It is the first weekend after Test-1 and so its the time when everyone just cools down and simply just fools around. Tonight after dinner, we were just taking a walk around the campus slowly, just chatting, telling tales, cracking jokes and my brain working overtime on PJs. We got to discussing about a friend of mine from Ernakulam and I do not know, I felt some sort of longing to go back to Ernakulam. I miss the place, whatever imperfections it can boast of and whatever annoyance and problems its messy traffic system can cause.
I have spend 8 years so far in Ernakulam and those were my teenage years and it does leave a mark on you. It is the place where I grew up but unfortunately I do not know it anymore as I found the place really different from what it was when I was staying there full-time. I still love the place, the theatres, the main economic hub of the city-MG Road, the bus ride which is an experience in itself, the traffic hustle in Vyttila junction or the narrow Banerjee road and who can forget the north overbridge.
I really miss my hometown and I really dont think I will be seeing much more of her anymore. I was able to spend only a few weeks so far in Ernakulam this year and it seems that this might just be the first of many such years. Well, you can take me out of Ernakulam, but you cannot take Ernakulam out of me (a smart and creative guy said this about himself and I am just copying it). Another smart guy also said that the tree grows best in the place where it struck root and therefore although it might not be same old town that I have known, it is still home and my heart will never truly be able to leave that place
Sunday, September 28, 2008
SEZs again causing trouble
http://craziestme.blogspot.com/2007/06/sanctioned-exploitation-zones-in-india.html
This was made over a year when the SEZ problem had not garnered the media attention it has now with forms of media commending upon the necessity of industrial development that will not affect the poor man. There are a few points that I would like to raise
1)Why is the government so insistent on establishing SEZs inspite of the fact the people clearly dont want their land taken away?
2)Why doesnt those who give permission to establish SEZ understand the fact that the primary requirement for man is food, clothing and shelter? With the land being taken away, farmers have no means of livelihood and also their shelter is destroyed.
3)It is not only the farmers, but each and everyone of us who are being denied our basic necessities. The worlds population is growing and instead of using farmland for industries and real estate, we must try to obtain better productivity from the existing farmlands and if possible, bring more land under cultivation. If food production does not increase, there will bew food riots in every part of the world, something which has already happened in
Bangladesh, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Latin America, Mexico, Mozambique, Pakistan, Myanmar, Panama, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, Somalia, Yemen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_crisis#Unrest_and_government_actions_in_individual_countries_and_regions
4)SEZs obtain tax exemptions, labour laws are exploitary or non-existant and aimed at benefitting the SEZ promoter alone. The way to achieve economic development is not by surrendering our land and subjecting our people to slavery, for this is what happens as they get the land for dirt cheap price and that land follows rules different from the rest of the country and it will be a place where our working population will be made to work with no rights.
5)Is there any pressure on the government to grant rights to these SEZs and if there is, who or what is exerting this pressure?
6)The SEZ problem has been going on for over a year now and it is only now that the media has begun to report this. The police firing in Nandigram and land takeover in Singur happened over a year ago and now, the media is reporting it with all the hype and with latest updates on the situation. Only when the actual situation has unfolded and there is a controversy are they reporting it. Only when there is assured public attention are they ready to report the issue. Although this is not directly part of the issue, the media nowadays has now become a media for spreading gossips and sensationalism.
This is a new version of colonialism and this is modern slavery. In each era, imperialism and colonialism won because they had the strongest weapons. It was ammunition and warships and guns earlier and now, it is money. Money is denying us the right to live independently and freely and making us do things that we initially do not want to do, and it makes us accept certain wrongs and eventually it kills of our conscience.
This was made over a year when the SEZ problem had not garnered the media attention it has now with forms of media commending upon the necessity of industrial development that will not affect the poor man. There are a few points that I would like to raise
1)Why is the government so insistent on establishing SEZs inspite of the fact the people clearly dont want their land taken away?
2)Why doesnt those who give permission to establish SEZ understand the fact that the primary requirement for man is food, clothing and shelter? With the land being taken away, farmers have no means of livelihood and also their shelter is destroyed.
3)It is not only the farmers, but each and everyone of us who are being denied our basic necessities. The worlds population is growing and instead of using farmland for industries and real estate, we must try to obtain better productivity from the existing farmlands and if possible, bring more land under cultivation. If food production does not increase, there will bew food riots in every part of the world, something which has already happened in
Bangladesh, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Latin America, Mexico, Mozambique, Pakistan, Myanmar, Panama, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, Somalia, Yemen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_crisis#Unrest_and_government_actions_in_individual_countries_and_regions
4)SEZs obtain tax exemptions, labour laws are exploitary or non-existant and aimed at benefitting the SEZ promoter alone. The way to achieve economic development is not by surrendering our land and subjecting our people to slavery, for this is what happens as they get the land for dirt cheap price and that land follows rules different from the rest of the country and it will be a place where our working population will be made to work with no rights.
5)Is there any pressure on the government to grant rights to these SEZs and if there is, who or what is exerting this pressure?
6)The SEZ problem has been going on for over a year now and it is only now that the media has begun to report this. The police firing in Nandigram and land takeover in Singur happened over a year ago and now, the media is reporting it with all the hype and with latest updates on the situation. Only when the actual situation has unfolded and there is a controversy are they reporting it. Only when there is assured public attention are they ready to report the issue. Although this is not directly part of the issue, the media nowadays has now become a media for spreading gossips and sensationalism.
This is a new version of colonialism and this is modern slavery. In each era, imperialism and colonialism won because they had the strongest weapons. It was ammunition and warships and guns earlier and now, it is money. Money is denying us the right to live independently and freely and making us do things that we initially do not want to do, and it makes us accept certain wrongs and eventually it kills of our conscience.
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