rest in peace.....

Simmi started the espionage on Sam's body.......They have wrapped it nicely. They are taking it some where. May be out of the city.....away from the police. But no....its going to someone's house. And then Simmi hears this..."Honey I got the full chicken, please cook your special recipe for the dinner tonight..."

Simmi was shocked.....confused......how is it possible ? In the soul's class we were taught that the human being is the highest body a soul can take. Human beings are intelligent, righteous, sensitive and they understand others pain. Then how can a human being kill my Sam......that to just for the pleasure of eating. Then they are as good as the animals in the jungle......

Simmi prays.....Hey Lord ! Don't make me sit inside a human body ever......

Lets give his lines a sense.....

Rahul was in his early teens
Picking around bins

Daily he watches school going children of his age
But his day starts and ends in garbage

One day he picked one pencil from the bin
Some absurd lines were the maximum he can draw

Will his lines ever get a meaning
I think he has a long wait

We have to shorten his wait
Before its too late

We have a task at hand, that's immense
Lets join hands to give his lines a sense...