What is the price of freedom?

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty” said Thomas Jefferson.

The case of Chinese blind activist Chen Guangcheng from Linyi, Shandong province, who in a daring night time escape to Beijing sought refuge in the US embassy, is proving to be a symbolic clash between the US constitutional value of liberty and China’s value of absolute state control.

One might ask on why this is such a critical matter for China. After teaching himself basic law, Chen exposed officials who forced women to have abortions in order to reach their family planning targets.

As he began to throw light on these problems, Linyi officials abducted him and placed him under house arrest. After being under arrest for a year for “disrupting traffic and damaging property” he was put back under house arrest with almost 100 guards around his home in village.

Chen has been the most prominent of the’ human rights’ activists in China trying to nudge the country towards a system of ‘rule of law’. His protracted and brutal suppression of human rights has been a ready reference for foreign governments to point out to the weakness in China’s current system of governance.

His midnight run to the US Embassy in Beijing is proving to be a test for the Chinese leadership in Beijing to restore the primacy of the government. While for the US diplomatic leadership, including Hillary Clinton and Obama administration this has so far been a walk on the eggshells.

Chen has requested the US government to let him and his family leave for the US. “I want to come to the US to rest. I have not had a rest in 10 years,” Chen was quoted as saying to a US congressional hearing.  Meanwhile, during her parallel talks in Beijing, Clinton pressed China on human rights but avoided mention of Chen, focusing on North Korea and Iran.

The reactions to the episode have been diverse and across the full range of spectrum.  “Chen Guangcheng has become a tool and pawn for American politicians to blacken China,” the Beijing Daily said.  But the official news agency, Xinhua and the Communist party paper, the People’s Daily, have joined the chorus and suggested to some extent that there is no consensus among Chinese leaders on how to handle the issue.

The US media on the other hand has been quick to involve the Presidential candidates into the issue. Mitt Romney lost no time in criticizing the Obama administration and calling the episode a “dark day for freedom” .Abby Huntsman Livingston, daughter of the former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, who worked at the Beijing embassy for a year, criticized both the candidates for how they handled the sensitive diplomatic issue.

It is hard to predict where this is heading. The only other obvious instance of a dissident being granted custody by a foreign diplomatic mission in Communist China is the astrophysicist Fang Lizhi, after the Tiananmen protests.

However, global power dynamics have evolved since 1989 and China not only has far more international leverage because of its economic and strategic might but also is extremely sensitive to international opinion than two decades ago.

It is a zero sum game in which the Chinese government would hardly want to come out as having lost out.  Everyone is rightly concerned for Chen and his family’s safety.  Let’s hope that liberty does not come with a high price for our friends across the border.  

Who told you that Politics is not personal?

“Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective” said Max Weber in his seminal essay ‘Politics as a vocation’. The run up to the US Presidential elections 2012 have by most stretches of imagination pushed the frontiers of civility in politics.

I was relieved at the end of what were by most observations fairly caustic Republican primaries, though some rue that the entertainment has come to an end! Just when everyone was hoping for a civil debate between Barack Obama and almost certain Republican nominee Mitt Romney, the US President’s White House correspondent’s dinner speech has sparked off a new debate.

While many US commentators have played down the speech as a classic of the genre for an occasion keeping up with the tradition over the last few decades, there were moments in the speech which raised not only my eyebrows but even the First Lady’s!

Consider this - “What’s the difference between a hockey mom (earlier reference made to Sarah Palin) and a pit bull?” “A pit bull is delicious”. Many more jokes followed on Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney and others.

Democrats I would believe certainly thought President Obama’s speech was just the right mix of self-deprecating humor and shots directed at Republicans. Republicans almost certainly thought the speech was too arrogant, illuminating what they believe to be their judgment of the President.

It might well be the American normative brand of sarcastic and self-deprecating humor. But for a neutral observer like me, engaging in personal garbs has I believe, diverted the attention from the core issues of the US. For young children growing up in the US who still believe in public service as the highest calling, such uncivil engagement might make them more averse to the profession and their notions of it being a noble endeavor for advancing human development.

While sensitive issues like health care, education loans, social security, energy security, foreign policy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran are going to be hotly debated over the next five months before the November election, economy and income inequality is the issue which will almost surely be determining the next US President. The quicker the debates reorient themselves away from the personal to the professional, the better it is surely for everyone.

Finally to quote Max Weber once again “Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he shall not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or too base for what he wants to offer. Only he who in the face of all this can say 'In spite of all!' has the calling for politics”

It would be interesting to see if the US President can repeat history by running an inspired campaign. Everyone surely needs a message of hope and optimism rather than a debasing one from both the contenders for the world’s most powerful position. I wish that both of them rise to the occasion and the US citizens exercise the wisdom for the better one! The world awaits…

Doing the right thing when nobody is watching

Muralidhar Devdas Amte, fondly called Baba Amte, was born in a wealthy family and educated to be an advocate in Warora.  When the sweepers of Warora challenged him to clean the gutters, he did so facing his worst fears. But the same Baba who was named ‘Abhay Sadhak’, the fearless student by Gandhiji, quivered in fright when he saw the living corpse of Tulshiram, no fingers, no clothes, with maggots all over. He went on to say, “I took up leprosy work not to help anyone, but to overcome that fear in my life. That it worked out good for others was a by-product. But the fact is I did it to overcome fear.”

Baba Amte’s life is a paragon of excellence in social service. A guiding light for those seeking purity of life filled with empathy and compassion. But more importantly, his life story brings to fore the moral courage that is very rarely found and highlighted in our world which is inundated with success stories in business, entertainment, sports and politics.

The story of CNN Hero of the year 2010, Anuradha Koirala, whose group ‘Maiti Nepal’ has rescued more than 12,000 women and girls from sex slavery, immediately reminded me of Baba Amte. Her life is also a shining example of moral courage and mental fortitude. It is commendable that CNN has taken the initiative to identify and honor such acts of selfless social service. In a world where success is mostly measured by monetary and positional achievement and leadership is lionized in fields like business, sports and politics it is indeed heartening to see recognition of leaders like Anuradha, who are working tirelessly and anonymously for social change.

The two stories of exceptional public service also raise fundamental questions on what is DNA of exceptional leadership and at what level should young Indians bring about change in their societies?

I have always struggled to articulate my own theory of leadership. What does it mean to be a leader? Is it measured on scales of success in your professional field? Is it measured by your standing on the leadership competency models in your organization? How do we then calibrate the leadership of all the freedom fighters whose virtues of service and sacrifice hardly fit into the consulting models?

After much thought and reflection of the stories of Baba Amte and Anuradha Koirala, I would define leadership as having a strong sense of integrity to do the right thing with no personal attachment to the end result. There is no dearth of avoidable suffering and unfulfilled potential in the world around us. But very few of us possess the rare virtue, the moral courage to be true to the feeling which calls us to act in the service of those suffering and lacking opportunities to fulfill their potential.

Secondly, to everyone out there like me wondering about the nature of impact you want to make – micro or macro, take time to reflect on the life stories of Baba Amte and Anuradha Koirala. Our life will not be evaluated by the bank balances or the press coverage we accumulate. Instead, it will be evaluated by the power of eulogy written for you by those nameless and voiceless brothers and sisters you have served through your work.

I will end by quoting Baba Amte himself on his search for truth,

 “I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see;

  I sought my god, but my god eluded me;

 And then I sought my sisters and brothers, and in then I found all three”            

And I am asking myself the question, “Do I have the moral courage to stand up and act for others?”

Standing your ground

According to latest statistics reported by SNEHA, a 24-hour suicide helpline in India, 2300 children under the age of 14 took their lives last year. For most of us in India, we grow insensitive to death numbers over a period of time. As long as the numbers don’t personally affect us, they do not have time to occupy our mind space.

Let’s pause for a moment here. Take a moment and write down the list of all your closest friends from memory. Friends with whom you have shared some of the precious moments of your life and those who make life worthwhile. My list with a lot of concessions on what I consider ‘precious’ and ‘worthwhile’ makes it to double digits. Now imagine that number multiplied by 200 times. Depressing this might sound, but imagine losing 200 times of what you considered valuable in life for a suffering which was easily avoidable. Not for lack of access to physical health treatment but for lack of sensitivity and empathy amongst all of us. How do you know then if you or your close friends are being victimized?

Bullying in my mind is the exercise of power by the more powerful in subtle or explicit ways which leads to loss of status, voice or self-esteem for the less powerful. The victims could be children, girls and women, minority groups or even subordinates. It could happen in any of our institutions – family, schools, colleges, workplaces and social organizations. 

The first step to developing self-awareness about whether you are being bullied is to understand what your rights as a free individual are. Children are much more vulnerable compared to adults because of the fact that they are far more gullible and less knowledgeable about their own rights. Therefore, I will focus on children and how they should identify bullying. Also, having been a teacher in primary school, I felt very strongly about any such transgressions. Though, it is less an issue in my judgment when the children are younger than when they grow into their adolescence, it is nevertheless important to teach the mindsets of equality and empathy very early.

The first and foremost thing to develop as a child is the skill of reflection. An ability to articulate your thoughts, feelings, emotions and ideas in whatever language or form you are most comfortable in.  It could be even through performing and non performing arts. If you are being bullied, it is important to understand that you DO NOT have a problem. For this to happen, it is important to understand your underlying thoughts, feelings and emotions.

If someone around you is making you feel bad or low about yourselves, making you cry, or in the worst case scenario physically abusing you, DO NOT accept the status quo. It is easier to recognize the emotional and physical trauma but more difficult to understand the psychological. In the case of first two, immediately stand up for your own rights. If you are still being overpowered, seek help immediately from people you trust - close friends, family or higher authorities. In the last case, you need to communicate your emotions and feelings through words, pictures or actions to trustworthy people. Feel free to ask their opinions on whether they think what you experienced constitutes bullying. 

Over a period of time as you reflect more and continuously get feedback on managing your emotions, you update your beliefs about what constitutes bullying and how to handle it.  You also grow confident about protecting others whom you think are going through phases you had been through. You will also being doing a world of good to those bullying by making them recognize their mistakes early. To err is definitely human, but to silently accept it is doing injustice to yourself and the other person as well.

So, stand up. BE brave and BE free. Because, you deserve to BE. 

UN in Syria: Shooting for the stars

Coming from India and being born in the 80’s generation, I take freedom, liberty and democracy for granted. I often forget that I stand on the shoulders of giants for whom sacrifice was a way of life and ‘Swaraj’, a birth right they fought courageously until death for.  Not until you read about Syria’s accounts in the daily newspapers, you realize the worth of your own freedom in a democratic nation like India.

Hearing gory narratives of Syrian people, for the lack of a better word, being butchered by state’s army for the last three months is chilling to the core. The Syrian inhabitants have been growing in conviction that state cannot impose itself against the popular will.  But, the outside world to its shame has not shown such resolve. Dr. Martin Luther King famously remarked, “The silence of a few good men is more dangerous than the brutality of bad men”.  It then raises the question of why the status quo prevails.

Division has taken over international cooperation at a time it was needed the most. As the crisis deepens, those urging armed force are invoking both the tragedy of inaction in Rwanda and Bosnia in the early 1990’s, and the last year’s decisive international intervention which led to triumph in Libya as cases to make their point.

A vote on February 4^th, in the UN security council, condemning Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, and calling him on to cede powers to his deputy, was defeated however thanks to vetoes from Russia and China. For Mr. Assad, this was his license to kill many more innocent civilian opponents. But many would argue if the international community needs to infringe on nation’s sovereignty? If yes, what are the criteria for such an intervention?

Under the responsibility to protect (R2P) principles that the UN General Assembly unanimously endorsed in 2005, coercive military action to stop atrocities should be contemplated only when peaceful means – from diplomatic persuasion to sanctions and threats of criminal prosecution fail to deliver. Clearly, by any metric of judgment, the situation in Syria has reached that threshold.  With 9000 people already killed over the last 3 months and still rising, type and scale of harm to civilians prima facie calls for use of minimal military force in short duration, high intensity and right scale. 

However, it is easier said than done. One of the constraints of doing so is estimating the balance of consequences of international intervention: will military intervention do more harm than good? Will it scale the nascent civil war into a full-blown one? Sectarian differences in Syria are sharp and this seems to be the reason for lack of confidence of international community in the democratic and human-rights credentials of the opposition.  And, with the Arab league divided over the issue, any Western military imposition can prove to be inflammatory in the wider Islamic world.

The people of Syria clearly deserve better. Despite the UNSC belated endorsement of UN Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s peacemaking mission in Syria recently, there is skepticism about Bashar al-Assad’s cooperation. With all military options proving to be infeasible at this point of time, the UN is relying on Mr. Kofi Annan’s diplomatic skills to deliver a deal with the Syrian government. As an eternal optimist, I am holding on to my last straw of hope. As the quotable line goes, “I like the night. Without the dark, we’d never see the stars”. I pray for a day in Syria when the smoke screen clears in the dark, and children can see the stars and wake up to a new sunrise. Let’s all hope for Syria’s tryst with destiny because that is what most of the international community seems to be holding on to right now.

Is India's romance with communism over?

An year ago, India’s red states, West Bengal and Kerala voted the communists out of power after a historical tenure in the government. Many people raised the inevitable question: Is India’s romance with communism over? How is it relevant in the post-liberalization era and the world’s largest spiritually oriented nation? Let us examine the history and growth of Communism in India before we evaluate the relevance of the movement today.

The roots of the communist movement in India go back to 1920’s when Communist Party of India was founded as an alternative to the existing Congress led anti-imperialist movement. The movement was driven by angst against the economic injustice of the propertied classes of both Britain and India. The “revolt” was not against the imperialism of the British but against the capitalist system in practice.

Victor Hugo once famously remarked that no force could stop an idea whose time has come. In many ways, Communism feels like an idea whose time never really came in India. Communism in India as it was practiced and offered to the people was never in sync with the socio-cultural norms of the majority. In trying to bring about radical change through a revolutionary zeal, the idea missed the opportunity of changing things at the margin.  I cite two specific ideological errors made by the movement which I think explain the reason for its failures in India.

National identity: No real national spirit existed among a group of peasants, landowners and middle class proletariat who combined for socio-economic reasons. The fact that it failed to create a new national identity and unite the masses like Gandhiji and other Congress leaders did during the pre-Independence era was one of main weaknesses in its institutional structure. Not addressing the caste and religion issues through continuous dialogue was one of the biggest mistakes of the communist movement during this time. Imposing their caste and religion free ideology on the masses instead only further alienated them.

Means of revolution: The means of violence chosen by Communist movement was easy to be negated by the militarily powerful British opposition. Gandhiji's method, by contrast, was to slowly pick apart at the government's view of liberalism and tackle the issues on the margin. This proved to be highly effective because the colonial state found it more frustrating to battle a morally forceful yet peaceful movement. I would hence argue that this movement managed to damage the government more effectively than the violent and disorganized methods of the CPI.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Marxist roots only persisted in two of India’s most literate states of Kerala and West Bengal where people’s aspirations matched with the ideologies of the Left. However, the last year’s state election debacles of CPI and CPI (M) in both these states point to a trend of the movement losing public support even in these states. But it needs to be pointed out that the unruly offshoots of Naxalism and Maoism still dominate a third of our districts in India. After the Dantewada massacre where 76 jawans of the central paramilitary were surrounded and butchered in cold blood by well-armed Naxalites, the little romanticism public intellectuals and larger public had for such extremist ideologies seem to have evaporated. Our internal security as rightly pointed out by our Prime Minister is our greatest threat and needs to be dealt with utmost urgency and seriousness. In looking back at the history of communist movement and its loss to Gandhiji’s Satyagraha, Government and civil society will do well to pursue its own truth through a rigorous and community based development agenda in these affected districts. In a country like India, it would be hard and foolish to pronounce a judgment on the end of communist movement. But, by choosing to be not in sync with the socio-cultural and economic norms of the larger society, the communists are being clearly overpowered in the battleground of ideas.

Why am I optimistic about change?

Imagine that you placed two gold coins on the first square of a chess board. If you kept doubling the number of gold coins for each and every square, how many coins do you think will be there on the last square (64th)?

  

18000000000000000000 (18 followed by 18 zeroes)

Can you imagine that number in your head? I mean we can all visualize 2 birds, 5 trees, 10 buildings, a few hundred people, even a few lakhs and crores of money(Our politicians seem to have the acumen to deal in many more zeroes than us citizens though!).

Malcolm Gladwell articulates this cognitive principle of 'Tipping Point' brilliantly through a lot of social examples. His main idea in the book is how little unprecedented things can actually create a social movement and the factors which lead to that critical mass for the movement to explode. To further break it down, human mind does not have the cognitive ability to comprehend geometric progressions or in other words, big socially impactful movements (read World Wars, computer, internet etc.)

There are a few other mathematical theories to highlight the same principle (Long Tail, Butterfly effect etc.) but I will focus on one which really appealed to me - The Black Swan theory

                                         

The Black Swan Theory or Theory of Black Swan Events is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept that some events happen and taken all us by surprise, like the name used to represent it. It is very rare that we come across a Black Swan in our lifetime. The legend goes that the English did not believe such a thing existed till they came across one. Therefore, it is only in hindsight do we come to terms with the fact of the event.

The theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain three concepts:

·         The tail events which are extremely rare and highly improbable but not impossible. There exists a small probability of occurrence of such events in sciences and social sciences which happen to shape new frontiers.

·         Given the low probability of occurrence of such events, usually less odds than 1 in a million, it is difficult to use mathematical models to predict them.

·         Because of the nature of rarity and uncertainty of such events, the psychological biases human minds have towards low occurrence-high impact events.

Black Swan Events were characterized in his book The Black Swan. Taleb regards almost all major scientific discoveries, historical events, and artistic accomplishments as "black swans"—undirected and unpredicted. He cites the examples of World Wars, personal computer, Internet, 9/11 to prove his point.

Therefore, there are three major takeaways from a Black Swan event. First, that nothing in the past can potentially anticipate the possibility of its occurrence. It is clearly outside the realm of regular expectations and an outlier on a probability distribution. Second, most black swan events carry an extreme impact on society. Third, in spite of our inability to predict such events, human mind tends to find causal links to such an event in hindsight. The author argues that almost everything in our world, from the success of ideas and religions, to the dynamics of historical events, to elements of our own personal lives can be explained through these events.

In my opinion, this is how change and social movements happen. We must surely reason on a daily basis. We must definitely plan for the uncertain future. We must ardently strive to achieve our planned goals. But we cannot predict our Black Swan moments. Life is purely probabilistic. And, at the tail of such a probability distribution is a black swan event waiting to happen in our life time. Therefore, we must believe at some level that high impact change is possible. It might not be around the corner and predictable, but there is some mathematical argument to believing the impossible is probable as well.

So ask yourselves, what is the ‘Black Swan’ moment that you can ‘probably’ dream of? What can you do to tip the scales of change in India?