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From ZeiTGeiST
ASIA: January 2012 |
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Happy New Year
But why this kolaveri
kolaveri kolaveri G ?
2011 has been an eminently forgettable year in
several parts of the world. |
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 THE
year that has gone by has been a year of sweat and turmoil in
most parts of the world. India spent the year battling
corruption with Delhi's Tihar jail even having to run a VIP ward
to accommodate ministers, bureaucrats and company CEOs.
Governance took a back seat with most of the crucial decisions
on hold. The economy kept sliding down as did the rupee. Only
the prices and the interest rates kept moving up.
The US economy kept stubbornly refusing to
respond to one stimulus package after the other. Unemploy-ment
rate kept hovering around the menacing 10% mark though it never
really crossed that red line and came down slightly to 9% by the
end of the year. The political stalemate on steps to bring down
the national debt remained unresolved. |
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Europe kept sliding down, with the very
existence of the euro zone and the viability of the Euro as a
single currency being called into question. It seems the
European leaders are quite reconciled to the inevitable. Greece
is on the verge of a default on its sovereign debt and, after
engulfing even Italy and Spain, the contagion does not seem to
be far away even from the shores of France. If the Euro zone
collapses, as it is expected to, even Germany may find it
difficult to keep its head about water. |
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Nearer home, too, the stalemate continues
with US-Pakistan ties reaching their nadir by the end of the
year. The NATO air strike on a Pakistani army post killing 24
Pakistani army personnel has inflamed passions in Pakistan
against long-time friend, financier and ally, the United States
of America. Even though the two countries might finds ways of
restarting a working relationship, the basic conflict of
interests on a future Afghan regime is not likely to disappear.
And if Pakistan has its way in Afghanistan, the stability of the
entire Central Asian region will also be open to question. |
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In West Asia and North Africa, the Arab
spring or the Jasmine revolution continued its relentless march
consuming Colonel Muammar Qaddafi of Libya as its latest trophy.
The elections in Tunisia and Egypt have brought in Islamists to
power, though, on a largely secular agenda. That was expected
because in any mass, leaderless revolution, any organized force
like the Muslim Brotherhood or the Salafists will have a
numerical advantage over the unorganized mass. Despite mounting
evidence to the contrary, Bashar Assad of Syria continues to
refuse to read the writing on the wall but it should merely be a
matter of a couple of months before he, too, is forced to see
reason like his Yemen counterpart, Abdullah Saleh. |
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Global Soup Song
2011 |
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Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri
Kolaveri G ?
Why in UP Mayawati Mayawati G?
Jayalalitha aur Mamata di
Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri di ?
2G, 3G aur CWG?
Aur Nira Radia madam G,
Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri di ?
Why this corruption, black money G ?
Anna Hazaare ka Anshan Anshan,
Why this Lokpal, Lokpal di?
Mehengayee to badh gayee badh gayee,
Sharad Pawar ko thappad, thappad,
Chidambaram ko Chappal Chappal,
Why not Kolhapuri, Kolhapuri Kolhapuri ji?
Misr Tunisia, Libya, Syria,
Dictator sab ki chhutti ho gayee,
Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri di ?
Europe to saara karze mein doobyo,
Germany, France ki bhi aayee baari,
Why this Euro-note, Euro-note,
Euro-note di?
Bin Laden, Qadaffi chale gaye,
Khoonkhaar aatankee aatankee,
Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri di ?
Cheeni samundar poorab dakshin
Tibet Sunkiang uttar paschim
Why this dragon fuming fuming fuming di?
Wall street par kabza kabza,
Obama election mushkil ho gayee,
Why this tea party, tea party, tea party di?
Manmohan Singh ki ab ghanti baj gayi
Kisi baat mein kuchh nahi chaltee
Why this FDI, FDI, FDI, di?
Nehru Indira Rajiv Sonia,
Rahul ki ab baree aye,
Why this Gandhi-Nehru, Gandhi-Nehru, Gandhi- Nehru di?
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Towards the East, China continued to flex its
muscle in its north-west, east and south. Towards the
north-west, XingXiang and Tibet continued to remain volatile
while its disputes with Vietnam, Philippines and others got back
into the news at the East Asia Summit held last month. Towards
its East it continues to have problems with Japan, Taiwan, Korea
and even Australia. There were tensions even in Inner Mongolia.
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US President, Barack Obama, thought it
necessary to personally attend the East Asia Summit to re-state
the significant US strategic stakes in the Asia-Pacific region.
Relations between China and India also keep flaring up from time
to time, the latest two instances being China's objections to
India exploring oil on behalf of Vietnam in the South China Sea
and China's objection to the Dalai Lama addressing an
International Buddhist Conference in Delhi. India has stood its
ground on both issues so far. |
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By far the biggest event of the year,
however, was the killing of Osama bin Laden by the US Marines in
a mansion at Abbottabad, a couple of hours drive from Islamabad.
While the event did sour the US-Pakistan relations considerably,
it definitely had the effect of turning back the tide of Islamic
fundamentalism. The upsurge of the Arab masses in West Asia and
North Africa against the long established dictatorships and the
moderation in the approach of Islamist parties like the Muslim
Brotherhood is some evidence of that. |
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New Year's Eve is, however, an occasion for
ringing out the old and ringing in the new. It is time for
everyone to hope and wish that the US economy will finally turn
around and that the European debt crisis would be over soon. It
is time to hope a wish that the people in West Asia and North
Africa will enjoy their new found democratic freedoms. It is
time to hope that the Pakistani civil society will finally
assert itself and pressurize its civil and military authorities
into giving up terrorism as an instrument of its foreign policy.
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It is time to hope that China and India will
solve their problems and ensure for themselves a prosperous
future by focusing on mutual trade which may soon be approaching
US $ 100 billion. It is time to hope that the new communist
party leadership due to take charge in China towards the end of
the New Year will be more open and tolerant of internal dissent
and more cooperative with its neighbours in the east, the south
and the north-west. It is time to hope that India will
re-discover the golden mean it is famous for and Anna Hazare and
the politicians will sit together to give the country a strong
Lok Pal bill. |
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The year gone by has finally gone with all
its sweat and turmoil and blood and all its market imperfections
and melt-downs and the New Year is dawning on us. Let us hope
for, enjoy and look forward to brilliant sun-shine in the year
2012. · |
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