Book Review: The post-American world and the rise of the rest

A few months back, I started reading a 40 year old edition of “Economics” By Samuelson which my father had used during his academic days. It was very interesting to note how the book mostly spoke about the US and the Soviet economies, Japan was the rising sun and India was often shown as a poor economy at the opposite end of the US and Soviet ones. Somewhere between the time my father understood Keynes and I first came across the term macroeconomics the world saw several transitions – China had a Deng Xiaoping, UK had a Baroness Thatcher and India saw a P V Narasimha Rao, a wall fell down in Europe and my history and geography text books underwent a revision, while China and India surged, Japan the rising sun suddenly seemed stationary, cold war went into cold storage and I had more than one friend christening his dog “Buddy”. Fareed Zakaria’s “A Post-American World and the rise of the rest” presents the remarkable transformations that the world has undergone and how economics and policies governing the markets have been the key to strength of nations. Mr Zakaria with his journalistic style of writing takes us on a journey from the present to the heydays of the Chinese and Indian civilizations, to the pinnacle of the British Crown’s dominance of the world and back thus providing a sequence of events that has led to the current US dominated uni-polar world. But how long will this dominance of the US last before it is challenged by a cluster of rising stars? This seems to be the central question that one would expect the book to address however after reaching a high tempo discussing America’s rise to power and the ascent of it’s allies and challengers the book does little to present a picture of what a Post American world would look like. Mr Zakaria also assumes the current trend of the rising economies to continue and not lose steam like the Japanese challenge. The book however does well to string together global events and presents a very detailed description of how the world came to be where it is.The book is a must read for people with interest in world history, economics and politics and despite being a concise work it does not compromise on details. The author’s writing style makes it an easy, the takeaway from this book is the enormous wealth of information and the author’s acute analysis of history. All this makes this book one that you will find difficult to close before you get to the last page. And when I did get to the last page of the book, I realized why economists from my father’s generation could not have predicted what the world would look like in the 21st century.

The curious case of the dog and the milk bikies

Last night while waiting at Platform #9 of Bangalore City Station, I was approached by a canine of pitiable disposition. After the a tail wag greeting a brush against my rucksack, she decided to park her belly near the bench where I was seated. I was taken in by this show off affection and decided to get her biscuits.4 years ago I had these adopted pups near (the erstwhile) Ganesha Tiffin Stall outside Infosys Bangalore DC who used to love Tiger biscuits; since tiger biscuits were not available in the platform I got my new friend Parle G (Rs 4/-) instead. She loved them, but the people sitting near me seemed to be disgusted and asked me to take her away to some other place, so like the pied piper of Hamlin, I enticed the she-dog to a sparsely crowded part of the platform. Here she gulped with gusto and we were done with the packet but there was no sign of a burp emanating from her tummy, she wanted more. The nearest tea stall had only had a Britannia Milk Bikis and some Cream biscuits. I bought the Milk Bikis (Rs 7/-), but our lady smelled it and wouldn’t eat, much to my embarrassment. I tried but she just wouldn’t have any of it. A locomotive hooted somewhere at a distance and the Mangalore express chugged into platform #9.

I left, not before I displayed my unhappiness over her stubbornness, but some questions still remain unanswered. I have never had a canine pet so I don’t understand pedigree. Why wouldn’t the pooch have Milk Bikis when she had a less expensive Parle-G? I can hazard a guess:

· She is not a supporter of the Kings XI team or doesn’t like Rahul Dravid/Ness Wadia so decided to boycott Britannia.

Other than that I am blank.

But one nice thing the animal taught me was that “price tags don’t matter; you can buy someone happiness and it needn’t be expensive”.

Its a beautiful day

Date: 35th day of Q3 FY2009-2010
Location: Infosys Nethra DC, somewhere near the Karnataka/Kerala border.
Weather: Clear/Sunny day with no haze.
Mood: Read below.


The truth is that your cubicle never welcomes you, it’s your work that drags you into it and after yet another bumpy ride to work this morning pondering about all the work stacked up on my desktop and how to get them out of my plate I didn’t expect anything different today.

I love movies, the most exciting part I liked about movies is the opening of the curtain – these days that excitement is hard to feel thanks to the 30 mins of promos and trailers before the movie begins. Well as I walked into the office campus today, there was another curtain waiting to be lifted - it was the veil of haze that had until now shielded the magnificent view of the Arabian sea from our eyes. The western coast of India is hardly 10 KMs from this office which on clear days like today, that are hard to find, offers views of the Western Ghats to the East and the Arabian Sea to the west. It's been 3 weeks since I had started working at this office at the Nethra DC, yet I had to wait until today to see the Arabian sea - a sight that made an indelible impression on me and one that shall remain etched in my mind forever.

When I was a child, we used to stay at this place called Maharajpur in Gwalior, I used to watch Mirage 2000 fighter jets take off from close to 1 kilometer from my house, the initial excitement died out after 2 months, and the sound from the afterburners and the sonic booms were more of an annoyance than fun. Imagine that we had a view of the Arabian sea everyday, it would not have been half the fun it was today - this is nature's way of maintaining exclusivity! This is nature’s way of surprising us with a gift when we least expect it.

I fondly recollected the Band of Brother's episode where the Easy company camps at a castle in Austria with a beautiful lake next to it. Though I could not go for a swim like Major Winters did in that episode, I nevertheless felt transformed. The soothing sight this morning also brought about a realization - no one comes to office for work, we all come here for the experience. Experience is what matters and experiences are what count!

I started my day looking at paradise with Bono singing "it’s a beautiful day" inside my head. :)

The Statue Politics.

Reaching across to people has never been easier as it is in today's world. Cities are fast embracing the Internet age and the IT highway has started making inroads into the Indian villages, yet it seems that many leaders these days have little faith in the power of the electronic/print or mass connect mediums. Connecting with one's subjects has been the top priority for all great rulers, the Fatehpur Sikri has the Diwan-e-aam, which was the platform for the Emperor to meet his subjects. Kautilya in his book the Arthashashtra recommended use of spies to sense the atmosphere among his subjects. Two generations after Kautilya wrote his treatise, India saw one of its greatest emperors - Asoka.

Emperor Asoka was a brilliant administrator, his empire spanned from Kalinga in the east to the Hindu Kush mountains in the north west which posed an administrative challenge of a gigantic proportion, yet he found a unique way of spreading the message of righteous living to his subjects across his empire. Asoka understood the importance of communication, he knew that he needs to be aware of his audience, the mode to get the communication across to them and the language that he needs to communicate in; he addressed the challenge by issuing edicts, these edicts were erected in places frequented by his subjects and were usually form of a text in the local language inscribed on rock. It is not surprising then that Asokan symbols can be found in India's national flag and national emblems.

Two millenia ago an emperor had created an effective system of reaching out to his subjects, yet today that system seems to have been lost in the pages of history. Leaders find it easier to communicate with statues as compared to reaching out to the people in person. There was a status erection spree in Uttar Pradesh a few months ago which the country's apex judicial body had to put a stay on, then were was the proposal to install the statue of Chattrapati Shivaji maharaj in the sea off the coast of Mumbai. The more recent and rather ironical development was the announcement that 30 statues of the late CM YS Rajashekara Reddy will be installed across Andhra Pradesh.

The helicopter in which Mr YSR was travelling crashed, because he decided to brave the inclement weather and keep up with the appointment with his people as part of his mass connect program, it is ironical that instead of taking a cue out of the importance that Mr YSR set on communicating directly with his people, the government is busy planning installation of his statues. Mr YSR won two assembly elections back to back, he was very efficient in implementing NREGS which endeared him to most of the people, his legacy will live whether or not there are statues of him across his state. What is essential now is that the schemes he had initiated and worked on are continued with the same efficiency and that can be only achieved by reaching out to the people like he did. The age of communications makes it simpler to reach out and while a statue may be worth a thousand words, reaching out to your people either personally or via electromagnetic waves is priceless.
(Had sent this article for publication in a daily but it was dinged).

A war of public relations

A little over sixty years ago the American troops marching towards the Arc D Triomphe on Champs Elysees after liberating Paris were greeted by the cheers of the Parisians. The Parisians cheered, for they realized the sacrifices of the Americans who were fighting the war to bring peace not just to their own land, rather to the world entire. Compare that with the images from the year 2001, of a few hundred Pakistanis at Jacobabad in the Sindh province of Pakistan throwing stones, protesting against the United States using their airbases during the war on terror. It is ironical that while the intent of the US forces was to attain world peace, the responses of the public were quite contradictory.

Public sentiments can be swayed with a simple weapon of mass influence which President Obama has so effectively used since days much before he started his campaign. That weapon is “Good PR”. PR forms the core of any engagement; more than winning hearts it’s about winning minds and making people look at things the way you want them to. While we have to accept that the stern policy the United States has adopted in Pakistan was due to the prevailing situations in the region, the drone attacks have not helped the United States win many friends. The popular sentiment in Pakistan is not favorable towards Washington DC and many are of the opinion that the Taliban is a monster that escaped from an American research lab wreaking havoc on the people of Pakistan. Secretary Clinton’s warning to Islamabad though necessary has further confirmed the fear of many that their nation is being influenced and destabilized by external powers. With Pakistan getting back to democratic ways, it is important that US wins over the people who were instrumental in the return of democracy.

People wield power - Iran is a classic example of what might be the consequences of pleasing just the King, while disregarding the sentiments of the masses. And to ensure that the new government of Pakistan does not lose out on the support of its people, prompting another military takeover, the United States would need to adopt a “praise in public, punish in private” approach. If the drone attacks are indeed meeting their objective, effort needs to be made to publish the list of militants that the mission accomplished in eliminating. While the world sees the great lengths the US is going to achieve peace on earth, the message reaching the common folk in Pakistan maybe somewhat skewed; it is imperative therefore to reach out to the public with the right message. There is a thin line between propaganda and “good PR”; the effort to win the hearts and minds of the Pakistanis in my opinion would be well within the limits of “good PR”.

The key is to feed the Pakistani patriotism, while not appearing to be a threat to the country and that can be achieved by letting the Pakistani Army take the spotlight in fighting the belligerents, while Washington works out the plans in the war room. The US can ill-afford to look vigilante by carrying out attacks that draw condemnation from Islamabad. That day at Champs Elysees US infantry ensured that it got the most cheers it could have garnered by letting the French 2nd Armored division lead the march though both had fought shoulder to shoulder, clearly sending the message that, “it was your war and we just helped” instead of making it look like “it was our war and we dragged you into it”.

A challenge of alphabetical proportions

Literature has never been my forte. And learning the language has been an arduous task for me right from Kinder Garten. While numbers were as clear as crystal, alphabets were as esoteric as the Mayan carvings on pyramids. I however have been a fighter and for that very reason I had torn out the page that contained the word "quit" from the first dictionary I ever owned. However it is necessary for the fighter to know the problems he is up against.

I don't know any fighter who became a hero overnight, another key to the success of a fighter is years of tempering from numerous battles. In my effort to learn the language I had to go through many such struggles. The first one being a broken arm when I was two, which led me to the radiology department of the hospital. The monstrous equipments in the lab like spacecrafts from outer space triggered the lachrymal glands near my eyes initiating a quick consolation from my doctor- "That's just a harmless X-Ray machine!". What was to the world "X-Ray", to me was just "Ra". That should have made it obvious that I was different and needed help and an early diagnosis would have made my life easier, however I do not blame anyone - many two year olds are known to invent their own vocabulary and creativity has always been a much sought after virtue.

I continued to work on my vocabulary and was a constant source of entertainment for people around me, which may have been the reason why no one made a serious effort to correct me. No one really paid attention to the fact that while "Teleision" and "Ashing mashing" were names I had invented, I could say "Refrigerator" with relative ease.

It was only in Kinder Garten that everyone started getting worried A - was for Apple, and B was for Ball, C was for Cat and D was for Dog, even E was for Elephant, but F was either Fat or Fo. As the "X" was getting silenced my teacher was being blamed for leaving the French grammar books within the reach of kids. My teacher was however absolved of the charges when it was found that Q was for Keen and not Queen.

Soon everyone started to hate me, for I could hear people muttering "dislike" in hushed tones, whenever I passed by - It was only in the later years that I realized that they were saying "dyslexic". Many paediatricians tried and failed to help me learn. An old lady who was a neighbor blamed it on the effect of the drum-stick tree we had in our home. "Vetaals (evil spirits) were known to reside on drum-stick trees" she said. And as this seemed to be a more acceptable idea to my family as compared to the idea of burning a cube of camphor on my tongue (as suggested by a distant relative who took pity on my condition -and decided to make it worse. Sigh!) the tree was at once brought down. It was a Sunday morning and we decided to celebrate the vanquish of the Vetaal by visiting the zoo. It was a hot day and there seemed to be no end to the number of animals in the zoo, though the canine family was in quarantine because of an epidemic of some sort. It was decided to check the results of operation Vetaal. I was asked to identify the animals to see how well I recognized them I said "Lion", "Tigrrrrrr hehe!", "Eagle", "Parakeet", "Crocodile", "Ant-elope", "Sloth Bear", "Bintorong", "Gorilla", "Crane", "Bison". The mercury kept rising and we came to an enclosure whose board had been defaced with a graffiti I shouted "Otter!", "Otter!" my family looked at the enclosure which had water but saw no otter. My screams of "otter!" went on unabated when a small head bobbed out of the water, soon many heads followed - we were looking at a whole colony of Otters.

There was excitement all around me, I bombarded with pecks on my cheek, while the Vetaal, was being cursed for having hindered the progress of a prodigy who seemed to have an uncanny ability to sense the unseen. I went on saying "Otter!" and was showered with more pecks. We moved on from the enclosure that housed the otters and we saw Macaques, Rhinos, Hippopotamus, Opossums, Porcupines and everywhere I said "Otter" and broke into a chant! Luckily the pecks ceased, which was a relief. At the Kangaroo enclosure I fainted. For what happened next I have heard many versions my first cousin said he made me smell his shoes, while my neighbors son said he spat on my face, I will go by my granny's version that we were helped by some medical students who happened to be around. The doctor had said I had suffered dehydration due to the heat and humidity and the family spoke out in unison "Water!".

Everyone now seemed concur on the threory about the problem I had, however it had to be scientifically verified. An uncle studying psychology who happened to be visiting us that time devised a series of tests for me and patterns began to emerge. "Quick" was "Qick" (pronounced Kick), "Van" was "An", "Wolf" was "Ofl", "Fox" was "Fo", "Yellow" was "Ello" and "Zebra" was "Ebra". The problem had been found - "In my journey from A to Z, I would always get stuck on T !".

Andy

Vote to Boot

The general elections in India are fast approaching and they will decide which MPs get booted out of the parliament, in fact the process may have already begun with two of our MPs already getting "the boot" last week. While this form of protest seems to be fast gaining popularity since the attack on President Bush during his Iraq visit, the origin of "shoeing" away one's opponents may be traced back to 18th century France.

It is believed that during the Industrial Revolution in France workers employed at power looms used to express their dissatisfaction with work by throwing their wooden shoes called sabots at their machinery - this used to lead to a temporary disruption of work or in the worst case, to the failure of the machinery. This act of using sabots to cause a deliberate disruption in a system came to be known as sabotage. So in a way Mr. Jarnail Singh and Mr. Rajmal Singh Saharan have to some extent sabotaged the efforts of Mr. P Chidambaram and Mr. Naveen Jindal in the run up to the elections. While Mr. Chidambaram handled the entire incident rather gracefully, the flying footwear did lead to a brief unrest in Mr. Jindal's meeting. It is interesting to note that both Mr. Jindal and Mr. Chidambaram are MPs from Congress which dates back to as far as 1885 and saw its first split in the 1907 Surat session. During the Surat session, the Congress split into moderates and the extremists and one of the first victims of the extremists was Sir Pherozshah Mehta who found himself sitting in the trajectory of an airborne footwear. Sir Mehta however was not the sole target of the projectile as it had apparently brushed Mr Surendranath Banerjee as well.

It would seem that people's ability to guide the shoes towards their intended victims has grossly deteriorated since 1907, which I feel is a blessing. For, though this form of protest is rampant in most parts of India and the recent attacks on our political leader has only popularized it further; this sort of vigilantism is unacceptable and laws should be made to deter individuals from using this form of protest as a popular means of venting out their frustration. At the same time having laws to prevent a common citizen from throwing objects at other citizens and politicians will smell of hypocrisy if we continue to see scenes of flying mikes and chairs and bleeding ministers in our parliament and state assemblies. Though as a democracy we enjoy the freedom of expression, one also needs to realize that flinging a shoe at someone will not solve our problems and that is the reason there are elections every five years - to give us the opportunity to express our unhappiness with the incumbent and elect someone who will deliver. In the end the ballot is mightier than the sneaker.