Tag: New Zealand

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-03

About-the world this week, 15 January to 21 January 2023, a world of ‘Tanks’: Military Tanks Wanted; an Aircraft tanks; and empty tank in New Zealand; Tanks to fill in Davos; India’s unfilled Census Tank; and a Tennis player runs on a full tank at the Australian Open.

Everywhere

Ukraine: Tanks Wanted

The illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine bleeds on and now a hero that could secure a victory for Ukraine seems to be Tanks. Many countries supporting Ukraine have already sent or committed to sending Tanks to Ukraine to defend itself from the Russian onslaught. The pressure is also on Germany to send its Leopard-2 make tanks, which can make a significant difference on the battle-ground.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to destroy the independent existence of a neighbouring country with war crimes, genocidal actions, and relentless targeting of the civilian population, is the closest we have come since 1945 to what Adolf Hitler did in World War-II. And Germany has a unique historical responsibility to help defend a free and sovereign Ukraine. For the rest of the world, Russia should be defeated to deter future aggression by rouge-minded countries, say China, around hot-spot places such as Taiwan; or North Korea, which dances a lot on the border with South Korea.

Meanwhile, there is daily and continuing tragedy in the Russian-Ukraine War. This week, a helicopter crash killed Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Denys Monastyrskyi, his first deputy, Yevhen Yenin, other senior officials, and several children. No area seems untouched by the unbelievable situation in Ukraine.

Nepal Plane Crash: An Aircraft Tanks

Over the years commercial plane accidents have crashed to low levels, and the odd crash does makes high news.

This Sunday, Nepal’s Yeti Airlines’ Flight 691 – a twin-engine ATR 72 Aircraft – flying from Kathmandu with 72 people on board, crashed before arrival at Pokhara, which International Airport was inaugurated on 1 January 2023. All passengers have died. And this is Nepal’s worst air disaster in three decades. The plane came down in a gorge of the Seti River, near the tourist town of Pokhara: the plane rolled sharply as it approached the runway and then hit the ground, just over a kilometre from the airport. The cause of the crash is yet to be determined.

The passenger manifest consisted of 53 Nepalese, 5 Indians, 4 Russians and 2 Koreans, and 1 each from the United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina, and France.

Anju Khatiwada, the co-pilot of the ill-fated flight lost her husband, Dipak Pokhrel, in a plane crash 16 years earlier. Coincidentally, he had also been co-piloting a Yeti Airlines flight-and it was his death that spurred Anju to pursue a career in aviation. Dipak was in the cockpit of a Twin Otter Prop plane, which was carrying rice and food to the western town of Nepal’s Jumla when it came down and burst into flames in June 2006, killing all nine people on board. Four years later, Anju climbed on the path to becoming a pilot, overcoming many obstacles, to train in the United States. Once qualified, she joined Yeti Airlines. A trailblazer, Anju was one of just six women employed by the airline as pilots, and had flown close to 6400 hours. “She was a brave woman”, said an Official.

New Zealand: An Empty Tank

New Zealand’s Prime Minister (PM) Jacinda Ardern, 42, has had enough and is calling it quits. This week, Ardern announced she will resign as PM next month, saying, “I no longer have enough in the tank”, to lead. She choked as she detailed how six challenging years in the job had taken a toll. She had taken time to consider her future, over the summer break, hoping to find what she needed to carry on, but unfortunately she could not, and hence the decision.

Ardern will step down as Labour Party leader around 7th February. Meanwhile, there will be a vote in the coming days to determine her replacement. And New Zealand goes to the polls- a General Election-on 14 October 2023.

Ardern, at 37, became the youngest female head of government in the world when she was elected PM in 2017. And a year later, she became the second elected world leader to ever give birth while in office. She superbly steered New Zealand through the initial part of the Covid19 pandemic (though she could not make a success of it later on) and its ensuing recession, the Christchurch mosque shootings, and the White Island volcanic eruption. Ardern also led her Labour Party to a landslide election victory in 2020. But, in recent months, her domestic popularity has declined, according to opinion polls. She made missteps in the later stages of the Covid19 pandemic, could not get the economy back on track, and was unable to reduce inequalities in New Zealand. Lawless also ‘became common’ and has not been brought under ‘safe control’.

According to the media, Jacinda Ardern was subject to unprecedented hatred and constant abuse during her time in power, which could have inadvertently taken a toll on her and driven her to make the big announcement… and sleep well after a long time!

Some people have that intuition to move on after a job in done – on their calling. Maybe Jacinda Arden discovered that, and now needs to fill her tank with other kinds of fuel.

Money Matters: Tanks to Fill

The Switzerland based international, non-governmental, lobbying, World Economic Forum (WEF) is holding its 53rd Annual Meeting at the mountain resort of Davos in the Eastern Alps region of Switzerland, between 16 and 20 January 2023.

The meeting brings together some top decision-makers from government, business, and civil society to address global issues and priorities for the year ahead.

This includes about 3,000 paying members and selected participants – among whom are investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities, and journalists.

This year’s theme is, ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’. On the agenda is climate change, The Russia-Ukraine War, food security, energy, and of course, the global economy, which will be discussed across 500 sessions.

Says the WEF, “The world today is at a critical inflection point. The twin triggers of the Covid19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war have rattled an already brittle global system. Economic growth in the world’s largest economies is stalling, while navigating headwinds from rising food and energy prices. For the first time since the 1970s, the world is facing a precarious disequilibrium with growth and inflation moving in opposite directions. Unless systemic and interconnected risks are addressed, the promise of a ‘decade of action; may become a decade of uncertainty and fragility”.

The wisdom is oozing out on the slopes of the Alps, and I hope we get a cool, nice little ’To-Do List’ as an outcome of the ‘Davos Brain-work’.

India’s Measures a Delay: Unfilled Census Tank

In the year 1881, more than 250 million people in India answered a list of questions put to them by hundreds of enumerators, and were counted in British India’s first synchronised census. For the next 130 years, after independence and through wars and other crises, India kept its date with the census. Once a decade, hundreds of thousands of enumerators visited every household in the country to gather information about people’s jobs, families, economic conditions, migration status and socio-cultural characteristics, among other parameters. It’s used to make decisions on everything from allocating Central Government funds to State Governments, and building schools, to drawing constituency boundaries for elections. And India had mastered the craft of taking a census – teaching it to other nations, as well.

“The census is not simply a count of the number of people in a country. It provides invaluable data needed to make decisions at a micro level,” says a development economist who has worked extensively on poverty and inequality.

The exercise generates a trove of crucial empirical data for administrators, policymakers, economists, demographers and anyone interested in knowing where the world’s second-most populous country (set to overtake China this year) is headed. Say, what will it mean when Indians outnumber Chinese.

But for the first time, India’s decennial census, the seventh – which was set to be held in 2021 – has been delayed, primarily due to he Covid19 pandemic, with no clarity on when it will be held. Experts say they are worried about the consequences, which range from people being excluded from welfare schemes to unbalanced resource allocation.

The Government had planned to conduct a population survey to update the National Population Register (NPR) along with the census. Opposition and regional parties have been demanding that the Government should also conduct a ‘Caste Census’ to revisit the ‘caste based quota’ in the country. The State of Bihar has also ordered a caste census in its State.

The Government is chewing on all these issues and looking at the angles. And there is no alternative to a credible national survey such as at the Census. Now, with the General Elections coming-up in mid 2024, the census can probably take place only in late 2024. And would be the first task of the new Government to get cracking on.

Australian Open: A Tank Always Full

The Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam Tournament has opened in Australia and this time Serbia’s Novak Djokovic is back. The 21-time Grand Slam winner began his campaign in style defeating Spain’s Carballes Baena in straight sets.

Defending Champion, Spain’s Rafael Nadal lost to America’s Mackenzie McDonald after sustaining an injury. And so did British Wonder Woman, Emma Raducanu to 18 years old American Coco Gauff. Gauff defeated Raducanu 6-3, 7-6 (4) to go to the third round, in a slow-burning match that saw the intensity and quality rise in the dying seconds.

England’s Andy Murray, a multiple-time runner-up at the Australian Open, played a final-like-match in his first round stunning Italy’s Matteo Berrettini -the 2022 Australian Open semifinalist- as he rolled back the years to reach the second round. Murray needed to display magic to overcome 13th seed Berrettini. He did just that, in 4 hours and 49 minutes, winning the first two sets before going down in the next two and saving a match point in the decider. He won the match by 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 (7), and 7-6 (10-6).

Murray has regularly defied the odds since coming back from the hip surgery in 2019, which he thought would end his career. But then, he must not have realised that there was more in store for him. Two days later, Murray did it again with a comeback that ranks as simply extraordinary, even by his standards. He produced another scarcely believable display to fight back from two sets down to beat Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis in yet another epic match. In one of the longest in tennis history, Murray won 4-6 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 7-5 on a night of gruelling physical and mental endurance. The second-round match started at 22:20hrs and lasted 5 hours 45 minutes.

That’s back-to back mighty tough matches. Murray’s Tank is always full, hope it does not get drained to the bottom. He was not allowed to use the toilet during the match, despite making a request – maybe that kept the pressure.

Fight your battles with Tanks, play your game well, keep your tank filled, always. Stay with World Inthavaaram.

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WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-10

About: the world this week, 6 March to 12 March 2022, war grows, Ganga flows, Covid19 again, rains floods, elections and elections, tree driving, and a pig heart.

Everywhere

Ukraine: Fighting Back

“I am prepared to die for my country, for what I love,” said a Ukrainian in perfect English. “Putin doesn’t understand we don’t want his authority-his world. All of us here know what we want-the right to live our lives, the right to choose who leads us. That’s our right, not Moscow’s.” That sums up the steely, courageous mood against all odds, which has invaded Ukrainian minds.

It’s over two weeks since the Russian invasion and Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky is holding-on with his people in the capital Kyiv amidst the mad, relentless attack on his country. He has been on a continuous talking spree to world leaders explaining the situation, and trying to enlist their understanding and support. His speech to the United Kingdom’s (UK) House of Commons received a standing ovation. “We will fight until the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost,” he said. Brave words, which will go down to the wire.

The city of Kyiv has been transformed into a fortress and from the looks of it, the people are determined to defend the city to the last man standing. Almost 40,000 volunteers joined the Territorial Defense Forces in the first two days after the invasion began. In Kyiv alone, 18000 people picked up weapons when authorities called for volunteers and reservists to do so.

Those who couldn’t join the forces are helping in other ways: making Molotov cocktails, sewing camouflage nets for barricades, distributing food, hot drinks and cigarettes to those standing guard. They are raising money for the military, building more road blocks, and even painting over traffic signs in an attempt to confuse the invaders.

Over the week, Russia bombed a Hospital in the city of Mariupol that injured 17 people, including children, women, and doctors. Three died, among them one child, a girl. Civilians are being increasingly targeted and this is a huge cause of worry, as is the precision of Russian weaponry becoming suspect.

India successfully evacuated nearly all its citizens and students in Ukraine. Many would not budge without their pet cats and dogs, which also earned space in the Operation Ganga flights. One man, an Orthopaedic Doctor chose to be different. He had a pet panther and a jaguar and refused to leave without them. Last heard he was hunting for food to feed them. Another who was shot, during the Russian shelling, was rescued and taken home in an Indian Airforce Plane.

While we talk about Ukraine, think about Afghanistan and Myanmar where its people invaded their country causing endless internal strife. And Taiwan living in constant fear of a Chinese invasion. Another rogue nation North Korea is busy firing missiles into the Ocean, what if they turn and attack South Korea? The possibilities for war is limitless. In Taliban’sAfghanistan it’s Day 175 since girls have been banned from returning to secondary school: teenage girls remain stuck at home, waiting for the Taliban to decide the future of their education. And they are busy lecturing Russia and Ukraine to talk it over and take things cool. Wow!

This week, the US further turned the screws on Russia by banning all imports of Russian Oil, Gas, and Energy. US based companies such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola, temporarily closed their stores in Russia to show their solidarity with Ukraine. And in return, Russia threatened to seize all these abandoned assets. Well, that’s another front opening in this war!

I often wonder what did the Ukrainian people do to deserve this: homes destroyed, lives shattered, and tens of thousands crossing the Borders into Poland, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia as refugees.

A third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia was unproductive. And they are still talking. Ukrainian President Zelensky indicated he might not want to join NATO after all-as they are cold towards them. He might also give up in some eastern provinces which Russia recognised as Independent. These maybe the building blocks for further negotiations.

South Korea’s New Unfavourable President

This week, South Korea chose the opposition conservative People Power Party’s candidate, Yoon Suk-Yeol, as the country’s next President following a tightly contested Presidential Election, the closest in its history-with the final count separated by less than 1%. He takes over from the outgoing President Moon Jae-In, who held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in an attempt to bridge the gap between the Koreas.

Yoon, a political novice, scraped out a victory over the liberal Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-Myung, based on promises to tackle class inequality. Both presidential candidates were considered widely unpopular throughout the campaign. And voters appeared so disenchanted by the frontrunners that local media dubbed the vote as ‘election of the unfavourables’. However, polling day saw a high turn out, with 77% of eligible voters casting their vote. Yoon Suk-Yeol’s victory over his rival Lee Jae-Myung is far from decisive. The razor-thin margin being a sign of just how bitterly divided politics in the world’s tenth largest economy has become.

Except is authoritarian regimes, where we may never know until the very end, most democracies are deeply divided over many factors, with new fault lines and fissures discovered all the time.

New Zealand and The Virus

New Zealand defences against the first two waves of the Covid19 pandemic was the sturdiest, the toughest, and the tightest. Only a few viruses slipped through, which were caught at the borders and mercilessly thrashed. When the world was baffled on how New Zealand did it, the mutated virus -the Omicron fellow- heard, and taking law into its hands invaded New Zealand like never before. Daily infections climbing into Space-as high as over 20,000- which is the highest ever in the country since the pandemic began. However, deaths were insignificant with over 90% of the weakest population vaccinated against the virus. Vaccination works.

The cases are beginning to dip and I’m sure New Zealand would be wiser at the end.

The virus is indeed a great leveller. You cannot take it for granted.

Australia’s Emergency

New Zealand’s big island neighbour had a different kind of problem: unending rain, growing floods; it’s becoming harder to live in Australia. Over the past week, severe rain along the country’s eastern coast has caused some of the worst flooding in Australian history and inundated swaths of two of its largest cities, Sydney and Brisbane. The provinces of New South Wales and Queensland have been pummelled by heavy downpours that have caused floods, and Sydney was hit by widespread flash-flooding.

The situation forced Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison to declared a national emergency this week. It was the first time that a national emergency-a legislative power created after the deadly wildfires in early 2020-had been declared.

Experts say the flooding emergency has been worsened by climate change and a ‘La Nina’ weather phenomenon. A La Nina develops when strong winds blow the warm surface waters of the Pacific away from South America and towards Indonesia. In their place, colder waters come up to the surface. In Australia, a La Nina increases the likelihood of rain, cyclones, and cooler daytime temperatures.

Whoever coined the term ‘Down Under’ probably knew what was coming!

India’s Five State Elections

Finally the last of the five States, Uttar Pradesh, that went to the polls to elect its new Legislative Assembly finished voting in the final phase on 7 March 2022. And once the voting was over that evening, Exit Pollsters started shouting out their kind of voting, and the prediction was that India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will win in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Manipur, and maybe Goa. While Punjab will go to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) presently governing the Union territory of Delhi.

The counting of votes was on 10 March 2022 and the results were generally on predicted lines. The BJP smashed many ceilings in winning 273 (with its allies, 255 on its own) out of 403 seats in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh where it was the incumbent governing party. The election strategy of pushing for a ‘double-engine’ (Centre and State ruled by one Party) growth seems to have worked, and it fired on all cylinders. The Grand Old Party of India, The Indian National Congress (INC) was decimated in the State winning a miserly 2 seats. Overall, it was mauled at the hustings in other States and left licking its wounds. It had bungled and messed-up big time in Punjab and ‘reaped a bare minimum support’ from the voters.

The BJP went on to record remarkable victories in all other states except Punjab where the AAP, which has the broom as its symbol swept-off every other party including the BJP with a magical, massive, first ever win – 92 out of 117. In Uttarkhand the BJP won 47 out of 70; in Manipur it won 32 out of 60; and in Goa it won 20 out of 40.

The BJP shattered a battery of records in Uttar Pradesh with its present Chief Minister(CM)Yogi Adityanath, nearing 50, becoming a tall leader in his own right. He is the first CM to retain power in 37 years; the first CM to complete a full tenure and be re-elected; the fifth CM to win a second consecutive term; first BJP CM to return to power; first MLA to become CM in 15 years and the first CM to break the Noida Jinx. According to legend, whichever CM visits the city of Noida during his tenure either loses the next election or does not complete his tenure. Many past CM’s used to deliberately avoid this city and those who dared, succumbed to the fate of the Noida Jinx.

The State of Punjab saw an incredible performance by the AAP which won a landslide of 92 seats of a total of 117. There is also a story there.

Maybe this is the year of the Comedy Actors getting their timing right, fighting it out in the world of Politics and leading the charge afterwards. Punjab’s Bhagwant Singh Mann who is the Chief Minister-elect is a comic poet, writer of political satire and competed in the popular Indian TV show, ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’ in 2008. He is currently a Member of Parliament for the AAP and was chosen to lead the Punjab Elections based on a public poll in which 93% wanted him to become the Chief Minister of Punjab. That’s almost an Indian Zelensky!

One ‘handed-down’ lesson from the elections is, ‘never take the voter for granted’.

India’s Tree Scooter

India is the world’s biggest producer of areca nut, with an output of 1.2 million tonnes in the year 2020-21. Much of this is produced in the southern coastal states of Karnataka and Kerala.

The areca nut is the seed of the areca palm and is commonly referred to as betel nut. It is known to be a major ‘cancer causing nut’; as with chewing tobacco, its use is discouraged by preventive efforts. Consumption by hundreds of millions of people worldwide is described as a much neglected global public health emergency.

On the brighter and taller side, 50 years old Ganapathi Bhat farms areca nut in the coastal town of Mangaluru in India’s Karnataka State. He faced a problem: regularly scaling palm trees as tall as between 60 and 70 feet to inspect and harvest his crop. Too old to climb, and unable to find cheap labour, Bhat took it upon himself to invent a device that would make climbing areca nut trees easier.

Starting in 2014, Bhat spent around INR 4 million on research and development. After four years of climbing work, he and his engineer partner came-up with a working prototype of a ‘Tree Scooter’. It consists of a small motor; a rudimentary seat, which straps a person to the seat and to the handlebars in a kind of tree-embrace; a set of climbing wheels, foot-bars; and the handle bar of a scooter with hand-controlled accelerator and brakes, which is revved to swiftly move up and down the tree and brake to a stop where required.

Bhat has sold more than 300 of the ‘tree scooters’, which cost about INR 62,000 each.

Last seen he was effortlessly zipping up and down trees grabbing the fruits of his labour!

Pig Heart

In the United States, 57 years old David Bennett had terminal heart-disease, was confined to a bed, and was given no chance of survival – certain sudden death.

However, in a ground-breaking experiment, Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Centre, were granted a special dispensation by the US medical regulator to carry out a heart-transplant from a genetically-modified pig. Bennet thus became the first person in the World to receive such a heart, and would otherwise have died sooner.

He underwent the surgery on 7th January, and in the weeks afterwards he spent time with his family, watched the Super Bowl, and spoke about wanting to get home to his dog, Lucky.

But his luck ran out, and his condition began to deteriorate over the past week. And he died this week on 8 March. Bennett knew the risks attached to the surgery, acknowledging, before the procedure, it was ‘a shot in the dark’.

More light stories to dispel darkness coming up in the weeks ahead. Climb with World Inthavaaram.