South Asia Summit - SAARC + IFAD Scheme + Global Warming & Himalayas + Welfare Schemes

April 2, 2007

In This NEWS Bulletin ********************************** 1. SAARC should address development issues on priority 2. IFAD farm projects likely to be rolled out 3. Global warming likely to bring hunger, melt Himalayas: report 4. Welfare and employment schemes not enough to shape dreams : Planning Commission ----- SAARC should address development issues on priority http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=159771 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online: Monday, April 02, 2007 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, APR 1 : The 14th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is slated to be held here in Delhi from April 3. This would be preceeded by the 28th session of SAARC council of ministers. Lots of preparations have been made to ensure the success of this event. The 29th session of the programming committee was held in Delhi on March 30 and the deliberations of the 33rd session of the standing committee concluded on April 1. More official events are scheduled ahead - 25th meeting of the SAVE Committee in Nepal on April 17 and the 4th meeting of the SAARC health ministers in Bhutan on April 25. SAARC was set on December 8, 1985 by the governments of 7

countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan, whose membership of SAARC was approved in the last summit in Dhaka in November 2005, is scheduled to formally join this South Asian body from this summit. South Asia, which is the home of 1.5 billion people, has a large section of the world's poor. The region is characterized largely by its agrarian economy and unequal levels of development, with relatively faster growth witnessed in countries like India and Pakistan. SAARC has scores of agenda for addressing issues of development and cooperation in the region, but the progress in this direction has been tardy. This is particularly due to political rivalry between two major powers - India and Pakistan - and distrust created by the interference and dominance by the big powers in the region. However, the SAARC heads of state in the Islamabad summit of January 2004

realized the situation and agreed to work on poverty alleviation in the region based on 22 identified SAARC Development Goals (SDGs). But not much tangible progress has been made in this direction and SAARC still remains as a mere consultative body. Rather a new shift with emphasis on free trade in the region has overtaken the original agenda of SAARC. The South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA), launched in January 1, 2006, has been practically a non-starter for various obvious inherent reasons. One important result of the SAARC is that it has caused the people of the region to come together and deliberate on vital issues facing the region. The 3-day conclave of NGOs and peoples' organization under the banner of Peoples’ SAARC which concluded in Kathmandu on March 25 released 30-point proposals at a public rally. The Peoples’ SAARC called for immediately addressing development issues

rather than seeking an escape route to so-called free trade. It said that the WTO regime has eroded sovereignty of the people, destroyed natural resources, agriculture and livelihood. Organic and sustainable traditional agriculture is imperative for food security. It called for conservation of biodiversity, land, water, marine ecosystems and for resisting the onslaught of the intellectual property rights regime. Peoples’ SAARC suggested right to food and other basic needs like health and education. It called for a visa-free South Asia to ensure free movement of the people, creation of a peaceful demilitarized region free from conflict and the need for removing discriminations based on gender, caste, religion, language and ethnic considerations. It called for a ban on genetically modified crops to save the region from genetic contamination and conservation and preservation of the Himalayan ecology. The official SAARC has, however, not viewed the peoples’ initiative in a good taste. Bhutan at the instance of some member countries has complained to the SAARC Secratariat the use of the word SAARC in the Peoples’ SAARC. Following the Kathmandu peoples’ conclave there were two separate events in Delhi - one organized by the Centre for Development and Human Rights, Institute for Human Development, ActionAid, Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad and NGOs from Pakistan and Nepal. This conclave called for creation of a South Asian Parliament, Human Rights Court, transboundary conflict mechanism, regional media commission and a South Asian Constitution. It suggested a blueprint for a common customs, economic and monetary union. Another peoples’ conclave was organized by SANSAD, South Asia Partnership International and Global Coalition Against Poverty. Thus the message from the people is

clear—issues like food and energy security and other development issues should be addressed on priority, rather than focus on trade.- IFAD farm projects likely to be rolled out http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=159772 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online: Monday, April 02, 2007 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, APR 1 : Three projects of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) may be implemented in the country, this year, if the government sets up necessary infrastructure for its implementation. Tejaswini rural women’s empowerment project for select districts in Maharashtra and

Madhya Pradesh, approved by IFAD in December 2005, is in pipeline for implementation. IFAD has assured to extend a loan of $ 39.5 million for implementation of this project which involves a total investment of $ 208.7 million. This 8-year project intends to strengthen women’s self-help groups (SHGs) by fostering links with banks and micro-finance institutions, improving livelihood opportunities by developing skills and fostering market linkages. IFAD has also approved a similar project in December 2006 for empowering women in the mid-Gangetic plains (4 districts in UP and 2 districts in Bihar). This 8-year project entails an investment of $ 52.5 million against which IFAD has agreed to extend a loan of $ 30.2 million. Another project for developing post-Tsunami sustainable livelihood opportunities in coastal Tamil Nadu was approved by IFAD in April 2005. This project entails an investment of $ 68.8 million and

IFAD has agreed to extend a loan of $ 30 million. “We have been assisting projects in India since 1979 and have so far approved loans amounting to $ 564.4 million for 21 projects. Every year we approve to support one new project in India by extending loan within the range of $ 35 million. Our loan component may be small compared to the total investment but we arrange co-financing from different global agencies for the project,” IFAD president, Lennart Bage told FE. IFAD also provides a small amount of grant for projects. Last year it gave a grant of $ one million to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and this year it has supported Uttaranchal Grameen Vikas Samiti with a grant of $ one million for innovation for reducing drudgery in women. Bage further said that agreements for the projects are signed with the Union government which decides whether it should be

implemented as a central government project or as a state government project by creating necessary infrastructure. Grants are mainly for research and innovations. Thirteen IFAD-assisted projects have been completed so far which includes livelihood security project for earthquake-affected rural households in Gujarat, Mewat area development project, two Andhra Pradesh participatory tribal development projects, rural women’s empowerment in select districts in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Maharahstra rural credit project, Orissa tribal development project, Uttar Pradesh public tubewell project, Madhya Pradesh medium irrigation project, Sunderban development project, Rajasthan command area development project and Bhima command area development project. “Our evaluations show that these completed projects benefited thousands of rural households. Basing on our past experiences

we are eager to assist more projects in India,” said Bage. There still 5 on-going projects in different parts of the country like livelihood improvement projects in the Himalayas and in the Orissa tribal belt, national micro-finance support programme being implemented by SIDBI, Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh tribal development programme and northeastern region community resource management project for upland areas. Bage outlined IFAD’s India strategy for 2005-09 which includes providing access to micro-finance which he says has been very effective in women’s self-help groups. Other aspects of IFAD’s policy are to improve livelihood opportunities for communities in semi-arid tropicial regions with better water management and new farm technologies, introducing development activities in the densely populated and impoverished mid-gangetic plains, improving productivity for coastal fishing communities through sustainable

means, developing partnerships with NGOs and corporate sector to re-inforce community-based approach and promoting policy change through project activities. Bage said with Indian economy growing at a fast rate, the farmers need to link up with the markets for ensuring better living conditions. He also suggested that farmers should come together a set up processing units so that they can directly stand to benefit from the sales of their value-added products. Micro-finance institutions should attract deposits from the local people to encourage savings and their own viability.------ Global warming likely to bring hunger, melt Himalayas: report http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=159795 Posted online: Monday, April 02, 2007 at 0000 hours IST OSLO, APR 1 : Global warming could cause more hunger in Africa and melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, according to a draft UN report due on Friday which also warns that the poorest nations are likely to suffer most. The UN climate panel, giving the most authoritative study on the regional impact of climate change since 2001, also predicts more heatwaves in countries such as the United States, and damages corals including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. “We are talking about a potentially catastrophic set of developments,” Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Environment Programme, said of the likely impact of rising temperatures, widely blamed on greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. “Even a half metre (20 inch) rise in

sea levels would have catastrophic effects in Bangladesh and some island states,” he told Reuters. Scientists and officials from more than 100 countries meet in Belgium from Monday to review and approve a 21-page summary for policymakers in the report amid disputes on some findings, including on how far rising temperatures may contribute to spreading disease. Among the gloomy forecasts, the report predicts that glaciers in the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range, will melt away, affecting hundreds of millions of people. “If current warming rates are maintained, Himalayan glaciers could decay at very rapid rates, shrinking from the present 500,000 square kilometres to 100,000 square kilometres by 2030s,” according to a draft technical summary. And disruptions are likely to be felt hardest in poor nations, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where millions more could go hungry because of damage to farming and water supplies. Still, some nations will see some benefits, according to the draft by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which draws on work by 2,500 scientists. Global farm potential might increase with a rise of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) in temperatures, before sinking worldwide, it says. Crops might grow better in nations far from the tropics such as Canada, Russia, New Zealand or Scandinavia. But warming will hit rich nations in other ways. —Reuters ---- ‘Schemes not enough to shape dreams’ : Planning Commission http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=159325 ASHOK B

SHARMAPosted online : Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, MAR 28: The Planning Commission is of the view that no single scheme of the government alone can liberate people from the low-end poverty. There is a need for re-designing the welfare schemes and process of the implementation and arriving at convergence for better delivery. Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Bundelkhand Uttar Pradesh need adequate focus. “Do not expect that all the basic needs of the poor would be covered under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Social mobilisation and convergence of people’s rights can considerably help in the process. Our experience shows that self-help groups (SHGs) have led to empowerment of the people, particularly the women,” said Planning Commission member BN Yughandar. Speaking at the occasion of the release of the

book—Capturing Imagination of Stakeholders—authored by KS Gopal, Yughandar said there has been cruel dilution of employment assurance schemes in which the concept has shifted from “demand-driven” to that of allocation and from “worker-driven” to that of “patronage-driven”. Hence schemes should be re-designed and their implementation finetuned. Yugandhar that state and central governments have done nothing to ensure the fundamental right to elementary education for children (within age group 6-14 years) under the Article 21 A of the Constitution. Nothing has been done to ensure nutrition, health and protection of children within the age group 0-6 years. The government’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) has failed to provide child care, he said and urged the central and state governments to bring in appropriate legislations to address the problems. Commenting on Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, he said : “It is a fraud on Article 21 A. It does not

speak of elementary education. The finance minister, P Chidambaran should allocate Rs 14 lakh for wide coverage of ICDS as per the decision of the Supreme Court. The finance minister has allocated only Rs one lakh for ICDS in the current Budget.” Releasing book noted economist, Jean Dreze said “though on the whole the results of NREGA scheme has not been encouraging, it has worked well in certain places like Dungapur in Rajasthan, Parbani in Maharashtra, North Cachar hills in Assam and in parts of Maharashtra.” Former government official, KR Venugopal urged the Plan panel to construct living wage concept and timely payment of wages. The CPM leader Sitaram Yechury urged that NREGA scheme should be implemented as a continuing public works programme. --------------------------------

Here’s a new way to find what you're looking for - Answers

April 3, 2007

- The scare stories about global warming has other side of the story

also. Why only himalayas are melting and not antartica or iceland? I

they melt it is good for the plains.

Introduction

Most people in the Third World lack the basic amenities of modern

life that we in the West take for granted: clean drinking water and a

reliable supply of electricity. And Third World governments are eager

to industrialise in order to catch up with the West. But

environmentalists say that if they do this, the future of the planet

will be imperilled.

" If everybody in the world consumed like the British, the Europeans

or the Americans, " says Tony Juniper, Campaigns Manager for Friends

of the Earth, " then we'd need about eight planets to meet people's

needs. And it would still be unsustainable. "

In the name of preserving nature, environmentalists have challenged

the old ideas of progress and economic development. But in doing so,

they have been accused of needlessly consigning millions of people in

the Third World to poverty and early death.

The Shadow Of The Enlightenment

The attempt by man to understand and to conquer nature was at the

heart of Enlightenment thinking. A scientific, rational understanding

of the physical world was a means of changing nature to serve our

needs and desires better. But these Enlightenment ideas of

rationalism and progress have been called into question by

environmentalists. They have led, they say, to the monstrous creation

of modern industrial life, with its factories and cars, chemicals and

fumes.

" People seem to have accepted the view that they should feel guilty

about man's impositions on nature, about progress and technological

improvement, " says Steve Hayward of the Pacific Research

Centre. " Even science today is somewhat suspect in the public mind. I

think this is a result of the pervasive environmental philosophy that

there's a distinction between man and nature, and that what man does

is bad and what nature does is good. "

Gregg Easterbrook, author of A Moment on the Earth, a critique of

environmental thinking, agrees. He argues that the idealisation of

nature common in the environmental movement is a modern luxury that

has, paradoxically, been made possible by development. " Most of our

ancestors spent their lives struggling to grow food, to protect

themselves against disease and the elements, " he says. " They found

nature did not know best. Nature was a hostile force for them. "

The Power Of The Greens

Environmentalists often depict themselves as folk heroes and rebels,

fighting a mighty anti-Green establishment. But the Green movement

itself has become a powerful political force, which dominates much of

Western thinking. " It's said they control the Clinton

administration, " says Senator Larry Craig.

Green Popularity

The environmentalist movement today is rich and powerful: the top 12

Green organisations in the US alone have an annual turnover of just

under a billion dollars. In the UK, four million people are members

of Green organisations — that's more than are members of all the

other political organisations put together.

Suspending Disaster: The Myth Of Global Warming

Green groups such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the World

Wildlife Fund and Earth First are using their influence to persuade

people that an environmental disaster of historic proportions is just

around the corner. As Barbara Mass of the Pan African Conservation

Group succinctly puts it: " I think we're going to drown in our own

muck. "

Environmentalist thinking is now widely accepted in the West.

However, many scientists argue that what the Greens say about global

warming and pollution is wrong. Professor Wilfred Beckerman, a former

member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, was

himself an enthusiastic environmentalist until he started examining

the facts. He told Against Nature: " Within a few months of looking at

the statistical data, I realised that most of my concerns about the

environment were based on false information and scare stories. "

According to Piers Corbyn, Director of Weather Action, many

scientists do not accept the idea that pollution is causing global

warming. Environmentalists claim that world temperatures have risen

one degree Fahrenheit in the past century, but Corbyn points out that

the period they take as their starting point — around 1880 — was

colder than average. What's more, the timing of temperature changes

does not appear to support the theory of global warming. Most of the

rise came before 1940 —before human-caused emissions of 'greenhouse'

gases became significant.

According to the Greens, during the post-war boom global warming

should have pushed temperatures up. But the opposite happened. " As a

matter of the fact, the decrease in temperature, which was very

noticeable in the 60s and 70s, led many people to fear that we would

be going into another ice age, " remembers Fred Singer, former Chief

Scientist with the US Weather Program.

Even in recent times, the temperature has not behaved as it should

according to global warming theory. Over the last eight years,

temperature in the southern hemisphere has actually been falling.

Moreover, says Piers Corbyn, " When proper satellite measurements are

done of world temperatures, they do not show any increase whatsoever

over the last 20 years. "

But Greens refuse to accept they have could have been proved wrong.

Now they say global warming can involve temperature going both up and

down.

" Global warming is above all global climatic destabilisation, " says

Edward Goldsmith, editor of the Ecologist, " with extremes of cold and

heat when you don't expect it. You can't predict climate any more.

You get terrible droughts in certain cases; sometimes you get

downpours. In Egypt, I think, they had a rainfall for the first time

in history — they suddenly had an incredible downpour. Water pouring

down in places where it's never rained before. And then you get

droughts in another area. So it's going to be extremely

unpredictable. "

Scientists also point out that nature produces far more greenhouse

gases than we do. For example, when the Mount Pinatubo volcano

erupted, within just a few hours it had thrown into the atmosphere 30

million tonnes of sulphur dioxide— almost twice as much as all the

factories, power plants and cars in the United States do in a whole

year. Oceans emit 90 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, the main

greenhouse gas, every year. Decaying plants throw up another 90

billion tonnes, compared to just six billion tonnes a year from

humans.

What's more, 100 million years ago, there was six times as much

carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as there is now, yet the temperature

then was marginally cooler than it is today. Many scientists have

concluded that carbon dioxide doesn't even affect climate.

Although many environmentalists have been forced to accept much of

the scientific evidence against global warming, they still argue that

it is better to be safe than sorry. So they continue to use global

warming as a reason to oppose industrialisation and economic growth.

( Further Reading )

Clearing The Air: Growth, Technology And Pollution

The industrial First World represents the Greens' worst nightmare.

More economic growth, they say, can only mean more pollution and

environmental degradation. But others argue that, on the contrary,

over the past half century the environment in the advanced industrial

world has actually improved.

" Air pollution has been falling in modern industrialised countries

for the last 40 years, " says Steve Hayward. " And it's been falling

precisely because of economic growth and improvements in technology.

Even in Los Angeles, which has the worst smog in the United States,

air pollution levels have fallen by about half in the last 25 years —

and that's at a time when the area's population has doubled and its

economy has tripled. "

In the United States as a whole, over the past quarter of a century,

the population has increased by 30 per cent, while the number of cars

and the size of the economy has nearly doubled. And yet, during the

same period, emissions of the six main air pollutants have decreased

by 30 per cent. In addition, says Gregg Easterbrook, Americans have

stopped pumping waste water from cities into lakes and streams,

stopped dumping untreated sewage in the sea and toxic wastes on land,

and eliminated the use of CFCs.

" Lake Erie 30 years ago was virtually dead, " adds Steve

Hayward. " Today you can fish in it, you can swim in it. The

statistics on the amount of pollution in the food chain have shown

dramatic improvement in the last 30 years. "

Western cities such as London are cleaner today than they have been

for centuries. In the mid 1900s, before cars were even invented, air

and water quality was so poor that many thousands of people died each

year from typhus and Tuberculosis.

Supporters of economic development don't just argue that the

industrial world is getting cleaner, they also say that industrial

progress has transformed our lives for the better. " We live longer,

we are healthier, we are better educated, we know ourselves better

and we are much more able to take control over our destiny than any

other time in the past, " says Dr Frank Furedi, author of the book

Population and Development. " Yes, industrialisation is often

exploitative, often leads to the uprooting of people. But at the same

time it adds to human civilisation and means progress for all. " TOP

The pre-industrial fantasy

But the Greens insist we must turn our backs on these 'outdated'

ideas of economic and industrial progress. If we are to avoid an

environmental catastrophe, they say, we must go back to living in

harmony with nature. And to do this we must learn from pre-industrial

tribal societies in the Third World.

40 per cent of the world's population still uses either wood or dung

for fuel instead of electricity. But the indoor pollution from this

is deadly, especially for women and children who spend most time in

the home. According to the World Health Organisation, 5 million

infants die every year in the Third World from respiratory diseases

caused by breathing indoor smoke and rural smog.

Basic pollution of this kind kills far more people than all First

World environmental problems combined. One and a half billion people

in the Third World suffer air quality that is recognised by the World

Health Organisation as 'dangerously unsafe', a level of pollution

almost unknown in the Western world.

Dr Anil Patel is responsible for the health care of more than 200

villages in Gujarat, in north-west India. The vast majority of

medical problems he encounters have been brought on by environmental

causes. But the environmental problems he is concerned with come not

from modern industry but rather from the lack of modern luxuries such

as electricity and clean water.

" Clean water is completely out of question, " says Dr Patel. " The

water they get is untreated. Most of the time it is contaminated with

human faeces and cattle faeces, and the ultimate result is that there

are all sorts of water-borne diseases. "

Water-borne diseases in the Third World have not been caused by

modern industry. On the contrary, the only way to get rid of them is

with modern water-cleaning facilities— the kind we take for granted

in the West.

In the Third World, 250 million people are infected each year by

water-borne diseases, mostly dysentery. Patients suffer severe

stomach cramps, chronic diarrhoea and various other disorders such as

skin disease, and each year 10 million of them die. The World Health

Organisation estimated that in 1996 3.9 million children under the

age of five died from diseases communicated by impure drinking water,

mostly diarrhoea.

" Death from diarrhoea has been unheard of in the Western world in the

past two generations, " says Gregg Easterbrook. " That 3.9 million

children dead in the developing world last year exceeds all deaths at

all ages from all causes in the United States and the European Union

combined. And yet we endlessly speak of water purity in the West as

an issue. "

The idealisation by Greens of life in the Third World is resented by

many people there. " I see in this a serious problem of hypocrisy, and

if not hypocrisy, a gross insensitivity, " says Dr Patel.

According to the World Health Organisation, life expectancy for

people in the Third World is 20 years less than our own. In the

poorest areas they live 35 years less.

Damning development: the Greens and the Narmada project

People in India are struggling to emerge from the backward condition

in which they find themselves. The Indian government is trying to

build a hydroelectric dam on the Narmada river to provide clean water

and the electricity which is vital for industrial progress. It will

submerge 350 square kilometres of land and provide enough electricity

to supply almost 5,000 villages in north-west India. It will provide

clean drinking water for 30 million people and it will be an enormous

boost for economic and industrial growth.

Not everyone is keen, however. Lisa Jordan is a director of The Bank

Information Centre, an environmentalist group which tries to stop the

World Bank from funding large-scale development projects in the Third

World that are deemed environmentally unfriendly. She is keen to

preserve traditional tribal life. " This is genocide of tribal people

who have lived in the forests that are being drowned for centuries.

They're one of the oldest living populations on this earth that have

been documented. These are the cultures that pay because of a large

dam being developed to pipe water to a larger agriculture system, to

provide electricity, to provide the dream. "

But locals are not so keen on preserving things as they are. " Instead

of saying that we want this particular life to be encased like a

museum, we must say that we want progress, " one woman told Against

Nature. " We want development of a particular kind and therefore we

need larger dams. "

Environmentalists are worried about the damage the dam will do to

wildlife in the area, but supporters of the dam are equally appalled

that the environmentalists are so concerned with preserving bio-

diversity at the expense of human development.

" What exactly is the value of all this bio-diversity? " asks Wilfred

Beckerman. " This idea that you have to preserve every scrap of

nature, even though destroying it might confer enormous benefits on

people whose standard of living and quality of life is so low as to

be unimaginable for the vast majority of people in the Western world,

I think is scandalous. I just get very angry when I hear this sort of

thing. Whose side are these people on? "

As it happens, no pristine forest will be destroyed by the Narmada

dam and the only endangered species to be affected is a colony of

sloth bears, for which the Indian government is building a wildlife

reserve nearby.

But the Greens say they aren't just concerned about the natural

destruction of the dam. They point to the number of tribal people who

will have to be resettled elsewhere. Brent Blackwelder, chairman of

Friends of the Earth US, says more than 100,000 people will be

uprooted from their homes. But according to the Indian government and

the World Bank, the project will displace 70,000 people, who will be

given farmland elsewhere with the benefits of roads, schools,

electricity and clean water.

Critics of the Greens say environmentalists themselves are prepared

to push tribal people off their land to make way for wild animals.

Nature reserves founded in India by the World Wildlife Fund have

displaced at least 25,000 people simply to make way for tigers.

Five years ago Dr Patel welcomed environmentalists' concern about

tribal people and was even persuaded by the Greens to campaign

against the dam. Today, he believes the real concern of

environmentalists is to block progress. He is now a fervent supporter

of the dam and accuses the Greens of seeming to care more about

animals than people.

Many environmentalists argue that if people in the Third World want

electricity, they should use solar power or wind power. But not only

would solar and wind power fail to meet the need for clean water,

environmentalists themselves admit that they would be fantastically

more expensive. To produce the same amount of electricity as the

Narmada dam using wind power would cost at least six times as much.

Using solar power would cost more than seven times as much— and even

then it is doubtful that it could be done. The Narmada dam will

produce 400 times as much electricity as the largest solar panel

installation currently in existence.

Local Indians such as Dr Patel dismiss all the Green arguments

against the dam, saying that the dam will change things, but there

can be no development without change.

Green pressure on the World Bank has led to funding for the Narmada

dam being withdrawn. Consequently, work on the dam, which began in

the early 60s, has all but stopped. Most environmentalists believe it

will never be completed.

In addition, leading environmentalists have estimated that they have

effectively blocked around 300 hydro-electric dams in the Third

World, denying many millions of poor people the benefits of

electricity and clean water.

Tom Blinkhorn of the World Bank thinks many people in the West who

contribute to environmental organisations don't realise the

implications. " What they don't see is the tremendous poverty that

exists in other parts of the world, and that if we are going to help

people address that poverty, we need to do it through large dams and

activities that many organisations in the Green movement are opposed

to. I think a lot of the constituency for Green groups simply do not

know about the problems in the Third World. "

Conservation and conservatism

There have been many attempts in the past to block social and

economic progress. But few have been as successful as today's

environmentalist movement, which uses the threat of a global

ecological crisis to override the wishes of those people who most

need the benefits of progress. And it's not only dams that the Greens

campaign against.

" Western environmentalist sentiment has been successful ...in

blocking a whole range of industrial facilities, " says Gregg

Easterbrook. " Factories, roads, logging— even well-regulated logging—

have been vehemently opposed. "

Steve Hayward argues that it's immoral for rich environmentalists to

impose their ideology on Third World countries, where people are poor

and disease is rampant. " The best thing that could happen to those

countries is to industrialise rapidly ... so they have the resources

not only to be healthier but also to protect their environment. To

stand in the way of that is wrong and dangerous in my mind. " After

all, adds Gregg Easterbrook, we became affluent through

industrialisation and exploiting our resources.

Greens are often portrayed as left-wing radicals, battling against a

backward-looking establishment. But they are in fact part of a long

tradition of conservatism that idealises nature and the past. These

conservative instincts motivated 19th-century figures such as

Nietzsche and Wagner, and movements such as the Romantics, who were

horrified by England's 'dark satanic mills' (as William Blake

described them) and dreamt of returning to a mythical past of

medieval knights and maidens, and even the Boy Scout movement, which

in its origins combined a mystical affinity with nature, Right-wing

nationalism and a hatred of degenerate modern life.

" What we today call 'environmentalism' is ... based on a fear of

change, " says Frank Furedi. " It's based upon a fear of the outcome of

human action. And therefore it's not surprising that when you look at

the more xenophobic right-wing movements in Europe in the 19th

century, including German fascism, it quite often had a very strong

environmentalist dynamic to it. "

Fascism, animal rights and human rights

The most notorious environmentalists in history were the German

Nazis. The Nazis ordered soldiers to plant more trees. They were the

first Europeans to establish nature reserves and order the protection

of hedgerows and other wildlife habitats. And they were horrified at

the idea of hydroelectric dams on the Rhine. Adolf Hitler and other

leading Nazis were vegetarian and they passed numerous laws on animal

rights.

" They had essentially a biological view of society, " Dr Furedi

continues. " They regarded society as an organism to which you were

rooted through blood ties ... and felt much more comfortable with

what they perceived to be natural than what were the products of

human creativity. I think that's one of the reasons why [Hitler] had

this celebration of the animal kingdom, the celebration of wildlife. "

The historian Dr Mark Almond, of Oriel College, Oxford, goes

further. " Goering made ferocious blood curdling speeches saying that

people who were cruel to animals, including scientists who did

research on them, would be put in concentration camps, " he

says. " This was perversely part of the logic which could at the same

time put people into concentration camps, on whom they experimented. "

Frank Furedi agrees. " History shows us is that whenever people begin

to treat animals like human beings, it's only a smell step away from

treating human beings like animals. And that seems to me the logical

outcome of this nostalgic, sentimental approach towards animal

rights. "

A Western agenda

Environmentalists today have been accused of effectively imposing

their views on the Third World, and causing immense suffering in the

process.

" The new focus on environmental issues too often has the consequence

of turning societies into theme parks, " argues Frank Furedi. " They

are very attractive for the voyeuristic Western imagination, but

actually doom people in those societies to a life of poverty. "

" And it seems to me that there is no accountability here. It's not

the people of Africa and Asia or Latin America that have demanded

environmental policies; these are policies that are being pushed by

everybody in the West, from the World Bank to Green organisations.

Who gave them the authority? By what moral right do they dictate the

terms of how these societies can develop and realise their potential

for the future? "

Gregg Easterbrook emphasises the hypocrisy of attitudes in the

West: " It's still possible in affluent circles in the United States

or Europe to see people sitting in an air-conditioned room eating

free-range chicken and sipping Chablis, talking amongst themselves

about how farmers in Africa shouldn't have tractors, because it might

disrupt the soil, or how peasants in India shouldn't be allowed to

have hydroelectric power, because it's not appropriate to their

culture.... What would really be immoral is if we insisted on keeping

material affluence for ourselves and try to deny it to the billions

of others in the world who want and deserve exactly the same thing. "

Our attitude to the Third World, as Frank Furedi puts it, is

that " ... your societies are doomed to be poor-houses for the rest of

the world. It purports to be ever so radical and ever so sensitive,

but what it does is it sets a Western agenda on the rest of the

world. It's as intrusive today as imperialism was in the 19th

century. "

" The problem isn't that we have so much that we're squandering

resources, the real problem is that most people do not have access to

even the most basic needs of everyday life. The real problem is that

they're denied good education and good health. Therefore, the answer

does not lie in going backwards and trying to be anti-technological,

close down factories and not build roads.... Only through the

appliance of science and technology can people's aspirations be

realised even at the most elementary level. "

People today face many difficulties in the First World as well as the

Third: poverty and squalor, ignorance and disease. But the battle

against these evils cannot be won by returning to nature or some

mythical past. Instead, we must go forwards to a better future with

confidence in our ability to understand and change the world.

-- In , Shantu Sharma

<shantu_22003 wrote:

>

> In This NEWS Bulletin

> **********************************

>

> 1. SAARC should address development issues on priority

> 2. IFAD farm projects likely to be rolled out

> 3. Global warming likely to bring hunger, melt Himalayas: report

> 4. Welfare and employment schemes not enough to shape dreams :

Planning Commission

> -----

>

> SAARC should address development issues on priority

>

> http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?

content_id=159771

>

> ASHOK B SHARMA

> Posted online: Monday, April 02, 2007 at 0000 hours IST

>

> NEW DELHI, APR 1 : The 14th summit of the South Asian Association

for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is slated to be held here in Delhi

from April 3. This would be preceeded by the 28th session of SAARC

council of ministers.

>

> Lots of preparations have been made to ensure the success of this

event. The 29th session of the programming committee was held in

Delhi on March 30 and the deliberations of the 33rd session of the

standing committee concluded on April 1. More official events are

scheduled ahead - 25th meeting of the SAVE Committee in Nepal on

April 17 and the 4th meeting of the SAARC health ministers in Bhutan

on April 25.

>

> SAARC was set on December 8, 1985 by the governments of 7

countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan

and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan, whose membership of SAARC was approved in

the last summit in Dhaka in November 2005, is scheduled to formally

join this South Asian body from this summit.

>

> South Asia, which is the home of 1.5 billion people, has a large

section of the world's poor. The region is characterized largely by

its agrarian economy and unequal levels of development, with

relatively faster growth witnessed in countries like India and

Pakistan. SAARC has scores of agenda for addressing issues of

development and cooperation in the region, but the progress in this

direction has been tardy. This is particularly due to political

rivalry between two major powers - India and Pakistan - and distrust

created by the interference and dominance by the big powers in the

region.

>

> However, the SAARC heads of state in the Islamabad summit of

January 2004 realized the situation and agreed to work on poverty

alleviation in the region based on 22 identified SAARC Development

Goals (SDGs). But not much tangible progress has been made in this

direction and SAARC still remains as a mere consultative body. Rather

a new shift with emphasis on free trade in the region has overtaken

the original agenda of SAARC. The South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA),

launched in January 1, 2006, has been practically a non-starter for

various obvious inherent reasons.

>

> One important result of the SAARC is that it has caused the

people of the region to come together and deliberate on vital issues

facing the region.

> The 3-day conclave of NGOs and peoples' organization under the

banner of Peoples' SAARC which concluded in Kathmandu on March 25

released 30-point proposals at a public rally.

>

> The Peoples' SAARC called for immediately addressing development

issues rather than seeking an escape route to so-called free trade.

It said that the WTO regime has eroded sovereignty of the people,

destroyed natural resources, agriculture and livelihood. Organic and

sustainable traditional agriculture is imperative for food security.

It called for conservation of biodiversity, land, water, marine

ecosystems and for resisting the onslaught of the intellectual

property rights regime.

>

> Peoples' SAARC suggested right to food and other basic needs like

health and education. It called for a visa-free South Asia to ensure

free movement of the people, creation of a peaceful demilitarized

region free from conflict and the need for removing discriminations

based on gender, caste, religion, language and ethnic considerations.

It called for a ban on genetically modified crops to save the region

from genetic contamination and conservation and preservation of the

Himalayan ecology.

>

> The official SAARC has, however, not viewed the peoples'

initiative in a good taste. Bhutan at the instance of some member

countries has complained to the SAARC Secratariat the use of the word

SAARC in the Peoples' SAARC.

>

> Following the Kathmandu peoples' conclave there were two separate

events in Delhi - one organized by the Centre for Development and

Human Rights, Institute for Human Development, ActionAid, Bangladesh

Unnayan Parishad and NGOs from Pakistan and Nepal. This conclave

called for creation of a South Asian Parliament, Human Rights Court,

transboundary conflict mechanism, regional media commission and a

South Asian Constitution.

>

> It suggested a blueprint for a common customs, economic and

monetary union. Another peoples' conclave was organized by SANSAD,

South Asia Partnership International and Global Coalition Against

Poverty. Thus the message from the people is clear—issues like food

and energy security and other development issues should be addressed

on priority, rather than focus on trade.

> -

>

> IFAD farm projects likely to be rolled out

>

> http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?

content_id=159772

>

> ASHOK B SHARMA

> Posted online: Monday, April 02, 2007 at 0000 hours IST

>

> NEW DELHI, APR 1 : Three projects of the International Fund for

Agricultural Development (IFAD) may be implemented in the country,

this year, if the government sets up necessary infrastructure for its

implementation.

>

> Tejaswini rural women's empowerment project for select districts

in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, approved by IFAD in December 2005,

is in pipeline for implementation. IFAD has assured to extend a loan

of $ 39.5 million for implementation of this project which involves a

total investment of $ 208.7 million. This 8-year project intends to

strengthen women's self-help groups (SHGs) by fostering links with

banks and micro-finance institutions, improving livelihood

opportunities by developing skills and fostering market linkages.

>

> IFAD has also approved a similar project in December 2006 for

empowering women in the mid-Gangetic plains (4 districts in UP and 2

districts in Bihar). This 8-year project entails an investment of $

52.5 million against which IFAD has agreed to extend a loan of $ 30.2

million.

>

> Another project for developing post-Tsunami sustainable

livelihood opportunities in coastal Tamil Nadu was approved by IFAD

in April 2005. This project entails an investment of $ 68.8 million

and IFAD has agreed to extend a loan of $ 30 million.

>

> " We have been assisting projects in India since 1979 and have so

far approved loans amounting to $ 564.4 million for 21 projects.

Every year we approve to support one new project in India by

extending loan within the range of $ 35 million. Our loan component

may be small compared to the total investment but we arrange co-

financing from different global agencies for the project, " IFAD

president, Lennart Bage told FE.

>

> IFAD also provides a small amount of grant for projects. Last

year it gave a grant of $ one million to the Indian Council of

Agricultural Research (ICAR) and this year it has supported

Uttaranchal Grameen Vikas Samiti with a grant of $ one million for

innovation for reducing drudgery in women.

>

> Bage further said that agreements for the projects are signed

with the Union government which decides whether it should be

implemented as a central government project or as a state government

project by creating necessary infrastructure. Grants are mainly for

research and innovations.

>

> Thirteen IFAD-assisted projects have been completed so far which

includes livelihood security project for earthquake-affected rural

households in Gujarat, Mewat area development project, two Andhra

Pradesh participatory tribal development projects, rural women's

empowerment in select districts in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana,

Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Maharahstra rural credit

project, Orissa tribal development project, Uttar Pradesh public

tubewell project, Madhya Pradesh medium irrigation project, Sunderban

development project, Rajasthan command area development project and

Bhima command area development project.

>

> " Our evaluations show that these completed projects benefited

thousands of rural households. Basing on our past experiences we are

eager to assist more projects in India, " said Bage. There still 5 on-

going projects in different parts of the country like livelihood

improvement projects in the Himalayas and in the Orissa tribal belt,

national micro-finance support programme being implemented by SIDBI,

>

> Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh tribal development programme and

northeastern region community resource management project for upland

areas.

>

> Bage outlined IFAD's India strategy for 2005-09 which includes

providing access to micro-finance which he says has been very

effective in women's self-help groups. Other aspects of IFAD's policy

are to improve livelihood opportunities for communities in semi-arid

tropicial regions with better water management and new farm

technologies, introducing development activities in the densely

populated and impoverished mid-gangetic plains, improving

productivity for coastal fishing communities through sustainable

means, developing partnerships with NGOs and corporate sector to re-

inforce community-based approach and promoting policy change through

project activities.

>

> Bage said with Indian economy growing at a fast rate, the farmers

need to link up with the markets for ensuring better living

conditions. He also suggested that farmers should come together a set

up processing units so that they can directly stand to benefit from

the sales of their value-added products. Micro-finance institutions

should attract deposits from the local people to encourage savings

and their own viability.

> ------

>

> Global warming likely to bring hunger, melt Himalayas: report

>

> http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?

content_id=159795

>

> Posted online: Monday, April 02, 2007 at 0000 hours IST

>

> OSLO, APR 1 : Global warming could cause more hunger in Africa and

melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, according to a draft UN

report due on Friday which also warns that the poorest nations are

likely to suffer most. The UN climate panel, giving the most

authoritative study on the regional impact of climate change since

2001, also predicts more heatwaves in countries such as the United

States, and damages corals including Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

>

> " We are talking about a potentially catastrophic set of

developments, " Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Environment

Programme, said of the likely impact of rising temperatures, widely

blamed on greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

>

> " Even a half metre (20 inch) rise in sea levels would have

catastrophic effects in Bangladesh and some island states, " he told

Reuters. Scientists and officials from more than 100 countries meet

in Belgium from Monday to review and approve a 21-page summary for

policymakers in the report amid disputes on some findings, including

on how far rising temperatures may contribute to spreading disease.

Among the gloomy forecasts, the report predicts that glaciers in the

Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range, will melt away,

affecting hundreds of millions of people. " If current warming rates

are maintained, Himalayan glaciers could decay at very rapid rates,

shrinking from the present 500,000 square kilometres to 100,000

square kilometres by 2030s, " according to a draft technical summary.

>

> And disruptions are likely to be felt hardest in poor nations,

such as sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where millions more could go

hungry because of damage to farming and water supplies.

>

> Still, some nations will see some benefits, according to the

draft by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which

draws on work by 2,500 scientists. Global farm potential might

increase with a rise of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) in

temperatures, before sinking worldwide, it says. Crops might grow

better in nations far from the tropics such as Canada, Russia, New

Zealand or Scandinavia. But warming will hit rich nations in other

ways.

> —Reuters

> ----

>

> `Schemes not enough to shape dreams' : Planning Commission

>

> http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?

content_id=159325

>

> ASHOK B SHARMA

> Posted online : Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 0000 hours IST

>

> NEW DELHI, MAR 28: The Planning Commission is of the view that no

single scheme of the government alone can liberate people from the

low-end poverty.

> There is a need for re-designing the welfare schemes and process

of the implementation and arriving at convergence for better

delivery. Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Bundelkhand

Uttar Pradesh need adequate focus.

>

> " Do not expect that all the basic needs of the poor would be

covered under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

Social mobilisation and convergence of people's rights can

considerably help in the process. Our experience shows that self-help

groups (SHGs) have led to empowerment of the people, particularly the

women, " said Planning Commission member BN Yughandar.

>

> Speaking at the occasion of the release of the book—Capturing

Imagination of Stakeholders—authored by KS Gopal, Yughandar said

there has been cruel dilution of employment assurance schemes in

which the concept has shifted from " demand-driven " to that of

allocation and from " worker-driven " to that of " patronage-driven " .

Hence schemes should be re-designed and their implementation

finetuned.

>

> Yugandhar that state and central governments have done nothing to

ensure the fundamental right to elementary education for children

(within age group 6-14 years) under the Article 21 A of the

Constitution. Nothing has been done to ensure nutrition, health and

protection of children within the age group 0-6 years. The

government's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) has failed

to provide child care, he said and urged the central and state

governments to bring in appropriate legislations to address the

problems.

>

> Commenting on Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, he said : " It is a fraud on

Article 21 A. It does not speak of elementary education. The finance

minister, P Chidambaran should allocate Rs 14 lakh for wide coverage

of ICDS as per the decision of the Supreme Court. The finance

minister has allocated only Rs one lakh for ICDS in the current

Budget. "

>

> Releasing book noted economist, Jean Dreze said " though on the

whole the results of NREGA scheme has not been encouraging, it has

worked well in certain places like Dungapur in Rajasthan, Parbani in

Maharashtra, North Cachar hills in Assam and in parts of

Maharashtra. " Former government official, KR Venugopal urged the Plan

panel to construct living wage concept and timely payment of wages.

The CPM leader Sitaram Yechury urged that NREGA scheme should be

implemented as a continuing public works programme.

> --------------------------------

>

> Here's a new way to find what you're looking for - Answers

>

April 20, 2007

Narmada dam has been completed and is irrigating large tracts of otherwise arid land. Water instead of going waste into the ocean is now irrigating land and re-charging the water table.

Greens should consider that large tracts of land in North America, Australia/New Zealand and Africa have been overpopulated due to large scale population migration from Europe, very fast growth of the migratory population and wanton destruction of fauna and flora. Only now they have woken up to environment. They have no moral authority to stop third world countries from industrialisation. Even now CO (2) emission in India and China per capita is an insignificant fraction of similar figures in USA/Europe.

This is the real cause of pollution.

Rajinder

-

captain Johann samuhanand

Friday, April 06, 2007 2:12 AM

[HealthyIndia] Re: South Asia Summit - SAARC + IFAD Scheme + Global Warming & Himalayas + Welfare Schemes

- The scare stories about global warming has other side of the story also. Why only Himalayas are melting and not Antarctica or Iceland? I they melt it is good for the plains.IntroductionMost people in the Third World lack the basic amenities of modern life that we in the West take for granted: clean drinking water and a reliable supply of electricity. And Third World governments are eager to industrialise in order to catch up with the West. But environmentalists say that if they do this, the future of the planet will be imperilled."If everybody in the world consumed like the British, the Europeans or the Americans," says Tony Juniper, Campaigns Manager for Friends of the Earth, "then we'd need about eight planets to meet people's needs. And it would still be unsustainable."In the name of preserving nature, environmentalists have challenged the old ideas of progress and economic development. But in doing so, they have been accused of needlessly consigning millions of people in the Third World to poverty and early death.

..