Right To Information Hero

Shailesh Gandhi ran his plastic manufacturing company successfully for 23 years, and then sold it off to spend rest of his life in "giving back to society".

He seems to have found his 'calling' in championing the cause of Right to Information Act in India. He has been hounding the government by filing more than 800 RTI applications and creating awareness about the power of RTI as an empowering tool in the hands of an individual citizen.

Some of his thoughts:

The United Nations' Human Rights 1948 Declaration was a landmark because it mentioned freedom of expression in the same breath as right to information; one cannot properly function without the other for when you don't know the real facts then how can you express freely?

...

When the individual is empowered, he can shake things up, because he doesn't need to compromise his stand just to let his views be heard, which would happen if he were to go through an organization. Every citizen wants to challenge the government, but it is too time and energy-consuming to do so. The RTI makes things simpler.

The government has responded by appointing him as the Central Information Commissioner. He has the accepted the challenge with a caveat:

My philosophy and ideals will not undergo any change. Infact , if the system try to co-opt me, I may call it quits as I am only responsible to the people of this country.

However, his commitment level is very high - he has set a target of disposing 350 -400 appeals every month from the current average of 15-200 appeals per month.

Currently, the number of appeals at State Information Commission are over 16,000, and the appeals at CIC are over 8,000.

This IIT Alumnus will take only a token of Rupees 1 as he "has earned enough to lead a simple life.''

You may download a "RTI Primer for Beginners" here.

The RTI Application format is here.

Now, how many RTI applications will you file?

Creative Capitalism to target the poorest!

Bill Gates is evangelizing Creative Capitalism: "an attempt to stretch the reach of market forces so that more companies can benefit from doing work that makes more people better off. "

He reminds us that while "Capitalism has improved the lives of billions of people, ......it has left out billions more..................One billion people live on less than a dollar a day. They don't have enough nutritious food, clean water or electricity. The amazing innovations that have made many lives so much better — like vaccines and microchips — have largely passed them by. "

He asserts "it is mainly corporations that have the skills to make technological innovations work for the poor" and thus we should find new ways to bring far more people into the capitalist system.

The fundamental question posed is:

How can we most effectively
spread the benefits of capitalism
and the huge improvements in quality of life it can provide
to people who have been left out?

His argument: "....improvements will happen faster and last longer if we can channel market forces, including innovation that's tailored to the needs of the poorest, to complement what governments and nonprofits do. We need a system that draws in innovators and businesses in a far better way than we do today."

His mission:

More than 30 years ago, Paul Allen and I started Microsoft because we wanted to be part of a movement to put a computer on every desk and in every home. Ten years ago, Melinda and I started our foundation because we want to be part of a different movement — this time, to help create a world where no one has to live on a dollar a day or die from a disease we know how to prevent. Creative capitalism can help make it happen. I hope more people will join the cause.

How do Socialists react to this?

Phil Hearse calls it "idle dreams":

But the main drawback in Gates’ proposal is that it is a schema, an idea though up in a Seattle ivory tower, that has precious little purchase on the real world. That’s why it’s so abstract, for example in its insistence that it’s ‘governments’ and ‘non-profits’ that have to solve the main problems of food, water and poverty. But which governments? Using which methods? Financed how? Paying for infrastructural development with which funds?

Bill talks about C.K. Prahalad, who says, in his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, there are markets all over the world that businesses have missed. A reference is made to one study that found that the poorest two-thirds of the world's population has some $5 trillion in purchasing power.


This is "ammunition" for Phil Hearse:

....the poorest two thirds of humanity wield $5 trillion worth of spending power, so the transnational corporations need to make new markets to exploit/benefit this sector. Well, that’s more than 4.2 billion people. If we do the sums, it’s easy. It’s saying the average annual spend of the poorest two thirds of humanity is $1,190 a year, a pathetic amount that comes to $3.2 a day. Within that there are probably millions who have $10 or $12 a day, many with $4-6 and a billion who have $1 – or less. The target group of ‘creative capitalism’ is never going to be that poorest billion who have virtually nothing at all.

Phil's recommendations?

The billions of the poor and the oppressed need something more practical than creative capitalism to change the structures of their exploitation. Like overthrowing the social relations of capitalist oppression at a local, national and international level.

The debate on Social Freedom goes on.....Which side are you on?

Are You Living in a Free Country?

How much free are we in this world? Human Beings are supposed to be the "most intelligent" and the "strongest/most constructive species" on this planet, yet we are out to rip each other apart! Seeing the current state-of-affairs, Human Beings seem to be the "most stupid" and the "most destructive species" on this planet.

Since 1978, Freedom House has published 'Freedom in the World' (Freedom in the World, 2007 — Infoplease.com), an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties around the world. The 600-page survey is considered a definitive report on freedom around the globe. The 2006 ratings reflect global events from Dec. 1, 2005, through Dec. 31, 2006. According to the survey:

• 90 countries are free - their 3.0 billion inhabitants (47% of the world's population) enjoy a broad range of rights.
• 58 countries with 1.1 billion people (30%) are considered partly free. Political rights and civil liberties are more limited in these countries, in which corruption, dominant ruling parties, or, in some cases, ethnic or religious strife is often the norm.
• 45 countries are not free. The 2.4 billion inhabitants (23%) of these countries, nearly one-half of whom live in China, are denied most basic political rights and civil liberties.
• The list features only independent countries. A separate list of territories indicates that four territories received the lowest possible : Chechnya (Russia), Kashmir (Pakistan Occupied), Tibet (China), and Western Sahara (Morocco); of those, Chechnya and Tibet also received the lowest possible civil liberties ratings."

So, there we are! Obviously, the listings can be "hotly" debated. But, whatever the errors in this report, it does give an indication of "HOW MUCH FREEDOM EXISTS IN THIS WORLD"! The task(s) for a "free world order" is "cut-out".

Now, WHAT is your plan?

The Economic Freedom Index of your Country

How much economic freedom exists in your country?

You can find it out at The Economic Freedom of the World Project which is devoted to "promoting economic freedom around the world". The network has member institutes in over 70 nations.

They define Economic Freedom as:

Individuals have economic freedom when property they acquire without the use of force, fraud, or theft is protected from physical invasions by others and they are free to use, exchange, or give their property as long as their actions do not violate the identical rights of others. An index of economic freedom should measure the extent to which rightly acquired property is protected and individuals are engaged in voluntary transactions.

James Gwartney and Robert Lawson et al.
Economic Freedom of the World: 1996 Annual Report

Their annual Economic Freedom of the World Report uses 42 distinct pieces of data to measure economic freedom in 141 nations. As per their latest report, the TOP rankings are:

1. Hong Kong (8.9/10)
2. Singapore (8.8)
3. New Zealand (8.5)
4. Switzerland (8.3)
5. United States, United Kingdom, Canada (8.1)

More at TOP: Estonia (8.0), Australia (7.9), and Ireland (7.9).

The rankings and scores of other large economies are:

• Germany, 18 (7.6)
• Japan, 22 (7.5)
• Mexico, 44 (7.1)
• France, 52 (7.0)
• Italy, 52 (7.0)
• India, 69 (6.6)
• China, 86 (6.3)
• Brazil, 101 (6.0)
• Russia, 112 (5.8)

At the bottom, we have Zimbabwe, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo with the lowest economic freedom ratings of the 141 countries measured.

Download the complete report with data tables here.

Let us Liberate China!

While we scratch our head on resolving the Tibet-China conflict, Pallavi Aiyar analyzes how China's main constituency is "domestic public" and not the international community. Worse, the majority of Chinese have "little awareness that there is a Tibet problem at all". She says (Sri Lanka Breaking News-Daily Mirror Online):

In school, Chinese youngsters are taught how the region has only benefited from Communist rule. The feudal theocracy of the Dalai Lama was replaced by the enlightened policies of the People’s Republic, they are told, with the result that Tibet has enjoyed rising living standards and economic development.

Thus while Chinese leaders have repeatedly, in recent weeks, stated that they are open to talks with the Dalai Lama, they reiterate the caveat that he must give up his demand for independence. The Dalai Lama in turn has repeatedly insisted that he has no such claim. The Chinese respond by pointing to the riots in Lhasa and hence the Dalai’s ‘obvious insincerity.’

And so on it goes, in circles.

Even were the government persuaded to attempt a compromise with the exiled leader, its room for manoeuvre is slim given the way the public views the situation. Any change in Beijing’s position, including talks with the Dalai Lama, would appear as bowing to foreign pressure and failing to respond firmly to violence.... ..... given the Chinese reaction there is little cause to believe any fundamental shift in Tibet’s situation will be precipitated.

So, if the Chinese citizens are in 'DARK', then let us 'ENLIGHTEN' them.

The "Darkness" has been dented: the same report says:

Given this background, the TV footage and photographs of rampaging monks in Lhasa and elsewhere attacking Han civilians and security forces have bewildered many Chinese.

The "Sleep" has been disturbed, and after the initial shock, let us see if Chinese can FREE themselves of their prejudices.

More than Tibetans, it is the Chinese who NEED FREEDOM. Tibetans have nothing to lose. They lost their country half a century ago, but they have WON the world.

Free World Order

Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things:

Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy. Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can both declare Malcolm X their hero."

He is supposed to have declared, "Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it."

So, should we fight for freedom?

Or, can we effortlessly move towards a Free World Order?

Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure, says:

Old minds think:
If it didn't work last year, let's do MORE of it this year.

New minds think:
If it didn't work last year, let's do something ELSE this year.

Old minds think:
How do we stop these bad things from happening?

New minds think:
How do we make things the way we want them to be?

The Free World Order , talks about BUILDING FREEDOM and challenges us to THINK AND DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

Probably, FREEDOM is simply about continually GROWING beyond our known (and hidden) constraints!

Unless you try to do something
beyond what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

So, what are your NEW THOUGHTS on Free World Order?