Pea, Policy and Public

I was busy with first few weeks, that is, first month of classes of a new semester. As you may be knowing, I am still a student and do not know till when… being student is about making mistakes and learning for me and always will be. First few weeks are there for introspection and planning for next session, thats how I have been living for almost five years. What this has done is that it has helped me to reflect upon my actions and take corrective measures every few months. This luxury may soon end, but I think that the habit of introspection will continue. Meanwhile these first few weeks have been tougher and more so on personal front, nevertheless I am excited for what I am doing and what I am planning to do.
Study of public policy is grim and cynical and with some liberty formal education in totality is becoming grim and cynical barring few exceptions. I cannot ascertain the direction of causality but can safely say that there is some reflection of this cynicism on public or vice vera.
What I am trying to say is that public in general is becoming more cynical, grossly due to bad economic time and political upheaval. Public opinion is growing sour towards its leader and this observation is based on recent happenings in India and what I generally observe in United States. Policy makers are part of this public and therefore it should not be a surprise that there is cynicism among policy makers. What is depressing is the fact that pedagogy in institutions of higher education isnt trying to break this cycle, at least not to my notice in two major democracies of known universe.
This brings us to very interesting point, democracy. I think the time has come for democracy to evolve. It has to evolve to because stakeholders have increased, it has to evolve because people want more holistic mode of governance. Unfortunately we dont have any other competitive mode of governance which can deal with personal ambitions and grievances better than democracy so we will have to incrementally improve democracy.
And as far as students of policy like me are concerned, we need to be less cynical and more aspirational so as to take this world to better juncture.

Wassup India, Anna and Beyond…

I hate writing/reading “wassup”, it reeks ‘wannabe-ness’ to me, but that is essentially the reason why I am putting it in my title. If you have been paying attention to international news then I am kind of sure that you might have missed news about India and the social movement currently unfolding in India. I have written once about the social movement, but not in detail. You will find few links at the end of this post for those who are unaware of the premise (which means international audience) of the social movement. Nevertheless so as to set you up for what you are going to read, I must provide some information to help everyone appreciate where I am coming from, as in my views.

Under the aegis of a 72 year old ‘Gandhian’, or in plain contextual terms, a person who follows non-violent ways of protesting, there is a social movement that is happening in India against the establishment and mainly against the government in power. I wrote about the marketability of ‘India Against Corruption’ but it seems that the name has been readily picked up by Indian population, at the least banners flying in rallies inform me so. Anna Hazare, the ‘Gandhian’ is the cornerstone of this moment.

Now that the 13 day extravaganza has ended there is plenitude of questions regarding the movement, its underpinnings, rationale, motive and its far reaching effects. It is one of those things where nobody can give a view that is perfect and no view can be completely wrong. But then, one has to look at the weight and the significance of few facts and decide upon whether the so called ‘Anna’ movement was something good, bad or grey. Dealing with the whole movement in its entirety will be almost life-gobbling task, which I have no intend to take as I have already promised to keep thing terse on this blog, therefore I will deal this issue topically.

Democracy

Issue: Whether this movement strengthened or weakened the democracy?

My view: When many people define democracy then sometimes I find it almost laughable specially when it is presented as something sacrosanct and immovable. One must understand that few tenets of democracy should indeed be unquestionable but the institutions associated with democracy shouldnt be considered immovable. Society by its nature is an evolving entity, and so should be democratic institution. I also feel that democracy in India hasnt moved much since independence and has never been aligned to Indian psyche or the Indian way of doing things.

Meanwhile coming back to the issue, I think this movement has been a step in evolution of democracy in India. Evolution always have two aspects, construction and destruction. This movement has constructed few things and has also destructed some. Therefore the question that democracy has been strengthened or weakened does not arise. Democracy will evolve, and this movement has played its role in evolution. People have voiced their opinion and that is important for successful democratic structure, therefore I consider this as important evolutionary step in Indian democracy. Roles of the pillars of democracy will change with time, and each country will do it in its own way.

Anna Hazare

Issue: He is the leader, he helped youth voice their opinion, he is like Batman (immovable wall - incorruptible) vis a vis Joker (unstoppable force of corruption) a modern day Gandhi / He is a nice bloke but his followers are dumb, they dont know the reality and are asking too much and their whole tactics is nothing but blackmailing.

My views: Now in issue I have put two contrasting issue just to elucidate that there are two opinions surrounding Anna Hazare and then there is other as highlighted by my favorite writer (sarcastically) Arundhati Roy. One must understand, that there are few things that are integral part of being Indian. We put people on pedestals, we like to worship them, follow them and believe them without question. That is how we became a nation with million Gods when other culture fought for finding just one. So yes, we did put Anna on high pedestal, and yes he do have some views with which many people wont be comfortable with… so what? Rather than being intelligent moron, and trying to discredit his achievement, I will advice them to use their intelligence to fine tune the movement. Oh! Sorry, I just forgot that these very well educated fellows are living with egos big enough to fill entire ocean and cant be part of someone else’s movement because of lack of space for their views.

Mr Hazare is not perfect and neither are his views towards corruption, even several solution that he and his team suggest may not prove as efficacious as they are pronounced as. But then for a truly rational individual who believe in ends and not in means, this should not be the premise. Premise here should be to find ways to reduce corruption in India. So when Nandan Nilekani says that ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’ isnt the solution then he is wrong, because the fact is that ‘Jan Lokpal’ or any other method cannot be the solution but only a part of the solution. No matter how faulty the ‘Team Anna’ led movement may be, but it has lead significant number of people to voice their opinions against corruption. So rather than losing him on the first utterance of a faulty logic by him, try to catch the theme. Sometimes few things are more important than the semantics.

Youth

Issue: Role of youth. Informed/mis-informed/agitated/concerned or confused?

My view: Being objective is certainly a wonderful thing. But not being objective doesnt mean that concerns are not valid. One question that was wildly leveled against the youth by political brass was whether they read different versions of lokpal bill or not, if not then their views held no weight and hence will not be entertained. This attitude reeked nothing but pretentiousness and political snobbism. Once again, semantics aint that important because being part of same country both the sides are supposedly working for the development of the same country.

Yes, youth was misinformed, yes youth wasnt always objective, but all the time their concerns were grave, for all this time they were trying to communicate the urgency of their grievance. So when politicians said on national TV that they understood the grievance of common man, I always wanted them to know that it is not just about the grievance but also about the urgency attached with it. Therefore people discrediting the impatience are probably too lost in their grey hairs or lack of it.

Meanwhile, time has taught Indian youth to be more objective, and this movement will give its own lesson. Next movement will definitely see youth with more objective approach.

Movement

Issue: Nature of movement.

My views: Well any movement needs leaders therefore those who argue by saying that how come only few people are leading this movement…ummm… when was there any movement without any leader? I dont have anything else to say on this argument.

People then also pointed out that this was mainly a middle class movement and wasnt as inclusive as it should have been. Yes this could have been more inclusive, but using ‘middle class’ as a tool to discredit whole movement is childish and as unlearned as me discrediting a wine. Middle class has maximum stakes in this country right now in terms of tax that it pays. Middle class will soon constitute 50% of the population. I rest my argument. Yes, nobody can argue against requirement of this movement being more inclusive, but once again, discrediting isnt necessary to make it so.

This movement was no drama. I have seen people voicing their opinion, being vocal, being thoughtful, being part of decision making, appreciating democracy and it’s powers. People wanted their concern to be known, and Anna banner provided them a safe way to do it. It  should now become part of their culture, voicing concern is important for thriving and evolving democracy.

Should public outside parliament dictate terms to parliamentarians… hell yes.

Should there be arm-twisting… hell no.

This movement did saw some arm-twisting, which should not be repeated, and this should be communicated to the youth. How? Well by providing them better and concrete channels of voicing their opinions before they become so urgent that only arm-twisting seems like a valid option.

Government

Issue: What is a government?

My view: Sleep…okay…sleep. Government in this case was sleeping. India saw uprising in Africa, looked at it, and then brought it home and converted it into Indian. Government saw the same thing and couldnt anticipate what was to come to their doorsteps.

But the broader question is what is government actually? Is it the monolithic structure sitting in capital or seats of powers as distributed by legislature and administrative pillars of democracy? Or is it representation of people. If it is representation of people then how can it be so preachy. I think the bigger challenge and one of the important learning not only from the events in India but in general from around the globe is that government and its attitude should evolve because people are evolving, their interaction is evolving, the rate of interaction among people is evolving, so if government has to truly represent its people then it should evolve accordingly. The nature of government requires a post of its own and I may soon come up with one.

Gandhi

Issue: Relevance of Gandhi?

My view: Oh! Dear Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. People will love you, they will hate you but they will never be able to ignore you, which to means that you were change maker. Gandhi made more than few principles of peaceful coexistence more digestible than they are presented in tomes.

Was this movement Gandhian in its truest sense…. No.

Was it needed? No.

Then why was Gandhi’s name used? Well he is brand, that too under creative commons.

Lets stop cribbing about purist interpretation of Gandhi because he is not a Shakespearian play. Since time arent same, since situation isnt same, therefore usage will not be same. Ideas are not absolute, only 0 is absolute. Life of Gandhi is more like a tool kit now and we need to accept this as a modern fact. People will use it like that nonetheless no matter how one may crib about it.

Me

Issue: What am I doing in all this?

My view: Ahh! well I am developing my understanding of human life and their desire to bring upon change and their ability to cling on to the status quo, because this I think is essence of developing a successful social intervention.

India / Corruption / My Stand

What do you have to say about this? asked my friend and I was like, thinking, ‘i know you want special comments from me, but I have none…’ but still I replied that I am against corruption but not with the Lokpal movement. Luckily my friend is not a fanatic supporter and he listened me and also appreciated my concerns, like a friend, packed with few jibes, few taunts, few cuss words and pack of laughter.

I always like to point out and more importantly think that India being as diverse as continental europe (or more so) and theoretically as democratic (or more than) as anywhere in the world is yet at its nascent stage of evolution and things are tough to manage out there. This post aint going to be long so bear with my 2 pennies.

On corruption -

Corruption is a serious issue that needs serious treatment

Corruption is outcome not problem in itself, problem is somewhere else

It is not us vs. them. It is us vs. us, you vs. you, I vs. I.

On Lokpal bill -

Confusion, there would be too many organizations doing similar kind of job

Dont force it in this short time. Delay of 40 years does not mean that it needs to pass in 4 months now.

On current movement (just go to any indian news site) -

This is not Gandhian as it does not address people at large, it only addresses polity by putting them on firing line (well they deserve it to), this makes this whole movement parochial.

Peaceful. I like it, and this is again an example of what can be done peacefully.

Arm twisting. Its putting government in a corner, and government like a cat in fear retorts like a cat in fear, without grace

Bad but only option

It doesnt address common man, puts them as victims when they are not, they are part of game as much as government is. Freedom struggle and specially the Gandhian part of it addressed common man more than it addressed British government

On Anna Hazare and team -

Dont talk about economics

Poor planning, sometimes thoughtless

Get into talks, be intelligent please

Thanks for being apolitical (proof being the timing of this campaign, if this campaign fizzles out in 3-4 months then the overall impact on government when election comes will be lower, campaign closer to election would have lead to extreme knee jerks from government)

On people -

Address yourself, dont address government

Stop promoting corruption the we have been doing for quite some time, be courageous.

On myself -

I am sitting in US and yearning to come back to India and see all this first hand and maybe take part in it if someone decides to reduce the burden of loan from me.

I will keep on posting on corruption, India and myself

On India -

This is again that one off moment in history of India, where if we do things successfully we will become role model for countries far and beyond. God bless its people, God bless India.

 

I have kept post concise and in case you feel that I need to explain my stand on any of the point, then just post your comments down below

India – A dog nation

Read the following passage taken from a subsection of some section of a rule (2001) which is part of Prevention of Cruelty against Animals Act in India.

Euthanasia of Street Dogs : Incurably ill and mortally wounded dogs as diagnosed by a qualified veterinarian appointed by the committee shall be euthanised during specified hours in a humane manner by administering sodium pentathol for adult dogs and Thiopental Introperitoneal for puppies by a qualified veterinarian or euthanised in any other humane manner approved by Animal Welfare Board of India. No dog shall be euthanised in the presence of another dog. The person responsible for euthanising shall make sure that the animal is dead, before disposal.

Just to put it in perspective, there is no such rule for cats in India. As a part of global statistics there are more cats in world than dogs (specially as pets). This definitely puts (legally) that India is a dog nation. So if India were a job candidate and you wished to ask ‘What kind person you are, a dog type or a cat type?’ well I just told you.

Die Facebook Die

Like an Indian saint or a buddhist monk, I believe in cyclical nature of birth and death. Now, empirically when it comes to brands, products and people, then their trend line do see a dip. Why? Well because people change and brands, products or people do not change that often. As they grow in size and proportions, they lose their flexibility and also their ability to change frequently. They start missing cycles of public likes and dislikes and they eventually develop a lag with loads of unmet likes or dislikes. This phenomenon is easily observed in internet space and in movie industry where frequency of new arrivals is high. Said all this, death of facebook as we see it is inevitable.
Portalization is good, like it was with Yahoo, but then after certain amount of time things start becoming messy. Unless there is some drastic improvement in aggregation and segregation of information and connections, almost as disruptive as Google did when it came, I doubt that the facebook user base will keep on rising. Sooner or later it will hit a plateau.
Currently information is displayed in time line, but not all the information reaches you, because portal has to do its job as segregator. For industry to improve, and social networking (which I dont think will die) to reach a new high, dynamic segregation will have to be introduced. Currently both Google and Facebook (other players are too small to discuss) are trying to know ‘what’ are your preferences, whereas for system to be truly dynamic, they will have to ask ‘why’ do you have such preferences. It is definitely easier said than done. But this is an important distinction to make to move away from portalization of information to dynamic delivery of information.
People who used to frequent their facebook account are suffering from fatigue, thanks to overuse and increased information. It would be really interesting to know the reasons behind the fatigue in more details. Why I think that knowing this is important because, online networking is the future, and will have to play an important role in governance. But for a public system to run properly and for long time, and to work in the way it is meant to (i.e., user uses the system rather than an agency representing group of users), the fatigue has to be low and interest should include things beyond needs.
Facebook in its current form will have to die, sooner rather than later, so that a more dynamic system can take its place, because I am one person who will be very excited to apply social networking in governance and reducing information asymmetry.

Case of missing fruit vending machine…

I dont hate carbonated drinks.
I dont prefer carbonated drinks.
I find vending machine after vending machine after another vending machine filled with carbonated drinks in busy SoMa and I wonder, can a presidential candidate pitch for healthy food and win election. I do have the answer, and answer is ‘no’ at least for 2012.
But I am not one who will sit twiddling my thumbs and writing blog post on why immigration norms must be relaxed for me to be elected as president, rather I will prefer providing a solution.
Intelligent Pricing Fruit Vending Machine or in short IP-FVM (BAD NAME)
Lets say, we put different kind of fruits, when I am talking about fruits, I am talking about whole fruits, not cut fruits in plastic boxes. Based on their nutrient values, time of the day, and their quantity in vending machine will decide the price of fruits. Yeah, this idea is nascent, but then all we have to do is put fruits in front of carbonated drinks or snacks/chips/and crazy stuff. Pricing should be lucrative and clear line of incentive should be established.
I wont comment much on pricing algorithm, because that will need great deal of thought, but as a concept I firmly feel that we can have more vending machine with a pricing model making fruits a viable option and substitute to snacks.

Antonym of corruption

Few days ago, I posted a facebook message seeking an antonym for corruption. I got some intelligent responses and I consider all of them were valid in some way or the other. But none of the response satisfied me. Now the reason I probably didnt get what I wanted was because of the way I framed my question. I asked for the antonym without telling where I wanted to use that antonym. Though I thought about this before posting the question, but decided against it as I assumed that by letting people know the context may provide a biased answer.
So why did I asked that question?
The underlining thought process behind the questions is definitely the current pan-Indian cry for anti-corruption Ombudsman bill, but precisely it was because of a Facebook group that is named ‘India Against Corruption.’ For many there should not be any problem with this group, as it rationally conveys what it stands for. But to me, it is making a fundamental flaw by creating a negative feedback mechanism, which is bound to be not-so-successful. Therefore came the urge to replace the name with something like – India for ‘antonym of corruption.’
Corruption is one word that is currently ringing among the masses and therefore its usage makes more sense in any campaign. If we are looking for any antonym then it should be as crisp and clear as corruption is in communicating the message. Before I suggest option, I will like to provide some examples from history of India, i.e., some popular slogans. Inquilab Jindabad (Long live revolution), Angrezo Bharat Chodho (Britishers Leave India), Vande Matram (Victory for the Motherland) and my favorite ‘Go Back Simon.’ All these slogans are example of positive statements thus creating positive feedback and vibe among listeners. Ad-world is filled with similar examples. Positive statements will work better because they explicitly tell what they want, rather than what they dont want which in turn lot many things that could be accepted. Without any statistical proof it can be too much to say that positive statements make into better slogans or ad-phrases but nonetheless, I wont shy from appreciating this thought.
So what is my suggestion?
I am not a master in copywriting and I reckon that coming up with a decent statement that can gain mass momentum in short time require some collective thinking. In absence of an answer to this legit question, my views no matter how legit they may be can be waved off. So my suggestion is, ‘Indians for Honor.’ Yeah this is not an antonym and yes this may require some explanation, but this will definitely generate positive feedback. Here you are clearly mentioning what you want and thereby making it a good alternative.
There can be many sociological and psychological explanations for what I wrote, both in favor and against and since I havent mentioned them, this only means that I am not aware of them. It would be great if reader of this post can point any research either for or against my point of view and feel free to post it after clicking on ? on top right corner.

Whale Fail

To be honest, as proud as I am on my knowledge of global geography, Yemen proved to be one nation I knew nothing of. I knew it existed, but didnt know the reasons. Recent upheaval in Yemen is like a slap on my face and all I can do is to take it with all the grace that is left in me. This post is not particularly about Yemen, but will deal with recent developments in Northern Africa and Middle East.
As a student of public policy and affairs, the current years are the best one can expect and are unrivaled when compared to any other field of study. Coming back to the crisis in North Africa – Middle East (MENA), it is very easy to designate ‘desire for democracy’ as it’s source. Easy things often raise suspicion to me, and so they do in this case. Right now I wonder if this is epic ‘whale fail’ moment for democracy in MENA region. Reasons for using social network nomenclature should be obvious to the readers.
This time around not many people named the current phenomenon as 4th wave of democracy, after seeing reduction in democratic countries in last decade of 20th century (eg: Pakistan). This time around, starting from failed revolution in Iran, a successful one in Tunisia (comparatively small nation), borderline Egypt to ‘Only God Knows’ Libya, suffering Syria and chaotic Yemen. All in one region, displaying some snowballing in terms of revolutionary impact. But essentially devoid of global support for democracy or can just be termed as mistimed attempt. All in all ‘whale fail’.
Reason, I am so pessimistic is that none of these countries have economy to support their revolution, which many countries in South America,Europe and Eastern Europe had during previous wave of democracy in 1970s and 80s. This time around, the strategic importance of above mentioned countries are almost same for all the developed world. This time around, there is no common antagonist like communism. Autocrats, this time around enjoyed their statuses in good books of western democracies, and western democracies are enjoying their worst economic crisis in recent years. All in all a bad time for revolutionaries (licit or illicit) to bring upon a change.
Though, it must be mentioned that situation was dire and society was waiting for its Eyjafallajokull moment. It is very important that one of these countries convert into stable democracy in coming two or three years for inspiration and stability in this region. I will leave this post inconclusively by saying that there were enough indicators for raising concerns. Global society could have been well prepared if not intervene in all these years.

Gross Democracy

Democracy is gross. It is chaotic. But it is effective.
Democracy is also brave. Brave in sense that people are ready to change, politicians know that there can be change. Change is used in a very obtuse way over here but nonetheless it tries to encompass all that comes under change. Since change is neutral word, I will stick with it, though it being obtuse and let reader or co-thinkers think about it.
One thing that underlines democracy and is almost a cliche is freedom. I dont think that there is any need to stress on the importance of freedom. What rather is important is that is the freedom that we are talking about should be absolute or be relative (to society – pre-informed by history, connected with present, trying to define future). Another question that can be asked after buying difference between absolute and relative freedom is what should be percentage of each in a democracy.
Every society tends to ask different questions. Questions that are being currently asked by India are different than questions that are being asked by USA, and similarly Greece is asking totally different questions (all being democracies). USA is talking about gay rights after momentous passing of Gay Marriage Act in the state of New York. India is talking about corruption and methods to check it. Greece is talking about country’s dwindling coiffures (as if there is anything in there). In USA its primarily question of relative freedom. In India corruption hampers absolute freedom. In Greece its a gross mix of both.
Case in point being that the vary chaotic nature of democracy and freedom that adds to this chaos helps democracy thrive. And there lies the learning for young democracies i.e., to become brave and embrace the chaos. What will therefore become important is that chaos is informative chaos rather than pure chaos. For those who know basic science will be able to appreciate the analogy of coagulation in a fluid having Brownian motion. Lesson and single take away from this post for any democracy will be to avail conduits of information for individuals or groups so that they can produce informed chaos.
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Thanks to my sister for egging me to start a new blog where I can display my thinking hats.