Kolkata converts: Kaleidoscope sleeps in a strange bed

Kaleidoscope cannot say that he sacrifices things for the city he likes. First, because kaleidoscope has never abandon anything to live for the city. Second, and more importantly, he never has something to abandon for the city. As a participant (Can he say? well make it clear, he resides about 15 km away from the heart of the city) he has stronger attachment with his city. "His city" means Kolkata in late 1990s and early 2000s.

The inevitable:

While, the market principles dominate Kaleidoscope's world's governance, some say the transformation is inevitable. The question is what is this transformation. Transformation which makes Kaleidoscope feel that he is sleeping in some strange bed.

Principal nodes:

With his dangerously biased eyes, Kaleidoscope finds several nodes speeding up the transformation. First, the software boom - eighty percent of Kaleidoscope's friends work in this sector. "A lot" is the most suitable adjective - they work (a lot), earn (a lot) and spend (a lot). Second, and ever-increasing - the not bengali businessmen - they earn a lot, they chew a lot and their sons and daughters spend a lot. Third, and finally the bengalis who invest so much of their brain in imitation. Therefore, they cannot earn as much as the first two, they try to spend as much as them, and they obviously chew a lot...!

Reflections:

Kaleidoscope finds both material and social/mental reflection of the inevitable.

The material part:

The material part represents monotony. Kaleidoscope finds worlds are becoming world.

Two shopping malls, the first one is from USA (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/online-shopping-vs-driving-mall-greener.php) and second one is Kolkata's south city mall.

The social/mental part:

This segment represents increasing love and faith on brand-names, increasing calculability in every sphere from dot pen refill to relationships. Kaleidoscope finds increasing use of electronic gadgets, a displacement of privacy of body by privacy of the mobile phone!

Come on - sleep on

Kaleidoscope continues to live in this world with increasingly small and yet large number of available alternatives and tries to win over his self which finds this city as a strange bed to sleep on. However, he is also getting a reminder that this rapid transformation makes it easier for Kaleidoscope to grow old!

Personapub: the political egology of facebookish friendsphere

When kaleidoscope and the queen face uninvited troubles to be ended up in complete absense of one of the most precious components of their life, their life experiences personapub.

Personapub is a perfect imbalance of emotional shower and political egology. A complete conflict between expectations and actual situation preoccupied with egoistic selves. For Kaleidoscope it is a trendy facebookish friendsphere where he presents his unknown self and expects those facebookish masks to operate.

The inactive network: onslaught of Publics

As the queen opens her heart with narratives of pain, fear, anxiety and restlessness in thought of possible future, Kaleidoscope consoles without proper language. As he lacks the language, he thinks only the presence has the ability to create a comforting firewall to ease queen's pain.

Relying on this thought Kaleidoscope uses (tests) his facebookish 'strong' network by intimating their uninvited trouble to one of the endusers, whom they have faith. The experimentation yields unexpected result as the rest of the network remains inactive until the final loss. With his emotional self, Kaleidoscope blames the enduser for his failure to yield expected result. The enduser, however, wonders and questions Kaleidoscope's authority. As Kaleidoscope's stronger message remains ignored he does a restudy of the failure to find his repeated inability to empathise the enduser.

Bridging the gap:

When Kaleidoscope finds his empathic inability he forces himself to activate more endusers. This time he gets prompt response.

Network reactivates: the sphere is personal again!

While his facebookish friendsphere reactivates, the queen develops apathy to the existing network. The network tries to instigate personal discourse which now faces another firewall of Queen's apathy. Kaleidoscope knows only a few endusers will survive while facing this firewall. With the friendsphere increasing tries to restart the personal mode of existence, a threat of political egology remains the same.

~~~Kaleidoscope can now visualise an emptiness in ever increasing number~~~

Fundamental assumptions:

1. Facebook is not about faces its about masks.

2. Political egology or egoistic politics is a virus that is spreading across networks.

3. Political egology will bring a complete transformation (if not end) of weness or community feeling.

4. Loss of community feeling is capitalised by the corporates.

5. Presentation of self and/or wearing masks is most prominent sublimation of this time.

See if you wish:

http://ishkbooks.com/presentation_of_self.pdf

http://www.clockwatching.net/~jimmy/eng101/articles/goffman_intro.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=IA-_po38YB0C&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Presentation of self in everyday life

Why did we fail to make Rizwanur a hero?

‘…mysterious death of 30-year-old graphics designer Rizwanur Rahman on September 21, just over a month after he married Priyanka Todi, the daughter of prominent city businessman Ashok Todi, chairman and managing director of Lux Hosiery…’ [Indian Express, 30.9.2007].

I don't know what happens to Rizwanur's case. Yeah, thats how we refer to Mr. Rizwanur - a case!

Okay, a case!

The final verdict according to CBI probe confirms Rizwanur's death as suicide (find here). However, CBI charged Ashok Todi, Pradip Todi, Anil Saraogi - all Priyanka's close relatives and former deputy commissioner Ajoy Kumar, ACP Sukanti Chakraborty, Sub Inspector Krishnendu Das and Mohiuddin Alias Pappu, who was the link between Todi's and police. They are said to responsible with abetment to suicide of Rizwanur. One of the investigating officers Arindam Manna is found death in 2009 (Find here). We are yet to know the actual phenomenon.

We don't know about future of this case.

The civil and voices:

We have witnessed civil protests. Their demand for justice, and movement have a stake in quick disposal of the issue. Thanks to our conscious(?) civil society which raises voice, but, eventually fades out when politics enters.

Progress stopped: politics does not

With time we witness politicisation of the tragic love story. We have seen Rizwanur's brother participating in election. His mother walking with Mamta Banerjee. As the mainstream politics enters, the civil tends to fade away.

Why did we fail to continue the process:

It is difficult to ascertain, but I wish to reflect on a few issues:

First, we are preoccupied.

Second, we are taught to be self centered during our early days of socialisation.

Third, Being for others is an impossibility.

Fourth, We have short memory.

Fifth, We avoid mainstream politics.

Sixth, Civil is highly politicised.

The result:

We appreciate Bollywood films depicting cases like Rizwanur, but we fail to empathise real people and real life.

Farmers’ Suicide: The fragmented class and their unconsciousness

With his inquisitive mindset Kaleidoscope travels through some of the highest potato producing villages in West Bengal a few months back. Last week one of the villagers calls him to inform that one of his research participants, Mr. X has committed suicide.

Why?

Apparently, it is a heated debate between Mr. X and his wife which compels Mr. X to consume pesticide to die eventually. Pretty straight in surface. However, underneath of this incident there is an endless story of his debt to the cold storage owner and local money lenders. Cumulated by the huge loss with potato cultivation and business for last two years.

What happens in potato business?

It’s a tricky game of investment and return. Sometimes you are paid enough. Sometimes your property is at stake. An unpredictable fluctuation can haunt you and can change you. Usually, the small scale cultivators invest in the business, as series of middlemen hinders them from profit making. When you are into the business, you are given loan from storage owners, middlemen, and local money lenders. Either you pay back with high rate of interest or you sell the “potato bond” – the paper containing information of stored potato. When you take loan, you are to exchange the “bond” to pay off or simply to sustain as the interest increases rapidly. When you exchange “bond” the buyer takes loan – again a debt remains unpaid.

A journey to nowhere!

A small scale farmer can have a big dream with potato investment. Kaleidoscope finds examples and rumours about investment in potato business and overnight profit. When, one enters in the business chain he is aided. With aids, and cheap availability of potato (highly perishable) he is easily motivated to invest even more. Eventually, even if the price raises, existing debt, family maintenance, and labour cost gives a marginal return.

What does it have to do with class consciousness?

While one might find difficulty in placing these phenomena with the concept of trade union, it is not difficult to understand the nature of exploitation through formal and informal channels. The small scale investors do not form a group. They are not organised, they do not have an organisation. The oligopoly of cold storages, coalition between existing power groups use this fragmented sector to maximise their utility.

Well, bringing class consciousness and organising their activities is a day dream. The sector is inherently fragmented in different ways including location, class, caste, religion, and political ideology.

Either we can wait for class consciousness to disembark and watch thousands (more than 17,500 farmers between 2002 – 2006, Patel, 2007) of farmers committing suicide which is increasing each year (Meeta and Rajivlochan, 2006) or we can raise our voices compelling our Govt. to come with concrete policy principally by breaking this oligopoly and developing micro credit facilities.

See for more details:

Harris-White, B. (2008). Rural Commercial Capital: Agricultural Markets in West bengal. New Delhi: Oxford University Press

Meeta and Rajivlochan (2006) Farmers suicide: facts and possible policy interventions, Yashada, Pune.

Patel, R. (2007). Stuffed and Starved, Portobello Books

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/2/142224/7768/77/703705

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/15/stories/2006101514820800.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/15/stories/2006101514820800.htm

http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7383662.stm

http://books.google.com/books?id=npZ3xnaY7FYC&dq=Meeta+and+Rajivlochan+(2006)+Farmers+suicide:+facts+and+possible+policy+interventions&source=gbs_navlinks_s

My 2010 publication

Find my co-authored paper on recent political situation in rural West Bengal in Common Wealth Journal of Local Governance

click on the link:

http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ojs/index.php/cjlg/article/view/1490/1581

For the poor and the environment: a victory

Civil matters.

Orissa's unrestricted mining by vedanta groups has been halted by Ministry of Environment and Forest. A reason to celebrate. The order has been issued yesterday. Have a look by clicking here

Cheers

Neoliberal loot in mining: the self and governance

We do have an utility maximising self. Governing mechanism or state in other words is the only outlet (apart from self morality) to protect resources from this inherent greed. The morality mechanism is already paralyzed, since we have stepped into Durkheimian Organic Solidarity, that has installed impersonal, contractual relationships.

The case:

We live in a world filled with resources, and our country is exceptionally rich in some regions. An estimate by Ramakrishnan (2010) suggests that 1.64 lakh hectares of forest land has been diverted for mining in India. Only Iron-ore mining used up 77 million tonnes of water in 2005-06. States like Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Nocobar Islands, etc. are the major share holders of this diversion.

The liberalised loot:

India is investing $300 billion in 2009 (statistics by Indian Institute of Metals), six times of the total investment made since independence. Orissa sites one of the worst examples. Here, an in other states illegal mining occurs at places inhabited by tribal people. They are working as labourers and no benefit is redistributed to the locality. With the change in mining policy which encourages private sector intervention in the sector initiates displacements, and environmental degradation manifold. As a result a few people and corporations get benefitted at the cost of enormous environmental, social and human cost. Ramakrishnan (2010) focuses on expert's argument that regulatory mechanisms are paralysed or near absent.

Disasters and displacements:

A study by Amnesty International on Vedanta's operations in Orissa focuses on violation of environmental laws that prevents contamination of air, water and human condition. The history of mining reflects displacement of 2.5 crore people and not even 25% of them gets replacement.

State: politico-corporate nexus

Now coming back to the larger issue, its about the self's interest maxmisation and the control over that pursuit. It is only state and civil society that can and should work as a filter to control the unlimited maximising pursuit of a few individuals and corporations. However, these mechanisms are not working in the way it should work as the state is promoting corporations. The civil is voiceless. Even, states are using Maoist tag for legitimising their intervention in these tribal inhabited regions.

Taking the picture as a whole, it is found that miners operate with support from politicians. There are instances where they enter into active politics and run businesses while being part of the government (Das 2010, Menon 2010).

Interestingly, the rationality of state, as reflected historically: "doing for others", "controling subjects for better ends", "optimal use of resources", etc. are all engulfed or eclipsed in the deep blue sea of capitalism.

May be the civil, may be the subaltern keep looking for an alternative, however, we don't know who is wearing what mask? what lies behind the mask? and whether, the mask has anything real, i.e., really different from the mask?