The days of 'Washington Consensus' are seemingly over, as the world drifts towards what is now being called the 'Beijing Consensus'. China's trade with the world had touched an all time high of US $2.97 trillion in 2010; between 2005 and 2012 Chinese companies invested US$ 460 billion across the globe; and China is biggest global lender (ahead of the World Bank) with a credit portfolio of US$110 billion. All of this occurred when the western world was reeling under severe economic recession.
So overwhelmed it is with a likely world leadership status that Beijing didn't think twice before refusing White House offer of creating a G-2, a Washington-Beijing axis to take the lead in world affairs. To unveil this somewhat mysterious spread of Chinese influence across the world, two-China based journalists flew across 235,000 kilometers; travelled 15,000 kilometers on dangerous roads; and crossed eleven land borders to bring the chilling and largely unknown reality of globalization. From Myanmar to Sudan and from Kazakhstan to Venezuela, around 35 million citizens of Chinese ethnicity have fanned across the world to not only make a future for them but keep the Chinese economy in perpetual motion.
For it to maintain social stability, China needs to achieve at least 8 per cent annual growth, and therefore a constant supply of raw materials is needed to keep the 'factory of the world' and its 'rapid urbanization' from stagnating. With the help of its silent army of millions spread across the globe, the authors reveal, the Chinese development juggernaut is ruthlessly violating political, economic and environment norms in the countries where it is making huge investments for appropriating raw materials of all kind. With a troubled track record in human rights violation, the emerging world order under China sends shivers down the spine. Behind the glitzy world of economic growth is the Chinese model of growth masked by secrecy and censorship.
Not only is it a work of immense courage, China's Silent Army is an amazing book that brings out the disturbing side of China’s growing global influence. A must read book!....Link
China's Silent Army
by Juan Pablo Cardenal & Heriberto Araujo
Allen Lane, UK
349 pages, £25.
Could a toilet cast a shadow on the quality of a democracy? One may wish to flush it away as irrelevant; but improvement in sanitation and consequent reduction in parasite stress has helped in building democratic societies with liberal values. Researchers have gone further to assert that countries with high levels of parasite-borne diseases were much less likely than others to have a robust democracy, individual freedom, equitable distribution of economic resources and gender equality. It might seem an unsavoury and puerile topic but development of human behaviour has lot to do with the practice of excretion.
A Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne, Nick Haslam kicks down the bathroom door to unravel a wide range of behaviors that are linked to excretory function. ‘Our intestines are not just meaty drainpipes through which our waste flows. They are emotional organs whose nerves communicate with the brain and respond to what it thinks, desires and perceives.’ In many ways, our personalities are manifest in our excretory habits.
The toilet is a space that is private but shared, anonymous but intimate, and linked in the mind to our bodies, our gender and our sexuality. Examining the psychological dimensions of all that is walled off from public gaze, from constipation to diarrhoea and from incontinence to toilet graffiti, Haslam provides cutting-edge research on the science of elimination. Without doubt, the bowel is an irritable organ that influences the brain in fascinating ways.
Bathroom have also been seen as natural laboratories for studying gender difference in ways of thinking, preoccupations, language use and communication styles. Loaded with earthy humour and clinical research, Psychology in the Bathroom opens a compelling window to the human psyche from hitherto unexplored perspectives. The topics covered in this amazing book are both intriguing and amusing. It uncovers ‘the irritable bowel’; has sympathy for ‘the nervous bladder’; considers ‘flatulence’ as a source of amusement; and views ‘latrinalia’ as a work of art.
Rarely have such diverse aspects of our private lives been documented and brought into public domain. Nick Haslam’s wonderful work deserves to be read widely....Link
Psychology in the Bathroom
by Nick Haslam
Palgrave MacMillan, UK
174 pages, £47.50
The story is familiar but the script is fresh, brought forward to the age of sprawling malls and expanding metros. Breathing new life into the epic, Samhita Arni has recast the characters of Ramayana entangled in today’s world. Packed with political overtures, it smells of dynastic politics, democracy conundrum, gender disparity and rising inequality. Life is not as clean and simple in modern-day Ayodhya.
The mythological retelling of Ramayana is stylishly written, exploring the human side of its incarnated characters. Not only do masses get to hear their revered king live on television, journalists raise discomforting questions to the simian military chief at the press conference. As the powers-that-be shrug to hide the truth, people question the mysterious disappearance of their queen.
Gripping till the end, it is a narrative that has sub-stories which have rarely been told. The Missing Queen pieces together the untold stories of the wounded whose sacrifices and sufferings go unnoticed in the creation of a glorious nation-state. Sugriva’s political ambition, Angad’s embedded frustration and Surpanakha’s raging anger seem as much part of the story now as it might have been when the epic was first written.
War, in many ways, is merciful to men,’ writes Arni. ‘It makes them heroes if they are the victors. If they are the vanquished - they do not live to see their homes taken, their wives widowed’. While the brutal war was fought around Sita, she was sacrificed for the sake of the empire. Wasn’t Sita the price that Ram has, unwittingly, paid to rule an empire? The Missing Queen speculates many such questions in weaving a thrilling story.
Credit goes to Valmiki for not only creating timeless characters but carefully editing the script for any controversies. Those who read between the lines rewrote their versions of the epic, bringing objectivity to the one-sided narrative. No wonder, we have three hundred versions of Ramayana. The strength of the epic and its characters lie in them being relevant even today, provoking us to use the backdrop of the script to raise uncomfortable questions to the powers that be. The fact that we can feel the characters of the epic in our lives is a tribute to the imagination of the writer.
Having written her first book, The Mahabharatha: A Child’s View, at the age of eight, mythological retelling seems to be flowing in Samhita Arni’s pen. Many of the questions she has sought to explore in the book have crossed many a minds. Yet, there are many sub-stories yet to be told. Urmila’s version of Ramayana surely tops the list, her anonymous existence during those fourteen years when her husband was away. And who will not want to read the supreme sacrifice of Vibhishana, whose character has been conveniently underplayed in the creation of the empire. Clearly, there is more to the epic than what has been told and re-told down the centuries. Revisiting the epic brings in fresh insights, a process that reinforces faith of the reader and the believer in the characters....Link
The Missing Queen
by Samhita Arni
Viking, New Delhi
192 pages, Rs 399
Invoking the greatest teacher and classical thinker to provide the ideological underpinnings for ‘a manifesto for change’ reflects deep concern of the author to remain optimist when bad policy and inept governance has reduced the democratic structure into an arena for political maneuvering by the corrupt and their henchmen.
Chanakya may have lived through similar times 2,300 years ago to devise unparalleled administrative strategy to overthrow one king, crown the deserving and pave the way for establishing one of the greatest empires in the east. Pavan Varma doesn’t harbor any such intentions and restricts his insightful narrative to articulate a new vision of governance with the innate hope that the country, with its rich past, can reinvent itself yet again. ‘Chanakya's New Manifesto: To Resolve Crisis Within India’ is both prescriptive and suggestive with an actionable agenda to streamline governance, hone the democracy apparatus to make it more inclusive, purge corruption and install foolproof security – five pillars that have been weakened to the core.
Though Pavan Varma has been nowhere close to the 6,000 shlokas and sutras that Chanakya could dish out in Arthashashtra, his painstaking call for action is nevertheless insightful and visionary. The solutions he proposes are substantive, achievable within the existing constitutional framework. Having been part of the bureaucracy for over a quarter of a century, Varma is both practical and pragmatic in prescribing a role for every one of us in forcing the government to act.
Former diplomat, accomplished writer and now budding politician Pavan Varma provokes the reader to question the pathetic quality of life a vast majority is leading in the country today. Can change be postponed or avoided? To expect that the government will act on its own could be one of the greatest dreams because governments rarely act of their own volition. Manifest within ‘Chanakya’s New Manifesto’ are ideas of engagement for people from all walks of life.
Though the author proclaims that the book is meant for discerning youngsters - aged between 15 and 35 – the first and foremost challenge would be to make them read the ambitious manifesto in the first place. It has right intent but converting intent into action could be daunting. Varma doesn’t resist saying that unless there is unflinching resolve, conviction and courage, the idea of ‘New India’ may remain an idea only.
Pavan Varma’s reform agenda is comprehensive but readable only in parts. It may appeal to those who have already propelled themselves to make a real tryst with destiny. However, it is indeed an opportunity for the author, who has now plunged himself into active public life, to take the ‘manifesto’ to the people. No less ambitious but ‘Chanakya’s New Manifesto’ could well be the modern-day Arthashastra for transforming what most of us consider a ‘given’ situation....Link
Chanakya’s New Manifesto
by Pavan K. Varma
Aleph, New Delhi
248 pages, Rs 295
